Studies in Literature and Culture (385-0-22)

Topic

Fiction and the Internet

Instructors

James Joseph Hodge
847 4915675
University Hall Room 408

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 215: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

This course explores the ways recent American fiction has imagined the internet -- primarily the print novel but also short stories, electronic literature, and film. The course will proceed by reading one novel per week discussing the ways literature expresses, worries about, adapts, or pointedly distorts dimensions of online experience. One of the course's broader concerns will be the question of how literature approaches the internet's broad capacity to trouble what feels real or what even counts as reality. A consideration of genre will also be central to our collective inquiries since we will read text across an eclectic range of generic traditions: from science fiction and the gothic novel to queer fiction, the web comic and graphic novel, and electronic literature. Likely authors will include Allie Brosh, Nick Drnaso, Jarret Kobek, Xta Maya Murray, Lauren Oyler, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Juan Martinez, Jane Schoenbrun, and Jia Tolentino. Assignments will include analytical essays.

Teaching Method

Discussion; short lecture.

Class Materials (Required)

Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half
Dennis Cooper, The Sluts
Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves
Nick Drnaso, Sabrina
Patricia Lockwood, No One Is Talking About This
Xta Maya Murray, Art Is Everything

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area