| Dr. Alex E. Blazer | Course Site | Syllabus |
| In Class Activities | Scholarly Criticism | |
| Informal Writing | Peer Response | Group Project |
| Paper 1 | Paper 2 | Paper 3 |
"Wrapped in Plastic": The Postmodern Detective
English 205.02: Literatures in English
Fall 2007, MWF 1:00-1:50PM, 226 Lake Superior Hall
From time to time we will have in class small group activities designed to decenter the classroom, encourage participation, apply concepts, and connect readings. Each group will answer the questions assigned to it and report its findings to the class. Therefore, the group should select a secretary to take notes and a spokesperson to give the report. In order to ensure that the most amount of students can participate, the spokesperson should NOT be a student who regularly speaks in class. In this activity, your group will examine one part of Heta Pyrhönen's chapter on the genre's form and study thereof.
Pynchon's postmodern mystery does not follow the traditional structure of a detective novel. In an effort to understand the literary plot of this "800-year-old postal" plot, we'll break into groups to determine, chapter by chapter, what actually happens, how the events effect Oedipa's psyche, and what the story reveals about the nature of conspiracies.
As you'll find out in class discussion, I have a particular psychoanalytic-existentialist approach to literature. However, there are more approaches to literature than you can learn in any one class or any one degree. In order to introduce you to the various ways of reading (not to mention to prepare for the group project and third paper), we'll read and discuss scholarly articles, which exemplify different critical approaches, on many of the texts we're reading in class. While I encourage you to read all of the criticism, you are only responsible for reading the articles that you're assigned on this sheet. All articles are available online in the Course Documents section of Blackboard.
| Text | Article | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Hammett, The Maltese Falcon | Patty Blade Brad Houdek Stephanie Lughermo Shane McGrath Julie Schwartzmiller |
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Kayla Bottrell Ben Joubert Caleb Marshall Josh Mediate Molly Smith |
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| Malgrem, "The Crime of the Sign: Dashiell Hammett's Detective Fiction" | Taryn Potyraj Paul Tansey Katie Veltema James Walsh |
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McGurl, "Making 'Literature' of It: Hammett and High Culture" |
Danielle Decoster Charity Kuzner Jared Leets Ryan Smith |
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| Peltier, "Economic Discourse in The Maltese Falcon" | Brad Grace Annette Leestma Heidie Martinez Christina Ramirez |
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| Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 | Bergh, "(De)constructing the Image: Thomas Pynchon's Postmodern Woman" | Patty Blade Brad Grace Stephanie Lughermo Shane McGrath Julie Schwartzmiller |
| Gleason, "The Postmodern Labyrinths of Lot 49" | Kayla Bottrell Ben Joubert Caleb Marshall Josh Mediate Molly Smith |
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Johnston, "Toward the Schizo-Text: Paranoia as Semiotic Regime in The Crying of Lot 49" |
Annette Leestma Taryn Potyraj Christina Ramirez Paul Tansey Katie Veltema James Walsh |
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| Lord, "Mystery and History, Discovery and Recovery in Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and Graham Swift's Waterland" | Danielle Decoster Charity Kuzner Jared Leets Heidie Martinez Ryan Smith |
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| Proyas, Dark City | Romney, "The New Paranoia" | all |
| Swope, "Science Fiction Cinema" | all | |
| Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy | Alford, "Mirrors of Madness: Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy" |
Kayla Bottrell Danielle Decoster Charity Kuzner Caleb Marshall |
Rowen, "The Detective in Search of the Lost Tongue of Adam: Paul Auster's City of Glass " |
Patty Blade Ben Joubert Annette Leestma Taryn Potyraj |
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De Los Santos, "Auster vs. Chandler or: Cracking the Case of the Postmodern Mystery" |
Stephanie Lughermo Josh Mediate Christina Ramirez Julie Schwartzmiller |
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Rubenstein, "Doubling, Intertextuality, and the Postmodern Uncanny: Paul Auster's New York Trilogy" |
Bradley Grace Heidie Martinez Ryan Smith Katie Veltema Jim Walsh |
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Russell, "Deconstructing The New York Trilogy: Paul Auster's Anti-Detective Fiction" |
Jared Leets Shane McGrath Molly Smith Paul Tansey |
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| Christopher Nolan, Memento | Little, "Surviving Memento" | all |
| Lyons, "Vengeance, the Powers of the False, and the Time-Image in Christopher Nolan's Memento" | ||
| David Lynch, Twin Peaks | Hague, "The Derationalization of Detection in Twin Peaks" | all |
| Nochimson, "Desire under the Douglas Firs: Entering the Body of Reality in Twin Peaks |
The informal writing and first two papers compelled you to analyze literature, to estimate the author's world view. This assignment asks you to do just that, but also to teach the class what you've come to understand. Your group must choose a work of literature in the genre you've been assigned. Groups of four or five will compose a website or powerpoint that provides a working analysis of the text as well as an annotated bibliography of journal articles, books, and book chapters on the text and/or its author. Groups will then teach the work of literature to the class in a multimedia enhanced presention. The paper as well as the website/ presentation must be uploaded to Blackboard on the day your presentation is due. The project should be informative and argumentative. This assignment is neither a book report nor a biography, but instead a critical and analytical interpretation of a work of literature.
The purpose of this sheet is merely to form groups. Sign up for two slots, placing a #1 by your first choice and a #2 by your second choice. Once groups are assigned, those groups are responsible for meeting with me outside of class to determine a work of literature to read, research, and teach to the class via both a website or Powerpoint presentation.
poetry Sylvia Plath Friday, November 30 |
Stephanie Lughermo Josh Mediate Julie Schwartzmiller |
novel or short story Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly Friday, November 30 |
Kayla Bottrell Danielle Decoster Charity Kuzner Caleb Marshall |
open genre Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo Monday, December 3 |
Jared Leets Shane McGrath Molly Smith Paul Tansey |
film or television Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange Wednesday, December 5 |
Bradley Grace Ryan Smith Katie Veltema Jim Walsh |
play David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross Friday, December 7 |
Patty Blade Ben Joubert Annette Leestma Taryn Potyraj |
The informal writing and first two papers compelled you to analyze literature, to estimate the author's world view. This assignment asks you to do just that, but also to teach the class what you've come to understand. Your group must choose a work of literature in the genre you've been assigned. Groups of four or five will compose a paper of sorts that provides a working analysis of the text as well as an annotated bibliography of journal articles, book chapters, and scholarly websites on the text and/or its author. Groups will then teach the work of literature to the class in a multimedia enhanced presention. The written and presentation components must be uploaded to Blackboard on the day your presentation is due. Note that Blackboard Group Pages affords group discussion board, collaboration (chat), email, and file exchange. The project should be informative and argumentative. This assignment is neither a book report nor a biography, but instead a critical and analytical interpretation of a work of literature.
Plan of Action: Approximately four weeks before the presentation, groups must create, post in their Blackboard Group File Exchange, and give me a plan of action that provides a timeline of meetings, individual group member responsibilities, and due dates. Individual group members must participate in the group (attend meetings, keep up with email) and complete their individual assignments in a timely manner.
The presentation should accomplish two objectives:
As long as you meet these two objectives, the format of the presentation is completely up to you. Audiovisual aides such as Microsoft Powerpoint will help to guide your presentation. You may choose to focus on various elements of literature (conflict, character, setting, symbol, point of view, structure, tone) as ways into the work of literature as we have done in previous classes. You have all the technology of our lab at your disposal: computer with internet, projector, dvd/vcr, cd players, and Microsoft Powerpoint; let me know if you need other equipment. Presentations will be 20 minutes long and followed by a five to ten minute question and answer period.
Groups assigned. |
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Choose text for group project. |
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Read and analyze text individually. |
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Discuss text as group. |
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Research Methods Tutorial. Research text both individually and as group. |
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Begin planning presentation and written components. |
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Lab time for group projects given in class. Work on presentation and written component. |
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Lab time for group projects given in class. Work on presentation and written component. |
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Group Presentations Written component due on day of presentation. |
The goal of informal writing assignments is to get you to think actively and write critically about literature. These short assignments of 1-2 double-spaced, typed pages will also prepare you to write the longer, formal papers. Approximately once per week, you will be asked to respond to or practice analyzing some element of fiction (conflict, character, setting, imagery, figure of speech, etc.), respond to a thematic issue, or practice summarizing scholarly criticism in preparation for formal papers and research projects.
Responses will be due by the start of class on the due date, either as a typed hard copy or word-processing file in Blackboard > Assignments > Informal Writing #. To retrieve your graded electronically submitted paper, go to Blackboard > My Grades > Informal Writing #. Click the green checkmark link to open up your assignment dropbox and then scroll down to Section 3 Feedback to Student to download your graded response.. Click here for grading rationale and calculation of informal writing assignments.
The dual goals of this course are for you to read and write about literature in a variety of manners. Informal writing and formal papers allows you to analyze the texts; reading scholarly criticism and participating in class discussion exposes you to a variety of other interpretations. Peer response sessions extend the reading and writing process by allowing you and your peers to engage in direct oral and written dialogue about matters of interpretation, with the ultimate goal of improving your formal papers. You have the opportunity to revise your first two formal papers based upon comments by your peers and myself. You will provide constructive criticism to 2 or 3 other members of the class as will they to you.
Answer the following questions as you formulate your one page, double-spaced response to each peer's paper. Because these peer response papers and sessions help your peers revise their papers and thus improve their grade, it is very important that you offer the best constructive criticism in the strongest possible terms, both in writing and in the group meeting. Do not simply say that a peer's paper is okay. Even if you find no problems, engage a dialogue with the paper's interpretation.
In the peer response meeting, group members will share their responses in verbal form. Writers take turns listening to their group members review their work. Specifically, the group should go around the circle and address the following issues. The process should take 7-10 minutes per writer and last 35-50 minutes depending on the size of the group.
We have discussed Poe, Conan Doyle, and Hammett works at length in class. You have written on these works, but only informally and tentatively. Now is your opportunity to rigorously analyze a work of literature. For the first formal paper, write an essay built around the most important passage in one of the detective stories that we have read so far. In your studied interpretation, what is the most significant passage? Why is it central to the core conflicts, character, and meaning of the story? What issues does it embody? In other words, using this key passage, you should write a paper that 1) interprets the meaning of the work via 2) explicating the fundamental conflicts and basic concerns of the text.
Note: You will write two drafts of this paper. The first draft will be ungraded (though still subject to length and late penalties which affect the final grade) and reviewed by both your peers and myself in order to give you constructive criticism for revising the second, graded draft.
We have discussed Poe, Conan Doyle, Hammett, Pynchon, Proyas, Auster, Shepherd, Ai, and Nolan at length in class. For the first formal paper, you analyzed the core conflicts and meaning of a work by looking at a significant passage. For the second formal paper, enter into the interpretive debate; write an essay that analyzes a difference of interpretion on a key point in a work of literature. Present the different interpretations, then argue for your side, your reading. Some issues that we have debated include but are not limited to: Is Oedipa a delusional paranoiac or does the conspiracy exist? Does John Murdoch become an existential hero or does he commit an act of bad faith at the end of Dark City? Is Auster's The New York Trilogy ultimately a metaphysical or an existential text? Does City of Glass's Quinn find God or disappear into the void? Is the narrator of The Locked Room, "blinded by the book that had been written for me" (307) struck to the core by the transcendent Truth of his creator's (i.e., Fanshawe's/God's) Word, much like Moses and the burning bush, or does the narrator erase himself by throwing away the book and thereby force himself to be free of Fanshawe originary and God's divine presence? Does Shepard's Suicide in Bb take place in parallel universes, different times, or the imagination? Is Memento's Leonard Shelby an unconscious killer or a conscious yet compromised detective? You may, of course, use an interpretive question not listed here. You may use any work we've read in class, but it must not be the same work on which you wrote your first formal paper.
Note: You will write two drafts of this paper. The first draft will be ungraded (though still subject to length, late, and MLA style penalties) and reviewed by your peers and instructor in order to give you constructive criticism for revising the second, graded draft.
In the first formal paper, you analyzed a particular passage, and in the second paper you debated the oppositing meanings of a work that we have read in class. For the third and final paper, select a work of literature not discussed in class (it may, however, be the work your group project worked on), and, after clearing it with me, write an in depth analysis and interpretation of the work using 3-5 works of scholarly criticism (journal articles, books, and book chapters) to provide support or counterargument. The primary emphasis of this paper is your thoughtful, rigorous analysis of a work of literature; use the secondary sources only inasmuch as they aid your interpretation.
Thesis and Sources: When we meet individually to discuss your third paper, bring your working thesis, a bibliography of 10 works of scholarly criticism (approximately half books and half journal articles). Here is the sign-up sheet for our individual conference, to be held during class time.
Individual Conference Sign-Up Sheet
| Ben Joubert | Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross | |
| Katie Veltema | Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange | |
| Paul Tansey | Hitchcock, Vertigo | |
| Caleb Marshall | Dick, A Scanner Darkly | |
| Charity Kuzner | Dick, A Scanner Darkly | |
| Jared Leets | Hitchcock, Vertigo | |
| Danielle Decoster | Dick, A Scanner Darkly | |
| Stephanie Lughermo | Plath, "Lady Lazarus" | |
| Patty Blade | Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross | |
| Julie Schwartzmiller | Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold | |
| Kayla Bottrell | Dick, A Scanner Darkly | |
| Shane McGrath | Hitchcock, Vertigo | |
| Jim Walsh | Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange | |
| Ryan Smith | Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange | |
| Annette Leestma | Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross | |
| Taryn Potyraj | The Simpsons or Pulp Fiction | |
| Bradley Grace | Melville, Moby Dick | |
| Molly Smith | Ball, American Beauty | |
| Josh Mediate | Plath, "Lady Lazarus" |
Note: You will only turn in one draft of this paper to me; however, I encourage you to share drafts with peers you've learned to trust in class and peer response sessions.
research paper list
The Player (Dir. by Robert Altman)