POSTWAR EXPERIMENTAL FICTION:

FROM THE 1960s TO THE PRESENT

David Vichnar, PhD (Consultation hours: by appointment, room 219b)

Optional M.A. Course, Programme in Critical & Cultural Theory, DALC

Faculty of Arts (Monday 12.30-14.00, Room 111), Charles University

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course will explore a range of Anglo-American authors whose work—whether programmatically or not—has been described as "experimental", i.e. resistant of the dominant/mainstream poetics and mimesis and continuing with the unfinished project of the historical avant-garde. Departing from an introductory lecture on “realism, experimentalism & ideology” in the works of Joyce, Beckett & Kafka, the course will consider how the modernist project of exploring the materiality of language has been pursued from the avant-garde of the 1960s to the present.

The 23 authors (14 men, 9 women) covered include Kathy Acker, J. G. Ballard, John Barth, Donald Barthelme, Christine Brooke-Rose, Brigid Brophy, William S. Burroughs, Joshua Cohen, Mark Danielewski, Jennifer Egan, David Foster Wallace, B.S. Johnson, Chris Kraus, Alan Moore, Ann Quin, Ishmael Reed, Jean Rhys, Iain Sinclair, Gilbert Sorrentino, Lynne Tillman, Andy Warhol, and Marguerite Young.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For information regarding the syllabus and grading, please consult the course Moodle page: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=4004