ENGL 006.901, Spring 2003: Syllabus

C I T I E S OF THE I N T E R I O R

Place and the Dream in Twentieth-Century British and American Fiction by Women

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Dora Maar (1936)

English 006.901
Summer Session I 2003
Instructor: S. Harzewski

Practicalities:
Days, Time, Room Number: MTWH, 3-4:30, Bennett Hall, Rm. 326
Instructor: Stephanie Harzewski
Email: sharzews@english.upenn.edu
Phone: 215-823-6793
Cell: 347-277-1679 (NYC #)
Office: Bennett Hall, 4th Fl., #C3
Office Hours: By appointment (Arrange via email or before or after class.)
Course listserv address: ENGL006-901-03B@lists.upenn.edu
Syllabus URL: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~sharzews/summer2003syllabus

Course Description:
Anaïs Nin declares that the dream is always ahead: To catch up, to live for moment in unison with it, that is the miracle. This course examines how various British and American women authors have explored concepts of place and the dream in twentieth-century fiction. Whether female fantasy, nightmare, or national myth, dreams, we shall see, often reveal anxieties and aspirations connected to a literal landscape, symbolic topography, or psychic terrain.

As members of an intensive writing course we will work to develop style, argument, and structure through listserv posts, short essays, peer review, and in-class writing. Creating movement in writing as well as confronting writing anxiety and burnout will be addressed collectively. We will brainstorm strategies for writing within limited time and length parameters and identifying the distinctions between writing intended to be read privately vs. presented. A lens into recent gender studies scholarship, the course also serves as an introduction for students interested in investigating English as a major. Authors may include Virginia Woolf, Mary McCarthy, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jean Rhys, Toni Morrison, Rona Jaffe, Amy Tan, Jeanette Winterson, Leslie Marmon Silko, Sylvia Plath, and Candace Bushnell. Class participation and preparation will comprise 30% of the final grade. No midterm or final exam.

Requirements and Grading:
The requirements for this class fall into three categories: Attendance, Preparation and Participation, and Written Work.
Attendance: This is a discussion/workshop-based class and will only succeed if everyone is a fully involved participant. You may miss one class meeting without penalty, but on-time attendance is required at all other class meetings unless you have obtained my permission in advance or can officially document a medical or family crisis after the event. Students with more than 3 unexcused absences will fail the course. Repeated late arrival will lower your participation grade, so be here and be on time.

Preparation and Participation:

You should read all of the assigned texts before the corresponding class meeting and come to class ready to participate. Since a significant part of the course involves close reading in which sections of works will be read aloud and analyzed, if you forget to bring a text being discussed that day to class, you must tell me before class begins so you can look on with another student. Repeated failure to bring the germane text to class will lower your participation grade.
Cell phones & beepers must be turned off in class!
It is the student’s sole responsibility to obtain class handouts, assignment instructions, etc. in the case of tardiness or unexcused absences.
It is ok if you are naturally shy or quiet; good listening and the occasional helpful comment can be a better form of participation than constant chatter. But I expect you all to keep up with assignments and to make yourselves productive participants in whatever way best suits you. A third of your final grade will be based on the quality of your preparation and participation.

Written Work:
The required written work for this class encompasses multiple forms:

Listserv Posts:
You will be responsible for a total of three scheduled email postings. These consist of no more than 300 words and should be posted to the class listserv (ENGL006-901-03B@lists.upenn.edu) by noon of the day of the class meeting.
Two posts will raise questions about the class readings; highlight their central (or perhaps overlooked) issues; or evaluate the degree of success with which they engage the reader. They may ask questions on matters in a text that are confusing and you seek further clarification on. Additionally, they may serve as a space to present drafts of ideas you wish to explore in your formal papers.

One post will introduce another text, whether secondary, e.g. literary criticism, or primary, e.g. a poem, short story, journalistic article, film or other media form that shares affinities with an aspect of the literature on the syllabus. This post will present its thematic, stylistic, or sociological relevance to the course. Critical texts can be drawn from online databases such as Literature Online (LION), Academic Index, and the MLA Bibliography, available through the “Databases” link on the UPenn Library homepage. You may also find valuable sources through the online search engine, Google (www.google.com). OR, as an imitative style exercise it may present any imitation or parody of a primary text on the syllabus. The length required for the imitative style exercise is generally shorter than the other types of posts.

You are encouraged to respond to the posting of others in your own post, though this is not obligatory. The type of posts may be done in any order and can be on works discussed earlier in the course even if we have moved on to other texts. These are not meant to be formal or finished essays, but they should be coherent and grammatical; please proofread and edit them before posting. I will not be grading your listserv posts, but I will be archiving them in individual folders, which will become part of your final grade.
Critical Writing Summary: At times, both in-class and outside, you will be asked to evaluate and comment on the published works of critics. You will submit a 1-2 page critical writing summary (an article chosen from several on Toni Morrison’s Sula), which will serve as an introduction to writing about literary criticism as well as the valuable skills of paraphrase and argumentative strategy identification.
Essays: There will be three essays for this course of varying lengths:

Essay #1: 3 pages

Essay #2: 4 pages

Essay #3: 5-6 pages

I will grade these, and I will indicate in my comments how the work might be improved. As an important aspect of writing is revision, you will revise each of these essays. You will have an individual paper conference for each essay with me to assist in this regard. Your grade for a revised essay will be the average of your grades on the original version and the final version. Please remember to attach the graded original essay with the revised one.
Late papers will be down-graded a third of a grade for each day they are late. Papers must be submitted in print form. No Microsoft Word attachments are accepted!

Oral Presentation: This course will address distinctions between writing intended to be read by another person vs. that meant to be presented to an audience. To further this aim, each student will be responsible for one oral presentation of approximately 5 to 10 minutes. You may devise a topic of your own choice pertinent to the course or will choose from a list of topics I will prepare. While outside research, originality of content, etc. are welcome, the presentation’s principal aim is to communicate most effectively the material you have gathered and analyzed as well as to elicit class discussion. Part of a class prior to the first scheduled presentation will be devoted to preparation for this activity.

Grading: Your final grade will be based on the following percentages: 30% for preparation and participation, 70% for written work and your oral presentation. Any penalty for missed classes and tardiness will be deducted from this total.

Books:
You should purchase copies of all the following through a bookstore, amazon.com, or half.com. In terms of bookstores, I would recommend House of Our Own (3920 Spruce St.), which features a large selection of used books.

Lunsford, Andrea. The Everyday Writer. 2nd Spiral-Bound Edition. Bedford. [Note: If you already own The MLA Handbook it is not necessary to purchase this text.]
Morrison, Toni. Sula. Plume.
Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. Perennial.
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Norton.
Winterson, Jeanette. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. Grove.
Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Harvest.

In addition, possession of a college thesaurus is mandatory! Use of the Microsoft Word thesaurus though occasionally useful is not adequate.

Resources:

Writing Program Home Page (http://www.english.upenn.edu/Writing): general guide to writing courses & resources at Penn.

Tutoring and Learning Resources (http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~dasp/tlrpage.html): Help with all kinds of study skills from time management to reading a lot very quickly. Call 57-EXCEL (573-9235) for an appointment, email them at learning@dolphin.upenn.edu or drop by during walk-in hours from 12-3 PM daily, Suite 110, High Rise East (3820 Locust Walk).

Counseling and Psychological Services (http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~caps/): Confidential and free individual counseling, support, workshops (on such topics as stress management, eating issues, test anxiety, and relationship issues), and walk-in crisis counseling--all to help you develop greater understanding about yourself and others and to enhance your personal well-being and academic performance. Call 898 - 7021 or stop by their office 133 South 36th Street (near Sansom), 2nd Floor Mellon Building, between 9 AM and 5 PM, Monday - Friday.

Writers House (http://www.english.upenn.edu/~wh): Kelly Writers House hosts many fun events for readers and writers, all of which are free. For more info, check out their website or call 215-573- WRIT. [Closed for the summer.]

Collaborative Writing/Plagiarism:
I encourage you to work with one another to become better writers and better thinkers by sharing your ideas and giving feedback on each other's work. However, the work you submit to this class is expected to be your own. When you want to refer to someone else's ideas (even the ideas of someone else in this class), you must properly acknowledge your sources. Sometimes this involves providing appropriate citations in the body of your writing and additional bibliographic information at the end. Other times it involves using footnotes correctly. If you have questions about how to cite a source properly, consult a style manual or ask me. If you submit work that has been copied without attribution from some published or unpublished source, or that has been prepared by someone other than you, or that in any other way misrepresents somebody else's work as your own, you will face severe discipline by the University! Work that is your own work but has been submitted to more than one class for credit is also considered plagiarism unless you have obtained the permission of all course instructors involved prior to handing in the work. For more detailed information, see the College of Arts and Sciences' pages on academic integrity at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/college/rules/academic_integrity.html.

Schedule:

Tuesday, 5/20:

Course overview

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin

Writing Topic: Nuanced Verbs

Kate Chopin (1850-1904)

Wednesday, 5/21:

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Paper #1 topics distributed

Writing Topic: Introduction paragraph

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)

Thursday, 5/22:

“The Yellow Wallpaper” continued
Writing Topic: Conclusion paragraph
Paper checklist distributed

Monday, 5/26: Memorial Day, no class

Tuesday, 5/27:

“Cruel and Barbarous Treatment” by Mary McCarthy

Paper #1 due

Oral presentation & listserv guidelines distributed

Sign-up for paper conferences

Mary McCarthy (1912-1989)

Wednesday, 5/28:

“A Model” and A Spy in the House of Love (excerpt) by Anaïs Nin

Critical writing summary guidelines distributed

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977)

Thursday, 5/29:

Sula by Toni Morrison

Monday, 6/2:

Sula continued

Writing Topic: Distinctions between writing meant to be read privately vs. presented

Critical summary due

Paper #1 revision due

Paper #2 topics distributed

Toni Morrison (1931- )

Tuesday, 6/3:

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Wednesday, 6/4:

Wide Sargasso Sea continued

Last day to submit listserv post #1

Jean Rhys (1890-1979)

Thursday, 6/5:

Wide Sargasso Sea continued
Writing Topic: Writing for In-Class Exams

Monday, 6/9:

"Yellow Woman" by Leslie Marmon Silko; "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan

Paper #2 due

Sign up for paper #2 conferences

Paper #3 topics distributed

Leslie Marmom Silko (1948- )

Tuesday, 6/10:

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Presentation: Postmodernism: Themes & Tropes

Wednesday, 6/11:

Oranges continued

Writing Topic: Creating Movement in Writing

Presentation: “Lifting the Veil,” from White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture by Chrys Ingraham (1999) & “You’re Getting Married: The Wal-Martization of the Bridal Business” (2003) by Rebecca Mead

Jeanette Winterson (1959- )

Thursday, 6/12:

Oranges continued
Presentation: Oranges Film Adaptation

Monday, 6/16:

"Mr. Right Is Dead" and "Trompe l'Oeil" by Rona Jaffe

Paper #2 revision due

Presentation: “The Politics of Marital Entitlement” (2001) by Jaclyn Geller

Amy Tan (1952- )