Information Package
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Program of American Culture and Literature (English)

ACL441

POSTMODERN AMERICAN FICTION

Course Code
ACL441
Semester
Seventh Term (Fall)
Theory+Practice
3 + 0
ECTS
5
Course TypeCompulsory Course
Course LevelBachelor's Degree
Year of Study4
SemesterSeventh Term (Fall)
ECTS5
Name of Lecturer(s)
Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

  1. Relate their prior knowledge about American fiction to the themes, ideas, narrative techniques and aesthetic strategies employed in postmodern American Fiction.
  2. Obtain the ability to understand and use the terminology of postmodern literature.
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of theoretical developments that shape postmodern fiction.
  4. Develop an ability to read postmodern literature critically and comparatively.
Mode of DeliveryFace to face
PrerequisitesNo
Recommended Optional Programme Components
Course DescriptionThe aim of the course is to provide students with a theoretical background of postmodernism and introduce them to the representative works of postmodern American fiction. This course will enable students to question common perceptions about literature, language, reality, society, history, culture, religion, originality, identity, sexuality, and the like, and to critically approach a postmodernist text by identifying its deconstructive strategies.
Course Contents
WEEK TOPICS
1st Week Introduction: What Is Postmodernism?
2nd Week From Modernism to Postmodernism - Postmodernism, a Very Short Introduction, Chapter 1, Christopher Butler - "Representing the Postmodern," Linda Hutcheon - "The Postmodern," Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle - "Shifting Attitudes Toward the Verisimilitude of Narrative," N. Frangipane
3rd Week "Postmodernism," Peter Barry - "The Death of the Author, Roland Barthes - Metafiction: "What Is Metafiction," Patricia Waugh - "Historiographic Metafiction," Linda Hutcheon
4th Week "Text, Context and Intertextuality," Rob Pope - "Intertextuality, Parody," Linda Hutcheon - "Parody without Ridicule," Linda Hutcheon - "Postmodern Fiction: Theory and Practice," Bran Nicol
5th Week Ursula K. Le Guin, "Schrödinger's Cat"
6th Week John Barth, "Lost in the Funhouse"
7th Week Donald Barthelme, "The Balloon"
8th Week Midterm
9th Week Paul Auster, from The New York Trilogy: City of Glass
10th Week Paul Auster, from The New York Trilogy: City of Glass
11th Week Paul Auster, from The New York Trilogy: City of Glass (In-Class Assignment)
12th Week Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5
13th Week Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5
14th Week Revision
Recommended or Required ReadingKurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5.
Paul Auster, from The New York Trilogy: City of Glass
Margaret Atwood, "Happy Endings"
John Fowles, "The Enigma"
Ursula K. Le Guin: "Schrödinger's Cat"
Jorge Louis Borges "Legend," "In Memoriam, J.F.K."
Emma Donoghue, "The Tale of the Rose"

Nicol, Bran. The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction. Cambridge UP, 2009.
---, editor. Postmodernism and the Contemporary Novel: A Reader. Edinburgh UP, 2002.
McHale, Brian. Postmodernist Fiction. Routledge, 1987.
Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. Routledge, 1988.
---. The Politics of Postmodernism. Routledge, 2002.
Malpas, Simon. The Postmodern. Routledge, 2005.
Waugh, Patricia, editor. Postmodernism: A Reader. Bloomsbury Academic, 1995.
---. Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. Routledge, 1984.
Smith, Edmund J. Postmodernism and Contemporary Fiction. B T Batsford Ltd, 1992.
Greaney, Michael. Contemporary Fiction and the Uses of Theory: The Novel from Structuralism to Postmodernism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
Hassan, Ihab. The Postmodern Turn: Essays in Theory and Culture. Ohio State UP, 1987.
Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods
  • Lecture
  • Discussion
  • Questions/Answers
  • Other
Assessment Methods and Criteria
Quantity Percentage (%)
Mid-term 1 40
Assignment 1 20
Total(%) 60
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%) 60
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%) 40
Total(%) 100
ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload
Activities Quantity Duration (Hour) Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam 1 2 2
Preparation for Quiz 1 6 6
Individual or group work 14 5 70
Preparation for Final exam 1 8 8
Course hours 14 3 42
Preparation for Midterm exam 1 8 8
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam 1 2 2
Homework 1 10 10
Total Work Load148
Total Work Load / 30 (h)4.93
ECTS Credit of the Course5
Language of InstructionEnglish
Work Placement(s)No

Programme Qualifications / Learning Outcomes

LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
K1 X X X X
K2 X X X X
K3 X
K4 X X X X
K5 X X X X
K6 X X X X
K7 X X
K8
K9
K10 X X X X
K11
K12 X X X X
K13
K14 X X X X