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Andrew Cox

ENG 4900

Dr. Hodges-Hamilton

Final Draft

Teaching a Literature Course Beyond Postmodernism

Academia strives towards organization. Universities divide themselves into colleges,

which have distinct fields and majors. The requirements for each major and minor are made

clear. Organization bleeds into the structures within each major, as well. Particularly, English

literature my major is taught through organized genres, literary movements, eras, themes, and

single authors. In my time as an undergraduate English literature major at Belmont University, I

have taken seven literature courses with works spanning from the Epic of Gilgamesh in European

Literature I to Beloved in Postmodern Fiction. My undergraduate experience in literature has

spanned four millennia and has involved travelling back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean,

metaphorically speaking. However, one critical oversight has been the lack of works written in

my lifetime (since 1996). Throughout all seven courses, I was only required to read one work

written in my lifetime Don DeLillos The Body Artist (2001). My Postmodernism Fiction

survey course ended in the 80s with Morrison and DeLillo. If I did not know any better, I would

think Don DeLillo is the only American author worth reading from the last thirty years.

Therefore, I propose that an essential aspect of the undergraduate English Literature major

experience should be a survey course on contemporary literature or at least 21st century

literature if people structuring the English Literature major truly intend on combatting charges

of irrelevancy for being stuck in the past. I will show this by analyzing the role and structure of

survey courses, how experts are categorizing and defining post-postmodern literature, teaching
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methods for survey courses particularly in what literature to choose, and the need for cultural

relevancy in the classroom, which would come through in the literature that reflects present

society.

Why Teach Literature?

First, it is important to clarify why teaching literature is a fundamental part of education.

Teaching literature is an outlier in American educational system. Robert Yagelski writes, the

institution of formal education does not foster individuality as much as conformity (278). The

education system has power not only over what students learn but how they grow, particularly in

how to live in the world with American values. There is an inherent level of indoctrination to

American values think about the Pledge of Allegiance said at the start of every school day with

the inclusion of the phrase under God. Education reflects what the country envisions as a good

citizen, and in America, education and work are inseparable. Yagelski continues, public schools

were not only producingthe kind of citizen that Macedo refers to as necessary for democratic

society, but they were also preparing a certain kind of worker for the modern industrial state

(288). Of course education will reflect the values of hard work and dedication because those are

necessary values to instill in citizens of a capitalist society. The basic skills of speed, repetition,

and recalling information come through in timed tests and formulaic writing patterns.

Again, how does literature an act of learning through patience, imagination, and

abstract thought fit into all of this? Honestly, literature is an outlier. My experience in high

school conveys this. I had eight courses each year covering all the basics. I spent 7/8ths of my

educational time learning math formulas, memorizing history and geography, studying electrons

and mitochondria, and running around in a circle on the gym floor. Then, I walk into English and

now I have to determine the implications of Raskolnikovs punishment as guilt, and so forth. It is
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a jarring effect to constantly swap between different modes of thought and try to find every class

essential to developing as a person or an American citizen. It can be easy to see how students

find literature inessential in their development when nobody at the job they expect to be at cares

what they think about Heathcliff or Jane Eyre. However, Yagelski argues that English is essential

for promoting a progressive activist vision and must be pursued in the service of some larger

social vision (277). Haley Drucker outlines more basic skills acquired from literature: cultural

value, expanding horizons, building vocabulary, improving writing skills, critical thinking, and

imagination (Drucker). These qualities sound like white noise to anyone within the humanities,

but when you step out of liberal arts and particularly look at who America has deemed worthy

of the presidential title you start to see how these are lacking in a large portion of the collective

American spirit.

Postmodernism and Literature Curriculum

While this may seem like an aside, lets take a look at books that have been banned at

some point in high school and see how literature is the outlier in American education as

promoting a progressive activist vision to use Yagelskis term. These include but are

certainly not limited to: Beloved, Catch-22, The Catcher in the Rye, The Grapes of Wrath, The

Great Gatsby, Howl, Moby Dick, Native Son, The Scarlet Letter, Their Eyes Were Watching

God, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Where the Wild Things Are (Banned Books). You can start to

see how pushing boundaries is a touchy subject when teaching children. Darwin Turner touches

on this difficulty when teaching contemporary literature as he writes from 1979:

During the 1960s and early 1970s, a storm seemed to blast the literature curricula in

many high schools and colleges the demand for relevant materials, often translated

into a demand for contemporary material in non-fiction as well as fiction. By the middle
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of the 1970s, however, a storm from the opposite horizon threatened to sweep much of

the new literature out of the curriculum: Strong community forces raged against

obscenity, immorality, sacrilege, and anti-Americanism that they thought they found in

materials newly introduced to the classroom. And, for the second time within a decade,

anxious publishers frantically sought editors to prepare anthologies suitable for the

high school classroom. (43)

Anti-Americanism is the most interesting reason here as it suggests some people have a very

strong sense of what it mean to be American I certainly do not. New, progressive literature will

always have its regressive detractors, so curriculums work towards apolitical-yet-socially-

relevant texts to be on the safe side. I could never imagine reading Native Son a book that ends

with a socialist/Civil Rights monologue in my high school classroom. I would argue this lack

of pushing boundaries through contemporary texts in high school courses causes college courses

to bear that load, and there is simply not enough space to go beyond the obvious touchstones of

bold, progressive, contemporary literature.

Many of the banned books listed before are from the postmodern/post-WWII era. This

makes sense as Postmodern fiction embraces instability and skepticism as its main traits (What

is Postmodern). Just being skeptical about Americas treatment of its past and what values

dominate the American character fit into that Anti-Americanism that Turner referred to.

Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse-Five are certainly skeptical about the narrative of the American

military being above amnesty in WWII. Postmodern literature can also be broadly-defined by an

anti-authoritarian position (What is Postmodern). This fiction asks who is in control for they

get to write the historical and political narratives and have the first try at indoctrination. Works

like The Crying of Lot 49 and White Noise look at powerless citizens finding legitimacy in
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conspiracy theories and asks the reader what signs they have been missing in their own lives.

These reader responses Postmodern authors want, such as skepticism and questioning of power,

go against the desired hard worker narrative of American education

I took a Postmodern literature course at Belmont where we studied the works I have

referenced before (plus Lolita, of course). Through the course, we questioned military, American

history, American politics, media narratives, drugs, sex, institutional racism, education, empathy,

satire, fragmentation, Truth, subjectivity, and Tralfamadorians. It was a crash-course on fifty

years of American history and authors responses to the Cold war, atomic bombs, assassinations,

Civil Rights, counterculture, second-wave feminism, television, Nixon, Vietnam, etc. That is a

lot to cover in sixteen weeks, so the literature the course is structured around has to be working

toward the same end. There is not a room for non-Postmodern works happening within this era. I

left the course happy; class discussions were great, and the books were worth arguing about, but

there was so much untapped material that would need another semester to explore. Also, the

course ends with Beloved, written nine years before I was born. This literature is tantalizingly-

relevant in the sense that the authors are seeing where America is heading, but they are still

speculating; Postmodern literature is relevant in a prophetic way rather than actually responding

to cultural trends now. I left this Postmodern literature course knowing it would be the closest I

would get to an educational experience to literature in my lifetime.

Beyond Postmodern Literature

Literature clearly does not stop with Toni Morrison and Don DeLillo, but there is no

space currently at Belmont for 21st-century/contemporary literature. There are courses in

Southern literature, African-American literature, and Postmodernism, which all scratch the

surface of contemporary literature. Special Topics in World Literature got into the 21st century
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with The Body Artist, but it also started with Augustine. Contemporary literature is not a

common literary course right now for multiple reasons. The first, which has been outlined

previously, involves American educations troubled relationship with literature that touches on

new or taboo ideas. That bleeds into universities deciding how to balance the breadth of all that

English literature encompasses. Second, colleges teach canonized works to provide some

uniformity in education and scholarship and the act of canonization is a slow process

(Steinbach). It takes time to step back and look at an era of literature, see what trends dominate

this period, and decide what authors best represent the era. Structuring a course around a literary

movement relies on more than having students read the most aesthetically-pleasing or innovative

works. The professor has to guide the students through some educational narrative, or literature

courses would just be a book club. However, there is evidence of narratives being formed for

21st-century philosophy and art, and there were professors teaching contemporary literature

courses in the 1970s that look a whole lot like Postmodern literature syllabi today.

Postmodernism is dead or at least that is what many people say. In 2006, British writer

Alan Kirby says, postmodernism is dead and buried. In its place comes a new paradigm of

authority and knowledge formed under the pressure of new technologies and contemporary

social forces (Kirby). In 2015, Timotheus Vermeulen of the Netherlands writes:

The postmodern years of plenty, pastiche, and parataxis are over. In fact, if we are to

believe the many academics, critics, and pundits whose books and essays describe the

decline and demise of the postmodern, they have been over for quite a while now. But if

these commentators agree the postmodern condition has been abandoned, they appear

less in accord as to what to make of the state it has been abandoned for. (1)
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Brian McHale, who has written at length about Postmodern and 20th century fiction, refers to

Postmodernism in the past tense.

Literary theorists and philosophers have deemed postmodernism dead and have left in its

place the ugly title of post-postmodernism. That name cannot stick because a literary movement

should never be reduced to such an aesthetically-unpleasing title. Therefore, theorists have tried

their hands at giving a title to this new movement. Alan Kirby has coined both Pseudomodernism

and Digimodernism in his essays and books. In his 2006 essay The Death of Postmodernism

and Beyond talks about how Postmodern syllabi in England do not reflect a society that

students see today. He refers to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Beloved, White Noise,

Slaughterhouse-Five, and White Noise as Mum and Dads culture (34). He goes on to write

that this literature does not touch on mobile phones, email, the internet, computers in every

household powerful enough to put a man on the moon (34). He expanded on this in 2009 by

labelling the technological change in artistic intent as Digimodernism. Innovations in phones,

computers, and video games have changed what we define as legitimate, in terms of connection,

communication, and reality. Kirby sees the questions of subjective truth being raised in

Postmodernism as escalating in the 21st century. Novels that could be read through this narrative

lens are Douglas Couplands Microserfs, Ernest Clines Ready Player One, Gary Shteyngarts

Super Sad True Love Story, and Dave Eggers The Circle.

Another title given to this era is Metamodernism, coined by Timotheus Vermeulen and

Robin van der Akker. They see trends away from the skepticism and apathy of Postmodernism

into something more fanatic and/or nave (15). They continue, the current generations

attitudecan be conceived of as a kind of informed naivety, a pragmatic idealism (15). Their

evidence comes from political rhetoric that is inspired more towards change. They see reactions
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to climate change, economic uncertainty, and the destabilization of a political center as

inspirations towards engagement and a hope for change. They also define Metamodernism as a

pendulum swinging between Modernism and Postmodernism to say the rhetoric is hyper-

cognizant of differing frames of thought and keeps oscillating between them (19). One example

they use refers to the change in film in the 21st century. They refer to James MacDowells

argument that there is a move towards quirkiness in directors like Wes Anderson, Michel

Gondry, Spike Jonze, and Edgar Wright that is different from the sarcasm and indifference of the

90s.

There are theorists working through how to define the next literary movement, and

maybe Digimodernism and Metamodernism could find some traction. That is doubtful and a

more suitable route to convey the possibility of structuring a contemporary literature lies in

looking into examples from the past. Richard Ohmann writes in 1976 about teaching a

contemporary literature course. He envisions a socially-relevant dive into the prominent

literature of the day to inspire his students into social consciousness. He had strict guidelines for

the reading list: American, post-1960, popular, and taken seriously by literary critics. He settles

on Salinger, Updike, Vonnegut, Pynchon, Plath, McCarthy, Heller, etc. Many of these authors

are fixtures of Postmodern literature courses. His goal was to reach some conclusion about the

totality of the works presented in the course, as literature courses aim to achieve. Being a devout

socialist, Ohmann tied them together by saying they all get at some strain in capitalist

societyand the books offer a variety of inadequate or disheartening solutions (30).

Ohmanns methods can be updated to 21st-century contemporary literature course. Using his

criteria, works that would be included could be The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides, Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, etc.
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There could be some thread combining all this great literature, and it would take an emphasis on

teaching contemporary literature for students to engage in the development of their own literary

movement.

Logistical Problems

The problems with instituting a contemporary literature course go beyond neglect and

adhering to standards; there are logical reasons for few contemporary literature courses. First,

literature courses teach canonized texts, for the most part. The novels being taught have to be

proven great through influence, innovation, and representing an era. That is difficult criteria to

guage when a novel is released. It takes years for literary scholars to step back and see how a

novel impacted the landscape of literature.

Professors are also human very busy humans. It is very common for professors to teach

the same books repeatedly because thye are familiar with them; professors studied them when

they were in school. Professors do not have the time to read a bunch of new novels and structure

a course around 6-9 of them. I barely have the time to read, and I do not have classes to teach or

conferences to prepare for. A contemporary literature course could very well end up be a thrown-

together type of class, where the professor is reading alongside the students; that would be added

risk and stress that professors would rather not deal with.

It would be exciting for the students though. It can get boring reading through classes

where you know it would be unwise to question the worthiness of a novel even after it has been

read and praised for 150 years. An exciting aspect of postmodernism was that the quality of the

novels still felt debatable. I could walk into class and call Slaughterhouse-Five crap with good

evidence for the argument and not feel the weight of the dominant English canon opinion on my
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shoulders. That aspect would be amplified in a contemporary literature course where opinions on

the quality and legitimacy of the novels are still being questioned.

There are still ways to guage if novels are up for canonization before reading them.

Ohmanns methodology certainly applies here, but it does not even have to go that in depth. A

simple Google search of Best Books of [insert year] yields many results, especially around the

end of the year. Book reviewers will recommend their favorite books of the year in lists for sites

like New York Times, USA Today, Huffington Post, Washington Post, etc. Anybody can read

through the lists and see which novels come up again and again. There are official awards from

the National Book Awards and Pulitzer that are certainly precursors to canonization.

If course descriptions featured an option like The New York Times called these books the

best of 2017. We will read some of them together and see what trends emerge. We will connect

these books to the current cultural and political landscape and decide if these novels are worthy

of defining our era, then I would take the course without question.

Reading Lists

I have to walk the walk and offer potential options for readings in a contemporary

literature course. Fair warning: the criteria is most dependent on what other people have said

about the novels since I have not read most of these.

Sing, Unburied, Sing (Jesmyn Ward, 2017)

The Ninth Hour (Alice McDermott, 2017)

Manhattan Beach (Jennifer Egan, 2017)

The Underground Railroad (Colson Whitehead, 2016)

Barkskins (Annie Proulx, 2016)

The Girls (Emma Cline, 2016)

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The Sport of Kings (C.E. Morgan, 2016)

Fates and Furies (Lauren Groff, 2015)

Purity (Jonathan Franzen, 2015)

All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr, 2014)

The Paying Guests (Sarah Waters, 2014)

Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn, 2012)

Beautiful Ruins (Jess Walter, 2012)

You could also offer a contemporary literature course that on books with recent movie

adaptations.

The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins)

Ready Player One (Ernest Cline)

Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk (Ben Fountain)

Dead Stars (Bruce Wagner)

The Martian (Andy Reir)

There are many novels to choose from and potential structuring methods for a contemporary

literature course. It just takes a professor willing to put in the effort.

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Works Cited

Banned Books That Shaped America. Banned Book Weeks, 2017,

www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica.

Drucker, Haley. The Importance of Teaching Literature. Bright Hub, 30 July 2015,

www.brighthubeducation.com/teaching-methods-tips/100744-the-importance-of-

teaching-literature/.

Kirby, Alan. The Death of Postmodernism and Beyond. Philosophy Now, vol. 58, 2006, pp.

34-37.

Matos, Angel Daniel. What is Postmodern Literature? Angel Daniel Mathos, Ph.D, 3 Feb.

2017, angelmatos.net/2014/02/03/what-is-postmodern-literature/.

Ohmann, Richard. Teaching a Large Course on Contemporary Fiction. The Radical Teacher,

vol. 3, 1976, pp. 28-31.

Steinbach, Lori. The Literary Canon. eNotes, 2017, www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-

criteria-entry-into-literary-canon-467601.

Turner, Darwin T. Teaching Contemporary Literature: A Personal Perspective. The English

Journal, vol. 68, 1979, pp. 43-49.

Vermeulen, Timotheus and Robin van den Akker. Notes on Metamodernism. Journal of

Aesthetics & Culture, vol. 2, issue 1, 2010, pp. 1-14.