EN493B Section . - Twentieth C. Am Novel ( Fall 2004 )
Meets: --T---- 1:00- 3:30 pm TBA
office hours: Wed.12-3:00 and by appt.

Forum URL: http://www.colby.edu/forums/clogin/?confId=1&forumId=154

texts:
novels/collections
The Great Gatsby F.Scott Fitzgerald
Miss Lonelyhearts/Day of Locust Nathanael West
Native Son Richard Wright
Revolutionary Road Richard Yates
Meridian Alice Walker
The Book of Daniel E.L.Doctorow
A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain Robert Olen Butler
Lucy Jamaica Kincaid
Success Stories Russell Banks
Love Medicine Louise Erdrich

Films:
Out of the Past
Double Indemnity
Rear Window
(possibly) Being John Malkovich

Expectations:
In this seminar we'll perform close readings of twentieth century novels, story collections and films; we'll also interrogate their cultural contexts to see how the pressures and anxieties of an age (what Foucault alludes to as sites of conflict) inform the texts. One of our primary goals will to understand the ways in which art serves to analyze, critique and subvert the values of the dominant culture. Our work will reflect traditional literary analysis but also make use of contemporary and historical documents, cultural criticism, and some literary theory.

As you can see by the syllabus, I've given much thought to this very exciting and ambitious project. It will be labor intensive. Although I hope and think you'll enjoy this work immensely -- as it reflects so clearly on contemporary America -- you will be required to read and think critically about a lot of material. I've kept the class small so everyone in the class can and should participate actively in class discussions and forums. Please don't take a slot in this class if you think you can't or don't want to do the work (there's a long waiting list).

Requirements:
1-You'll write one long fifteen page critical paper reflecting some of the concerns of the class. You can write either a close-reading or theoretically based paper: I will grant considerable latitude in your choice and approach, but the paper must examine issues raised by at least two of the novels and films without duplicating class discussion. The paper will count as 50% of your grade, and no late papers will be accepted. I'll expect to consult with you in conference a couple of weeks before the due date.

2-Every Monday before 9 a.m. you'll write a two paragraph forum response to a question I hope will focus your thinking about the reading and trigger class discussion. Individual forum entries will not be graded (though if entries need to be improved I will make suggestions), but will cumulatively count as 30% of your grade. You'll be permitted to miss one forum without penalty, and because I need to see and evaluate the forums before Tuesdays' class, late entries will count as missing.

3- Even more than in most classes, a seminar is a community of learners. You'll be permitted one absence without penalty, but I will also expect full participation in class discussion. Class discussion will count for 20% of your grade.

I will expect you to prepare Gatsby and its contexts before class on Tuesday. You'll also be responsible for a forum entry on Monday, September 13th. If you have questions about the forum, please contact me in advance. I have model entries from other classes. I'll send you by e-mail the Weblen excerpt on conspicuous consumption and the wealth concentration graph.

We will have to make adjustments for one class meeting (fall break falls on a Tuesday) and I will want to set up a time when we as a class can watch the films and take notes (we won't take class time watching the films). Ideally the films should be seen twice, so I will also try to put the films on two-hour reserve.

4. The supplementary reading list offers additional information on the subject: it is not required, though if your paper's concentrating on that decade, you'll probably want to make use of the background information.

Syllabus:

Week 1
Sept 7
No official class, prepare Gatsby and supplementary reading
Week 2
Sept.14
The Twenties: boom and Bust:
Fitzgerald, THE GREAT GATSBY
2. http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/jane.html New Republic, 1925
3. http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_roaring13.html Roaring Twenties and Mass Production
4. excpt.,. Thorsten Weblen, Chapter 4, "Conspicuous Consumption, "THE CONSUMER SOCIETY
5.wealth Concentration gif

supp:
Poverty in the 1920'S excpt from:
http://www.hausarbeiten.de/rd/faecher/hausarbeit/enc/1983.html
Weblen, Chapter 4, "Conspicuous Consumption, "THE CONSUMER SOCIETY
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1902veblen00.html
Or http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/Veblen/CONSPIC.HTML
Shultz, The Politics of Prosperity
http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture15.html
http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/ERAS/20TH/1920s.html
Sanger, Women and the new Morality, http://www.bartleby.com/1013/14.html
Front story: "THE GREED CYCLE: How the financial system encouraged corporations to go crazy". BY: John Cassidy, The New Yorker
Week 3
Sept.21
West, The Thirties,
1.MISS LONELYHEARTS
2. http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Crash14.html
3.Freud's definitions
4. excpt Freud, Civilization Discontents
5. depression symptoms excpt
Depression DSM

supp:
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/about.htm
Week 4
Sept. 28
Race
1.Wright, NATIVE SON, (sections 1 & 2)
2.Homi Bhaba, "The Other Question" (handout/reserve)
3.Lynchings History of Lynching web
4. Jana Evans Braziel on Fanon

supp:
Read the Fanon section of http://www.adamranson.freeserve.co.uk/postcolonialism.htm
Language and postcolonialism: http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/Language.html
Week 5
Oct 5
Race (continued/ Post WW 2)
1.Richard Wright, NATIVE SON, section 3
2.Film Noir OUT OFTHE PAST
Race and criminalization:
3. ACLU statistics
4. Amnesty USA
5. pyschological effects of World War 2

supp:
Taft-Hartley Bill
Shultz, http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture23.html
Effects of WW 2: Japan
Photos of Hiroshoma
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:Hkel51Bjh8wJ:www.wildforhumanrights.org/dl/criminalized.pdf+race+criminalization+united+states&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Potter, wealth and crime
Week 6
Oct 12
the Fifties Revisited:
1.THE BOOK OF DANIEL Books one, two, and three
2. Greenglass, BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1695240.stm
3. Rosenberg Sites
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/home.html
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/meeropol-on-rosenbergs.html

supp:
http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/library/Divisions/Government/rosenbergs.html
Robeson concerts
Front story: Patriot act ACLU discussion excerpt
Victor Navasky, Naming Names"The Social Costs"
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/mccarthy/navasky.htm
http://www.radfilms.com/rosenberg_case.html
Hoover, counterintelligence chapter 8 excpt.
Week 7
Re-Schedule
Oct 19 class
The Cold War,
(Perhaps Wednesday night October 20th?) 1.THE BOOK OF DANIEL Book four
2.Alfred Hitchcock, REAR WINDOW,
3.Laura Mulvey on Reserve
4. Front Story: FBI investigates Quakers
5. Mulvey "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"
Supp:
Shultz, http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture23.html
Week 8
Oct 26th
Yates, The American Dream
1.REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
2.Reserve: Spigal, WELCOME TO TV, "Women's Work"
(Spigel, Lyn. Make Room for TV. Chicago: U. Chicago, 1992). 3.Lacayo, Richard. "William Levitt." Time 7 Dec. 1998: 148-51
Week 9
Nov 2nd
The Sixties, Civil Rights
1.Alice Walker, MERIDIAN
2. Former Klan leader faces murder trial for fifth time
3. http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/18/klan.trial/
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=P3227_0_22_0_C

supp:
Meridian honors slain civil rights worker
WEEK 10
Nov 9th
Viet Nam
1.Robert Olen Butler, A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN
Esp. "Open Arms," "Fairy Tale," "Crickets,""Love," "Snow," "The American Couple" Senator Beveridge, "Christian destiny" Handout
The Phoenix program, excpt.
http://free.freespeech.org/americanstateterrorism/vietnamgenocide/MyLaiPhoenix.html

Supp:
Front story: Pakistan news:
Guantanomo "The Court and Guantánamo" The New York Times November 17, 2003.
WEEK 11
Nov 16th
Race, Class and Immigration
Jamaica Kincaid, LUCY
Homi K. Bhabha: "the Liminal Negotiation of Cultural Difference, Benjamin Graves,"
Web http://www.public.iastate.edu/~ttung/bhabha-info1.html
WEEK 12
Nov 23rd
(catch-up) PAPERS DUE
Possibly BEING JOHN MALKOVICH
Kohut on "Narcissistic rage"
WEEK 13
Nov 30th
Social Class
Banks, SUCCESS STORIES Esp. "Queen for a Day," "Sarah Coles," and "Success Story"
Bowen Triangulation
Minuchin Structure of the Family excerpt (handout)
WEEK14 Dec 7th Race continued
Erdrich, LOVE MEDICINE