Weeks 8, 9 and 10: Donald Barthelme

Week 8 — from Sixty Stories

• Wednesday, February 25th: from Come Back, Dr. Caligari (1964): Me and Miss Mandible (17); from Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts (1968): The Balloon (46), The President (52), Game (56), Alice (61), Report (78), Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning (68), See the Moon? (90); from City Life (1970): Views of My Father Weeping (109), Paraguay (120)

• Friday, February 27th: from City Life (1970): City Life (137), The Falling Dog (163), The Policemen's Ball (169), The Glass Mountain (172); from Sadness (1972): Critique de la Vie Quotidienne (177), The Rise of Capitalism (198), A City of Churches (203), Daumier (208), The Party (225); from Guilty Pleasures (1974): Eugenie Grandet (230)

Week 9 — The Dead Father:

• Monday, March 2nd: Introduction by Donald Antrim (vii-x), plus Chapters 1-12 (3-83)
• Wednesday, March 4th: Chapters 13-17, plus "A Manual for Sons" (84-146)
• Friday, March 6th: Chapters 18-23 (147-177)

Week 10 — from Sixty Stories

• Monday, March 9th:from Amateurs (1976): At the End of the Mechanical Age (267), Rebecca (275), The Captured Woman (280), I Bought a Little City (290), The Sergeant (297), The School (304), The Great Hug (308), Our Work and Why We Do It (312); from Great Days (1979): The New Music (332), The Zombies (345)

• Wednesday, March 11th: from Great Days (1979): The King of Jazz (349), The Abduction from the Seraglio (363), On the Steps of the Conservatory (367), The Leap (374); previously unpublished stories: How I Write My Songs (413), The Farewell (419), Thailand (428), Heroes (432), Bishop (438), Grandmother's House (444)

On Friday the 13th (oh, fated day . . .) your final essays are due, and we'll wrap up our work this quarter by discussing your overall experience of postmodernism through the work of Brautigan, Vonnegut, Coover and Barthelme.