Spring 2010
English 860.02: Seminar in 20th-century British Literature
Focal Topic: James Joyce
T-Th 1:30 - 3:18
Denney Hall 262
Instructor:  David Herman
Office: 409 Denney (office hours T-Th 3:30 - 5:00, 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/ENG86002.html

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will focus on the work of James Joyce, examining the forces—historical, sociopolitical, religious, artistic, and other—that helped shape Joyce’s oeuvre. The course also aims to take stock of Joyce's enduring legacy—his status as an author whose writing practices have reshaped ways of understanding the scope and nature of fiction itself. Thus, we will explore, from multiple perspectives, the situation of Joyce's work within the landscapes of modernist writing. We will also investigate the continuing relevance of Joyce's texts for the narrative traditions, representational projects, and broader cultural formations of the twenty-first century.

    In general, rather than trying to reject or break free from prior texts and traditions, Joyce developed strategies for reframing and recontextualizing them. Hence class discussions will position Joyce's techniques and themes within a broader network of discourses, genres, and intertexts. Special attention will be devoted to how Joyce's formal innovations intersect with a number of recurrent concerns in his texts, including the ever-shifting patterns of memory and consciousness in everyday life, the dialectical interplay between the political and personal domains, and the perils of dichotomous thinking as a general stance toward the world.

 

REQUIRED TEXTS

Texts available for purchase at SBX and other local bookstores
* I have ordered the Norton critical editions of Dubliners and Portrait for our class, and in the course schedule below I have assigned critical essays included in the back of these editions. In case you have a different edition of these texts, I'll photocopy the essays at issue and put them in a folder for our class in the file cabinet behind Raeanne Woodman's desk in DE 421.

** Please do use this edition of Ulysses for our course. Ulysses has a notoriously complicated textual history, and the Gabler edition is widely credited as being the edition that best takes that history into account.

Texts on electronic reserve

The following texts have been placed on e-reserve and are available via the Carmen site for our course; they are marked "[ER]" in our course schedule below.
 Three other required texts

In addition, I'll make available to you three other texts that could not be placed on e-reserve because of Fair Use issues. These are marked "[will distribute]" in our course schedule below. Please do not distribute these three items to anyone outside of our class.
SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS

Texts on print reserve

I have also requested that a number of supplemental texts be placed on print reserve at the Science and Engineering Library (SEL) located near the northwest corner of Denney Hall (see http://library.osu.edu/sites/sel/). Two of these texts--Don Gifford's Joyce Annotated and Ulysses Annotated--have been placed on 2-hour reserve; the others, on 3-day reserve.

If you are planning to do further work on Joyce in the future, you might consider investing in your own copies of Gifford's invaluable reference texts. They contain information about relevant historical figures and events, geographical features of Joyce's Dublin, literary works and popular songs mentioned in Joyce's works, and so forth.

Click here for a complete list of all the texts on print reserve at SEL.

JJQ Master List

For your reference, I will also e-mail you a master list (still in the process of being compiled by the editors) of all the articles published in the James Joyce Quarterly over the last 50 years.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

There are 6 basic requirements for this course, spelled out in more detail below: (1) class participation, both through regular contributions to class discussions and also via posting discussion questions on our Carmen site; (2) a presentation; (3) writing a short essay that builds on the preparation that you do for your presentation, per item (2); (4) drafting and revising an abstract for a colloquium-style talk that you'll give at the end of the quarter, in connection with your final project for the course; (5) presenting an oral version of your final project at the colloquium; and (6) submitting a written version of the final project.

1. Active class participation: Regular participation is crucial for the success of this course. Indeed, I view the course as an opportunity for a team of scholars to investigate collectively a key topic in the field: namely, the cultural, historical, and literary contexts, distinctive formal attributes, and major themes of James Joyce's work. Sustained participation by everyone in the class is thus not only intrinsic to the course's design but also one of its central goals.
    To enhance group participation and facilitate scholarly exchange, each student will, for one of the class meetings for which a presentation is not already scheduled, post two discussion questions on the Carmen site for our course. Your questions should focus on aspects of the Joyce text listed on our course schedule for that day; the questions can also involve the critical sources assigned for that class meeting. Please post your questions at least 24 hours before the class meets.
    Click here for a schedule for presentations and the posting of Carmen questions.

2. A presentation in class: Each student will give one presentation during the quarter, serving as a "resource" for the whole class as we discuss the Joyce text as well as the critical studies assigned for that day. If you give your presentation on a day we're discussing Dubliners, Portrait, or Ulysses, you should also take a look at Gifford's Joyce Annotated (for Dubliners and Portrait) or Ulysses Annotated to see if any of the information compiled by Gifford is especially relevant.
    Plan to present for about 15 minutes, articulating comments and questions about noteworthy features or interpretive challenges posed by the Joyce text on our course schedule for that day. Your remarks should also touch on the strengths and limitations of the critical source(s) that have also been assigned for that class meeting. The goal of the presentations is, first, to familiarize you with a basic professional activity in the field (presenting the results of one's research), and second, to enhance class discussions. Thus, you should work to articulate questions that the class as a whole can then use as points of entry into the text(s) under discussion.
    At least 24 hours prior to the class in which you give your presentation, please e-mail to the class a list of passages on which you'll be focusing in your remarks--passages that you'd like to see us take up as a group in our collective discussion. (There's no need to copy out the passages--you can just refer to them by page number, providing the beginning and concluding words of the passages at issue.) Also, during the presentation itself, distributing a short handout that outlines the main questions or issues you wish to highlight can be an effective communicative tool. 
    Click here for a schedule for presentations and the posting of Carmen questions.

3. A short essay of 5-7 pages, or about 1,500 - 2,000 words: In this paper, you will build on the comments and questions you frame during your presentation. Your short essay is due one week after your presentation.
    For this assignment, in addition to drawing on the work you did to get ready for your presentation, you should incorporate 3-5 additional critical sources, either via the list of materials on print reserves, the JJQ Master List, or through a library database like the MLA International Bibliography or the Humanities International Complete. Or you can do a multi-database search through the link on the library's homepage. Focus on a key question or problem that you'd like to explore in connection with the Joyce text; indicate how previous scholars have dealt with that question or problem; and then make your own intervention in this scholarly discussion/debate, by staking out a position on the issue you're focusing on.
    Please do note that you'll have the opportunity to expand on your short paper for your final project. If you take this route, you'll be able to develop a research project incrementally over the duration of the quarter, by first exploring the issues in your presentation, then investigating them more fully in your short essay, and then re-approaching them in an even fuller, more in-depth way in your final project. (If, however, you want to switch to a different topic for your final project, that's okay too.)

4. An abstract (250-500 words and double-spaced): This abstract corresponds to the oral and written versions of your final project for the course, per items 5 and 6 below. Following the general conventions for abstracts for presentations and articles, your abstract should (a) state and describe the research problem (in this case, the aspect of Joyce's work) that you are addressing; (b) situate that problem in the context of previous scholarship devoted to the issue you intend to explore; and (c) indicate how your own approach to this problem will advance or enrich or refine prior scholarship in this domain. Please include a title and a tentative bibliography. First drafts of abstracts are due Friday, May 14; we'll then work together to revise your abstract until, by the end of the process, you'll have an abstract ready to submit to a scholarly conference. Note that the deadline for abstracts falls before our discussion of some of the later chapters of Ulysses, so if you do want to work on those later chapters you'll need to plan ahead. 
    For examples of abstracts written by OSU graduate students for colloquia held in previous courses, follow these pointers:
 5. A 15-minute conference presentation: This presentation will be delivered at the 2010 OSU Graduate Colloquium on James Joyce (all submissions guaranteed acceptance). The colloquium will be held in two "waves," on the last day of class (Thursday, June 3) and also at another time to be determined. If you choose to read from a script for your presentation, please note that 15 minutes corresponds to about 8 double-spaced pages of written text. You do not need to hand in any written material that you use for your presentation.

6. A well-organized, persuasively argued, and stylistically polished final paper with a target length of 15-20 pages, or about 5,000 - 7,000 words: This paper corresponds to items 4 and 5 and, as previously indicated, it can build both on your presentation (item 2) and the short essay that you write afterwards (item 3). Hard copies of your final papers should be placed in my faculty mailbox in DE 421 by Wednesday, June 9, at 5:00 p.m.

N.B. Our class didn't take place soon enough for you to be able to use your abstract and presentation for the 2010 International James Joyce Symposium that will be held in Prague this June. However, the 2011 North American James Joyce conference will be held in June 2011 in San Marino, California. Abstracts for that conference aren't due until March 1, 2011. Click here for more information about the conference, whose focal theme is "Joyce in Science and Art."

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADES

Presentation = 15%
Short essay = 20%
Drafting and revision of abstract = 15%
Oral presentation at colloquium + final project = 35%
Overall class participation throughout the term (including discussion questions) = 15%

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 the Office for Disability Services in room 150 Pomerene Hall (614-292-3307) which provides services for students with documented disabilities.

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. Please note, too, that I will have to be away (at a conference) on Thursday, April 8. We will schedule a make-up class for later in the quarter.

March

T 30  Introduction to the course; read the first five stories of Dubliners, as well as Butler [ER] and Leonard [ER]

April

Th 1  Dubliners (next five stories); also read Erlich's and Norris's essays in the Norton edition  

T 6  Dubliners (final five stories); also read Jackson's and Cheng's essays in the Norton edition; supplemental reading: Herman, "Cognition, Emotion, and Consciousness" [ER]

Th 8  No class (make-up class to be held at the Knight House, 104 E. 15th Avenue, on Saturday, May 22, from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.)

T 13  Stephen Hero; also read Beja [ER] and Jacobs [ER]

Th 15  Stephen Hero; also read Riquelme, "Stephen Hero" [ER]; supplemental reading: Herman, "1880-1945: Re-minding Modernism" [ER] 

T 20  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; also read Riquelme's and Scott's essays in the Norton edition

Th 22  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; also read Valente's and Eide's essays in the Norton edition

T 27  Exiles; also read Brown and Knuth [ER] and Voelker [ER]

Th 29  Exiles; also read Ulysses, chapters 1-3, and Levine [will distribute] (N.B. For all assigned chapters from Ulysses, please read the corresponding chapters in Blamires' The New Bloomsday Book. Meanwhile, click here for an underground-style "map" of Joyce's novel.)

May

T 4  Ulysses, chapter 4-6; also read Herr [ER] and Norris, "Narratology" [ER]

Th 6  Ulysses, chapter 7-9; also read Lynch [ER] and Nadel [ER]

T 11  Ulysses, chapter 10-12; also read "Wollaeger" [ER] and Norris, "Fact, Fiction, and Anti-Semitism" [ER]

Th 13  Ulysses, chapter 13-14; also read Jackson [ER] and Law [ER] 

F 14  ABSTRACTS DUE BY 5:00 P.M.

T 18  Ulysses, chapter 15; also read Paraskeva [ER]

Th 20  Ulysses, chapter 15 continued; also chapter 16 and Ziarek, "'Circe'" [ER]

T 25  Ulysses, chapter 16 continued; chapter 17; also read Freedman [ER] and Riquelme, "Preparatory" [will distribute]

Th 27  Ulysses, chapter 17 continued; chapter 18; also read Ziarek, "The Female Body" [will distribute]

June

T 1  Ulysses chapter 18 continued; course wrap up

Th 3  First Wave of Colloquium Presentations

Second wave of Colloquium presentations to be held Friday, June 4, from 10:45 - 12:45 in our regular room