Lahore University of Management Sciences
LITR 332 - Magical Realism, World Literature,
Postmodern Time
Fall 2009
Maha Malik Fall 2009, Level III [email protected] Magical realist fiction is critically received in two important ways – as an instance of 20th century world literature and, more seductively, as an “elixir” for postmodern aesthetics, within western academia. Through the length of our course, we will closely examine this curious state of literary replenishment, as it seems offered up by the genre. In this regard, we will first familiarize ourselves with the innovation of magical realist writing ‐‐ with its genealogy and process of canonization ‐‐ alongside our reading of particular texts from across the world, as it were. During the second part of this course, we will familiarize ourselves with key tenets of postmodern literary theory. We will therein study the join, or confluence of interests, as manifest between fiction and its contemporary method of theorization. We will close the course with a discussion of select works by French philosopher, Henri Bergson. In particular, we will look at the author’s conception of time, in his inaugural essay, Time and Free Will. We will consider the following provocations. Does Bergson’s philosophy of ‘qualitative duration’ shed light on the power of magical realist writing? Does it in fact help explain some of the genre’s “elixir”‐like allure? Final research essays will be aimed at a critical and located response to both literature and the theory at hand. Primary Texts: Magical Realist Fiction: An Anthology. Edited by David Young and Keith Hollaman. Longman Inc., New York: 1984. Magic(al) Realism. Maggie Ann Bowers. Routledge, New York: 2004. Magical Realism: Theory, History, and Community. Edited by Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Duke University Press, Durham: 1995. Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystification of Narrative. Wendy B. Faris. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville: 2004. Postmodernism: A Reader. Edited by Thomas Docherty. Columbia University Press, New York: 1993. Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. Henri Bergson. Dover Books, Inc., New York: 2001. Thinking in Time: An Introduction to Henri Bergson. Suzanne Guerlac. Cornell University Press, Ithaca: 2006. Secondary Texts: “Postmodern and the Late Modern: The Essential Definitions.” Charles Jencks. Chicago Review, Vol. 35, No. 4 (1987), pp. 31 – 58. “A Brief Story of the Postmodern Plot.” Catherine Burgess. The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 30, Time and Narrative (2000), pp. 177 – 186. “What about the Postmodern ? The Concept of the Postmodern in the Work of Lyotard.” Jean‐
Francois Lyotard and Niels Brugger. Yale French Studies, No. 99, Jean‐Francois Lyotard: Time and Judgment (2001), pp. 77 – 92. ‐‐ “Knowing What We are Doing: Time, Form, and the Reading of Postmodernity.” Mitchum Huehls. Cultural Critique, No. 61 (Autumn, 2005), pp. 55 – 86. “Narrative Poetics and Postmodern Transgression: Theorizing the Collapse of Time, Voice, and Frame.” Brian Richardson. Narrative, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jan 2000), pp. 23 – 42. “Writing the Vanishing Real: Hyperreality and Magical Realism.” Eugene L. Arva. Journal of Narrative Theory 38.1 (Winter 2008): pp. 60 – 85. “Time, Life, Concepts: The Newness of Bergson.” Paola Marrati. MLN. 120.5 (2005), The John Hopkins University, pp. 1099 – 1111. ‐‐ “What is World Literature?” David Damrosch. World Literature Today, Vol. 77, No. 1 (Apr – Jun, 2003), pp. 9 – 14. “World Literature, National Contexts.” David Damrosch. Modern Philology, Vol. 100, No. 4, Toward World Literature: A Special Centennial Issue (May, 2003), pp. 512 – 531. “The Many Worlds of World Literature.” David S. Gross. World Literature Today, Vol. 77, No. ¾ (Oct. – Dec. 2003), p. 74. “The World Literature and Cultural Studies Program.” Kristin Ross. Critical Inquiry, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Summer, 1993), pp. 666 – 676. “Two Views of the Boom: North and South.” Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 15, No. 29, The Boom in Retrospect: A Reconsideration (Jan. – Jun. 1987), pp. 13 – 31. “The Significance of World Literature Today.” Hazel Stewart Alberson. College English, Vol. 7, No. 6 (Mar,. 1946), pp. 323 – 326. “The World and the Home.” Homi Bhaba. Social Text, no. 31/32, Third World and Postcolonial Issues (1992), pp. 141 – 153. “Decolonizing the Canon: Considerations of Third World Literature.” Georg M. Gugelberger. New Literary History, Vol. 22, No. 3, Undermining Subjects (Summer 1991), pp. 505 – 524.
‐‐ Contextual Guest Speakers: Malcolm Hutcheson, “Rooh‐khitch photography in Pakistan.” Quddus Mirza, “Magic realism in the visual arts.” Film Viewing: The Fall (director, Tarsem Bhardwar Singh, 2006) ‐‐ Grading Tools: Attendance: 10% Class Participation: 20% Mid‐Term Essay: 30% Final Essay Abstract and Bibliography: 10% Final Essay: 30% ‐‐ Module Ia: Fiction (from Magical Realist Fiction: An Anthology) 1. Nikolai Gogol – “The Nose” (pp. 11 – 32) 2. D.H. Lawrence – “Odor of Chrysanthemums” (pp. 99 – 116) “The Blind Man” – (117 – 134) 3. Franz Kafka – “The Country Doctor” (135 – 140) “The Bucket Rider” (141 – 146) 4. Isaac Babel – “The Sin of Jesus” (147 – 152) 5. Virginia Woolf – “The Great Frost” (excerpt, pp. 165 – 170) 6. Vladimir Nabokov – “The Visit to the Museum” (pp. 181 – 190) 7. Maria Luisa Bombal – “New Islands” (pp. 191 – 208) 8. Henri Michaux –“ In the Land of Magic” (excerpt, pp. 209 – 216) 9. William Faulkner – “The Old People” (pp. 217 – 234) 10. Anibal Monteiro Machado – “The Piano” (pp. 267 – 284) 11. Jorge Luis Borges – “The Aleph” (pp. 285 – 296) 12. Octavio Paz – “My Life with the Wave” (pp. 305 – 312) 13. John Cheever – “The Enormous Radio” (pp. 313 – 324) 14. Alfonso Reyes – “Major Aranda’s Hand” (pp. 347 – 354) 15. Julio Cortazar – “The Night Face Up” (pp. 361 – 370) 16. Alejo Carpentier – “Journey to the Seed” – (pp. 371 – 384) 17. Clarice Lispector – “The Smallest Woman in the World” (pp. 385 – 392) 18. Carlos Fuentes – “Aura” (pp. 393 – 420) 19. Elizabeth Bishop – “In the Village” (pp. 421 – 438) 20. Italo Calvino – “The Distance of the Moon” (pp. 439 – 450) Invisible Cities – (excerpt, pp. 451 – 456) 21. Donald Barthelme – “Views of My Father Weeping” (pp. 483) Module Ib. Magical Realist Theory (From Magic(al) Realism)
Introduction. (pp. 1 – 7)
“Origins of Magic(al) Realism, pp. 8 – 19.
“Locations of Magic(al) Realism,” 32 – 65.
‐‐ (From Ordinary Enchantments) Preface. “Permissable Savag’ry,” p. xi. Introduction, pp. 1 – 6, “From a Far Source Within – Magical Realism and Defocalized Narrative,” pp. 43 – 87. “Encoding the Ineffable – A Textual Poetics for Magical Realism,” pp. 88 – 132. -(From Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community) “Scheherezade’s Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction,” pp. 163 – 190. Wendy B. Faris “Magic Realism and Postmodernism: Decentering Privileged Centers,” pp. 191 – 208. Theo L. D’haen “The Metamorphoses of Fictional Space: Magical Realism,” pp. 209 – 234. Rawdon Wilson ‐‐ Module II. Postmodern Theory “Answering the Question: What is postmodernism?” pp. 35 – 46. Jean‐Francois Lyotard “Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,” pp. 62 – 92. Frederic Jameson “Modernity – an Incomplete Project,” pp. 98 – 109. Jurgan Habermas “Toward a Concept of Postmodernism,” pp. 146 – 156. Ihab Hassan “Knowing What We are Doing: Time, Form, and the Reading of Postmodernity.” Mitchum Huehls. Cultural Critique, No. 61 (Autumn, 2005), pp. 55 – 86. ‐‐ Module III. Bergsonism “Time, Life, Concepts: The Newness of Bergson.” Paola Marrati. MLN. 120.5 (2005), The John Hopkins University, pp. 1099 – 1111. “Bergson and Bergsonisms,” from Thinking in Time, pp. 1 ‐13. “The Idea of Duration,” from Time and Free Will, pp. 1 – 139. ‐‐