Module Identifier ENM3120  
Module Title POSTMODERN AMERICAN FICTIONS  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Timothy S Woods  
Semester Semester 2  
Other staff Dr Timothy S Woods  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   Seminar. 2 hours per week  
Assessment Semester Assessment   Essay: 1 x 5,000 word essay    

Content

This module will focus on a selection of contemporary American fiction which develops and explores the concerns and characteristics which have been categorised as "postmodern". Issues that will be considered are the representation of the city, the "postmodern comedy", marginality, the function of language and representation, the element of fantasy, and the "engineering" of "postmodern fiction".

1. Semiotic Cities
   
   Thomas Pynchon, "The Crying of Lot 49" (1966)

2. The Fate of Comedy

   Kurt Vonnegut, "Slaughterhouse Five" (1969)   
   See also: the novels of John Irving and Richard Brautigan

3. America's Vietnam

   Bobbie Ann Mason, "In Country" (1987)
   Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried" (1990)#
   See also: Stephen Wright, "Meditations in Green" (1985); Norman Mailer, "Why Are We In Vietnam" (1967); Robert Stone,
   "Dog Soliders" (1975); Tim O'Brien, "Going After Cacciato" (1978); and "Apocalypse Now", "The Deer Hunter", "Full Metal
   Jacket", "Dog Soldiers", "Tracks"

4. Depletion and Regression: Language and Representation

   Kathy Acker, "Eurydice in the Underworld" (1984)
   See also: Paul Auster, "The New York Trilogy" (1987); Steve Erickson, "Rubicon Beach" (1986)

5. Things Falling Apart

   Don DeLillo, "Mao II" (1985)
   See also: Richard Ford, "The Sportswriter" (1986); William Gaddis, "Carpenter's Gothic" (1986)