Eng 480--Senior Seminar: American Magical Realism

Room: English House Seminar Room (basement)      Time: 1:10-2:25 TTH

Instructor: James Plath     Office: English House 102     Phone: 556-3352

Hours: Daily, 11am-12pm and by appt.  URL: http://titan.iwu.edu/~jplath

Email: jplath@iwu.edu

Texts: Going After Cacciatto (Tim O'Brien), Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison), Tracks (Louise Erdrich), The Witches of Eastwick (John Updike), Shoeless Joe (W.S. Kinsella), plus selected readings in literary criticism.

Course Goal: To provide English majors with a final, intensive study of literature and practice in research and discourse, both written and verbal.

Course Requirements:

• Attendance is mandatory. More than 3 unexcused absences affects grade. And in a senior seminar, you're considered absent if you don't participate in class discussion.
• Students will be expected to keep up with the reading, to contribute significantly to class discussion with informed opinions (i.e., opinions based on reading and research, not b.s.). Though a skeletal syllabus is provided, since this is a seminar students will responsible for the trajectory of the class.
  
• Each student must work in a small group, each of which will compile a complete bibliography for one work, lead the classroom discussion, and act as respondents to another group's discussion.
  
• All assignments MUST be completed for students to receive a grade for the course.
• All work must be typed and double-spaced with standard l to l l/2" margins. Computer work should be submitted in 12pt Times, double-spaced (printed both sides okay). Only hard copy will be accepted.
  
• Papers must be submitted in MLA style--handout and examples to be provided--and students must present a portion of the final paper at the class "conference" held in lieu of a final exam. The usual conference fare (coffee and donuts) will be provided.
• Two conferences are required, more encouraged. And despite the miracle of technology and the MLA Online Bibliography, computer searches will always prove incomplete. Students should count making several trips to Ames and nearby Milner.

Grades will be determined on the following basis:

Class participation (includes active discussion, oral presentations, etc.)------25 percent

Exercises (bibliography, quotes, abstract, short assignments, etc.)------------25 percent

Critical paper, journal length (20-30pp)---------------------------------------------50 percent

(OR Creative option consisting of 15-20pp magical realist fiction and 12-15pp critical paper with secondary sources, treating your fiction as the topic of investigation and discussing your story and yourself in the third person)

Tentative Calendar:

Aug 25, 27--European & Latin American precursors; from classroom papers to publishable papers

Sept 1, 3--Witches of Eastwick; finding patterns

Sept 8, 10--Witches of Eastwick ; Going After Cacciatto; bibliography exercise/outside critical reading

Sept 15, 17--Going After Cacciatto; using primary, secondary, and tangential sources

Sept 22, 24--Song of Solomon; quoting to add weight and context

Sept 29 / Oct 1--Song of Solomon; Tracks

Oct 6, 8--Tracks

Oct 13, 15--Shoeless Joe; topic and preliminary reading list due Oct 15

Oct 20, 22--Shoeless Joe; annotated bibliography due Oct 22

Oct 27, 29--Readings in literary criticism; conferences (abstract due then)

Nov 3, 5--Workshopping; progress reports

Nov 10, 12--Workshopping

Nov 17, 19--Workshopping; draft one due Nov 17; conferences

Nov 24, 26--Conferences; no class Nov. 26 (THANKSGIVING RECESS)

Dec 1, 3--Workshopping

Senior Sem "Conference": During the Final Exam period, TBA