COURSE DESCRIPTION
In this course, we will examine some of the important American fiction published in the 20th-century. We will read Gertrude Stein's _Three Lives_, Ernest Hemingway's _The Sun Also Rises_, William Faulkner's _The Sound and the Fury_, Mike Gold's _Jews Without Money_, Zora Neale Hurston's _Their Eyes Were Watching God_, Vladimir Nabokov's _Pale Fire_, Flannery O'Connor's _Wise Blood_, Thomas Pynchon's _The Crying of Lot 49_, Toni Morrison's _The Bluest Eye_, and David Bradley's _The Chaneysville Incident_. Using these works as test cases, we will trace the formal development of the American novel from the classic realism of the nineteenth-century to the transitional novels of Modernism with their fusion of illusionism and narrative deconstruction to the self-reflexive and intertextual novels of Postmodernism. We will pay attention to the philosophical, historical, and cultural backgrounds of this fiction, to the modern period as one of rebellion against Victorian and bourgeois values in life and art. We will also examine each novel in terms of some contemporary schools of literary theory and criticism.
COURSE POLICY
One's final grade for the semester will be based upon the grades from one long oral introduction of a novel (20%), a 6-7 page report exclusive of notes and list of works cited and one short oral presentation (20%), reading notes (20%) and a 15-20 page original research paper (40%). You are also responsible for submitting on September 27th a prospectus for your research paper, but it will not receive a grade.
Your Reading Notes (20%) will consist of 1 single-spaced, typed sheet of commentary for each novel we are reading. The 1-page commentary for each work will be due the week before we discuss that work. Each sheet should be a collection of sentences and paragraphs rather than a completely unified response. In these notes, you should feel free to connect your reading of a book to any number of topics (e.g. American literature; the modern novel; issues of race, class, or gender; critical approaches). You may ask questions, but you should also try to suggest possible answers. I'm hoping that these notes will focus your reading and enliven our classroom discussion. Each page of commentary will receive a grade of either Y or N. Y means that the report is acceptable, whereas N means that it is not. A missed or late page of commentary will receive an N. Your final grade for your reading notes will be determined as follows: 10-9 Y = A; 8-7 Y = B; 6-5 Y = C; 4 Y = D.
Your 6-7 page report and 15-20 minute class presentation (20%) will be on a specific topic from the syllabus. The report will be based on this presentation and is due the same night. The short oral presentation of your report should last no more than 20 minutes. In it you will discuss your findings on the relationship between a general topic and modern or postmodern American fiction, with specific examples provided from some of the novels we are reading at the time. The 6-7 page report will be based on this presentation and is due the same night. Please consult me and a variety of sources and try to synthesize your findings.
The other oral presentation, an introduction (20%) to one of our novels, should last about an hour. This general introduction should address the following topics: 1) important biographical, composition, and publication information; 2) initial reviews and important critical discussions since then from the perspective of the assigned critical and theoretical school(s); and 3) your own discussion of some of the novel's passages, themes, structure, narrative techniques, and language, a discussion that draws upon your research. A handout or two may be helpful.
Consult standard biographies and letters and critics culled from _ALS_ and _16 Modern American Authors_ for the first topic. For the second topic, consult important critics culled from _ALS_ and _16 Modern American Authors_. In the third part of your presentation, you might discuss how you might go about teaching the novel, drawing our attention to specific textual examples. For example, you could discuss the novel in relation to some of the various significant interpretative disagreements over the novel's form, meaning, and significance. Although you are basically presenting a narrative here, I hope class members will interrupt to ask questions and discuss issues. In some cases, two persons will present this material.
Please do not read your oral presentations: instead you should plan to work from notes.
Your research paper (40%) should be 15-20 pages exclusive of notes and works cited. Since you will be spending an entire semester working on this project, your research paper should be publishable in a professional journal and will be evaluated as such. You may utilize any approach you find congenial or appropriate: new critical, biographical, feminist, marxist, cultural, psychoanalytical, poststructuralist, bibliographical, etc. Whatever topic or approach you use, you should make it clear in your paper how you are entering the scholarly conversation on the subject. Your prospectus for your research paper should consist of a one page proposal which specifically addresses the following: the project's subject, your argument about the subject, your critical approach or methodology, the significance or value of the argument, and some of the previous studies of the subject. Sample reports and papers may be consulted at my 206 Carlisle office.
I will evaluate written work in terms of structure, argument, content, use of scholarly sources, correct documentation, grammar, punctuation, spelling, style, and appearance. Documentation for all written assignments must be presented according to the MLA style of parenthetical citation with a Works Cited page found in _The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers_. Papers which are not written according to this format will not be accepted. Consult me if you are unsure of how to use this new MLA style. Written assignments should be professionally executed: honest margins and spacing, no onionskin paper, etc. Please make xeroxes of all work which you submit to me.
GENERAL POLICY
I do not have an attendance policy. You are free to attend class whenever you wish. You are, however, responsible for all work done and all materials handed out in class. If legitimate reasons exist, I will generally let you drop the class after the add/drop period ends.
To prepare for written assignments and oral presentations, I both expect and welcome your telephone calls at my office and at home to discuss possible topics and to arrange office appointments. Please plan to consult with me well in advance of the due date for these assignments as I would like to suggest various readings and ways of approaching the material. Please plan also to discuss outlines and rough drafts of papers with me. All oral presentations and written assignments are due on the date indicated on the syllabus. Late assigments will be marked down at least one full letter grade. If you cannot finish an assigment on time, you should contact me before class starts. No late research papers will be accepted, but I do give Incompletes.
Important: be sure to get the packet of xeroxed materials, including the reserve list, from the Copy Center in the Student Center. Sample reports and papers may be consulted at my office.
SYLLABUS
Aug 30
Syllabus; Research Tools; Introduction to the Modern Period
Sept 6
Introduction to the Modern Period and the Modern Novel;
Pater's "Conclusion to the Renaissance," Eliot's Review of _Ulysses_, and Ortega y Gasset's "The Dehumanization of Art" (Copy Center);
Stein Reading Notes Due
Sept 13
Gertrude Stein, _Three Lives_ (Feminist and Gay/Lesbian Theories): Mary Ann Kramer H 731-0268;
Short Reports:
Stein and Modernism: Alice Carter;
Stein and Gender:
Hemingway Reading Notes Due
Sept 20
Ernest Hemingway, _The Sun Also Rises_ (Feminist and Old and New Historicist Theories): Kirk Adams H 788-8071, W232-7206;
Kazin's "Mencken and the Great American Boob"; Crews, "Pressure Under Grace" (Copy Center);
Short Reports:
Hemingway and the Revolts Against Puritanism and Philistinism: Tom Clary;
Hemingway and Gender: Kirk Adams;
Faulkner Reading Notes Due
Sept 27
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (Freudian and Lacanian Psychoanalytic and New Historicist Theories): Ben Preston 214-358-2840;
Bradford, "Samson, Strong Boy"; Crews, "The Strange Fate of William Faulkner" (Copy Center);
Short Reports on The Sound and the Fury:
Faulkner and Freud: Mary Ann Kramer;
Faulkner and Bergson:
1-Page Prospectus Due
Oct 4
Faulkner;
Faulkner and Gender: Colleen Harmon;
Gold Reading Notes Due
Oct 11
Mike Gold, _Jews Without Money_: Linda Thompson W214-937-7612;
Hurston Reading Notes Due
Oct 18
Zora Neale Hurston, _Their Eyes Were Watching God_ (Feminist Theories and Theories of African-American Literature): Colleen Harmon W 430-0372 (H.S.)
Short Reports on Their Eyes Were Watching God:
Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance:
Hurston and Primitivism: Patrick Scott;
Hurston and Race:
O'Connor Reading Notes Due
Oct 25
Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (Myth Criticism and Theories of Southern Literature): Alice Carter W292-6060/Patrick Scott 731-6080;
Crews, "The Power of Flannery O'Connor" (Copy Center)
Short Report:
O'Connor, Religion, and the Critics: Linda Thompson;
Nabokov Reading Notes Due
Nov 1
No Class
Nov 8
Vladimir Nabokov, _Pale Fire_ (Formalist Theories and Theories of Postmodern Literature): Dan Fisher H 226-1701;
John Barth, "The Literature of Exhaustion" and "The Literature of Replenishment (Copy Center);
Short Reports on _Pale Fire_:
_Pale Fire_ as Modernist and/or Postmodernist Novel;
Pynchon Reading Notes Due
Nov 15
Thomas Pynchon, _The Crying of Lot 49_ (Modern Scientific Theories): Tom Clary 214-331-5840;
Short Reports on _The Crying of Lot 49_:
Pynchon and Postmodernism: Daniel Fisher;
Morrison Reading Notes Due
Nov 22
Thanksgiving Holiday; No Class
Nov 29
Toni Morrison, _The Bluest Eye_ (Feminist Theories and Theories of African- American Literature): Marianne Leeper 283-2860;
Darryl Pinckney, "Aristocrats" (Copy Center);
Short Reports on _Bluest_:
Morrison and Gender: Ben Preston;
Morrison and _Playing in the Dark_: Dyane Fowler;
Bradley Reading Notes Due;
Research Papers Due
Dec 6
David Bradley, _The Chaneysville Incident_ (Theories of African-American Literature): Dyane Fowler H 214-371-0518;
Short Reports on _The Chaneysville Incident_:
Bradley and Gender:
Bradley and Postmodern Historiography:
Dec 6
TBA
REQUIRED TEXTS
Gibaldi. _The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers_. 4th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 1995.
Bradley, David. _The Chaneysville Incident_. New York: Harper- Row, 1981.
Faulkner, William. _The Sound and the Fury_. 1929. Rpt. Ed. David Minter. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
Hemingway, Ernest. _The Sun Also Rises_. 1926. Rpt. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1984.
Hurston, Zora Neale. _Their Eyes Were Watching God_. 1937. Rpt. New York: Harper and Row, Perennial Library, 1990.
Morrison, Toni. _The Bluest Eye_. 1970. Rpt. New York, Plume, 1994.
Nabokov, Vladimir. _Pale Fire_. 1962. Rpt. New York: Random House, Vintage, 1989.
O'Connor, Flannery. _Wise Blood_. 1952. Rpt. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1962.
Pynchon, Thomas. _The Crying of Lot 49_. 1966. Rpt. New York: Harper-Row, 1986.
Stein, Gertrude. _Three Lives_. 1909. Rpt. New York: Random House, Vintage.
Literature Seminars
Literature HP & Program
The ENGLISH HOME PAGE
Phil Cohen's HP.