OBJECTIVES

Students taking this module will gain:

• familiarity with some theories of representation and some theories of the postmodern
• familiarity with strategies and vocabulary for reading verbal and visual (pictorial, photographic and filmic) representations
• experience in responding to literature, visual art, and film through analytical writing
• experience in connecting and applying theoretical concepts in analysis and argumentation
• awareness of how theoretical concepts (fail to) translate to different areas of knowledge

TOPICAL INTRODUCTION

A lot of people agree that the postmodern has become one of the most influential terms for describing something important in the twentieth century, but unfortunately very few of them agree on what that important thing is. Is the postmodern a period concept, a major shift in the patterns of culture that began some time in the 1960's? Whose culture, by the way? Is it a style, say, in architecture? A movement? The society of spectacle and hyperreality? This uncertainty and multiplicity raises questions about the usefulness of this word; then again, living with uncertain, shifting meaning perhaps is the postmodern (at least one of its many faces).

This module focuses on one question within the larger debate about postmodernism. What are we to make of the playfulness that characterizes much of the literature, film and visual art that is commonly described as postmodern and what insights does this offer into the problems of representation, identity and reality in contemporary culture? Are we "lost in the funhouse" or even "amusing ourselves to death," as the American fiction writer John Barth or theorist Neil Postman have said? Who is laughing at what--and at what cost?

Our readings will include a variety of works: a film devoted to the question "Ever wanted to be someone else?" (Being John Malkovich), an alphabetical romp through a continent (Alphabetical Africa), a petition by a disgruntled Siamese twin (John Barth), homeless fashion (John Galliano), music by the famous rock band Spinal Tap, a photographic self-portrait series of Western Art History (Yasumasa Morimura), and many others. In our critical readings of these works, we will think about artistic playfulness, a fading reality principle, and the familiar claim that postmodern amusements eliminate or at best limit the possibilities of empowerment, resistance and critique. Is our capacity to see Irish Republican Army "wearables" as terrorist chic, for example, a way of unmasking, a seeing through, or rather a way of being irredeemably (and irresponsibly) amusement-prone? A postmodern answer may well refuse the either/or terms of such a question.

No previous study of literature is required, although students are encouraged to complete a Writing and Critical Thinking module before taking this one.

For more detail on the readings, films, and artworks, visit the sections on Unit 1, Unit 2, or the Intervention between.