Szegedi Tudományegyetem | Postmodernism through Revisiting Modernism

Postmodernism through Revisiting Modernism

2026. augusztus 24.

6 perc

A kurzus címe: Postmodernism through Revisiting Modernism

Az óra helye: 3302. terem (Egyetem u. 2.)

Az óra időpontja: szerdánként 16:00-17:30

Az első óra időpontja: 2026. szeptember 9.

Maximum létszám: 4 fő

Az oktató neve és beosztása: Dr. Szélpál Lívia egyetemi adjunktus

Az oktatótanszéke: Angol Tanszék

Az oktató elérhetősége: szelpal.livia@szte.hu

A kurzus rövid leírása:

Why do some stories make us question reality itself? What happens when truth, identity, and even the boundaries between reality and fiction begin to shift?

This lecture takes us on a playful and thought-provoking journey through postmodern literature — and beyond. By revisiting the radical experiments of modernists such as Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, and Ernest Hemingway, we explore how later writers have challenged conventional ideas of plot, truth, identity, and storytelling. From Harold Pinter and Salman Rushdie to Zadie Smith, Ali Smith, Samantha Harvey, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ted Chiang, the course focuses on magical realism, fragmented narratives, silence, irony, pastiche and stories that deliberately blur the boundaries between fiction and reality.

The lecture also asks what might come after postmodernism: Can we speak of post-postmodernism? How does it relate to metamodernism and posthumanism?

No specialist knowledge is required — only curiosity about literature and a willingness to question what stories can do, and what they can make us believe.

Kep5

Részletes, hetekre bontott tematika:

1. Introduction to the course. Syllabus, readings, assignments. Discussion of Basic Terminology

2. Introduction: Modernism, Postmodernism, and Literary Traditions

3. Modernism I: Fragmentation and the Crisis of Representation

4. Modernism II: Stream of Consciousness and Modernist Narrative

5. Modernism III: Language, Emotion, and the Body

6. Minimalism and Silence

7. Postmodern Drama and the Poetics of Silence

8. Historiographic Metafiction

9. Intertextuality and the Literary Game

10. The Contemporary Novel

11. Narrative Identity and Memory

12. Metamodernism: Beyond Postmodern Irony

13. Posthumanism and the End of the Human Subject

14. Actor–Network Theory and Ecocriticism

Summary, conclusions

Ajánlott olvasmányok:

Primary literature:
- Benjamin, Walter. 1969 (1935). “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” In Walter Benjamin, Illuminations. Essays and Reflectionsedited by Hannah Arendt, Translated by Harry Zohn, from the 1935 essay. New York: Schocken Books, 1969, 217-251. ISBN 978-0-8o52-024I-O
- Byatt, A. S. 2002. “The Thing in the Forest.” The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/06/03/the-thing-in-the-forest
- Chiang, Ted. 2015. “The Great Silence.”Electric Literature. .https://electricliterature.com/the-great-silence-by-ted-chiang/
- Eliot, T. S. 1915. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock
- Eliot. T. S. 1919. “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69400/tradition-and-the-individual-talent
- Harvey, Samantha. 2024. “Orbit minus 1,” “Orbit 1, ascending,” “Orbit 1, into orbit 2.” from Samantha Harvey. Orbital. Vintage. ISBN: 978 152 992 2936
- Hemingway, Ernest.1987 (1915). “A Very Short Story.” 96-97. In Hemingway, Ernest. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. The Finca Vigía Edition. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-18668-3. Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/hemingway_202012/page/n95/mode/2up
- Ishiguro, Kazuo. 2001. “A Village After Dark.” The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/05/21/a-village-after-dark
- Lawrence, D. H. 1922. „England, My England.” Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8914/8914-h/8914-h.htm#chap01
- Pinter, Harold. Silence. 1970 (1968-69). In Harold Pinter. Landscape and Silence. New York: Grove Press. 31-52. Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/landscapesilence00pint/page/52/mode/2up ISBN 13:978‑0394172897.
- Rushdie, Salman. 1996 (1981) “The Prophet’s Hair.” In Salman Rushdie. East, West. 24-37. Vintage. ISBN: 0-679-75789-9.
- Smith, Ali. 2005. “True Short Story.” Prospect. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/books-and-literature/fiction/57088/true-short-story
- Smith, Zadie. 2010. (2008). “Two Directions for the Novel.” In Zadie Smith. Changing my mind: occasional essays. London: Penguin Books. 72-96. ISBN 978-0-14-311795-7
- Woolf, Virginia.1984. (1919, 1925). “Modern Fiction.” In The Essays of Virginia Woolf. Volume 4: 1925 to 1928 edited, Andrew McNeille. London: The Hogarth Press. 157-165. ISBN‑13: 9780701206697

Critical literature:
- Barthes, Roland. 1986 (1968). “The Death of the Author.” In Roland Barthes. The Rustle of Language. Trans. by Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang. 49-55. ISBN 080908354X.
- Braidotti, Rosi. 2006. “Posthuman, All Too Human: Towards a New Process Ontology.”Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 23 (7-8). 197-208. Online ISSN: 1460-3616.
- Derrida, Jacques.1988. “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.” In Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader edited by David Lodge. London: Longman, 107–123. ISBN-13: 978-0582015982.
- Hutcheon, Linda. 1986. “The Politics of Postmodernism: Parody and History.” Cultural Critique, no. 5, 179–207. ISSN: 08824371; EISSN: 15345203
- Hutcheon, Linda. 2004 (1988) ‘Historiographic metafiction: “the pastime of past time”.’ In Linda Hutcheon. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. Taylor & Francis e-Library, 105-123. ISBN 0-203-37141-0 (Adobe eReader Format)
- Jameson, Fredric. 1988. “Postmodernism & Consumer Society.” In Postmodernism and Its Discontents, edited by E. Ann Kaplan, 13–29. London: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-925-0
- Jameson, Fredric. 2007. (1990). “Modernism and Imperialism.” In Fredric Jameson. The Modernist Papers. London: Verso. 152-169. ISBN-13: 978-1-84467-096-3
- Kristeva, Julia. 1980 (1977). “Word, Dialogue and Novel” In Desire In Language: A Semiotic Approach and Criticism, edited by Leon S. Roudiez. Translated by Thomas Gora et al., 62-90. New York: Columbia U. P. ISBN: 9780231561426 (e-book)
- Latour, Bruno. 2004. “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.”Critical Inquiry 30: 225-248. E-ISSN: 1539-7858. http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/89-CRITICAL-INQUIRY-GB.pdf
- Lyotard, Jean‑François. 1984. “Answering the Question: What Is Postmodernism?” In Jean‑François Lyotard. Translated by Régis Durand. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. The Manchester UP, 71-82, ISBN 0-7190-1454-9.
- Vermeulen, Timotheus & Robin van den Akker. 2010. “Notes on Metamodernism.” Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 2:1, 1-14. DOI: 10.3402/jac.v2i0.5677. ISSN: 2000-4214
- White, Hayden. 2014. “The Practical Past.” In Hayden White. The Practical Past. Evanston: Northwestern UP. 3-24.”ISBN: 978-0-8101-3006-7
- Wolfe, Cary. 2009. “Human, All Too Human: ‘Animal Studies’ and the Humanities.” PMLA 124 (2): 564–575. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2009.124.2.564 . ISSN 1938‑1530 (online).