ENG 606:
Freaks, Tricksters, & Iconoclasts (in Children's Literature)
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
WEEK ONE | January 22, 2009
INTRODUCTION
WEEK TWO | January 29
Freaks and Tricksters: Fairy Tales
Thursday:
Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self (1978), pages 13-36; 137-153
Introduction
Chapter 5: Beauty and the Beast: The Eros of UglinessCharles Perrault, from Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals (Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé) (1697)
Blue Beard
The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots
Ricky of the Tuft
Little Tom ThumbMadame de Beaumont, from Magasin des enfants, ou dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses élèves (1756)
Grimm Brothers, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen) (1857)
WEEK THREE | February 5, 2009
Tricksters Make the World
Thursday:
Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes the World, pages 3-91; 317-31
Introduction
Part One: Trap of NaturePresentation # 1: "That's My Way, Coyote, Not Your Way," Sean P.
Presentation # 2: "The First Lie," Elsy R.
Interlude
Appendix I: The Homeric Hymn to HermesMCDERMOTT -- RAVEN : TRICKSTER TALES FROM THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
WEEK FOUR | February 12, 2009
Tricksters Make the World
Thrusday:
Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes the World, pages 95-199
Part Two: Two-Road Chance
Part Three: Dirt Work
Presentation # 3: "Speechless Shame and Shameless Speech," Toya F.
Available Presentations [No more than one from these sections]:
4: An Attack of Accidents
5: The God of the Crossroads
6: The Lucky Find
8: Matter of Place
WEEK FIVE | February 19, 2009
Tricksters Make the World
Thrusday:
Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes the World, pages 203-314COLUM -- NORDIC GODS & HEROES, pages 3-154Part Four: Trap of Culture
Presentation # 4: "Hermes Slips the Trap," Kathy P.
Conclusion
Available Presentations [No more than one from these sections]:
10: Frederick Douglass and Eshu’s Hat
11: Trickster Arts and Works of Artus
12: ProphecyPart I: The Dwellers in Asgard
Part II: Odin the Wanderer
WEEK SIX | February 26, 2009
Thursday:
Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self, pages 39-113
Chapter 1: Dwarfs: From Knoumhotpou to General Tom Thumb
Chapter 2: Dwarfs: Changing the Image
Chapter 3: The Dream of GiantsAvailable Presentations [No more than two from these sections]:
Chapter 1: Dwarfs: From Knoumhotpou to General Tom Thumb
Chapter 2: Dwarfs: Changing the Image
Chapter 3: The Dream of GiantsCOLUM -- NORDIC GODS & HEROES, pages 157-204; 276-282
Part III: The Witch's Heart
from Part IV: 11. The Twighlight of the GodsRECOMMENDED ONLINE READING:
WEEK SEVEN | March 5, 2009
Thursday:
JULIS LESTER -- BLACK FOLKTALES
Henry Louis Gates Jr., from The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism
Chapter 1: A Myth of Origins: Esu-Elegbara and the Signifying Monkey [Chapter pdf on Blackboard]
Presentation # 5: "Chapter 1," Linzay L.
Chapter 2: The Signifying Monkey and the Language of Signifyin(g): Rhetorical Difference and the Orders of Meaning [Chapter pdf on Blackboard]
Available Presentation:
Chapter 2: The Signifying Monkey [...]
WEEK EIGHT | March 12, 2009
Thursday:
NO CLASS--But still post on Blackboard, as usual, on the following readings:
Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts
Thomas, Chapter Five from Poetry's Playground
Martin Pops, from Home Remedies, "The Metamorphosis of Shit"
Rodolphe el-Khoury, Introduction to History of Shit, pages viii-xiii
Dominique Laporte, from History of Shit (Histoire de la merde) (1978)
Chapter 1: "The Gold of Language, the Luster of Scybala," pages 2-25
Chapter 2: "Cleaning up in Front of One's House, Heaping Against the Wall," pages 26-55
WEEK NINE | March 19, 2009
Thursday:
SHERMAN -- GREASY GRIMY GOPHER GUTS
Thomas, from Poetry's Playground, Chapter Five: "Child Poets and the Poetry of the Playground" [pdf on Blackboard]
Presentation # 6: "Chapter Five," Amy C.
Martin Pops, from Home Remedies, "The Metamorphosis of Shit" [pdf on Blackboard]
Presentation # 7: "The Metamorphosis of Shit," Mary W.
Rodolphe el-Khoury, Introduction to History of Shit, pages viii-xiii
Dominique Laporte, from History of Shit (Histoire de la merde) (1978)
Chapter 1: "The Gold of Language, the Luster of Scybala," pages 2-25 [Chapter pdf on Blackboard--includes el-Khoury Introduction]
Presentation # 8: "The Gold of Language," Amy C.
Chapter 2: "Cleaning up in Front of One's House, Heaping Against the Wall," pages 26-55 [Chapter pdf on Blackboard]
Presentation # 9: "Cleaning up in Front ...," Samantha L
WEEK TEN | March 23, 2009
MONDAY (Special Meeting Date--No Class on the 26th; I will be at a children's literature conference in Nashville, TN. The conference is the Eighth Biennial Conference on Modern Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature, and I will be presenting a paper as part of a panel titled, "Black & White." My paper concerns the comic book author Alan Moore, and is called, “Alan Moore’s Sublimely Mundane Black Magic as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Audience, Fiction, & the Imagination’s Uncanny Ability to Remake the World.”)
Class is rescheduled for Monday, March 23:
Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self, pages 114-136; 154-225
Chapter 4: Supermen and Superwomen: The Terror Behind the Dream
Presentation # 10: "Chapter 4 ,"Sean P.
Chapter 6: Wild Men and Feral Children
Chapter 7: Hermaphrodites
Chapter 8: Siamese TwinsPresentation # 11: "Chapter 8," Timothy A.
Baum, Wizard of Oz
WEEK TWELVE | April 9, 2009
Thursday:
Michael Holquist, Prologue to Rabelais and His World pages xii-xxiii
Mikhail Bakhtin, from Rabelais and His World, Introduction [pdf on Blackboard--includes Holquist]
Presentation # 12: "Introduction," Linzay L.
SILVERSTEIN -- WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS
Thomas, "Reappraising Uncle Shelby" [pdf on Blackboard]
Available Presentation:
"Reappraising Uncle Shelby"
WEEK THIRTEEN | April 16, 2009
Thursday:
SEUSS -- CAT IN THE HAT [& Annotated Cat in the Hat : largely for fun. Read the pdf annotations along with the text]
Philip Nel, from The Avant-Garde and American Postmodernity, "Dada Knows Best: Growing Up Surreal with Dr. Seuss" (pdf on Blackboard)
Presentation # 13: "Dada Knows Best," Kathy P.
Philip Nel, from Dr. Seuss: American Icon, "Epilogue: American Icon, American Iconoclast" (pdf on Blackboard)
WEEK FOURTEEN | April 23
Thursday:
Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes the World, pages 345-54
Appendix III. Monkey and the Peaches of Immortality
Presentation # 14, "Monkey," Toya F.
YANG -- AMERICAN BORN CHINESE
WEEK FIFTEEN | April 30, 2009
Thursday:
Leslie Fiedler, Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self, pages 227-347
Part Two (Chapters 9-13)
Presentation # 15: "Chapter 11," Samantha L.
Sigmund Freud, "The Uncanny" Part I & Part II
E.T.A Hoffmann, "The Sandman"
The Sandman, Directed by Paul Berry
SNICKET -- CARNIVOROUS CARNIVAL (SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS #9)
Available Presentations [No more than one from these sections]:
Chapter 9: From Theology to Teratology
Chapter 10: Freaks and the Literary Imagination
Chapter 12: Freaking Out
Chapter 13: The Myth of the Mutant and the Image of the Freak
Sigmund Freud, "The Uncanny," Parts I & II
Recommended:
Wikipedia on A Series of Unfortunate Events (Especially useful if you haven't read any of the other books in the series)
Wikipedia on "The Sandman" by E.T.A. Hoffmann
Wikipedia on The Sandman, directed by Paul Berry
Wikipedia on Unheimlich
WEEK SIXTEEN | May 7
Thursday:
FITZHUGH -- HARRIET THE SPY (all)
EDELMAN -- NO FUTURE : QUEER THEORY & THE DEATH DRIVE (all)
Acknowledgments
1. The Future is Kid StuffPresentation # 16: "The Future is Kid Stuff," Timothy A.
2. Sinthomosexuality
Available Presentation:
Sinthomosexuality
3. Compassion's Compulsion
4. No FutureAvailable Presentation:
Compassion's Compulsion
No FutureLewis Hyde, Trickster Makes the World, pages 333-43
Appendix II. Trickster and Gender