Cont Lit Cold War Syllabus 18 PDF

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English 488.001 American Literature, Film, & Culture: The Culture of the Cold War MWF 10:00-10:50 AM Room: Mitchell Hall 211

Professor: Scarlett Higgins Office: HUM 315 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: W 2-4 PM & by appt.

This course will cover the literature and culture of the period post-World War II through the 1990s. We will read across genres, including poetry, prose (fiction and non-fiction), and drama, and will view several films as well. This course will contain a special emphasis on literature that has responded to the socio-political tensions that defined the post-World War II era. The period covered by this course, commonly referred to as the Cold War, was a complex and anxious period, with strong connections to our contemporary era. The literary and cultural texts we will be analyzing can be seen to represent the major tensions of the time, as they were imagined and interpreted. These tensions include not only the name sake struggle between the American and Soviet social orders, but also tensions in race relations, gender relations, the “generation gap,” and tensions felt as the United States adjusted to its status as an economic and military superpower and an imperial presence after World War II. They can aid in our understanding of the beliefs and values that characterized American culture in the years between the end of World War II and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Taken in their historical and cultural contexts, these texts help us understand how international tensions influenced, and were influenced by, the domestic front and thus how, for Americans of the time, the struggle between capitalism and communism was waged not only through military development and diplomacy, but also in everyday life. Required Texts: Angels in America, Tony Kushner The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath The Book of Daniel, E. L. Doctorow Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan Hiroshima, John Hersey Libra, Don DeLillo The Manchurian Candidate, John Frankenheimer

(1993-1994) (1963/1971) (1971) (1964) (1963) (1946/1985) (1988) (1962)

Course Requirements: -- You are required to have a copy of each of our texts and to bring this copy to class on each day that we will be discussing this text. These copies may be hard copy format or electronic, as long as you can mark your text up.

-- Your assignments include short response papers, in-class quizzes, a final research paper or exam, and an in-class research presentation with accompanying annotated bibliography. See the assignment sheets at the back of the syllabus for more details. -- Grading: You will receive a maximum of 1000 points for the semester, in three areas: 1) participation, including quizzes and responses (500 points); 2) research project (250 points); 3) and final paper (250 points). Final assessment will be as follows: A = 900-1000; B = 800-899; C = 700-799; D = 600-699; F = 0-599. Appropriate +/designations will be added to grades in the upper and lower 1/3 of each point range. Please note: active participation is essential for success in this course. Students who sit silently in most class sessions should not expect to earn a grade in the “A” range. Course Guidelines: -- Attendance at all course sessions is required. You may have six absences, for any reason, without penalty—no explanation is needed or desired. Absences over six will result in a zero for attendance and participation for those days. Absences over eight will result in your being dropped from the course. -- Response papers are due on the day that they are noted on the syllabus by 5 PM. Your annotated bibliography is due on the day you give your presentation. The final paper is due by 5 PM on the due date. All written work will be turned in via LEARN and should have your name and a page number on each page and a word count at the end. Please speak to me in advance if you feel you need an extension on your annotated bibliography or final project; these will be granted on a case-by-case basis. -- In this discussion-based class, active, thoughtful participation is essential. This includes attending course awake, on time, with your books, and prepared to contribute to the discussion. No electronic devices or other material should be out during class time. If you are repeatedly seen using devices or otherwise engaged during our discussion, I will ask you to leave class. -- All work turned in to me with your name on it is assumed to be fully your work; I take extremely seriously any suspicion of academic dishonesty. UNM policies—which I will follow-- regarding academic honesty are available in UNM Student Handbook. -- In an effort to meet obligations under Title IX, all UNM faculty are considered “responsible employees” by the Department of Education. This designation requires that any report of gender discrimination, including sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual violence made to a faculty member must be reported to the Title IX Coordinator at the Office of Equal Opportunity. For more information on the campus policy regarding sexual misconduct, see: https://policy.unm.edu/university-policies/2000/2740.html -- The course schedule included in the syllabus is subject to change. Minor changes will be announced in class; major ones will be provided in writing.

Course Schedule: AUG 20

COURSE INTRODUCTION

AUG 22

DR. STRANGELOVE Read/watch: Dr. Strangelove [LEARN]

AUG 24

DR. STRANGELOVE [QUIZ] Read/watch: Cold War Handout [LEARN]

AUG 27

DR. STRANGELOVE Read/watch: Kennan, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” [LEARN]

AUG 29

Library Instruction-- Meet in Zimmerman Room B30

AUG 31

HIROSHIMA Read/watch: Hiroshima, chpt. 1-4 Hiroshima Timeline and Handout [LEARN]

SEPT 3

NO CLASS [Labor Day]

SEPT 5

HIROSHIMA Read/watch: The Atomic Cafe

SEPT 7

HIROSHIMA Read/watch: Hiroshima, chpt. 5 White Light/ Black Rain

SEPT 10

BOOK OF DANIEL Read/watch: Book of Daniel through pg. 73 Rosenberg Handout [LEARN]

SEPT 12

BOOK OF DANIEL Read/watch: Book of Daniel through pg. 128

SEPT 14

BOOK OF DANIEL [QUIZ] Read/watch: Book of Daniel through end of Book 2 (pg. 179)

SEPT 17

BOOK OF DANIEL Read/watch: Book of Daniel through end of Book 3 (pg. 257)

SEPT 19

BOOK OF DANIEL Read/watch: Book of Daniel through end of Book 4 (end of novel)

SEPT 21

LIBRA [RESPONSE] Read/watch: Libra through pg. 79 (end of chpt. “26 April”)

[RESPONSE]

SEPT 24

LIBRA Read/watch: Libra through pg. 148 (end of chapter "19 June") JFK assassination & review handouts [LEARN]

SEPT 26

LIBRA Read/watch: Libra through pg. 214 (end of Part I)

SEPT 28

LIBRA [QUIZ] Read/watch: Libra through pg. 339 (end of chapter "In New Orleans")

OCT 1 LIBRA Read/watch: Libra through end of novel OCT 3

BEAT MOVEMENT [RESPONSE] Read/watch: Kerouac and Ginsburg readings [LEARN]

OCT 5

BEAT MOVEMENT Read/watch: Corso, Jones, DiPrima readings & videos [LEARN]

OCT 8

BEAT MOVEMENT

OCT 10/12

NO CLASS

OCT 15

MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE Read/watch: The Manchurian Candidate [LEARN] Video of Army/McCarthy hearings

OCT 17

MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE Read/watch: Excerpts from Generation of Vipers [LEARN]

OCT 19

MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

OCT 22

THE BELL JAR Read/watch: The Bell Jar, Chpt. 1-6

OCT 24

THE BELL JAR Read/watch: The Bell Jar, Chpt. 7-11

OCT 26

THE BELL JAR [QUIZ] Read/watch: The Bell Jar, Chpt. 12-17

OCT 29

THE BELL JAR Read/watch: The Bell Jar through end of novel (Chpt. 20) Additional Plath readings [LEARN]

[QUIZ]

[Fall Break]

[RESPONSE]

OCT 31

NO CLASS [Optional Conferences] OPTIONAL: Meet with ENGL 572, 4 PM

NOV 2

THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE Read/watch: Chpt. 1-2

NOV 5

THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE Read/watch: Chpt. 3 & 8

NOV 7

THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE Read/watch: Chpt. 9-10

NOV 9

THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE Read/watch: Chpt. 13 & Epilogue

NOV 12

THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE

NOV 14

ANGELS IN AMERICA Read/watch: Part I, Act I

NOV 16

ANGELS IN AMERICA Read/watch: Part I, Act II

NOV 19

ANGELS IN AMERICA Read/watch: Part I, Act III

NOV 21/23

NO CLASS

NOV 26

ANGELS IN AMERICA Read/watch: Part II, Acts I-II

NOV 28

ANGELS IN AMERICA Read/watch: Part II, Acts III-IV

NOV 30

ANGELS IN AMERICA [QUIZ] Read/watch: Part II, Act V & epilogue

DEC 3

COLD WAR POP CULTURE Read/watch: Bewitched, “Sam’s Secret Saucer,” “I Confess”

DEC 5

COLD WAR POP CULTURE Read/watch: Bewitched, “And Then I Wrote,” “Long Live the Queen”

DEC 7

COURSE CONCLUSION

DEC 14

FINAL PAPER DUE BY 5 PM

[RESPONSE]

[QUIZ]

[Thanksgiving] [RESPONSE]

English 488 Assignment Sheet—Response Papers There are six opportunities to complete response assignments during the term, each worth up to 25 points. You are required to complete two of these to pass the class. If you want to receive the full 100 points for responses, you need to complete four of them. If you complete more than four, any additional points will be counted as extra credit. Failure to complete two responses will result in a failing grade for the term. Responses are due on Fridays approximately every two to three weeks (the dates are noted on the syllabus). I will accept them up to one week past the initial due date for partial credit (see below). If you have not turned in a response by one week past its initial due date, I will assume that you are dropping that response. I will give a topic for each response, or some other type of prompt, one week before it is due. Responses should be 750-1,000 words in length. Please note the word count for each response at the bottom of the last page. They should have your name and a page number on each page. They must be spell-checked (by the computer) and proofread (by you or another person). Responses are meant to give you an occasion and a motivation to do critical thinking about our reading for class. They are not as formal as a regular paper—you don’t have to have all of your ideas fully worked out before you begin writing. In fact, sometime the best responses come from the process of working through ideas while you are writing. A good response will start somewhere—with an idea, a question, or even just a hunch—and then use to the text (often just a small part of the text) to see where that idea (or question, or hunch) will take you. Responses will be evaluated in the following manner: 25 points: Response was turned in on time, and seriously addressed the topic that was given (as a critic), using quotations from the text to back up the arguments present. 20 points:

Response did all of the above, but was up to one week late.

15 points: Response was turned in on time, but failed to seriously address the topic, addressed a different topic, or failed to use the text to support the argument, or was less than 750 words. 10 points: Response was turned in up to a week late AND failed to seriously address the topic given, or to use quotations from the text, or was less than 750 words.

English 488 Assignment Sheet—Quizzes There will be seven in-class quizzes this term, given approximately every other Friday (see syllabus for the exact dates). These quizzes will all be open book (another reason to make sure you always have your book in class!) and will consist of a combination of short answer, short essay, and longer essay questions. Each quiz will also have opportunities for extra credit questions. N.B.: Each quiz will be worth twenty points toward your final grade. There will be a total of 100 possible points available for the quizzes, and I will drop each student’s lowest two quiz grades. If you miss class on a quiz day, you will drop that quiz. There are no “make up” quizzes. If any student earns a perfect (or better) score on each of the seven quizzes, the extra points will be credited as extra credit.

English 488 Assignment Sheet—Final Project Each student will receive up to 125 points toward their final grade for participation in the final project presentation. Each student in this course will participate in an in-class presentation based on secondary or contextual research completed on one of the works, authors, or broad literary/cultural movements or theoretical concepts related to our syllabus. (Secondary research refers to sources that are about the text we are reading.) You may complete this project as a group or as an individual. Individual presentations will last approximately 10-15 minutes, while group presentations will be longer. During this presentation, each student or group of students should present the class with a broad problem or question that they have developed from their reading of the text or author in question, summarize the research findings, and explicate how these research findings helped them to reach a conclusion. Alternately, if the presentation is on contextual topic, they should present to the class not only information, but a clear understanding of how that information is important to a better understanding of the class’s texts. If working in a group, each student in the group should have developed and completed the work for a discrete section of the group’s presentation, all of which should become an integrated part of the larger project. The methodology for this project is similar to that for preparing to write a paper; however, in this case you will be consulting secondary sources (that is, criticism, theory, or possibly historical or other contextual documents). Done properly, the research that you do in preparing for this presentation will lead easily to the final paper for this course. (Of course you are not obligated to write your paper based on your research.)

You are encouraged to bring in outside materials for use during your presentation. That is, if you find something in another media (not print) that you feel will contribute to our understanding of the problem you have identified, then please do make this part of your presentation: film, television, music, digital media, visual art, etc., can all be integrated into your final project, as long as they are treated with appropriate scholarly attention. Likewise, historical, cultural, or other contextual documents can be a part of your research. You may use a computer and prepare Power Point slides for your presentation if you like, but this is not required. Each presentation will conclude with a question and answer session. English 488 Assignment Sheet—Annotated Bibliography/Research Summary Each group or individual student will submit an annotated bibliography and research summary for their project. For groups, each member of the group will contribute to this document. The annotated bibliography and research summary is worth 125 points toward each student’s final grade. Each source that is missing from an annotated bibliography will result in a deduction of 15 points from the total. An annotated bibliography is a bibliography (or a “works cited” list) in which each source listed is accompanied by a brief summary of the content (75-100 words on the thesis and evidence) of the work, as well as a comment on how the source contributed to your research (that is, how it helps you understand the problem you are investigating). These summaries should be written in standard, grammatical English and they need to be original work (that is, not copied off of the back the book). Each entry must also have a complete citation. Use the MLA Handbook or the Chicago Manual of Style to determine the correct format for each citation. These will differ depending on what type of work you are citing. You must follow these guidelines exactly, down to the punctuation, if you want to receive full credit for this part of the assignment. Thus, it is a good idea not to wait until the last minute to complete this assignment. Proofreading will be necessary here. To get complete credit for this assignment, follow these guidelines: -- Each individual student’s bibliography should include five to seven secondary sources. A group bibliography will be longer; the precise number will depend on how many members are in each group. These may include chapters from scholarly books or articles (from scholarly journals or collections of essays). Each bibliography should include a mix of sources from these categories. For group projects, each student should plan on contributing four to five sources to the group’s bibliography, and writing the appropriate entries on these sources. Each member of the group should include their initials after the items on the bibliography that they contributed to the group project.

-- Each item must be at least five pages long. No credit will be given for items shorter than this. (If you feel you need to include a shorter item, please speak to me about it in advance.) -- The following types of sources will not be counted toward your total: articles from encyclopedias or popular magazines; web pages (articles that have been downloaded from electronic versions of scholarly journals are fine; web pages in themselves are not); book reviews (ask me first if you want to use book reviews); anything that has been assigned as a required reading for this class. If you have any questions about a particular source, please ask me. The research summary is a brief discursive synopsis that should be included with your annotated bibliography. For individuals, it should be approximately 250 words in length; for groups, 500 words. This summary should present the overall project, and describe how your research contributed to the project. For groups, there should be brief sections detailing each individual’s contribution to that project, and how these individual contributions come together to form a coherent final project. English 488 Assignment Sheet-- Final Research Paper/Final Exam The final essay or exam is worth up to 250 points toward each student’s final grade. If you choose to complete a final essay, it will be a research paper 2,000-2,500 words in length. This is a research paper. This means that your paper must make use of secondary research, like literary criticism, literary history, or theory, and use this research in support of your argument. You will have already done research for this class, as a part of your research presentation and annotated bibliography assignment. If you like, you may continue with that project, and make use of this research for your final paper. However, you may also choose to work on a different topic or subject if you would prefer. If you want to receive the maximum credit for the final paper you should make certain you do the following: -- Give your paper a title. A good title gives the reader a clear sense of both the text under consideration and where the author is going with his argument. -- Write a paper that is within the assigned word count. -- Have a clearly stated thesis statement that is in your first or second paragraph. The thesis should be narrowly construed and, ideally, surprising. It should be something that you can imagine someone possibly disagreeing with— that is, not so intuitively correct that no one who had read the same book would ever think otherwise.

-- Make certain that you use your close reading skills in their paper (that is, quote from the primary text and use those quotati...