HC 103H, Honors College World Literature
The Literary Self: Romantic, Modern, and Post-Modern

Bishop, Spring 2000 | 314 Chapman | (541) 346-0733 | lmbishop@oregon.uoregon.edu
Office hours:

Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm (except Thurs., May 4--no hours)

Open house Friday, 2 to 4 pm (except Friday, May 5--no hours)

Class hours: Tues, Thurs. 9:30 to 10:50 am; Tues, Thurs. 12:30 to 2:00 pm

Class listserv | Requirements | Grading | Reading schedule | Response questions | Group presentation schedule | Group presentation evaluation | 9.30 am term paper signup | 12.30 pm term paper signup | Arcadia schedule | Paper format

From the flamboyant wilds of European Romanticism to the minimalism and surrealism of modernism and postmodernism, this course will continue last term's theme of the purposes of literature. How do we know who we are, and how do romanticism, modernism, and postmodernism define a self? How does literature of the last two centuries contest or corroborate earlier definitions of the human? How does literature foment and challenge love, revolution, evolution, science, colonialism, fascism, and nihilism? Where does it look literature is headed in this new millennium, and why?

The books for the class--Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther; Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights; Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis; Art Spiegelman, Maus II , Maus II; Arundhati Roy, God of Small Things; Tom Stoppard, Arcadia--are available at the University bookstore. Optional purchase: Introducing Kafka, also at the University bookstore.

We'll be joined this term by a Writing Associate: Tami Daley is an Honors College junior majoring in English. She trained last term as a writing tutor, and two years ago took the class you're now taking. Tami will work with the term-paper groups to find bibliographic resources, test out theses, and organize class presentations. Tami will meet with each group during the first two weeks of class and then be available for group and individual meetings, including library time. E-mail her or call her at home: 345-0934. You may also leave messages for her on the door to my office.

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Requirements:

•   Response questions. For each of the seven texts we're reading this term, you'll hand-write or type a one-page response, answering the question listed for that day, and ending with a further question. You'll bring this response to class and share it with someone else in class, who will sign and stamp it. You'll use each response for class discussion, and collect your stamped responses to turn in at the end of the term. Responses cannot be stamped except during class meetings. Seven responses will earn you 4.0 for that portion of your grade, six a 3.0, five a 2.0, four a 1.0. Less than four responses won't count at all.
• Group presentation. See schedule. Be sure to meet with Tami in the first two weeks of class. Since you'll be working as groups on resources for your term papers, as well as testing your ideas about the text with each other, your group presentation gives you an opportunity to gather together the most pressing questions you have about your text and to get the class's input on your topics. You will be both budding experts on your particular text and inquisitive scholars, looking to use your half-hour or so to identify your text's issues both globally (questions to ask of this text beyond previous class discussions) and individually (the shape of your own particular inquiry into the text). Handouts, audio-visual aids, and imagination are all welcomed. The group's grade will be based on comprehensiveness (providing a clear way into the text) and ingenuity (new things that this text provides for long-term thinking). Use the evaluation sheet to prepare your own presentation and to evaluate other groups' work (share your evaluations of other groups with your group). Work with Tami (and me) to discuss resources, topics, drafts, requirements, and group dynamics.
• Annotated bibliography and thesis question. Due Tuesday, April 25. Write out your thesis question (no more than a few sentences), the bibliographical information about each of your sources, and a brief paragraph summarizing each source's thesis. Use MLA format for bibliographical citations. Bibliography grades will be either 4.0 for excellent, 3.0 for good, 2.0 for adequate, or 0 for inadequate/not handed in on time. An excellent bibliography will clearly articulate each item's thesis and will situate that thesis within the term paper's design. You may certainly use Web resources, but be sure to read the tips on evaluating such resources.
• Precis paper. Due Thursday, May 11. Click HERE for paper format. A four- or five-page version of your term paper. The precis includes a bibliography and either sets out your paper's argument in brief OR treats more completely one aspect of your term paper.
• Term paper. Due Thursday, June 1. Click HERE for paper format. 10-12 pages in length. You'll begin working on your term paper at the beginning of the term, having signed up for one of six groups, each treating one of our term's texts, and meeting with Tami. Group members will share bibliographic resources and discuss their theses with Tami, in the group presentation, with me, and among themselves as peer editors.
• Dramatic readings of Arcadia. Since there is no film version of Arcadia, and no local production slated for the spring, we will have dramatic readings of the play on Monday, May 22 (Act 1) and Tuesday, May 23 (Act 2), 7 to 8:30 pm each night. Each of you will sign up for a particular character and scene in the play or to direct a scene (and let's combine the two classes). This portion of your grade will be either 4.0 or 0.
• Final exam. Cumulative oral exam on Thursday, June 8, 8:00 a.m. for the 9:30 class, and Friday, June 9, 8:00 am for the 12:30 class. IF we can find alternative times when EVERYONE in a class can meet, we can move the exam time; I'm open to using evenings. (Back to top of page)

Grading

The response papers constitute 10% of your grade; the annotated bibliography, 15%; the precis paper, 15%; the term paper, 35%; the class presentation, 5%; the dramatic reading, 5%; and the final exam will constitute 15% of your grade. Please note the University's "grade point value" system effective 9/90, as I will be using this system to grade your work (unless otherwise noted):

A+ = 4.3	B+ = 3.3	C+ = 2.3	D+ = 1.3
A = 4.0	B = 3.0	C = 2.0	D = 1.0
A- = 3.7	B- = 2.7	C- = 1.7	D- = 0.7

Note that a grade of "C" is, according to academic regulations, "satisfactory," while a "B" is "good." That means that a "B" is better than average, better than satisfactory, better than adequate. The average grade, then, is a "C"; a grade of "B" requires effort and accomplishment. (Back to top of page)

Daily reading schedule (try to read the entire work before we begin discussion; we will, however, try to discuss the parts of each work as outlined below)

March 28 Introduction: Realism, Romanticism, modern and postmodern	March 30 Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther, May 4 through Aug. 10, 1771: Identity--what makes Werther tick?
April 4 Sorrows, Aug. 12, 1771 through Dec. 6, 1772: Narcissicism and idealism	April 6*Werther group presentation Sorrows, "The editor to the reader": the voice of narrative necessity
April 11 Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, chapters 1 to 17: "I am Heathcliff!"	April 13 Wuthering Heights, chapters 18 to 34: the place of books
April 18 *Wuthering Heights group presentation Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Part 1, pp. 3-125	April 20 Things Fall Apart, Part 2, pp. 129-167: women's role
April 25 Things Fall Apart, Part 3, pp. 172-209: Mr. Brown and Akunna Annotated bibliography and thesis question due (back)	April 27 *Things Fall Apart group presentation Things Fall Apart concluded
May 2 Kafka, The Metamorphosis, pp. 117-88: identity and narration	May 4 The Metamorphosis concluded: modern dislocation
May 9 *Kafka group presentation Spiegelman, Maus II	May 11 Maus IIPrecis paper due (back)
May 16 *Maus II group presentation Roy, God of Small Things, pp 3-129 (chapters 1-5)	May 18 God of Small Things, pp. 130-204 (ch. 6-10): things can change in a day
May 23 God of Small Things, pp. 205-321 (chapters 12-21): brothers and sisters	May 25 *God of Small Things group presentation Stoppard, Arcadia, Act 1: post-modern 18th century
May 30 Arcadia, Act 2: dissolution?	June 1 *Arcadia group presentation Arcadia concluded Term paper due (back)

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Group presentation schedule (marked *in red on reading schedule)

Thursday, April 6 Werther group presentation
Tuesday, April 18 Wuthering Heights group presentation
Thursday, April 27 Things Fall Apart group presentation
Tuesday, May 9 Kafka group presentation
Tuesday, May 16 Maus II group presentation
Thursday, May 25 God of Small Things group presentation
Thursday, June 1 Arcadia group presentation

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Response questions

NB: The overarching themes this term are narration (noticing narrative techniques--voice, mood, reliability--and how they change) and identity (the shaping of character, individuality, subjectivity). I've listed a question for 17of our 20 class meetings. Your job is, in one page either typed or handwritten, to answer the question and to formulate a related question . See further commentary above.

Werther | Wuthering Heights | Things Fall Apart | Kafka | Maus II | God of Small Things | Arcadia

Thursday, March 30 What words would you use to describe Werther? Are these words that he uses himself? How would you describe Lotte? And how would you describe Werther and Lotte's relationship? Consider the garden described at the end of the first letter. What elements of the garden appeal to Werther? Why would those particular elements appeal? Notice too the description in the letter of May 12, 1771: how do "attractive and thrilling" fit together? How do these descriptions fit with that of the servant girl (letter of May 15, 1771)?
Tuesday, April 4 What is the place of work (see August 22, 1771 and November 30, 1772 letters)? What is the role of words and writing, according to Werther (see September 4 , 1772 letter and "The editor to the reader," just after Werther's Dec. 20, 1772 letter)? What does this text say about accomplishment and success (July 20, 1771)? How is success measured?
Thursday, April 6 Why is it important for the novel to foreshadow Werther's suicide? How are love and death related?
Tuesday, April 11 What does it mean when Catherine says, "I am Heathcliff"? (The quote is in Chapter IX, p. 49 of the Norton edition.)
Thursday, April 13 Chapters 31 to 34 outline the evolution of Hareton, brought on by the ministrations of literacy. How does this novel figure the place of literature in the home and in society? How does that place fit with the horrors the novel also portrays?
Tuesday, April 18 PART ONE: Think about the epigraph from Yeats's "The Second Coming" with which Achebe introduces his novel. Consider the points of connection, and points of tension, between the Anglo-British modernist poetic tradition (controlled, symbolic, yet unmoored, desperate) that Achebe invokes with his epigram and the spare, descriptive tone of his portrait of African villages and their inhabitants. What purpose does the epigraph serve? What is Achebe's attitude towards the Anglo-British literary tradition? Click HERE for more questions.
Thursday, April 20 PART TWO: What are the lessons, if any, Okonkwo learns among his mother's kinsmen in Mbanta (see p. 166)? What about Okonkwo's ambition and his despair (p. 131)--is it a matter of chi? Is chi the same as fate in the Greek sense? Think about the place of the mother (p. 133) and the song on p.135: would you describe this as fatalism? What about the foreshadowing on p. 135? Click HERE for more questions.
Tuesday, April 25 PART THREE: Notice Akunna's debate with Mr. Brown (pp. 179-81), and the prediction of the tribe's death (p. 187), followed by the District Commissioner's statement about his and his government's intentions (p.194). How does Achebe engage the reader's sympathies? Click HERE for more questions.
Thursday, April 27 Notice that language is the fulcrum of identity (p. 144), and that the missionary believes that technology (the "iron horse") will make his case for him (see also p. 178). Notice the word "fetish" on p. 149: what effect is Achebe trying for with this word? Notice the particularized convert, Nneka (p. 151), and glance back at p. 133: what effect does this particular name have for the reader?
Tuesday, May 2 Click HERE for a few introductory works about Kafka. What are Kafka's narrative techniques? Which ones does he use from the past? Which ones are new with his work? For "The Metamorphosis," detail the family drama and the lines of force Kafka draws. Think about why Kafka uses the family as the locus of fantasy and of loss. Notice how Kafka uses positions rather than names to indicate his characters. Is Kafka talking about enlightenment?
Tuesday, May 9 How appropriate is the cartoon format for a Holocaust story? How does the cartoon format affect your trust in the narrative's veracity? How does it affect your interest in the narrative?
Thursday, May 11 How can horror be represented? What are the burdens of story-telling? What effect does the frame narrative have on your assessment of the text? What does it reveal about memory and representation? Are "history," "fact," "evidence," and "truth" consistent and unassailable?
Tuesday, May 16 The narrative voice of the novel is Rahel, twin sister of Estha. What devices does Roy use to make us aware of that voice's predominance?
Thursday, May 18 Roy's fragmented narrative replicates a signal trait of modernism (the technique's great exemplar is James Joyce, or William Faulkner for American fiction). How does Roy inflect those fragments? What holds the fragments together? What in this novel's sensibility alerts you to its colonial roots?
Tuesday, May 23 Three generations of sibling pairs inhabit Roy's novel: Estha and Rahel, Ammu and Chacko, Baby Kochamma and Pappachi. What makes the brother-sister relationship so central to the novel's meaning? What makes brother-sister love so tragic?
Thursday, May 25 Think back to Werther's description of gardens, and assess what the garden means in Arcadia. What is Stoppard saying about the modern condition, its historical antecedents, and postmodernism? How is a character, or a self, assembled? What does Stoppard's play say about identity and narration? What threads have remained the same, and what has changed dramatically (pardon the pun)?
Tuesday, May 30 As for narrative and identity, how does Stoppard complicate narrative, and what is his wellspring of character? What is the role of science in creating character?

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