AML 4685/JST 3930
Race and Ethnicity in Twentieth-Century American Literature:
Jewish-American Fiction
Fall 2005 Section 8974 Professor Andrew
Gordon
T 7 (1:55-2:45), Th 7-8 (1:55-3:50) TUR
2306
Office: 4332 TUR
Phone: 392-6650 x254
Hours: W 7-9 (1:55-4:55) or by appointment
Mailbox: 4301 TUR
E-mail:
agordon@ufl.edu
Home page: http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/agordon
OBJECTIVES:
This
course traces the development of Jewish-American fiction within the context of
twentieth-century American literatures and cultures and deals with the role of
ethnic literatures within our multiethnic nation. Most of the works we will read deal with
problems of assimilation of Jews into American society and the quest of the
protagonists for identity as both Americans and Jews. We begin with the influence of
Eastern-European Yiddish literature (stories in translation) and then read a selection
of Jewish-American stories and novels from the beginning of this century up to
the present. We will study how
Jewish-American authors were influenced by and contributed to traditions of
naturalism, realism, modernism, and postmodernism in twentieth-century American
fictions. We will also study such topics
as anti-Semitism, literary responses to the Holocaust and to the state of
This
is not a course in religion and you need not be Jewish to take it. An interest in American literature, history, and
culture or in the issues of ethnic identity and assimilation is
sufficient. I hope this course will make
you a more sensitive interpreter of American culture and a better writer.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
Andrew M. Gordon received the Ph.D.
in English from the
in
TEXTS:
At Goering's Books,
The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan (Harper)
Breadgivers by Anzia Yezierska (Persea)
Call It Sleep by Henry Roth (
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud (
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow (Penguin)
The Book of Daniel by E.L. Doctorow (Signet)
Maus and Maus II by Art Spiegelman
(Pantheon)
A Weave of Women by E.M. Broner (
American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Vintage)
At Custom Copies, 309 NW 13 St,
across from Krispy Kreme:
Xeroxed readings from Jewish-American
Stories ed. Irving Howe
REQUIREMENTS:
1) Attendance and participation. After the first week, attendance counts. You are allowed three hours absence; every unexcused cut after that means two percent off your final grade (up to
10%). Being present is not enough; you
are strongly encouraged to participate as well. In the event of a prolonged
illness or other emergency, please notify me as soon as possible, so that we
may insure that you do not fall behind.
Lateness is disruptive and is strongly discouraged. Being 15 minutes or
more late to class or leaving early will be considered half an absence. If you have special classroom access,
seating, or other needs, please bring those to my attention. If you are unable to attend class or hand in
an assignment because of a university-sponsored event or because of religious
observances, please notify me well in advance. Total for attendance and good
participation = 10%.
2) Quizzes on the reading.
Short responses on characters and plot designed to keep you coming to
class prepared. Twelve scheduled; ten required.
Do eleven or twelve and I drop the lowest grade or grades. NO QUIZ
MAKEUPS. Quizzes= 20%.
3) Two papers. I will
suggest topics, but feel free to write on any idea, feeling, character, image,
or technique in a work. Papers 1 may but
need not necessarily involve research.
Paper 2 should be a research paper (cite at least three critical
sources) of seven-eight pages and may deal with one work or compare any two
works: for example, Jewish women in Breadgivers
and Weave of Women. Original
thought and closely focused, careful analysis are encouraged. Papers may evolve from but should not merely
repeat class discussion. You are encouraged as well to apply to the fiction
knowledge from other courses (religion, sociology, history, psychology,
philosophy, art, women’s studies, or political science, for example).
Alternatively,
for Paper 1 you may use the fiction to create your own: for example,"Further Adventures of David
Levinsky" or a chapter retold, such as "Dora's View of Levinsky.” You can write a prequel or sequel to the
story or novel or rewrite an incident from another point of view. You can
transpose a character from one story into another: one student placed the
characters from Breadgivers into an episode of Seinfeld; another introduced
Sara from Breadgivers to David Levinsky. There are numerous
possibilities: use your imagination and
pay careful attention to the personality of the characters and the style
of the narrator when attempting to
duplicate or parody elements of the story.
This is a way to experience the fiction by writing your way into it. I would recommend this option only to those
with previous experience in fiction writing.
Please consult with me in advance about this option.
I
am always glad to discuss paper topics or review rough drafts during office
hours. Take advantage of office hours or schedule an appointment or send me an
e-mail. It is far more useful for you to consult with me before handing in the
paper than after the graded paper is returned.
If
you are writing an analytic paper, you may use critics as a starting point or
in order to bolster your own argument, but do not rely on them excessively.
Your voice should dominate the argument.
When you consult critics, be sure to read more than one to get different
opinions. Paper Two must be a research
paper. Document all published sources with quotation marks and footnotes in MLA
Style (see any current handbook on composition, or The MLA Style Manual
by Walter Achtert and Joseph Gibaldi, a recent issue of PMLA in the
library, or http://www.mla.org/style_faq for
this form of documentation).
The
University community’s policies and methods regarding academic honesty are
clearly spelled out in the Academic Honesty Guidelines printed in the current
Undergraduate Catalog and available online from the Office of Student Judicial
Affairs home page of the Dean of Students Office WWW site, at
http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/. Any student who uses material that is not
his or her own without proper attribution will fail the course.
Papers
are due in my mailbox or under my office door by 4:00 on the due date. Notify me before the due date if you need
more time. Unexcused late papers lose
two points per school day. Papers more than five days late will not be
accepted.
You
may revise paper 1 if it receives less than B (but not if it is a late paper). This is due within one week after the paper
is returned. Please submit the original
paper with your revision. The revision will receive a higher grade (the number
of points depends on the improvement).
Paper 2 may not be revised.
Please
make enough copies of Paper 1 for the entire class. To save on costs, the copies may be
single-spaced and back-to-back (the version you give me, however, should be
double-spaced). The purpose of these
copies is to give you a sense of writing for an audience of your
classmates. As time permits, we will
discuss some papers in class.
Paper 1 (due Friday, Sep 30 by 4 pm): five pages (approximately 1250 words) on a
work from Weeks 1-5 (including Breadgivers.).
Paper 2 (due Monday, Dec 12 by 4 pm):
seven-eight pages (approximately 1750-1800 words) on one or two works from the
course (this may be a comparison paper on two works). Paper 2
should be a research paper using at least three critical sources.
Paper 1= 25%; Paper 2= 35%.
4) One
oral report. Inform yourselves
about an author, present information (more than a capsule biography), or lead
class discussion. These reports may help you prepare for your papers. Reports can be done individually or in a
group of 2-4 students (I will distribute sign-up sheets). Avoid a list of dates or works or prizes;
these can best be given in a handout.
Instead, try to give a sense of the author or a work, even of a
Jewish-American author or work not assigned.
Five minutes per person. You can use audiovisual equipment or powerpoint
presentations. Have fun; this is required but ungraded (everyone gets
10% for doing it).
Oral report = 10%.
Summary: Attendance
and Participation = 10%
Quizzes =
20%
Papers= 60%
Oral
report= 10%
There is no midterm or final exam in this course and no extra credit
work.
Classroom etiquette
Please, no chatting, reading of
newspapers, or sleeping during class.
You may use laptop computers and other portable electronic devices to
take notes during class discussion or for in-class presentations. WWW browsing, emailing, chatting, etc.,
unrelated to class activities is, however, completely inappropriate. Cell
phones, pagers, and other communication devices should be turned off during
class.
OUTLINE:
Week 1 Th, Aug 25:
Introduction.
Week 2 T, Aug 30: In Jewish-American
Stories: Aleichem, ”Hat,”
Singer,“Gimpel.”
Th,
Sep 1: In Jewish-American Stories:
Levinsky Introduction and through p. 81.
Introduction
and Chapters 1,3. Q (Quiz) 1.
Week 3 T, Sep 6: Levinsky
to p. 350.
Th,
Sep 8: Finish Levinsky. Q2.
Week 4 T, Sep 13: In
Th,
Sep 15: In
Week 5 T, Sep 20: Breadgivers
Intro and to p. 110.
Th,
Sep 22: Finish Breadgivers. Q4.
Week 6 T, Sep
27: In Jewish-American Stories:
Schwartz, “Dreams.”
Th,
Sep 29: Call It Sleep, Prologue
and Book I, "The Cellar."
:
Paper
1 due Friday, Sep 30 by 4 pm.
Week 7 T, Oct 4: Call
It Sleep, to end of Book III, "The Coal."
Th,
Oct 6: Finish Call It Sleep.
Week 8 T, Oct 11: Bellow, Seize the Day.
Th,
Oct 13: Finish Seize the Day.
Week 9 T, Oct 18: In Jewish-American
Stories: Malamud, “Magic Barrel.”
Th, Oct 20: Assistant to p.
122.
Week 10 T, Oct 25: Finish Assistant.
Q7
Th,
Oct 27: In
Jewish-American Stories: Mailer,
“Man Who Studied
Yoga,”
Goodman, “Facts of Life,” Gold, “Heart of the
Artichoke,”
Allen, “No Kaddish.”
Week 11 T, Nov 1: In
Day.
Th,
Nov 3: Book of Daniel Book
Two: Halloween.
Week 12 T, Nov 8: Finish
Book of Daniel. Q9.
Th,
Nov 10: Maus and Maus
II.
Week 13 T, Nov 15: In
Paley,
“Loudest Voice.” Weave to
p.56.
Week 14 T, Nov 22: Finish Weave.
Q11.
Th,
Nov 24: THANKSGIVING
Week 15 T, Nov 29: American
Pastoral Part I:
Th.
Dec 1 : American
Pastoral Part II: The Fall.
Week 16 T, Dec 6: American Pastoral Part III:
Paper Two due Monday, Dec 12 by 4 pm
GORDON’S GUIDELINES
Rules for Writing (these are jokes; each memorably illustrates the rule by breaking it):
1. Verbs has to agree with their
subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end
sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a
conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like the plague.
6. Also always avoid annoying
alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however
relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use
repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren't necessary
and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are
not apropos.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use
more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. One should never generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as
cliches.
16. Don't use no double negatives.
17. Eschew ampersands &
abbreviations, etc.
18. One_word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like
feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be
ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not
necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a
diminutive one would suffice.
23. Kill all exclamation points!!!
24. Use words correctly,
irregardless of how others use them.
25. Understatement is always the
absolute best way to put forth earth shaking ideas.
26. Use the apostrophe in it's
proper place and omit it when its not needed.
27. If you've heard it once, you've
heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a
million can use it well.
28. Puns are for conversation and
children, not groan readers.
29. Go all around Robin Hood's barn
to avoid colloquialisms.
30. Even if a mixed metaphor sings,
it should be derailed.
31. Who needs rhetorical questions?
32. Exaggeration is a billion times
worse than understatement.
33. Proofread carefully to see if
you any words out.
My Rules
(joking aside):
1.
Grading Criteria:
A
(90 and above)= distinguished work, well
written, free from all serious defects,
shows
originality and insight.
B (80)= good work, above average performance, no
serious weaknesses in form or content.
C (70)= acceptable work, unobjectionable. A C paper usually has more writing errors
than the A or B paper and does not show as much depth,
originality,
or insight.
D
(60)= below average work: serious or many defects in form and/or
content.
E
(55 or under)= unacceptable.
0=
plagiarism or failure to turn in an assignment will result in failure in the
course.
A grade such as A-/B+ means that
your paper was on the borderline between the two grades.
2.
Pick a carefully focused topic
you can handle in a few pages: not
"The Character of Holden Caulfield in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye"
but "Holden and Phoebe" or "Holden and the Movies."
3.
State your thesis (an
argument or point worth proving) at the end of the first or second
paragraph. For example: "The automobiles and the way they are
driven in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby reflect the
character of the people who own or drive them."
4.
Be sure your argument is original
and worthwhile. Don't waste your
time and mine restating the obvious, reciting critical commonplaces, or
retelling the plot.
5.
Your title should reflect
your specific topic: not The Great
Gatsby but "Cars in Gatsby."
6.
Do not underline or put in
quotation marks your own title.
7.
Support your argument with
references to characters, incidents, and relevant quotations.
8.
Recount narrative action in
present tense: "At Myrtle's
party, everyone gets drunk and Tom breaks Myrtle's nose." Exception:
action which is antecedent to the "present tense" of the
narrative: "Gatsby had always been
given to grandiose dreams, dreams which seem realized when he met Daisy in
1917."
9.
Use " " even when
quoting only a few words from the text.
10.
Avoid long quotations,
especially in short papers. If a
quotation is longer than 50 words, set it off by indenting and single-spacing
it. You don't need to use " " then since it is already set off from
your text.
11.
When you are quoting two lines of
poetry as if they were prose, put them in " " and use a slash / to indicate line
endings. When you are quoting three or
more lines of poetry, indent, single-space and write them out exactly as they
appear on the page in the original text.
You don't need to put them in "
" then.
12.
Dialogue is already in
" " in a story, so quote
using double quotation marks: "’
'" (13).
13.
Follow American punctuation: commas
and periods go inside the quotation marks, unless a parentheses follows. Thus:
" ," or
" ."
But " " (13), or
" " (13).
14.
Novel but "Short
Story." In other words,
underline (or italicize) the titles of long works but use " " around the titles of short works. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott
Fitzgerald but "The Swimmer" by John Cheever.
15.
Number all pages (except
cover page and page one).
16.
Keep a copy of the paper for
your protection.
17.
Never end a line with a hyphen.
18.
Avoid paragraphs that are too
short (one or two sentences) or too long (one page).
19.
A hyphen is indicated by a
-. A dash is indicated by a --.
Don't confuse the two.
20.
A three-dot ellipsis (. . .) indicates that
something has been omitted from the middle of quoted matter. You don't need the ellipsis at the beginning
of a quotation (it is obvious that something has been omitted if your quotation
does not begin with a capital letter). A
four-dot ellipsis (. . . .)
indicates that the end of a sentence or a sentence or more has been omitted
(the fourth dot is the period ending the sentence).
21.
Use brackets [ ] not parentheses to indicate your own
insertions within quoted matter:
"His [Jim's] notion was wrong." Parentheses within quoted matter are taken as
the original author's.
22.
I don't expect perfection in papers because I don't find it in my own
work. Everyone can use a good
editor. Writing errors are evidence that
you are doing your own work and honestly trying. Use your mistakes: learn from them and learn
to be your own editor.
23.
I value papers that do some original thinking and teach me something new about a novel or story. When you're writing, remember: you're
the teacher.
24.
Some abbreviations I use in
correcting or commenting on papers:
AWK= awkward
BA=
"Not only x. . .but also y."
Keep them balanced, grammatically equivalent: "She wanted not only to swim the English
Channel but also to climb
CHOP= choppy
writing. Too many short sentences in a
row; this usually goes along with W, O-U, and R.
D= diction
(word choice: check dictionary or
thesarus)
DP= dangling
participle: "Walking down the
street, the
FS= fragment
sentence. For example: He wanted to run. Although he could barely walk. The second "sentence" is FS (a
subordinate clause belonging to the first sentence).
H= "On
the one hand. . . .On the other hand. . . ." Don't use one without the other. Think of a pair of handcuffs.
ITS= one of
the most common spelling mistakes is the incorrect use of
"it's." This can only be used
as a contraction for "it is."
The possessive of "it" is "its," formed like
"yours," "theirs," or "ours"--without the
apostrophe.
N-P= lack of
agreement between noun and pronoun:
"Will everyone take their seat?" Incorrect because "everyone" is
singular. Should be "Will everyone
take her seat?" or "his or her seat." "Each" is also singular. You can tell by the singular verbs: "everyone is" or "each
is."
O-U= omit
unneeded words
PSV= avoid
passive tense (not "the ball is hit by me" but "I hit the
ball").
R= needless
repetition (Note: a lot of what I do in
reading papers is crossing things out:
unnecessary or repetitious words, phrases, sentences, or occasionally
entire paragraphs.)
RO= run-on
sentence
CS= run-on
sentence, comma splice (using a comma where a period, semicolon, or comma plus
coordinating conjunction is called for).
For example: He wanted to go,
however, he couldn't. That's CS because
the clauses on both sides of the comma can stand as independent sentences, and
you can’t link sentences with a comma.
Correct to: He wanted to
go. However, he couldn't.
He
wanted to go; however, he couldn't.
He wanted to go, but he
couldn't.
S-V= lack of
agreement between subject and verb.
"High levels of air pollution damages the respiratory tract"
is incorrect. Ignore the prepositional
phrase "of air pollution"; the true subject is
"levels." Correct to
"High levels of air pollution damage the respiratory tract."
SP= spelling
T= wrong
tense
U= unclear
V= vague
W= wordy
¶
= paragraph
= good point