ENGL 475: Postmodern Literature
MW 2:00-3:15

Postmodern literature, with an emphasis on works published within the last fifteen years. A consistent sub-theme this semester will be urban aesthetics before and after 9/11. The major novels we will read are: Paul Auster, _City of Glass_; Susan Daitch, _The Colorist_; Kathy Acker, _Empire of the Senseless_; Don Delillo, _Underworld_ and _Cosmopolis_; William Gibson, _Pattern Recognition_. Additional texts will include a sampling of postmodern poetry, a graphic novel (possibly _Transmetropolitan_) and at least one work of contemporary electronic literature. We will also discuss the origin and nature of postmodernism, and aspects of the "postmodern condition" such as the collapse of identity, the erasure of cultural and aesthetic boundaries, and the dissolution of life into textuality.

Requirements: class participation and attendance, responses papers, midterm, final, and long (10-12 page) term paper.