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The Short Novel
Fall 2008 Course Description:
In this course, we will read a number of short prose narratives that we might say belong to the category of the novel -- the most commercially successful, widely-read, culturally influential, but loosely defined literary genre of the modern period. In the foreground of our inquiry will be a consideration of the generic conventions of the novel and of the nature and implications of length as a textual feature. Finally, we will attempt to construct a full definition of the short novel as a formal mode distinct from both the short story and the novel proper. Course Objectives:
By the end of the semester, students in this course will be expected to have demonstrated a critical familiarity with the texts on the syllabus, a working knowledge of the formal and historical frameworks in which the class has engaged these texts, as well as a level of competence in both formal and historicist verbal and written analysis of literary works. Required Texts:
Henry
James,
The Turn of the Screw Requirements:
1. READING You are required to complete all of the reading assigned, to read closely and to keep up with the pace set by the syllabus. Before you firmly commit to taking this course, look closely at what that will entail. The reading load is manageable – the novels are all short, of course -- but the pace will be intense, as we’re reading a good number of them. 2. READING RESPONSES and PARTICIPATION You are required to attend class and to engage with the concerns generated in and by the class. In an effort to encourage this engagement, I ask that you generate a two-page written response to some aspect of each week’s reading, to be handed in each class session. You must carefully organize, type, and proof-read these pieces, which will constitute the most preliminary critical work that you do with the reading material each week, and which we may use to frame discussion on any given day. Note: this type of participation is a requirement. This task is designed to remind you that your reading process is always an active one – that you think things as you read and that those thoughts are a meaningful part of your basic understanding not to mention your interpretation of the materials we cover. If you are not already in the habit of annotating your text as you read, please start – the notes that you take during your first encounter with a text will frequently provide the richest source for the more formal critical work that you do with it later (including that of the reading response). Note: the reading response is formal writing. You ought to avoid self-referential statements (e.g. “it seems to me,” “in my opinion,” “this character reminds me of my mom,” etc.) and be sure to provide ample textual evidence in support of your claims. If you are unsure of whether or not you are approaching this assignment properly, the most important thing to keep in mind is this: you should learn something about the text through the process of writing the reading response.
Suggested approaches: --examine the way a work treats a particular concept, term, or phenomenon; --explore a question or point of confusion about a text that occurs to you as you are reading; try to articulate the critical problem that’s nagging at you and formulate some provisional solutions; --discuss or analyze a particularly striking feature, passage, pattern, or idea in a text; --examine the connections between two or more texts’ formal modes, themes, representational strategies, historical contexts, ideological implications or arguments, or relationship to tradition; --advance an interpretive claim or suggestion about the meaning or significance of a text. To review: The objective of the reading response is not merely to demonstrate that you have done the reading, but also to begin thinking analytically and in writing about the material on the syllabus that week. By definition, then, it must be completed and submitted by its deadline. Be sure to type your reading responses, and to bring them to class, ready to draw on them during discussion.
Your reading responses will be evaluated on the basis of:
--the evidence they demonstrate
of your thoughtful, if preliminary, engagement with the texts;
3. WRITING ASSIGNMENTS In addition to completing the reading responses described above, you are required to compose two formal essays on topics that I will provide during the course of the semester, and to produce one Relational Analysis Project, consisting of both an in-class presentation and a reflective essay based on that presentation (see below). Your formal essays will be evaluated on the basis of:
--the clarity of your prose;
Relational Analysis Project: Each class session, one or two students (working separately) will deliver a brief presentation, consisting of a 10-15 minute-length, thoughtful analytical discussion of that week’s novel in relation to any novel or group of novels that the class has already read and discussed. Presentations should be given from notes (while memorization is not necessary, do try to resist reading aloud to the class). By carefully juxtaposing new and familiar materials, each presentation will not only broaden, complicate and refine our understanding of both texts but will, as well, elucidate historical, thematic, and/or formal connections between them, thereby advancing our semester-long study of the short novel as a genre. This is your opportunity to elaborate analytical connections that your classmates will not have made on their own, as well as to set the agenda for the day’s discussion. In order to keep your discussion precise and compelling, you will want to maximize the impact of the textual references – especially the quotations – that you use. Once you have chosen the texts you want to discuss, you will need to provide an analysis of their relationship. In other words, you will need to provide an account of the precise nature of the connections you are drawing between them. Be sure to identify the words, passages, ideas, or representational patterns in the texts that link them for you – this will constitute the basis of your analysis. Keep in mind, your task is a highly focused one: you are not being asked to comprehensively explicate either or both texts, but rather to characterize and explore the relationship between them. You might connect two or more texts on the basis of any of the following:
--shared or otherwise related
representational strategies or formal features; I will be available to provide suggestions for particularly rich or interesting sites of intertextuality (clear and direct reference to one text by another), dialogue, or comparison. Remember: this project is analytical in nature; a mere summary of your texts’ plots will not do. You are required to e-mail me (henglert@njcu.edu) by no later than two days before your presentation with a rough outline of the analysis you plan to present in class that week. I will provide comments designed to strengthen your presentation no later than one day following your e-mail. Please feel free to reply to my reply and to extend the exchange for as long as you deem it helpful before the date of your presentation. The 2-3-page, typed, double-spaced, written essay based on the Relational Analysis Presentation will be due in final form one week after the day on which the oral presentation is given. Before submitting your written essay, you may choose to revise your analysis in light of comments or questions raised during discussion of the in-class presentation. This is strongly advised. Your relational analysis presentation will be evaluated on the basis of:
--your preparation (that is,
whether your e-mail outline is on time and detailed and feedback is taken into consideration); Your formal essays (including the essay based on the relational analysis presentation) will be evaluated on the basis of:
--the clarity of your prose;
Policies:
1. EXTENSIONS: If you are unable to finish an assignment in the allotted time, you must request an extension before the deadline, rather than simply granting one to yourself or failing to show up with the work completed. Absence is no excuse for missing a deadline. When deadlines have not been extended, late papers will not be read. 2. ATTENDANCE: More than four absences and/or chronic lateness may result in a lowered final grade.
3. OFFICE HOURS: Please feel free to drop by my office hours, to call me, to see me after class or to set up an appointment outside of regular office hours to discuss academic questions, assignments, plans etc. You need not have a specific problem or clearly formulated agenda to greatly benefit from a visit.
4. EVALUATION: Your grade will be based primarily on quality and improvement of written work, though attendance and participation will be reflected. Because I want you to regard the thinking and the writing you do in the course as a developmental process and not as a collection of finite assignments or exercises, your grade will be calculated with emphasis on persistent effort, progress and sustained achievement. Nonetheless, the mathematical formula I will use to calculate your final grade looks like this:
30% -- Participation/Effort/Engagement (including reading responses, in-class writing, class discussion, evidence of thoughtful reading) 40% -- Two Formal Essays 30% -- Relational Analysis Project (both the Presentation and Essay)
5. PLAGIARISM: The NJCU student handbook defines plagiarism as the attempt: “to pass off ideas or words of another as one’s own,” “to use material without crediting the source” and/or “to present as new and original an idea, phrase or statement derived from an existing source.” In other words, if you submit an essay that you did not write, or an essay containing a passage – even one sentence – or a substantial idea that you have copied from an internet or print source without using quotation marks, footnotes, parenthetical citations, a bibliography and/or a works cited page to document that source, you have plagiarized. Because the English department considers plagiarism a flagrant violation of academic integrity, plagiarism in this or any English course will result in an automatic dismissal from the course, a grade of F for the course, and a report of the incident to the Dean of Students. Note: For all assignments in this course, you will be best off limiting the texts you engage to the primary and secondary material assigned. In other words, a typical google search on any of the works on the syllabus will be more likely to confuse the issue and lead you astray from the concerns of the course than to provide clarification or insight.
Semester Schedule:
Week One (September 8) Introductions
Week Two (September 15) Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
Week Three (September 22) Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto
Week Four (September 29) George Eliot, The Lifted Veil Week Five (October 6) Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome Week Six (October 13) Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome
Week Seven (October 20) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground Weeks Eight (October 27) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground
Week Nine (November 3) Franz Kafka, The Trial
Week Ten (November 10) Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Week Eleven (November 17) Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Week Twelve (November 24) Paul Auster, City of Glass
Week Thirteen (December 1) Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 Week Fourteen (December 8) Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 Week Fifteen (December 15) – Final Exam Week
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