American Postmodernism

Academic Responsibility: Mr Bryan Hawkins and Dr Stefania Ciocia

Module Aims

The main aim of the module is to build upon the knowledge and analytical skills developed in the Year Two course, American Modernism, in order to foster a critical understanding of the major artistic and literary figures and movements since 1960 in America. The course is intended to provide an interdisciplinary approach, placing artistic and literary work within changing historical, cultural, socio-economic and intellectual contexts. Further aims are to introduce the students to the study of post modernity and critical theory and provide opportunities for engaging critically and imaginatively with contemporary American art and literature.

Module Content

The first part of the module will enable students to re-consider aspects of Modernism so as to question the shift from Modern to Post-modern artistic expression and cultural contexts. Key literary texts for detailed analysis will be selected from the works of Ken Kesey, Norman Mailer, Thomas Pynchon, Denise Levertov, Allen Ginsberg, and the civil rights activist, poet and playwright, Amiri Baraka. Such works will be considered as "unsettling" and undermining redundant notions of The American Dream.

Particular focus will be placed on the emergence of Neo-Dada and Pop and the diversity of art forms, movements and engagements characteristic of the period. Key artists such as Andy Warhol, Claus Oldenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Donald Judd, Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman, and Philip Guston will be identified and their work closely considered in terms of their cultural contexts, significances and meanings. Students will be introduced to concepts such as the end of ideology in art, the emphasis on representation and signification, the qualities and characteristics of the post-modern and interrogation of "the real" through art of the period.

In the first term, students will visit the Tate Modern Gallery in London and/or relevant exhibitions at galleries such as the Hayward or the Whitechapel. It is hoped that students will also have the opportunity to see a theatrical production relevant to the module. In the second term, the late twentieth century representation of ethnicity, gender and the body in art will be explored through a detailed analysis of artists, such as Jean Michel Basquiat, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Nan Goldin, Kiki Smith, Carrie Mae Weems. Students will engage with the content of exhibitions reflecting current American Art and artists. The literary works that will be dovetailed with the visual arts in this part of the course will be selected from the recent works of writers like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Sherman Alexie or Don Delillo.

The second term will conclude with an in-depth study of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, so as to revise some of the issues relating to post modernity studied throughout the module, and to encourage students to apply some of the theoretical approaches encountered.

Assessment

Students have a choice of either two assignments of 2500 words each or one assignment of 5000 words.  There is no examination.