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”
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.