WRTG 3020: the Grotesque, Sections 90 & 99

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WRTG 3020: The Grotesque, Sections 90 & 99

This course meets the CCHE criteria for the general education requirement in communication for advanced writing courses (CO3) in the following capacities:

Rhetorical Knowledge:The theory of the grotesque is a complex, academic rhetorical tool that addresses a multitude of cultural boundaries, from sex and religion to etiquette and the idea of “normalcy. Students will be expected to discuss and write about this interaction of the grotesque with the boundaries set by different communities within this large, nebulous misnomer “society.” Students will not only analyze authors’ use of the grotesque, they will also evaluate its effectiveness in playing upon and with societal boundaries. We will approach the grotesque through using literature and theory.

The theoretical texts include Joyce Carol Oates’ “Reflections on the Grotesque,” excerpts from Philip Thompson’s The Grotesque and Flannery O’Connor’s “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction.” These texts show different and often varying degrees of defining the grotesque—from the viewpoint of both theorist and literary author. We will also read Sigmund Freud’s “The Uncanny,” since often the grotesque and the uncanny go hand in hand. We will read the short stories of Franz Kafka and Flannery O’Connor and other authors such as Octavio Paz, Charlotte Perkins Gillman, and Rabelais to see the application of the grotesque in literature.

Because the grotesque started out in the visual world, we will look at various medieval and contemporary artwork and view an in-class film, Alejandro Jodorowsky’sSanta Sangre. These visual aspects of the grotesque will help students master the nuances of what still remains a very nebulous definition.

Writing Process:Writing is an ongoing dialogue between writer and the reader. As such, we will have multiple drafts on each paper throughout the semester. This includes crafting an evolving thesis that truly allows students to explore the issue and rework the thesis as you discover new claims and evidence.Students must turn in all drafts with the final paper so that together we may evaluate your writing process throughout the term. Students are also part of a writing community, and as such, much of the participation grade will be based on student interaction with the writing of one’s peers. As an integral component in helping one’s classmates become better writers though the workshop process, students will be asked to provide constructive, yet very honest, feedback. Students will also be expected to take the comments of their peers very seriously, and to implement their suggestions in each progressive draft.

Conventions and Effective Application:Although this course is structured in part around the theme of the grotesque, it is fundamentally a writing course. As such, form and mechanics will be at least as important as content. In other words, although students will be evaluated for their comprehension of, and ability to engage with, the creative and theoretical material covered, a great deal of attention will be placed upon each student’s ability to adhere to academic writing conventions. We will go over many of the fundamental rules of writing, including sentence structure, use of active voice, vibrant imagery, and discovery of your own writer’s voice. The assignments will also demand active awareness of one’s audience. Remember, you are in a dialogue with the audience, not a monologue, not a lecture. You will practice writing in special rhetorical situations even as you make your work accessible to secondary audiences in other disciplines. We will have kinetic as well as verbal and written exercises that will help you hone your sensitivity to audience expectations, and then use this awareness when crafting your argument and review.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

"When you assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision appear by shock--to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures” (Flannery O’Connor). Authors and artists who incorporate the grotesque into their work use a culture’s construction of what is “normal” or “acceptable” and distort the image, allowing thereader to see the incongruities that marginalize people and ideas within that framework. In this course, we will examine how authors such as Flannery O’Connor, Franz Kafka, and artists such as Mark Ryden, Laurie Lipton, and Jenny Saville use the grotesque in their writing and art in response to their ever-fracturing cultures.

Assignments:

Quizzes: 5% Participation: 10% Midterm 15% Visual Rhetoric Assignment: 15%

Review: 15%Argument Paper: 25% Group Presentation 15%

Major Assignments:

You will be responsible for three major writing assignments. The first is a visual rhetoric paper, with a photography component. This assignment will encourage you to develop your own working definition of the grotesque. The review will ask you to evaluate the effective or ineffective use of the grotesque in a film. This helps you move beyond the first paper, which asks more for analysis, and gets you ready for your last paper, which requires argumentation. For the argument paper, you must develop an original, creative argument regarding one grotesque work (this can be a film, a short story, a novel, or art piece). This gives you the freedom to write more closely to your chosen discipline.

The midterm is open note, open book. It is not a test of memorization, but one of synthesization. It gives you the opportunity to show how you have progressively deepened your rhetorical knowledge of the grotesque.

As a group, you will give a multi-media presentation on how the grotesque could be used to question a prevalent issue in today’s society that has become polarized in the popular rhetoric.

POLICIES

Email:

Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have. However, you will need to follow proper etiquette when emailing me. Please include:

1) a proper subject line that lets me know the nature of your email

2) a respectful greeting (Dear Nancy, Hi Dr. Hightower, etc)

3) your name at the end

I will not answer email that is sent without these components. For the first two weeks of class, please include your class time or section number with your signature or in the subject line

You will need to allow 24 hours for me to respond to any email (this is from the time I receive it; I will send you a reply to let you know I got it). If you do not receive some kind of reply within 24 hours, please email me again, or call me.

** I never accept final assignments in disk form or in an email, and I don’t take attachments.

Attendance:

You are allowed two absences, for any reason. After two absences, your final grade will be lowered by one-half letter grade for every day missed, and more than four absences will cause your failure of the course. I will take into accountextreme illness (with a doctor’s note).

Your timely attendance is required; if you are late for two classes, it will count as an absence.

If you miss a class:

• Email me before class to let me know you aren’t coming so I can leave appropriate handouts in my box.
• Get lecture notes and homework assignments from a classmate.
• Turn assignments in by due date (unless a prior arrangement has been made).

Campus policy requires that faculty make every effort to reasonably and fairly deal with all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled exams, assignments, or required attendance. In this class, you will need to give me two weeks’ notice if you must miss a class for religious practices. See full details at

Participation:

Coming to class will only earn you 50% of your participation grade. The other 50% comes from the following:

• contributing to class discussions in a thoughtful, engaging, and productive way.
• being good, active peer editors when work-shopping drafts.
• having a good attitude during discussions and peer workshops.

Participation also means not talking out of turn or doing other homework, not having your cell phone ring in the middle of class, and not text messaging anyone.

***If your cell phone rings in class, or you are caught text messaging someone, your final participation grade will be reduced by 5 points.

Drafts:

Failure to bring a draft on a draft due date will result in a 5 point reduction of your final participation grade.

If you have missed a draft day for illness (with a doctor’s note) or have notified me in advance of your absence on a draft day:

1)Email two other students your draft and get comments on it.

2)Edit their drafts as well.

3)Bring all edited drafts in hard copy by the next class day to get full credit.

Late Work:

You have the option of turning in the Visual Rhetoric Paper and The Reviewup to one week after the due date without penalty. However, if you choose this option, you will only receive a grade for the paper, but no additional comments, either written or verbal. I will not be available for further consultation after the initial deadlines for both papers.

The final paper must be turned in on time or it will not be accepted. Email assignments must also be turned in on time, or you will be penalized participation points.

Quizzes:

We will have a quiz almost every day, at the very beginning of class. Therefore, it is essential that you come to class on time. If you are late to class, you may not make up the quiz. These quizzes are not to check up on whether you have read the text or not; I already assume you are keeping up on your reading. Rather, the quizzes give you a chance to show me how you are processing the rhetorical nuances defining the grotesque, and how you see these nuances playing out within the literary texts.

You will be allowed to drop your lowest quiz grade. Other quizzes may not be made up unless you have spoken with me before your absence about making up the quiz grade, or you have a doctor’s note. You have one class day to make up the quiz, and it is your responsibility to set up a time with me to do so.

Plagiarism:

We will have an ongoing discussion regarding how to acknowledge sources and authors in your own works. My own policy regarding plagiarism is that whatever paper has been plagiarized will receive a zero. If you plagiarize twice, you fail the course. All work must be your own, generated this semester. You are not allowed to use a previous paper for any work in this class. Likewise, all ideas that you have borrowed from others (whether in a direct quote or paraphrased) must be correctly cited.

THE WRITINGCENTER

Web: Email:

Throughout the semester, any enrolled student is eligible to receive free tutorial assistance at The Writing Center, located in the Norlin Library (E-156). Appointments are required and can be made from the WritingCenter website (see above web address) or just by dropping in.

Special Accommodations:

If you need special accommodations due to a disability, please give me a letter from Disability Services so that we can make the necessary arrangements. If you have any questions regarding this process, please visit

Texts:

The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories by Franz Kafka, The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman

Course Schedule:

Readings are to be read and annotated before class unless otherwise noted.Readings with two asterisks (**)will be emailed to you. Please be sure to save them in a file, and either print them out or take copious notes in preparation of a quiz and discussion.We will have a closed book quiz for every reading unless informed otherwise.This schedule is subject to change if we need to accommodate extra draft workshops. You will be told in advance of any changes.

WEEK 1 Aug 26, 28

Tues: Introductions, review of syllabus and class policies. Presentation of visual grotesque

Thurs: Defining the Grotesque:

• **Excerpts from Thompson’s “The Grotesque”
• In-class reading of the carnivalesque grotesque: excerpts from Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel and Burroughs’ The Naked Lunch
• Go over visual rhetoric assignment
• Syllabus policies quiz

WEEK 2 Sept 2, 4

Tues: The Haunted and Uncanny Grotesque:

• Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and**“Reflections on the Grotesque”
• Paz “The Blue Bouquet”
• Freud,**“The Uncanny”
• Examples of past student projects
• Email prewriting assignment #1 due by 11 p.m.: write about two possible topics for VR assignment

Thurs:The Gothic and Grotesque:

• Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Is her struggle with madness, or oppression?
• Workshop: dialogues to further develop ideas for VR assignment
• In-class writing assignment: adapting content and style to different audiences
• Writing conventions:mastering the art of an effective introduction

WEEK 3 Sept 9, 11

Tues:The Southern Grotesque:

• O’Connor, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”: One woman’s encounter with true grace in a killer’s face
• **Excerpts from O’Connor’s theory of the grotesque inMystery and Manners
• Draft Due: Bring first two paragraphs (double spaced) of VR assignment to workshop

Thurs:Satire and the Grotesque:

• “Death and Transfiguration of a Teacher”: A satiric, grotesque look at education
• ** Swift’s “The Lady's Dressing Room”: A transgressive, carnivalesque romp through the toiletries of one completely “normal” lady

WEEK 4 Sept 16, 18

Tues:

• Draft Due: Bring 2 pages (double spaced) of VR assignment to workshop. Look for evolving thesis, logical structure, fluidity of writing
• Go over paper # 2, The Review
• Receive handout, “How to Write a Review” from Thinking and Writing in the Humanities

Thurs:The Southern Grotesque:

• O’Connor, “Good Country People”: What it means to believe in nothing
• Excerpt from Leslie Fiedler’s Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self
• Draft Due: Bring 3-4 pages (double spaced) of VR assignment to workshop, with photographs if possible. Does the paper effectively analyze the photographs and incorporate the analysis seamlessly into paper? Is does the conclusion present a thesis that has been developed, tested, and evolved throughout the essay?
• Email prewriting assignment #2 due by 11 p.m.: tell me what film you would like to review and your reasons for choosing it

WEEK 5 Sept 23, 25

Tues:VISUAL RHETORIC Assignment Due. The Grotesque in Film: Santa Sangre (in class movie).

Thurs:Santa Sangre. Discussions of carnivalesque grotesque vs. the circus, uncanny freakishness, and lowbrow horror

WEEK 6 Sept 30, Oct 2

Tues: Kafka’s Surreal Landscapes: Where is the dividing line between surreal and grotesque?

• “An Imperial Message”
• “The Bucket Rider”
• Draft Due: Bring outline ofReview, a detailed list of what grotesque elements worked and what didn’t
• Refresher Lecture: how to write in active voice and use vivid imagery

Thurs:The Grotesque Rhetoric of the Mechanical vs. the Natural:

• O’Connor, “The Life You Save May be Your Own”
• Draft due: Bring first page of Review

WEEK 7 Oct 7, 9

Tues:The Grotesque and Gothic Kafka:

• Kafka, “A Country Doctor” (just the short story): Exploring mythic time, use value, and the uncanny
• Draft Due: Bring 2 pages of Review

Thurs:The Grotesque and Language:

• Kafka, “Before the Law” and “In the Penal Colony”: The notion of justice as something attainable, or not
• Draft Due: Bring 3 pages of review draft to workshop
• Go over paper #3, argument paper

WEEK 8 Oct 14, 16

Tues:Grotesque Metamorphosis:

• Kanai, Rabbits (handout): One young woman’s relationship with her father reveals underlying power tensions in a sadly funny and horrifying way
• Review Draft (revised 3 pages)
• Email prewriting assignment #3 due by 11 p.m.: Tell me which work you wish to write upon, and why you chose that work

Thurs:Grotesque Metamorphosis:

• Review Due
• Kafka, The Metamorphosis: The transgressive nature of Gregor’s buggish-ness
• Discussion of group presentations

WEEK 9 Oct 21, 23

Tues:Grotesque Metamorphosis:

• Kafka, “A Hunger Artist” (just the short story): The strange relationship between an artist, a menagerie, and hunger
• O’ Connor, “Parker’s Back”: Parker’s botched arabesque journey to the Byzantine Christ
• Group presentation strategies, including how to use multi-media
• Draft Due: Bringthree possible thesis statements to workshop

Thurs:The Grotesque and Surreal Relationships:

• Kafka, “The Judgment”: A father and son try to communicate via their ownership of a rhetorically created “friend”
• O’ Connor, “The Lame Shall Enter First”: A grotesque struggle between faith and science
• Refresher Lecture: how to cite appropriately, how to generate questions that further your argument

WEEK 10 Oct 28, 30

Tues:

• Draft Due:Bringfirst page of argument paper to workshop
• Presentation Lecture: setting up your speakers

Thurs:

• Library Day for presentation and paper research

WEEK 11 Nov 4, 6 November 2: last day to drop without a signature

Tues:

• How to write an effective conclusion. Review of rhetorical definitions

Thurs:

• Draft Due: Bring3 pagesof argument paper to workshop
• Bring laptops to class for presentation workshop

WEEK 12 Nov 11, 13

Tues:

• Draft Due: Bring 4-5 pagesof argument paper
• Presentation Workshop: have each group member summarize their part in the presentation
• Midterm Review

Thurs: