Freshman Seminar T. L. Reed
“Safe as Houses” East College 306 x1216
Fall, 2003 Office Hours: Monday and Thursday 1-3
Required Texts (available in the College Store):
Note: For ease of collective reference, please use these editions only--
Beowulf. Trans. Seamus Heaney. Norton. ISBN: 0393320979.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Keith Harrison. Oxford. ISBN: 0192833340.
Doyle. Arthur Conan. Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Vol. II. Bantam. ISBN: 0533212427.
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House. Dover. ISBN: 0486270629.
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw and other Short Novels. Signet/NAL. ISBN: 0451526066.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper: And Other Stories. Dover. ISBN: 0486298574.
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Remains of the Day. Vintage. ISBN: 0679731725.
Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. Bedford/St. Martin’s. ISBN: 0312401841.
Course Overview: From Beowulf to Gosford Park, or “The Three Little Pigs” to Home Alone, the theme of the house under siege has been a staple of Western narrative. In this seminar, we will examine a broad variety of literary and cinematic texts, most of them Anglo-American, with an eye to revealing what various treatments of the house-builder/house-breaker motif might tell us about the artists who created them and the audiences for whom they were created. We’ll consider, among other things, the house as a shelter from the dangers of Nature; as a “golden world” of social elitism; as a potent symbol and tool of social and sexual ideology; as an icon of stifling traditions and attitudes; and as a secret nest for “evil.” “Home” has been called “sweet” “where the heart is.” Just how sweet the place, just how settled the heart, is what we’ll be exploring this Fall. Throughout the semester, we’ll try to find a balance between discussing the various themes that consistently link our texts AND addressing what is unique about each artifact.
Course Goals: Skills and abilities the course aims to foster include: the capacity to read both literary and cinematic texts carefully and critically; the commitment and confidence to discuss those texts objectively and rigorously in class; the ability to write clear and convincing arguments, well-supported by primary and secondary evidence; the capacity to draw aesthetic distinctions between the products of “high” and “low” culture, and at the same time to appreciate the goals and strategies that highbrow and lowbrow artifacts may share; and increased (self-) awareness of the impact of cultural artifacts on lived lives. By semester’s end, everyone in the class should have a clearer understanding of the way cultural discourse consists of a “conversation” in which mature individuals should feel comfortable participating.
Requirements: 1) two 500-750-word critical essays, with bibliographical appendices; 2) one 1250-1750-word critical essay, incorporating library research and developed in consultation with a tutor at the writing center; 3) one 2500-4000-word personal memoir or short story directly related to the themes of the course; 4) attendance and class participation on a regular basis. (Your questions and comments are the best evidence you're learning something in an active way.)
(All submitted writing must be machine-printed, double-spaced, leaving one-inch margins on all sides. Make sure you KEEP COPIES, both hard and magnetic, when you turn work in! Except when well-justified alternative arrangements are made in advance, written work must be turned in personally on the day specified)
Grading: critical essays, 15% each; 1250-1750-word essay, 20%; memoir or fiction, 30%; class attendance and participation, 20%. For the system by which averages will be computed, refer to the appropriate section of the college catalogue. All course work must be completed by the last day of class for you to receive credit for the course.
General: The Librarian linked to our seminar is Christina Bombaro: she’s the first person you should contact with questions about research and library facilities. Our linked Writing Center Tutor is Bridget Donaghue, a Senior English major. You’ll do well to book time with her well in advance.
You are expected to know what plagiarism and cheating are and to avoid them completely. For definitions, see pages 7 and 8 of the College’s Code of Conduct & Disciplinary System booklet or consult with Dean Susan Nichols. Ignorance of accepted College standards is sadly no excuse for violations. If you have any questions on what is expected of you, please see me.
I am available during office hours, but feel free to contact me at other reasonable times, should the need arise. I am usually in East College 306 (X 1216) most of each work day, and I regularly answer e-mail ("reedt").
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Tentative Schedule
M 9-1 Introduction to the seminar
--some dynamics of a successful class
--thoughts on your house and yard
--possible brief in-class essay, topic TBA
W 9-3 “The Three Little Pigs” (texts available on the Web at http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0124.html)
F 9-5 “The Three Little Pigs”
M 9-8 Beowulf (7th-10th Century)
(With this and every other work this semester, read the complete text for the first class, including any introductions. Plan your time accordingly.)
W 9-10 Beowulf
F 9-12 Beowulf
M 9-15 Beowulf
W 9-17 No class Essay 1 (500-750 words) due at 12 noon. (Slide under the door of EC 306).
Essay to include a 10-item bibliography of articles published on the poem since 1993, with a 100- word synopsis of an article available and read -- in the Dickinson Library. The bibliography should conform exactly to the MLA format presented in Hacker.
F 9-19 Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971)
(View on your own schedule. Copies will be on reserve in the library.)
M 9-22 Straw Dogs
W 9-24 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (14th Century)
F 9-26 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
M 9-29 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
W 10-1 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
F 10-3 Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
M 10-6 The Hound of the Baskervilles
W 10-8 The Hound of the Baskervilles
F 10-10 Doyle, “The Sussex Vampire” (1924) (available on the Web at http://www.bakerstreet221b.de/canon/suss.htm)
Essay 2 (500-750 words) due in class, to include a 10-item bibliography of articles published since 1993 treating landscape in British literature, with a 100-word synopsis of an article available -- and read -- in the Dickinson Library.
M 10-13 Mid-term Pause
W 10-15 Coventry Patmore, author of “The Angel of the House” (1859-62): Read all selections at:
www.iath.virginia.edu/courses/ennc986/class/bios/patmore.html (Brief biography)
www.newadvent.org/cathen/11546a.htm (Brief biography)
www.theotherpages.org/poems/patmor01.html (Sel. from “The Angel of the House”)
www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/1787/patmore.html (Sel. religious poems)
and selected xeroxes from “The Angel of the House” (“Love a Virtue,” “Unthrift,” “The Attainment,” “The Wife’s Tragedy,” “Love and Honour”) to be distributed)
F 10-17 “The Angel of the House”
(We’ll also look at some analogous treatments of the domestic female, Victorian and more contemporary.)
M 10-20 Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House (1879)
W 10-22 A Doll’s House
F 10-24 A Doll’s House
M 10-27 Bryan Forbes’ The Stepford Wives (1975)
(View on your own schedule. Copies will be on reserve in the library.)
W 10-29 The Stepford Wives
F 10-31 Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898)
M 11-3 The Turn of the Screw
W 11-5 The Turn of the Screw
F 11-7 Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho (1960)
(View on your own schedule. Copies will be on reserve in the library.)
M 11-10 Psycho
W 11-12 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1913)
F 11-14 “The Yellow Wallpaper”
M 11-17 Kazuo Ishiguro, Remains of the Day (1989)
W 11-19 Remains of the Day
F 11-21 Remains of the Day
M 11-24 Remains of the Day
Essay 3 (1250-1750 words) due in class, integrating critical reading into an argument of your choice, TBA.
W 11-26 Thanksgiving
F 11-28 Thanksgiving
M 12-1 TBA (Final weeks may include discussions of the films Remains of the Day, Animal House, and/or Gosford Park)
W 12-3 Writing Workshop
F 12-5 Writing Workshop
M 12-8 Writing Workshop
W 12-10 Writing Workshop
F 12-12 Writing Workshop
Course Evaluations
W 12-17 Final Essay/Story (2500-4000 words) due, 12 noon, East College 306.