1

ENG 421 090: Topics in American Literature

Office: 256-LAN Email: [email protected] Meeting: 176-Ferguson Phone: 936-468-5759

Time: TR 11-12:15 Office Hours: MW: 2-4 T: 1-5, o.b.a.

“What has become unraveled since that afternoon in Dallas is not the plot, of course, not the dense mass of characters and events, but the sense of a coherent reality most of us shared. We seem from that moment to have entered a world of randomness and ambiguity, a world totally modern in the way it shades into the century's 'emptiest' literature, the study of what is uncertain and unresolved in our lives, the literature of estrangement and silence.” - Don DeLillo. “American Blood: A Journey through the Labyrinth of Dallas and JFK” Rolling Stone magazine, 1983

This course’s primary interest is in the intermingling of historical disaster and literature, namely, how narrative art responds to disaster; how disaster is narrative; how disaster is anti-narrative; how narrative arts attempt to or avoid attempting to respond to disaster; how narrative and disaster are both borne from the same human impulse. The term ‘disaster’ is being used broadly here, though I’ve chosen texts that are mainly concerned with outward, manmade forms disaster (see: global terrorism, environmental decay, assassination, etc.) in hopes of avoiding the smaller, Chekhovian notion of personal calamity and/or epiphany and/or catharsis under the pretense that macro-level catastrophe must force a society—no matter how briefly—away from navel-gazing unease and toward broader issues of what it means to be human and alive.

Texts: A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O’Nan Mao II by Don DeLillo Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright Bel Canto by Ann Patchett The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Selected short stories, poems, and critical articles will be provided by the professor.

Assignments:  Two (2) critical essays of 1,000 – 1,500 words.  Annotated Bibliography  Research Essay  Participation

Grading Breakdown: Essay One 20 Essay Two 20 Annotated Bibliography 15 Research Essay 30 Participation 15 Total 100 Insofar as: 100-90: A; 89-80: B; 79-70: C; 69-60: D; 59- F 2

Attendance is essential for an advanced literature course. I will allow you three (3) absences. Your fourth absence will result in a reduction of one full letter grade to be applied to your final grade. Your fifth absence will result in a final grade of Failure (F). Further, without attendance, you cannot participate in class. Absences will also impact your participation grade: Each absence, excused by me or not, will result in a deduction of three and a half (3.5) points.

Students with Disabilities: To obtain disability related accommodations, alternate formats and/or auxiliary aids, students with disabilities must contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS), Human Services Building, and Room 325, 468-3004 / 468-1004 (TDD) as early as possible in the semester. Once verified, ODS will notify the course instructor and outline the accommodation and/or auxiliary aids to be provided. Failure to request services in a timely manner may delay your accommodations. For additional information, go to http://www.sfasu.edu/disabilityservices/.

Academic Integrity (A-9.1): Academic integrity is a responsibility of all university faculty and students. Faculty members promote academic integrity in multiple ways including instruction on the components of academic honesty, as well as abiding by university policy on penalties for cheating and plagiarism.

Definition of Academic Dishonesty: Academic dishonesty includes both cheating and plagiarism. Cheating includes but is not limited to (1) using or attempting to use unauthorized materials to aid in achieving a better grade on a component of a class; (2) the falsification or invention of any information, including citations, on an assigned exercise; and/or (3) helping or attempting to help another in an act of cheating or plagiarism. Plagiarism is presenting the words or ideas of another person as if they were your own. Examples of plagiarism are (1) submitting an assignment as if it were one's own work when, in fact, it is at least partly the work of another; (2) submitting a work that has been purchased or otherwise obtained from an Internet source or another source; and (3) incorporating the words or ideas of an author into one's paper without giving the author due credit. Please read the complete policy at http://www.sfasu.edu/policies/academic_integrity.asp

Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs):

3

Tentative Schedule Tue Jan 24 Introduction to the Course A Prayer for the Dying

Tue Jan 31 A Prayer for the Dying

Tue Feb 7 Mao II

Tue Feb 14 Mao II

Tue Feb 21 Mao II Essay One Due

Tue Feb 28 NO CLASS

Tue March 6 Philadelphia Fire

Tue March 13 NO CLASS

Tue March 20 The Looming Tower

Tue March 27 The Looming Tower

Tue April 3 Bel Canto Essay Two Due

Tue April 10 Bel Canto

Tue April 17 The Road

Tue April 24 The Road Annotated Bibliography Due

Tue May 1 Film

Tue May 8 Final Essay Due