PRIMARY TEXTS:
Kate Chopin, The Awakening
Walker Percy, The Moviegoer
Natasha Trethewey, Bellocq’s Ophelia
Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire
OTHER PRIMARY MATERIALS:
A Streetcar Named Desire (film, 1951)
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (film, 2006)
Treme (television series, 2010-2013)
OTHER MATERIALS
Selected stories, poems, articles, essays, music recordings, and videos (to be shared via a Google folder and Spotify and on this blog)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Attend class. Three or more absences will lead to a significant reduction in your final grade. If you know that you’ll have to miss a class, let me know ahead of time and make arrangements for a classmate to pick up any material distributed in class and to inform you about any assignments.
Turn in assignments on time. Late work will be penalized one letter grade for every day (not every class) that it is late. All written work will be submitted via Google Drive or on the class blog. If you do not know how to use Google Drive, you should consult with the academic computing office. Documents should be named in this manner: YourName.Title.docx.
Complete required blog posts prior to class discussions of the assigned reading.You are required to compose at least one blog post each week, although you are encouraged to create additional posts whenever you’ve got responses to the reading that you’d like to share. These posts should offer an analysis of thematic concerns, a discussion of elements of craft, or observations about the writers whose works we’ve read. These posts should be made before we discuss the works in class — in fact, we’ll use these posts as the springboard for many of our conversations. Your blog posts should not be commentaries on the quality of the works we’ve read, nor should they be reminiscences of personal experiences. They should be well-written, well-developed, clear, and engaging. These are not formal academic papers, but they are also not impromptu casual musings.
Be prepared for class. You are expected to participate in the discussions in class in a thoughtful, responsible, and energetic manner. It is imperative that you come to class prepared. Read all assignments prior to class discussions. Our schedule will no doubt require adjustments as the semester moves forward, but assume we’ll get to whatever’s on the schedule unless I explicitly push back (or forward) an assignment.
Proofread your work. I expect all work to be free of mechanical errors. Assignments with persistent and egregious errors will be returned ungraded. If you are unsure about mechanics – when to properly use a semicolon, for example, or how to correctly punctuate dialogue – please consult one of the many guides or make an appointment at the Academic Resource Center.
ASSIGNMENTS & GRADES:
Blog posts 20%
Research and Presentations 40%
Final project 20%
Class participation 20%
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
At the heart of this class are the art and literature and culture of a particular place: the city of New Orleans. As with all art and literature and culture, though, an appreciation for its value begins with enthusiasm. You’re going to be asked again and again this semester to find your way toward material that spurs your enthusiasm. What do you want to know? Why? How do your own experiences and interests inform your understanding of particular topics? What questions do you have, and how will you set about addressing them?
We’ll be reading essays, stories, novels, poems, and plays this semester, and we’ll be viewing feature films, documentaries, and episodes of a television series. By learning to identify what makes these particular texts interesting, entertaining, informative, or compelling, you will begin to understand the relation between literary texts and life itself — i.e., how the formal qualities of a particular literary genre may be used by the writer to explore the various subtleties, difficulties, moral dilemmas, and triumphs that are a part of being human.
By conducting research, organizing your thoughts, and presenting your ideas to your classmates in informal discussions and formal presentations, you should come to see that literature is comprised of many components, each of which is part of a complex, integrated whole, each of which is available for discussion, analysis, and debate.
Professor/Student-Athlete Academic Contracts:
If you are on an athletic or riding team this term, please provide me with a completed Professor/Student-Athlete Academic Contract to consider and sign.
Accommodations:
Sweet Briar College is committed to upholding and maintaining all aspects of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as amended in 2008, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. If you are a student with a disability and wish to request reasonable accommodations, please contact the Office of Accessibility Services (accessibility@sbc.edu) for an appointment. Because many accommodations require early planning, requests for accommodations should be made as soon as possible.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
At Sweet Briar, administrators, faculty, and staff are committed to the creation and maintenance of “inclusive learning” spaces. These are classrooms, labs, and other places of learning where you will be treated with respect and dignity, and where all individuals are provided equitable opportunity to participate, contribute, and succeed.
In this course, all students are welcome regardless of race/ethnicity, gender identities, gender expressions, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, disabilities, religion, regional background, veteran status, citizenship status, nationality and other diverse identities that we each bring to class.