ENG 525: Contemporary American Literature:
American Apocalypse
Tentative Schedule
Semester Overview
WEEK ONE: Sept 2 & 4
Tues: Introduction
Thurs: In-class writing/group assignments
WEEK TWO: Sept. 9 & Sept. 11
Tues: ANDERSON, M.T. -- FEED
Thurs: ANDERSON, M.T. -- FEED
Begin reading Industrial Society and Its Future. (see below).
Wikipedia page (can you believe it?) on "interpellation" to buttress our class notes, and a little bit on Ideological State Apparatuses
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
Wikipedia on M.T. Anderson & Feed
Over the next few weeks (between now and, say, Oct. 2nd), read through Industrial Society and Its Future. Feel free to journal on it, especially in relation to Feed, Western Lands, and White Noise.
Information on Ted Kaczynsky, The Unabomber
WEEK THREE: Sept. 16 & Sept. 18
Tues: ANDERSON, M.T. -- FEED
By today, have Chapter One, "The Culmination of Separation," & Chapter Two, "The Commodity as Spectacle" of the Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle both read.
Have paragraphs 1-135 of Industrial Society and it's Future completed (it's okay if you've finished it all, of course)
Thurs: BURROUGHS, W.S. -- THE WESTERN LANDS, Group A Notebooks Due
A great writer and a wonderful person died on Friday, Sept. 12th. I had the pleasure of knowing Dave Wallace, but not nearly as well as I would have liked. He will be missed. Please take the time to read the commencement address he gave at Kenyon College. Dave resists the cliches that so many speakers all-too-readily give into, offering us instead profound insights into the value of a liberal arts education. This short speech also relates quite closely to the themes in Feed, especially Anderson's points about education, about the importance of simply thinking about one's world and one's relationship to that world.
CLICK HERE FOR NOTEBOOK PROMPT
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
!!NEW!! Article about Facebook; consider how Facebook and related technologies are paving the way to The Feed.
Wikpedia on The Western Lands
Burroughs Bio
Burroughs: The Biography Project
Wikipedia on Burroughs
Cut-up Engine
WEEK FOUR: Sept. 23 & 25
Tues: BURROUGHS, W.S. -- THE WESTERN LANDS
Thurs: BURROUGHS, W.S. -- THE WESTERN LANDS, Group B Notebooks Due
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
WEEK FIVE: Sept. 30 & Oct. 2
Tues: DELILLO, DON -- WHITE NOISE
Thurs: DELILLO, DON -- WHITE NOISE, Group C Notebooks Due
Cont. reading Industrial Society and Its Future
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
Wikipedia on DeLillo
Don DeLillo's America
Phil Nel's Don DeLillo Society Page
WEEK SIX: Oct. 7 & 9
Tues: DELILLO, DON -- WHITE NOISE
Have completed Industrial Society and Its Future completed by today
Thurs: DELILLO, DON -- WHITE NOISE, Group D Notebooks Due
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
Jayne Anne Phillips' New York Times review of White Noise (1985)
WEEK SEVEN: Oct. 14 & 16
Tues: GINSBERG, ALLEN-- THE FALL OF AMERICA : POEMS OF THESE STATES 1965 - 1971, Mid-term Paper Due!
Thurs: GINSBERG, ALLEN-- THE FALL OF AMERICA : POEMS OF THESE STATES 1965 - 1971, Group E Notebooks Due
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
Wikipedia on The Fall of America
Allen Ginsberg dot org
Wikipedia on Ginsberg
Poets.org on Ginsberg
Modern American Poetry's Ginsberg Stuff
WEEK EIGHT: Oct. 21 & 23
Tues: DINH, LINH -- JAM ALERTS
Thurs: DINH, LINH -- JAM ALERTS, Group A Notebooks Due
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
Linh Dinh reading from Jam Alerts (video)
Penn Sound Linh Dinh page (sound)
Ron Silliman on Jam Alerts
WEEK NINE: Oct 28 & 30
Tues: HARVEY, MATTHEA -- MODERN LIFE
Thurs: HARVEY, MATTHEA -- MODERN LIFE, Group B Notebooks Due
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
New York Times Modern Life review
Bookslut Matthea Harvey interview
Critical Mass on Modern Life
WEEK TEN: Nov. 4 & Nov. 6
Monday: Office hours: come to my office to pick up your mid-terms! Come with ideas for your final project.
Tues: SPIEGELMAN, ART -- IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS
VOTING DAY!!! And here's an essay by Ken Knabb, translator of much of Guy Debord's work, called "Beyond Voting."
Thurs: SPIEGELMAN, ART -- IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS, Group C Notebooks Due
Guest lecture: Visting Professor Charles Hatfield to discuss Spiegelman.
Read Charles Hatfield's essay on Spiegelman for today's class: http://charles.hatfield.googlepages.com/sdsutalk
And don't be a jerk! Support poor scholars by buying Charles's super rad book, Alternative Comics: Guide to an Emerging Literature (not required, but recommended, of course)
THURSDAY NIGHT: 4:30, Lecture By Charles Hatfield on Comics and Boyhood. In the Library
Feral Boyhood in the Comics: Kamandi, Jack Kirby's Post-Apocalyptic Child
Thursday, November 6, 2008 from 4:30 to 5:30PM
In the SDSU’s Love Library, room LL430 (Leon Williams Room)
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
WEEK ELEVEN: Nov. 11 & 13
Tues: November 11--Holiday— Veteran's Day.
Thurs: Discussion of Final Paper, Group D Notebooks Due
Food for thought: "The Stuff in Your Bedroom Signals How You Vote" (consider the different direction augmented survival can take us, and how the things we own--whether "they own us" or not--provide insight into our ideology)
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
WEEK TWELVE: Nov. 18 & 20
Tues: NUFER, DOUG -- NEGATIVELAND, Group E Notebooks Due
Thurs: NUFER, DOUG -- NEGATIVELAND
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
Wikipedia on "Constrained Writing"
Check out Eunoia, an amazing contemporary example of constraint-based writing.
WEEK THIRTEEN: Nov. 25 & Nov. 27
Nov. 25: Negativeland & Oulipo!
Read this Wiki on Oulipo
November 27 - 29 Holiday— Thanksgiving recess
Three-part film on the Oulipo! Dig: http://infinityskitchen.com/blog/oulipo-documentar/
WEEK FOURTEEN: Dec. 2 & Dec. 4
Tues: SPAHR, JULIANA -- THIS CONNECTION OF EVERYONE WITH LUNGS : POEMS
Thurs: SPAHR, JULIANA -- THIS CONNECTION OF EVERYONE WITH LUNGS : POEMS, Notebooks Due for ALL Groups
Online Resources (RECOMMENDED):
WEEK FIFTEEN: Dec. 9 & Dec. 11
Tues: Simon Morris, Kenneth Goldsmith: Sucking on Words (film)
Thurs: GOLDSMITH, KENNY -- THE WEATHER
Online Resources (REQUIRED by Tuesday):
Kenneth Goldsmith, Interview
"Moving Information," Marjorie Perloff
"Kenneth Goldsmith: The New York Triology," D.J. Huppatz
"Being Boring," Kenneth Goldsmith
WEEK SIXTEEN: FINAL EXAM WEEK: Final Projects Due on Exam Day