Syllabus for ENG 335

ENG 335A—Critical Approaches to Postmodern Culture

“Commentary supplants authority.” Casey

“Il n’y a pas de hors-texte.” Derrida

Pretexts: (Con)Struct(ur)ing and (con)Signing the Text

A 22 Introduction

The Casey Report—Postmodernism: Some Major Themes

A 29 De Saussure, Barthes, & Macherey—Structuralism (C 3-11; 108-111; 15-23)

Jencks—The Art of Quotation (handout)

Framing Postmodern Culture: Posit(ion)ing the Text

S 05 Postmodern architecture tour (meet downtown Orlando on Orange Ave. in front

of the Bank of America building at 6.45)

(Return to campus after tour)

Jameson—The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (M 482-519)

S 12 Lyotard—What is Post/modernism? (handout)

Habermas—Modernity: Incomplete?; or, Pomo No Mo’! (handout)

The Text: Is It Real?

S 19 Benjamin—Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (M 18-40)

Horkheimer & Adorno—The Culture Industry (M 41-72)

S 26 Baudrillard & Zizek—The Desert of the Real (M 453-81 & C 228-34)

Eco & Dorfman—The Disneyfication of Reality (Handout & M 122-29)

O 03 Poster—Postmodern Virtualities (M 533-48)

Jenkins—Commentary Supplants Authority (M 549-76)

Writing the Text

O 10 Review presentations

O 17 Midterm Exam

Deconstructing the Texts

O 24 Derrida—Differance (C 113-142)

Foucault—Sex, Lies, and Theory (C 94-107)

Ideotexts/Politexts

O 31 Marx and Althusser—Ideological Apparati (C 33-36 & 39-50)

Hebdige—Hegemonic Discourse (M 144-62)

N 07 Herman & Chomsky—Propaganda (M 257-94)

Bourdieu—TV & Me; or, Why I Love The Colbert Report (M 328-36)

N 14 Cixous, Butler, & hooks—The Other: Woman; or, Herstory Revised (C 157-67,

C 191-96, & M 366-80)

Writing ‘mo Texts

N 21 Review presentations

N 28 Final Exam