ENGL480
AMERICA IN
THE 1960S
FALL 2005
Joan DelFattore
Class hours: M 2:30-5:30
302-831-2987 (office)
E-mail: jdel@udel.edu
302-737-7124 (home and fax)
Office hours: MWF 10:15-11, M. 7-8
p.m., T 10:30-11:45
Homepage:www.english.udel.edu/jdel
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Participants in this course will:
* Analyze representative literary works from the 1960s, including
fiction, poetry,
speeches, non-fiction,
and drama
* Identify the characteristics of each literary genre and the kinds
of creative expression
it facilitates
* Analyze the literature in conjunction with other forms of creative
expression,
particularly music, film,
and television programs
* Place the literature in the context of related public events,
such as Civil Rights
marches, protests against
the Vietnam War, and landmark Supreme Court decisions
* Compare and contrast American literary works with 1960s literature
written elsewhere
* Compare and contrast literary, non-literary, and hybrid treatments
of particular topics
in order to consider
the nature and definition of literature
* Prepare oral and written presentations of independent research
into the social, cultural,
artistic, or political
movements of the 1960s
* Prepare oral and written presentations of independent analysis
of literary works not
read in class
TEXTS IN THE ORDER USED IN CLASS
All students will read the following texts:
Margaret Walker, Jubilee
William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner
Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Harlan Ellison, Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman
Joseph Heller, Catch 22
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
Norman Mailer, Armies of the Night
Class assignments will also include short readings from the Internet and
independent online research.
Each student will select one of the following texts for independent analysis:
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
James Goldman, The Lion in Winter
TECHNOLOGY
Students must have an active e-mail account and check it regularly.
You will also be expected to access information online and print it out.
Students who do not have your own computers, printers, and Internet access
are welcome to use any of the equipment on site. If any student does
not know how to do Internet research, please see me. Questions about
activating e-mail accounts or gaining access to the UD library databases
from off-campus should be addressed to the computer hotline at 302-831-6000.
You may also find the information you need at www.udel.edu/help.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
Short Version: If I’m here, you’re here.
Missing a single class meeting in the seminar is equivalent to missing
an entire week of classes in a regular course, and absences will be excused
only in cases of serious illness or family emergencies. Car trouble,
arguments with significant others, hangovers, social events, ennui, the need
to catch up on work or sleep, appearances on the Jerry Springer Show, or abduction
by creatures from another planet are not justifications for excused absences.
(Students may argue that the last two are redundant.) Arriving late
and leaving early are not options except under unusual circumstances.
Students will lose three points from the class participation grade (see below)
for each unexcused absence. In addition, students who miss class on
a day when an oral report was due may earn no more than half the points
for the assignment by handing in a written report. Students who miss
a five-point quiz because of an unexcused absence may earn no more than three
points for a make-up quiz.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
The university’s academic honesty policy, which appears at http://www.udel.edu/stuguide/04-05/code.html#honesty,
will be enforced in this course. If any student plagiarizes all or
part of any assignment from online or print sources or from another student’s
work, it will be reported to the Office of Judicial Affairs; see http://www.udel.edu/judicialaffairs/
for the procedure.
ADA STATEMENT
Students with disabilities should contact the University of Delaware’s
Office of the ADA for information regarding possible accommodations.
See the ADA Policy at http://www.udel.edu/ADA/Stu/stu.html for more information.
It is the student’s responsibility to contact the ADA office to receive support.
GRADING
Five unannounced quizzes @ 5 points each:
25 points
Short paper on a novel or play read independently:
10 points
Final paper:
30 points
Class participation:
30 points
Note: Students will lose three points from the class participation
grade for each unexcused absence (see the attendance policy above).
Students who are repeatedly unprepared for class discussion will be warned
if additional points are about to be deducted. Otherwise, students who
come to class and are prepared for the discussion may assume that you will
receive the full 30 points.
Short report on a campus event:
5 points
Note: Each student is required to attend at least one on-campus event
having to do either with literature (any period or country) or with topics
relevant to this course. Attendance at any lecture, poetry or fiction
reading, or other event sponsored by the English Department, including but
not limited to the Robin Hood conference to be held in late September, would
count for this assignment. Live performances of plays and lectures about
current world events may also be used. Students should write one to
two pages, typed and double-spaced, summarizing what you learned from the
event and how it relates to the work in this course.
Final grade: 95-100 = A, 90-94 = A-, 87-89 = B+, 83-86 = B, 80-82
= B-, 77-79 = C+,
73-76 = C, 70-72 = C-, 67-69 = D+, 63-66 = D, 60-62 = D-, 0-59 = F
COMMUNICATION OF GRADES
E-mail may sometimes be the fastest way to communicate
grades or comments on student work, but if you do not wish to receive such
information on e-mail, please let me know. If you ask a question on
e-mail, I will assume that you expect a reply in the same medium.
SCHEDULE
NOTE: The discussion questions included in the syllabus are intended
to provide guidance in the reading and to facilitate class discussion.
They do not represent all that will be covered with respect to each work.
Mon., Sept. 5: Labor Day (no class)
Mon., Sept. 12: Introduction to the course
Introduction to the Civil Rights movement
Videotape: short documentary on the Civil Rights movement
Preliminary lecture/discussion of the violent and non-violent aspects of
the Civil Rights movement and their representation in 1960s
literature
Videotape: Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” speech
Videotape: Malcolm X “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech
Comparison and contrast of the style, imagery, and political content of
the two speeches
Brief lecture on the use of the history of slavery as an image/icon in
1960s literature dealing with race relations
Assignment: Read Margaret Walker, Jubilee
Discussion questions: What relationship do you see between the
slavery period depicted in the novel and the Civil Rights movement that
was in progress when it was written? Moving beyond the plot to the
larger issues it raises, what kinds of situations or people are represented
in the novel by the Innis Brown, Randall Ware, and Vyry’s Jim? How
do the tensions between Innis and Randall and between Innis and Jim
represent the challenges facing African American males?
Mon., Sept. 19: Discussion of Jubilee
In-class discussion of Simon and Garfunkel’s “He Was My Brother”
In-class reading and discussion of “Ka’Ba,” by Amiri Baraka
Lecture on Jim Crow, segregation
Audiotape: excerpts from the Supreme Court oral argument in Cooper
v. Aaron (school desegregation)
Assignment: Read William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner
Discussion questions: Critics
of this novel claim that it is racist because,
among other things, it depicts Nat’s
rebellion against slavery as the
product of madness rather than heroism.
Do you agree that the novel is
racist? Do you agree that Nat
was mad? How do you respond to his
decision to kill everyone, even babies?
Compare and contrast Nat’s use
of violence with that advocated in
Malcolm X’s speech, “The Ballot or
the Bullet.”
Mon., Sept. 26: Discussion of The Confessions of Nat Turner
Introduction to the theme of the just use of authority and resistance to
unjust authority
Assignment: Read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for Oct. 10.
Discussion questions: Was McMurphy mad?
Was his rebellion against the Big Nurse’s authority justified? How
are women depicted in the novel, particularly with regard to their role
in threatening or enhancing the manhood of the male characters? How
do Mr. Tabor and Ellis function as symbols in the novel? Identify
examples of Christ imagery and explain their significance. Compare
and contrast the Chief and Nat Turner as the narrators of their respective
stories.
Mon., Oct. 3: Film: A Clockwork Orange
Discussion of the film
Assignment: See Sept. 26.
Mon., Oct. 10: Discussion of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Discussion of film clips from One Flew and Cool Hand Luke
In-class reading and discussion of “i sing of olaf”
Discussion of the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby”
Discussion of Simon and Garfunkel’s “I Am a Rock”
Assignment: Read Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman, by
Harlan
Ellison, including the author’s introduction. Start reading Catch-22
for
Oct. 24.
Discussion questions: What does
Ellison mean when he talks about being
dismayed by his rebellious soul?
How does time function in the story?
Identify absurdist elements in the
story. How does Ellison’s use of the
absurd help to make his point?
What is his point?
Mon., Oct. 17: Discussion of Repent, Harlequin, Said the Ticktockman.
Lecture/discussion on the use of humor and the absurd as vehicles of
social commentary in 1960s literature
Video: Monty Python’s Dead Parrot skit
Video: John Belushi’s Saturday Night Live Samurai desk clerk skit
Assignment: Read Catch-22, by Joseph Heller.
What is Catch-22? Why does its meaning change throughout the novel?
How does Heller use absurdist elements
to make his point? What is his
point? Why does time jump around
as it does in the novel -- is there any
logic to the time shifts? What
is the symbolic significance of the soldier
in white, the dead man in Yossarian’s tent, and
Yossarian’s references to
the snows of yesteryear? Why
is Yossarian naked in the tree and on
parade to receive his medal?
Compare and contrast the military-capitalistic
establishment in Catch-22 with
the Combine in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest, the medical/political
power structure in A Clockwork Orange, and the
reign of the Ticktockman.
Print out Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and bring it
to class on
Oct. 24 for in-class reading and discussion.
Mon., Oct. 24: Discussion of Catch 22
Discussion of a M*A*S*H episode
In-class reading and discussion of excerpts from “Civil Disobedience,” by
Henry David Thoreau.
Assignment: Read Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut.
Discussion questions: Compare
and contrast the images of war in this novel with those in Catch-22.
Compare and contrast the depiction of authority and the use of absurdist
elements in this work with those in the other works we’ve read so far.
Compare and contrast the nonlinear presentation of time in this novel with
the use of time in Catch-22 and in Repent, Harlequin.
What is the symbolic significance of the bombing of Dresden and of the cage
on Trafalmagore? Why does Vonnegut introduce Trafalmagore at all?
What does that contribute to the novel?
Mon., Oct. 31: Discussion of Slaugherhouse Five
Introduction to the history of the Vietnam War and the protests against it
Video: anti-war songs from the Woodstock concert
Assignment: Go
to http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/vietnam/vietnamwar.htm and click
on the links for the timeline of the war, its causes, the photo essay, African
American participation, the domestic course of the war, and the anti-war
movement. Then start reading Armies of the Night for Nov. 14.
Mon., Nov. 7: Discussion of the Vietnam War -- guest speaker, Timothy
Brooks
In-class reading and discussion of Denise Levertov’s “Life at War”
In-class reading and discussion of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”
Brief introduction to gonzo journalism, “fact-ion,” and the March on the
Pentagon
Assignment: Read The Armies of the Night, by Norman Mailer.
Discussion questions: How does
Mailer blend his personal experiences
and subjective perceptions into the
larger public events in which he
participates? Does his
focus on himself as participant-observers
contribute to or detract from an understanding
of the experience he is
describing? How do his feelings
about the March vacillate as events
unfold? How does his focus on
himself fit in with the themes and events
of the other literary works we’ve
studied in this course and with the
culture of the 60s?
Mon., Nov. 14: Discussion of Armies of the Night -- guest
speaker, Harris Ross
In-class reading and discussion of Robert Lowell’s “For the Union Dead”
Audiotape: excerpts from the Supreme Court oral argument in New
York Times Co. v. United States (the Pentagon Papers case)
Brief introduction to the romanticized vision of the past in some 1960s
literature dealing with such themes as honor, decency, and courage
Assignment: Read the
novel or play for which you signed up: Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar;
Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons; Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; or James Goldman, The
Lion in Winter . Choose whichever of the other works we’ve read
in this course that you think would be most interesting to discuss in conjunction
with the book you read for this assignment. Then write a paper approximately
two to three pages in length comparing and contrasting the themes, symbolism,
characterization, and tone of the two works. How does each work fit
into the overall picture of 1960s American literature? There’s no
need to summarize the plot of the book you read, but be prepared to explain
it orally to other students who did not read it.
Mon., Nov. 21: Discussion of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,
The Bell Jar, A
Man for All Seasons, and The Lion in Winter
Assignment: Write the final paper, due Dec. 5.
Mon., Nov. 28: Film: The Graduate
Discussion of the film, including the lyrics to “Mrs. Robinson” and
“The Sounds of Silence”
Assignment: See Nov.21.
Mon., Dec. 5: Presentation of final papers
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RESEARCH PAPER TOPICS
Papers must be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point font, and approximately
10-15
pages in length. Please use the MLA style sheet, which is available
at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html.
A Works Cited page should be attached.
OPTION ONE:
Research a relevant Supreme Court case; a few examples are listed below.
Brown v. Board of Education
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S.
Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board
New York Times Company v. U.S.
All the decisions in each case (trial, appeals, Supreme Court) are available
through Lexis/Nexis, as are news articles and law review articles.
Lexis/Nexis may be accessed through a university or university-linked computer
by going to the UD homepage and clicking on Libraries, then Databases, then
Lexis/Nexis. Please note that the most detailed explanations of the
facts of each case are likely to be found not in the Supreme Court decision
but in the lower court decisions, particularly that of the trial court.
To find out more about what led to the lawsuit, you may also wish to use
Lexis/Nexis to access news stories, editorials, and letters to the editor.
One research suggestion, in case you have not done this type of investigation
before: it is not a good idea to use the title of the case as the search
keywords for news articles, since few newspapers mention lawsuits by their
titles. Instead, use the names of the principal parties, the town,
or the basic
ideas in the lawsuit – words that you would expect to find in a newspaper
story. Finally, you can use Lexis/Nexis (Legal Research, then Law Reviews)
to access law review articles about the case.
OPTION TWO:
Choose one of the literary works we read in this course and look up at least
five critical articles in scholarly journals or chapters in books of literary
criticism that offer interpretations of this work. Provide a synopsis
of the major ideas in these articles and add your own opinions.
The best approach would be to select a particular issue relevant to the book
-- e.g., why Vonnegut chose to include an alien planet in Slaughterhouse
Five -- and make your paper a discussion of what critics have said about
this issue and what you think of it. The best way to start would be
to go to the reference room of the library and do an OCLC search (the librarian
can show you how to do it if you don’t already know) for articles about your
chosen author and/or book. You can tell from the titles of the articles
what the main point is, and that will help you choose the group of articles
you want to read.
******************************************************************
OPTION THREE:
Do research on one of the historical or political topics mentioned in the
course and relate the new information you find to the works discussed in
class. Among the many possibilities are the McCarthy/HUAC era or any
incident within it; the Chicago Seven; the march on Selma or any other major
event of the Civil Rights movement; the influence of Thurgood Marshall and
the NAACP on the Civil Rights movement; the assassination of Martin Luther
King; the feminist movement or any of its leaders, such as Gloria Steinem
and Betty Friedan; the genesis of the “Beat Generation”; the anti-war music
of the artist of your choice, analyzed either as poetry or in terms of its
political uses; the obscenity trial of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”; the racial
desegregation battles in Delaware (for a list of the materials available
in Special Collections in Morris Library, see http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/deseg.htm);
or a particular event in the Vietnam War, such as the fall of Saigon.
Be careful to limit your topic: for instance, the march on Selma rather
than the whole Civil Rights movement, the fall of Saigon rather than the
whole Vietnam War.
**********************************************************************
OPTION FOUR:
Choose any of the 1960s authors whose works we read in class, research the
author’s life, and write a paper about the ways in which his/her personal
experiences influenced his/her writing. It is not necessary to go into
detail about irrelevant matters -- for instance, if the elementary school
the person attended has nothing to do with his/her writing, there’s no need
to include it. Similarly, don’t take up a lot of space with lists of
publications and awards. That approach is a “data dump” rather than
a thoughtful, critical paper. The point is to ferret out from the biographical
material those facts you consider most relevant to the person’s writing and
concentrate on those.
OPTION FIVE:
If none of these ideas appeals to you, write a paper on any
relevant topic that meets
the following criteria:
1. The paper must entail the gathering of new information or
the use of a fresh
approach to interpretation; it cannot consist primarily of further traditional
analysis or
evaluation of works we have already read and discussed.
2. The paper must show how the new material fits into the larger
picture of
intellectual freedom issues as evidenced by the works we discussed.
3. The topic must be approved in advance by the instructor.