Professor: Dr. Christopher Conway
Office Number: Hammond Hall 329
Office Telephone Number: 817-272-5528 (email preferred)
Email Address: conway@uta.edu
Office Hours: 4-5 PM Monday, and by appointment.

SP5304: Currents in European and Latin American Thought
Spring 2007; Mondays, 5-7:50 PM; Trimble Hall 218

Please note: It is recommended that students utilize this course webpage as their primary syllabus. The course webpage will be continually updated and will contain more information than the paper syllabus attached as a PDF at the end of this page.

Course Description and Objectives: Our course aims to broadly introduce students to major genres and movements in Western Literature from 1600 to the present. We explore how literary and cultural texts conform to and depart from dominant aesthetic categories and models. In so doing, we treat texts not as the products of cookie-cutter categories and concepts, but as living entities that resist tidy definition while inviting and rewarding a diversity of different methodological approaches. To summarize, then, our learning objectives are to learn how to a) define generic aesthetic categories; b) effectively explain their applicability to separate literary and cultural texts; c) demonstrate critical thinking skills in creatively exploring texts; d) learn the use and application of weblogs in an educational setting. The course is coordinated by Christopher Conway, but Professors Elena Ivanova, Antoinette Sol, John Garrigus (Department of History), Aimee Israel-Pelletier, Georgia Seminet, Kim Van Noort, Ignacio Ruiz Pérez, Alicia Rueda and Lana Rings will all be guest lecturers in the class.

Course Materials:

Please note: Students reading the books in English should buy the editions linked below. Students who wish to read the book in the original Spanish or French may utilize any edition they wish.

Candide by Voltaire (if you ordered the Dover edition based on my previous recommendation, that’s acceptable. But if you have not yet purchased this title, get the edition that is linked here. It is much better.)

Sab by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda

The Sentimental Education by Flaubert

Endgame and Act Without Words by Samuel Beckett

Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo

Notebook of a Return to the Native Land by Aime Cesaire

The Cubs by Mario Vargas Llosa
Assignments:

Midterm 40%
Response papers (2) 20%
Web journal (Blog) 15%
Final Paper 15%
Participation/Attendance 10%

Please note: All work in this class shall be produced in English.

Grading Policy: Students can download a grade spread sheet to track their own progress in the course. Link coming soon.
Attendance Policy: Attendance is mandatory. Frequent absenteeism (more than two absences) will result in the deduction of points from the final grade, one point per absence, beginning with –3.

Drop Policy: Last drop date is March 30.

Americans With Disabilities Act: The University of Texas at Arlington is on record as being committed to both the spirit and letter of federal equal opportunity legislation; reference Public Law 92-112 – The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. With the passage of federal legislation entitled Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), pursuant to section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, there is renewed focus on providing this population with the same opportunities enjoyed by all citizens. As a faculty member, I am required by law to provide “reasonable accommodations” to students with disabilities, so as not to discriminate on the basis of that disability. Student responsibility primarily rests with informing faculty of their need for accommodation and in providing authorized documentation through designated administrative channels. Information regarding specific diagnostic criteria and policies for obtaining academic accommodations can be found at www.uta.edu/disability. Also, you may visit the Office for Students with Disabilities in room 102 of University Hall or call them at (817) 272-3364.

Academic Integrity: It is the philosophy of The University of Texas at Arlington that academic dishonesty is a completely unacceptable mode of conduct and will not be tolerated in any form. All persons involved in academic dishonesty will be disciplined in accordance with University regulations and procedures. Discipline may include suspension or expulsion from the University. “Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts.” (Regents’ Rules and Regulations, Series 50101, Section 2.2)

SCHEDULE OF READINGS

TBA= To Be Announced

Monday January 22: Introduction to the Course. Professor Chris Conway. Reading: “Literary History” by Lee Patterson, and “Culture” by Stephen Greenblatt from Critical Terms for Literary Study, Ed. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin; “The Historical Text as a Literary Artefact” by Hayden White, from Tropics of Discourse. Click here to use your NetID to get these readings. (First, you must send me your logon name.)
January 29: Humanism. Professor Elena Ivanova. “The Origins of Humanism” by Thomas Mann, from The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism, Ed. Jill Kraye; Petrarch, Canzoniere, 61, 126, 189; Veronica Gambara, “Con quel caldo desio”;Vittoria Colonna, A2:20, S1:41; Isabella Morra, “Signor, nel piano spazio”; Gaspara Stampa, Sonnet 28.

February 5: Enlightenment and Introduction to Romanticism. Professor Toni Sol (Enlightenment) Readings: Candide by Voltaire; “Enlightenment” by Helmut O. Pappe, from The Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, Ed. Phillip P. Weiner . Professor Chris Conway (Romanticism) Readings: “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth and “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake (original plate here); Paintings by Francisco Goya (e-resource). ASSIGNMENT DUE—First response paper; topic: Candide by Voltaire. More instructions will be provided on this course webpage.

February 12: Romanticism and Women’s Writing. Professor Chris Conway and Professor John Garrigus (UTA Department of History). Readings: Sab by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda; Secondary Reading: “Romanticism in Literature” by Rene Wellek, from The Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, Ed. Phillip P. Weiner. Start The Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert (you will be expected to have the novel entirely finished by next week.)
February 19: Romanticism, Realism and the Visual. Professor Aimee Israel-Pelletier. Readings: The Sentimental Education by Flaubert. Secondary Reading: “Realism in Literature” by Rene Wellek, from The Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, Ed. Phillip P. Weiner; “Henry James on the Art of Fiction” (43-44) and “Roland Barthes on the Reality Effect in Descriptions” (35-41), from Realism (on reserve; will be available later.) Also, examine the following paintings, in this order please: 1. Courbet’s “Burial at Ornans,” “The Stonebreakers”; Manet’s “Olympia,” “L’Exposition Universelle,” and “Un Bar aux Folies-Bergère.”

February 26: Latin American “Modernismo.” Professor Georgia Seminet. Readings: Selected chronicles and poems by José Martí TBA. Secondary Readings: TBA (reserve).

March 5: Midterm Examination

March 19: Existentialism, the Absurd and Modernity. Professor Kim Van Noort. Readings: Endgame and Act Without Words by Samuel Beckett. Secondary Readings: “Existentialism” by Anthony Manser, from The Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, Ed. Phillip P. Weiner.

March 26: Towards the “New Novel” in Latin America. Professor Ignacio Ruiz Pérez. Reading: Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. Secondary Readings: TBA. ASSIGNMENT DUE: Second response paper, on Rulfo. More instructions will be provided on this course webpage.

April 2: Postcolonialism. Professor Toni Sol. Reading: Notebook of a Return to the Native Land by Aime Cesaire. Secondary Readings: TBA.

April 9: The New Novel in Latin America. Professor Georgia Seminet. Readings: The Cubs by Mario Vargas Llosa. Secondary Readings: TBA.

April 16: Social Realism, Marxism and Bertolt Brecht. Professor Lana Rings. Selected Readings by Bertolt Brecht: “The Ballad of the Dead Soldier” (1917), “The Love Market” (1920’s), “Abortion is Illegal” (1931), “Mack the Knife” (1928 from the Threepenny Opera), “Solidarity Song” (1931).; “Marxism” by Sidney Hook, from The Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, Ed. Phillip P. Weiner.

April 23: Postmodernism. Professor Alicia Rueda. Film: TBA. Secondary Readings: TBA.

April 30: An Introduction to Literary Theory. Professor Chris Conway. Readings: “What is Literature” and “Political Criticism” from Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton.

ASSIGNMENT DUE: Monday May 7th: deadline for final paper.
syllabus.pdf (Since the syllabus is subject to change, it is recommended that students primarily use this webpage and not this PDF, which will NOT reflect additions and other changes.)