Companionate LoveTheory and Methods

English 26 ♦ Fall 2006Mon/Wed/Fri 8:45-9:35am Perkins 421

Elaine Yee Office Hours: by appt.elaine.yee@duke.edu Trinity Café

Required TextsBen Jonson, Epieoene (1609, Norton Critical) Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus (1592) The Winter’s Tale (1610, Riverside) Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Hope Leslie: Or, Early Times in the Massachusetts (1827, Penguin)Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993, Grove)James Joyce, Dubliners (1914, Viking Critical)

“Nausicaa” from Ulysses (1919, Vintage International)Gish Jen, Mona in the Promised Land (1996, Vintage Contemporaries)Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho (2000, Vintage Contemporaries)Michael Cunningham, The Hours (1998, Picador)Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996, Penguin)

**All other materials are available through e-reserves or as handouts**

Course Description and GoalsThis course has two goals: to work on your critical thinking and analytical skills within questions of feminism, nationalism, and current theoretical models of reading and to develop your skills as a writer of intellectual, academic prose. To accomplish these goals, the course is focused around variously (in)significant literary works whose connections are thematically apparent, and artistically broad. We will use the literature and its contexts as a lens through which to explore ourselves as readers and as writers—public thinkers in both senses.

An integral part of this seminar is a step-by-step development of your writing through small assignments, the Blackboard discussion forum, multiple drafts of larger writing projects, class discussion of the texts and key terms of writing, and the writer’s workshop. The writer’s workshop will give every student a chance to have his/her own writing interrogated, responded to, and commented on by the rest of the class in a generous and constructive manner. I hope that we can consistently use these sessions to bring up questions, problems, and successes we encounter in the writing process.

I hope that you will come away from this class with tools, strategies, comfort, and competence in the four following areas:

1. Reading closely and critically for the purpose of scholarly analysis;2. Responding to and making use of the work of others;3. Drafting and revising texts;4. Making written texts public.

We will talk more about what these goals mean as practice throughout this semester in class discussions and workshops. From the outset, I would like to emphasize that the ultimate goal of this course is to make you comfortable and skilled in literary, critical writing for yourself and for other people. Writing is a public action that positions you within a community of thinkers and other writers. While it may at times be a lonely and frustrating task, good writing speaks to other people in ways that are engaging, often contentious, interesting, and generous. When criticism goes well (when we have practiced it and worked on it long enough), the often-arduous task becomes fun. And it is this sense of fun that I hope you will find at points in your progression as a literary critic.

RequirementsFour papers will be graded in this class: the final draft of each project’s paper. Each paper will receive a letter grade based both on the quality of revision (from draft to final paper) and upon the quality of the essay itself. The criteria for judging the essay’s quality will be articulated in the revision process: in comments from peers and from me, in class discussions about drafts, and in value-setting discussions held in class. The criteria will become more elaborate as the course proceeds. Papers are to be submitted to my mailbox in the English Graduate Lounge and should be titled the following way: your last name, assignment number, draft number. Further directions for using Blackboard will be given in class.

Although strongly discouraged, late papers may be accepted on a case-by-case basis. As this is a writing-intensive class, it can be very easy to get behind in the assignments. Good writing takes a long time, and most of that time is actually thinking, processing, and experimenting with ideas as well as methods of writing. For this reason, you will want to remain current with the assignments at all stages—especially at the draft stages. Should you need an extension, you must email me at least three days in advance of the deadline so that we can discuss the situation.

Writing assignments and Blackboard forum participation will be graded through a system of √, √+, √-, or -. At most, only one – (minus) will be tolerated. You are strongly encouraged to avoid the minus at all costs.

Class participation is of the utmost importance in this class. As a small seminar, we have the opportunity to engage each other as peers. I expect not only that you attend every class but that you walk into the classroom ready actively to engage with the ideas, the readings, and the writing of your peers. While I am the putative head of the class, I hope that you will speak to each other as well as me, that you will be courteous and respectful of your peers at all times, and also that you be courageous in sharing your ideas, theories, and writing.

Your final grade will be determined by the following breakdown:

Paper 1 10%Paper 2 20%Paper 3 20%Paper 4 20%Class Participation/Quizzes 20%Writing Assignments/Blackboard discussion forum 10%

AttendanceAs this is a seminar, attendance and active class participation are imperative for you—and your peers—to get the most out of this class. You are expected to attend every scheduled class. If you find that you must miss a class for any reason, please send me an email in advance so that we may discuss a plan for turning in work and making up material missed. You may miss no more than three classes over the course of the semester before absence will begin to affect your grade. After the third absence, every additional class missed will lower your final class grade one full letter (i.e., a final grade of “B” will become a “C” and so on).

Plagiarism and Academic DishonestyPlagiarism will not be tolerated. To help you negotiate the often-tricky lines between responsible usage of other people’s work and plagiarism in its many forms, the Duke Libraries homepage has a link to a set of materials on “Citing Sources.” A portion of this link defines plagiarism and analyzes various misuses of sources that would constitute plagiarism. The penalty for plagiarism is failure of this course and/or judicial action. An integral part of the process of becoming a public, academic writer is learning how to use sources in a way that is generous and responsible toward the other voices. This is a hard process, so we will make a concerted effort in class to discuss gray areas and any questions you might have about the ethical use of sources. As a general rule, if you are uncertain about anything, it is best to ask.

Writing StudioThe Duke University Writing Studio exists to help undergraduates develop ideas, learn writing strategies, revise essays, and generally think through the writing process. The Writing Studio is located on the second floor of the Academic Advising Center on East campus, and sessions are run at this location as well as Perkins and Lilly Library. The Studio is open variously from 10am to 10pm Sunday through Thursday. The Writing Studio is staffed by graduate students and adjunct instructors who come from a broad range of disciplines. Appointments are one-hour-long, and the Studio can be used once or many times over this semester—and all your time at Duke. You can make an appointment and scope out the Writing Studio in full at its website: http://www.ctlw.duke.edu/wstudio

ScheduleNote: Please bring your texts marked with notes.

Week I.

August 28Introduction to the CourseChopin, “The Story of An Hour”

August 30Maupassant, “The Necklace”Keyword: “Syllabus”

September 1Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”Keyword: “Assignment”

Week II.September 4

Jonson, EpicoeneWorkshop Paper 1, Draft 1 of 2-pp paper

September 6Jonson, EpicoeneKeywords: “Argument” and “Introduction”

Note: Response Paper 1 2-pp final essay due in English Graduate Lounge no later than noon September 6.

September 8Keywords: “Interpretation” and “Quotation”

Week III.September 11

Shakespeare, Titus AndronicusKeywords: “Reading” and “Claim”

September 13Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus

September 15Shakespeare, Titus AndronicusKeywords: “Assumption” and “Audience”

Week IV.September 18

Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale

September 20Enterline, “You speak a language that I understand not”: The Rhetoric of

Animation in The Winter’s Tale. Keyword: “Counterargument” and “Evidence”

September 22 Snyder, “Mamillius and Gender Polarization in The Winter’s Tale” Workshop Paper 2, Draft 1 of 5-pp paper

Week V.September 25

Shakespeare, Sonnets selections

September 27DeGrazia, “The Scandal of Shakespeare’s Sonnets”

Note: Response Paper 2 final 5-pp essay due in English Graduate Lounge no later than noon September 13.

September 29Sedgwick, Hope Leslie, part 1

Week VI.October 2

Hope Leslie, part 2

October 4Hope Leslie, part 3

October 6Keywords: “Dash,” “Punctuation,” “Parallelism,” “Subject-Verb”Handout: “Clear and Effective Prose”

Week VII.October 9

Fall Break Please read The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

October 11Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, part 1

October 13Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, part 2

Week VIII.October 16

Joyce, “The Dead”

October 18

Joyce, “Araby”Nolan, “Nationality and Literature: The Case of ‘The Dead’”

October 20Joyce, “Nausicaa” from Ulysses, part 1

Week IX.October 23

Joyce, “Nausicaa”, part 2Castle, Lamplighter

October 25Progress Conferences—NO CLASS MEETING

October 27Workshop Paper 3, Draft 1 of 5-pp paper

Week X.October 30

Carver, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”Atwood, “Happy Endings”

November 1Wharton, “Roman Fever”

Note: Response Paper 3 final 5-pp essay due in English Graduate Lounge no later than noon November 1.

November 3Jen, Mona in the Promised Land, part 1

Week XI.November 6

Research Methods Class in Perkins/Bostock

November 8Jen, Mona in the Promised Land, part 2

November 10Jen, Mona in the Promised Land, part 3Workshop Paper 4, Proposal Draft of Final 8-10 pp. paper

Week XII.November 13

Ellis, American Psycho, part 1

November 15Ellis, American Psycho, part 2

November 17Ellis, American Psycho, part 3Clover, Men, Women and Chainsaws excerpts

Week XIII.November 20

Fitzgerald, “Winter Dreams”

November 22November 24

Thanksgiving Recess

Week XIV.November 27

Cunningham, The Hours, part 1

November 29Cunningham, The Hours, part 2

December 1Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway exceptsWorkshop Paper 4, Draft of Final 8-10 pp. paper

Week XV.December 4

Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary, part 1

December 6Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary, part 2

December 8Last Day of ClassReflection and Reactions

Note: Final essay is due in my English Graduate Lounge mailbox no later than noon December 13. No extensions will be given for the final paper.