English 161: Narrative and Narrative Theory
Spring 2018, Monday/Wednesday10:30-11:50
Building 200, Room 303
Professor Alex Woloch
Office: Room 201C, Building 460
Office Hours: TBA
Office Phone: 723-1560
Email:
Course Description:
An introduction to stories and storytelling -- that is, to narrative. What is narrative? How is it done, word by word, sentence by sentence? Must it be in prose? Can it be in pictures? How has storytelling changed over time? We’ll consider these questions through a series of ambitious works that explore some of the limits, norms, assumptions and aesthetic possibilities of narrative. The course will cover a range of historical periods and a variety of media: novels, short fiction, films, the graphic novel.Issues include: point-of-view, chronology, ways of organizing plot, autobiography, first- and third-person narrative (and how they can be intertwined), unreliable narrators, hidden and nested stories, narrative and history, narrative and memory.
Texts
Daniel Defore,Robinson Crusoe
Jane Austen, Emma
Henry James, “The Beast in the Jungle”
Herman Melville, Benito Cereno
Roland Barthes, S/Z
Akira Kurosawa, Rashomon (film)
Sarah Polley, Stories We Tell (film)
Art Spiegelman, Maus
Course Schedule
Section One: Novel and Narrative
Monday April 2: Introduction
Wednesday April 4: Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe(1-37)
Borges, “FunesMemorious” (coursework)
Monday April 9: Defoe, Crusoe (37-119)
Wednesday April 11: Defoe, Crusoe (119-end)
Borges, “Borges and I” (coursework)
Monday April 16: Jane Austen, Emma(Volume 1)
Wednesday April 18:Austen, Emma (Volume 2)
Monday April 23: Austen, Emma (Volume 3)
Section Two: Narrative Experiment
Wednesday April 25: Sarah Polley, Stories We Tell (screening to be arranged)
Monday April 30: Henry James, “Beast in the Jungle”
Wednesday May 2: Henry James, “Beast in the Jungle”
Monday May 7:Melville, Benito Cereno
Wednesday May 9: from Amaso Delano, “Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in theNorthern and Southern Hemispheres” (coursework)
from Greg Grandin, Empire of Necessity (coursework)
Section Three: Theorizing Narrative
Monday May 14Roland Barthes, S/Z
Wednesday May 16: Roland Barthes, S/Z
Section Four: Narrative Across Media
Monday May 21: IN-CLASS SCREENING: AkiraKurosawa, Rashomon
Wednesday May 23: Kurosawa, Rashomon
from David Bordwell, Film Art: An Introduction(coursework)
Monday May 28: Art Spiegelman, Maus 1
Wednesday May 30: Art Spiegelman, Maus 1
fromScott McCloud, Understanding Comics (coursework)
Monday June 4: Review
Wed June 6: In-class final
Course Requirements
1. Active Reading and Participation. Students are required to attend all lectures and discussion sections, to participate thoughtfully in the discussion, and to complete all reading assignments. (20% of grade)
2. Reading Responses.Each student should submit one brief reading response for each text (around 1 page single-spaced). These are designed to facilitate more rigorous reflection on the reading and active participation in weekly section discussions. In some cases, I might give specific parameters for the response. Generally, the response should begin by focusing on a detail within the text that is particularly striking or intriguing to you: a single episode, scene or passage, an odd sentence, a tellingchoice of wording or phrasing, a character, a recurrent image, a syntactic pattern, etc. How does this detail relate to the larger narrative stakes at issue in the text as a whole? (20%)
3.Midterm Essay. A fivepage essay on one of the first texts in the course (Robinson Crusoe, Emma,Stories We Tell). Topics to be provided on Wednesday April 25 and essay due WednesdayMay 2. (20%)
4. Final essay. A final eight page essay focusing on one of the later texts in the course (Henry James stories, Benito Cereno, S/Z, Rashomon, Maus) or comparing two texts from the course. Topics to be provided on Wednesday May 30 and essay due Monday June 10. (20%)
5. Final exam. A final in-class exam will have two parts: brief I.D.s, based on terms from the course and the readings; discussion and analysis of selected passages. (20%)
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Students with Documented Disabilities
Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Office of AccessibleEducation (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, andprepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the OAE assoon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone: 723-1066, URL:
Honor Code
The Honor Code is the University's statement on academic integrity written by students in 1921. It articulates University expectations of studentsand faculty in establishing and maintaining the highest standards in academic work:
The Honor Code is an undertaking of the students, individually and collectively:
1. that they will not give or receive aid in examinations; that they will not give or receive unpermitted aid in class work, in the preparation ofreports, or in any other work that is to be used by the instructor as the basis of grading;
2. that they will do their share and take an active part in seeing to it that others as well as themselves uphold the spirit and letter of the HonorCode.
3. The faculty on its part manifests its confidence in the honor of its students by refraining from proctoring examinations and from takingunusual and unreasonable precautions to prevent the forms of dishonesty mentioned above. The faculty will also avoid, as far as practicable,academic procedures that create temptations to violate the Honor Code.
4. While the faculty alone has the right and obligation to set academic requirements, the students and faculty will work together to establishoptimal conditions for honorable academic work.