Reading/Writing/Texts

English 210.01 Fall 1997

Stephan Flores

TTH 11:00-12:15 UCC 302

Office: Brink 125

Hours: Mon. 1:30-2:30, Wed. 9:30-11:00, and by appt.

E-mail: sflores@uidaho.edu

Prerequisite: English 104 or equivalent

 

Course Description:

The course introduces you to interpretive and rhetorical theory and practice through selective study of deconstructive, feminist, new historicist/cultural materialist critique (including Marxist criticism), and psychoanalytic criticism. Through substantial writing, close reading, and much discussion, you shall also explore the forms and functions that distinguish poetry, drama, and fiction, as well as strategies and conventions that guide research and scholarship in English textual and literary studies. You will learn to write interpretive, critical, and scholarly essays. Our class discussion includes opportunities to participate on an email class and peer group forum to share your responses to course material and others' ideas. Graded written work will entail a couple of short papers and a couple of longer essays (or the option of a critical project), a critical summary/review, and two succinct journal entries on the major novels. There are no graded exams.

Our readings include older and contemporary poetry; a best-selling novel about a young woman in New York high society; recent prize-winning short stories; a powerful sexual and political drama by a world-renowned Chilean playwright; and a prize-winning contemporary novel about love, cultural strife, identity, law, and death, set in the Puget Sound. You'll explore a lot about reading, writing, culture, and the self (yourself!) in this class. I expect lively conversations and hope you'll join in.

 

Required Texts:

Lentricchia, Frank and Thomas McLaughlin, eds. Critical Terms for Literary Study. Second edition. Chicago, 1995.

Schakel, Peter and Jack Ridl. Approaching Poetry: Perspectives and Responses. St. Martin's P, 1997.

Dorfman, Ariel. Death and the Maiden. Penguin, 1991.

Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. Ed. Shari Benstock. Bedford Books. St. Martin's P, 1994.

Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars. Vintage, 1995.

A coursepack of six or seven short stories available several weeks into the semester from the UI Bookstore, or possibly on library reserve.

Requirements:

1. Participation in class and group discussion (including informal writing). Please take advantage of the opportunity small groups provide to discuss your reactions, share your work, and to listen and reply to others' ideas. I shall call regularly upon groups to facilitate class discussion, with each group leading off discussion (10 minutes) on specific texts and critical readings twice during the semester. On these days I expect the group scheduled for that day to be prepared to lead off our discussion by presenting their positions on the material (with some brief summary, focus on key points in the reading, perhaps some incorporation of secondary criticism or historical research), or you might consider the pedagogical or practical implications of what we're discussing. I hope this strategy will enable you to move the class in directions you find most helpful, give you opportunities to develop critical skills through collaboration, and prevent me from dominating class discussion while still providing occasions for sharing my perspectives with you.

2. One combined summary and critical review (500 words total, single-spaced). This two-step assignment prompts you to write a concise summary or abstract of a critical essay (approx. 200 words) followed by an analytical/evaluative/explanatory response or review of the essay (approx. 300 words)--try to fit all this onto one page (cut/paste, reduce slightly); you will share your sense of what's important or at stake in the essay in class. Your written observations and analyses should be sharply focused, with potential for further development.

3. Two critical journal entries (275-300 words each), one on each novel. These entries provide you with the opportunity to respond succinctly to critical and interpretive questions these novels pose, and the process of defining and exploring an interesting topic here may lead to further analysis in an essay.

4. Four double-spaced essays (may include one critical project): the first, 1200 words, the second, 1400 words., then 1900-2000 words and 2500 words respectively for the last two. More on these later, but in general these essays enable you to explore an interpretive/contextual problem, try out a critical approach/hypothesis, and help to express ideas prompted by your reading and discussion of a work from our syllabus or course texts. I am interested in seeing the ways that you select, define, and engage questions and contradictions, and I attend to the clarity, imagination, and grace that you demonstrate in presenting your topic, thesis, and argument. I do not always expect an essay to conclude by "solving" such problems or by "proving" your thesis; I do hope that you address an interesting topic in thoughtful and useful ways. I welcome discussing other possibilities for completing this assignment. Please feel invited to confer with me during the writing process.

5. Prospectus (approx. 400 words, single-spaced) for Essay 4--ungraded, but potentially useful and important for consulting with me on your final major assignment.

6. Due dates: All required work is due at the beginning of class on the due date--work turned in later will be marked late and graded accordingly. All required graded written work will be downgraded one notch (for example, B+ to B, converted to points for each assignment) for each weekday late (not just days classes meet but counting just one day for a weekend). Work more than a week late will not be accepted. I will grant short extensions for medical and family emergencies--but talk with me as soon as possible to request an extension. ALWAYS KEEP EXTRA COPIES OF YOUR WORK.

7. Attendance is required--your in class participation is a crucial part of a collective learning experience. Excellent attendance is rewarded; poor attendance is penalized. If you have no absences by the term's end (excused or not), you will receive five bonus points. With one absence you will receive three extra points. Two to three absences will not affect your semester grade. But four unexcused absences will lower your semester total by thirteen points with seven point reductions for each additional absence (for example, six absences=minus 20 points and so on). Almost all absences will be counted--excused or not--if something extraordinary occurs, talk to me.

8. Grades: One Critical Summary/Review (20 points); Two Critical Journal Entries (15 points each); Essay 1 (50 points); Essay 2 (75 points); Essay 3 (100 points); Essay 4 (125 points). These required assignments add up to a maximum of 400 points. Thus 360-400 points equals an A, 320-359 equals a B, 280-319 equals a C, 240-279 equals a D, and anything below 240 merits an F. I shall also reserve a potential five bonus points based on my perceptions of the strength of your participation and efforts over the semester.

9. Office hours. I encourage you to confer with me--especially before assignments are due--to talk about your interests, intentions, and writing strategies. We shall arrange to meet at least once during the semester, probably in early November, to discuss your progress. My office is not accessible to the handicapped, so please let me know if you need to meet me elsewhere. If you cannot make my regular hours, we can usually arrange another time. I also welcome communicating with you by e-mail (sflores@uidaho.edu, or just sflores if you are on any Nest machine, e.g., Harrier).

 

English 210.01 Fall 1997 Syllabus

(due dates for the summary/critical review will be determined individually)

 

8/26 "Tropism XVIII"; (poems handout)

8/28 McLaughlin, "Introduction" (CT) and "Figurative Language" (CT)

9/2 Ch. 1 (AP)

9/4 Ch. 12 (AP 222-47); "Writing Short Papers About Poetry" (AP 454-68)

9/9 Mitchell, "Representation" (CT); recommended: Mailloux, "Interpretation" (CT)

9/11 Ch. 2 (AP 21-33); Frost, "Home Burial" (handout); recommended: Poger, "Responding to Poetry" (Reading, Writing, and the Study of Literature 42-58--on library reserve)

9/16 Peer-edit Essay 1 (bring two copies to share); Ch. 5 (AP 65-80); recommended: Warhol, "Writing Critical Essays" (Reading, Writing, and the Study of Literature)

9/18 Essay 1 due (on poetry, 1200 words); Graff, "Determinacy/Indeterminacy" (CT)

9/23 Miller, "Narrative" (CT); Dorfman, Death and the Maiden (film)

9/25 Greenblatt, "Culture"; recommended: Patterson, "Literary History" (CT); Death and the Maiden

9/30 Jehlen, "Gender" (CT); Death and the Maiden

10/2 Death and the Maiden; Meltzer, "Unconscious" (CT)

10/7 Butler, "Desire" (CT); Nixon, "The Women Come and Go" (coursepack or reserve); recommended: Nixon, "Risk" (Prize Stories 1993--on reserve)

10/9 Clayton, "Talking to Charlie" (coursepack or reserve)

10/14 Peer-edit Essay 2; Hardwick, "Shot: A New York Story" (cspk. or reserve)

10/16 Essay 2 due (1400 words); Powell, "Trick or Treat" (cspk. or reserve)

10/21 Wharton, The House of Mirth (3-87)

10/23 HM (87-142); "A Critical History of The House of Mirth" (309-25)

10/28 HM (142-229); "Cultural Criticism and HM"; Robinson, "The Traffic in Women: A Cultural Critique of The House of Mirth" (340-58)

10/30 "Marxist Criticism and the HM"; Dimock, "Debasing Exchange: Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth" (375-90); HM (229-64)--but have full novel read by now and preferably before; Critical Journal Entry due on HM (275-300 words, single-spaced)

11/4 "Feminist Criticism and the HM"; Restuccia, "The Name of the Lily: Edith Wharton's Feminism(s)" (404-18)

11/6 Peer-edit Essay 3; "Deconstruction and HM"; Norris, "Death by Speculation: Deconstructing The House of Mirth"

11/11 Essay 3 due (1900-2000 words, either this essay or the last essay must address one of the novels); "Psychoanalytic Criticism and the HM"; Sullivan, "The Daughter's Dilemma: Psychoanalytic Interpretation and Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth" (464-81)

11/13 Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars (3-60)

11/18 SFC (60-216)

11/20 SFC (have full novel read by today, and preferably before now); Menand, "Diversity" (CT); Critical Journal Entry due on SFC

12/2 SFC; Deane, "Imperialism/Nationalism" (CT); recommended: Montrose, "New Historicisms" (Redrawing the Boundaries 392-418--on reserve); Prospectus for Essay 4 due (400 words, single-spaced)

12/4 Baker, "Loving Wanda Beaver" (coursepack or reserve); Cooper, "Truth Serum" (coursepack or reserve); recommended: Baker, "Better Be Ready 'Bout Half Past Eight" (Prize Stories 1994--on reserve)

12/9 Freeman, "A New England Nun" (coursepack or reserve); Adams, "The Haunted Beach" (coursepack or reserve)

12/11 Essay 4 due (2500 words, on a novel if Essay 3 wasn't on a novel)

 


  • Writing Assignment for Essay 1, Fall 97
  • Writing Assignment for Essay 2, Fall 97
  • An Example of Essay 1, Spring 97:"Consequences of Enslavement" by George Williams
  • An Example of Essay 1, Spring 97:"Just Suppose, Juxtapose" by Clark VanVooren
  • An Example of Essay 1, Spring 97:"[on Olds' poem The Victims]" by Holly Riedelbach
  • Writing Assignment for Essay 2, Fall 97
  • An Example of Essay 2, Spring 97:"Transexuals, the Eternal Feminine, and the Birth of Zoe" by Carissa Neff

    Go to Stephan Flores' Home Page.