ENGL 365, Fall 2018Tuesdays 1:20pm-4:10pm, CRT285

Prof. Lily SaintEmail: lsaint@wesleyan.eduOffice: 285 Court Street, rm. 308Office Hours: Tues. 4:30-5:30pm, Wed. 9-10am, and by appointment

Ethics & Literature

P.B. Shelley’s claim that “the great instrument of moral good is the imagination,” lacks the twentieth century pessimism of his inheritor, W.H. Auden, who wrote that “poetry makes nothing happen.” Beginning from this disagreement about the influence of creative work on social and material relations, this course will explore the ethical effects of aesthetic production. Drawing on a historically broad set of readings—from the Enlightenment and Romantic period through the twenty-first century—we will look at how writers and philosophers have addressed the relationship between literary and cultural works and moral transformation. These works help us examine how, as Wittgenstein puts it “words are also deeds.”

Required ReadingsAll readings listed below (except the recommended readings) are required. They can be found either on moodle, indicated with an (m), or for the following texts, at R.J. Julia bookstore:

J.M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Agota Kristof, The Notebook Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved Janet Malcolm, Iphigenia in Forest Hills Mary Shelley, Frankenstein Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Recommended readings are provided for those students interested in delving deeper into a topic or set of theoretical claims. These may also serve as an initial research guide for final essays. Course Organization:

1. Presentations (25%)Every week, one or two students will be the main expert(s) on the readings, responsible for presenting on the assigned materials and facilitating the first half of class discussion. I expect you to lead a class discussion that draws our attention to interesting questions raised by the readings. You may want to supplement your discussion of the texts we are reading with other materials, literary, historical

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and/or theoretical, and it will always be fruitful to link materials to our previous discussions, drawing connections and highlighting differences.

2. Participation (25%)This is a discussion-based seminar, and as such, your verbal participation is vital to our collective project. The course will be most productive with the full participation of everyone. Full participation involves thoughtfully engaging in class discussion, formulating questions and responding to questions raised by other participants in the class, as well as carefully listening to and following class discussion. Regular attendance is vital since we meet only once a week. Consistency in this regard will be reflected in your participation grade.

3. Midterm Essay (10%) and Final Seminar Paper (40%)

Midterm EssayHalfway through the semester you will write a 5-8pp paper that addresses one of the central preoccupations that has arisen for you during class discussions or in the reading assignments. We will talk about this paper closer to the time, however, you may address theoretical, formal, or historical concerns in it, or anything else you raise with me beforehand. This initial paper might eventually form the basis of a longer analysis in your final seminar paper due at the end of the semester. Should you discover new interests during the second half of the semester, you are under no obligation to develop this midterm essay into the final paper.

Due Thursday Oct 18 at 11:59 pm on moodle.

Final Seminar PaperThis paper can focus on any work of literature in relation to any of the theoretical issues we discuss in class. (I will also consider projects that examine non-literary genres such as film and/or popular culture genres). Please study the entire syllabus to see if there are readings/topics that come up later in the semester that you would like to work on. Before the paper is due you must:

Meet me to discuss your paper proposalYou will meet me in person during my office hours or by appointment any time between the start of the semester and October 31 to discuss your ideas for a paper topic. The final due date for your proposal, by email is November 2 at 11:59pm.

Your proposal should use a few pages to:a) Outline your area of inquiry (identify the questions you will be asking, and the potential arguments you might make). At this point, your topic can be somewhat open-ended.

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b) Include a bibliography that contains readings from the course as well as other readings, as evidence that you have begun research on this topic.

I will return your proposals to you with comments on November 13. Your paper (minimum 18pp double-spaced plus notes) will be due by email on Saturday, December 15 by 11:59pm.

Policies: Computers, Cellphones, and other GadgetsSince this class emphasizes discussion, no computers or cell phones (etc.) are permitted in class, as they tend to interfere with interpersonal interaction. Should there be an extenuating reason to use one of these devices in class, please talk to me about making an exception.

Attendance Since we meet only once weekly, more than 2 unexcused absences will seriously jeopardize your grade.

Assignment extensionsNo extensions will be granted except in cases of medical emergency. Late papers will be penalized by one third of a grade for each day they are late (i.e. a B paper will become a B-, then a C+, etc.)

Academic IntegrityI expect all your work in this class will uphold the Honor Code that you signed when you matriculated: http://www.wesleyan.edu/studentaffairs/studenthandbook/standardsregulations/studentconduct.html. Plagiarism will not be tolerated, and I will follow Wesleyan protocol by referring all instances of suspected plagiarism to the Vice President for Student Affairs and the student-run Honor Board. Please feel free to ask me if you have any questions about the proper and responsible use of sources.

Citation GuidelinesPlease use the MLA citation style for all your essays. Guidelines can be found in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, or online, at the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) website: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/

Students with DisabilitiesWesleyan University is committed to ensuring that all qualified students with disabilities are afforded an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from its programs and services.  To receive accommodations, a student must have a documented disability as defined by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, and provide documentation of the disability. Since accommodations may require early planning and generally are not provided retroactively, please contact Disability Resources as soon as possible.

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If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact Dean Patey in Disability Resources, located in North College, Room 021, or call 860-685-2332 for an appointment to discuss your needs and the process for requesting accommodations.

Course ScheduleWe will do our best to adhere to the following schedule, but readings and assignments may be subject to change. Be sure you check your Wesleyan email at least once a day in case assignments have changed, as I will rely primarily on email and moodle to contact you.

9/4 Introduction: Literature as ethicsHandout: Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “The Eolian Harp”

9/11 Hume & Enlightenment theories of sympathy David Hume, Selections from A Treatise of Human Nature

Handout Book 2:1: XI “On the love of fame”Book 2:2: IV, “On the love of relations” Book 2:2: V, “Of our esteem for the rich and powerful” Book 2:2: XII, “Of the love and hatred of animals”Book 2:3: III, “Of the influencing motives of the will” Book 3:1: II, “Moral distinctions deriv’d from a moral sense” Book 3:2: I, “Justice, whether a natural or artificial virtue?”Book 3:2: II, “Of the origin of justice and property”Book 3:3: I, “Of the origin of the natural virtues and vices”Book 3:3: III, “Of goodness and benevolence”

Recommended readings: John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding; Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan; William Hazlitt, An Essay on the Principles of Human Action; Siraj Ahmed, The Stillbirth of Capital: Enlightenment Writing and Colonial India

9/18 Of poets and prophets Selections from Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, 1812 (m) John Keats’ letter on “negative capability” (1817) (m) William Wordsworth (m—there are two documents on moodle):

Preface to Lyrical Ballads, with Pastoral and Other Poems (1802) “The Discharged Soldier”“The Old Cumberland Beggar” “Resolution and Independence” “The Solitary Reaper” “Simon Lee, the Old Huntsman”

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Recommended readings: S.T. Coleridge, “The Ancient Mariner”; William Wordsworth, “Michael”; Vincent Crapanzano: Chapters 1-2 in Imaginative Horizons: An Essay in Literary-Philosophical Anthropology; Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation

9/25 Ethics and its others Mary Shelley, Frankenstein David Marshall, Selections from On the Surprising Effects of Sympathy:

IntroductionChapter Six

10/2 Poets, politics, democracy Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass Doris Sommer, “Freely and Equally Yours, Walt Whitman” (m)

Recommended readings: Martha Nussbaum, Poetic Justice; John E. Seery (ed.), A Political Companion to Walt Whitman

10/9 Forms of instrumentalism Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Selections from Saidiya Hartman, Scenes of Subjection

Recommended reading: Toni Morrison, “Site of Memory”

10/16 Writing & ethics Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of

Darkness” (m)

Recommended readings: Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost; Benita Parry, Conrad and Imperialism: Ideological Boundaries & Visionary Frontiers

10/23 No class—Fall Break

10/30 The ethical abyss Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved Paul Celan, “Todesfuge/Deathfugue” (handout)

Recommended readings: Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem; Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, A Human Being Died That Night

11/6 Torture and the ethics of representation Watch The Act of Killing J.M. Coetzee, “Into the Dark Chamber” (m)

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Recommended readings: Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain; Ariel Dorfman, Death and the Maiden

11/13 Realism György Lukács, “Reportage or Portrayal?” (m) Honoré de Balzac, The Unknown Masterpiece

11/20 Strategies after realism Agota Kristof, The Notebook

Recommended reading: W.G. Sebald, The Emigrants

11/27 Against instrumentalism J.M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello

Recommended readings: Derek Attridge, “Modernist Form and the Ethics of Otherness” in J.M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading; Derek Attridge, The Singularity of Literature, chap. 9 “Responsibility and

Ethics”; David Palumbo-Liu, The Deliverance of Others, chapter on Elizabeth Costello

12/4 Of judgment & ethics Janet Malcolm, Iphigenia in Forest Hills

Recommended reading: Franz Kafka, “The Judgment”; Vincent Crapanzano, Serving the Word: Literalism in America from the Pulpit to the Bench

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