Description of Course:
As a colloquium, this course is designed to offer first-year students the opportunity to develop both analytical thinking and writing skills. Thus while the content of the course highlights one literary sub-genre, the detective story, the intent is not so much to impart a comprehensive authoritative body of knowledge on the form but rather to open up interesting ways of thinking and writing about it ourselves. By the same token, we are not here to become experts on any one of the white or black writers we will read but to develop critical language and tools for identifying what the individual authors do with their chosen form (e.g., in terms of such matters as use of language, setting, the figures of the detective and criminal, entertainment value/social critique, implicit worldview, and proximity to legitimate social institutions).
It perhaps goes without saying that in literary study it is customary to pay close attention to "good" and original literature, but in this course we will examine "formula" stories and novels thought by many scholarly readers to be only "subliterature." We will find, however, that many intellectual readers have welcomed such reading as "puzzles" allowing them to test their own reasoning skills, and thus we will strive to understand why this particular form is so popular among them and the ways it seems to serve them. It should become clear through exposure to the selections over the course of the semester that, while formulaic thematic conventions and reader expectations do indeed restrict the form in important ways, it is perhaps the very clarity and codification of these rules that make this sub-genre especially attractive to some experimenters and transformers.
Required Texts:
Expectations/Requirements:
Class Framework/Participation--This course will not be driven by lecture, though background information will presented as informal lecture, from time to time, as needed. Students are expected to attend each class having completed the assigned reading for the day and prepared to contribute to class discussion and small-group workshops. Class participation will factor significantly into the overall course grade.
Fridays will generally be reserved for small-group workshops (to be discussed further in class) with attention to critical thinking and writing-in-progress about the reading material. As stated above, the course is structured to permit a good deal of attention to writing concerns and skills, so students are expected to make a habit of using this time responsibly and thoughtfully.
Writing Components--Students should expect to do a good deal of formal writing and informal note taking throughout this course.
1. You are to keep regular reading notes (both in and outside of the books themselves) in which you record your partial and impartial impressions, queries, and/or observations while your reading is fresh in your mind. These notes should serve you as a resource for both brainstorming ideas to develop in your formal papers as well as discussing the works at hand closely in class, so strive to write here that which you are willing to share (and improve) with your peers and the instructor. While these notes will constitute a portion of your course grade, the goal is not to achieve inordinate length; thoughtful and regular internal dialogue is what will make or break the usefulness of the exercise.
2. You will write three approximately 1000-word formal essays (about 4 typed, double-spaced pages with one-inch margins), the first of which you will revise (to be discussed further in class). We will spend time in workshops discussing the ideal form and efficacy of the academic essay (including ways to use textual evidence to support claims), and students should be willing to learn from peer responses to their work. The instructor will distribute writing topics in advance of each assignment, though students are welcome to develop their own interests provided they remain within the framework and spirit of the course material.
NOTE: The grade for any later papers will drop one-third of a letter grade (e.g., from B- to C+) each day the class meets (e.g., MWF) unless special arrangement has been made with the instructor in advance of the paper's due date. (Extensions will be granted only in the case of illness, family emergency, or other justifiable reason.)
Reading and Assignment Schedule:
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Mon., 2/8 |
Course Introduction |
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Wed., 2/10 |
Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert, "Introduction," S.S. Van Dine, "Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Fiction," Ronald A. Knox, "A Detective Story Decalogue" |
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Fri., 2/12 |
Edgar Allen Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" |
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Mon., 2/15 |
Edgar Allen Poe, "The Purloined Letter" |
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Wed., 2/17 |
Howard Haycraft, "Time: 1841--Place: America" |
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Fri., 2/19 |
Workshop: Reading Notes |
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Mon., 2/22 |
Arthur Conan Doyle, "Silver Blaze," Bret Harte, "The Stolen Cigar Case" |
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Wed., 2/24 |
G. K. Chesterton, "A Defence of Detective Stories," W. H. Auden, "The Guilty Vicarage" |
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Fri., 2/26 |
Workshop: Paper No. 1 Notes/Draft |
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Mon., 3/1 |
Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest (chapters 1-8) |
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Wed., 3/3 |
Red Harvest (chapters 9-18) |
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Fri., 3/5 |
PAPER NO. 1 DUE |
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Mon., 3/8 |
Red Harvest (chapters 19-end) |
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Wed., 3/10 |
Raymond Chandler, "The Simple Art of Murder," "Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story," "Notes (very brief, please) on English and American Style" |
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Fri., 3/12 |
Workshop: Reading Notes |
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Mon., 3/15 |
George Grella, "The Hardboiled Detective Novel," Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (chapters 1-10) |
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Wed., 3/17 |
Rick Lott, "A Matter of Style: Chandler's Hardboiled Disguise," The Big Sleep (chapters 11-17) |
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Fri., 3/19 |
Workshop: Revisions of Paper No. 1 |
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Spring Break |
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Mon., 3/29 |
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Wed., 3/31 |
The Big Sleep (chapters 25-end) |
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Fri., 4/2 |
Workshop: Reading Notes |
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Mon., 4/5 |
Frankie Y. Bailey, "Black Metropolis," Rudolph Fisher, The Conjure Man Dies (chapters 1-8) |
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Wed., 4/7 |
The Conjure Man Dies (chapters 9-16) |
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Fri., 4/9 |
Workshop: Paper No. 2 Notes/Draft |
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Mon., 4/12 |
The Conjure Man Dies (chapters 17-end) |
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Wed., 4/14 |
Frankie Y. Bailey, "Black Rage," Chester Himes, A Rage in Harlem (chapters 1-9) |
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Fri., 4/16 |
PAPER NO. 2 DUE |
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Mon., 4/19 |
H. Bruce Franklin, "Chester Himes," A Rage in Harlem (chapters 10-16) |
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Wed., 4/21 |
A Rage in Harlem (chapters 17-end) |
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Fri., 4/23 |
Workshop: Reading Notes |
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Mon., 4/26 |
Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (chapters 1-10) |
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Wed., 4/28 |
Devil in a Blue Dress (chapters 11-20) |
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Fri., 4/30 |
Workshop: Reading Notes |
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Mon., 5/3 |
Devil in a Blue Dress (chapters 21-end) |
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Wed., 5/5 |
Patricia A. Turner, "From Talma Gordon to Theresa Galloway: Images of African American Woman in Mysteries," Kathleen Gregory Klein, "An Unsuitable Job for a Feminist?" Barbara Neely, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth (chapters 1-3) |
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Fri., 5/7 |
Workshop: Paper No. 3 Notes/Drafts |
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Mon., 5/10 |
Neely, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth (chapters 4-8) |
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Wed., 5/12 |
Neely, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth (chapters 9-end) |
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Fri., 5/14 |
PAPER NO. 3 DUE |
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