Winter 2010
English 559: Introduction to Narrative and Narrative Theory
Tu-Th 11:30 - 1:18
Denney Hall 253
Instructor:  David Herman
Office: 409 Denney (office hours Tu-Th 2:00 - 3:30 and by appointment)
Phone: 292-6123; e-mail: herman.145[at]osu.edu

Web address for this syllabus: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/ENG559.html

Course Description:

Our lives are woven from a multitude of stories, fictional and factual, literary and quotidian, verbal and visual. Exploring different kinds of storytelling practices--including short stories and novels, graphic narratives, autobiographical and other nonfictional accounts, film, and stories exchanged in face-to-face interaction--this course will examine basic elements of narrative and consider what distinguishes stories from lists, arguments, and other modes of discourse. We will also investigate approaches to narrative study that have sought to account for the structure, uses, and enduring power of stories.
   This course is designed to enhance your ability to appreciate, analyze, and write coherently and persuasively about narratives across a variety of media. It will provide you with new tools for engaging with and understanding stories of all sorts.

Required Texts:
Available online via Project Gutenberg:
Available at SBX and other area bookstores:
In addition, the following items are available online or else on electronic reserve via the Carmen site for our course. (In the Course Schedule below, these readings are marked "ER.") Click here for complete bibliographic citations for all these items:
 Assignments and Evaluation:

Please note that I use a +/- system of grading and a 10-point grading scale. Your grade for the course will be determined by the following factors:
1. Attendance and active class participation, including posting discussion questions on Carmen (15%). To be successful, this class--in reality, a workshop on how to become a more expert analyst of stories--needs to be a collective endeavor, and to that end your attendance and participation are crucial. You will get more out of each class if you have done the assigned reading and are prepared to discuss it. For the same reason, more than two unexecused absences will lower your participation grade by one whole grade: for example, from a B to a C.
    To facilitate your preparation and enhance discussion, each student will be required to post two well-thought-out discussion questions about one of our texts (whether a narrative or a work of narrative theory) on our Carmen discussion forum. Your questions need to be posted at least 24 hours before the class meeting in which we discuss that text.
2. A (digital) reading journal (15%). Four times during the quarter, students will need to select five of the terms included in Prince's Dictionary of Narratology and in a reading journal discuss the relevance of those terms for one or more of the narratives that we are reading in that part of the course. You should write a paragraph for each of the terms, and turn in your journal submissions via the dropbox function in Carmen. Due dates for submitting your journal entries are 1/15, 1/29, 2/12, and 2/26; these dates are also listed in the course schedule below. Note: be sure to save a copy of these journal entries because one of them might very well turn out to be the seed for one of your essays for the course.
3. Two essays (first essay = 15%, second essay = 25%). These essays are to be submitted in hard copy, not electronically. The first essay is to be 1000 - 1,250 words and is due Thursday, January 28. The second essay is to be 1,500 - 2,000 words and is due the last day of class, Thursday, March 11. Guidelines for each essay will be distributed well in advance of its due date. In the meantime, for general guidelines concerning how to compose and format your papers, click here. 
    These papers must represent your own work; all cases of suspected plagiarism will be reported, in accordance with university rules, to the Committee on Academic Misconduct. Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses at OSU and will be reported to the appropriate officers of the university. Plagiarism is the representation of another's work or ideas as one's own; it includes unacknowledged quotations as well as paraphrases of someone else's words or ideas. Penalties may range from failure of the particular assignment, to failure of the course, or worse. For more about OSU's Code for Student Conduct, click here.
4. An in-class mid-term examination (15%). The midterm exam is scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, and will contain brief definition questions; questions asking for paragraph-long responses in which you bring ideas from narrative theory to bear on one or more narratives; and a longer essay question asking you to explore broader issues raised by the class.
5. A story-gathering and -analysis project (15%). In lieu of an in-class or take-home final exam, each student will engage in a quarter-long project of collecting/obtaining a narrative and using the tools we study in class to analyze it. The due date for this project, which like your reading journal submissions should be submitted via the dropbox function on Carmen, is Monday, March 15, but you are free to submit it earlier if you wish to. Click here for further guidelines for and details about this assignment.

Completing Assignments:

All assigned readings must be read before the date listed on the syllabus. All out-of-class assignments are due at the beginning of class. If an emergency arises and prevents you from turning in your assignment on time, always call me and leave a message on my voicemail if I am not there. In the absence of any previous consultation with me, work handed in late will be graded down, normally one letter grade for each day that it is late.

Other Policies:

Cellphones:

Please make sure that cellphones, Blackberries, etc. are turned off before you enter the classroom. 

Special needs:

Anyone who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Anyone with such needs should also be aware of the Office for Disability Services in room 150 Pomerene Hall (614-292-3307; TDD 292-0901) which provides services for students with documented disabilities.

The Writing Center:

All members of the OSU community are invited to discuss their writing with a trained consultant at the Writing Center. Go to http://www.cstw.org or call 688-4291 to make an appointment.

Course Schedule:

The following is tentative course schedule. Depending on the actual pace at which we proceed during the quarter, we may have to make adjustments to the syllabus as we go.

January

UNIT 1: Core Features of Narrative; Key Issues in Narrative Theory

Tu 5  Introduction to the course; read Abbott, chapters 1-3; Prince, entries for "narrative," "narrativity," and "narratology"; and Herman, typescript of chapter 2 of Basic Elements of Narrative (available at http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/typescript.pdf)

Th 7  Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/375); also read Abbott, chapters 4-8 and 10; Herman, chapter 1 of Basic Elements of Narrative (http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/30/14051415/1405141530-2.pdf)

Tu 12  Discussion of "Owl Creek Bridge" continued: cross-comparing print, graphic, and film versions; read Bob Jenney and Archie Goodwin's graphic version of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" [ER]; Abbott, chapter 9; Genette, chapters 1 and 2 from Palimpsests [ER]

Th 14  Discussion of "Owl Creek Bridge" continued, plus a discussion of narratives in everyday interaction. Read Ochs and Capps, "A Dimensional Approach to Narrative" [ER]; Johnstone, "Discourse Analysis (Linguistics)" [ER]; and the transcript of UFO or the Devil, available at http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/UFO.html

Submit reading journals via the dropbox function on Carmen by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, January 15

UNIT 2: Building and Populating Narrative Worlds

Tu 19  Wells, The War of the Worlds (print version); also read Abbott, chapter 12, and Herman, chapter 5 of Basic Elements of Narrative [ER]

Th 21  Discussion of Wells' text continued; also read Edginton and D'Israeli, The War of the Worlds (graphic version), and Stockwell, "Science Fiction" [ER]

Tu 26  The War of the Worlds continued, plus excerpts from the 1938 radio broadcast featuring Orson Welles; also read Allen, "Radio Narrative" [ER]

Th 28  Screening of Spielberg's The War of the Worlds (2005); FIRST PAPER DUE

Submit reading journals via the dropbox function on Carmen by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, January 29

February

T 2  Woolf, Mrs Dalloway; also read Woolf, "Modern Fiction" [ER] and Stevenson, "Modernist Narrative" [ER]

Th 4  Mrs Dalloway continued; Jahn, "Focalization" [ER]

Tu 9  Mid-term exam

UNIT 3: Narrative and Identity I: Storytelling, Truth, and Fictionality

Th 11  Plath, The Bell Jar; also read Abbott, chapter 11; Stewart, "Roman à Clef" [ER]

Submit reading journals via the dropbox function on Carmen by 12:00 midnight on Friday, February 12

Tu 16  The Bell Jar continued; also read Doležel, "Fictional and Historical Narrative" [ER]

Th 18  Bechdel, Fun Home; also read Ewert, "Comics and Graphic Novel" [ER], and Gutenberg, "Coming-out Story" [ER]

Tu 23  Fun Home continued; also read Ritivoi, "Identity and Narrative" [ER]

UNIT 4: Narrative and Identity II: Postmodern Worldmaking, Ideology, and Ethics

Th 25  McEwan, Atonement; also read McHale, "Postmodern Narrative" [ER]

Submit reading journals via the dropbox function on Carmen by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, February 26

March

Tu 2  Atonement continued; also read Abbott, chapters 13 and 14

Th 4  Atonement continued; Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go; also read excerpt from Taylor, Sources of the Self ("The Self in Moral Space") [ER] 

Tu 9  Never Let Me Go continued; also read excerpt from MacIntyre, After Virtue [ER], as well as Herman and Vervaeck, "Ideology" [ER]

Th 11  Never Let Me Go continued; SECOND PAPER DUE

Submit story-gathering and -analysis project via the dropbox function on Carmen by no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday, March 15, though earlier submissions are welcome.