This reading intensive tutorial will offer an opportunity for advanced literature, philosophy, and social theory students to examine in depth a small, yet diverse and linguistically rich group of 20th century writers whose works might legitimately be classified as 1) "pre-postmodern" and 2) what theorists Deleuze and Guattari would deem "minor," by virtue of their literary hybridity.  The primary focus of the course is not on theory, however, but on in depth exploration of fiction by Franz Kafka (The Complete Stories, The Trial, The Castle), Jorge Luis Borges (Labyrinths, El Aleph and Other Stories, Collected Fiction, A Personal Anthology), Clarice Lispector (The Stream of Life, The Hour of the Star, The Passion According to GH, Family Ties), and Julia Cortazar (Hopscotch, Cronopios and Famas, Blow-Up and Other Stories, Bestiario ).  We will devote 2 1/2 weeks to each author; each student will read two primary volumes in common and there will also be opportunity for exploring individual directions with the additional texts or different choices of short fiction.  We will consider the relevance of philosophical conceptions and literary descriptors like "existentialism," "magic realism," "modernism," and "postmodernism" in understanding or naming what it is that these fictions accomplish and how they work with language to move readers to new imaginative and cognitive spaces.  Extremely reading intensive.  The details of either short written projects or a final project/presentation will be determined by the participating students.

Level:  Advanced.  Permission of Instructor.  Class Limit: 6.