For Monday: Carver, Where I'm Calling From (stories below)

NOTE: On the syllabus it says we'll read Chapter 8 of Culler, but I decided to table that for now. I would rather start reading some short stories to contrast with our recent reading of Austen. But don't worry--we'll get to Chapter 8 a little later.  

STORIES: “The Student’s Wife,” “What Do You Do In San Francisco,” “Neighbors”

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Most of Carver's stories are very light on "story" (what happens) and indeed, some of them are basically just conversations between the main characters. So how does Carver use "plot" (how the story is told) to make them more interesting and literary? How does his storytelling make each story rise above being a mere anecdote or just a collection of overhead conversations? 

Q2: "What Do You Do In San Francisco?" is typical of Carver's first-person stories, where the narrator typically becomes obsessed and increasingly erratic as the story goes on. Why does the narrator become so fascinated with Marston? What does he seem to represent for the narrator? Related to this, do we like and/or sympathize with the narrator's efforts?

Q3: Almost all of Carver's stories are about lower middle-class relationships, usually a husband and wife, usually inching into middle age. Why might these characters, who are extremely ordinary, have been so 'new' at the time they were published? Why might, in a sense, did Carver have to "create" these characters (to quote Culler) to be able to use them in his stories? 

Q4: In the story, "Neighbors," a "happy" married couple finds new excitement in their marriage by rummaging through their neighbors' apartment. Toward the end of the story, the wife tells her husband, "Maybe they won't come back," to which he replies, "It could happen" (92). What do they seem to find in the apartment that makes them wish for the neighbors' demise? What does sneaking through drawers and closets seem to invigorate their marriage? 

Paper #3: “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural [Austen]”

[NOTE: Wednesday's reading is in the post BELOW this one.]

In Chapter 7 of Culler’s Literary Theory, he writes that “no one would ever have thought of being in love if they hadn’t read about it in books” (96). In the same way, we might argue that Jane Austen single-handedly created many common-sense notions and genres, including:

• Marriage and courtship (in life or fiction)
• The plucky heroine
• Sisters and/or the family in fiction
• The modern novel and/or the romance novel
• The romantic comedy (in film, especially) 
• The “period piece” (again, in film)

For your third theoretical paper, I want you to discuss how Pride and Prejudice largely created and continues to shape one of the previous categories. What ideas or passages in the book seem to be the most influential and why? Where do we see them emulated today in other works of art? Consider how Austen has created a theory that is so tried-and-true it became a common-sense notion, almost unquestioned in life and art. Discuss at least one other work (post-Austen) that seems to have been inspired by its example, or takes its truths to be self-evident (even if they change/challenge them a little).

Use Culler and at least two other sources to help you discuss this. Sources can be articles, novels, stories, films, etc.—though you must quote from anything you discuss. Don’t merely recount the plot of a movie that resembles it—zero-in on a passage or some dialogue from the film to help us see it. But be sure to use Culler as your ‘lens’ to focus the discussion of how a work can define a culture’s discourse about one of the above terms, and where theories of identity and genre come from.

REQUIREMENTS

• Page limit optional, but say something meaningful
• Must close-read from Pride and Prejudice; don’t just summarize the plot
• Use Culler to help focus your discussion
• Two additional sources
• DUE IN TWO WEEKS: Wednesday, November 3^rd by 5pm

For Wednesday: In-Class Writing Response for Pride and Prejudice: Appendix A, B & C

 

No questions for Wednesday, but we'll be reading the following excerpts from the back of the Pride and Prejudice book:

* Appendix A: From the Juvenilia (works from Jane Austen's teenage notebooks)

* Appendix B: Form Austen's Letters to Her Sister Cassdandra

* Appendix C: Contemporary Periodical Reviews of Pride and Prejudice 

These are relatively short readings, but they'll give us some contemporary context for where Pride and Prejudice came from, and what people thought of it when it was still a brand new work. As you read, think about how pieces of Austen's earlier work and her private letters may have shaped the work we have today, as any creative work (autobiographical or not) is crafted from the raw material of a writer's life and experience. 

For Monday: Austen, Pride and Prejudice (finish the book!)

Q1: In Chapter 6 of Culler, he writes that "[t]he story may be focalized through a microscope, as it were, or through a telescope, proceeding slowly with great detail or quickly telling us what happened" (89). Why, after the slow lead-up to Darcy's final proposal, does Austen suddenly race through the subsequent marriages and get everyone settled in a single chapter, stopping only to include a brief letter from Lydia? In other words, why does she end with a telescope where many people would have preferred a microscopic approach?

Q2: One of the qualities that makes Pride and Prejudice such a great novel is how Austen cultivates a sense of mystery, or what Culler calls "epistemophilia, a desire to know: we want to discover secrets, to know the end, to find the truth" (91). How does Austen particularly excite the reader's sense of epitemophilia in this final section of the novel? What makes it hard to put the book down, even if we can guess the eventual outcome?

Q3:One of the greatest 'scenes' in the book is the verbal duel between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine in Chapter XIV. In many ways, this scene illustrates something Culler says in Chapter 7: "the performative breaks the link between meaning and the intention of the speaker, for what act I perform with my words is not determined by my intention but by social and linguistic conventions" (97). Based on this, why do Darcy and Lady Catherine interpret her words so differently? How can these utterances be 'read' as different performances? 

Q4: Once you finish the book, do you have a sense that the book polices Austen's society into accepting the age-old prejudices of marriage, female servitude, and male infallibility? Does Austen question these aspects of her society merely to affirm them? After all, the two main sisters are ultimately married off to very eligible bachelors just as Mrs. Bennet wished, so to her, this is a completely happy ending. Should we desire the same happy ending as Mrs. Bennet? 

For Friday: Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Part III, Chapters 1-8 (or so)

Answer TWO of the following:  

Q1: When Elizabeth visits Pemberley with her aunt and uncle, she quickly comes to the realization that “She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt, that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!” (227). What does she see her specifically that makes her go into such rhapsodies? Why might this also be the beginning of her love for Darcy, even if the seed was planted much earlier? 

Q2: Since Pride and Prejudice is very much a novel of class, and class distinctions are read in every gesture, conversation, and action, how does Darcy signal his ‘transformation’ through his class behavior alone at Pemberley? Besides simply being nicer, how does Elizabeth (and the Gardners) read his intentions through what he says and how he acts? Why might this have been unthinkable from him in Chapter 1? And why does Elizabeth still not expect him to act this way?

Q3: What role do letters play in the novel? From Volume II on, there are several important letters, notably Darcy's letter to Elizabeth, but also the letter from Elizabeth's Aunt Gardner, as well as other communications from London: undoubtedly, these are probably hold-overs from the first draft of the novel (which was a novel in letters). Why do you think Austen retained them in the novel? What is the significance of reading a character's letters rather than hearing them speak directly to another character?

Q4: Why does Wickham run off with Lydia knowing what he knows about the Bennet family? Similarly, why does Lydia agree to run off with him, since he, too, has no money or fortune? What does the family hope for that turns out not to be true?

For Wednesday: In-Class Writing #9 (no reading--catch up and finish Book II!)

I'm flip-flopping Wednesday and Friday's assignments to give you more time to catch up on the reading. So no reading is assigned for Wednesday, since we'll do an in-class writing assignment based on P&P, and I'll assign Paper #3. Below is the slightly revised syllabus calendar for the next three weeks, just FYI:

18        Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Part II

20        In-Class Writing #9

22        Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Part III

 

25        Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Part III

27        Supplemental Readings: Appendix D: “From the Conduct Books” and                     Appendix G: “Discussion of Women’s Role after the French Revolution”

29        In-Class Writing #10

 

NOVEMBER

1          Culler, Literary Theory, Chapter 8: “Identity, Identification, and the                      Subject”

3          Paper #3 due by 5pm

5          Carver, Where I’m Calling From: “The Student’s Wife,” “What Do You Do                In San Francisco,” “Neighbors”

For Monday: Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Part II (pp.145-224)

Try to read all or as much of Part II as you can for Monday's class since you have a few extra days (and what else would you want to do, except spend all day reading Austen?!). 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: How does Austen satirize the upper classes in the mode of Sheridan at Rosings (with Lady Catherine de Bourgh)? How does she treat her social inferiors--the Collins and Elizabeth--and how might Austen be sharing Elizabeth's delight here in "anything ridiculous"?  

Q2: How does the manner of Darcy’s proposal echo, in some particulars, that of Mr. Collins? Why is each one incapable of a truly flattering, romantic proposal? What factors does Darcy apparently have to overcome to express his love and affection to Elizabeth?

Q3: Why do you think Elizabeth conceals the proposal from her family, as well as the truth about Wickham, and only reveals her secrets to Jane? Is she ashamed of turning down a fortune? Or is she secretly flattered? Consider her reflection shortly after their meeting, “That she should receive an offer of marriage from Mr. Darcy! that he should have been in love with her for so many months! so much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections...”

Q4: In Chapter XIX, the Narrator notes that “Had Elizabeth’s opinion been all drawn from her own family, she could not have formed a very pleasing picture of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort" (219). What does she notice in her own family to make her disinclined to ever marry, or to think that love exists outside of novels? According to the novel so far, do you think Jane Austen was of the same opinion?

For Monday: Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapters 14-23 (finish Book 1), pp.90-141

Answer TWO of the following as usual...

Q1: After a fairly short acquaintance, Elizabeth Bennet, the "smart" girl ironically falls for one of the officers that Kitty and Lydia chase about--George Wickham. As she herself says, "he is, beyond all comparison, the most agreeable man I ever saw." Why does she fall for him? Is it out of character for her? Or might it tie into the overarching themes of the novel itself?

Q2: Why does Charlotte agree to marry Mr. Collins after Elizabeth has already refused him? And more importantly, why doesn't Elizabeth believe that her best friend would make a different decision? Is there more to Collins than meets the eye? Is this an example of Elizabeth's "pride" or "prejudice"? 

Q3: The Narrator writes of Mrs. Bennet that "Elizabeth was the least dear to her of all her children." Why would this be, considering she is generally the reader's favorite daughter (or character) and everyone decent in the book loves her, including her father. Where does this dislike or animosity come from, particularly considering this is her second-born daughter?

Q4: How does Austen complicate the Elizabeth/Darcy relationship in these chapters? Or more accurately, how does the narrator reveal aspects that often escape the notice of Elizabeth? Why might this be an advantage of unlimited third-person narration? 

For Friday: Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapters I-XIII, pp.41-90)

As always, answer TWO of the following, and get as far as you can in the novel before Friday's class, even if you don't finish all 13 chapters (but go further if you like!): 

Q1: Some of the most famous lines in English literature are the opening lines of this novel, which begin, "It is a truth generally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife..." (41). How might these lines immediately offer a commentary on the theme of the novel--marriage--and Austen's own views on the subject? Why might we go even further and claim that these opening lines offer a 'theory' that challenges common-sense beliefs and offers their own alternative? 

Q2: Culler reminds us that story and plot are two different things, and a story is how a writer tells the plot, from what perspective, and what narrator. Though the novel isn't a first-person account of English life in the country, the narration seems to borrow something from a first-person perspective. Discuss a passage where the narrator seems to be more of a character (whether first-person or not) than we would expect them to be today, and how this affects how we read the passage.

Q3: The first draft of Pride and Prejudice, written in the 1790’s, was entitled First Impressions (Austen changed the title when, a decade later, she learned another novelist had already used it). However, where might the idea behind the original shine through in the opening chapters? How do we know this is a book about the first appearance of things, when the “masks” of society can obscure the goodness—or deceitfulness—within?

Q4: In one of the most humorous passages in the novel, Miss Bingley lists all the accomplishments modern women are supposed to possess, to which Elizabeth Bennet responds, “I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing any” (27). What is Elizabeth—and behind her, Austen herself—satirizing here? Related to this, what kind of women does Elizabeth represent, and why does Darcy seemed intrigued by this new kind of woman?

For Wednesday: Culler, Chapter 7: "Performative Language"

NOTE: Don't forget Paper #2 (The Sonnet Drama) is due today (Monday) by 5pm! You can turn it in as late as Wednesday, but you lose -10 a day, so be careful! 

ALSO: We'll start reading Pride and Prejudice for Friday, so make sure you have a copy, and preferably the Broadview edition I ordered in the bookstore. Feel free to start reading to get ahead and if you're a slow reader like me...otherwise, read Chapter 7 of Culler for Wednesday's class.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: What does Culler mean when he writes, "no one would have ever thought of being in love if they hadn't read about it in books, and the notion of romantic love...is arguably a massive literary creation" (96)? How could love, something which is so essential to the identity of being human, a creation of books and literature? Or is he talking about something slightly different than simply 'love'?

Q2: Culler argues that language is performative, meaning that, like a play, it has to be staged, repeated, and performed 'by rote.' He gives the example of a wedding, where the groom and bride are asked, "do you take this man/woman...?" and the answer is always, "I do" (if they do, that is). Does this also suggest that the nature of language is derivative, and that to speak is to merely rehearse the language and actions of everyone who has gone before you? Is it possible not to repeat and not to rehearse previous language?

Q3: Using the work of Judith Butler, a prominent theorist of queer identity, Culler explains that "categories of identity are cultural and social productions, more likely to be the result of political cooperation than its condition of possibility" (102). Does this suggest that language itself creates the idea of being male or female? Is gender also a product of language? (assuming, of course, that gender is separate from sex).

Q4: If we define literature as "an act or event," how does this further limit the role of the author in determining meaning? And if so, who decides what "act" or "event" is produced from a book? Can a book create any act a reader wants it to? Or are there limitations?