ENG 100 – Topics in Literature: Postmodern Fiction

Taught by: Michael Mirabile

Content: This course will examine the relation of post-World War II and contemporary American fiction to the culture of postmodernism. Special emphasis will be placed on stylistic experimentation, the innovative use of fictional genres (science fiction, the thriller, horror, etc.), and various social and historical contexts–including those involving new media (e.g., hypertext) and the economics of globalization. Authors may include Vladimir Nabokov, Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Kathy Acker, Bret Easton Ellis, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Kurt Vonnegut. We will also read the work of theorists of postmodernism, such as Jean Baudrillard and Fredric Jameson, and discuss films directed by David Lynch.

Generic Catalog Description for ENG 100: Emphasis on a particular theme or subgenre in literature to be chosen by the professor. Recent topics have included Heroines in British Fiction, Literature and the Environment, Love and the Novel, History of the Lyric Poem, and Literature of Immigration.

Prerequisite: None.

Semester Credits: 4. May be taken twice for credit with change of topic.

Schedule: MTWTh 3:30-5:30pm