UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO / RIO PIEDRAS CAMPUS COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES / DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH/ GRADUATE PROGRAM

English 6029: [Topics in Literature] The Flawed Design—Imperialism, Savagery, and Civilization in William Faulkner, N. Scott Momaday, and Cormac McCarthy

Dr. Diane Accaria-Zavala , retired professor [2009 syllabus provided for reference purposes] [email protected]

Course Description: A crucial topic for the modern and contemporary American is that of imperialism and its legacy or effect on the national and transnational landscape. The imperial enterprise deeply affects the collective psyche (a nation’s sense of national identity and collective goals), and the individual (on either side of the imperial project). As living the “experience” and consequence of the “flawed design” within the imperial enterprise of their nation, they felt that its’ gigantic meaning ranged from personal and national destiny to human destiny itself. While it assumes purity of motive, the national spirit in the imperial enterprise, supports relentless physical or ideological expansionism or interventionism, causing great human and ecological strife. For writers such as the Native American Scott Momaday, or the Anglo Americans such as William Faulkner, and more recently Cormac McCarthy, the task to establish the fateful ramifications of empire or colonialism becomes as imperative as it does subversive. In their work, foundational themes, myths, or stereotypes such as the frontier or border, Western progress, expansionism, colonialism, nature vs. nurture, civilization, savagery, the land (or home-land), violence, regeneration, transgression, or redemption, miscegenation, ethnic purity, are revisited, scrutinized, de-mystified, and, at times, subverted. These invariably portray their characters’ internal lives, their mental, emotional and spiritual condition, as they avertedly or inadvertently partake of the nation’s political, economic or ideological enterprise. Usually their characters are deeply troubled with internal, existential struggles; are world-weary or cynical, finding themselves rootlessly existing in usually seedy or sordid circumstances. Their stories usually occur in poor, hot, and dusty landscapes such as America’s Southwest, or the South, or Mexico, Haiti, or Cuba. Suffering and unhappiness are omnipresent in the “fallen” world these novelists depict, and ideological or theological faith is posed against a background of unvarying human evil, sin, and doubt. In short, these chosen novelists present, and grapple with, the reality of evil within a national, transnational, and personal landscape. In doing so, they comment on the past and future of their nation and their people; they denounce the inevitable catastrophe of unrelentless exploitation and provoke, in future generations, a possible and hopeful redemption in acknowledgement and in a commitment for change. During the course of our study, certain films (either adaptations of these novelist’s work, or screenplays they have authored) may be screened as supplementary material.

Required texts:

A. Ordered at BORDERS / Plaza Las Americas (see Ileana Barreto if you have trouble): William Faulkner : • Absalom, Absalom! [Vintage: ISBN: 978-0-679-73218-1 (0-679-73218-7)] • Collected Stories [Vintage: ISBN: 978-0-679-76403-8 (0-679-76403-8)] • Sanctuary: The Corrected Text [Vintage: ISBN-10: 0679748148 (13: 978-0679748144)] • Big Woods: The Hunting Stories [Vintage: ISBN: 978-0-679-75252-3 (0-679-75252-8)] N. Scott Momaday • The Ancient Child: A [Harper Perennial: ISBN-10: 0060973455 (13: 978-0060973452)] • The Way to Rainy Mountain [University of New Mexico Press: ISBN-10: 0826304362 (13: 978-0826304360)] Cormac McCarthy • [Vintage: ISBN-10: 0307472124 (13: 978-0307472120)] 2

• [Vintage: ISBN-10: 0307387135 (13: 978-0307387134)] • [Vintage: ISBN-10: 0679728759 (13: 978-0679728757)]

B. Reserved Readings (in the Richardson Seminar Room [PED 107] under course number;*seek on line):

1. Literature (stories or excerpts): • Faulkner [*“ Award Speech” (1949 ;*seek on line )] • Scott Momaday [Excerpt of novel: (1968): Prologue; July 20, July 21, July 28 ] • W. Whitman [Poem: “Facing West from California’s Shore” (1860)] • R. Frost [Poem: “The Gift Outright” (1961)] • F.S. Fitzgerald [Excerpt of novel: (1925)] • Cherokee Myth: “The Bear Man”

2. Essays (historical, literary criticism, cultural or literary theory / *seek on line): • Bongie , Chris. “The Memory of Hayti: William Faulkner, Victor Hugo, and the Saint Domingue Revolution” (1998) [this chapter can be accessed at: http://books.google.com.pr/books?id=juC7vaxM_80C&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=The+memory+of+Hayti:+William+Faulkn er,+Victor+Hugo,+and+the+Saint+Domingue+Revolution&source=bl&ots=k-LW30lTC0&sig=E4dAaeyVqUBplQkIwIr8wo- Ym8I&hl=es&ei=CXqqSpP_GOD7tgf00cSSCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false] • Brewton , Bruce. “The Changing Landscape of Violence in Cormac McCarthy's Early and the Border Trilogy” (2004) • Cohn , Deborah N. “Faulkner and Spanish America: Then and Now” (2003) • Douglas , Christopher. “The Flawed Design: American Imperialism in N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian ” (2003) • Eddins , Dwight. ““Everything a Hunter and Everything Hunted”: Schopenhauer and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian ” (2003) • Fanon , Frantz. From: The Wretched of the Earth (1961): “Reciprocal Basis of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom” • Frye , Northrup. “The Archetypes of Literature” (1951) • Howe , Irving. “The Idea of the Modern” (1967) • Jameson, Fredric. “ and Consumer Society” (1988) • Landrum , Larry N. “The Shattered of Momaday's House Made of Dawn ” (1996) • Lukacs , Georg. “The Ideology of Modernism” (1957) • McHale , Brian. From Postmodernist Fiction (2001): “Chap. 1: “From Modernist to Postmodernist Fiction: Change of Dominant” [a summary of the text is at: http://marina628.wordpress.com/2007/10/22/brian-mchale-postmodernist-fiction/] • Messent , Peter. "'No Way Back Forever': American Western Myth in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy" (2005) • Nelson Limerick , Patricia. From The Legacy of Conquest (1988): “ Introduction : Closing the American Frontier and Opening Western History”; “Chap. 1 : Empire of Innocence; Chap. 6 : The Persistence of Natives”; “Chap. 7 : America the Borderland”; “Chap. 10: The Burdens of Western American History” • *Pitavy , F. “Prohibition in William Faulkner's Sanctuary : Motif and Metaphor” [*Seek on line] • Porter , C. “William Faulkner: Innocence Historicized” (1981) • *Roberts , Marilyn. “Scarface, The Great Gatsby, and the American Dream”[*Seek on line] • *Schrader, P . “Notes on Film Noir I and II” [*Seek on line] • Snead , J. “The “Joint” of Racism: Withholding the Black in Absalom, Absalom!” (1987) 3

• Stanchich , Maritza. “The Hidden Caribbean “Other” in WF’s Absalom, Absalom!: An Ideological Ancestry of US Imperialism.” (1996) [can be accessed at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3524/is_3_49/ai_n28680436/ • Stevens , J. W. “Bear, Outlaw, and Storyteller” (2001) • Sundquist , E. “ Absalom, Absalom! and the House Divided” (1983) • Tebbetts , Terrell. “Sanctuary Redux: Faulkner's Logical Pattern of Evil in McCarthy's No Country for Old Men” (2006) • Trefzer , Annette. “Postcolonial Displacements in Faulkner’s Indian Stories of the ” (2003) • *Turner , Frederick Jackson. “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893) [*Seek on line]: www.learner.org/workshops/.../docs/turner.html

Course Outline [check Course Calendar for details on due dates]:

Week I-II: ‘The Legacy of Conquest’ in the US: From Modernism to Post Modernism-- Literature as a Subversive Act Readings: Theory/History: Turner; Nelson Limerick; Fanon; Lukacs; Howe; Frye Screenings: *The West (Doc:1996; all 8 episodes *available in Lab ) Week III: Going Over Bounds—A Legacy of Corruption, the Gangster and Readings: Whitman “Facing West from California’s Shore”; Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925); M. Roberts; Schrader Screenings: Public Enemy (1930); Scarface (1932); The Maltese Falcon (1941); “Double Indemnity ( 1944); “Citizen Kane (1946); Public Enemies (2009) Week IV-VII : William Faulkner: The Flawed Design of Empire & the Legacy of Postcolonial Displacement Readings: Novels: Sanctuary (1931); Absalom, Absalom! (1936) / Short stories: “”; “”; “The Old People”; “The Bear”; “Nobel Prize Award Speech” / Criticism: Bongie; Cohn; McHale; Stanchich; Tebbetts; Trefzer; Pitavy; Sundquist; Snead; Porter. Screenings : (1949) / Two Soldiers (2005) Week VIII-X: Scott Momaday: On Being “Bear”—Exercises in Savagery Readings: Novels: House Made of Dawn (excerpt); / The Ancient Child (1989) / The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969) / Criticism: Douglas; Landrum; Stevens. Screenings: House Made of Dawn (1969) / Skins (2007) Week XI-XV: Cormac McCarthy: The Legacy of Conquest—Blood, Sweat & Tears Readings: Novels: Blood Meridian, Or the Evening Redness in the West (1985) / No Country for Old Men (2005) / The Road (2006) / Theory: Jameson / Criticism: Tebbetts; Messent; Eddins; Brewton; Douglas Screenings: No Country for Old Men (2007) / All the Pretty Horses (2000) / The Road (2009)

Teaching strategies*: Seminar based on lectures, class discussions, and student-generated analysis. ______*Los estudiantes que reciban servicios de Rehabilitación Vocacional pueden recibir acomodo razonable y equipo asistivo necesario conforme a las recomendaciones de la Oficina de Asuntos para las Personas con Impedimento (OAPI) del Decanato de Estudiantes.

Evaluation Method*: Three grades (each one: 33.9%)

• Mid Term Exam @ 100 points • Research Paper (includes Proposal, Annotated Bibliography & 18-24 pp essay on student’s topic choice ) • Reviews, Assignments, Oral Reports @ 100 points (4 during the semester). ______*Evaluación diferenciada disponible para estudiantes con necesidades especiales.

Bibliography [*assigned texts / **highly recommended and in Richardson Seminar Room ]: 4

*Bongie, Chris. Islands and Exiles: The Creole Identities of Post Colonial Literatures. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1998. See Chap. 5: “The Memory of Hayti: William Faulkner, Victor Hugo, and the Saint Domingue Revolution,”189-217. **Bradbury, Malcolm and R. Ruland, eds. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of . New York: Penguin, 1991 . *Brewton, Bruce. "The Changing Landscape of Violence in Cormac McCarthy's Early Novels and the Border Trilogy." Southern Literary Journal, 37:1 (2004 Fall).121-43. *Cohn, Deborah N. “Faulkner and Spanish America: Then and Now.” In Faulkner in the Twenty-First Century. Ed. R. Hamblin and A. Abadie. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2003. 50-67. Churchill, Ward. “Smoke Signals: A History of Native Americans in Cinema.” 2004; LiP Magazine http://www.lipmagazine.org. *Douglas, Christopher. “The Flawed Design: American Imperialism in N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian .” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 45:1 (2003 Fall). 3-24. *Eddins, Dwight. ““Everything a Hunter and Everything Hunted”: Schopenhauer and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. ” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 45:1 (2003 Fall). 25-33. *Fanon, Frantz. “From: The Wretched of the Earth: Reciprocal Basis of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom.” 1961; rpt. in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 1575-1593. *Frye, Northrup. “The Archetypes of Literature.” 1951; rpt. in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 1445-1456. **Harrington, Evans & Abadie. Faulkner, Modernism and Film. Jackson: Mississippi UP, 1978. Horsley, Lee. Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction. New York: Oxford U P, 2005. *Howe, Irving, ed. The Idea of the Modern: in Literature & the Arts. NY: Horizon, 1967. *Jameson, Fredric. “Postmodernism and Consumer Society.” 1988; rpt. in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.1960-1974. *Landrum, Larry N. “The Shattered Modernism of Momaday's House Made of Dawn .” Modern Fiction Studies . Volume 42, Number 4, Winter 1996. 763-786. *Lukacs, Georg. “The Ideology of Modernism.” 1957; rpt. in The Theory of the Novel. Boston: MIT Press, 1974. _____. 1937; The Historical Novel. Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 1983. McGee, Patrick. From Shane to Kill Bill : Rethinking the Western. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006. *McHale, Brian. Postmodernist Fiction. London: Routledge, 2001. See: Chap. 1: “From Modernist to Postmodernist Fiction: Change of Dominant,” 3-25. *Messent, Peter. “'No Way Back Forever': American Western Myth in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy.” In American Mythologies: Essays on Contemporary Literature. Eds. Blazek, William and Glenday, Michael K. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2005. 128-155. *Nelson Limerick, Patricia. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. NY: Norton, 1988. See: Introduction : Closing the American Frontier and Opening Western History, p. 17-32; Chap. 1 : Empire of Innocence, p.35-54; Chap. 6 : The Persistence of Natives, p. 179-221; Chap. 7 : America the Borderland, p. 222-257; Chap. 10: The Burdens of Western American History, p. 322-349. **Owens, Louis. Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel. Norman: Oklahoma UP, 1994. See: “Acts of Imagination: The Novels of Scott Momaday.” *Pitavy, François. “Prohibition in William Faulkner's Sanctuary: Motif and Metaphor.” ON LINE: www.uhb.fr/faulkner/wf/articles/pitavy.htm *Porter, Carolyn. “William Faulkner: Innocence Historicized.” In Modern Critical Interpretations: William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! Ed. . NY: Chelsea House, 1987. 57-73. *Roberts, Marilyn. “ Scarface , The Great Gatsby, and the American Dream.” ON LINE: FindArticles: Literature Film Quarterly , 2006. Ruth, E. Inventing the Public Enemy: The Gangster in American Culture, 1918-1934. Chicago: UP of Chicago, 1996. Saldivar, Jose David. “Postmodern Realism.” In The Columbia History of the American Novel. Ed. E. Elliott, C. Davidson, et al. New York: Columbia UP, 1991. 521-41. *Schrader, P. "Notes on Film Noir I and II." ON LINE: permophiles.spaces.live.com/.../cns!49386EFDA74809EA!1571.entry Shiach Morag. The Cambridge Companion to the Modernist Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 2007. *Snead, James. “The “Joint” of Racism: Withholding the Black in Absalom, Absalom!” In Modern Critical Interpretations: William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom. 129-141. 5

*Stanchich, Maritza. “The Hidden Caribbean “Other” in WF’s Absalom, Absalom!: An Ideological Ancestry of US Imperialism.” The Mississippi Quarterly, XLIX: 3 (1996). 603-617. *Stevens, J. W. “Bear, Outlaw, and Storyteller: American Frontier Mythology and the Ethnic Subjectivity of N. Scott Momaday.” American Literature. 73: 3 (September 2001). 599-631. *Sundquist, E. “ Absalom, Absalom! and the House Divided. ” In Modern Critical Interpretations: William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom ! 91-104. *Tebbetts, Terrell. “Sanctuary Redux: Faulkner's Logical Pattern of Evil in McCarthy's No Country for Old Men.” Philological Review, 32:1 (2006 Spring). 69-81. *Trefzer, Annette. “Postcolonial Displacements in Faulkner’s Indian Stories of the 1930s.” In Faulkner in the Twenty- First Century. Ed. R. Hamblin and A. Abadie. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2003. 68-87. *Turner, Frederick Jackson. "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." 1893; ON LINE: www.learner.org/workshops/.../docs/turner.html **Vizenor, Gerald. “Manifest Manners: Postindian Warriors of Survivance.” 1994; rpt. in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 1975-1985. _____. Ed. Chance: Postmodern Discourse on Native American Indian Literatures. Norman: Oklahoma UP, 1993. See especially: “A Postmodern Introduction.” 3-16. **Volpe, E. A Reader’s Guide to William Faulkner: The Novels. 1951 rpt; NY: UP of Syracuse, 2004.

Electronic resources: • http:www.gutenberg.org/etext/3120 • http:www.modern-fiction-network.org • http:www.imdb.com • http:www.lanic.utexas.edu/project/arl. • Library of Congress digital/digitized collections: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ or http: www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

ASSIGNED FILMS

[Note: Films cannot be screened in class but are assigned as HOME or LAB viewings. Just as your literary or theory texts, these films are compulsory for class discussion. These films may be seen in our Resource Center ( The Lab ) with a previously set appointment or you may rent on your own. Please make pertinent arrangements and see these films before their due date. *Indicates not available in Lab.]

The West (Doc:1996) Public Enemy (1930) Scarface (1932) The Maltese Falcon (1941) Double Indemnity (1944) Citizen Kane (1946) Intruder in the Dust (1949) Two Soldiers (2005) House Made of Dawn (1969) Skins (2007) No Country for Old Men (2007) The Road (2009) All the Pretty Horses (2000) Public Enemies (2009)

Revised August 2009