English 4384-02W: Senior Seminar (TR 11-12:15, TLC 2237)
“This Is the Way the World Ends”: The Apocalypse in Literature and Film
Dr. Joshua Masters, TLC 2244
Phone: 678-839-4862
Email: jmasters@westga.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 1-4; Wednesday, 1-5; and by appt.
Description
Alien invasions, viral outbreaks, nuclear holocaust, the flood, the rapture, the second coming, the second ice age, the rise of the machines—these are just a few of the ways human beings have imagined their “end of days.” This class will pose the theoretically imposing question, “So, like, what’s up with that?” What do we tell ourselves about ourselves when we dream of the apocalypse? What are the social and political functions of these narratives in any given historical period? How do different cultures imagine the apocalypse, and what do these differences reveal? I am anxious to discover some answers to these questions, and not just because the end could indeed be upon us or because you’re nearing the end of your undergraduate lives. We will read three contemporary novels, sample from the vast array of apocalyptic films—from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to The Planet of the Apes (Charleton Heston’s rather than Marky Mark’s) to The Matrix—and immerse ourselves in the critical and cultural theories that surround apocalyptic narratives.
Please take note. This is your class, and your active engagement with its subject matter is crucial to its success. The course should reflect your growth and development as a writer, thinker, and scholar. You will be conducting independent research throughout the semester—watching and actively critiquing at least two films, searching out meaningful articles that expand our understanding of apocalyptic rhetoric and narratives, and ultimately designing a final research project capable of changing the face of literary studies (or at least blowing the class’s collective mind).
Required Texts
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Toni Morrison, Sula
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
(All theoretical and critical
material will be on electronic reserve through the library. Expect to read at
least one critical article or chapter per week.)
Requirements
Active participation in class, two oral reports, one five-page essay, many short response papers, and a substantive research project of fifteen to twenty pages (plus a prospectus, abstract, and annotated bibliography), and a final presentation.
Explanation of Course Requirements
Final Grade: To pass the course, students must turn in all written work and have less than five absences. Your final grade is comprised of the following: Final Paper of Fifteen to Twenty Pages (40%); One Five-Page Essay (15%); Process-Based Writing Assignments (15%); Response Papers, Participation, and Editorial Work (15%); Oral Presentations (10%).
Essays: Your basic task for both your short and your long paper is to produce a well-written, coherent essay whose central argument is both interesting and significant. Your essays will be thesis-driven, argumentative papers, and your grade will be determined by the complexity of your central argument, the structure of your paragraphs, the logic of your organization, and the strength of your prose (i.e. your writing). In your short essay, you will apply at least one of the theories (or theorists) discussed to a critical reading of The Road or Sula. Your research paper will examine a text or texts of your choosing that you analyze through the lens of the seminar’s theoretical apparatus.
Reading Assignments: The reading assignments can be found on the online syllabus in Dr. Masters’ website (http://www.westga.edu/~jmasters/). All reading will be due on Tuesday, and you can expect to read between 100 and 150 pages each week.
Response Papers and Process-Based Writing Assignments: At the beginning of each week, I will post Thursday’s writing assignment at the bottom of the online syllabus. All writing in this class submitted for credit must be typed. Your papers for this class will be written over a period of weeks rather than in one, long sleepless night. Expect Thursday assignments to be fairly involved affairs that take you through the process of writing a thesis-driven, critical essay, and later, a fifteen to twenty page research paper. These assignments will be graded on a twenty-point scale based on their level of completeness and the degree to which they follow directions. Late assignments will be penalized two points for each weekday that they are late.
Late Essays: I will accept late essays, but always with a penalty. For each weekday that a paper is late, 1/3 of a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade. For instance, if the paper is due on Tuesday and you turn it in on Wednesday, you will lose 1/3 of a grade (i.e. a C+ becomes a C). If you turn it in on Thursday, 2/3 of a grade is deducted (a C+ becomes a C-). Emailed papers will not be accepted. All papers must be handed to me and entered into the record book as received.
Oral Reports: Twice during the semester, you will present a critical analysis of an apocalyptic film to the class. Your analysis should focus on a one to two minute film clip that you critically analyze, unpacking for us what you see as the ideological message(s) in the scene (and the film as a whole). The choice of films is entirely up to you, but one of them must have been made before 1980, and you should try to ensure that your choices don’t overlap with those of other students. You will receive a document with more detailed instructions.
Discussion and Attendance: Students are expected to attend every class and arrive on time, prepared, and eager to discuss the day’s reading and writing. Your participation grade is based upon your performance in the class in terms of group work, discussion, and attendance habits. You are expected to demonstrate genuine engagement with the material, actively contribute to discussion topics, show adequate preparation for each class, and respect the ideas of your classmates. You must bring the text under discussion to every class, including a print-out of the critical reading assignment.
Email: All email correspondence must take place through UWG accounts. Your emails should address me (“Dear Dr. Masters,” rather than “yo”), and they must be signed. Please proofread them and write in full sentences.
Tardiness and Leaving Early: Each tardy will count as ½ an absence. If you are more than five minutes late, you will be marked as tardy. Leaving early will also count as ½ an absence.
Absences: I understand that illnesses and emergencies are a part of life, and therefore you are allowed to miss a class without penalty. If you miss a Thursday class, you can email the writing assignment to me in advance, bringing me a hardcopy the next week. However, if you miss five classes, you will automatically fail the class, no exceptions. I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences unless the absence is due to participation in an official University activity (such as band, sports, debate, etc.). If you add the class after Tuesday, you will not be counted as absent. However, you are responsible for contacting me and being prepared by Thursday.
My Plagiarism Policy: If a student is caught plagiarizing (and this includes short writing assignments), he or she will automatically fail the course. No exceptions.
Departmental Plagiarism Policy: The Department of English and Philosophy defines plagiarism as taking personal credit for the words and ideas of others as they are presented in electronic, print, and verbal sources. The Department expects that students will accurately credit sources in all assignments. An equally dishonest practice is fabricating sources or facts; it is another form of misrepresenting the truth. Plagiarism is grounds for failing the course.
Reporting Procedures for Plagiarism:
Each incidence of plagiarism is subject to review and consideration by the
instructor, and is subject to a range of penalties including but not limited to
failing the assignment, failing the course, and referral to the
disciplinary review board (which may
ultimately result in the expulsion, suspension, or disciplinary removal of the
student from the university). In order to facilitate the prevention and
detection of plagiarism the Department of English and the University of West
Georgia will maintain records of plagiarized assignments and those who prepare
and/or submit them.
Course Goals
Students will understand and apply select theoretical and practical issues in the discipline of literary studies.
Students will become conversant with representative texts and a selected issue in literary history that allows for integration of the aims of the discipline.
Students will develop the ability to work both independently and collaboratively toward the publication of an anthology of essays by class members.
Students will propose, research, and execute a substantive literary argument appropriate to the seminar topic.
Students will be able to make effective oral presentations, both individual and collaborative.
Students will participate in an end-of-semester exit interview to assess how the course and the major have served their professional goals
Students will demonstrate in both oral and written work a discipline-specific critical facility through convincing and well-supported analysis of related material.
Students will demonstrate their command of academic English and the tenets of sound composition by means of thesis-driven analytical prose.
Program Goals
This course fulfills one of the departmental requirements for the completion of the English major.
Students will develop the analytical, oral and written skills to pursue graduate study or careers in teaching, writing, business and a variety of other fields.
Students will be able to define and pursue independent research agendas.
This course contributes to the program goal of equipping students with a foundation in literary history and the issues surrounding literary study in contemporary culture.
This course broadens students' desire and ability to take pleasure in their encounter with literature.
Students with disabilities should meet with me at the beginning of the semester, and we will make any necessary arrangements.
The reading schedule and assignment due dates are posted on the online syllabus. Slight changes and modifications are always a part of the semester, so plan to consult the syllabus regularly (before each class). All changes will be announced in class well in advance.
Reading and Assignment Schedule
8/16: “Duck and Cover”: An Introduction to Our Apocalyptic Class
8/21: The Road to top of page 60. Excerpt from Berger’s After the End (Docutek), about 70 pages.
8/23: See online syllabus for writing assignment, which you will email to me, since I’ll be in Nebraska.
8/28: The Road to page 173. Excerpt from Dixon’s Visions of the Apocalypse (Docutek).
8/30: See online syllabus for writing assignment.
9/4: Finish The Road. Excerpt from Thompson’s Apocalyptic Dread.
9/6: Film Oral Reports, Group 1.
9/11: Part I of Sula (to 75). Excerpt from Gresson’s The Recovery of Race. Discuss five page paper.
9/13: Film Oral Reports, Group 2.
9/18: Finish Sula. Frank Kermode’s Essay, “Waiting for the End.”
9/20: First page of your Mountain of Notes for five-pager.
9/25: Ceremony to top of page 72. Short excerpt from Baudrillard’s America.
9/27: Mountain of Notes and Outline due.
10/2: Ceremony to page 144. Have a good grip on your first essay.
10/4: First Essay Due. Last Day to Withdraw with a "W" is Monday, 10/8.
10/9: Finish Ceremony.
10/11: Fall Break, No Class
10/16: One page, informal paper proposal due at an individual conference (no class meeting).
10/18: Discuss the Anthology Project, assign jobs, tasks, dictators, etc.
10/23: Second Film Presentation, Group 1. Group 2’s prospectus is due.
10/25: Second Film Presentation, Group 2. Group 1’s prospectus is due.
10/30: New Theoretical Approaches to the Apocalypse. Three annotated bibliography entries due.
11/1: Anthology Workshop. Five (single-spaced) pages of your Mountain of Notes are due.
11/6: Writing and Anthology Workshop: Cover Design.
11/8: Anthology Development and Workshop. Complete Outline and Mountain due.
11/13: Anthology Workshop and individual conferences (on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday).
11/15: Rough Draft of ten pages due (and no less than eight).
11/20: Complete Draft of Paper Due. Minimum fifteen pages.
11/22: Thanksgiving Break.
11/27: Anthology and Editing Workshop.
11/29: Anthology and Editing Workshop. Final drafts finally, finally due on Friday.
12/4: Author biographies due in class. Set Anthology Table of Contents; Course Evaluations.
12/3-12/5: Exit Interviews.
Writing Assignment for 8/23 (Please email to me by the end of day.)
I'd like to get a quick sample of your writing, so please write your response to the following question in paragraph form. If possible, please write a single, well structured paragraph (but if you can't stop yourself from writing one more, make sure your second paragraph is also structured). The paragraph should open with a significant and/or interesting claim (i.e. an argument), and I'd like you to include one direct quotation from The Road and one from After the End that are properly cited (just for the heck of it, include a works cited at the end of the document). A double-spaced paragraph that's about 2/3 of a page long would be ideal.
My question is wide open. Based on what you've read thus far in The Road, what moment, episode, or sentence has struck you as loaded with meaning and signification? How does a particular theory or idea from Berger help to unpack the meaning of that moment?
Assignment for 8/30
This is a fairly informal assignment and can take two forms, depending on your preference. Option one is to type out a passage from The Road that you want the class to examine on Thursday. Below the passage, type out a few thoughts and ideas on the passage and its significance. Option two is to search out an apocalyptic cultural artifact. It might the apocalyptic rhetoric or imagery of a so-called "doomsday cult," the use of apocalyptic imagery in an advertisement, an everyday apocalyptic sign or narrative you came across, an apocalyptic video game (there is, in fact, one called Nuclear Winter)...the possibilities are endless. Be prepared to share your artifact with class, and you might email me in advance, esp. if you require some technological assistance.
Assignment for 9/6
At some point tonight, think really hard, for at twenty minutes, about your final project for the class. You don't need to make any final decisions, but I'd like to set up conferences with each of you in the next two weeks to talk about your inklings and inclinations. For class, please bookmark a passage from The Road that speaks to one of our twelve topoi, which I've listed below. You don't need to write anything, but be prepared to speak in class. We'll conclude our discussion of McCarthy, and then we'll talk about film presentations.
15 Topoi of (Post)Apocalyptic Narratives
1. Signs of History Past
-icons of the past world
-advertising and consumer culture
2. Writing, Representation, Books
-the meaning and meaninglessness of history
-apocalyptic metanarratives
3. The Old Order and the New (Dis)Order
-the collapse of previous narratives
-systems of exchange, “money”
4. The Warrior and the Sidekick
-who will accompany the survivor?
-child/protectee, dog, spouse, cultural other
5. The Country and the City
-urban dystopia: fascist rule
-rural refuge (often as false hope), and the movement in between
6. Leisure and Sport
-what we say through how we play in the post apocalypse?
7. Modes of Mobility
-how the character move tells us how the narrative will be paced
-are we hurtling through space in a ship? racing across the waste/water lands? walking? rollerskating?
8. The Gendered Apocalypse
-how is gender re-imagined or refigured?
-matriarchy or patriarchy? reproduction?
9. Race and the End of the World
-what will “race” look like after the end of the world?
-what role did race play in ending the world?
10. Verticality and the Underground
-the vertical world as preeminent sign of historical progress
-the new world will be underground, why?
11. Names and Language
-what do people call themselves, if anything?
-what happens the signifier when the signified no longer exists?
12. The Doomsday Scenario
-what precipitated the end of the world?
-was it a bang or a whimper?
13. The Familiar Made Strange, the Strange Made Familiar
-a coke can inspire awe, a smiling face on a billboard can appear utterly bizarre, and the inside of a grocery store can be the strangest looking place on earth.
-what's at stake in our estrangement from the mundane, where the banalities of everyday life become fantastic, uncanny, and/or grotesque?
14. The Apocalypse and the Liminal
15. The Return to (Patriarchal) Barbarism
For 9/20, see assignment