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[Fall 2002]
CLEN W3209 Modern and
Postmodern Cities
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| Prof.
Ursula Heise |
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This international survey of fiction from the 1920s
to the 1990s will focus on one of the most important
topics of the 20th-century novel: the metropolis and
urban life. Novelists' fascination with the modern city
not only reshaped the novel thematically, but also structurally,
since writers felt they needed to invent new techniques
to describe the bewildering multiplicity of big cities.
We will cover some classics of the high-modernist urban
novel (Bely's Petersburg, Dos Passos' New York, Döblin's
Berlin), as well as explorations of present and future
cities: Robbe-Grillet's postmodern urban labyrinth,
Lispector's Rio de Janeiro and Yamashita's Los Angeles,
as well as the futuristic visions of Gibson, Ballard
and Butler.
Texts:
—William Gibson, Neuromancer. Ace, 1984.
—J.G. Ballard, "Billennium" & "The
Concentration City."
—Andrei Bely, Petersburg. Trans. Robert A. Maguire
& John E. Malmstad. Indiana University Press, 1978
[1916/1922].
—Dos Passos, John. Manhattan Transfer. Houghton
Mifflin, 1925.
—Georg Simmel, "The Metropolis and Mental
Life." 1903.
—Alfred Döblin. Berlin Alexanderplatz. Trans.
Eugene Jolas. Continuum, 1996 [1929].
—Alain Robbe-Grillet. The Erasers [Les Gommes].
Trans. Richard Howard. Grove, 1977 [1953].
—Juan Goytisolo, "A Reading of the Space
in Xemaa-el-Fna." From Makbara. Trans. —Helen
Lane. Serpent's Tail, 1993 [1980]. (R).
—Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star [A Hora
da Estrela]. Trans. Giovanni Pontiero. New Directions,
1992 [1977].
—Mike Davis, "Fortress L.A." From City
of Quartz. Verso, 1990.
—Karen Tei Yamashita, Tropic of Orange. Coffee
House Press, 1997.
—Octavia E. Butler, "Speech Sounds."
1983. (R).
—Italo Calvino, "Cecilia" & "Penthesilea."
From Invisible Cities. Trans. William Weaver. Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1974 [1972].
Requirements:
1. Regular attendance and movie screenings, and
fulfillment of the reading assignments. Your grade will
be affected if you miss more than three classes (for
every two classes missed beyond the initial three, your
grade goes down one third). If you miss a session, it
is your responsibility to catch up on its content as
well as any update to reading or writing assignments.
[25% of final grade]
2. Two papers (4-5 pages), topics to be assigned. [25%
of final grade]
3. Midterm exam. [25% of final grade]
4. Final exam. [25% of final grade]
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SYLLABUS
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| Session 1: |
Introduction |
| Session 2: |
Gibson, Neuromancer Chs.1-10 |
| Session 3: |
Gibson, Neuromancer Chs.11-24 |
| Session 4: |
Ballard, "Billennium" & "The
Concentration City" |
| Session 5: |
Bely, Petersburg Chs. 1-4. Study
Questions for Bely's Petersburg |
| Session 6: |
Bely, Petersburg Chs. 5-6. |
| Session 7: |
Bely, Petersburg Chs. 7-8. |
| Session 8: |
Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer 1-126. |
| Session 9: |
Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer 127-268. |
| Session 10: |
Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer 267-404.
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| Session 11: |
Manhattan Transfer 267-404 (concl.)
Simmel, "The Metropolis & Mental Life" (R).
Paper #1 due |
| Session 12: |
Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz Books
1-3. |
| Session 13: |
Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz Books
4-6. |
| Session 14: |
Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz Books
7-9. |
| Session 15: |
Midterm Exam |
| Session 16: |
Robbe-Grillet, The Erasers Chs.1-2. |
| Session 17: |
Robbe-Grillet, The Erasers Ch.3-Epilogue.
Modernist Novels: A Profile
Urban Novels: Summary |
| Session 18: |
Robbe-Grillet, The Erasers
Modern & Postmodern Novels:
A Comparison |
| Session 19: |
Goytisolo, "A Reading of the Space
in Xemaa-el-Fna"
See notes with text explanations below. |
| Session 20: |
Lispector, The Hour of the Star 1-86 |
| Session 21: |
Davis, "Fortress L.A." |
| Session 22: |
Yamashita, Tropic of Orange (all)
Paper #2 due. |
| Session 23: |
Yamashita, Tropic of Orange (ctd.).
Final exam assignment will be distributed. |
| Session 24: |
Butler, "Speech Sounds"
Calvino, "Cecilia" & "Penthesilea"
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| Session 24: |
Conclusion |
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Study Questions for Bely's Petersburg
(1916/1922)
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Note: You needn't read the translators' introduction,
though you're welcome to if you wish. Read as many of
their footnotes as you're interested in; but I'd suggest
you not spend too much time reading footnotes at the
beginning, since some of them are long and will tend
to disrupt your reading of the main text.
The translation you're reading is based on the 1922
edition of the novel, which Bely revised substantially
from the 1916 novel. The reasons will be explained in
class.
Read through all of the following questions before starting
your reading of the novel.
— First of all, reflect on your own reading experience:
how difficult is this text to read? What makes it difficult?
Why might Bely be making it difficult for you? (Note:
it's not substantially easier in the original, so only
a small part of the difficulty should be attributed
to the translation.)
— Andrei Bely's novel deals with real historical
events (the uprisings of October 1905 which took place
in Petersburg and were a preamble to the Bolshevik Revolution
of 1917), and the action takes place in a real urban
space, as you can see from the map inside the cover.
How useful is this map in practice? Does it help you
to understand the urban space of the city of Petersburg?
How are the urban lay-out of the city and its architecture
described?
— What atmosphere prevails in the city? Think of
such things as weather, prevalent colors, sights, sounds
and smells in the streets.
— One recurring theme of Petersburg is the position
of Russian culture in between Europe and Asia. Keep
track of moments in the novel where this theme surfaces
(characters' ethnicity or appearance, objects from either
cultural sphere, etc.). What stance toward this cultural
ambivalence do the main characters take? Are we invited
to agree with their viewpoints, or encouraged to disapprove
of them?
— Another dominant motif is relationships between
fathers and sons, or more abstractly notions of paternity
and also patriarchy. Keep an eye on how this theme evolves
as you read. What does it have to do with the political
plot of the novel? - Once you've read the last third
of the novel, you might also want to think about the
family above and beyond paternity: consider what happens
to the Ableukhov family over the course of the text.
— Pay attention to how Bely constructs his fictional
characters for us. What does he tell us about them regarding
their physical appearance, their history, their habits,
or their inner life, and what does he not say? How much
do we find out from the narrator, from the characters
themselves, or from other characters thinking or speaking
about them?
— In many scenes, we are made to see and hear through
a particular character. How reliable would you say the
characters are as guides to what's happening in the
novel?
— What do you take to be the meaning of the two
Ableukhovs' visions or dreams?
— One of the more important characters in the novel
is the narrator himself (I'm referring to him as male
because all the major characters in the novel are, although
there's no clear indication as to gender). What is the
narrator's attitude toward his story material? What
does he know, what doesn't he know?
— Bely's style is striking, and this is not an
artifact of the translation: it is as surprising and
unusual in Russian as it appears in English. Sentence
fragments, exclamation marks, incessant puns, onomatopoeia
(play on sounds): what is he trying to accomplish with
this style? Why not express himself in a more "normal,"
straightforward narrative idiom?
— There are two crucial objects that structure
the plot of this novel: the letter instructing Nikolai
Ableukhov to plant a bomb, and the bomb itself in the
mysterious "bundle." Keep track of the itinerary
of these objects: who sends them on their way, where
they're supposed to go, and through what hands and places
they really do end up going. Think about what this might
tell us about how human intention and agency work in
the fictional universe of this novel.
— Why and by whom is Lippanchenko murdered?
— The narrator spends a good deal of time on the
scenes surrounding the (only apparently mysterious)
"red domino." Why?
— How realistic is this novel? Take into account
the fact that realism has to do both with the world
a novel describes, and the kind of language it uses
to describe it. What dimensions are realistic, which
ones not?
— You might want to reflect on how Bely uses literary
sources: other texts that he echoes or plays on. Most
of this intertextuality is not obvious if you're not
familiar with some other Russian authors such as Pushkin,
Dostoyevsky or Gogol, so you'll have to rely on the
translators' copious and excellent notes in this respect.
(Do this only if you have time after thinking about
the other questions).
back to syllabus
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| MODERNIST
NOVELS: A PROFILE |
— Critique of realism: focus too exclusively on characters'
social & economic changes, not their psychological
depth
— Literary innovation motivated by the intention
to represent reality better than realism, by focusing
on the aspects omitted by realism; i.e. modernist novels
still have a mimetic intent
— Alienation of the self from society (esp. artist)
— Special interest in the figure of the poet/writer/artist
(Proust, Mann, Joyce)
— Special emphasis on inner workings of the mind,
psychology
— Special emphasis on temporality & memory
— Narrative inconsistencies motivated by the different
perspectives, knowledge, perceptions & memories of
different narrators/characters;
— shared non-subjective world emerges through commonalities
in the perceptions of juxtaposed characters
— plot de-emphasized, but characters remain basic
element
— circular structure or open endings
— embedded/framed narrative, chronological inversions
— collage & montage techniques in narrative structure:
juxtaposition of complementary narrative lines
— collage & montage techniques in the style:
insertion of language fragments from the media, advertising,
expert languages, ordinary conversations
— imitiation, quotation, parody of historical material
back to syllabus
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| URBAN
NOVELS: A SUMMARY |
Representations of the City
— geographical lay-out: linear and regular
or unpredictable and irregular, wide open boulevards or
narrow streets/alleys, master-planned or historically
evolved, particularly suitable for a particular kind of
movement (walking, bus, tram, car)
— architecture: modern or historical, ornamental
or functional, towering or human-size (consider also the
role of public monuments)
— role and relation of public space and private
space: how much emphasis is given to each? Does one
appear threatening and the other one a refuge? What social,
cultural, economic functions are associated with each?
Where is cultural or political dissent articulated and
manifested?
— light & time: daytime and nocturnal
scenes, natural vs. artificial lighting
— nature: role of parks, gardens, wild and
domestic animals; influence of the weather and of the
seasons; nature pristine or polluted, intrusion of the
wild or manifestation of domestication
— city economy: types of work and of businesses
that are mentioned or emphasized; spaces they create;
power they carry; equality/inequality they create; presence
in the urban space through store signs and advertising
(images, performances)
— urban crowds: uniform or heterogeneous,
coherent whole or individual intentions, omnipresent or
occasional, threatening or welcoming, possibility of anonymity
or chance encounter
— the flâneur or stroller (Baudelaire,
Benjamin): male or female, what types of perception emphasized,
what relation to the crowd?
— orientation: how do the characters find
their way about in the city? Using maps, markers, information
from others? How difficult is orientation in the city?
— ethnic composition of the city: typically
heterogeneous; but certain groups may be associated with
prejudice or stigma, other groups may go simply unmentioned;
which ethnic groups tend to hold local power?
— mass media: role of newspapers (headlines,
articles), radio announcements; cyberspace as the realm
of information & as an alternative public sphere
— crime: crime seen as at the margins or right
at the core of urban society, a consequence of material
necessity or of greed, the criminal as one to be reprimanded
and punished or to be pitied, sympathized with & supported;
role of violence as a means of enforcing social order
or rebelling against it/breaking out of it
back to syllabus
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MODERN
& POSTMODERN NOVELS: A COMPARISON
Warning: This is a simplified model. Individual
novels will deviate from the model to a greater or lesser
extent!
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| MODERNIST
NOVEL |
POSTMODERNIST
NOVEL |
| Epistemological dominant |
Ontological dominant [McHale] |
| Focus on the artist (e.g. Proust,
Joyce, Mann, Woolf) |
Focus on the text, its writing and
reading (e.g. Borges, Beckett, Barth) |
| Interest in psychology/memory/language |
Interest in textuality & self-referentiality
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| Alienation of the self (esp. artist)
from society |
Alienation of the self from itself,
impossibility of conceiving of a unified identity
("fragmentation") |
| Textual inconsistencies motivated
by views/memories/knowledge of various narrators/characters |
Textual inconsistencies not motivated
by anything in the text itself (Robbe-Grillet) |
| Embedded narrative, chronological
inversions |
Metalepsis |
| Complementary narrative lines |
Alternative narrative lines |
| Circular structure or open ending |
Multiple ending, false ending, mock
ending |
| Imitation, quotation, parody of historical
material |
Plagiarizing, pastiche of historical
material |
| Play on words |
Play with the printed page and book |
| Characters remain recognizably the
same |
Characters undergo random changes |
| Narrator recognizable as a character |
Narrator reduced to voices (Beckett) |
| Literary innovation motivated by the
intent to represent the world in those aspects omitted
by realism |
Denial of mimetic intent; systematic
questioning of the possibility of representation |
Chronological note: Not every novel published after
World War II, or after 1960, is "postmodernist"
simply by virtue of its date. Realist novels were published
during the modernist period and continued to be written
and read throughout the second half of the 20th century.
In American fiction, in addition, there was an important
return to realist modes of narration starting in the 1980s.
Since "postmodernist" was by then a fashionable
as well as a descriptive term, many of these novels were
also referred to as postmodernist (according to the schema
above, they're not).
back to syllabus
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Footnotes
for Goytisolo's "A Reading"
Born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1931, Goytisolo grew up under
the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which lasted from
the end of the Spanish Civil War until Franco's death
in 1975. Tired of the rigidity and narrow limits of artistic,
intellectual and sexual expression that he experienced
under the Franco regime, he emigrated to France in 1957.
During extensive travels later on which also led him to
the Soviet Union, Cuba, Canada, and the United States,
he also came to know Northern Africa and Arabic culture,
which impressed him so deeply that he established a secondary
residence in Marrakesh, Marocco. While Goytisolo's earliest
novels were written in a realist style, his most famous
works, Señas de identidad [Marks of Identity; 1966],
Reivindicación del Conde don Julián [translated
as Count Julian, 1970] and Juan sin tierra [translated
as Juan the Landless, 1975) are critiques of Spanish society
written in a much more experimental narrative mode. Makbara,
named after the place in Arabic cemeteries where lovers
meet for secret trysts, and Paisajes después de
la batalla [Landscapes after the Battle, 1982], are full-fledged
postmodernist novels, in which experimentation with style
and voice works against the emergence of any coherent
plot.
A Reading of the Space in Xemaa-El-Fna" is the last
chapter of Juan Goytisolo's novel Makbara (1980; the English
translation by Helen Lane appeared in 1981), but it stands
on its own as the imagination of a space that breaks down
all the boundaries and rules that constrain and oppress
the protagonists: a place whose significance is at the
same time spatial, social, cultural, economic, political
and sexual. While Goytisolo views this utopian space as
one where social boundaries in general are blurred, he
foregrounds in particular the freedom it offers from sexual
categorizations and restrictions. Even though it is a
public urban site, it allows for intimacies that European
cities - here portrayed as cold, restrictive places -
would never permit. Clearly, Goytisolo describes an ideal
rather than a real cultural location, but it is nevertheless
significant that he clearly identifies it with Arabic
culture, crystallized in the spatial form of an Arab bazaar.
Seen as an alternative to European conceptions of gender
identity, Arabic culture here presents itself as an imaginative
counterpoint to realities that he views as in need of
change. Literature, for him, becomes the medium in which
such alternatives can be successfully imagined.
241: Xemáa-el-Fná is a famous plaza
in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh, where Goytisolo lives
part of each year.
241: The "Guides Bleus" or "blue
guides" published by the tire manucfacturer Michelin
have long been a staple of European tourism. Fodor, Nagel,
Baedeker and Pol are other well-known travel guides.
242: An agora was a public space that served as
a forum or marketplace in Ancient Greek cities.
243: A maremagnum is a noisy proliferation or confusion.
The rebec is an Arabic string instrument; suras are parts
of the Koran.
243: Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98) was the prior
of San Marco in Florence during the reign of the Medici;
after their expulsion, he established a theocratic and
dictatorial regime in Florence until the Pope sentenced
him to death. "Energumen" is a literal adaptation
of the Spanish word "energúmeno," which
refers to a wild, mad person.
247: steaming caldrons of harira?
248: Xil Xilala (also spelled Jil Jilala) and Noss-el-Ghiwán
(also spelled Nass el Ghiwan) are Moroccan music bands.
248: Pelé is a famous Brazilian soccer player.
Um Kalsum is the name of a popular Egyptian singer, while
Farid-el-Atrach, a singer and actor, was known for his
romantic lead roles. "His Majesty the King"
refers to the King of Morocco.
248: Jacques Prévert (1900-1977), a well-known
French poet, wrote a humorous poem called "Inventory"
("Inventaire") whose refrain includes a steadily
increasing number of "ratons laveurs," i.e.
raccoons.
248-49: Almalafas and fuquías are long garments
worn in Northern Africa. "Helicoidal rotation"
means a rotation following the shape of a spiral.
249: Djellabahs and burnooses are loose, hooded
cloaks. "Inguinal" means belonging to or situated
near the groin. jaima?
249: Semiology is the theory of signs.
250: Nabob: an important, wealthy or powerful person.
Almaizales are headdresses worn in Northern Africa.
250: Muezzins are the Muslim criers who call the
faithful to prayer five times a day from the minaret of
a mosque. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim year,
during which the faithful fast between dawn and dusk.
251: The "halca" is the performance of
the oral storyteller or "halaiquí" and
includes the verbal story material as well as elements
of theatrical performance.
251: The Gnaua are descendents of slave brotherhoods
in subsaharan Africa, famous for their music, hymns and
prayers which mix Arabic and Bambara.
251: Dirham: currency of Morocco.
252: "A rebours": French for in reverse,
against the grain.
252: A strabismic gaze is a squint in medical vocabulary.
253: fisabili-l-lah?
254: Peculum: private property.
255: A dervish is a member of a Sufi religious
brotherhood; Cossack dances are associated with a group
of people in the former Soviet Union many of whose members
used to serve in the elite cavalry units of the Russian
army.
255-56: That is, the two old men have the appearance
of religious beggars or holy men. Usucapion is a legal
term (literally, "taking by use") meaning that
items that have been in someone's possession for a certain
time become that person's possession: here, the old men
have acquired territory simply by occupying it for a long
time.
256: Kif smokers: kif is another word for marijuana.
256: Sylvan thickets: i.e. the thickets belonging
to a wood or forest.
256-57: All of these names refer to the protagonists
of famous texts and films ranging all the way from high
literature to popular culture, and across several centuries.
Fantômas is the hero of more than thirty French
thrillers written by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain
before World War I; he commits horrifying but ingenious
crimes in an unending series of disguises. In 1913, a
series of silent films based on the novels appeared. The
Fantômas figure had a deep influence on the French
avantgarde of the early 20th century. Big Boss is Bruce
Lee's antagonist in the movie The Big Boss (1971), which
started Lee's career as a kung-fu film star. Saruj or
Saruh is a famous oral storyeller whom Goytisolo greatly
admired. Antar is 'Antarah ibn Shaddad, the poet and warrior
protagonist of the Romance of Antar, which consists of
Arabic stories of chivalry written between the 8th and
12th centuries; Taras Bulba is the protagonist of an extended
short story with the same title by the Russian author
Nikolai Gogol (1809-52).
257: A "halaiquí" is an oral storyteller
(cf. n.18). A stentorian voice is an unusually loud and
resonant one.
257: "Rabelais redivivus": Goytisolo
is comparing the Arabic marketplace storyteller to the
French Renaissance writer François Rabelais (d.
1553), whose works celebrate bodily excesses in eating,
drinking and sexuality.
257: Auriferous grins: literally, grins that contain
gold.
258: Tiznit, Tefraút and Uarzazát
are towns in southern Morocco. Xuhá (also spelled
Juha) is a famous protagonist of many humorous stories
of Arabic folklore.
258: The Kutubia is a large mosque in Marrakech.
The Atlas Mountains in northern Africa extend across Morocco,
Tunisia and Algeria.
259: Ataraxy: calmness, tranquillity.
262: salih?
262: Gesture of azalá: that is, a gesture
of prayer.
263: A tropism is the movement of a plant in response
to an external stimulus.
263: In vivo: from the Latin meaning "in the
living," the live body of a plant or animal.
264: Buccal cavity: the cavity of the mouth.
265: A reference to Homer's Odyssey, in which Penelope,
while awaiting the return of her husband Odysseus from
the Trojan War, keeps other suitors off by pretending
to weave a shroud during the day that she undoes by night.
266: Onomatopoeia: the imitation of a real-life
noise through the sound of words.
266: Antar: see note 30. Harun-er-Rachid or "Aaron
the Upright" was the fifth and most famous caliph
of a family that descended from an uncle of the prophet
Mohammed. Aicha Debbana?
267: The original Aulic Council was founded by
the Holy Roman Emperor in 1498 and served as a judicial
institution. Goytisolo here means more generally institutions
with social and legal authority.
267: "the famous Chaplin sequence": Goytisolo
is referring to Chaplin's film City Lights (1931), in
one of whose scenes the protagonist is eating a plate
of spaghetti in a festively decorated restaurant; a paper
streamer gets mixed in with the spaghetti, and the protagonist
keeps chewing and chewing on what appears to be an interminable
strand of pasta without realizing it is paper.
269: Alfaquis are Muslim scholars.
270: "Palimpsestic reading": a palimpsest
is a text made up of several superimposed layers of writing.
back to syllabus
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