English 242 -- Introduction to Reading Fiction

Instructor Daniel Griesbach
Office Hours:
Mon, Tue 1:30 - 2:30
Atrium Café

Office: Padelford B-5-B

Class Times and Place:
M, T, W, Th - 12:30p.m.-1:20p.m.
Denny Hall, Room 212

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Description

Myths, Histories, & Fictions
This course introduces the practice of critically reading works of fiction. To do this, we will look at examples of American novels that are especially sensitive to their own status as "modern" narratives and that register a sense of dislocation from the past and from narrative forms of some earlier period. We start by honing our understanding of "fiction" in general by reading several explanations of the words "myth," "history," and "fiction." We will then inquire into such questions as: what are the possible roles of heroes, legends, and folktales in a novel? How do we understand the presence of absence of historical details, or historical accuracy, in fictional narratives? How can novels reorient a reader's sense of history and cultural myths? Is fiction built out of some combination of history and myth, or is it antithetical to both?

The above will be the theoretical aspect of "reading fiction" to explore in our class discussions and your writings. However, when we turn to the novels themselves we will seek to understand them on their own terms, and not just from these theoretical perspectives. We will practice close reading of the novels as works of art. Be prepared to bring your individual perspective and critical analysis to Twain, Jewett, Paredes, and Steinbeck, and to have your perspective and analysis transformed by these writers in turn!

Required Materials

Available at the University Book Store: Available at Ave Copy Center (4141 University Way NE Suite 103):

Assignments and Grading

Paper 1 (30%) and Paper 2 (40%): there will be two major papers for this course, the first 5 pages double-spaced in length, the second 7 pages double-spaced, both following MLA format. The first will be an analysis of Mark Twain in terms of the ideas our class explors in first two weeks of the quarter. The second will be a longer paper on one of the three other novels, with a required research component. Since this course is a writing credit (W), both papers will be evaluated on the attention to the texts and the knowledge demonstrated, as well as on the quality of presentation as a piece of college-level expository writing.

Participation (40% total) The rest of the grade will evaluate two ongoing assignments:

Accommodations

Please let me know if you need accommodation of any sort. I can work in conjunction with the University of Washington Disabled Student Services (DSS) to provide what you require. I'm also very willing to take suggestions specific to this class to meet your needs.

Policies

Late Work: For papers, due dates will be announced on the prompts and on the course schedule online. A paper due in class is due at the beginning of the class period. A deduction will be taken from the assignment's score of 0.2 points on the 4.0 grade scale if turned in later than the beginning of the class period on the same day and an additional 0.1 points for each day following.

Email: I answer emails to work out logistical matters (for example, scheduling a meeting). If a question about the course, the reading, the assignments, or your writing might better and more efficiently be addressed in office hours or meeting at another time, I will in response suggest we set up some such meeting. I am happy to look at portions of your paper in advance of a meeting, but I do not respond by email to papers or portions of papers emailed to me. Please set up a meeting instead. Do not email me papers unless I ask you.

Inclusive Environment: Respect for your fellow peers, who may be of different races, ethnicities, ages, genders, sexual orientations, ability/disability, political or ideological convictions, and so on, is vital to creating a safe and good intellectual environment. Please use language that honors this academic goal as well.

Academic Integrity: According to university and departmental policy, plagiarism - passing someone else's work off as your own - constitutes grounds for failure of the assignment in question, which can greatly affect the your grade in the course. If I find a plagiarized assignment I often turn it over to the College of Arts and Sciences review board. They take disciplinary steps, including noting the instance of plagiarism on your transcript. Proper documentation of sources in quotation and paraphrase will be one of the expectations of the papers. If you are having so much difficulty writing that you are tempted to use someone else's work, you should come and talk to me - we can work together to overcome any writing difficulty you are experiencing.

Journals

Your journal entries should be two pages of single-spaced writing per week exploring in depth an idea from the reading or class discussion. For each week's entry, at top of the page give your entry a title related to the topic you are writing about, and also note the date. To monitor your progress, I will collect journals on Mondays in class, starting Week 2 (April 2nd), and return them the next day. The only variation will be the final submission, which will be Tuesday Week 10 (May 29). In the weekly submissions, I will be giving a check for completion at the top of the page, which denotes quantitative measurement above all: if it is less than two full pages, it will not count. Please write legibly. At the end of the quarter, I will grade the journals on a 4.0 scale, based on timely submissions, neatness, completeness, and thoughtfulness entries.

Discussion Forms

Each day, I will leave significant time for class discussion, and your participation in discussion is required. Discussion forms are a way to encourage everyone to contribute, and for you to keep a record of your contributions. During the beginning of the quarter, I will give you nine discussion forms. You are responsible to bring these to class and use them. At the beginning of each class, I will return the forms that were turned in the previous day. The discussion form gives a space for your name, the date, and the subject of class discussion. Below these, you have two spaces: one for writing down your comment after you have made it and one for briefly recording others' responses. A comment can be a statement or a question on the reading material for that day. They should be thoughtful. For example, "Who is Twain?" is not a significant question, because it is merely inquiring into facts that anyone can look up. But a more complex and interpretive question such as "Is Merlin a villain? Is Hank justified in destroying his tower?" is acceptable, because it leads to an interpretation of the meaning of the text. An answer to this question would also be an acceptable comment. In both cases, you should briefly note others' responses to your question or comment. At the end of class, turn in your discussion form to me. You are responsible for one per week: if you don't get a chance to make a comment on Monday, that means you have three more days to get one in!

Readings on Reserve at Odegaard Undergraduate Library:

On history and literature
Georg Lukacs, The Historical Novel
Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious
Linda Hutcheon, A Poetics of Postmodernism
Barbara Foley, Telling the Truth: The Theory and Practice of Documentary Fiction
Hayden White, Tropics of Discourse

On myth and literature
Roland Barthes, Mythologies
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology (also can be accessed electronically through UW libraries)
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Ernst Cassirer, Language and Myth
Mircea Eliade, Images and Symbols
Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul
Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism
Rene Girard, Violence and the Sacred