UVSC, spring 2006: LA 102, T/H 5:30-6:45
Instructor: Dr. John Charles Goshert
Office: LA 121t  Phone: 863-6288  e-mail: gosherjo@uvsc.edu
Office Hours: MW 11:00-12:30 and by appointment

 
As Linda Hutcheon writes in The Politics of Postmodernism (1989): “Few words are more used and abused in discussions of contemporary culture than the word ‘postmodernism’.”  Over the semester we will explore the manifold meanings and uses of postmodernism(s), figured both as a set of critical practices which develop primarily in the 1970s and 1980s, and as aesthetic strategies which emerge as early as the Eighteenth century.

 
Although most students will have some background in basic theoretical moves from English 2890, critical theory may still look like a foreign language.  Class time will be spent in fleshing out complex theoretical work around our central theme, and I hope students will discover that engaging with the relationship between literary and critical texts is among the most rewarding experiences in the study of literature.  We will be doing a lot of reading over the semester, and, due to the complexity of course materials, we will never be able to cover every element of every text, whether literary or critical.   Students are expected to complete all required readings, and to direct class discussions through informed questions, discussion, debate, etc.

 
Assignments include periodic response papers, a take-home midterm, and a final paper, which will include a significant research component.

Prerequisite Skills

Using reading skills and argumentative strategies learned in courses such as Engl 2890 and 2010, students are expected, from the opening of the course, to be prepared to actively, critically engage literary texts, primarily through writing and discussion.  This course will add to those skills and strategies through the engagement with current critical approaches of responding to literature, moving from learning about theory to doing theory.

 
Students should either be familiar with, or plan to familiarize themselves with basic research strategies.  The ability to use research libraries (UVSC students have privileges at both Utah and BYU), and/or alternative research methods, such as internet resources Project Muse, JSTOR, and Academic Search Elite, is fundamental for success in the course.  We will have a general overview on research early in the semester and, later, a research project workshop, both of which will assist you in refining your skills and strategies.

Required Texts

 
Diderot, Denis.  Jacques the Fatalist.  Oxford, 1999.  ISBN: 0192838741

Twain, Mark.  Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins.  Norton, 1981.  ISBN: 0393950271

Johnson, Charles.  Middle Passage.  Scribner, 1998.   ISBN: 0684855887

Lyotard, Jean François.  The Postmodern Condition.  U of Minnesota, 1984.  ISBN: 0816611734

Baudrillard, Jean.  The Gulf War Did Not Take Place.  Indiana, 1995.  ISBN: 0253210038

J.A. Cuddon.  Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory.  New York: Penguin, 2000.  ISBN 0140513639

Required Reserve Materials
http://eres.uvsc.edu

Don DeLillo.  “The Most Photographed Barn in America” (excerpt).  White Noise 12-13.

Madan Sarup.  An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism (excerpt)

Eric MacPhail.  “Diderot and the Plot of History.”  New Literary History 30 (1999): 439-52.   (read it online at MUSE)

Linda Hutcheon.  “Representing the Postmodern.”  The Politics of Postmodernism 1-29.

Roland Barthes. “Dominici, or the Triumph of Literature” and “Operation Margarine”  Mythologies 43-46.

Mark Twain.  “Passages from ‘Glances at History’.”  The Devil’s Race Track 373-75.

Eric Sundquist.  “Mark Twain and Homer Plessy.”  Representations 24 (1988): 102-28.

Michel Foucault.  “The Means of Correct Training.”  Discipline and Punish 170-94.

Barbara Z. Thaden.  “Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage as Historiographic Metafiction.”  College English 59.7

(1997) : 753-66.

Charles Johnson.  “Exchange Value.”  The Sorcerer’s Apprentice 27-40

Dori Laub.  “Bearing Witness” and “An Event Without a Witness” Testimony 57-92.

Avital Ronell.  “Trauma TV: Twelve Steps Beyond the Pleasure Principle.”  Finitude’s Score 305-27.


Film: La jetée.  Dir. Chris Marker, 1964.

Response Paper Guidelines

Brief (2-3 page) response papers will be assigned periodically throughout the semester.  While this paper is, primarily, an expression of your opinion, you should work to develop a cogent, well-written argument.  The best responses take on a specific topic from lecture, class discussions, presentations (or, of course, from your own reading alone), which is then worked out in some critical/analytic detail.  Avoid trying to fit an entire week’s reading—an entire novel or other extended text—into your response, since this leaves you with such a broad scope that any detailed examination is rather difficult.

 
Avoid summarizing the text and, instead, argue for a particular position, for a particular “reading.”  Your treatment of whatever topic you choose will be enhanced not only by a strong thesis, but also by your incorporation of specific material from the texts (both literary and critical); that is, present details, such as dialogue or other citations.  This is in keeping with that old adage of “showing” rather than “telling” as you work out your argument/position.

 
Consider also addressing questions you have about the reading—perhaps centered on a critical concept or an example from a critical text, a scene, event, character, etc. from a literary text  How do specific questions or parts of the essay, book, novel/essay/poem inform the significance of the whole?  You may also think about developing connections between works—how do formal characteristics, topics, characters, etc. resonate across our focus topic, across national, gender, and/or ethnic boundaries?  How are those characteristics treated differently and why?

 
Plan to put your growing critical apparatus into practice.  Develop the research and response strategies which will be required for success on your term project.  Articulate your agreement or dissention with critical responses we read, or pursue critical readings on your own which will allow you to enter into an informed conversation on literary, cultural, and theoretical concepts.

 
The final response paper, a narrative self-and-course evaluation, is due on the last day of class.

 
The course website (http://research.uvsc.edu/goshert/uvsc389d) will direct students toward additional resources for research, documentation, and bibliographic conventions.  Sample student papers will also be archived, as available, throughout the semester.

New sample response paper from this semester

See two response papers from September 2005.  See a response paper from October 2005.

Grade Distribution/Policy Notes

 
Response papers: 30%
Take-Home Midterm: 20%
Term Project: 30%
Attendance/Participation: 20%

•    If you have any disability that may impair your ability to successfully complete this course, please contact the Accessibility Services Department located in BU 146. Academic Accommodations are granted for all students who have qualified documented disabilities. Services are coordinated with the student and instructor by the Accessibility Services Department. Accessibility Services Department telephone 801 863 8747; TDD 801 221 0908.

•    Plagiarism will result in failure of the course and the possibility of administrative action.

•    Attendance is required.  You should plan to attend and be prepared for each class meeting.

•    All written work will follow MLA style guidelines; late work will not be accepted.  See a sample MLA works cited page.

•    This is a class focused on developing strategies of critical thinking, analysis, and writing.  Course materials are determined by standards of academic inquiry and a commitment to the exchange of ideas; materials will not be “rated G” or censored in any way.

•    Per UVSC policies: “Each student is expected to take an active role in the learning process by meeting course requirements as specified in written syllabi” (VII.A); and, each student has “The right to receive academic credit and/or academic degrees when all specified requirements and course work have been satisfied” (V.L.).  Thus, the course syllabus comprises a contract between instructor and students, who will be held to its terms and expectations.  The student has the right to receive credit for work that meets or exceeds satisfactory performance; however, the student also has the right to fail based on those same conditions of performance.

•    It is not only your right, but also your responsibility to ask questions, to raise challenges, to discuss readings, and to otherwise participate in the class as it unfolds over the semester.

Tentative Fall 2005 Schedule

January

H 5          Course Introduction

                DeLillo (handout)

T 10        Sarup (handout)

H 12        Jacques the Fatalist (1-81)

T 17        Jacques (81-146)

H 19        Jacques (146-212)

T 24        complete Jacques

                MacPhail (reserve)

H 26        Hutcheon (reserve)

                Response paper #1 due

T 31        Pudd’nhead Wilson (ch. 1-11)

February

H 2          complete Pudd’nhead

Twain (reserve)

T 7          Those Extraordinary Twins

                Barthes (reserve) 

H 9          Sundquist (reserve)            

T 14        Foucault (reserve) 

                Response paper #2 Due

H 16        Middle Passage (1-70)

T 21        Middle (71-141)

H 23        Middle (142-84)

T 28        complete Middle Passage

                Thaden (reserve)

March

H 2          Johnson (reserve)

                Response paper #3 Due

T 7          Midterm prep

begin Laub (reserve)

H 9          complete Laub

                Midterm assigned

T 14        Film: La jetée        

H 16        research seminar (LC 218)

                Midterm due

T 21        Postmodern Condition (3-27)

H 23        Postmodern (27-67)

SCHEDULE CHANGE: no class on the 23rd.   Please strike the Ronell reading from 18 April and move the second Lyotard reading and others down one date (so that we finish Baudrillard on 18 April)

T 28        complete Postmodern

H 30        Jameson “Introduction” (Postmodern Condition xii-xxv)

                Response paper #4 Due

April

T 4          Gulf War (1-28)

H 6          no class

T 11        Gulf War (29-59)

H 13        complete Gulf War

T 18        Ronell (reserve)

               Response paper #5 Due
 

H 20        Last day of class

T 25        Final Exam Period

                Term Project due

                Response paper #6 due

home