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This is a seminar for book lovers. For our fourteen weeks we have quite a lot of texts to read, but some are short and dense (Pynchon), some are fast reads (Brautigan), some are beautiful (Rhys) or grim (Butler), some dreamy and smooth (Erdrich) and some exciting and surprising (Yamashita). We will attempt to re-assess postmodernism in literature. We will get to know various approaches to postmodernism, definitions, explanations. And we will read the novels/novellas against these suggestions, look at the styles, strategies, topics, concerns. We will see if there is a development within postmodernism, if postmodernism is passé, or if we can relate to the material. We will also discuss what a (literary) period could be and from which vantage point we judge literary eras.
The Moodle Key will be announced during the first meeting.
Reading:
Please start reading these texts before the semester starts!
- Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)
- Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)
- Richard Brautigan, Dreaming of Babylon (1977)
- Octavia Butler, Kindred (1979)
- Louise Erdrich, Tracks (1988)
- Karen Yamashita, Tropic of Orange (1997)
Requirements:
Students will have to introduce one postmodern text of their choice in class (spezielle Arbeitsleistung). MAP: Modules 7 and 10 – term paper (10 pages), Module 8 – MAP in Sprachpraxis.
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