Modernism and Postmodernism, Fall 2013, O'Donnell

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Calendar
last update: November 18, 2013

 

Class meets TR 12:45-2:05am, in Burleson 304. 

 

Week 1 (Tues Aug 27; Thurs Aug 29)

Tues:  Introductions.  Some "isms":  Romanticism, modernism, postmodernism? 

Thurs:  Read Mrs. Dalloway through p. 69--through the end of the scene where Septimus has the psychotic episode in Regent's Park, and the clock strikes quarter to 12, and the narrative gets passed to Peter Walsh. (In this online version, that scene appears on page 38 of 105.) 

Assignments for Thursday: 

  1.) As you read, keep track of every time the bell rings.  (For each time the bell rings, write the page number, either in the back of the book, or in separate notes that you bring to class.) 

  2.) Keep track of the characters you meet.  On a separate sheet of paper, list each main character's name, along with the page number where you first meet them, plus a sentence or two describing who they are.  Bring that to class, and be prepared to pass it around to classmates.

 

Week 2 (Tues Sep 3; Thurs Sep 5) 

Tues: More Mrs. Dalloway.
Thurs: Finish Mrs. Dalloway, the novel. Then read the Preface and Introduction to the annotated edition edited by Scott. Also, bring your copy of Slaughterhouse 5 to class.

 

Week 3 (Tues Sep 10; Thurs Sep 12)

Tues:  Read Vonnegut, chaps 1-5 (through p135). 

Also, browse the table of contents of the Poetry anthology, and bring it to class. 

Also, browse the online table of contents of the Norton anthology of Postmodern American Fiction: www.wwnorton.com/college/english/pmaf/pmaftoc.htm. Write a short memo, to me and your classmates, commenting on the contents of that anthology: Do you recognize any of the titles/ authors represented there? Do you have a particular interest in any of them? Did anything about that anthology catch your eye? Bring your memo to class, and be prepared to pass it around for comments. What do you think of the term "postmodernism"?

 

Thurs:  Finish Vonnegut.  Also read this review: "At Last, Kurt Vonnegut's Famous Dresden Book."  An unsigned review of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.  New York Times, March 31, 1969.  Accessed online, September 2013, at 

www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/28/lifetimes/vonnegut-slaughterhouse.html

 

Proposal memo due: Write me a memo, proposing a topic for essay 1, which will be a 1500-word review essay.  What book would you like to review? Tell me how you chose the book--describe your process, with as much specificity as possible:  Did you get a recommendation from me or someone else?  Did you encounter an author in another course, whose work you would like to pursue further?  Did you use amazon.com and/ or wikipedia?  Wwhy you feel qualified to review this particular book?  That is, what is your personal connection to the book or subject matter? Include a complete citation of the book, plus a working title for your review essay.  OR, if you're not sure which book you'd like to review, that's no problem: I can give you a recommendation. Tell me some authors you enjoy, some genres, perhaps some of the works we've read and discussed so far.  Give me some ideas, so that I can help you select a really good book to review. 

 

Week 4 (Tues Sep 17; Thurs Sep 19) 

Tues: Read the following poems, in the Poetry anthology, listed here by author's last name and page #. Also read at least 5 additional poems of your own choosing, and be prepared to discuss, in class, which poems you chose and why.

H.D. 5; Pound 6; Kilmer 7; Sandburg 14; Brooke 19; Eliot 20; Stevens 25; Tagore 30; Anderson 34; Millay 39; Stevens 41-43; Crane 64; Tate 74.

 

Also for Tuesday, read these two reviews:

    - "'Mrs. Dalloway' Review."  By James Topham.  About.com: Classic Literature.  No date; accessed September 2013.  classiclit.about.com/od/mrsdalloway/fr/aa_mrsdalloway.htm

    - "Dancing in the Dark [on Kurt Vonnegut]."  By Michael Wood.  The New York Review of Books, May 31, 1973.  Accessed online, September 2013, at www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1973/may/31/dancing-in-the-dark/

 

Thurs:  Read the "Introduction," in the Poetry anthology, plus these poems:  Monroe 94; Thomas 96; Schwarz 96; Warren 101; Stein 108; Graves 166; O'Hara 173; Plath 176; Kunitz 179; Brooks 193; Sexton 205.

 

Week 5 (Tues Sep 24; Thurs Sep 26)

Tues:  Read Delillo, parts I and II (through p163).

Thurs:  Finish Delillo novel.

 

Week 6 (Tues Oct 1; Thurs Oct 3) 

Tues:  Draft due of essay 1, review essay. 

Thurs:  Read, in Viking Critical edition of White Noise, the following: Delillo interviews, p329-34; "Silhouette City" [essay by D.D.], 344-52; John Frow, 415-31; John Duvall, 432-55; Cornel Bonca, 456-79.
Also read the online excerpts from Chapter 1 of Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), by Fredric Jameson, posted here: www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/jameson.htm

 

Week 7 (Tues Oct 8; Thurs Oct 10)

Tues:  Essay 1 due, review essay, revised and submitted for a grade.  Also, in class today:  Review for exam 1. 

Thurs:  Screening of a film by Errol Morris, "Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr." (1999), 91 min. Please note that the movie will begin at 12:40, though class time doesn't officially start until 12:45. 

 

Week 8 (FALL BREAK!; Thurs Oct 17) 

Tues:  No class, due to Fall Break.  Begin reading Shteyngart, Super Sad True Love Story. 

Thurs:  Exam 1. 

 

Week 9 (Tues Oct 22; Thurs Oct 24)

Tues:  Discussion of "Mr. Death," and of Shteyngart's novel.

Thurs:  Continue Shteyngart. 

 

Week 10 (Tues Oct 29; Thurs Oct 31) 

Tues:  Proposal memo due for essay 2, literary analysis and commentary. 

Finish Shteyngart.  Also read "O.K., Glass: Confessions of a Google Glass Explorer."  By Gary Shteyngart.  The New Yorker, August 5, 2013.  www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/08/05/130805fa_fact_shteyngart

Thurs.  Begin reading The English Patient, and bring the book to class. 

 

Week 11 (Tues Nov 5; Thurs Nov 7)

Tues:  Read The English Patient chaps. I-VI (through p178).

Also, second revision of essay 1 (review essay) due, for those who are choosing to revise it for a new grade.  Submit it with a new cover memo, telling me what you've changed in your second revision. 

Thurs:  Finish The English Patient. 

 

Week 12 (Tues Nov 12; Thurs Nov 14) 

Tues:  Bring your Poetry anthology to class.  Also, read at least four of the eight poems by Michael Ondaatje which are posted here at the "Poem Hunter" website:  www.poemhunter.com/michael-ondaatje/

Thurs:  Read the following--

- Introduction to Mrs. Dalloway, by Bonnie Kime Scott, in the 2005 Harvest edition, pages xxxv-lxviii. 

- Ihab Hassan. "Toward a Concept of Postmodernism." From The Postmodern Turn: Essays in Postmodern Theory and Culture, 1987. www.mariabuszek.com/kcai/PoMoSeminar/Readings/HssnPoMo.pdf

 

Week 13 (Tues Nov 19; Thurs Nov 21)

Tues:  Draft due of essay 2, literary analysis and commentary. 

Thurs:  Read Harriet Monroe's exchange with poet Hart Crane, in the October 1926 edition of Poetry, regarding Cranes' poem, "At Melville's Tomb."  Posted on the Poetry Foundation website:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/29/1#!/20575761  [ NOTE: Cut and paste that URL into a new browser window, to view the site.  There's something about the site that won't let you visit from a hyperlink per se. -- Dr. O'Donnell ]

 

Week 14 (Tues Nov 26; THANKSGIVING!) 

Tues:  Read Edgar Allan Poe's essay,  "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846), posted at the good ol' U of VA American Studies website:  xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/poe/composition.html

 

Week 15 (Tues Dec 3; Thurs Dec 5)

Tues:  Essay 2 due, literary analysis and commentary, revised and submitted for a grade. 

Thurs:  In-class recap of the semester; review for exam 2. 

 

      Final exam period:  Thurs Dec 12, 1:20-3:20pm -- Exam 2