ENG 604: 21st Century American Literature
Joseph T. Thomas, Jr.
email: jtthomas@mail.sdsu.edu
Class Meetings: Tuesday & Thursday, 2:00PM - 3:15PM ; AH3113
Office: AL-255
Contact: jtthomas@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays: 11:00-12:00 & 3:30-4:30PM (and by appointment)
!!!! IMPORTANT: Online Schedule !!!!
(This schedule is tentative. Check back often for changes and updates)
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In this course we will explore and map many of the various tendencies in 21st century American writing, focusing largely on turn of the century works. The contemporary landscape is diverse, and mapping its often irregular terrain will be difficult, but towards this end, we will engage a variety of contemporary (21st century) literary traditions, including the various strains of post-avant [garde] and post-language writing, flarf, conceptual writing, recent ethnopoetics, vispo, sound poetry, intermedial texts, flash-poetry, kinetic poetry, performance poetry, American hybrid, the literary essay, poets’ theater, experimental children’s poetry (the lipogrammatic work of Jon-Arno Lawson, for example), & so-called noulipo writing. Nearly all of the texts will be published post 2000, providing you with a solid grounding (though necessarily not comprehensive) in contemporary writing.
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Texts:
(REQ) ANDERSON -- FEED
(REQ) FOER -- EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE
(REQ) HUTH & aND -- TEXISTENCE
(REQ) LAWSON -- VOWELLER'S BESTIARY
(REQ) NUFER -- NEGATIVELAND
(REQ) RIOS -- CAPIROTADA: NOGALES MEMOIR
(REQ) SHIRINYAN -- YOUR COUNTRY IS GREAT : AFGHANISTAN - GUYANA
(REQ) WALLACE -- CONSIDER THE LOBSTER
(REQ) ZULTANSKI -- PADOn Blackboard:
Armantrout, Rae -- Veil
Bervin, Jen -- Nets
Bök, Christian -- Eunoia
edwards, kari -- iduna
Gordon, Nada -- Folly
Shirinyan, Ara -- Direct Plots
Spahr, Juliana -- This Connection of Everyone with Lungs
Wallace, Dave -- "All That"
-- "The Compliance Branch"
-- "Luckily The Account Representative Knew CPR"
-- "Shipping Out"
-- "Tense Present"
Late Work:
Work will be turned in on the date due or not at all. We all have schedules, and it is imperative that we keep to them. However, I am not completely draconian. In extreme cases I may accept late work, but don't count on it.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is taking someone else's words, idea, or argument and claiming it as your own. Don't do it unless you have a interesting and rigorous intellectual or aesthetical reason. Cite all your sources unless you discuss your appropriation with me first. Instances of plagiarism designed to avoid intellectual work will earn you an F for the course, and, in egregious cases, may result in expulsion from the university. Please familiarize yourself with SDSU plagiarism policies, discussed in your handbook. Throughout the syllabus and my links page are links to many useful web sources. Do not take the words or ideas from any of these sources without providing the appropriate citations unless, again, you discuss your aims with me first. This goes for oral presentations as well as written work.
Assignments/Grade Distribution:
Participation: 25%
Critical Question: 20 %
Group Presentation: 20%
Final Project (or Essay): 35%
Participation: (25%)
I expect you to come to class with something to say. In addition to researching the authors, think about when the books or essays were published, reacquaint yourself with historical context that surrounds the work, its reception, etc. Make connections between the content of this course and others you have taken, and apply whatever theoretical, philosophical, or pedagogical rubrics you feel are appropriate (check out the literature, poetry, and theory links on my webpage. And use print sources as well. The library is a wonderful place).
Absences will count against your final grade, especially as this is a once a week class. One absence is the same as missing an entire week of class. Keep that in mind, and miss as few classes as possible.
Critical Question (20%)
Your critical questions will engage the week's readings, framing them in the context of and in connection to previous readings. Your questions will be about a paragraph long, and facilitate the discussion of an idea or problem or claim found in the readings. They are always due on or before the Monday evening before the class meeting in which we discuss the readings inspiring your question.
Group Presentation: (20%)
This presentation will concern one of the authors we will be reading from this semester. We will form our groups on Sept 7. You will be assigned an author, and then will prepare a 20 minute presentation on that author and his or her work, focusing on the traditions that inform the author's practice and the author's work itself. Biographical and bibliographical information will form a part of your presentation, but primarily you will focus on how this author's work fits into the tapestry of 21st century American literature.
Final Project: (35%)
Your final project will probably involve an extended, researched exploration of some issue related to our seminar topic, broadly conceived. Any sort of analysis or investigation appropriate to the subject of our course is acceptable. Final papers in this fashion should be thesis-driven, and around eight to twelve pages (standard conference paper length).
I also allow students the flexibility to craft their own final projects. If so, you need to prepare a written proposal, explaining the academic and creative worth of the project and how it relates to the subject matter we've been exploring over the semester.
Final projects are due during exam week, at a time to be announced. They must be handed into me personally, although I have been know to make other arrangements on a case by case basis.