E 314L: Banned Books and Novel Ideas (Course: 34270)

T TH 3:30- 5:00 P.M., FAC 7

 Instructor: Ty Alyea

Office Hours:  W 1:00-3:00   Th 2-3  Parlin 408 (or by appointment)

Email:   Tynado@mail.utexas.edu

Course Website: http://instructors.cwrl.utexas.edu/alyea 

Welcome to Banned Books and Novel Ideas!

         This semester, we will be reading, discussing, and writing about poems and narratives that have incited debates about decency, political correctness, and literary merit. In order to address the controversies surrounding the publication and reception of these works, we will learn more about their historical contexts and how they weigh in on issues such as race, gender and class. As we do so, we will develop skills in scholarly research and close-reading, which will help us identify the larger cultural significance of our readings and understand how their authors manipulate language. Finally, in addition to looking at how a variety of critical approaches can address texts in a multitude of ways, we will be responding to one another’s thoughts about the readings.

            In the first weeks of class, we will focus on the most important skill for successful literary study: close reading. By closely examining passages from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Allen Ginsberg's Howl, and Kate Chopin's The Awakening, we will discuss how small details can lead us to larger discoveries about the text.  After completing your first essay, you will be building on the skills covered in the first unit and use research to enrich your discussion posts and explore a thesis related to Pudd'nhead Wilson or The Bluest Eye. Finally, for your third essay, you will examine an aspect of Lolita and/or Bastard Out of Carolina in relation to a similar aspect from a literary work covered earlier in the semester.

The instructor reserves the right to vary this syllabus. Any and all changes will be updated on the course webpage.

Required Texts:*

Allison, Dorothy. Bastard Out of Carolina. New York: Plume, 1993.

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Signet Classic, 1976. (Includes Barbara H.

     Solomon's Introduction).

Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and other Poems. San Francisco, City Lights Books, 2001.

Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. New York: Vintage International, 2007 (Any copy with

Morrison's "Foreword" will be fine).

Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. Edited by Alfred Appel, Jr. New York: Vintage, 1991.

Twain, Mark. Pudd'nhead Wilson. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1999.

*Additional required reading will be made available through the course web site and in class.