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

Bishop, Spring 2001 | 314 Chapman | (541) 346-0733 | lmbishop@oregon.uoregon.edu
Office hours:

Tuesday 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm (except April 10 and May 1--hours end at 3:25 pm) Thursday 12:50 to 1:20 pm (except May 3--no hours)

Friday, 1:30 to 3:00 pm (except Friday, May 4--no hours)

Class hours: Tues, Thurs. 9:30 to 10:50 am; Tues, Thurs. 11:30 to 12:30 pm

Class listserv | Requirements | Grading | Response paper quotations | Reading schedule | Reading guide | Group presentation schedule | Group presentation evaluation | 9.30 am term paper signup | 11.00 am term paper signup | Arcadia schedule | Paper format

From the flamboyant wilds of European Romanticism, through Victorian global attitudes, 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 invent, contest or corroborate earlier definitions of the human? How does literature foment and challenge love, revolution, evolution, science, colonialism, fascism, and nihilism? Where is reading, writing, and thinking headed in this new millennium, and what modes will we use to understand our literate selves?

The books for the class--Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther; Flaubert, Madame Bovary; Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis; Art Spiegelman, Maus II ; Arundhati Roy, God of Small Things; Tom Stoppard, Arcadia--are available at Mother Kali's (next to the Dairy Queen on 13th).

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Requirements:

•   Response questions. For each of the six texts we're reading this term, you'll type a one-page response to a particular passage by the last day on which we deal with that particular text (not counting group presentation days). 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. Six responses will earn you 4.0 for that portion of your grade, five a 3.0, four a 2.0, three a 1.0. Less than three responses won't count at all.
• Group presentation. See schedule.. 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). Plus you'll be using your "presentation skills," paying attention to your audience's reaction to your group presentation.Handouts, audio-visual aids, but especially imagination are all welcomed. The group's grade (based in part on class evaluation) 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 together and with me to discuss resources, topics, drafts, requirements, and group dynamics.
• Annotated bibliography and thesis question. Two steps: first a beginning thesis question and bibliography due Tuesday, April 17 (Week 3), typed, double-spaced, using MLA format. Have your text read by this date. Not completing this APril 17 assignment will affect your final grade. Then a revised thesis question and annotated bibliography are due Tuesday, May 1 (Week 5 midterm). Use MLA format for bibliographical citation; write out your thesis question (no more than a few sentences), and a brief paragraph summarizing each source ; be sure to include each source's thesis. Annotate 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 15. (Week 7) Click HERE for paper format. A 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 7. 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. Group members will share bibliographic resources and discuss their theses within the group and with me, as well as working on a group presentation.
• 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 Tuesday, May 29 (Act 1) and Wednesday, May 30 (Act 2), 7:30 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 "character" exam due Friday, June 15, at 10:00 a.m.

Grading

The response papers constitute 10% of your grade; the annotated bibliography, 15%; the precis paper, 15%; the term paper, 30%; the class presentation, 10% (including completed evaluations); 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)

April 3 Introduction: Realism, Romanticism, Modernism and Postmodernism	April 5 Goethe (1749-1932), Sorrows of Young Werther, Book 1, pp. 23-71 (May 4 through Sept. 10, 1771): Identity--what makes Werther tick?
April 10 Sorrows, Book 2, pp. 72-102 (Aug. 12, 1771 through Dec. 6, 1772): Bourgeois Romanticism?	April 12 Sorrows, pp. 102-31, "The editor to the reader": the voice of narrative necessity: letters and omniscience
April 17 *Werther group presentation Flaubert (1821-1880), Madame Bovary (1857), pp. 3-130 (Part 1; Part 2, chs. 1 through 6): 3 madames "Beginning" thesis question and bibliography due	April 19 Madame Bovary, pp. 130-269 (Part 2, chs. 7-15): "I have a lover" (p. 190): reality, fantasy and Art
April 24 Madame Bovary, pp. 273-400 (Part 3, chs. 1-10): wives and prostitutes	April 26 Madame Bovary, pp. 401-11 (ch. 11): corrupting him from beyond the grave
May 1 *Madame Bovary"group presentation Kafka (1883-1924), The Metamorphosis, pp. 67-110 (parts 1 and 2): the family romanceAnnotated bibliography and thesis question due (back)	May 3 --NO CLASS--
May 8 The Metamorphosis, pp. 110-32: identity and disintegration	May 10 The Metamorphosis (part 3)concluded or, if we've already concluded The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony
May 15 *Kafka group presentation Spiegelman (1949- ), Maus II (1991), pp. 1-100 (chs. 1-3): word and picture Precis paper due (back)	May 17 Maus II, pp. 101-36 (chs. 4-5): "reality" through detail and photographic "fact"
May 22 *Maus II group presentation Roy (1961- ), God of Small Things (1997), pp. 3-129 (chapters 1-5)	May 24 God of Small Things, pp. 130-204 (ch. 6-10): things can change in a day
May 29 God of Small Things, pp. 205-321 (chapters 12-21): brothers and sisters; Ammu's dream *God of Small Things group presentation	May 31 Stoppard (1937- ), Arcadia (1993), Act 1 (pp. 1-52): post-modern 18th century
May 30 Arcadia, Act 2 (pp. 53-97): 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)

Tuesday, April 17 Werther group presentation
Tuesday, May 1 Madame Bovary group presentation
Tuesday, May 15 Kafka group presentation
Tuesday, May 22 Maus II group presentation
Tuesday, May 29 God of Small Things group presentation
Thursday, June 7 Arcadia group presentation

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Response quotations:
Sorrows of Young Werther: Respond to Werther's letter of 22 August, 1771 (pp. 65-6 in the Signet edition). What causes Werther's lethargy and how are we to interpret it?

Madame Bovary: Take apart Flaubert's metaphor, p. 277 (Part 3, chapter 1): "Speech is a rolling-machine that always stretches the feelings it expresses!" Why "machine"? Why "speech"? Why "stretches"?

The Metamorphosis: Assess the final paragraph: how does it convey a sunny mood? A troubling mood? What makes the daughter the closing image in this story?

Maus II Analyze the connections and complications Spiegelman presents on the first page of Chapter Two (p. 41). How do the words and the pictures intersect in their ironies and black humor? What is Spiegelman telling us about the project on which he's embarked?

God of Small Things: The "Great Stories" the omniscient narrator mentions in Chapter 12, p. 218, are part of the Mahabharata, the millenia-old collection of tales of the five sons of Pandu, locked in dynastic struggle with their cousin. Why is Roy invoking these stories? What is their connection to her story, as she describes them?

Arcadia: scene 4, p. 47 includes the line "The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is." How is this different from Pope's motto, "Whatever is, is right"? How is it different from Lady's Philosophy's explanation to Boethius that fate and free will operate together (Books 4 and 5)?

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) . Use the following remarks to spark your thinking/writing about our texts.

Werther | Madame Bovary | Kafka | Maus II | God of Small Things | Arcadia

Werther 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)?

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?

Why is it important for the novel to foreshadow Werther's suicide? How are love and death related?

Madame Bovary Flaubert is said to have spend an entire day writing one sentence. His mantra was lemot juste, finding exactly the right word to express his idea and his feeling. His interest in the modern and his resistance to bourgeois ideals characterize a fair number of nineteenth-century novelists.

Notice how frequently this novel talks about novels; one could argue, in fact, that Emma's tragedy proceeds from romantic ideas produced by novel-reading. What is the wellspring of Emma's despair, if not the little her life resembles her novels' ideas about love? Is her education to blame? (Notice that Emma's daughter Berthe does not receive an education, perhaps through simple neglect.) How does Flaubert load the dice in protraying the main characters: Emma, Charles, Homais, Rodolphe, Leon/

What role does sympathy play in the novel and how sympathetic a character is Emma? Her final "prositutions of herself: how are we to read those attempts?

Kafka 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?

Maus II Art Spiegelman has become an important popular America cultural critic, having begun his career founding and editing Raw magazine, part of the underground comics movement. Maus has been both revered and lambasted for its efforts to portray Nazi concentration camps and their human cost.

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?

Thinking back to Kafka, analyze how horror can be represented. Does the Shoah impose particular burdens on story-telling/ What effect does the frame narrative have on your assessment of the text? What does it reveal about memory and representation? How consistent and unassailable are "history," "fact," "evidence," and "truth"? And is this attitude a new thing?

God of Small Things 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?

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?

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?

Arcadia It's no accident that Stoppard's play partitions time in approximately the same bundles as has this term's class. One could argue that the modern temperabment was forged in the last two centuries, and that little has changed in our way of thinking fom the time of the ROmantic poets. At the same time, this play delights in both similarities and contrasts: the contrasts are perhaps a little harder to find and one could argue that Stoppard's attitude toward change is remarkably conservative, reflecting the imagined sermons of the Abbe Bournisien (see page 405 of Madame Bovary).

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)?

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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