English 486: Evil in American Literature

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Schedule

Feb. 22 "The Turn of the Screw," cont'd.
Feb. 24 Read "Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne
--discuss, probably with "The Turn of the Screw" as well
Mar. 1, 3 The Bad Seed, Dir. Mervyn LeRoy
Mar. 8, 10 Discuss The Bad Seed
Mar. 15, 17 Spring Break
Mar. 22, 24, 29 The Omen (I think), screen and discuss
Mar. 31 No class. Choose an Arizona Quarterly Symposium paper to attend
Apr. 5 Paper #2 Selected papers read in class.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Paper#1 assignment

Choose from the following options:

1. Write an essay agreeing or disagreeing that the adage "Money is the root of all evil" helps us read our stories. Choose one text as your main text. Include a second text briefly, perhaps no more than a sentence or part of a sentence, but certainly less than a paragraph, to help make your argument. (The second text could be a counter-example if you like, rather than a second example.)

2. Write an essay on romantic love / heterosexuality in one of the texts (again, using a second text briefly as well).

3. Pick a quotation from those on this blog--there are a couple on the syllabus, and others in various posts--as an anchor for an essay in which you argue either that your main and secondary texts exemplify in some way or contradict in some way the gist of the comment. Do NOT type out the entire quotation--just refer to it, perhaps with a phrase, or with a word or two (or several) of summary.

4. Form and format directions for this paper are in a previous post.

5. Email me--before Monday night, please--if you have questions or problems.

Have fun!

Monday, February 7, 2011

some thoughts on our topic

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. --William Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1950

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
— Flannery O'Connor

"Most of us have learned to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find, as often as not, our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept that its face too is grotesque, that in us the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a cliche or a smoothing down that will soften their real look."
— Flannery O'Connor

"I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil.

I have also found that what I write is read by an audience which puts little stock either in grace or the devil. You discover your audience at the same time and in the same way that you discover your subject, but it is an added blow."
— Flannery O'Connor (Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose)

"The serious writer has always taken the flaw in human nature for his starting point, usually the flaw in an otherwise admirable character. Drama usually bases itself on the bedrock of original sin, whether the writer thinks in theological terms or not. Then, too, any character in a serious novel is supposed to carry a burden of meaning larger than himself. The novelist doesn't write about people in a vacuum; he writes about people in a world where something is obviously lacking, where there is the general mystery of incompleteness and the particular tragedy of our own times to be demonstrated, and the novelist tries to give you, within the form of the book, the total experience of human nature at any time. For this reason, the greatest dramas naturally involve the salvation or loss of the soul. Where there is no belief in the soul, there is very little drama. "
— Flannery O'Connor (The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor)

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Schedule Update

Segue-ing into "children and evil":

Feb. 8, 10 Discussion of The Night of the Hunter, GCP, RE

Feb. 15 Paper #1 due in class

Feb. 17 "The Turn of the Screw," Henry James.
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JamTurn.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
Feb. 22, 24 Discussion cont'd, "Turn of the Screw"; readings, TBA

Paper instructions

You'll be getting topic directions and prompts in a future post. Meanwhile, here are the basic directions:

1. Use the paper prompts to think about or against the text you are writing about. Do not retype the prompts into your paper; just refer to it/them using the authors’ last names) and quote only a phrase or two if necessary.

2. This is not a research essay, nor is it a journal entry: make a cogent, compact, textually-supported argument. Don't waste time with rhetorical circling ("I think," "I feel") or plot summary; just go for the jugular, as it were, right away, stay on point, and get the job done.

3. Write a one-page, single-spaced paper. Do not use any of the usual flourishes. That is, do not write an introductory paragraph, do not write a summarizing conclusion paragraph, do not do any plot summary (other than what is required to provide a context for a point you are making, e.g., “When Silas gets drunk at the dinner party, he……”). Do not write any sentences that begin with “I think” or “I believe.” (This is not because there’s some rule against using the first person pronoun; it is because I already know that it’s you, and you will need the space.)

4. Make a full and complete argument supported by reference to and quotations (short!) from the text(s) you are writing about.

5. Be succinct. Ruthlessly edit your words. All of us use “extra” words we don’t really need when we write papers. This is not going to be easier to write than a 3-5 page paper. Basically it’s going to be all the important stuff you’d put into a longer, more leisurely production. It will take the same amount of time as a much longer paper.

6. You do not need a “Works Cited” list or footnotes; this is not a research paper, and I am familiar with the texts you will be using. This is, however, a formal academic paper, so make sure your writing style conforms to that model.

7. Proofread your paper before turning it in. Read it aloud to yourself too—this is a good way to catch problems. Have someone else read it--it's not cheating, it's in fact good writing procedure.

8. Due at 9:30 pm in class, Tuesday, Feb. 15.

9. Some of you (volunteers I hope) will be reading your papers to the class (everyone will eventually get a turn).

10. Attendance is very important.

*if you miss class for any reason, please do not email your paper--just bring it to the next class you make it to.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Updated Schedule (note changes!) Effective January 27

Schedule through Feb. 8

http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html

http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/Rose/el-text-E-Rose.htm

Feb. 1-3 Screen and discuss The Night of the Hunter

Feb. 8 REREAD/discuss "Good Country People" and "A Rose for Emily"

Feb. 10 Paper #1 due. (Volunteers will read theirs in class; you will get full instructions by February 3.) nb: everybody will "volunteer" by the time the semester is over.....

Wednesday, January 19, 2011