ENG 580: Literary PoMo I'm gonna make you an offer you can't understand...

Fragments of Rationality: Postmodernity and the Subject of Composition

This is a text I've read for a class on composition theory; however, it's also got some interesting analysis of where postmodern theory is in general. Lester Faigley offers a great historographic review of postmodernity.

Faigley's introduction includes the following excerpt from a 1988 Rolling Stone interview with Don DeLillo: "the interviewer, Anthony DeCurtis asked: 'There's something of an apocalyptic feel about your books, an intimation that our world is moving toward greater randomness and dissolution, or maybe even cataclysm. Do you see this process as irreversible?' DeLillo answered: ' This is the shape my books take because this is the reality I see. This reality has become part of all of our lives over the past 25 years. I don't know how we can deny it.' DeLillo's date for the beginning of our current era of randomness and dissolution is 1963, the year of John F. Kennedy's assassination that is the subject of DeLillo's novel, _Libra_. DeLillo says that 'what's been missing over these past 25 years is a sense of a manageable reality... We seem much more aware of elements like randomness and ambiguity and chaos since then.'"

In case you were wondering. have survived!

I am recovering from my surgery. I will most likely get a short story out of it... there is nothing more Postmodern than the modern day hospital experience... they even put a temporary tattoo on my side that said "this side, yes!" to remind the doctor which side he was supposed to be working on. Yes. Great fun. Ok back to bed for me.

The Trick is to Keep Reading...Janice Galloway Discussion

As promised:

Here are some things to keep in mind for our discussion on Tuesday night of Janice Galloway:

Janice Galloway is part of the ?Scottish Renaissance? of writers in the 1980?s and 1990?s.  Other authors include James Kelman, Alasdair Gray, and Irvine Welsh.  The last ?renaissance? for Scottish literature was in the Middle Ages.  In 1603 Scotland became a part of the British crown through the Act of Union which brought James the VII of Scotland, I of England, to the throne.  His mother was Mary, Queen of Scots.  Scotland is considered, by many, to be the most ?continental? (European) of all the nations that compromise the UK, having particular ties the France through Mary Queen of Scots.  Scots are fiercely nationalistic.  They have a language called ?Scots.?  In 2003, Scotland, in essence, was emancipated from England and for the first time in 400 years was able to have its own parliament.  Scotland was one of the first, if not the first, countries to be colonized by England.

  I have also included a few discussion questions, just to think about:

1. How is this different, or similar to other things that you have read by British authors?


2. In light of last weeks discussion (Sozaboy as postmodern) and the information provided above, how can, or can, Galloway be dealt with as a postmodern writer?  Keep in mind that Scotland was ruled by England for 400 years.


3. What story did you like best?  Why?


4. What do you make of the structure of ?Scenes from the Life No.23: Paternal Advice??


5. How is the ?body? represented in all of these short stories (particularly ?Into the Roots? and ?The Meat?)?


6. What do you think of the use of dialect?

More Digitized Documents

I feel like I'm part of some big conspiracy.

Djebar:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~gmsulliv/djebar.pdf

Galloway:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~gmsulliv/galloway.pdf

Winterson:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~gmsulliv/winterson.pdf

Gordon