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Satire

Spring 1997 Syllabus

Satire in American Literature and Culture

Literature 20.9, Spring, 1997

Course Description

What’s so funny about American culture? Racism, patriarchy, exploitation: these are the things we laugh at to keep from crying - and perhaps because laughing is a way to fight back. Or is it just how we blow off steam? This class will investigate the role of humor in American culture by looking at classic works of American satire, from Huckleberry Finn to Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The following required books are available at The Regulator on Ninth Street:

• Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
• Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint
• Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt
• Anonymous, Primary Colors
• Don DeLillo, White Noise
• Jane Smiley, Moo

These required comics are at Books Do Furnish A Room on Markham Ave., between East Campus and Ninth Street:

• The Best of Bijou Funnies/The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics
• Roberta Gregory, A Bitch Is Born

Copies of required articles will be distributed in class. To pay for duplication expenses, a $30 copying fee will be collected from each student. This amount is an estimate of the expense of copies over the course of the semester. If the expense runs over $30, more money will be collected. If it is less than $30, the change will be refunded.

Most audio/visual material will be screened during class. Several feature-length films, however, will be shown in the evening. Students who cannot make these screenings will be required to view the films in Lilly Library, where they will be on reserve.

Syllabus

I. Introduction

Thurs, Jan 16

II. Huckleberry Finn and the Ironies of the Canon

Tues, Jan 21

R: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (all)

A: Reaction #1

Bring in three-ring binder

Thurs, Jan 23

R: Gerald Graff, “Hidden Meaning, or, Disliking Books at an Early Age”
Jonathan Arac, “Nationalism, Hypercanonization, and Huckleberry Finn”
Jane Smiley, “Huckleberry Finn and Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

A: Response #1

Tues, Jan 28

R: Ralph Ellison, “Twentieth Century Fiction,” “Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke”

A: Reaction #2

III. Some Theories of Humor

Thurs, Jan 30

R: Sigmund Freud, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, selections.

A: Response #2

Quiz #1

Tues, Feb 4

R: Patricia Mellencamp, “Situation Comedy, Feminism, and Freud: Discourses of Gracie and Lucy”
Susan Douglas, “Genies and Witches,” from Where the Girls Are
Mel Watkins, “Black Humor,” from On the Real Side

A: Reaction #3

IV. Invisible Man and African-American Signifying

Thurs, Feb 6

R: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Chapters 1-4 (pp. 1-108)

A: Response #3

Tues, Feb 11

R: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Chapters 5-17 (pp. 109-382)

A: Reaction #4 (start Group B)

Thurs, Feb 13

R: Henry Louis Gates, “Introduction,” The Signifying Monkey

A: Response #4

Tues, Feb 18

R: Ellison, finish

A: Reaction #5

V. Portnoy’s Complaint and Jewish-American Comedy

Thurs, Feb 20

R: Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint (pp. 1-104)

A: Response #5

Tues, Feb 25

R: Roth, finish

A: Paper #1 due

Thurs, Feb 27

R: TBA

A: No Assignment

Presentation #1

Quiz #2

VI. Transgressive Humor: Underground Comics

Tues, Mar 4

R: The Best of Bijou Funnies/The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics

A: Reaction #6

Evening Screening of Crumb to be scheduled

Thurs, Mar 6

R: Roberta Gregory, A Bitch Is Born

A: Response #6

Presentation #2

VII. Mocking the Middle Class: Babbitt

Tues, Mar 11

R: Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, Chapters 1-17 (pp. 1-177)

A: Reaction #7 (start Group C)

Presentation #3

Thurs, Mar 13

R: Lewis, finish

A: Response #7

Presentation #4

Spring Break - No Class March 18, 20

VIII. Political Satire: Primary Colors

Tues, March 25

R: Anonymous, Primary Colors, Chapters 1-5 (pp. 3-185)

A: Reaction #8

Presentation #5

Thurs, March 27

R: Anonymous, finish

A: Response #8

Presentation #6

Tues, Apr 1

R: TBA

A: Reaction #9

Presentation #7

Quiz #3

IX. White Noise and Postmodern Pastiche

Thurs, Apr 3

R: Don DeLillo, White Noise, pp. 1-129

A: Response #9

Presentation #8

Tues, Apr 8

R: DeLillo, finish

A: Reaction #10 (start Group D)

Presentation #9

Thurs, Apr 10

R: Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism”

A: Response #10

Presentation #10

X. Science Fiction as Satire: Selections from Snowcrash

Tues, Apr 15

R: Neal Stephenson, Snowcrash, selections

A: Reaction #11

Presentation #11

XI. Camp, Cheeze, and Irony: Critique or Cop-Out?

Thurs, Apr 17

R: Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp”
Andrew Ross, “Uses of Camp”

A: Response #11

Presentation #12

Tues, Apr 22

R: TBA

A: Reaction #12

Presentation #13

XI. Hitting Closer to Campus: Moo

Thurs, Apr 24

R: Jane Smiley, Moo, pp. 1-125

A: Response #12

Presentation #14

Quiz #4 (includes the first 125 pages of Moo)

Tues, Apr 29

R: Smiley, pp. 125-250

A: No Assignment

Presentation #15

Thurs, May 1

R: Smiley, finish

A: Paper #2 due

Assignments

I. Class Participation

You will be expected to come prepared for class and to engage in class discussion. Class participation will make up 10% of your final grade.

II. In-class Presentation

In the latter half of the semester, you will give a 5-10 minute presentation on a comic text you find particularly interesting and culturally significant. This could be a novel, essay, TV show, movie, comic strip, stand-up act, shaggy dog story, or anything else you find funny (as long as it’s not already on the syllabus). You will be expected to summarize the text, describe its context, and discuss your interpretation of what makes it funny and important. When appropriate, you should bring in videotape, xeroxes, or other visual aids. You will also hand in a written outline of the presentation. The presentation will make up 10% of your final grade. (A later handout will describe what’s expected from the presentations in more detail.)

III. Quizzes

Rather than a midterm or final, there will be four short quizzes. The quizzes are to demonstrate that you’ve done the reading; they will all be multiple-choice IDs. There are only three grades on the quizzes: Excellent (10 out of 10), Satisfactory (7 to 9), or Fail (6 or less), corresponding to A, C, and F. The average of your quiz grades will make up 10% of your final grade. In addition, you cannot pass the course without passing every quiz. Anyone failing a quiz will be responsible for writing a 3-page make-up paper on the readings covered in the quiz, addressing a topic of my choice. A satisfactory grade on the paper will raise the grade of your quiz to Satisfactory.

IV. Reaction and Response Essays

Reaction Essays are due on Tuesdays; bring three (or four) copies - one for me, the others for the members of your response group. These brief essays can be informal in tone; they don’t need beginnings, middles, or ends. They’re your chance to work through your thoughts and ideas about the readings. Pick any passage or topic you find puzzling, fascinating, or irritating. You don’t have to come to any definitive conclusions; the point is to grapple with the material. Feel free to also include observations about class discussions, conversations you’ve had with friends, or anything else in the rest of the world that relates to the class. Reaction papers should be more than two pages long (in other words, they should at least spill over to a third page). They may be hand-written if clearly legible, but word-processing is strongly preferred (Times New Roman 12 point, double-spaced, standard margins, to be exact). With your first entry, hand in a three-ring binder; at the end of the semester, you’ll get the binder back filled with all your entries.

Response Essays addressing the rest of your group’s journal entries are due the subsequent Thursdays. You can combine your responses to each group member into one document, which again should total more than two pages in length. Again, bring copies for each of the group members, plus one for me. Your job is not to judge your classmates, but to engage them. What surprises you in their arguments? What makes you rethink your own ideas? Write directly to them; they’re your audience.

No individual essays will be graded. At mid-semester, you will receive a tentative grade for the quality of your reactions and responses so far, based on the thoroughness, consistency, and creativity with which you’ve engaged the ideas of the course. At the end of the semester, you will receive a final grade on the reactions and responses, which will make up 40% of your course grade.

V. Papers

There will be two papers.

Paper #1 will be a short (4-5 page) analysis of a scene from Huckleberry Finn or Invisible Man. The first paper will make up 10% of your final grade.

Paper #2 will be a longer (6-8 page) interpretation of the same comic text you discuss in your presentation, elaborating and expanding upon your ideas in a formal essay. The second paper will make up 20% of your final grade.

Posted by tedf at March 1, 2005 04:08 AM

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