Haeselin_F15 Contemporary American Fiction Syllabus

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Contemporary

merican

Fiction

ENGL 415

Seminar in Literature

Fall 2015

MWF 1100-1150

Dr. David Haeselin

E-mail : [email protected]

Office

:

Merrifield 301A

Office Hours : MWF 1:30-3 and by appt.

Course Description:

American fiction after World War II is stuck in an identity crisis. Critics and practitioners havedescribed the writing from this period with such terms as post-modern, Post-45, and contemporary.In an attempt to clarify this confusion, this course takes the term contemporaryat face value and asksstudents to read a variety of works published primarily since September 11, 2001. We will exploremany of the important motifs and controversies in recent fiction, including: the meaning of Americaafter 9/11, the status of irony and sincerity in American life, the place of genre writing in literaryfiction, the constitution of the modern family, the impact of creative writing programs on the formand market for fiction, and the composition of the so-called Post-Race society. To develop a senseof the historical context from which these novels arise, we will also read selected literary journalismwritten, in some cases, by these authors themselves. Over the course of the semester I hope toconvince students of this literatures value as a form of entertainment andas a source of edificationabout their own lives in contemporary America.

This course is an Essential Studies Capstone Course, and fulfills the goals of WrittenCommunication and Critical Thinking. This course is approved for graduate credit.


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Texts:

Required (available in campus bookstore and online)

Eggers, Dave.A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Klay, Phil. Redeployment.Kushner, Rachel. The Flamethrowers.Laymon, Kiese. Long Division.Pynchon, Thomas.Bleeding Edge.Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead.Wallace, David Foster. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.

Various selections available on the on courses Blackboard site. Marked in the syllabus as BB.

Course Objectives

Familiarize students with the major concepts, genres, and problems in fiction writing,publishing, and reception since 2000.

Model a historically specific, contextual, and socially responsible model of interpretation ofliterary fiction, academic criticism, and popular journalism.

Cultivate strategies for synthesizing large amounts of information into relevant and engagingwriting.

Prepare students for graduate level academic work by developing techniques for refiningsearch protocols, acquiring fluency with academic databases, and adopting judiciousstandards for scholarly work.

Develop fluency in leading small group discussions and presenting research to peers.

Requirements

I.

Short Essay on Literary Sincerity (20 )

DFWs Fiction and Eggers Memoir, 3-4pp. (undergrad)

4-6 (grad).

II. Midterm Project (25 )

Mining Big Data: Analyzing Amazon Book Reviews

III. Presentations (10 )

Lead one class session (5 )

Discussion of Final Research (5 )


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IV. Final Research Paper: (30 )

Reception in the Age of Too Much.

Compare extant published reviews of a work of fiction to

another data source of your choosing.

(5 Proposal/Annotated Bib)

8-10pp (undergrad), 6-8 outside sources.

10-12pp (grad),10-12 outside sources.

V. Class Participation and Homework (15 )

Attendance, Class Participation & Lateness

I expect all students to be prepared for class everyday; being prepared means paying close attention

to scheduled assignments, doing the homework, and bringing relevant materials with you to class.You areallowed four absences without penalty following your fourth absence, your grade in the class willbegin to drop by a half-a-letter gradeper absence. Plan ahead if you think you might miss classfor religious holidays or for other scheduled events. Just because you inform me of an absencebeforehand does not mean that it does not count towards your total. I do not dis t inguish betweenexcused and unexcused absences you are allowed four absences be they excused or

unexcused before your grade beg ins to decrease unless other spec ial arrangements have been

made with me ahead of t ime. For every two days you are late to class, you will be marked for oneabsence. If you are more than 15 minutes late to class, you will be marked absent for that day. Ifyou miss a class meeting, you are responsible to contact your peers or come to my office hoursformaterials and information youve missed. Finally, you are responsible for keeping track of your ownabsences. A sign-in sheet will be used daily and absences will be thus recorded. Please beconscientious of your class participation make sure you get the sign-in sheet, and please dontexpect me to keep a running tally of your absences!

Scholastic Dishonesty

At UND, we trust in the excellence of our students and in the integrity of our academic programs.We also trust that your good ideas become better when you test them against the ideas of others. Sofor this course, feel free to discuss your ideas about the major writing assignments with otherstudents. Collaborating on question/answer homework assignments or open-book quizzes,however, is not acceptable; these types of assignments are designed for me, your instructor, to

monitor how you are handling specific parts of the course materials. Blatantly taking someone elseswords, ideas or concepts, and using them without citing your source is plagiarism. So is usinganother students essay, or part of his or her essay, as your own. In the world of writing (academicwriting especially), this is a serious crime, and is treated as such. Anyone who uses non-documentedmaterial from another source, including online sources, will receive a failing gradefor the entirecourse and will be referred to the Deans office for possible further disciplinary action.


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Plagiarism, or any other form of scholastic dishonesty, is a serious offense and will be subject toofficial university policy and punitive action as found in the "Code of Student Life" availableat http://sos.und.edu/csl/index.php?main=1&pg=s3&subpg=3-3.

If you have any questions, always feel free to ask me. Its been my experience that those writers whoplagiarize are those who feel overwhelmed by the assignment and out of desperation, use someoneelses work to stand in for their own. If you get so frustrated with an assignment that you feel likeyour only option is to plagiarize, come see me. My role as a teacher is to help students, not topunish themplease use me as a resource to help you write, brainstorm or work out your essays.

Deadlines

All written assignments must be submitted on the due date, and missing the class when theassignment is due doesnt mean your assignment isnt late. Turning in an assignment on time is partof doing the assignment, and late work will be graded down, regardless of how well its executed.

Lateness penalties are as follows: Final drafts. For every day that a final draft is late, you will lose fivepoints on the final

grade.

Short assignments. All late assignments may receive a maximum of half-credit, regardless ofhow late they are.

Using Recording Equipment in Class

If you need to tape or record classroom activities, you may do so for personal use or for all studentspresently enrolled in the class. However, you may not further copy, distribute, publish or otherwiseuse for any other purpose without my express written consent.

Technologies

I expectyou to turn off your cell phone before coming to class. There is to be NO text messagingor smartphone surfing during class. All laptops must remain closedunless I explicitly encourageyou to bring it for in-class writing or group assignments. You will receive exactly ONEwarning.After that, you will be marked as absent for the day.

Learning Disabil i ty

If you have a learning disability that could impair your progress in this course, please contact EqualOpportunity Services on campus (http://hr.web.cmu.edu/dsrg/students.htm). We can arrange to

accommodate your learning style based on EOS recommendations. Please notify me at thesemesters beginning of your learning needs--do not wait until the semester becomes overwhelmingto acknowledge the problem.


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General Guidelines For Submitt ing Assignments

Please note that to receive a passing grade, you MUSThand inALL DRAFTS of all of themajor assignments.

Unless otherwise directed, please submit all major assignments in .doc or .docx format viathe SafeAssign feature on Blackboard. (If your word processing software does not seemto save documents as .docx files, come see me and I will help you).

All papers, including daily assignments, must be typed, double-spaced, with 1 margins.

(Note: The default spacing in MS Word is 1.25)

Include page numbers on all assignments longer than one page.

Stapleall assignments longer than one page.

Name your files according to this protocol: Lastname_AssignmentDraft.docx (Forexample: Jones_MidtermFinal.docx)

Carefully edit and proofread all texts to eliminate problems in grammar, spelling, andpunctuation.

Spell-check your documents. A hint in this regard: typos typically occur in the last minutes

when you are making final revisions to a text. Be sure, therefore, to always do a final spellcheck on at least the section of the document in which you have been making changes. Justbecause there are no spelling errors found by the spell check does not mean that your paperis error-free; often the spell check fixes errors by replacing a similar correctly spelled word.Closely re-reading every word you submit to me is the only fail-proof way to spell-checkyour papers.

Any time you cite an essay, film, or book in your main essays, you will need to include a

Works Cited section of your essay that provides complete and accurate bibliographicinformation of the material mentioned in your essay. If youre not sure how to cite sources,ask!

Documents that do not meet these and other assignment-specific requirements will not be graded. They will bereturned to you and when resubmitted will be treated as late submissions. Pay attention to these details forhanding in your final drafts. Superficial errors do not necessarily signify poor thinking, but theydo indicate a lack of precision and nonchalance toward the task. Youll have to plan your writingprocess to make time for proofreadingprinting a just-written paper 10 minutes before classtime will probably not yield terrific results.

On-Campus Writing Resources

I enthusiastically encourage all students to take advantage of the Writing Center in the basement ofMerrifield Hall. All students are eligible for one-on-one tutoring, but you must make anappointment. Remember, though, that tutors are not editors. It is not their job to correct your

work or simply edit it while you go on Facebook. Think of the writing tutors are supplementaryinstructors for the class. They can address some issues (from the lowest-level to the highest) in muchgreater detail than I can since are not responsible for teaching you academic argumentation. Forthose of you who feel anxious about the requirements of this class, I recommend that you establish arelationship with a tutor early in the semester and rely on their expertise regularly.

Writing Center,web address: http://und.edu/academics/writing-center/


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ESL Resource Center, Merrifield Hall, Room 112. The ESL Resource Center arrangestutoring and/or conversation partners for multilingual speakers seeking more practice withthe English language. Contact Mary Monette for more information:[email protected] or 701-777-3624.

Student Success Center, Memorial Union, Second Floor. The Student Success Centeroffers advising, learning services, and specific program to help students meet theireducational goals. Individualized assistance and assessments are available.http://und.edu/student-affairs/studentservices/

Grading Policy And Scale

A Exceptional. Assignment criteria met with creativity, rigor, and insight. Rich theoretical,historical, and creative analysis of the objects grounded within the larger academic context.

Ideas articulated with convincing detail and display careful planning. Research and writing islucid. Errors in style in grammar are rare and never prevent easy comprehension.

B Good work. Displays sustained analysis, concentration and effort, although mainlyrecapitulated from class discussion and/or directly from class sources. Minor style problemsnever completely obscure writers meaning.

C Acceptable, but uninspired. There may be a glaring conceptual or execution problems.Work mostly descriptive with little to no historical, critical, or theoretical analysis. Seriousissues with validity and/or depth of research. (Note: this is the median grade in theuniversity system)

D Unsatisfactory work. Ideas never move beyond generalizations. No analysis of any kind.Lacking research and focus. Work displays little to no grasp of the goals of the assignment.

R Fail. Student does not submit complete work or shows no attempt to engage the concerns ofthe assignment.

Assessing your class participation

ENGL415 is a discussion course; its absolutely necessary that you participate in class.Participation which includes both classroom involvement and physically being in class

makes up 10% of your total grade. Your in-class participation grade falls to my discretionand can nudge a borderline grade higher or lower. When you contribute to class discussion, be surethat your comments are helpful ones and not tangential to the current threads of conversation. Youshould be ready to participate in general class discussion at least once a week, and you should alwaysbe prepared to generate thoughtful input in small-group discussions and peer review work. Be sureto be supportive of your peers ideas, even when you disagree with them. Disagreement can beconstructive - very constructive - but when you raise disagreement within class discussion, be sureto do so respectfully by articulating your grounds for disagreeing with an idea rather than with


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your peers. Of course, all discussion should refrain from language and tone that could beconsidered inappropriate or offensive.

If you have questions about the policies of this class, review the syllabus first, and then contact me.

I reserve the right to make any alterations, additions, or subtractions I see fit.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Course Schedule

UNIT I: Irony & Sincerity

Core concepts: Irony, The New Sincerity, Hipster, Snark, Sentiment,

Postironic belief, Difficulty

Week 1

Wednesday, August 26: Introduction and course preview.

Friday, August 28: Wallace, A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life,Forever Overhead, BIwHM #14, #15 (pp.17-18), #40 (pp. 82-86), #46 (pp. 116-124) and the Depressed Person.

Week 2

Monday, August 31: Wallace, Octet (BIwHM), Good Old Neon (BB) and Ashby,DFW was Right: Irony is Ruining our Culture(BB).

Wednesday, September 2: Wallace, Excerpt from Infinite Jest.(BB) and Kelly, The Dialectic ofSincerity (BB)

Recommended: Konstantinou, No Bull: DFW and PostironicBelief (BB).

Clip from The Royal Tenenbaums/Elliot Smith.


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Friday, September 4: Eggers, 1-50 and Eggers Forward to the Tenth Anniversary of IJ (BB)

Can memoir be fiction?

Explain student presentations and guidelines for Powerpoints.

Distribute class discussion sign-up.

Week 3

Monday September 7: No class; Labor Day.

Wednesday, September 9: Eggers, 50-150 and Grief, What was the Hipster? (BB), andSincerity Essay Assignment Sheet (BB)

What is a hipster? What do we mean by that term?

Recommended: Hungerford, McSweeneys and The School of Life(BB)

Homework DUE: Define irony and sincerity usingexamples from DFW and/or Eggers. Provide (at least) aparagraph for each. Please submit via assignment link onBlackboard.

Friday, September 11: Eggers, 150-225.

Student presentation.

Week 4

Monday, September 14: Eggers, 225-350.

Unit II: 9/11

Core concepts: trauma, terror,the post-postmodern, the contemporary,

The End of History.

Wednesday, September 16: Pynchon, 1-75.

Moving from postmodernism to whatever comes afterwards.


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Friday, September 18: Pynchon, 75-150.

Student Presentation.

Week 5

Monday, September 21: Pynchon 150-225.

DUE: Sincerity Essay. Please submit via assignment link onBlackboard.

Wednesday, September 23: Pynchon, 225-300 and Huehls, The Great Flattening (BB).

Friday, September 25: Pynchon, 300-375.

Recommended; Cowart, Down of the Barroom Floor of History(BB)

Week 6

Monday, September 28: Pynchon, 375-end.


Wednesday, September 30: Finn, The Afterlife of Reception.(BB)

PLEASE BRING LAPTOPS TO CLASS.

Introduce Midterm Project.

Friday, October 2: No class.

Week 7


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Monday, October 5: Klay, Redeployment and Prayer in the Furnace.

DUE: Three possible research questions for your midterm anda Word Cloud of the reviews and tags of your selected book.Pick three words that seem related to each question. Submit via

BB.

Wednesday, October 7: Klay, Unless Its a Sucking Chest Wound

Friday, October 9: Klay, Bodies and TBD.

Week 8

Monday, October 12: Hamid, 1-60.

Wednesday, October 14: Hamid, 60-120.

Friday, October 16: Hamid, 120-end.

DUE: Midterm Project. Please submit via Assignment link onBlackboard.

Unit III: The Program Era.

Core Concepts: The Marketplace for Literature, Psychological realism,

Belief, Region, Religion, MFA, the Feminist Novel?,

Week 9

Monday, October 19: Robinson, 1-100, Harbach MFA v. NYC

Religion after postmodernism. Belief after irony.

3-Panel Book Review.

Wednesday, October 21: Robinson, 100-175 and Mauro, Ordinary Happiness:Marilynne Robinsons Tragic Economics of Debt and Forgiveness(BB)


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Friday, October 23: Robinson, 175-247.


Week 10

Monday, October 26: Kushner, 1-100.

VIDA count.

Wednesday, October 28: Kushner, 100-150.

Friday, October 30: Kushner, 150-200.

Week 11

Monday, November 2: Kushner, 200-300.

Due: Close-reading of VIDA count.

Wednesday, November 4: Kushner, 300-350 and Miller, Rachel Kushners ambitious newnovel scares male critics (BB).

Friday, November 6: Kushner, 350-416.


Unit IV: The Post-Race Moment

Core concepts: metafiction, post-race, irony as defense

Week 12

Monday, November 9: Laymon, 1-50 and Wilkens, How Many New Novels are Published

Each Year? (BB) and Final Project Assignment Sheet.

Introduce Final Project.

Metafiction and Ironic Distance. Discuss Linda Hutcheon.

DUE: Homework, 3-Panel Book Review of any book weve readthis semester.


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Wednesday, November 11: No Class; Veterans Day.

Friday, November 13: Laymon, 50-150.

Week 13

Monday, November 16: Laymon, 150-276.


Wednesday, November 18: Research Workshop

UNIT V: Defining the Moment: History and Canon Formation

Friday, November 20: Hungerford, Notes on the Period Formerly Known as theContemporary (BB).

Due: Final ProjectProposal and annotated bibliography.

Week 14

Monday, November 23: Hutner, Response to Hungerford, (BB) and Introduction (BB).


Wednesday, November 25: No class; Ill be in my office if youd like to brainstorm finalprojects or presentations.

Friday, November 27: No class; Black Friday.

Week 15

Monday, November 30: No class; Meetings to Discuss Final Projects.

Due: Complete Draft of Final Papers submitted via Blackboardby 9AM.

Wednesday, December 2: McGurl, The Program Era (BB).

Super Sad True Love StoryTrailer.


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Friday, December 4: Research presentations.

Week 16

Monday, December 7: Research Presentations.

Please complete short survey for final day of class.

Wednesday, December 9: Research Presentation, if needed. Course Evaluations.Course wrap-up.

Thursday, December 18: Final papers due by noon via assignmentlink on Blackboard.