Thinking Big Thoughts With Literature 2022

English 240: Thinking Big Thoughts with Literature 

(the circumstances of the ongoing pandemic may require adjustments to this syllabus, which we will make together as a class)

 

 

When we study literature and art as opposed to individually enjoying it, we engage in a group practice of making knowledge.  This course introduces students to some ways of describing, practicing, and valuing that knowledge.  How does literature differ from everyday communication?  Why do human beings make art?  Should literature be useful?  What are some of the big ideas that literature helps us think about?  What do English majors learn?  Why is interpretation collaborative?  How does literature help us fathom and respond to crises like climate change, social inequality, and mass misery?  To approach these questions, we will read a combination of literary works, films, and short theory texts from traditions like queer studies, Marxism, and psychoanalysis.

 

 

Required Texts

Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You

Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Hyperlinks as noted in syllabus

PDFs in our course dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/veqkfaantmenm19/AABnsEmVNmrMz19m3WLtSWVha?dl=0

 

 

Reading Schedule

 

Tue., Jan. 11

course intro, aka, everything is f*cked

Thu., Jan. 13

read the syllabus!

Robert Eaglestone, “Why Study English” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEEYcULlV8A

Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, The Collapse of Western Civilization

In class: A Message From the Future

 

Tue., Jan. 18

Audre Lorde, “Poetry is Not a Luxury”

Kim Stanley Robinson, “The Novel Solutions of Utopian Fiction”

Jonathan Culler, “What is Literature and Does It Matter?”

Letter of Introduction due

 

Thu., Jan. 20

The Theory Toolbox “Why Theory”

Pete Coviello, “Love in the Ruins”

https://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2012/11/13/love-in-the-ruins-or-should-i-go-to-grad-school/

Culler, “What is Theory?”

 

Tue., Jan. 25

keyword: imagination

Nathan Apodaca Dreams (TikTok)

Kiese Laymon, Now Here We Go Again

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/11/kiese-laymon-on-fleetwood-mac-and-hope-for-the-future

Reflection Paper #1 due

 

Thu., Jan. 27

keyword: culture

The Theory Toolbox “Culture”

Raymond Williams, “Culture is Ordinary” excerpt

Sarah Brouillette, “The Talented Ms. Calloway”

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-talented-ms-calloway/

 

Tue., Feb. 1

Eric Thurm, “How To Do Things With Memes”

https://reallifemag.com/how-to-do-things-with-memes/

Michael Dango, “Meme Formalism”

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/meme-formalism/

Mike Watson, “Millennial Adorno”

https://communemag.com/millennial-adorno/

*meme repository

 

Thu., Feb. 3

Keyword: genre

Mark McGurl, “Amazon is Reshaping Contemporary Literature”

https://jacobinmag.com/2021/11/amazon-literature-everything-less-novel-books/?fbclid=IwAR35gwktlxqkW-m4QuvlPY7rp1orBIG3EW87y6Xu42IF9762abR4bu4lxDE

Chuck Tingle, “Taken Hotly By My Handsome Physically Manifested Hot Take”

 

Tue., Feb. 8

Keyword: close reading

Close reading how-tos handout

Edward Hirsch, “How to Read a Poem” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69955/how-to-read-a-poem

 

Bennett and Royle, “Reading a Poem”

Ezra Pound “In a Station of the Metro”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12675/in-a-station-of-the-metro

Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/28112/we-real-cool

Reflection Paper #2 due

Thu., Feb. 10

Keywords: “Capitalism”, “Bourgeois”, and “Class”

Bennett and Royle, “Reading a Novel”

Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious excerpt

In class: schema: history of capitalism, history of the novel

Tue., Feb. 15

Keyword realism

Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You

 

Thu., Feb. 17

Beautiful World, Where Are You (continued)

 

Tue., Feb. 22

(no class) Beautiful World, Where Are You (keep reading)

 

Thu., Feb. 24

Beautiful World, Where Are You (concluded)

Reflection Paper #3 due

 

Tue., Mar. 1

Keyword: essay

Ned Stuckey French, “Our Queer Little Hybrid Thing”

https://www.assayjournal.com/uploads/2/8/2/4/28246027/1.1nedstuckeyfrench.pdf

Sarah Miller, “Heaven or High Water”

Ray Scranton “Learning to Die in the Anthropocene”

Christina Sharpe, “The Weather”

 

Thu., Mar. 3

Keyword: short story

Bennet and Royle, “Reading a Short Story”

Helen Simpson, “Diary of an Interesting Year”

Tue., Mar. 8

David Mitchell, “The Siphoners”

 

Thu., Mar. 10

Paolo Bacigalupi, “The Tamarisk Hunter”
Remediation Project due

           

Tue., Mar. 15

Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism excerpt

Thu., Mar. 17

Mikkel Krause Frantzen, “A Future With No Future”

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/future-no-future-depression-left-politics-mental-health/

Lana Del Rey, “Ride”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py_-3di1yx0

 

Tue., Mar. 29

Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Reflection Paper #4 due

 

Thu., Mar. 31

Mari Ruti, Penis Envy excerpt

 

Tue., Apr. 5

Todd McGowan, Enjoying What We Don’t Have excerpt

Anne Sexton, “The Starry Night”

Sylvia Plath, “The Disquieting Muses”

Thu., Apr. 7

Arruza, Bhattacharya, Fraser, “Notes for a Feminist Manifesto”

 

Tue., Apr. 12

Eve Sedgwick, “Queer and Now”

Jose Munoz, “Feeling Utopia”

Danez Smith, “acknowledgements”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/148357/acknowledgments

 

Reflection Paper #5 due (revision or meta-reflection)

Thu., Apr. 14

Brandon Taylor, “Potluck”

NYT, “Works for the Now, By Queer Artists of Color”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/t-magazine/queer-bipoc-artists.html

 

Tue., Apr. 19

David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, “The Significance of Film Form”

Siegfried Kracauer, “Basic Concepts”

Thu., Apr. 21

David Fincher, Fight Club

Tue., Apr. 26

Kornbluh, Marxist Film Theory excerpt

Thu., Apr. 28

Boots Riley, Sorry To Bother You

Final: Future Projection due

 

 

Writing Assignments:

 

LETTER OF INTRODUCTION

How has your English major experience been so far?  What kind of literature most excites you?  What has been challenging for you in previous English courses?  Is there anything you would like to share about what kind of thinker or learner you are?

~250 words

 

REFLECTION PAPERS

Respond to any prompt below.  The final reflection paper (#5) asks you to revise one of your previous or to reflect on your reflections as a whole. 

250-500 words

 

 

Connect something you have learned in this class this week to something you are

learning in another class you’re taking right now.

 

Connect something you read for our class this week to something you read for our class

in a previous week.  What comes to light between the two texts more strongly

than either one individually?

 

Connect something you learned in this class this week to a current event in the

news.

 

Describe a new big idea you have had while reading for this class this week.  Say what in

the texts inspired the idea, and speculate about where the idea might lead you in your studies or in your life.

 

Describe a passage in the readings for this week that you found beautiful, weird, hard and                        explain that effect.

 

Write a short argument for why X audience should read Y text from our class.  Identify a

specific audience (your mom, New York Times journalists, reality tv fans, pet lovers, the president), and say why they would benefit from reading the text.

 

Write an amazon/yelp style review of one of our readings for this week.

 

Using quotes from a reading for this week, make a proposal for something – an action, a

mindset, a government policy – that you believe would improve society

 

Consider a real-world situation, event, idea, or problem that a literary text we’ve read

addresses.  Find a nonfiction/nonliterary source (like a newspaper article, Wikipedia entry, historical document, or individual social media post) that addresses the same thing, and explain how the literary text differs from or adds to it.

 

REMEDIATION

turn a work on our syllabus (poem, novel, short story, essay) into a different genre

of written literature (ie turn a novel into play or poem), OR into a different medium such as a playlist, series of memes, twitter thread, webcomic, group chat, tinder profile, gofundme campaign, amazon/yelp review, personal essay

 

also compose an explanation of your thoughts and process

250-500 words

 

FUTURE PROJECTION

Imagine the near future of a better, different world.  Use your skills as a reader, writer, and critical thinker, and your familiarity with different genres and the power of language, to offer a vision of how things should be so that there is less inequality, less misery, and / or less destruction of the habitable planet.  Don’t worry about how to get there (suppose the revolution already happened).  Just describe the destination: outline your plans for society, paying attention to ways to organize education, arts, infrastructure, and care.  Offer definitions, describe customs, think big.  Think back on our future projection genres like The Collapse of Western Civilization and A Message From The Future.  You may choose to work individually or in groups of 2-3 people; group projects should be written in a coherent and unified voice.

~1000 words; images or playlists or other media may also be included.