Assignments

English 4665/5665: American Literature from 1920-Present, Fall 2016

TR 3:30-4:45PM, Arts & Sciences 368

In Class Activities

1. Infinite Jest Topics

Now that we're haflway through David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, let's determine some emerging themes by breaking into 4 groups, discussing the following issues, and reporting back main points to the class:

  1. entertainment (film and television, sports, the Entertainment)
  2. addiction (drug, film and television, sports, other obsessions)
  3. politics and terrorism (President Gentle, O.N.A.N., the Great Concavity, the Wheelchair Assassins)
  4. "E Unibus Pluram" (how does Wallace's thesis regarding television, irony, postmodernism, and U.S. fiction apply to the ideas of Infinite Jest?)

2. Infinite Jest Subjects

Last time, we broke into groups to discuss the various topics of the novel. Today, let's divide into groups to address how the novel conceptualizes subjects. Elect a recorder to report your group's ideas to the class.

  1. Self and Subjectivity: How does the novel conceptualize the subject, i.e., the self? In other words, how is a person constituted?
    • Bonus: How do language and desire figure into the construction of subjectivity in the novel? How do subjects respond to irony?
  2. Please and Desire: How does the novel conceive of desire? What does it say about pleasure?
    • Bonus: How do desire and pleasure figure into the construction of subjectivity in the novel? How do language and narrative affect desire in the novel?
  3. Language and Narrative: How does the novel conceive of language, and how does (anticonfluential) narrative function in the novel?
    • Bonus: How does language affect desire in the novel? How are characters subjected to and constructed by language?
  4. Irony and Sincerity: How does the novel conceive of irony and sincerity? How do irony and sincerity function in the novel?
    • Bonus: How does Martin Paul Eve think irony and sincerity function in the novel?
    • Bonus: How does irony affect the constitution of subjectivity in the novel? How does

      irony affect subjects' desires?

3. The Corrections: It's an In Class Activity!

For our first day of discussion of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, let's 1) categorize where the novel tentatively fits in our ongoing literary-historical debate of the post-postmodernist and metamodernist period and 2) characterize the main characters. Break into five groups, respond to the questions assigned to your group, and report your conclusions to the class:

4. From the Universe to the Earth

Tracy K. Smith's Life on Mars commences with science and science fiction poems that contemplate the universe, and it gradually shifts socially conscience poems that contemplate earthbound problems.

 

On the first day of class, after doing a close reading of Tracy K. Smith's "Sci-Fi," let's apply our understanding of the initial themes of Life on Mars to a longer poem, the five part "My God, It's Full of Stars." Break into five groups, and each group will discuss what's happening and what's significant about its assigned section.

 

On the second day of class, after hearing the close reading presentation, let's interpret a long poem, either "Life on Mars" or "They May Love All That He Has Chosen and Hate All That He Has Rejected." Break into five groups, and each group will discuss 1) what's happening in its assigned section, 2) what's significant in its section, and 3) what the overall theme of the book is, given how the book ponders both knowledge and social problems.

 

Response

GeorgiaVIEW Posts

Undergraduate students sign up to write an informal response to a section of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and post it to both GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Response and GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Discussion Board two days before we discuss the text in class.

 

The response should

Informal Presentation

You will also be responsible for a brief, informal presentation. The response presentation should summarize the section of Infinite Jest, share your impressions, and broach questions for class discussion.

Due Dates

  1. Your written assignment will be due in both GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Response and GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Discussion Board two days before we are scheduled to discuss the work. (Note: Summaries will be penalized one letter grade for each day, not class period, that they are turned in late. It is your responsibility to check the sign up schedule and complete the assignment on time.)
  2. Your brief, informal presentation will be due on the day we discuss the essay in class. This date is approximate for we will sometimes fall a day behind. (Note: Failing to present the article to the class without providing a valid absence excuse will result in a one letter grade penalty.)
  3. I will return your graded assignment to you in GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Response approximately one week after we discuss the article in class. Due to GeorgiaVIEW limitations, I am unable to return graded assignments to you unless and until you submit them to the Assignment dropbox.
  4. For example, we are scheduled to discuss pages 1-127 of Infinite Jest on Tuesday, 8-30. Therefore, someone's written response will be due in GeorgiaVIEW by Sunday, 8-28. In class on Tuesday, 8-30, that student will informally present the main events and issues of the section. I will return the graded response to her the following week in GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Response. Due to GeorgiaVIEW limitations, I cannot return your graded paper unless and until you upload it to the Dropbox. Here's how to calculate your course grade.

Sign Up

Written

Due Date

Oral Due Date

Section

Students

T, 8-23

R, 8-25

1-127

1 Alex Kennedy

2 Meghan Tucker

S, 8-28

T, 8-30

127-258

4 Joanna Killebrew

5 Kristen Johnson

T, 8-30

R, 9-1

258-374

6 Matt Dombrowski

7 Mallory Sage

S, 9-4

T, 9-6

375-508

8 Madeline Benford

9 Kendall Crowe

T, 9-6

R, 9-8

509-619

10 Nicholas Cowles

11 Emmie Meadows

S, 9-11

T, 9-13

620-755

12 Breonna Walker

13 Catherine Evelyn

T, 9-13

R, 9-15

755-851

14 Rachel Frantz

15 Brianna Watson

S, 9-18

T, 9-20

851-983

16 Lizzie Perrin

17 Marykate Malena

Close Reading Paper and Presentation

Undergraduate students sign up in pairs first to analyze a brief passage from a work of prose, a 1-2 page scene from a written play, or a poem and then collaboratively write a formal 5-6 page paper and give formal 7-10 minute presentation. Your essay and presentation should 1) do a close reading of the passage and 2) interpret how the passage broaches the core conflict and overall theme of the larger literary work. Your single, collaboratively written essay should be driven by a thesis that argues the work's theme and logically organized by close reading of the text: unpack the tension and conflict, connotation and diction, idea and theme. Your well-organized presentation should clearly convey your ideas to the class, and each member should speak during the presentation.

Parameters

Sign Up

Due Date

Work

Students

R, 9-15

Wallace, Infinite Jest

 1
2

T, 9-27

Homes, Music for Torching

3 Abbie Killebrew
4 Mallory Sage

R, 10-6

Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

 5 Nicholas Cowles
6 Kristen Johnson

R, 10-13

Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

 7 Alex Kennedy
8 Meghan Tucker

R, 10-20

Franzen, The Corrections

 9 Matt Dombrowski
10 Emmie Meadows

T, 10-25

Franzen, The Corrections

 11 Kendall Crowe
12 Marykate Malena

T, 11-8

Hwang, Yellow Face (students who sign up for this play will have their Research Paper or Comparison/Contrast Papers due on T, 11-15)

 13 Rachel Frantz
14 Lizzie Perrin

T, 11-15

Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

 15 Madeline Benford
16 Brianna Watson

T, 11-22

Smith, Life on Mars

 17 Catherine Evelyn
18 Breonna Walker

Comparison/Contrast Paper

While the close reading paper requires undergraduates to practice attentive analysis of a key passage and the book review calls for graduate students to summarize and evaluate a scholarly book on postmodern literature, the comparison/contrast paper instructs all to analyze how one particular idea, issue, or characteristic functions both the same way and different ways in two works of contemporary American literature we've studied so far. For example, you could compare and contrast the metafiction of Gass and Wallace, the American family in Homes and Eggers, or the American dream in Franzen and Parks. Or you could create an interesting comparison of your own.

 

Undergraduates should write a 6-7 page comparison/contrast paper on in class works only, but not ones written on in the close reading or research papers.

 

Graduates should write an 8-10 page comparison/contrast paper on one in class work and one outside class work (let the professor know the outside work at least two weeks before the due date), but not one studied in the presentation or research paper.

Parameters

Research Paper

The close reading paper asked undergraduates to closely read a work and the comparison/contrast paper required undergraduates and graduate students to make connections and distinctions among two texts. The research paper will afford you the time and space to perform a sustained and sourced discussion of a significant issue in a work of contemporary American literature. Your thesis-driven paper should employ textual analysis and support its interpretation of the issue with scholarly criticism. Here is how to conduct literary research.

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduates will write an 8-10 page research paper on either a work read in class (but not one written on in either the close reading paper or the comparison/contrast paper) or a work not studied in class by one of the authors studied in class. The essay must incorporate at least 1 scholarly article from the syllabus and at least 5 scholarly articles from outside the course.

Graduate Students

Graduate students will write a 12-15 page research paper on either a work read in class (but not one written on in either the comparison/contrast paper or the annotated bibliography and presentation) or a work not studied in class but approved by the professor. The essay must incorporate at least 2 theoretical articles on the literary period of contemporary literature and at least 5 interpretive articles on the specific literary work. In order to prepare for giving conference presentations, graduate students only will compose a 250-word research proposal due on Tuesday, November 15 and present a 15-minute version of their work-in-progress to the class and answer questions on Thursday, December 1, six days before the final graduate research due date of Wednesday, December 7. If warranted, graduate students should incorporate any pertinent ideas developed from the Q&A into their final essay.

Parameters

Final Exam

In the take home final exam, undergraduates will write two thesis-driven comparison/contrast essays of their choice from a selection of four to six questions derived from topics generated by the class on Tuesday, November 29.

 

Although I encourage you to avoid writing about the same topic you wrote about in a previous assignments like the close reading, comparison/contrast, or research paper, you may write about the same topic but you must use different works of literature (if you fear you're recycling a topic from a previous assignment, just switch texts and you'll be fine). Do not use a literary work in more than one essay. Not all works are appropriate for all essays. Choose works which afford adequate material to address the question at hand. Have a controlling idea, an interpretation, a thesis that bridges the works. Organize essays by argument and analysis. Make connections and distinctions among the works; compare and contrast the works' key ideas. Support your points with textual evidence and quotations; avoid plot summary. You will be graded on your interpretive understanding of the literary works as well as your ability to compare and contrast meanings and issues.

 

Students

Papers and Topics

Madeline Benford

cr: self-reflection

cc: women

r: metafiction

Nicholas Cowles

cr: parent/brother

cc: unorthodox narrative

r: trauma

Kendall Crowe

cr: parents and children

cc: mother/son

r: paranoia

Matt Dombrowski

cr: consumerism

cc: self-representation

r: language

Catherine Evelyn

cr: human understanding and fear

cc: consciousness

r: racial representation

Rachel Frantz

cr: racial identification and the American dream

cc: parenting

r: mother/son

Kristen Johnson

cr: parent/brother

cc: American dream

r: postmodernism

Alex Kennedy

cr: adulthood and parenthood

cc: postmodernism

r: racial ethnicity vs nationality

Abbie Killebrew

cr: marriage

cc: social perception of race

r: consumer society

Marykate Malena

cr: parents and children

cc: parenting

r: racial politics

Emmie Meadows

cr: consumerism

cc: addiction

r: American dream

Lizzie Perrin

cr: racial identification and the American dream

cc: parenting

r: narcissism

Mallory Sage

cr: marriage

cc: self

r: irony

Meghan Tucker

cr: adulthood and parenthood

cc: identity

r: conformity

Breonna Walker

cr: human understanding and fear

cc: American dream

r: parental negligence

Brianna Watson

cr: self-reflection

cc: motherhood

r: racial representation

Texts

Barth, "Lost in the Funhouse"

Ashbery, "Daffy Duck in Hollywood"

Gass, Emma Enters a Sentence of Elizabeth Bishop's

Egan, "Black Box"

Wallace, Infinite Jest

Wallace, "Octet"

Homes, Music for Torching

Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Franzen, The Corrections

Parks, The Red Letter Plays: In the Blood and Fucking A

Hwang, Yellow Face

Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Smith, Life on Mars

Lockwood, Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals

Topics

Here are the topics generated by the class on Tuesday, November 29:

Questions

Answer two of the following questions, created by the professor from the class's topics:

Parameters

Annotated Bibliography and Presentation

Graduates students will research a work of literature on the syllabus, compose an annotated bibliography of at least 10 scholarly sources interpreting the text, and teach the work to the class, i.e., lecture and moderate class discussion, with some help from one of the articles on the work. One week before the presentation/teaching demonstration, graduate students must meet with the professor to go over their lesson plan. The citations in the annotated bibliography should be formatted to MLA style, and each annotation should be approximately 100 words long.

Parameters

Due Date

Work

Students

R, 9-15

Wallace, Infinite Jest

  

T, 9-27

Homes, Music for Torching

  

R, 10-13

Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

  

T, 10-25

Franzen, The Corrections

  

T, 11-8

Hwang, Yellow Face (the student who signs up for this play will have her Research Paper or Comparison/Contrast Papers due on T, 11-15)

Jennifer Watkins

Book Review

While the annotated bibliography and presentation require graduate students to research, evaluate, and teach a text, the book review compels you to read and evaluate a book of criticism on contemporary American literature. After consulting with the professor on a suitable book (for instance a book from which our class is reading an excerpt, or another of your choosing), write a 8-10 page essay that summarizes the book's overall critical claim and then evaluates the thesis and methodology. Your essay should both appreciate and interrogate the book. The GeorgiaVIEW course packet contains book reviews by Darby, Fest, and Konstantinou; and you can find more examples using GALILEO.

Parameters

 

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