Engl 3040 Literary Nonfiction, Fall 2018

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Calendar 
last update: November 26, 2018 

 

Class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:40 to 3pm in Burleson 304

 

Week 1 (Mon Aug 27; Weds Aug 29)

Monday:  For class today, read Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, Part One (through p47). Introductions.  What is "literary nonfiction"?  What is "memoir"? 

Wednesday:  Read Wild through Part Two (through p115).  

 

Week 2 (Labor Day; Weds Sep 5)

Wednesday:  Finish Wild and read the following review essays:

  - "The Tracks of an Author’s, and a Reader’s, Tears: ‘Wild’ by Cheryl Strayed, a Walkabout of Reinvention."  By Dwight Garner.  New York Times Book Review, March 27, 2012. 

www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/books/wild-by-cheryl-strayed-a-walkabout-of-reinvention.html 

  - "The Outsiders: 'Wild' and 'Mr. Turner' [The Current Cinema]."  By David Denby.  The New Yorker, December 8, 2014.  www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/08/outsiders-5 

 

Week 3 (Mon Sep 10; Weds Sep 12)

Monday: Read Crapalachia through page 70. 

Wednesday: Finish Crapalachia.

Also for today, read these two book reviews:

  - "Book Review:  Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place, by Scott McClanahan -- Truth and Memory."  [ SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS REVIEW BEFORE YOU FINISH READING CRAPALACHIA! ]  By Natalie Sypolt.  PasteMagazine.com,  February 2013.  www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/02/crapalachia-a-biography-of-a-place-by-scott-mcclan.html

  - "Art Spiegelman’s Genre-Defying Holocaust Work, Revisited."  By Ruth Franklin.  The New Republic, October 5, 2011.  newrepublic.com/article/95758/art-spiegelman-metamaus-holocaust-memoir-graphic-novel

 

Week 4 (Mon Sep 17; Weds Sep 19)

Monday:  Due today -- bring to class a rough draft of your first book review essay (750-1,250 words). Bring a total of 3 copies for a peer review workshop. 

Wednesday:  Read Maus, Part I: My Father Bleeds History. 

 

Week 5 (Mon Sep 24; Weds Sep 26)

Monday:  Read Maus, Part II: And Here My Troubles Began. 

Wednesday:  Read Joan Didion's Preface to her collection entitled Slouching Towards Bethlehem.  Also, select one essay from the collection, and read it.  Bring the book to class. Be prepared to present, to the entire class, the essay which you chose. 

Also for Wednesday, read these two classic essays, online:

  - Michel de Montaigne. "Of Smels and Odors." Chapter LV of Montaigne's Essays. John Florio's English translation, first published in 1603. Online text provided by Ben R. Schneider, 1998. www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/montaigne/1lv.htm

  - Ralph Waldo Emerson.  "Circles."  From Essays: First Series (1841).  Click here for an 8-page pdf version, text copied from Bartleby.com. 

 

Week 6 (Mon Oct 1; Weds Oct 3) 

Monday:  Due -- your first book review essay, revised for a grade.  Also, read Didion Part I. 

Wednesday:  Read Didion Part II.  

 

Week 7 (Mon Oct 8; Weds Oct 10)

Monday:  Read Didion Part III.  In class, today, we will review for the mid-term exam.

Wednesday:  Mid-term exam. 

 

Week 8  (Fall Break; Weds Oct 17) 

Wednesday:  Read D. F. Wallace's essay on the Illinois State Fair, entitled ""Getting Away From Already Pretty Much Being Away From it All," in his collection entitled A Supposedly Fun Thing..., p83-137. Also read "An Appreciation: Exuberant Riffs on a Land Run Amok" [upon the death of David Foster Wallace]. Michiko Kakutani. New York Times. September 14, 2008.  www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/books/15kaku.html

 

Week 9 (Mon Oct 22; Weds Oct 24) 

Monday:  Due today -- bring to class a rough draft of your second book review essay (750-1,250 words). Bring a total of 3 copies for a peer review workshop. 

Wednesday:  Read D. F. Wallace's long essay about a cruise ship experience, entitled "A Supposedly Fun Thing...," in the collection which is also entitled A Supposedly Fun Thing.... 

Also due today -- a topic proposal for the 1,000-2,000 word essay that you plan to write in the literary-nonfiction mode of your choice. Write a memo to me, proposing a topic.  Discuss the genre in which you'll be working.  Do any writers serve as models for what you have in mind?  What is your relationship to the subject matter: that is, what experience gives you the authority to write about it?  Include a generous working title, with a colon and a subtitle. 

 

Week 10 (Mon Oct 29; Weds Oct 31)

Monday:  Due -- your second book review essay, revised for a grade.  Also read Part I of Capote's In Cold Blood.

Wednesday:  Read Part II of Capote's In Cold Blood.

 

Week 11 (Mon Nov 5; Weds Nov 7) 

Monday:  Read Part III of Capote's In Cold Blood.

Wednesday:  Read Part IV of Capote's In Cold Blood.  Also listen to the 53-minute Chapter 1, “'If you keep your mouth shut, you’ll be surprised what you can learn',” of the Shittown podcast: stownpodcast.org 

 

Week 12 (Mon Nov 12; Weds Nov 14) 

Monday:  Shittown, chapters 2, 3, and 4.  Also read “S-Town” Investigates the Human Mystery," by Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, March 31, 2017.  www.newyorker.com/culture/sarah-larson/s-town-investigates-the-human-mystery.  (Click here for a cached pdf file.) 

Wednesday:  Shittown, chapters 5, 6 and 7. 

 

Week 13 (Mon Nov 19; Thanksgiving)

Monday: Due today -- bring to class a rough draft of your literary nonfiction piece.  Bring a total of 3 copies for a peer review workshop. 

 

Week 14 (Mon Nov 26; Weds Nov 28)

Monday: Read Blakeslee's American Wolf, chaps 1-4. 

Wednesday: Read more of Blakeslee's American Wolf, chaps 5-9. 

 

Week 15 (Mon Dec 3; Weds Dec 5) 

Monday: Finish Blakeslee's American Wolf.  Due -- your literary nonfiction piece, revised for a grade. 

Wednesday:  In class review for final exam.

 

    Final exam period: Monday December 10, 1:20-3:20pm.