English 298g: Introduction to the Genre of Fiction (32659) Units: 4/Fall 2017
Tu/Th 12:30-1:50 pm/Taper 202
Professor Chris Freeman
Office: 410 Taper Hall; Office Hours: T/Th 11:30-12:30 and by appt.; Contact Info:
Section Leaders: Doug Manuel, Amy Silverberg, and Catherine Theis
“That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.”—Tim O’Brien
“The ‘proper stuff of fiction’ does not exist; everything is the proper stuff of fiction, every feeling, every thought; every quality of brain and spirit is drawn upon; no perception comes amiss.”—Virginia Woolf
ABOUT THE COURSE
What can we learn from fiction as we learn about it? That will be the motivating question of this course. In this era of allegedly short attention spans and Tweet-length communication, we have the privilege and pleasure of savoring fiction, contemplating it, discovering it anew.
We will do all we can to make this class a conversation about fiction, reading, and writing—how they work, how they matter, and how forms and concerns have changed and remained the same. In lecture, we will cover important writers, movements, forms, theories, and larger questions about fiction’s relevance, its connections to and comments about the world. My job is to get you more interested in what fiction is and what it does; your job, in the words of the contemporary American writer Mary Oliver, is “to pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” I will ask for your engagement; you need to read our material, to think about it, and to come to lecture prepared to discuss it, to read it out loud, and to try to interpret it. We don’t “read into” fiction; we read out from it.
In your discussion sections, your instructors will elaborate on lecture material, and they will also pursue some of their own passions about literature. Essentially, the sections are “advanced” fiction, while the lecture is “introduction and intermediate” fiction; the simultaneity of these experiences should keep you challenged and inspired from day one.
You are expected to attend and to engage with the lectures and the discussion sections fully. Literature is beautiful; it can be disturbing; it is almost always instructive. This course will help you understand it more fully and with more depth and, maybe, passion.
I prefer that you use printed copies of the texts so you can mark them up as you read and reflect on them; that will help you contribute to our discussions and generate ideas for your own writing. You are expected to attend lectures and discussion sections; to participate by reading, commenting, and asking questions; and you will of course do a reasonable amount of writing. Likely assignments/responsibilities: write short to medium length essays about fiction (analysis);do some creative writing and reflection; complete a take-home final exam assignment; attend at least one reading by a professional writer, on or off campus and write a short response paper; and do your part to participate in discussion, both in section and in lecture.
Hot Seat: This structure will facilitate the atmosphere of a seminar, instead of a large lecture course. At every class meeting beginning on August 29th, I will write the name of a section on the board before class starts; the students in that section will sit in the front THREE ROWS of the middle section of seating; the fourth row is for anyone else who wants to be in the ‘hot seat.’ Everyone in the hot seat is on the spot: you are expected to volunteer to read out loud, to make comments, and to ask questions; everyone else may also participate, but they get recognized AFTER the hot seat students have their turn/say. I will take roll of the hot seat section; if you miss TWICE, you forfeit all 5% of your lecture class participation.
A NOTE ON CONDUCT/PROFESSIONALISM: This is a large lecture course, not an online class. You are expected to attend lecture—in the sense of being in a seat in our room and in the sense of engaging, listening, and participating. This is not a ‘drop in’ course; if that’s how you plan to approach it, please withdraw. Also, it is not nap time or lunch time. Anyone who thinks otherwise will be asked to leave.
ASSIGNMENTS AND DUE DATES
Short response paper/diagnostic exercise (750 words; week three): 10%
Essay One (1000-1200 words; due at section, week six): 25%
Essay Two (1200-1500 words; due at section, week twelve): 25%
Author reading and response essay: 10% (500-750 words; due at section, one week after you attend the reading: all responses must be turned in at section by November 17): NOTE—your behavior at these events must be professional and mature; any disruption will not be tolerated.
Participation and Attendance: 10% (5% lecture; 5% section: if you miss TWO ‘hot seat’ days, you forfeit lecture percentage; if you miss more than two section meetings, you forfeit that percentage)
Final exam (take home, due by email to your section leader by noon on Tuesday, December 12): 20%
TEXTS
Laurie Kirszner & Stephen Mandel, Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing (9th edition), The Kirszner/Mandell Literature Series;Cengage Learning; ISBN-10:1305092171; ISBN-13:978-1305092174 (K & M)
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (1925; Harcourt/Harvest, 1981; ISBN: 0156628708)
Michael Cunningham, The Hours (1998; Picador, 2000; ISBN: 9780312243029)
For section (buy only the two titles according to your section number):
Section leader Doug Manuel: Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s TaleISBN-10: 038549081X and the ISBN-13: 978-0385490818 and James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain: ISBN-10: 0345806549 or ISBN-13: 978-0345806543. Sections are 32709R and 32849R Thursday 9am (Atwood) and 32709R Thursday 10 am (Baldwin)
Section leader Amy Silverberg: Michael Chabon, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh ISBN 9780060790592 and Aimee Bender, Willful Creatures ISBN 9780385720977
Sections: 32771 (Wednesday at 10: Bender) and 32687 (Wednesday at 11: Chabon)
Section leader Catherine Theis:Interpreterof Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Mariner)ISBN-10:039592720X ISBN-13:978-0395927205and Immortality by Milan Kundera (Perennial Classics, 1999)ISBN-10:0060932384 ISBN-13:978-0060932381. Sections Friday at 11(Kundera) and Friday at noon (Lahiri)
SCHEDULE (subject to revision as pacing of the course necessitates)
Week One (8/22 and 24): introduction to course; K & M: Ch. 4: Understanding Fiction; focus on Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants”; Blackboard, Jill Lepore from The New Yorker on Fiction and History
Week Two (8/29 and 31): Fiction Sampler; K & M: Ch. 5; focus on Tuesday: Alvarez, Davis, and Jones; Thursday: Kincaid, Park, and Saunders; diagnostic essay assigned in section
Week Three (9/5 and 7): Graphic Fiction; K & M: Ch. 6; focus on Tuesday: Spiegelman; Thursday: Yang and your favorites; Bechdel (Blackboard); diagnostic paper (750 words, due at discussion section)
Week Four (9/12 and 14): Plot; K & M: Ch. 7; focus on Tuesday: Chopin, Gaiman, and Faulkner; discuss essay one in section; conferences with section leaders week 4 & 5; guest lecture by Amy Silverberg (9/14)
Week Five (9/19 and 21; note: NO SECTION MEETINGS THIS WEEK due to conferences): Character; K & M: Ch. 8; focus on Tuesday: Updike and Mansfield; Thursday, Smith and Gilman (from Ch. 14)
Week Six (9/26 and 28): Setting; K & M: Ch. 9; focus on Tuesday: Alexie; Thursday, Olsen; Essay One due (1000-1200 words, in section)
Week Seven (10/3 and 5): Point of View; K & M: Ch. 10; focus on Tuesday: Wright, Danticat, and Faulkner; guest lecture by Doug Manuel (10/5)
Week Eight (10/10 and 12): Style/Tone/Language; K & M: Ch. 11; focus on Tuesday: Joyce (including “The Dead” on Blackboard); Thursday: O’Connor and O’Brien; discuss next essay in section
Week Nine (10/17 and 19): Symbol, Allegory, Myth; K & M: Ch. 12; Tuesday: focus on Jackson and Walker;guest lecture by Catherine Theis (10/19)
CASE STUDY ON WOOLF & CUNNINGHAM—REIMAGINING AND REWRITING FICTION
Week Ten (10/24 and 26): Themes; K & M: Ch. 13; Tuesday: focus on Welty; Thursday: begin discussion of Woolf and read first 25 pages of Mrs. Dalloway and “Modern Fiction” (Blackboard)
Weeks Eleven and Twelve (10/31 and 11/2; 11/7 and 9): Woolf
Read all of Mrs. Dalloway; Essay due (1200-1500 words, in section week twelve)
Weeks Thirteen and Fourteen (11/14, 16, and 21): finish Woolf and read Cunningham; essay on author event (500 words) due in section week thirteen
Week Fifteen (11/28 and 30): wrap up discussion of Woolf and Cunningham; read Daniel Mendelsohn essay on Blackboard; final exam assigned; course evaluations
FINAL EXAM due by email to your section leader by Tuesday 12/12, noon
Academic Conduct
Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, either verbatim or recast in your own words – is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism in SCampus in Section 11, Behavior Violating University Standards Other forms of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable. See additional information in SCampus and university policies on scientific misconduct,
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Support Systems
A number of USC’s schools provide support for students who need help with scholarly writing. Check with your advisor or program staff to find out more. Students whose primary language is not English should check with the American Language Institute which sponsors courses and workshops specifically for international graduate students. The Office of Disability Services and Programs certification for students with disabilities and helps arrange the relevant accommodations. If an officially declared emergency makes travel to campus infeasible, USC Emergency Information provide safety and other updates, including ways in which instruction will be continued by means of blackboard, teleconferencing, and other technology.
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