English 346:
Contemporary American Fiction

Syllabus / Reading Schedule / Assignments

Tom Wolfe Essays / Last page-Tom Wolfe / Joan Didion Essay


Dr. Susan Farrell
 26 Glebe Street, #205
953-5785
farrells@cofc.edu

 

Syllabus

Office Hours (Fall 2006):

Books:

Course Description:

This course examines a selection of contemporary American fiction in historic, aesthetic, and social contexts. In other words, we will explore the relationship between contemporary American literature and the world we live in. Topics may include literature and postmodern culture, how aesthetic style may be influenced by social and historical conditions, the blurring of fact and fiction in contemporary literature, and how literature is affected by issues of race, class, and gender. While the range of contemporary American fiction is extremely broad and varied, and impossible to cover in one semester, students will become acquainted with several of the major trends in American literature since 1965. The course is divided into three main units: 1) post W.W.II and postmodernism; 2) new journalism and popular culture; 3) issues of race, gender, and family. As students will discover, these categories are not mutually exclusive. They overlap and intersect one another.

Coursework:

Required work for the course includes careful reading of all assigned material and active participation in class discussions.  Please come to class prepared with questions and comments about the assigned reading for each day--the success of the course depends on your involvement.

Papers, Presentations
Early in the semester, you will choose (or be assigned) one of the books on the syllabus.  Your two major papers and your class presentation will revolve around this text.  The first paper will be an annotated bibliography that summarizes at least ten outside sources and two critical disagreements surrounding the book.  You will present your research findings to the class on the presentation day scheduled for your book (usually the last day we spend on the book).  Your final annotated bibliography will be due on the day of your class presentation.   The second essay is an approximately 8-page research paper that should build on both your own reading of the book and what you discovered in your research.  I will expect you to place your reading of the work within a critical context relevant to it.  Your research paper is due two weeks after your annotated bibliography.  I will give more detailed instructions about each of the papers and the presentation well in advance of their due dates.

Position Papers
In addition to the two major written assignments (the annotated bibliography and the research paper), I will ask you to write five short (approximately 500 words) position papers.  For each of the books, I will provide several discussion questions, and you may choose which question to answer for each position paper.  These short papers will be due on scheduled days.  They may be turned in early, but will not be accepted late.  You will choose which five books to write position papers on and which four books to skip.

Note:  You may not write one of your position papers on the book that you're writing your research paper on.  This will be one you skip.

Exams
There will be a mid-term and a final exam.  I will give you more information about the exams before you take them.
 

Grading:

Your final grade will be determined according to these percentages:

Letter grades assigned will have the following numerical values:

Attendance:

Regular attendance and participation are requirements to pass the course. You may take 3 absences without being penalized (although I don't recommend it--it's best for you to be in class every meeting). I don't distinguish between excused and unexcused absences, so you should save your 3 absences for when you're really sick or out of town. For each absence over 3 (for any reason--excused or unexcused), I will automatically subtract 3 points from your final course average. You are responsible for all work covered during your absence. 

Late Papers:

Late papers will be penalized five points for each day or fraction of a day they are late.  I will not accept late position papers.  You may not make your class presentation late.

Make-up exams will not be given except in rare circumstances when the student has documentation to prove a serious accident or illness. If at all possible, you must notify me in advance when a make-up exam is necessary. 

Plagiarism:

All work submitted must be your own. You may discuss writing assignments and prepare for tests with your classmates (in fact, I strongly encourage you to do so), but all that you write should be yours.  Incorporating others' words or ideas in your essays without proper acknowledgment, or any other form of academic dishonesty, will result in an "F" for the entire course. 

 

Reading Schedule

Be sure to read all items before class on the day they're listed.

Week 1:   

W 23 August   

Post W.W.II, Postmodernism
    
Week 2:   

M  28 August   
               
W 30 August   
    
Week 3:   

M  4 September   
                          
W  6 September   
    
Week 4:   

M 11 September   
   
W 13 September   
       
    
Week 5:
  
M 18 September   
       
W 20 September   
    
Week 6:   

M 25 September   

New Journalism, Popular Culture

W 27 September   
           
Week 7:
   
M 2 October   
   
W 4 October   

Week 8:
  
M  9 October   
       
W 11 October   
    
Week 9:   

M 16 October   
   
W 18 October   

Week 10:
  
M 23 October   

Social Issues:  Race, Class, Gender, and Family   
    
W 25 October   
    
Week 11:   

M 30 October   
   
W  1 November   
       
Week 12:   

M  6 November  
   
W  8 November   
    
Week 13:
  
M 13 November   
   
W 15 November   

Week 14:
  
M 20 November    
   
W 22 November    
         
Week 15:   

M 27 November   
           
W 29 November   
      
Week 16:   

       
M 11 December    
Final Exam:  Wednesday, December 13, 12:00-3:00 p.m.    

 

 

Assignments 

 

Position Papers / Annotated Bibliography / Research Paper

Presentation

 

 

 

Position Papers

Your position papers should be approximately 500 words (they should be no more than two typed pages), so you'll have to think carefully about what you want to say and make every word count.  You are required to turn in 5 position papers over the course of the semester. Remember that late position papers are not accepted.  You may either respond to one of the suggested topics or come up with your own if you would prefer. 

Click on the book to see specific topics for each.

Slaughterhouse Five
White Noise
In The Lake of the Woods
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Executioner's Song
Tracks
Beloved
A Thousand Acres
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

 

Slaughterhouse-Five  (Due Date:  Monday, September 4)

Possible Topics: 

--Do you believe this is an anti-war book or not?  Vonnegut concedes in the opening chapter that trying to stop wars is like trying to stop glaciers.  Is he a fatalist, as some critics have charged, or does he think change is possible?

--Comment on the book's style.  What makes it unique, interesting?  Does the style seem to underscore the content?  Or does it detract from the content?

--What are we supposed to think about the Tralfamadorians and their world-view?  Does Vonnegut believe (and want us to believe) that the Tralfamadorian philosophy of life is more sane and reasonable than that of earthlings?  Or do you believe that Vonnegut satirizes the Tralfamadorian view--that he presents it ironically?

 

White Noise  (Due Date:  Wednesday, September 13)

Possible Topics: 

--What do you think the "white noise" of the title refers to?   Where in the book itself do we see this white noise manifested?  What does the white noise suggest about contemporary American culture?

--Do you think DeLillo critiques or appreciates our media-obsessed, consumerist society? Or does his vision involve a more complicated mixture of the two?  Cite particular scenes, instances in the book to support your view.

--Choose a particular supporting character (Heinrich, Denise, Stephie, Wilder, Murray Jay Siskind, Babette, Orest Mercator, etc.) and discuss what role this character seems to play in the book. 

--Look one of these particular scenes in the book and provide a close reading of what you think is going on here:

1)  The scene beginning in Chapter 39 (p. 304), when Jack confronts Willie Mink.

2)  The scene at the hospital with the German nuns, beginning on p. 315.

3)  The scene at the very beginning of Chapter 40 (p. 322), in which Wilder rides his tricycle across the highway.

 

In The Lake of the Woods  (Due Date:  Monday, September 25)

Possible Topics: 

--What do you think happened to Kathy Wade?  Which scenario in the book is most persuasive to you?  Explain.

--Explore the role of the narrator, or reporter, who is telling the story.  What are we to think of him?  Why do you think O'Brien includes this figure?  What function does he serve in the book?

--What do you think about the metaphor of magic in the book?  Why is John Wade called Sorcerer, for instance?  Why the details about his obsession with magic as a child?  How does this theme relate to larger issues of the Vietnam War, the nature of evil, human love, etc. in the book?

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test  (Due Date:  Monday, October 9)

Possible Topics: 

--Do you think Tom Wolfe himself is "on the bus or off the bus"? In other words, how fully do you trust Wolfe's depiction of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters in the book?  Do you detect any bias in Wolfe's account?  Does he seem to like and admire the Pranksters, possibly romanticize them even?  Or do you think Wolfe finally undermines the Pranksters?

--What is Kesey's relationship to the older radical movements and ideas that he displaces--the 1950's bohemians, the hipness of black culture, political activism, the Perry Lane crowd, even Timothy Leary and his group?  Is there a sense that STYLE has replaced true political involvement?  If so, how does Wolfe present this--is it a good thing or a bad thing?

--Look at the theme of control in the book (perhaps best represented by the Tower of Control at the Tripps Festival).  Does Kesey become increasingly controlling as the book progresses?  How are we to feel about the ethics of what is happening?  (What about the schism among the pranksters?  People who do not quite fit in such as Stark Naked, Sandy, or the Who Cares Girl?)


  

The Executioner's Song  (Due Date:  Wednesday, October 18)

Possible Topics: 

-- In a review of The Executioner's Song, Diane Johnson writes that the novel may be considered "literary ambulance-chasing."  Other readers have criticized Mailer for writing a basically and fundamentally "immoral" novel because it devotes so much dispassionate attention (over 1,000 pages worth) to a cold-blooded murderer. Other critics, though, argue that the novel is Mailer's best work to date. Which view do you take?  Is the novel immoral and exploitative?  Does it glorify Gilmore?  Or does it manage to be a "true-crime" story that works, that rises above the status of "literary ambulance-chasing"?

--Does your view of Gilmore change as the novel progresses?  Does he become more monstrous the more we see of him?  Or does he, as at least one critic argues, become increasingly heroic, especially after he is arrested and imprisoned again?

--What are we to think of Lawrence Schiller?  How does Mailer present him?

--What do you think of Mailer's depictions of Gilmore's victims?  Does he treat them fairly or condescendingly?

--What do you think about some of the admissions Mailer makes in his afterword to the novel? 

     

Tracks  (Due Date:  Wednesday, November 1)

Possible Topics: 

--What do the "tracks" of the title refer to?  Are there literal "tracks" in the novel?  How do tracks work as a metaphor in Erdrich's fiction?  Why do you think Erdrich chose to title this novel Tracks?

--Discuss the structure of the novel.  Why does Erdrich choose two alternating narrators?  How does this form relate to the novel's content?

--What are we to think of Pauline Puyat?  Is she simply crazy?  Are we to feel any sympathy/admiration for her at all?  What does her function in the novel seem to be?

--Look at Erdrich's prose style.  Is it lyrically beautiful, as many readers believe?  Or is it overwrought, too writing-schoolish as some critics have charged?  How does Erdrich's style affect you?  Do you think it works or not?

--Why doesn't Fleur tell her own story?  What are we to think of Fleur?  Why does she hasten her own destruction at the end?

Beloved  (Due Date:  Wednesday, November 15)

Possible Topics: 

--Who is Beloved?  Is she to be read on a purely literal level (as a ghost returned) or on a more symbolic level?  What do you think she represents or symbolizes in the novel?

--What do you think is going on in the scene when the neighborhood women come to Sethe's house?  Why are they there?  What do they hope to accomplish?  What actually happens in this scene?  How do things change after it? 

--Look very carefully at the final two pages of the novel and provide a close reading of what you think is going on here.  Some questions you might want to consider:  Why does Morrison add these pages rather than ending on the more upbeat note of the exchange between Sethe and Paul D. which concludes the previous chapter?  What does Morrison mean by the repeated phrase, "It was not a story to pass on"?  If this is true, why is Morrison passing the story on by telling it to us?  What is she saying about remembering and about forgetting here?  Why the images of the photographs and footprints at the end?

 

A Thousand Acres  (Due Date:  Monday, November 27)

Possible Topics: 

--If you are familiar with Shakespeare's King Lear, talk about parallels between the book and play. How well does Smiley's revision of the classic tale work?

--Is Ginny an entirely reliable narrator? Can we completely trust her perception of events? Why do you think Smiley chose Ginny to narrate the story? How would the book have been different with a different narrator?

--Some reviewers argued that Smiley went too far in making Larry Cook commit particular offenses from his pas--that such a decision robs the Lear character of his majesty, making him unambiguously bad. Do you agree or disagree with this assessment?

-- Think about the character of Jess Clark. What are we to think of Jess? Does he do Ginny more harm than good in the novel? Are his ideas about the environment and natural methods of farming sound or hypocritical? What about his own family background and years of exile? How do these things shape our view of Jess?

 

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius  (Due Date:  Monday, Dec. 4)

Possible Topics: 

-- Explore your general reactions to the book.  Do you like it?  Dislike it?  Like certain parts and dislike others?  Why?  Is it too self-conscious, cynical, "gimmicky" as some critics have charged?  Or perhaps you think the book works because of (or despite) its self-reflexivity?  Were you genuinely moved by the book?  Or were you annoyed, offended?

--Analyze the cover and title of the book.  Are these meant to be serious?  Ironic jokes?  What effect do you think they are intended to have on readers?

--How does Eggers parody the conventions of memoir, of autobiographical writing?

--Comment on this remark, made by James Poniewozik in a Time magazine review of the book: "Another young author, Jedediah Prudy, last year published For Common Things, about the threat of the "ironic individual," possessed of acute self-awareness and mistrust, which, Purdy argued, led to cynicism.  Heartbreaking Work is a resounding rebuttal.  In it, literary gamesmanship and self-consciousness are trained on life's most unendurable experience, used to examine a memory too scorching to stare at, as one views an eclipse by projecting sunlight onto paper through a pinhole.  This is not irony obscuring sincerity.  It is, finally, irony in the service of sincerity."
 

  Annotated Bibliography Guidelines

Due Date:  This assignment is due on the day of your class presentation (see course syllabus). 

The written portion of this assignment has two parts:  1)you will write an annotated bibliography of at least ten outside sources on your book; and 2)you will identify and briefly explain two separate critical controversies or disagreements concerning the book.  

Part I

Some types of sources that you may want to use in your bibliography include the following:

1.  Background Source Material:  One or two of your sources (no more) may be from standard research works that are often helpful in getting background information about an author or work.  Works you'll probably find particularly useful include Contemporary Authors and The Dictionary of Literary Biography.

2.  Reviews:  I encourage you to use book reviews as sources for this assignment.  However, you need to use the type of review usually called the "essay-review."  Essay-reviews are longer and more analytical than standard reviews which often consist mostly of plot summary.  The reviews that appear in The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The Village Voice, The Nation, and other such journals may be particularly useful.  Reviews that appeared in prestigious newspapers such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, or The Washington Post are available on the Lexis-Nexis database.

3.  Published Interviews: The contemporary authors we will study this semester have given dozens of interviews in various places (some more than others, of course).  Interviews can be a good source for understanding what authors may have intended in particular works, or how they understand their own works.  A good source for both book reviews and recent interviews is the InfoTrac Academic Index, which often includes full text for the articles cited.   For some of the authors we are reading (Vonnegut, Morrison, Erdrich, possibly others), numerous interviews have been collected together and published in book form.

4.  Critical Articles:   The most useful items to your research will probably be published critical articles on the works we are reading.   Look for critical articles in periodical indexes, especially InfoTrac and the MLA Index (which you can find on-line in the College's list of databases).  If you need help wading through the large number of articles you might find, don't hesitate to come see me in my office.  Often, the best or most influential articles about a work or author are collected together and published in book form.  So don't forget to search for books on the authors.

5.  Historical Source Material:  One option you may not have considered yet is researching a particular historical sub-text in your work.  For instance, you might be interested in U.S. government/Indian relations in Louise Erdrich's Tracks.  In this case, you might want to include some sources that give historical background about legislation involving Indians.  Or you might need to research specifics about Chippewa history or myth.  Historical sources such as these are fine to use. 

The sources that you include should appear in bibliography format (alphabetized, of course!), with their MLA-style citation first, followed by a brief paragraph summarizing the source's main argument. 

Part II

For the second part of this assignment, you'll need to identify two specific, separate, critical controversies concerning your work.  These may involve different critical interpretations of particular characters, scenes, metaphors, meanings, etc.  Or you may find differing evaluations of the work in the reviews, different sorts of assessments of the book's value.  Or perhaps what the author says about the book and the way a critic has responded to it don't jibe.  For each of the controversies you choose to discuss, I'll expect you to write a paragraph briefly explaining who disagrees with who, and what the disagreement is about.  Again, each controversy should include at least two sides, thus at least two separate critics.

Examples

So you'll have an example of the kind of written work I'm expecting on this assignment, here is a sample entry from an annotated bibliography on Tim O'Brien's novel Going After Caccioto, followed by two critical disagreements about the book.

Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry

Bates, Milton J.  "Tim O'Brien's Myth of Courage."  Modern Fiction Studies 32.2 (Summer 1987):  263-279.

    Bates sees Paul Berlin's decision not to desert as a positive one, praising what he perceives as O'Brien's "myth of courage [that] combines masculine endurance with feminine commitment" (278).  Initially, Berlin is seen as lacking courage because of his physical fear and rather passive inertia.  He cannot follow Cacciato, who represents freedom, because of other qualities:  a love for family and a sense of obligation to society.  This obligation overrides even a consideration of what is just.  The strength of Berlin's choice is in his courage to commit to the "human community, flawed as it always is" (278).  Bates simultaneously looks at the role of women in Berlin's decision.  Despite the Army's "contempt for the feminine principle," Bates says Berlin exhibits some compassion in caring for the wounded little girl he encounters (270).  Sarkin Aung Wan is compared to Catherine Barkley from A Farewell to Arms, but ultimately, Berlin has no obligation to her because she is imagined; though he cannot confidently say that staying in Vietnam is the right choice, Bates believes it is an act of true courage.

Critical Disagreement One:  Why is the novel structured the way it is?
Most critics who discuss the novel's structure agree with Tim O'Brien's own comment that the 'Observation Post' chapters act as the fulcrum on a teeter-totter that swings back and forth between past events and an imagined future.  Dean McWilliams, Maria Bonn, Tobey Herzog, and Eric Schroeder, for instance, all agree that the actual present time of the novel takes place during the six hours Paul Berlin stands watch in the observation post by the sea.  Dean McWilliams offers the fullest reading of the novel's structure, actually untangling and charting the chronology for readers.  McWilliams argues that Berlin's confused sequencing is an attempt to avoid memories of "mutiny and mayhem," specifically his culpability in the death of Lt. Sidney Martin.   Other critics argue that the intricate structure reflects Berlin's attempts to impose order on his chaotic and frightening war memories.  Interestingly, at least two critics, Michael Raymond and Jack Slay, disagree with the critical consensus on the overall structure of the novel, arguing that the observation post chapters are also imagined, that they too, like the journey to Paris, represent Berlin's attempt to find a "safe place" in the midst of war.

Critical Disagreement Two:  Does Paul Berlin make the right choice at the novel's end?
There is a great deal of disagreement among critics about whether Berlin's choice not to desert is courageous or cowardly.  Milton Bates praises Berlin's decision to stay as a true act of courage, which demonstrates a commitment to humanity and a love for family and home.  While Maria Bonn concludes that O'Brien's war stories should not uplift, she does suggest that Berlin learns what is best for him; if he never had a real choice, then his action is less blameworthy.  Tobey Herzog also believes that Berlin makes the correct decision at the end, citing O'Brien's own comment that "Berlin's fantasized run for Paris would have been an unhappy experienc--it wasn't compatible with his background, personality, his beliefs" (98).  Yet, nearly as many critics take an opposing view.  Dean McWilliams sees Berlin's rejection of Sarkin Aung Wan's plea to step into his imagination and flee the war as an act of cowardice.   He condemns Berlin's final decision, saying its implications are "deterministic" (253).  Kali Tal agrees, arguing that Berlin's choice to stay at the war represents a failure to connect to his feminine side; instead he falls back on the "hypermasculine stance" of a stereotypical soldier (88).  Arthur Saltzman similarly reads Berlin as making the wrong decision at the end of the novel because he finally seems to embrace the American cause, which, to Saltzman, is simply another fantasy.  A third set of critics takes more of a middle ground about the end of the novel.  Vera Froelich perhaps best represents this view when she writes that Berlin's decision to keep fighting is "understandable," though it does not provide a happy conclusion.  

 

Research Paper

Description:  Your major essay in the class, an approximately 8-page research paper, is designed to build on the work you've already done in your annotated bibliography.  Now that you've read the book carefully, discussed it in class, and researched some ideas that have been published about it, you should be ready to develop your own argument.  Your paper should present a specific, well-focused, argument (your thesis) about some fairly narrow topic within the novel.  While the main point of the paper is for you to provide your own argument about your focused topic, you should also place this argument within a critical context or conversation.  The paper should be constructed so as to carefully support your argument--to persuade your readers that your interpretation is plausible, interesting, original, well-thought-out, and well-researched.

I will be happy to discuss your research, your thesis, or a rough draft with you before the paper is due.   Feel free to drop by my office hours or make an appointment if you'd like to discuss your paper with me in more detail.

Due Dates:  Research papers are due two weeks after your presentation on the book (see course syllabus).  Thus, due dates are staggered throughout the semester.  Some of you will complete the bulk of written work for the course early on, others not until the end of the semester.  I've discovered that students write better papers when their due date is closer to the time they actually read and discussed the book.

Format:  You must cite at least 4 outside sources in the paper (not including the book itself--this is the primary source and should be included on your works cited page, but it's not one of the 4 outside sources).  The paper should be typed, double-spaced, and free of grammatical errors. Sources should be cited according to MLA guidelines--a system of internal citations and works cited page at the end. 

Hints for successfully choosing a topic

--Focus, focus, focus.  Do not choose an overly broad subject such as "slavery in Beloved."  Instead, narrow your topic.  Rather than trying to cover all aspects of slavery, focus on the effects of the slave system on relationships between black men and women; discuss the presentation of slave owners and masters in the novel; examine the use of middle passage; focus on a particular repeated motif such as milk or trees and its relationship to the slave system; look at images and memories of Africa in the book; examine the after-effects of slavery on former slaves.  

--As you're thinking about your focus in this paper, you might begin by looking back at the critical disagreements you discovered.  You may want to write a paper that enters into one of these disagreements.  In this case, you'd begin by briefly summarizing the critical controversy, then your paper would go on to argue the view you take, providing plenty of evidence to support your reading.  You're not, however, required to focus your paper on one of the critical disagreements you wrote about in your bibliography.  You might also look back at the position paper topics for ideas.

--Focus on a particular repeated image or a recurring literary motif (television in White Noise, writing/the written word in Tracks, eyes/seeing in Slaughterhouse-Five, mirrors/magic/angles in In the Lake of the Woods).  How does this repeated image or motif add to our understanding of the novel as a whole?

--Consider comparing a narrow topic from your book to another we've read in the course:  How do Vonnegut and O'Brien overturn conventional narrative form to protest war?  Do DeLillo and Vonnegut agree in their views of modern technology? How do Wolfe's views of the New Journalism apply to Mailer? What do Morrison and Smiley have to say about fatherhood?  How do Morrison and Erdrich make use of ghosts in their work?

--Research a political, social or historical sub-text in the novel, and explore how the author makes use of this in his or her work.  For instance, what elements of the real My Lai massacre does Tim O'Brien utilize in In the Lake of the Woods?  How does he meld together the history and the fiction?  Or, how does Louise Erdrich incorporate historical confrontations between Ojibwa Indians and timber companies in the early decades of the twentieth century into her novel Tracks?  What does the novel say about this history?

Presentation  

You will also be asked to present to the class Part II of your annotated bibliography.   I will expect you to carefully and completely explain one of the two critical disagreements you discovere--which critics take what views, and what evidence they cite to support themselves.  Next, I will also ask you to present your own reaction to the controversy.  Which critic(s) do you most agree with?  Are both right in a way?  Neither?  Why?  Explain your reasoning.  

You will need to prepare a one-page handout so that your presentation will be easy for the class to follow.   In your presentation, you should not simply go through the works on your bibliography, summarizing each one-by-one.  You must identify and explain a critical disagreement. 

The presentation should last approximately ten minutes.  You will be graded on how clearly you present the critical disagreement to the class, how thoughtfully you seem to have grappled with the text and the critics, and how actively and helpfully you participate in discussion afterward.