A. Close Analysis (Choose 3, 13% each)
B. Essay Questions (Choose 2 30% each)
1. Postmodernity & Postmodernism: What is postmodernity (or
postmodern condition)? Please use one or two of the following texts
to discuss
a. the postmodern condition presented;
b. how the text(s) respond to it both in form and content.
texts: Fight Club, "The Babysitter," Laurie Anderson's songs and music videos, Salt Fish Girl (chapter 2) & Matrix.
2. Postmodern Pastiche and Identity: Choose two of the following texts and compare how they use the style of pastiche and how pastiche affects or influences human identity.
texts: Forrest Gump, Salt Fish Girl (first two chapters), Blade Runner, Moulin Rouge, "The Turn of the Screw" and "The Babysitter"
3. Postmodern History & Memory: compare the reconstruction of history in one of the following films with either Slaughterhouse-V or The English Patient.
texts: Forrest Gump, Ararat, Girl, Interrupted, Calendar.
4. Author-ity and Identity, Fiction and Reality: How does postmodern metafiction expose its fictitiousness? Does exposing fictitiousness mean undermining the text's authority or coherent meaning? Choose one text from below, and one of your own choice.
texts: "Lost in the Funhouse," "Night Sea Journey," Deconstructing Harry, The Player.
5. Multi-National Capitalism or Technologies and Postmodern Identity: What impact does multi-national capitslim and/or technologies have on postmodern Identity (its integrity and origins)? Is there a space for resistance? Choose two as your examples.
texts: Minority Report (the film or the novel), Fight Club, Matrix, Blade Runner, Salt Fish Girl (first two chapters).
6. Fragments and Reconstruction: With many of the features of postmodernism(s) discussed above, postmodern world can be a world of fragments (of information, signs, and identity); it can also be a world without maps and against interpretation. However, fragmentation can also mean boundary-breaking and re-interpretation, both of which can be liberating and/or empowering. Can you try to make sense of the interconnections of some fragments given on p. 1? (Please choose at least three.)
