Engl
4040 Modernism and Postmodernism, Fall 2017, O'Donnell, ETSU
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Calendar
last update: November 13, 2017
Class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from
1:40 to 3pm in Burleson Hall room 301.
Note: I will add informal writing
assignments, and clarifications of reading assignments, to this calendar, from
time to time. Any time I do that, I will be sure to announce the
updates in class. In any case, most of the reading assignments are here;
and the exam and major writing due dates posted here will not change. --
Dr. O'Donnell, odonnell@etsu.edu, August 13, 2017
Week 1
Monday Aug 28:
Introductions. Some "isms": Romanticism,
modernism, postmodernism, others.
Wednesday Aug 30:
Read Mrs. Dalloway through
p69--through the end of the scene where Septimus has the psychotic episode in Regent's
Park, and the clock strikes quarter to 12, and the narrative gets passed to
Peter Walsh.
Informal Writing Assignments for Wednesday:
1.) As you read the novel, keep track
of every time the bell rings. (For each time the bell rings, write
the page number, either in the back of the book, or in separate notes that you
bring to class.)
2.) Keep track of the characters you
meet. On a separate sheet of paper, list each main character's name,
along with the page number where you first met them, plus a sentence or two
describing who they are. Bring that to class, and be prepared to pass it
around to classmates.
Week 2
Monday Sep 4:
Class cancelled for Labor Day.
Wednesday Sep 6:
- Finish Mrs. Dalloway, the novel.
- Bring your poetry anthology to class
today. We'll discuss Woolf in the context of modernist poets.
- Bring your copy of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse
5 to class. We'll preview that
book for next week.
- Due today: In-class
presentation topic proposal:
Your assignment is to "teach a class" on
one of the assigned works, this semester. So: write me a memo to me,
in which you propose which work you would like to teach. Why are you
interested in this particular work? What makes you qualified to
teach it? Do you have any ideas, yet, on what material you would
present to the class, to help students find their way into that work?
Week 3
Monday Sep 11:
- Begin reading Vonnegut. Bring the
book to class.
- Read "At Last, Kurt Vonnegut's Famous
Dresden Book" [an unsigned review of Slaughterhouse Five]. New
York Times, March 31, 1969. www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/28/lifetimes/vonnegut-slaughterhouse.html
Wednesday Sep 13:
- Read Vonnegut through chapter 5 (through
p135).
Week 4
Monday Sep 18:
- Finish reading Vonnegut.
- Begin reading Don Delillo's White Noise. Bring
that book to class.
- Killian
will teach the class about White Noise and Don Delillo.
- Also, browse the online table of contents of the
Norton anthology of Postmodern American Fiction: www.wwnorton.com/college/english/pmaf/pmaftoc.htm.
Write a short memo, to me and your classmates, commenting on the
contents of that anthology: Do you recognize any of the titles/ authors
represented there? Do you have a particular interest in any of them? Did
anything about that anthology catch your eye?
What do you think of the term "postmodernism"? Bring your memo to class, and be prepared to
pass it around for comments.
Wednesday Sep 20:
Read Delillo, parts I and II (through p163).
- Read Ihab Hassan. "Toward a Concept of
Postmodernism." From The Postmodern Turn: Essays in Postmodern
Theory and Culture, 1987, posted online here: http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/HassanPoMo.pdf
Week 5
Monday Sep 25:
- Finish Delillo's White Noise.
- Begin reading Beloved, by Toni
Morrison. Bring that book to class.
- Jenna
will teach the class about Beloved and Morrison.
Thursday Sep 27: Read Beloved at
least through Chapter 14.
- Read "Ghosts of a brutal
past: Why Toni Morrison's Beloved - a sensational
story of slavery and racism in America - has endured." By Jane
Smiley. The Guardian [Manchester,
England]. Saturday 8 July 2006. www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/08/fiction.tonimorrison
Week 6
Monday Oct 2:
Finish reading Beloved.
Wednesday Oct 4:
- In-class--screening of Errol Morris's film,
"Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr." (1999), 91
min. I will begin screening the movie at 1:35pm, though class time does not
officially start until 1:40.
- Also due today: Review
essay topic proposal:
Write me a memo, proposing a topic for your review
essay. What novel would you like to review? Tell me why you're
interested, and what makes you qualified to write a review of this particular
novel? That is, what is your personal connection to the book or
subject matter? Include a working title for your review essay, and include at
least one- or two-hundred words of your reflections and commentary on the
novel.
Week 7
Monday Oct 9:
- In class, we will discuss Errol Morris's
film.
- Read
"Poetry Slam; Or, The Decline of American Verse." By Mark Edmundson. Harper's Magazine, July 2013. faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/poetry_slam_mark_edmundson.pdf. Print out that 15-page pdf file and bring it
to class.
- Bring
"The Poetry Anthology" to class. Read the following, in the anthology: 5 poems
by John Ashbery; 4 poems by W.S. Merwin; 3 poems by Seamus Heaney; 2 poems by
Robert Lowell. Also read these 3 poems
by Wallace Stevens: "Sunday Morning," "The Snow Man," and
"The Ultimate Poem is Abstract."
Wednesday Oct 11:
In-class review
for exam 1.
Week 8
Monday Oct 16:
FALL BREAK. No class.
Wednesday Oct 18:
Exam
1.
Week 9
Monday Oct 23:
- In "The Poetry Anthology," read
all selections by Charles Wright. Hagen presents on Wright.
- Also in the anthology, read poems by Ezra Pound
on pages 1, 6, 7-8, 18, and 29.
Wednesday Oct 25:
- Browse these Charles Wright poems at the Poetry
Foundation website. Read "Black
Zodiac":
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charles-wright#tab-poems
- Class meets over in the Reece Museum for "A
Conversation with Charles Wright," at 2pm, with Wright and ETSU Professor
Jesse Graves.
- Also, tonight at 7:30pm in the Culp Center, Charles Wright gives a reading.
Week 10
Monday Oct 30:
- Read the 4 poems by T.S. Eliot in the Poetry
anthology. Donna presents on T.S. Eliot.
- Read the 5 poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay in
the Poetry anthology. Kayla presents on Edna St. Vincent
Millay.
Wednesday Nov 1:
- Begin reading Shteyngart.
- Draft of your review essay due. Bring
3 copies of the draft to class, for a workshop.
Week 11
Monday Nov 8:
Read Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story through
p111. Cade presents on
Shteyngart.
Wednesday Nov 10:
Read Shteyngart through p224.
Week 12
Monday Nov 13:
Finish Shteyngart. Begin reading short stories by David Foster
Wallace.
Wednesday Nov 15:
Revision of your review essay is due. Also, Jonny presents on Wallace.
Week 13
Monday Nov 20:
Review the readings assigned for Monday Oct 9. We'll go back over these poems in class. Also, be sure to read the article by Mark
Edmundson: faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/poetry_slam_mark_edmundson.pdf.
Wednesday Nov 22:
Class cancelled for THANKSGIVING!
Week 14
Monday Nov 27:
- Read the Introduction in the Poetry anthology,
pxxiii to lv.
Wednesday Nov 29:
Read poems, to be announced.
Week 15 (Tues Dec
1; Thurs Dec 3)
Monday:
- Read the 12 poems by Bukowski posted here at the
Poetry Foundation website: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charles-bukowski#tab-poems
- Read the 12 poems by Anne Sexton posted here at
the Poetry Foundation website: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anne-sexton#tab-poems
- Katy presents on Anne Sexton. Max
presents on Charles Bukowski.
Wednesday: Review
for exam 2.
Final
exam period: Exam
2, Monday Dec 11, 1:20-3:20pm