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  • Généralités

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  • Overview

      Postmodernism is one of the concepts that resist definition and conceptualization. It does not exist as a defined school within the realm of contemporary fiction, but rather, as a diverse worldview that is incorporated in lesser or greater amounts through most contemporary fiction. Postmodern theory and postmodern fiction are strongly intertwined and both express a shared cultural state. Therefore this course will introduce students to the basic strategies, themes, and concerns of postmodern and contemporary American Literature along with some of the most important works of postmodern critical theory. Familiarity with theoretical texts allows students to better understand the backdrops and subtexts of the required literary texts in this course.

  • Contact Card

    Teacher: BENIA Amel
    Faculty of Letters and Languages
    Department: English Language and Literature
    Target audience: Master 1st year - Civilization and Literature
    Course title: American Literature
    Credits: 2
    Coefficent: 1
    Timetable: 
    Email: beniaamel@yahoo.com/ amel.benia@univ-msila.dz

  • Course Objectives

    By the end of this course, students will be able to: 
    • Identify and be familiar with postmodern strategies and theories in order to identify postmodern nuances in American Literature.
    • Understand the concepts introduced in major theoretical texts by postmodern thinkers.
    • Connect the different thematic and stylistic patterns of postmodernism in order to be able to compare and contrast different literary works.
    • Improve their writing skills, especially analytical writing and critical thinking expected of MA English majors.
    • Literary and theoretical texts covered in this course aim to inspire students for further research and to train them for their upcoming thesis writing.


    • Pre-requisites                                      

      Students must be:

      • acquainted with major literary movements in American Literature.

      • familiar with major literary theories used to analyze and criticize literary texts.

      • able to write essays of literary analysis respecting techniques of academic writing.


  • Recap: Introduction to Modernism

  • S1/ Lecture 1: Introduction to Postmodernistsm

                                                       

    Postmodernism denotes temporal linearity and belatedness. It is often perceived in terms of both continuity and discontinuity from the Modernist project. As a movement, it set about shifting the focus from some external reality that was meant to underline culture and to look at how culture actually works and mutates. Since culture is dynamic, postmodernists addressed the shifts and changes in the representation of things during an era of rapid change, capitalist growth, and media-saturated economy and society.

    Postmodernism is fundamentally the rejection of reality, reason, and objectivity. In other words, the concept of a universal objective truth is invalid. That is why postmodernists often seek to subvert universal narratives including history which, according to some, is the biggest fictional fallacy.   


  • Lecture 2: Postmodern concepts and Techniques in Writing

  • Lecture 3: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon


    The Crying of Lot 49 is one of Pynchon’s most popular works. It offers a satirical vision of Contemporary American Culture and Society. The novel is the story of a desperate housewife, Oedipa Maas, who finds herself set on a quest to uncover an old conspiracy about a radical group opposed to mail monopolies named "The Tristero System."



  • Lecture 4: White Noise by Don Delillo

    Don Delillo's White Noise (1985) is a supermarket satire and a critique of an American consumer society ruled by Multinational Capitalism, social saturation of advertising, mass media, and telecommunication. Writing with real irony and dark humor, Delillo presents a provocative account of an America that embodies the postmodern condition.



  • Sidebar: Simulacra and simulation by Jean Baudrillard

    Jean Baudrillard is a French sociologist, philosopher, and cultural theorist. He is best known for his criticism of Media, Consumerism, Ideology, and Techno communication. He criticizes US consumer culture run by the fantasy of marketing and advertising.
    Simulacra and Simulation (1981) marked Jean Baudrillard's first step towards theorizing the postmodern. It became one of the most essential works of postmodern thought.
    These concepts are crucial to an understanding of the postmodern condition where it is hard to distinguish between the original and the artificial.


  • Lecture 5: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

  • Lecture 6: The Woman Warrior By Maxine Hong Kingston

  • Lecture 7: Beloved by Toni Morrison

  • Postmodern and Contemporary American Poetry

  • Postmodern American Theatre

  • References