English 563 Syllabus - Department of English [PDF]

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Idea Transcript


CONTEMPORARY  ANGLOPHONE  FICTION  

  English  563.401                                                          Jim  English   Fall  2011                                      Office:  BENN  311   Thurs  3:00-­‐6:00                                  Hours:  T2-­‐3,  W2-­‐3   BENN  139                        [email protected]     DESCRIPTION   This   course   is   for   graduate   students   interested   in   studying   the   contemporary   novel   in   English   beyond   the   frontiers   of   a   national   literature,   distinguishing   contemporary   literature   from   modernism  as  a  field  of  specialization,  and  considering  the  stakes  for  our  discipline  of  a  turn  to   “global  English.”      It  is  an  introductory  survey  class,  and  no  previous  advanced  study  or  expertise   in  the  field  is  expected.         We   will   read   a   selection   of   novels   from   the   expanding   canon   of   Anglophone   world   literature,   and   consider   these   in   light   of   an   admittedly   disparate   set   of   questions   and   debates   that   have   arisen   in   recent   critical   work:     1)   Is   a   comparative   literary   practice   that   restricts   itself   to   Anglophone  literature  abetting  a  process  of  global  monolingualization,  even  as  it  enlarges  and   complicates  the  scope  of  English  studies  as  such?    2)  Is  the  contemporary  “cosmopolitan  novel”   in  English  detachable  from  western  secular  values,  and  is  it  reconcilable  with  organized  religions,   especially  non-­‐western  religions,  in  their  global  form?    3)  Do  contemporary  “world  fictions”  help   us  conceive  a  global  sexual  politics,  or  are  queer  and  feminist  writers  better  understood  to  be   deploying   visions   of   the   local   over   and   against   the   imperatives   of   a   “global”   social   order?     4)   How   is   the   canon   of   Anglophone   world   literature   being   formed?     What   new   relationship   is   emerging  on  the  literary  field  between  commercial  and  aesthetic  value,  between  the  economy   of   bookselling   and   of   that   of   cultural   prestige?     5)   How   does   the   “global   city”   differ   from   the   modern   city,   and   how   does   the   relationship   of   literature   to   urban   experience   differ   from   that   of   an   earlier,   modernist   period?       6)   Finally,   why   have   so   many   of   the   major   English-­‐language   novels   of   globalization   tended   to   merge   literary   fiction   into   the   genres   of   speculative   fiction:   SciFi,   Cyberpunk,   the   New   Weird,   etc?     Does   speculative   fiction   represent,   as   Fredric   Jameson   has   argued,   the   best   option   for   literature   at   a   point   when   both   modernism   and   realism   have   become   exhausted   and   incapable   of   offering   “reliable   information   about   the   contemporary   world”?       We  will  of  course  only  scratch  the  surface  of  these  broad  and  complex  areas  of  discussion.     You   will  have  the  opportunity  in  your  written  work  to  do  more  focused  research  along  a  particular   path  of  inquiry.     TEXTS   The  novels  below  are  available  from  the  Penn  Book  Center,  34th  and  Sansom  Streets.    Other   readings  will  be  made  available  through  digital  distribution.     Margaret  Atwood,  Oryx  and  Crake     China  Miéville,  The  City  and  the  City     Lauren  Beukes,  Moxyland         David  Mitchell,  Cloud  Atlas     J  M  Coetzee,  Disgrace         Ken  Saro-­‐Wiwa,  Sozaboy     Teju  Cole,  Open  City           Arundhati  Roy,  The  God  of  Small  Things   Jessica  Hagedorn,  Dogeaters       Salman  Rushdie,  The  Satanic  Verses     Yann  Martel,  Life  of  Pi            

  REQUIREMENTS   Students  in  this  class,  including  auditors,  will  be  expected  to  complete  all  the  assigned  reading.     In  some  cases  a  piece  of  secondary  reading  will  be  assigned  to  one  student  who  will  present  it  to   the  class,  and  other  students  will  be  responsible  only  for  the  primary  reading.         Other   requirements   include   two   oral   presentations   on   selected   topics,   a   book   report,   and   a   short  essay.       The   presentation   topics   will   usually   be   some   area   of   historical   or   cultural   background,   or   an   important   essay   that   the   rest   of   us   are   not   required   to   read,   or   useful   bibliography   on   a   particular  author  or  field.    Your  presentations  must  be  very  brief:  a  6-­‐minute  time  limit  will  be   strictly   enforced.     Any   additional   presentation   of   your   findings   should   emerge   in   response   to   questions   from   classmates.     To   help   focus   the   presentation   and   prompt   good   discussion,   the   presentation  should  be  keyed  to  a  one-­‐page  handout  and  should  conclude  with  a  one-­‐sentence   discussion  question.         In  addition  to  the  two  handouts,  written  work  consists  of  a  1500-­‐word  book  review  of  any  novel   published  in  English  in  the  last  twelve  months  (due  Oct  28)  and  a  3000-­‐word  critical  essay  that   involves   close   reading   of   one   of   the   novels   on   our   syllabus   and   addresses   one   of   the   main   areas   of   debate   and   discussion   covered   in   the   class   (due   Dec   16).       Exact   submission   dates   are   negotiable,  but  all  work  must  be  submitted  by  the  end  of  the  semester;  no  incompletes  will  be   allowed.       SCHEDULE     I.    Global  Englishes,  World  Literatures     9/8   Introduction:    Why  Anglophone?    Why  the  novel?     9/15   Ken  Saro-­‐Wiwa,  Sozaboy:  A  Novel  in  Rotten  English  (985)             Michael  North,  “Ken  Saro-­‐Wiwa’s  Sozaboy:  The  Politics  of  ‘Rotten  English’”  (2001)     Gayatri  Chakravorty  Spivak,  “Crossing  Borders”  (2003)             Presentation  Topics:   West  African  Pidgin  English  (Lisa)             Bibliography  on  “new  Englishes”  (Jenny)             Nigerian  literature  in  English  (Ana)       II.    The  Cosmopolitan  Novel  and  Global  Religion:  the  Verses  Affair     9/22   Salman  Rushdie,  The  Satanic  Verses  (1989)     BBC  Documentary,  The  Satanic  Verses  Affair  (2009)                       Presentation  Topics:   Salman  Rushdie  biography  (Lisa)   Rushdie  and  Black  British  Studies:  biblio     Immigration  policy  under  Thatcher  (Angela)  

9/29  

Samuel  Huntington,  “The  Clash  of  Civilizations?”  (1993)   Sadik  J  Al-­‐Azm,  “The  Satanic  Verses  Post-­‐Festum”  (2000)   Geraldine  Heng,  “Holy  War  Redux:  The  Crusades,  Futures  of  the  Past,  and  Strategic  Logic   in  the  ‘Clash’  of  Religions”  (2011)   Ulrich  Beck,  “Reinventing  Europe:  A  Cosmopolitan  Vision”  (2004)   Timothy  Brennan,  “Cosmo-­‐Theory”  (2002)         Presentation  Topics:   Verses  Affair  Timeline  (Gabriel)             The  “satanic  verses”  heresy  (Ashley)             Huntington’s  “clash”  thesis:  biblio  (Sarah)             Ulrich  Beck’s  “cosmopolitan  vision”  (Christine)  

          III.    Sexual  Politics  in  World  Fiction     10/6     Jessica  Hagedorn,  Dogeaters  (1990)*     Victor  Mendoza,  “A  Queer  Nomadology  of  Jessica  Hagedorn’s  Dogeaters”  (2005)             Presentation  Topics:   Ferdinand  and  Imelda  Marcos  (Chris)   Rainer  Werner  Fassbinder  (Deven)   Anglophone  literature  in  Philippines  (Jackie  B)     10/13     Arundhati  Roy,  The  God  of  Small  Things  (1997)   Susan  Stanford  Friedman,  “Feminism,  State  Fictions,  and  Violence:  Gender,  Geopolitics,   and  Transnationalism”  (2001)             Presentation  Topics:   Roy’s  political  activism  (Kelly)               Theory/politics  of  the  “local”:  biblio  (Christine)               Feminism  in  India:  bibliography  (Angela)       IV.    Canonicity,  Commerce,  and  the  Global  Economy  of  Prestige     10/20   Yann  Martel,  Life  of  Pi  (2001)       Pascale  Casanova,  “From  Internationalism  to  Globalization”  (2000)     Pierre  Bourdieu,  “The  Market  for  Symbolic  Goods”  (1971)             Presentation  Topics:   Life  of  Pi:  reception  and  sales  history  (Jenny)               Critical  work  on  Yann  Martel:  biblio  (Ashley)               P.  Casanova,  World  Republic  of  Letters  (Jackie  P)     10/27     J  M  Coetzee,  Disgrace  (1999)       David  Damrosch,  “World  Literature  in  a  Postcanonical,  Hypercanonical  Age”  (2006)             Presentation  Topics:   Critical  work  on  Coetzee:  biblio  (Deven)               Disgrace:  editions,  translations,  sales  (Chris)               Disgrace  the  movie  (Victor)       BOOK  REVIEWS  DUE  VIA  EMAIL  10/28  

  V.    Fictions  of  the  Global  City     11/3   Teju  Cole,  Open  City  (2011)     Claire  Messud,  “The  Secret  Sharer”  (2011)     James  Wood,  “The  Arrival  of  Enigmas”  (2011)     Saskia  Sassen,  “Global  City:  Strategic  Site,  New  Frontier”  (2001)             Presentation  Topics:   New  York  City  immigration  statistics  (Jackie  B)               Saskia  Sassen,  Global  City  thesis  (Joe)               Global  City:  bibliography  (Sarah)       11/10   China  Miéville,  The  City  and  The  City  (2009)**     Calame  and  Charlesworth,  Divided  Cities,  chapter  ten  (2009)               Presentation  Topics:   China  Miéville:  biography  and  biblio  (Gabriel)               History  of  divided  cities:  biblio  (Kalyan)               The  New  Weird  (Jackie  P)     VI.    The  Speculative  Turn  in  World  Fiction     11/17       David  Mitchell,  Cloud  Atlas  (2004)     Benjamin  Kunkel,  “Dystopia  and  the  End  of  Politics”  (2008)   Berthold  Schoene,  “The  World  Begins  its  Turn  With  You,  or                  How  David  Mitchell’s  Novels  Think”  (2011)             Presentation  Topics:   David  Mitchell:  bio  and  biblio  (Ana)               Utopian  and  Dystopian  literature:  biblio  (Bret)     12/1   Lauren  Beukes,  Moxyland  (2008)     Deidre  C.  Byrne,  “Science  Fiction  in  South  Africa”  (2004)             Presentation  Topics:   History  of  cyberpunk:  biblio  (Kalyan)   SF  as  field  of  literary  study:  overview                     12/8   Margaret  Atwood,  Oryx  and  Crake  (2004)     Margaret  Atwood,  “Handmaid’s  Tale  and  Oryx  and  Crake  in  Context”  (2004)     Fredric  Jameson,  “Then  You  are  Them”  (2009)             Presentation  Topics:   Margaret  Atwood,  Year  of  the  Flood  (Kelly)   Fredric  Jameson,  The  Seeds  of  Time  (Victor)       CRITICAL  ESSAYS  DUE  VIA  EMAIL  12/16     *Workshop  class:  Jim  will  be  away   **Two-­‐hour  class:  Department  Lecture  by  Brent  Edwards  

 

 

 

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