Wednesday, January 7th: A Foundation in Postmodernism

Robert Rauschenberg, Estate, 1963

Before we begin looking at the work of Brautigan, Vonnegut, Coover and Barthelme, I want to give you some tools with which to approach the texts. My hope is that our work this quarter will operate on two levels: a more traditional analysis of the fiction itself (its plot, characters, etc.), and a meta-analysis of the characteristics which distinctly make it a product of postmodern times.

Towards that end, I'd like you to read the Wikipedia article on Postmodern Literature for Wednesday's class. Typically, the Wikipedia isn't considered a scholarly source, however I thought this was a very thorough overview of postmodernism's development and the key characteristics of postmodern literature, written in a fairly straightforward and understandable voice (and replete with hyperlinks so you can look up the terms and people you're not familiar with). During class, I'll hand out a one-page "cheat-sheet" with information on most of the ideas you'll need to have at hand throughout the quarter.

Additionally, I'm posting links to four short stories which I'd like you to read as well. These will serve as "test cases" during Wednesday's discussion, though feel free to think of other examples you're more familiar with that illustrate the characteristics of postmodernism.

• Max Apple, "The Oranging of America" (PDF)

• Richard Braugigan, "The Scarlatti Tilt" (the entire story is in the caption to the photo)

• Richard Brautigan, "What Are You Going to Do With 390 Photographs of Christmas Trees?" (PDF)
  

• Donald Barthelme, "The first thing the baby did wrong . . ."