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Spring 2001 |
Mike Reynolds |
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English 165 |
Office: Rice 26, (440) 775-8586 |
Course Description:
The tensions between escape and escapism often map our contradictory feelings about the 'real world.' On the one hand, a literature of escape may use a fantastic get-away as a powerful critique of the terrors and inequities of reality; on the other hand, an escapist popular literature may avoid, perhaps even collaborate with, those real problems as we slip away in 'simplistic' fantasies. This class will use the trope of escape to explore how our approaches to storytelling negotiate between a critique of and collaboration with the way things are.
Among the concepts we will address are: how a vision of Oz reflects our lives here in Kansas (and vice versa); how fantasies infuse our experience of place; how plot shapes and escapes from interpretive closure; what differences we can map between 'literary' and 'popular' works; how fictions reproduce and revise ideology; how an escape mythology enacts various American identities. We will also attend to how groups of readers (in specific social contexts or through an analysis of a specific genre) construct the practices and functions of reading, connecting critical literacy and identity in relation to comic books, the Oprah book club, romances; this final project will be individualized in subject and style -- possibilities include a more personalized final paper, some combination of analytical and creative approaches to the topic, and/or linked community service. Texts will include "The Wizard of Oz," Geoff Ryman, Salman Rushdie, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Tim O'Brien, "Brazil," Yi-Fu Tuan, Octavia Butler, Watchmen, and some popular works to be determined in class.
Texts:
On Electronic and Library Reserve [R = required; S = supplemental readings] --
Course Objectives:
-- Lewis Hyde
We will explore a philosophical and theoretical issue about the nature and functions of literature: What are the connections between our texts and our world(s)? How do we negotiate the always fantastic order of a literary artifact and the chaotic reality of everyday life? How do fantasies reflect or distort these negotiations -- do they simply take us away from reality, or is our escape more revisionist and utopic? This class attempts to do justice to these (and other) questions about the role of art as a kind of 'escape' from reality. It will be, in many ways, a class about how we read, meant to expand the major's development of critical methodology as well as the average reader's enjoyments of critical interpretation. Using reading practices which may include close (internal) study of a text, rhetorical analysis of genres and audiences, social analysis of places, and theoretical approaches to cultural and linguistic study, we will pragmatically focus our attention on a select series of escapes.
2. "The best American fiction is escape fiction."
-- Wright Morris
We may also try to determine if these stories about escape reflect a significant definition of that messy construct, "American literature," or its even messier predecessor, "America." We will survey the influence and impact of narratives of escape as a typical American myth and think seriously about what escapes mean to (and in) our culture. How has American identity (and its corollary literary sensibility) been shaped by a dream of flight, journey, escape? To what degree have groups excluded by mainstream culture been able to use the escape narrative for their own purposes, toward their own ends? Is postmodernism defined through its uses of fantasy, its 'attacks' on reality?
-- Donald Barthelme
Finally, this class has been designated 'writing-intensive,' so we will use various short assignments (see below for further discussion) to concentrate on how you write a critical argument. In class discussions and conferences, we will use critical prewriting tools to develop working drafts, which will then be assessed and critiqued for revision into final papers.
REQUIREMENTS/EVALUATION: Participation will count for 30% of your total grade, the first two papers (and process work) will be averaged for 20% of the final grade, the third and fourth papers will be assessed at 15% each, and the final paper/project will serve as 20% of the tally.
Participation: Is all. This class will demand your rigorous attention to the subjects at hand, self-aware engagement with your own reading practices, and constant open-minded interactions with one another. In addition, much of our writing development will occur in meetings with small peer groups; your preparation and attendance is mandatory for such group work to be effective. Therefore, your participation (determined by some combination of class discussion, listserv engagements, small group work, short informal writing assignments, laughter at instructor's keen wit, and various other signs of intelligent life) will constitute 30% of the final grade. Attendance is a must; miss more than three classes, and the participation grade will plummet. On the other hand, simple sincere attendance will secure you at least a B. (The sincere would: show up, have the work done, pay attention, and contribute now and again to class discussion.) Be more than 10 minutes tardy, and you will be subject to much taunting and/or evaluative retribution.
Papers: The first two assignments are shorter arguments (2-3 pages each), demanding a critical assessment of your experience and no other sources. Our preparation for these assignments will include general discussions of the writing process and specific lessons on how to generate ideas, organize an argument, and assess a draft. The grades will be assigned an average grade (worth 20% of the total class grade) based on process: to be determined by an assessment of all drafts and of prewriting materials, certain diagnostic analyses you will be asked to provide, and a summary writer's report due with the final version of the second paper.
Assignments 3 and 4 are longer (4-5 pages each), and demand critical assessment of specific textual materials within the configuration of your own argument. Our preparation will include tactics for close reading, strategies for assimilating textual examples in a focused argument, and methods for critical comparison and contrast in the service of a thesis. These papers will be assessed (15% each toward the final grade) as product; in other words, your process and effort, while crucial to an effective final draft, will not be factored in our evaluation of that final draft. However, either of these two papers may be revised for a new grade at any time (and as often as desired) until Friday, May 11.
Your final paper/project is longer yet (6-8 pages), but its subject matter (and, in some ways, its form of presentation) is more your decision than mine. Some people may choose to engage in semester-long community service projects (see below), and their final papers would present a description of this work and an evaluation of how the experience fits critically with the issues and ideas raised in class. Others may choose to pursue course issues further: to study a genre more specifically, or to assess the implications of our findings in another, related subject or field. We will discuss the possibilities as the semester goes on; if you ever have any questions about a possible topic, simply test it out with me. In conjunction with this final paper, or just preceding it, you will present some brief account of your subject to the class in the final few days of the semester. The goal will be to make these final, individual projects useful for the class as a whole, in a broader discussion of themes and issues. In addition, you will receive some focused feedback on your ideas before the final papers are due.
Service/Community connection: In conjunction with the Community and Service Learning Center, you may opt to pursue some of these academic issues (about the role of reading and escape for various audiences) much more directly. Opportunities exist for semester-long projects with various reading groups in town (in schools, at the library, and in a few extracurricular settings). Instead of abstractly talking about readers, in other words, you could engage with them directly; this project would demand probably a weekly commitment to short meetings, and I would expect periodic process-reports to see where you're at, what you're learning, how it's going. On the other hand, the final paper could use these periodic reports and a summary, critical evaluation instead of more extensive reading or research. If you are interested, talk to me further.
TENTATIVE CALENDAR:
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Mon. 2/5 Wed. 2/7 Fri. 2/9 Sun. 2/11 |
Introduction Shelter Keywords for the semester; keywords as critical tool See "The Wizard of Oz", 7 p.m. |
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Mon. 2/12 Wed. 2/14 Fri. 2/16 |
The relation of fantasy & reality in the escape
plot READ Rushdie essay College as Oz (and Kansas) |
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Mon. 2/19 -Wed. 2/21 Thur. 2/22 Fri. 2/23 |
Individual conferences LECTURE on Landscape/American Imagination at Allen Art Museum Paper #1 due |
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Mon. 2/26 Wed. 2/28
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READ Tuan (ERES; also on regular reserve) Fact/idea workshop Art museum? Architecture? College/town locations?
Web? |
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Mon. 3/5 Wed. 3/7 Fri. 3/9 Sun. 3/11 |
Paper #2 due Define/discuss audience and genre -- form
reading/discussion groups READ Golden/Gilman (ERES) See "Brazil" 4 p.m. |
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Mon. 3/12
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Portfolio due: all written materials for papers 1 & 2
(including final draft of Paper #2, and a READ O'Brien READ O'Brien |
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Mon. 3/19
Thur. 3/22- Fri. 3/23 |
READ O'Brien The popular plot of no escape OPEN -- Meetings with Mike, Ian, Brooks |
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3/24-4/1 |
SPRING BREAK |
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Mon. 4/2
Thu. 4/5 Fri. 4/6 |
Small group draft workshop -- all MUST have exchanged
drafts before class time, so that READ Oprah's book -- discussion in small groups Extra-class meeting with groups -- further discussion of book? WATCH Oprah's readers -- class discussion |
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Mon. 4/9
Fri. 4/13 |
Paper #3 due -- Evaluation workshop History vs./as Fantasy READ Ryman |
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Mon. 4/16 Wed. 4/18 Fri. 4/20 |
READ Ryman READ Butler READ Butler |
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Mon. 4/23 Wed. 4/25 Fri. 4/27 |
READ Butler READ Watchmen READ Watchmen |
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Mon. 4/30 Wed. 5/2 Fri. 5/4 |
Paper #4 DUE Presentations (final project) Presentations (final project) |
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Mon. 5/7 Wed. 5/9 Fri. 5/11 |
Presentations (final project) Presentations (final project) Presentations (final project) |
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WED. 5/16 |
FINAL PROJECT/PAPER DUE |