JORGE LUIS BORGES’S ECCENTRIC WRITING
LAS_N200-001
Professor: Isabel Durocher, PhD
Office: Bobet 303
Office Hrs: M & F: 2:30-3:20; T & TH: 2:30-3:20 and by app.
e-mail: [email protected]
Phone: -3685
Days and Time: M-W-F: 1:30-2:20 pm
Course Overview:
In this course we will study the construction of an Argentine subject/identity in the writings of Jorge Luis Borges. We will explore the dialogues his texts establish with the foundational texts of Argentine identity, with the intellectual and artistic currents of the XX century in Argentina and the hegemonic West, and with history on both sides of the Atlantic.
Course Goals:
1. To develop critical thinking skills about the world we live in by focusing on the fictional/textual/constructed quality of it. 2. To develop a critical distance and therefore a better knowledge of your own culture by getting to know other cultures. 3. To encourage an interdisciplinary approach to meaning making, and therefore promote awareness of the complex texture of the world that surrounds us.
Required Text/s:
1. Jorge Luis Borges. Collected Fictions. Trans. Andrew Hurley. New York: Penguin Books, 1998. (http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Fictions-Jorge-Luis-Borges/dp/0140286802) 2. Photocopied texts: (“An Autobiographical Essay” by Norman Thomas di Giovanni; selection from Jorge Luis Borges. Selected Non-fictions, and selection from Jorge Luis Borges. Selected Poems).
Note: All texts will be photocopied. They will be posted on Bb or handed out by the instructor, but it is highly recommended to purchase the Collected Fictions (ISBN: 978-0140286809).
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Reading:
You are responsible for the readings listed on the class program or announced by the instructor before you come to class. Of course, as a literature class, this is your most important responsibility.
Grading Components:
1. Participation/discussion/homework preparation/quizzes 30% 2. Presentation/s 15% 3. Paper (1: 6 to 8 pages) or response papers (3: 2 pages each) 30% 4. Final (take home writing assignment) 25%
Grading:
93-100 = A 87-89 = B+ 77-79 = C+ 67-69 = D+
90-92 = A- 83-86 = B 73-76 = C 60-66 -= D
80-82 = B- 70-72 = C- 59 or below = F
Plagiarism:
Cheating and Plagiarism are not allowed and will be dealt with according to the Loyola Undergraduate Bulletin section on “Integrity of Scholarship and Grades.”
Academic Integrity Policy:
The Academic Honor Code of Loyola University New Orleans represents the University community’s commitment to the highest intellectual and ethical standards of honesty, integrity, fairness and justice. Violations of the Academic Honor Code include but are not limited to cheating, plagiarism, false citations, falsified data, falsification of academic records, unauthorized collaboration, misuse of electronic material, and violation of academic property laws. A student in doubt about whether a particular course of conduct might violate the University’s Academic Honor Code should talk with the course instructor before engaging in that conduct. See the Loyola University Academic Honor Pledge and Code for the definition of plagiarism, and associated consequences:
http://2014bulletin.loyno.edu/academic-honor-code
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** Students with disabilities who wish to receive accommodations in this class should contact Disability Services at 865-2990 as soon as possible so that warranted accommodations can be implemented in a timely fashion. Disability Services are located in the Academic Enrichment Center, Monroe 405. Please speak with me after you have discussed accommodations with Disability Services.
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Attendance Policy
Up to 3 absences will not affect the class grade. After 3, all absences affect your Class Participation grade, but those absences deemed excused by the professor (due to medical problems, preferably with a note from the doctor, or emergency situations that are accepted as valid) will be given other make-up privileges. Tardiness will be considered in figuring the Class Participation grade. Three or more unexcused absences will drop your final class grade by a point per absence.
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For HURRICANE EMERGENCY preparedness plan click the following link: http://www.loyno.edu/studentaffairs/hurricane.emer.plan.html
CELLULAR TELEPHONES: The use of cellular telephones and other electronics devices is prohibited in class, in any form, including text messaging and monitoring Blackberries or other organizers. Reading and sending text messages during class time is distracting, disrupted, rude and explicitly prohibited. The sounding and vibrating of cell phones during class time are disruptive both to the professor and to classmates; please silence the cellular while in class.
SENDING E-MAILS: E-mails sent by students from an account other than the Loyola’s e-mail account will not be answered. Please use your loyno account at all times.
Please include your name, last name, course, and section number when sending an e-mail message to the instructor. Disregarding this procedure will result in a delayed response.
For additional information, go to: http://www.loyno.edu/students/handbook/chapter_03.html
This syllabus is subject to change. It is the students' responsibility to remain informed of any changes. It is posted on LORA and on blackboard. Any changes will be announced in class and/or on blackboard.
Fall 2014
Week 1: 25-29th-August*
M: Course introduction
W: Invention of Argentina
F: Invention of Argentina: “guiding fictions”-Echeverría, Sarmiento (basic concept in Said,
Edward. Orientalism [1978]), Hidalgo
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Week 2: 1-5th-September*
M: There is no class: Labor Day
W: Invention of Argentina: “guiding fictions”-Echeverría, Sarmiento, Hidalgo
F: Invention of Argentina: “guiding fictions”-Ascasubi, Hernández
Week 3: 8-12
M: “History and the re-writing of guiding fictions”: Bemberg, M. Luisa. Camila (1984)
Presentation: Argentina 1890-1930: ______
W: “The Mythical Founding of BsAs” (Fervor de BsAs, 1923); “An Autobiographical Essay”
Presentation: Argentina 1890-1930: ______
F: “An Autobiographical Essay”
Presentation: Argentina 1930-1946: ______
Week 4: 15-19th
M: Response Paper 1 due. Guidelines on Bb (Course Material). “An Autobiographical
Essay”;
W: “The Argentine Writer and his Tradition”; A Universal History of Iniquity (1935);
F: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): ______
A Universal History of Iniquity (1935)
Week 5: 22-26th
M: A Universal History of Iniquity (1935); Sarlo, Beatriz. “ JL Borges, a Writer on the
Edge” (1993)-basic concepts: “el compadrito” y “las orillas”
Presentation: Argentina 1930-1946: ______
W: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
The Fantastic; “The Perpetual Race of Achilles and the Tortoise”; “Pascal’s Sphere”
F: Presentation: Argentina 1946-1955: ______
Nominalism vs Realism; “The Nightingale of Keats” (OI, 1952)
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Week 6: 29-3-October*
M: Presentation: Argentina 1946-1955: ______
“Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”
W: “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”
F: “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”
Week 7: 6-10th
M: “The House of Asterión” (The Aleph, 1949); “ Pedro Salvadores” (In Praise of
Darkness, 1969)
W: Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1866): ______
“Nathaniel Hawthorne”
F: “The Golem”: “The Circular Ruins” (The Garden of Forking Paths, 1941; Fictions,
1944)
Week 8: 13-17th
M: There is no class: Fall Break
W: “History of Tango”; “The Doctrine of the Cycles”
F: Presentation: Balderston, Daniel. “The Mark of the Knife: Scars and Signs in Borges”
______. “The End”
Week 9: 20-24th
M: The Dead Man”; Response Paper 2 due. Guidelines on Bb (Course Material)
W: “The Secret Miracle”; “Deutsches Requiem”
Presentations, Macciochi, María-Antonieta. Female Sexuality in Fascist
Idelogy”: ______; Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Introduction to
Male Fantasies”: ______(Europe/Argentina and Fascism)
F: “The Garden of Forking Paths”. Orientalism.
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Week 10: 27-31st
M: “Death and the Compass”. On Detective Fiction. “The Detective story”; “The labyrinth
of the detective story and Chesterton” (Selected-Non-Fictions, 112-114)
W: “Emma Zunz”
F: “Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden”
Week 11: -7th-November
M: “The Shape of the Sword”
W: “The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero”
F: A Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz”
Week 12: 10-14th
M: “Guayaquil”
W: The South”
F: “Ibn-Hakam al Bokhari, Murdered in his Labyrinth”: “The Two Kings and the Two
Labyrinths”
Week 13:17-21st
M: “The Aleph”
W: Response Paper 3 due. Guidelines on Bb (Course Material)
F: There is no class: Professor in conference
Week 14: 24-28th
M: Class cancelled
W: There is no class: Thanksgiving Holidays
F: There is no class: Thanksgiving Holidays
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Week 15: 1-3rd-December
M: “The Interloper”; Presentation: The Dirty War: ______
W: “The Gospel According to Mark”
F: “The Writing of the God”
Week 16: 8th-last day of classes
M: “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”; “John Wilkins Analytical Language” (Selected Non-Fictions, 229); “The Other Tiger”
Final exam/home writing assignment/paper to turn in on December 12 at 1:30 in my office,
Bobet 303
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