Readings and Resources

Fiction at the End of the 20th Century


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English 232b - Spring 2001

Jay Clayton, Vanderbilt University

 

Books

Students should order their books online. The book covers below contain links that will take you directly to each title. Ecampus.com offers free shipping if your order is greater than $35. Their privacy policy is also superior to that of Amazon.com. If Ecampus.com should run out of stock or have a long shipping period for some reason, all of these books are also available at Amazon.com.

 

 


(Ecampus.com)

Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek (1991)


(Ecampus.com)

Don DeLillo, White Noise (1991)


(Amazon.com)

Charles Johnson, Middle Passage (1990)


(Ecampus.com)

Cynthia Kadohata, In the Heart of the Valley of Love (1996)


(Amazon.com)

Philip Kerr, A Philosophical Investigation (1992)


(Ecampus.com)

Toni Morrison, Jazz (1992)


(Amazon.com)

Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl (1990)


(Ecampus.com)

Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon (1999)

 

Additional Readings--Online:



Ed Falco's hypertext short story for the Web, "Charmin' Cleary." (This story is presented by the Eastgate Web Reading Room.)

Read Mary-Kim Arnold and Matthew Derby's hypertext, "Kokura." (This story is presented by the Eastgate Web Reading Room.)

Hypertext: "Lasting Image" by Carolyn Guyer and Michael Joyce

An Epistemological Case Study: On Causality and Criminology by Snehal Patel and Samar Sharma. This site is a fictional account of a criminal investigation, based on Philip Kerr's book. It was composed by two students in English 273, a class on Genetics and Literature, in Fall, 2000.

For excerpts from Boudrillard's writings, see Baudrillard on the Web, a site maintained by Alan Taylor, University of Texas-Arlington.

 


 

Films

 

Being John Malcovitch (1999),
directed by Spike Jonze

Suture (1993), directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel

Timecode (2000),
directed by Mike Figgis

 

Additional viewing:

Latino/a Culture

Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate) (1992), directed by Alfonso Arau and written by Laura Esquivel.

El Norte (1983), directed by Gregory Nava

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (Un Señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes) (1988), directed by Fernando Birri and written by Gabriel García Márquez

Eréndira (1983), directed by Ruy Guerra and written byGabriel García Márquez

La Bamba (1987), directed by Luis Valdez

Corpus (1999), directed by Lourdes Portillo (this video recording is available at the media center in the library)

 

Postmodernism:

The Adjuster (1991), directed by Atom Egoyan

Blade Runner (1982; 1992), directed by Ridley Scott

Brazil (1985), directed by Terry Gilliam

Fight Club (1999), directed by David Fincher

Pulp Fiction (1994), directed by Quentin Tarantino

Until the End of the World (1991), directed by Wim Wenders. Written by Peter Carey

The Usual Suspects (1995), directed by Bryan Singer

 

 

Films about the Net, Cyborgs, and Virtual Reality:

Alien (1979), Ridley Scott (dir.)
Aliens (1986), James Cameron (dir.)
Alien III (1992), David Fincher (dir.)
Alien: Resurrection (1997), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (dir.)
AntiTrust (2001),
Peter Howitt (dir.)
Disclosure (1994), Barry Levinson (dir.)
Gattaca (1997), Andrew Niccol (dir.)
Hackers (1995), Iain Softley (dir.)
Hardware (1989), Richard Stanley (dir.)
Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Robert Longo (dir.); based on a story by William Gibson.
The Lawnmower Man (1992), Brett Leonard (dir.); based on a story by Stephen King.
Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996), Farhad Mann (dir.)
RoboCop (1987), Paul Verhoeven (dir.)
Sneakers (1992), Phil Alden Robinson (dir.)
Strange Days (1995), Kathryn Bigelow (dir.); based on a story by James Cameron
The Terminator (1984), James Cameron (dir.)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), James Cameron (dir.)
THX 1138 (1970), George Lucas (dir.); Lucas's first feature film
Total Recall (1990), Paul Verhoeven (dir.); based on a story by Philip K. Dick
TRON (1982), Steven Lisberger (dir.)
Videodrome (1983), David Cronenberg (dir.)
Virtuosity (1995), Brett Leonard (dir.)
War Games (1970), Hy Averback (dir.)

 

 

Jay Clayton
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt English

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