For Mon 26 - This Property is Condemned 2

1. Compare the initial descriptions of Tom and Willie with the complexity of their lines troughout the text. Do you think that this act approaches a monologue (a centralization in one of the characters)?
2.  “Tom: Why don’t you do that for me? (…) What you did for Frank Waters.” (p.256). Comment on the theme of sex in this play. How do you think her upbringing in a house that took in railroad men influenced her?

Stories and their films - a reading suggestion

The next two literary texts we are going to study have had movies made out of them. For further reading on "Adaptation Studies" see the article in the file "Secondary Sources" of our moodle.

This Property is Condemned (1966)

The Life you Save (1957)

Post - Post - Modernism — The Contemporary?

In an age of de-differentiation (implosion of the power of distinctions and of making them, according to French philosopher Baudrillard) it is harder and harder to come up with critical categories that stand. Probably, our class has made a better job at it than our scholars, whose consensus so far amounts to one word: the contemporary )

Post-Modernism - some key concepts

a) According to Linda Hutcheon, Postmodernity is the condition of the late 20th century, and it should be distinguished from Postmodernism, which refers to the cultural production and reflection that might embody its critique (the abovementioned questioning).

b) According to Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism itself belongs to the "cultural logic of late capitalism", and as such there is no distinction between the critique and the condition (the critique, obeying to the laws of the production of culture, which rest on immateriality and profit, might annull itself).

Even if Postmodernism somehow blurs the distinctions between the high and the low - the idea of equality in Postmodernism risks being overweighed by

1. Relativism: the first of the important keywords, as it is the conterpart to
2. Mistrust of grand narratives (religion, politics, scientific positivism)
3. De-differentiation (namely of economics and culture), leading to the indecidability of correspondence between value and objects, and (in language) between signifiers and possible signifieds.
4. Indifference/confusion about origin and historical chronology; not only because of doubts cast upon narratives of cause and effects, but also of the four following co-related concepts:
5. simulacrum: a term introduced by Baudrillard as leading to hyperreality ("a generation by models of a real without origin or reality) and much glossed over by Jameson, who takes it to mean an imitation of something whose original never existed.
6. a-historicism: loss of historical grounding, due not only to revisionism (interpretation of an historical fact by standards of another time) but also to the constant practice of anachronism in Postmodernity
7. pastiche: which, to Jameson, has become an inocuous and all-too clever use of mimicry, whereas Hutcheon prefers to call it
8. parody: Linda Hutcheon sees Postmodern mimicry as much more positive, a repetition that embodies transformation and difference. Whatever we call it - parody or pastiche - what we have is a radical
9. intertextuality, which is one of the many features of Postmodernism that make it a movement that doesn't exactly break with Modernism but radicalizes some of its practices, like:
10. Fragmentation and breakdown of linear narrative
11. Depersonalization / defamiliarization and multiple points of view
12. Variety of competitive discourses (including heteroglossia - mixing of languages within the literary text)
13. Reflexivity - we enter the consciousness of self/selves/and-or Others, and art is increasingly also reflexive of itself - it ponders on its own making. This is an important part of Postmodernism as a critique of means and ways of representation, and its awareness that realities are made rathern than given.
14. Distortion
Last - but still possibly not completely - Postmodernism includes also:
15. sexual freedom and gender b(l)ending
16.  added challenges to the family as basis of society
17. nihilism and saturation of stimuli - depression / anxiety as a consequence of affective loss, and this in turn a possible consequence of skepticism (see the menace of the world's end at the click of a button at the close of World War II), as well as of the radicalization of modernist intellectualization and symbolization.
18. dislocation and evasion (where we may start with Tennessee Williams and the figure of the "fugitive"...)

For Mon 26- This Property is Condemned

What do you think about the contradiction between Willie’s adult clothes and her “childlike and innocent” manner? (p. 247)

Who do you think are the “railroad men” and why was Alva (Willie’s sister) “The Main Attraction”? (p.251)

Class Debates - Proposed Format

1. Opening Statements (with at least 3 arguments, two of them must be literary)  

YES/PRO 3 min     NO/CON 3 min

2. Rebuttal - teams argue against each others' arguments  (2 rounds of 3 min each) 

3. Clarification / Questions from the audience (5 min)

4.  [Conference of teams] 5 min

5. Closing Statements  YES/PRO 3min NO/CON 3 min

Debate Preparation: 

1. Obtain information from reputable sources.

2. Provide at least two substantiated pieces of evidence (examples).

3. Prepare a quality open statement that shall be publicized   previously to the opposing team and to classmates (via blog)

4. Reflect clearly on the ethical theory/theories and principles involved with the issue.

5. Present your information effectively and convincingly (you may use props or audio-visual material, but you cannot exceed the alloted time)

6. In addition to preparing arguments for their position, each team should anticipate their opponents’ arguments and identify possible flaws or weaknesses in those arguments

Debate Rules:

You must raise your hand if it's not your time to speak.  
Teams lose 1 point for each interruption.  
Teams lose 1 point for whispering while another speaker is talking. 

Debate evaluation:

- by peers (classmates) who fill a handout with pre-set parameters

- by teacher, whose evaluation includes feedback from colleagues and appreciation of written post on the blog.

Welcome with rock'n'roll - Rui Reininho, Pós-Modernos (1986)

...Depois da V2 DDT PBX
Ketchup K/7 Kleenex Kitchnet Duplex
Twist again colourfull wonderfull
Chegou o T2-T4 com garagem pró P2 turbo sound disco sound discussão?
Video-Club joy stick midi high-tech squash e sauna
Compact D (compre aqui?)...

Ser Mãe era a aspiração natural de todo o homem moderno [Being a mother was the natural aspiration of every modern man]
ser o melhor é normal para os novos pobres deste colégio [being the best is normal for the new poor of this boarding school]
ter medo é a pulsão fundamental do criador e [to have fear is the fundamental impulse of the creator and]
estar sóbrio é continuar permanecer [to be sober is to continue endure]

---E dantes as máquinas estavam sempre a [... And once upon a time the machines were always derailing...]

Mas com uns pós modernos nada complicados [But with the post-moderns, who do not complicate at all]
sentimo-nos realizados [we are fulfilled]
Ah! Os pós modernos agarram a angústia [oh the postmoderns take anguish]
e fazem dela uma outra indústria [and turn it to an industry]
com os pós modernos nunca ganhamos [with the postmoderns we never win]
mas tambem nada investimos [but we also do not chip in]