Blockseminar Douglas Coupland 8211 Stories from Culture 8217 s Waste Bin

The publication of Douglas Coupland’s first novel, Generation X, in 1991 named a generation that was struggling for orientation and its title became a key term in the following years. The success of the novel inspired others to write their own generation-novel while Coupland himself moved on quickly to other cultural phenomenon. Nevertheless, in 2009 he published a novel called Generation A that is set in the near future but is connected to his first book by the basic topic of a small group defining itself through storytelling. Furthermore, the difference between both books mirrors the changes in North American society over two decades and makes an argument to regard storytelling as a human necessity. One can find another pair of novels in Coupland’s work that seem related, because both deal with people working as software programmers and both novels are presented as computer diary. The difference between Microserfs (1995) and Jpod (2006) is a corporate change from Microsoft to Google, but also from office politics to global politics. All four novels deal with the relation between the individual and society and provide an overview of North American culture in the last two decades. This includes topics such as the technological influence on our daily life, morals in the age of globalization, and the vanishing of bees. Requirements : Reading the assignments. Handing in 4 response papers due July 25. Course Readings : Douglas Coupland. Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. 1991. Little, Brown and Company, 1996. ISBN: 978-0349108391 ———. Microserfs. 1995. Harpercollins, 2004. ISBN: 978-0007179817 ———. JPod. 2006. Bloomsbury, 2007. ISBN: 978-1596911055 ———. Generation A. 2009. Scribner, 2010. ISBN: 978-1439157022 Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen SS 2011 alle Lehrämter, alle Lehrämter Greiffenstern Alexander