Loyola University New Orleans--English T125, Fall 2009 Writing about Literature—“Work and the City” Section 5, Bobet Hall 219, MW 3:30-4:45

C.W.Cannon, PhD Bobet Hall 315, 865-2771 [email protected] Office Hours: MWF 11:30-12:20; M 1:30-3:30

Required Texts: David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces A.D. Nauman, Scorch (And a selection of shorter works on Blackboard—Course Documents)

Course Description The main purpose of the Writing about Literature requirement is to widen and sharpen students’ analytical skills through close attention to works of imaginative literature. To facilitate close, and better informed, engagement, a course like this should target its readings under some kind of umbrella, topical, thematic, or geographic, though the types of texts (genres) should differ enough to broaden students’ analytical tools. In order better to understand authors’ arguments about our thematic focus, we will have to understand the idiom of their medium, which will require attention to literary conventions (plot, character, symbolism, etc).

The thematic focus of our course will be “Work and the City.” We will explore how Americans of different times and places have considered work, in the sense of remunerative employment. In modern literature, city settings have often been the scene of critiques of the modes of labor (types of jobs) and how people have felt about them in industrial capitalist societies. (As an analog, rural “pastoral” settings often hearken back to the modes of labor of pre-industrial times). When it comes to analyzing work, leisure, and values associated with them, certain cities in the United States stand out. We will view American attitudes about work and leisure through the prism of three highly mythologized capitals of American Literature: Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. Common nicknames suggest the roles these places play in reference to labor and leisure in the American imaginative landscape: “The City that Works” (Chicago), “The Dream Factory” (L.A, as Hollywood), and “The Big Easy” (our own dear New Orleans). Dating back at least to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906), a muckraking exposé of the brutality of American labor conditions, stories set in Chicago have trained an unflinching eye on how American workers can be exploited. Los Angeles, on the other hand, offers a glimpse at the strange conflation of work and leisure, a melding of apparent opposites, either in “show business,” or in the glamorized squalor of the private detective novel. Finally, rightly or wrongly, New Orleans is perceived as a place that questions the value of work, and finds it fulfillments in leisure instead—this suspicion that leisure, not work, is really the natural realm of human fulfillment, is evident in much of New Orleans literature.

Course Objectives --Enhanced analytical skills, including attention to detail --Knowledge of mainstream literary genres and their conventions --Rudimentary understanding of major schools of literary critical thought --Greater reading and writing fluency

Assignments and Grading There will be a total of five graded papers, as well as more informal ungraded assignments. There will also be midterm and final exams.

The ungraded work will consist of short literary analyses (in the form of a questionnaire) required for every literary work we read. Students will be divided into groups and each group will analyze a particular element of literature at work in the piece (point of view, setting, symbolism, etc). Students will be required to answer a few germane questions on the days we do this, and students who do not complete these questions prior to the start of class will be marked as absent for the day. These short responses may be handwritten.

The first four graded papers (each of at least 750 words) should be close readings of individual works—no other sources required. The final paper (about 2000 words) will require synthesis: consideration of at least four sources, one of which must be critical or theoretical.

Grade values: Paper 1--15% Paper 2--15% Paper 3--15% Paper 4--15% Paper 5--20% Midterm Exam—10% Final Exam—10%

Participation While I do not include class participation as an assessed category in the gradebook, I do expect spirited participation in class discussions. Those who participate will get the benefit of the doubt in the event of borderline grade scores at the end of the semester.

Attendance, of course, is required. More than five absences will be considered grounds for automatic failure of the course.

Academic Dishonesty Academic dishonesty includes cheating on tests, completing other students' assignments for them, and plagiarism—unacknowledged copying of previously published or submitted work. All papers submitted to this class will be checked against the SafeAssign database on Blackboard. A first incidence of plagiarism will receive an 'F' (not eligible for amendment). A second case will result in failure of the course and reporting of the offending student(s) to the University for disciplinary action.

Students with Disabilities A student with a disability that qualifies for accommodations should contact Sarah Mead Smith, Director of Disability Services at 865-2990 (Academic Resource Center, Room 405, Monroe Hall). A student wishing to receive test accommodations (e.g., extended test time) should provide the instructor with an official Accommodation Form from Disability Services in advance of the scheduled test date.

Schedule

Wk 1 M 8/31 Intro.

W 9/2 Read Elements of Fiction (virtuaLit—Bb links)

Wk 2 M 9/7 Labor Day (hw: think about labor at your leisure)

W 9/9 Read Herman Melville, “Bartleby the Scrivener” (Bb)

Wk 3 M 9/14 Read Daniel Orozco, “Orientation” (Bb)

W 9/16 Read Alice Walker, “Nineteen Fifty-five” (Bb)

Wk 4 M 9/21 Due Paper 1 Read David Mamet, Glengarry Glen Ross

W 9/23 Mamet con'td.

Wk 5 M 9/28 Mamet con'td.

W 9/30 Read Raymond Chandler, “Red Wind” (Bb)

Wk 6 M 10/5 Chandler cont'd.

W 10/7 Due Paper 2 Read Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust

Wk 7 M 10/12 West cont'd.

W 10/14 West cont'd.

Wk 8 M 10/19 October Break

W 10/21 West cont'd.

Wk 9 M 10/26 Midterm Exam

W 10/28 Due Paper 3 Read Tennessee Williams, “A Streetcar Named Desire”

Wk 10 M 11/2 Williams, cont'd.

W 11/4 Read Tom Dent, “Ritual Murder”

Wk 11 M 11/9 Read John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

W 11/11 Toole, cont'd.

Wk 12 M 11/16 Toole, cont'd.

W 11/18 Toole, cont'd.

Wk 13 M 11/23 Due Paper 4 Toole cont'd.

W 11/25 Thanksgiving Break

Wk 14 M 11/30 Read A.D.Nauman, Scorch

W 12/2 Nauman cont'd.

Wk 15 M 12/7 Nauman cont'd.

W 12/9 Nauman cont'd.

F 12/11 Due Paper 5

Exam Week: Final Exam