ENGLISH 504 / FALL 2007 / G. WILLIAMS / TUES & THURS 9:30-10:45 / ADMIN 332

Transatlantic Currents

This course examines several moments in American literary history in the 19^th and 20^th centuries when U.S. writers were particular resonant to European cultural practices.  The course’s secondary focus is on the relative freedom of European or Europe-based writers to entertain alternatives to conventional gender constructions.  We begin with a look at reactions to French novelist George Sand among writers associated with the Transcendentalist circle in the 1830s-40s, specifically Margaret Fuller and Julia Ward Howe.  We then jump forward forty years to Henry James’s Portrait of a Lady, regarded in light of Théophile Gautier’s scandalous 1835 work Mademoiselle de Maupin.  From the 20^th century we’ll consider two conjunctions: Virginia Woolf (To the Lighthouse) and William Faulkner (Absalom, Absalom!) and Jean Genet and William Burroughs.  In the 20^th century works I’m interested in exploring a premise advanced in Joseph Boone’s 1998 Libidinal Currents, that modernism can be defined in terms of texts “whose ostensibly realistic formats are nonetheless subtly, and profoundly, infused with the rhythms and reverberations that evoke the power of libidinal activity and unconscious desire.”

TEXTS
George Sand, A Woman’s Version of the Faust Legend (Seven Strings of the Lyre); Gabriel; Spiridion (all on paper reserve in library; reading divided across the class)
Théophile Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin (Penguin)
Jeffrey Steele, ed. The Essential Margaret Fuller; Fuller’s notebook remarks on Sand (handout)
Julia Ward Howe, The Hermaphrodite (U Nebraska P); Atlantic Monthly essay on Sand (online through Making of America)
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (Penguin); North American Review essay on Gautier
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Harvest)
William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!  (Vintage)
Jean Genet, Selected Writings (Harper)
William Burroughs, Word Virus (Grove)

WRITING

Two essays on one or several of the writers under scrutiny here, written in a mode appropriate to your career inclinations.  Those contemplating further graduate literary study should undertake at least one piece of writing involving research and should respond to a scholarly “conversation” regarding the topic.  Other models of excellent writing about writers can be found in general-audience periodicals such as The New Yorker, Raritan Review, AWP Newsletter, and The American Scholar.  Both essays should include a 1-page abstract submitted electronically for distribution to the whole class.  I’ll expect to see 20-25 pages total, divided between two essays.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

Be responsible for provoking discussion for one class period.  This means preparing the day’s material far enough in advance that you can hold forth for 15-20 minutes at the beginning of class on the issues you believe need attention and that you provide (in the form of a handout) whatever extra-textual materials might be useful in spotlighting these issues.  These materials might include biography, or a particularly provocative scholarly approach, or an innovative context—whatever.

FINDING ME

I’ll be in my office, Phinney 404, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 1:30-3 p.m.  Other times and other places by appointment.  E-mail: jgw@uidaho.edu  Office phone: 885-4348.   Home phone: 882-1038.
 

ENGLISH 504 READING SCHEDULE / FALL 2007 /

A FEW SCHOLARLY RESOURCES

Bibliography of George Sand criticism: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/eng560jgw/SandBibliog.htm   

George Sand handout (a G. Williams creation)

Bibliography of Margaret Fuller criticism:  http://www.class.uidaho.edu/eng560jgw/FullerBibliog.htm   

Making of American (Michigan): http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moagrp/   

Making of American (Cornell): http://library5.library.cornell.edu/moa/   

Wright's American Fiction 1851-1875

A selection of letters by Julia Ward Howe and others

Julia Ward Howe on George Sand (Atlantic Monthly, November 1861)

Henry James on Théophile Gautier (North American Review, April 1873)