ENGL 6120: The Novels of Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy
Dr. Joshua Masters, TLC 2244
Phone: 678-839-4862
Email: jmasters@westga.edu (and mastersjosh@yahoo.com if UWG mail is being fussy)
Office Hours: Mon 11-12, Tues 10-12 & *1-5, Wed 10-12 & 3:30-4:30, and by appointment.
*Tuesday from 1-2, Writing Center
Description
This course will examine the novels of Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy, arguably the two most important American literary figures of our era. At first glance they may seem an unlikely fit, with their National Book Awards and gigs on Oprah’s Book Club seemingly the only things they have in common. However, their shared interest in issues of race and American nationhood, slavery and human possibility, and history and historiography, coupled with their acknowledged debt to William Faulkner—Morrison through her narrative experimentations and McCarthy through his gothic Southern lyricism—suggests that a meaningful dialogue might be established between the two. Creating this dialogue will be one of the goals of the class, and we will therefore be reading Morrison’s and McCarthy’s novels next to one another as linked pairs that explore similar regional, thematic, or narratological territory. We will begin by looking at two novels whose plots turn on an infanticide (what fun!), Beloved and Outer Dark, or at least attempted infanticides, since both infants return to life and haunt their progenitors. We will then look at a pair of novels that feature questing male figures who travel south (one to the deep South and one to Mexico) in search of their origins and identities, Song of Solomon and The Crossing. We will continue in this regional vein in our next pairing, Paradise and Blood Meridian, both of which re-imagine and reinvent the idea (and the narrative possibilities) of the American West. The next pairing, Jazz and Suttree, will allow us to investigate the poetics of each author, particularly how their linguistic concerns inform their narratological concerns and vice-versa. This will be followed by a pair of apocalyptic novels that imagine how and why the world must end (again, what fun!), Sula and The Road, and we will conclude the class with the writers’ most recent works, Love and No Country for Old Men, in order to gage where Morrison and McCarthy have been and where they are now.
Course Requirements and Expectations
Attendance: As this is a graduate class, it should go without saying that attendance and active participation are expected. Generally, one doesn’t miss grad classes. If for some reason you must miss class, make sure you contact me and stay on top of any work you miss. If you miss more than two classes, you should not expect a grade above a C unless your reasons are extremely compelling; you will need to meet with me to discuss your position in the class. However, this won’t happen.
Preparation: I’m looking at the stack of books on my desk for this class, and I’m thinking, “Gosh, that’s a lot of books.” And it is. And I expect you to read every word contained in each one, as well as twelve critical/theoretical articles and/or chapters that will accompany each novel. Please bring a copy of the assigned critical text and the assigned novel to each class.
Classroom Etiquette: No hair pulling, knuckle cracking (okay, just a little), boisterous eating, slurping, or teeth grinding in the seminar room. Also, no lateness or electronic disturbances.
Short Papers: Over the course of the semester, each student will right four thesis-driven short essays of approximately two pages. These essays will focus on the novel due for that week (rather than the criticism), and they should present an original, focused thesis on a clearly defined topic or issue relevant to the class. 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. You will be encouraged to rewrite, revise, and resubmit two of them. These essays must be submitted to me by email no later than 10 a.m. the day of class, as I may use them to help structure our discussion.
Research Paper: A 15-20 page critical essay on a topic you will devise. You will submit a two-page prospectus beforehand. I will provide more detailed guidelines a little later in the semester.
Discussion Questions: Each of you will be responsible four times during the semester for preparing three discussion questions, formulated in response to the critical/theoretical material we have been reading and designed to promote lively, text-specific conversation in class. These questions will be sent to the class via email by Sunday evening (before the sun sets).
Oral Presentation: Over the course of the semester, each of you will give an oral presentation based on a “cultural artifact” of your own devising. Each of our literary texts is richly grounded in America’s cultural and material history: they contain references to song lyrics, folk tales, historical events, political figures, legal statutes, law cases, scientific discoveries, broad social movements, regional characteristics, and, of course, other works of literature. One of our tasks as readers is to search out some of these references in order to understand the texts’ social and historical contexts and to flesh out our sense of the characters’ and/or the writers' experiences.
At the beginning of the semester, you will sign up for the book on which you would like to do original research. Your research, however, won’t be based on what other critics have said about your book; instead, it will be archival—rooted in cultural and historical connections that you discover. Your goal is to pursue a tangible cultural artifact which you feel is directly relevant to our understanding of the book. It might be a photograph, painting, physical object, movie clip, piece of music, historical document, legal decision, excerpt from another work of literature—or it might be something else altogether; part of the point is to allow you considerable freedom in choosing your subject. One thing you will discover is that this sort of research can lead in unexpected directions, so give yourself time to follow the various threads wherever they lead. We have access to fairly good technology in TLC 2237 to aid you with your presentation.
As for the presentation itself, plan to speak for 15-20 minutes. You should begin by introducing us to the artifact itself: this can be in the form of a handout, a physical object, a film clip, or an interpretive dance. Your goal will be to illuminate for the class some aspect of the text’s context that will enrich our understanding of the time period and culture that influenced the text’s production. After this brief introduction, plan to read a 5-7 page paper to the class. Devise a central argument or thesis that explains, specifically, how your artifact and research can enhance and enlarge our understanding of the primary text. If you have any questions about the suitability of a topic you have in mind, or if you have trouble coming up with a topic, please come talk to me.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: The Department of English 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. Any form of plagiarism or academic dishonesty—no matter the assignment or its relation to the final grade—will result in an automatic course grade of F.
Group #1: Marquita, Kirsten, Stan
Group #2: Jennifer, Amy, Rod
Group #3: Melissa, James, Matt
Schedule (Subject to minor revisions)
Week 1 (8/18)
Introduction, Syllabus, Sign-up for Presentations, Discussion of Absalom, Absalom!
Week 2 (8/25)
Novel: Beloved
Critical Work: Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark; Scott Bradfield, “Why I Hate Toni Morrison’s Beloved”
Group 1: 1st response
Group 2: Discussion Questions
Week 3 (9/1): Labor Day!
Week 4 (9/8)
Novel: Outer Dark
Critical Work: Elaine Scarry, Introduction to The Body in Pain
Group 2: 1st response
Group 3: Discussion Questions
Week 5 (9/15)
Novel: Song of Solomon (Oral Presentation by _________Matt_______)
Critical Work: Introduction and Chapter 14 of Black Imagination and the Middle Passage.
Group 3: 1st response
Group 1: Discussion Questions
Week 6 (9/22)
Novel: The Crossing (Oral Presentation by _______Rod_________)
Critical Work: Jean Baudrillard, “The Simulacrum” and excerpt from America
Group 1: 2nd response
Group 2: Discussion Questions
Week 7 (9/29)
Novel: Paradise (Oral Presentation by ________Kirsten________)
Critical Work: Ron Eyerman, Chapter 1 of Cultural Trauma
Group 2: 2nd response
Group 3: Discussion Questions
Week 8 (10/6)
Novel: Blood Meridian (Oral Presentation by ________Melissa________)
Critical Work: Michel Foucault, The Panopticon
Group 3: 2nd response
Group 1: Discussion Questions
(last day to withdraw with a “W”)
Week 9 (10/13)
Novel: Jazz (Oral Presentation by ______Jennifer__________)
Critical Work: Introduction to Houston Baker’s Blues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature.
Group 1: 3rd response
Group 2: Discussion Questions
Week 10 (10/20)
Novel: Suttree, Part II (Oral Presentation by ________________)
Critical Work: TBA
Group 2: 3rd response
Group 3: Discussion Questions
Week 11 (10/27)
Novel: Sula (Oral Presentation by _______Amy_________)
Critical Work: Introduction to The Apocalypse in African American Fiction
Group 3: 3rd response
Group 1: Discussion Questions
Week 12 (11/3)
Novel: The Road (Oral Presentation by ________James________)
Critical Work: James Berger, Introduction and Chapter 1 of After the End
Group 1: 4th response
Group 2: Discussion Questions
Week 13 (11/10)
Novel: Love (Oral Presentation by ________Marquita________)
Critical Work: Ron Eyerman, “Memory and Representation”
Group 2: 4th response
Group 3: Discussion Questions
Research Paper Prospectus Must Be Emailed to Me by Friday, 5 p.m.
Week 14 (11/17)
Novel: No Country for Old Men (Oral Presentation by _______Stan_________)
Critical Work: TBA
Group 3: 3rd response
Group 1: Discussion Questions
Week 15 (11/24)
Writing Workshop
Week 16 (12/1)
Research Presentations