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Fall 2007
Comparative Literature 98/198
2 Unit(s)

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About the Course:

Transgressive Fiction and Culture 

Normal is easy to see, hear, or feel. Abnormal--could ya define it? can you SEE it? read it, wrrrrright it? Sure... you can label it at least, right? ...or wrong?

Transgressive literature, ever-changing, pushes boundaries to deconstruct accepted notions of normality. Transgressive fiction can deal with questions of mental health, sexuality, drug use, violence, and more. By looking closely at modern urban existence, the authors we will study come to new conclusions about how we live together and how we create community. In this class we will read the fiction of the chaotic, the sick, the self-destructive, the unproductive. We will discuss what it means to transgress, how one can be unique in a global society, and what it means to be a self-proclaimed outsider.

Reading List:
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground 1864 (Available free online, find a link at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/600)
William Burroughs, Naked Lunch 1959
Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho 1991
Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club 1996

A reader, including excerpts from authors such as Hunter S. Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Henry Miller, Andre Breton, Filippo Marinetti, and Charles Baudelaire.

The film versions of Naked Lunch, American Psycho, and Fight Club will be screened but not required for the class. 

How to Enroll:

Please show up on the first day of class to enroll. If you'd like to reserve a spot in advance, email me and please include your major or intended major and prior literature courses (if any). Open to all majors. Please include in your email which course you need to sign up for (lower division or upper division, see below)!!

• Lower Division students (those who have completed 59 units or less) sign up for Comparative Literature 98.
• Upper Division students (those who have completed 60 units or more) sign up for Comparative Literature 198.

Anyone interested can email me with preferences for material you would like to see emphasized. Please email if you have any questions or if you are just curious and want to say hello.