The Death of the Subject in Twentieth and Twenty-first Century Literature

Catalog description

Examines the condition of the subject in Western novels and plays written after 1945. Traditional markers of identity in works of literature are being eroded by globalization, split families, the invasion of science in genetics, and increased mobility. Signs of this crisis include loss of agency and individuality, various pathologies including schizophrenia, and the replacement of humans with clones. We will investigate the intricacies of the derailment of the subject and how literary form is affected in novels by Beckett, Coetzee, W. G. Sebald, Kazuo Ishiguro, Michel Houellebecq, Chuck Palahniuk, and in plays by Caryl Churchill.