Week
1
Thurs
|
Introduction
Why I Hate Symbols
Robert
Frost—“The
Road Not Taken” |
|
|
Week 2
Tues |
Vladimir
Nabokov—“Good
Readers and Good Writers” (Xeroxes; Journal) |
| |
Discussion
Section: Reading, Writing, and Thinking about Literature |
| Thurs |
Robert
Frost—“Education
By Poetry,” “After
Apple Picking” (Xeroxes; Journal)
Laurence Perrine—"The
Nature of Proof in the Interpretation of Poetry"
(Xeroxes)
|
| |
|
Week 3
Tues |
Laurence Perrine—"The
Nature of Proof in the Interpretation
of Poetry"
(Xeroxes)
Steven
Johnson—“Metaphor
Monopoly” (Xeroxes; Journal)
Carlin
Romano, "What's
a Metaphor For?" (Xeroxes; Journal)
John
Bunyan—from
Pilgrim’s Progress (Xeroxes; optional)
Matt Bai, "The
Framing Wars" (lecture
links; optional) |
| |
Schedule
1st (5 min) Journal Conference
for Weeks 4 and 5 |
| Thurs |
Ernest
Hemingway—In
Our Time (Journal "The
Revolutionist" and "Indian
Camp") |
| |
|
Week 4
Tues |
Ernest
Hemingway—In
Our Time (Journal
"'Fun'
with Hemingway"; Xeroxes)
Mary McCarthy—"Settling
the Colonel's Hash"
(Xeroxes) |
| |
Discussion
Section: Letting the Text Talk —
"'Fun'
with Hemingway"
|
| Thurs |
Sandra
Gilbert—“The
Queen’s Looking Glass”
(Xeroxes; Journal)
|
| |
(Recommended)
Movies of the Week: The
Last Seduction and Glengarry
GlenRoss
1 Page Reaction
Paper (on the Gilbert) due in Tuesday lecture (Week
5) |
Week 5
Tues |
Sandra
Gilbert—“The
Queen’s Looking Glass” (Xeroxes; Journal)
Anne
Bradstreet—“The
Prologue” (Xeroxes; Journal) |
| |
Discussion
Section: Reading and Writing Women
Watch "Sexism
Sells -- But We're Not Buying It" (Journal)
Read Many
Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood (Xeroxes; Journal)
and one
more article from the Gender section of the Lecture
Links page (Journal).
(Recommended) Movie of the Week: Fatal Attraction |
| Thurs |
Phillis
Wheatley—“On
Being Brought from Africa to America” (Xeroxes; Journal)
Henry Louis Gates,
Jr —“Phillis
Wheatley On Trial”
(Xeroxes; optional)
Nikki
Giovanni—“Linkage: To
Phillis Wheatley” (Xeroxes; Journal)
David Foster Wallace—2005
Commencement Address (Xeroxes; Journal) |
| |
Paper
Proposal due to TA by Friday 5:00 PM |
Week 6
Tues |
Annette
Kolodny—“A
Map for Re-reading” (Xeroxes;
optional)
Charlotte
Perkins Gilman—“The
Yellow Wallpaper” (Xeroxes; Journal)
Charlotte
Perkins Gilman—“Why
I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'” (Xeroxes)
|
| |
Discussion
Section: Reading and Writing Gender |
| |
First
Paper (2
pages) due in Thursday Lecture (Week 6) |
| Thurs |
Robert
Jensen — "White
Privilege Shapes the U.S."
(optional)
Jeremy Smith — "Your
brain on white people" (read
online; Journal)
NYT Editorials — The
Jefferson / Hemings Controversy (Xeroxes; Journal)
Frederick
Douglass — Narrative
of the Life . . .
(Opening letters; Journal)
|
| |
|
Week 7
Tues |
Frederick
Douglass—Narrative
of the Life . . . (Ch.
I-IX; Journal) |
| |
Discussion
Section: Reading and Writing Race |
| Thurs |
Frederick
Douglass—Narrative
of the Life . . . (Ch.
X-end; Journal) |
| |
|
Week 8
Tues |
T.
S. Eliot—“The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Xeroxes; Journal)
Hilda
Doolittle—Selected
Poems (Xeroxes; Journal) |
| |
Discussion
Section: Reading and Writing the Self
Re-Write of First
Paper (2 pages) due in Thursday Lecture (Week 8) |
| Thurs |
Langston
Hughes—“The
Negro Artist & the Racial Mountain” (Xeroxes;
Journal)
W.
E. B. Du Bois — from The
Souls of Black Folk (optional)
Langston
Hughes—Selected
Poems (Xeroxes; Journal)
Countee
Cullen—“Yet
Do I Marvel” (Xeroxes; Journal)
Joe
Wood—“Who
Says a White Band Can’t Play Rap?” (Xeroxes; Journal)
|
| |
|
Week 9
Tues |
Américo
Parédes— from With
His Pistol in His Hand (Xeroxes;
optional)
Manuel Peña — "Música
fronteriza / Border Music" (Xeroxes; optional)
Américo
Parédes —"The
Ballad of Gregorio Cortez" (Xeroxes; Journal)
Rodolfo
Gonzales —"I
Am Joaqín" (Xeroxes; Journal)
Edward James Olmos — scenes from American Me (1992;
in lecture) |
| |
Discussion
Section: Reading and Writing the Self
(Recommended)
Movies of the Week:The
Ballad of Gregorio Cortez and American
Me |
| Thurs |
Jane
Smiley—“Say
It Ain’t So, Huck” (pp. 456-66; Journal)
Samuel
Clemens—The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Journal Title
Page; Chapters
1-3, 14-16)
|
| |
Second
Journal Conference (optional) with TA |
Week
10
Tues |
Samuel
Clemens—The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Journal Chapters
14-16)
|
| |
Discussion
Section: Huck Finn |
| Thurs |
Samuel
Clemens—The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Journal Chapters
14-16, 31-End) |
| |
|
Week
11
Tues |
Samuel
Clemens—The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Journal Chapters
14-16, 31-End)
Jane
Smiley—“Say
It Ain’t So, Huck” (pp. 456-66; Journal) |
| |
Discussion
Section: Huck Finn — The
Critical Controversy |
| Thurs |
Flannery
O'Connor —"Some
Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction" (Xeroxes; Journal)
Flannery
O'Connor —"A
Good Man Is Hard To Find" (Xeroxes; Journal)
Wallace
Stevens — from "The
Noble Rider and the Sound of Words" (Xeroxes;
optional) |
| |
Paper
Proposal due to TA by Friday 5:00 PM |
Week
12
Tues |
Raymond
Chandler —"The
Simple Art of Murder" (Xeroxes; optional)
Raymond
Chandler —"Red
Wind" (Xeroxes; Journal)
Thomas
de Zengottia — "The
Numbing of the American Mind: Culture as Anesthetic" (Xeroxes;
optional)
Ridley Scott — scenes from Blade Runner (1982;
in lecture) |
| |
Discussion
Section: Chandler,
O'Connor
(Recommended)
Movie
of the Week: Pulp Fiction |
| Thurs |
William
Faulkner—“Barn
Burning” (Xeroxes; Journal)
Quentin
Tarantino — Pulp
Fiction (Journal)
How to Read a Film (online)
Fredric
Jameson —"Postmodernism,
or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism"
(Xeroxes; optional)
|
| |
|
Week
13
Tues |
Quentin
Tarantino — Pulp
Fiction (Journal)
Gregory Gibson —"Our
Violent Inner Landscape" (Xeroxes; optional)
Bob Herbert —"A
Volatile Young Man, Humiliation, and a Gun" (Xeroxes;
optional)
|
| |
Second Paper (2
pages) due in Discussion Section (Week 13)
Discussion
Section: Faulkner, Pulp Fiction |
| Thurs |
Quentin
Tarantino — Pulp
Fiction (Journal)
C.J. Pascoe —"Dude
You're a F*g" (Xeroxes; optional)
A. Samuel Kimball—"Bad-Ass
Dudes in Pulp Fiction: Homophobia and the Counterphobic
Idealization of Women" (Xeroxes; optional)
|
| |
|
Week
14
Tues |
Sandra
Cisneros—The
House on Mango Street (Journal)
Rick Martinez— "Genius
Can Come in Many Colors" (optional) |
| |
THANKSGIVING
BREAK |
Week
15
Tues |
Toni
Morrison—"Unspeakable
Things Unspoken" (Xeroxes;
optional)
Toni
Morrison— Sula (Journal) |
| |
Discussion
Section: Sula |
| Thurs |
Toni
Morrison— Sula (Journal) |
| |
|
| |
Final
Journal Conference —Monday,
Dec 9th - Wednesday, Dec 11th |
Course