| Course Number | English 294 |
| Semester | Fall 2001 |
| Time & Place | Tues. & Thurs., 11:30 - 12:45, Chambers 309 |
| Professor | Suzanne W. Churchill |
| E-mail address | suchurchill@davidson.edu |
| Office location | Carolina Inn 204 |
| Office phone | 892-2695 |
| Home phone | 896-3993 (for emergencies only) |
| Office hours | Mon.
1-2:30 p.m., Wed. 9:30-11 a.m., and by appointment. I will also hold electronic office hours, times TBA. |
"Now I will hazard a second assertion, which is more disputable, perhaps, to the effect that on or about December, 1910, human character changed." Virginia Woolf’s famous assertion probably refers to the first Post-Impressionist show, which introduced an unprepared British public to works by artists such as Monet, Cezanne, and Picasso. In her view, the event marked the advent of modernism, a period of unprecedented experimentation in the arts, as well of tremendous political and social upheaval. Woolf implies that the impetus for this cultural transformation was not the catastrophic event of World War I, but the cataclysmic impact of new artistic styles and forms. This course provides an introduction to modernism, studying the tensions and cross-fertilizations among various artistic circles and movements within their social, political, and historical contexts. We will focus primarily on modernist poetry and fiction, but will also consider drama, art, and music.
Required:
| Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness | |
| James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | |
| Mina Loy, Lost Lunar Baedeker | |
| T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems | |
| D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers | |
| Sigmund Freud, Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria | |
| Women, Men, and the Great War, ed. Trudi Tate | |
| Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse | |
| E. M. Forster, Passage to India | |
| William Carlos Williams, Imaginations | |
| MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4th edition, ed. Gibaldi |
| A good dictionary with etymologies, such as Webster's New World College Dictionary |
| A good handbook of literary terms, such as Abrams, Oxford, or Bedford |
A good portion of the work for this class will be conducted on-line. Instead of an expensive and bulky course packet, I have put secondary readings on electronic reserve. To save book and photocopying costs, I have posted the syllabus, assignments, and some readings and related links on the web. An increasing number of excellent literary resources are becoming available on-line. You can access many through CHAL's Reference Sources and Journals On-line. CHAL provides access to the Faber Poetry Library, the 20th Century American Poetry, and the 20th Century African-American Poetry collections. (Search by author and title to pull up the text of an assigned poem.) The complete syllabus is availlable at http://www.davidson.edu/academic/english/faculty/churchill_home/eng294syllabus.html. I will be updating the syllabus througout the semester--feel free to make suggestions!
The main goal of this course is to give you direct contact with lots of great modernist texts, so that you develop the confidence to read them and the ability to analyze and discuss them. Modernist texts demand a lot from the reader: they deliberately challenge your expectations and defy normal reading practices. They expect you to participate in shaping the meaning of the text. You'll also be expected to participate in class discussions and to begin each conversation before class in our Outlook Public Folder (OPF).
Think of the OPF as a conversation in writing, a "pre-talking" analogous to the pre-writing you do for papers. Our goal is not to produce expertly crafted individual treatises, but to develop the facility to think, respond, and communicate through writing. Your contributions can and should be informal, spontaneous, informed, and impassioned. Don’t worry about typos. Do worry about using textual evidence. Be direct and specific. Read your classmates’ responses and endorse, amplify, or counter them. Feel free to ask questions, but then do your best to answer them. Remember that the OPF is an exploratory conversation, not a perfected performance.
Everyone is required to post responses to the readings before class by 5 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. Your postings will be graded on a scale of 1-10, and I will drop the 2 lowest grades. Each posting should comprise 1-2 good, meaty paragraphs. I will be monitoring the OPF, occasionally initiating discussion topics and participating in the conversation, and persistently invoking your ideas in class. Your contributions to the OPF will be factored into your class participation grade.
There will be a 2-page analysis, two 5-page papers, a midterm quiz, and a take-home final review. The midterm will consist of passage identifications. The final will include passage identifications, short answers, and a long essay. Students may exercise the option of writing a research paper in lieu of the final (subject to my approval at least 3 weeks in advance).
All course work must be completed in compliance with the Davidson Honor Code. Although you may discuss your ideas with anyone, you may not ask anyone outside the class (friends, family, or professional services) to write, edit, or proofread your papers. You may exchange papers with any member of the class, but you must explain in your pledge who helped you and how.
You will be expected to come to class with relevant texts and assignments, prepared to participate in a lively, informed manner. Your grade for class participation will depend upon the quality and consistency of your contributions to class discussion and the OPF and on the timely completion of all assignments.
| 2-page close reading | 5% |
| 5-page essay | 20% |
| 5-page essay | 20% |
| Midterm | 10% |
| Final Exam | 20% |
| Attendance & Participation | 25% |
VIII. Syllabus
Notes:
FPL = Faber Poetry Library. Poems available through CHAL (Reference Sources)
AP = 20th Century American Poetry. Poems available through CHAL (Reference Sources)
AAP = 20th Century African American Poetry. Poems available though CHAL (Reference Sources)
PM = Project Muse. Critical Essays available through CHAL (Journals On-line)
ER = electronic reserve
| Date | Day | Assignments Due |
| 8/21 | T | Introduction:
The Mind of Modernism
T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Mina Loy, "Apology of Genius" Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, from The Communist Manifesto [ER]; check out the Marxist.org Internet Archive. Friedrich Nietzsche, from Preface to Human, All Too Human [ER]; check out these two sites and decide which is most reliable, Nietzsche site #1 or Nietzsche site #2. Sigmund Freud, from The Interpretation of Dreams [ER] |
| 8/23 | R | Primitivism
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Check out the Joseph Conrad Society. |
| 8/28 | T |
Cubism Guest Speaker: Professor Shaw Smith Note: class meets in the Post Seminar Room in the Visual Arts Center (first floor, go across the atrium toward the right rear of the building) Modernism and Art: a selection of readings [ER] Gertrude Stein, "Picasso"; "Objects," from Tender Buttons [ER] Wallace Stevens, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" [AP] William Carlos Williams, "Metric Figure" [AP] Guilliame Apollianaire, from The Cubist Painters [ER] Check out the Cubism Image Bank. |
| 8/30 | R | Aestheticism
Hugh Kenner, Introduction to A Portrait‘ (7-18) James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Ch. 1-3) |
| 9/4 | T | James
Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Ch. 4-5)
Richard Ellman, "The Two Faces of Edward" [ER] 2-page analysis due (no OPF posting required) |
| 9/6 | R | Primalism
David Trotter, Introduction to Sons and Lovers (vii-xxxvii) D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (Part I, 5-163) |
| 9/11 | T | D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (165-315) |
| 9/13 | R | Futurism
Mina Loy, "Italian Pictures," "Sketch of a Man on a Platform," "Three Moments in Paris," "Giovanni Franchi," "O Hell," "Brancusi's Golden Bird," "Joyce's Ulysses," "Gertrude Stein," "Aphorisms on Futurism," "Modern Poetry" Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, "The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism" [ER] Check out the Mina Loy homepage and this Futurism website. |
| 9/18 | T | Feminism
Mina Loy, "Parturition," "The Effectual Marriage," "Feminist Manifesto" Susan Glaspell, "Trifles" [ER] Margaret Sanger, "Epiphany over Birth Control" [ER] Emma Goldman, A Radical View of Women's Emancipation [ER] Mabel Dodge Luhan, Greenwich Village Bohemians [ER] |
| 9/20 | R | Imagism
F.S. Flint and Ezra Pound, "Imagisme" [ER] Rebecca West, "Imagisme" [ER] H.D.: Sea Rose, Sheltered Garden, Garden, Oread, Leda, Helen [AP] Marianne Moore: The Fish [AP] Ezra Pound: Erat Hora, N.Y., The Garden, April, In a Station of the Metro, L'Art 1910, The Beautiful Toilet, The Jewel Stairs' Grievance [AP] William Carlos Williams: At Dawn, Aux Imagistes, The Young Housewife, Spring Strains, To a Solitary Disciple, The Great Figure, The Red Wheelbarrow [AP] Check out the Journal of Imagism. |
| 9/25 | T | Psychoanalysis
Philip Rieff, Introduction to Dora(vii-xix) Sigmund Freud, Dora: An Analysis of a Case Study of Hysteria T.S. Eliot, "Hysteria" |
| 9/27 | R | Dada
Tristan Tzara, from "Dada Manifesto, 1918" [ER] Francis M. Naumann, Introduction to New York Dada [ER] Roger L. Conover, "Arthur Cravan" [ER] Arthur Cravan, "Oscar Wilde Lives!" "Poet and Boxer" [ER] Gabrielle Buffer-Picabia, "Arthur Cravan and American Dada" [ER] Mina Loy, "The Widow's Jazz" Marcel Duchamp, "Fountain," "Bicycle Wheel," "In Advance of a Broken Arm" |
| 10/2 | T | The
Rite of Spring: Modernism & Music
Modris Eksteins, from Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age [ER] Guest speaker: Dr. Neil Lerner, Music Department PAPER DUE |
| 10/4 | R | Widening
Gyres
W.B. Yeats: The Lake Isle of Innisfree, Adam's Curse, No Second Troy, September 1913, Easter 1916, The Second Coming, A Prayer for My Daughter, Leda and the Swan, Among Schoolchildren [ER] |
| 10/9 | T | The
Great War and the Short Story
Paul Fussell, "Oh What a Literary War" [ER] William Faulkner, "All the Dead Pilots" Richard Aldington, "The Case of Lieutenant Hall" Ernest Hemingway, "In Another Country" |
| 10/11 | R | Mary
Butts, Speed the Plough
Katherine Mansfield, The Fly Virginia Woolf, The Mark on the Wall Radcliffe Hall, "Miss Olgilvy Finds Herself" Kay Boyle, "Count Lothar's heart" |
| 10/16 | T | fall break - no class |
| 10/18 | R | Midterm Quiz |
| 10/23 | T | Shoring
Fragments
T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land" T.S. Eliot, from "Tradition and the Individual Talent," "Ulysses, Order, & Myth" [ER] Alan Shucard, et al. "The Waste Land" [ER] |
| 10/25
P'rents Wknd |
R | William Carlos Williams: Spring & All in Imaginations |
| 10/30 | T | Ideas
of Order
Wallace Stevens: Sunday Morning, Six Significant Landscapes, Nuances of a Theme by Williams, Anecdote of the Jar, The Snow Man, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon, The Emperor of Ice Cream, The Idea of Order at Key West, Sad Strains of a Gay Waltz, The Poems of Our Climate, The Man on the Dump [AP] |
| 11/1 | R | The
Harlem Renaissance
Sterling Brown, "Ma Rainey," ‘ A Bad, Bad Man‘ [AAP] Countee Cullen, "Incident," "Yet Do I Marvel" [ER] Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," ‘Aunt Sue‘s Stoires,‘ "Negro," ‘My People,‘ "I, Too," [AAP] Claude McKay, "If We Must Die," "The White House," "America" [AAP] Houston A. Baker, Jr., "Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance" [ER] |
| 11/6 | T | Langston
Hughes & the Blues
"Young Gal‘s Blues,‘ ‘Bound No‘th Blues,‘ ‘Down and Out,‘ ‘Bad Man,‘ ‘Out of Work,‘ ‘Hard Daddy,‘ Montage of a Dream Deferred [AAP] David Chinitz, "Literacy and Authenticity: The Blues Poems of Langston Hughes" [Callaloo, 19.1 (1996) 177-192; PM] |
| 11/8 | R | Colonialism
E. M. Forster, A Passage to India (Part I: Mosque, 3-132) |
| 11/13 | T | E. M. Forster, A Passage to India (Part II: Caves, Part III: Temple, 135-362) |
| 11/15 | R | Modernist
Visions
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Part I: The Window, 3-124) |
| 11/20 | T | Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Part II: Time Passes, Part III: The Lighthouse; 125-209) |
| 11/22 | R | THANKSGIVING BREAK - NO CLASS |
| 11/27 | T | Social
Writings of the 1930s: Poetry
Re-read Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Kay Boyle, "A Communication to Nancy Cunard" [ER] Joy Davidman, "In Praise of Fascists" [AP] Alfred Hayes, "In a Coffeepot"
[ER] Edwin Rolfe, "Season of Death" [ER] Muriel Rukeyser, "Theory of Flight," "More of a Corpse Than a Woman," "M-Day's Child" [AP] William Phillips and Philip Rahv, from "Recent Problems in Revolutionary Literature" [ER] |
| 11/29 | R | Social
Writings of the 1930s: Fiction
John Dos Passos, from USA, "The Body of an American," "The Bitter Drink"; "The Writer as Technician" [ER] Michael Gold, from Jews Without Money [ER] |
| 12/4* | T | Modernist
Ends
T.S. Eliot, from Four Quartets,
"Burnt Norton" PAPER DUE Course Evaluations |
| 12/6 | R | READING DAY |
| 12/7-
12/13 |
F-
R |
EXAM PERIOD |