| Unit name | Postmodernism and the Italian Novel |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ITAL30034 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Glynn |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Italian |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit studies postmodernism within the context of Italian Literature and critical debate. It examines the problematic nature of the term postmodernism with respect to Italian culture and the extent to which it may be deemed appropriate to the four novels chosen. It also traces the development of the postmodernist mode of narration within the Italian literary corpus. The novels under investigation display characteristically postmodernist obsessions with fabulation, physical space, and blurred boundaries. They share a strong degree of textual self-consciousness, a preoccupation with literature as artificial construction, and an investigation of the cognitive role of the fictional text. The range of novels illustrates the breadth of postmodernism &)s challenges to traditional notions of genre and literary form, and introduces the dominant motifs of postmodernist narration: the intertextual library, the distorting mirror, the labyrinth and the inconclusive detective story.
