Utopian Fictions:
From Paradise to Nowhere
Jesse Cohn, instructor
Tuesdays and Thursdays
11:40-1:05
Hinman 121
Do not
emerge, Eden. Stay
in the mouths of the lost
who dream you.
--Paul Auster, "Hieroglyph"
Semester Schedule and Course Notes
Syllabus
Utopia.
But what is this class really about?
We'll be reading a number of recent works of fiction against certain ideas about utopia. Why should thinking about utopia illuminate anything about these books? We'll explore a number of answers to that question: a few of the connecting themes will be "desire", "selfhood", "autonomy", "difference", "irony", "wholeness", "fragmentation", and "family". Perhaps the biggest connecting themes will be the ideas of "Paradise" and "Nowhere"; these will form the starting places for the first and second halves of the semester, respectively. More generally, I will argue that although the very word "utopia" would seem to have begun steadily losing all of its glamor and appeal since the late 19th century, it may be that we have not gotten past it at all -- that we are still perhaps unconsciously fascinated with it, and that, in fact, it is secretly one of the inescapable concepts of our time, for better or worse (or for better and worse). And in that case, why not expect it to turn up in contemporary novels?
Work
Lots of reading: three novellas, a chunky novel, and several short pieces (essays, short stories, etc). A day of discussion-leading with two other people. Two short papers (with a required first draft for each), and one medium-sized final paper: altogether, a lot of writing. Several individual meetings with me outside of class to talk about your writing.
Work (but also play)
But the real work will be the thinking. I promise: this will be a confusing class. You will be frequently asked to think about things that are ambiguous, vague, cloudy, and otherwise difficult. The great thing is that you will be allowed and encouraged to think about things that no one else here will ask you to think about -- some really important (and dangerous) questions about life and the world -- in the context of reading dizzyingly imaginative fiction by some of the most brilliant new writers. The key to enjoying it all is to take a deep breath and accept the confusion. Embrace uncertainties, paradoxes, and huge, open questions; develop and defend ideas, but don't be afraid to be wrong. Realize that everyone around you, including the instructor, is going to have moments of real befuddlement. Don't be too embarassed to ask stupid questions (like "What do you mean?"). The stupid questions are often the ones that shed the most light. Repeat to yourself: Confusion is next, and next after that is the truth (apologies to Sonic Youth).
What you might get from this class
A definite improvement in your writing skills. Also, some rigorous intellectual puzzles and challenges; moments of absolute wonder in the reading; the excitement of some serious arguments; maybe even some questions that will stay with you long after the last day and the last paper...
How to contact me
My office is in the Science 1 Building, on the ground floor (downstairs), room 55-F. My regular office hours will be Mondays and Thursday, 2-3 (except on weeks when I'm having individual conferences), and I can make appointments for other times if those aren't convenient. Papers can be slipped under my
office door or delivered to English Department mailbox 133 (not campus mail). You can email me at xxxxxxx@binghamton.edu . If you need to call me at home, my number is xxx-xxxx; I don't mind, but please don't call before 10 in the morning or after 10 at night.
Books
(On order at Bookbridge, in the Vestal Plaza -- both bus systems go there.)
Shorter Texts
(Most of these you will photocopy for yourself; they will be on reserve, in a green binder marked "Personal".)
I may bring one or two more short readings to class, if inspired -- possibly around the end of the semester, when we'll have extra time to play around with. [Note: in fact, I wound up throwing out the Widmer and Siebers readings, and threw in a 1-page handout with quotes from and about Mikhail Bakhtin...]
We'll be reading somewhere around 900 pages over the course of the semester. That's an average of 60 pages of reading per week, not counting that temporary utopian respite from work: Spring Break. Use the schedule to pace yourself; don't wait until the last minute to read an entire novella. Important note: If I sense that discussion is dragging because not enough people are caught up on the reading, I may give surprise quizzes on the reading, which would factor into the participation grade. I would prefer not to do this, as I've always hated taking quizzes myself, but I'll do what it takes to keep things on track! This is also a matter of mutual respect for your fellow students: to assume that someone else will do the reading and talk about it in class so that you don't have to talk is making someone else do your work for you. At the same time, I know that this is tough reading. I don't want to unfairly penalize anyone who is making an effort but struggling anyway. If you're having trouble keeping up with the reading, the honest thing to do -- and the thing that will help you the most -- will be to talk to me about it, before or after class, or on my
office hours. I'll do what I can to help.
Grades
Do not expect an A or A- grade unless your total contribution to class -- writing, participation, everything. -- is really superb. I don't expect that most people will get A-level grades. I regard any B-level grade as honorable and decent, though a B- generally indicates that something was off -- a good student having a bad semester, possibly, or someone making a real effort but encountering serious difficulties. A C-level grade is pretty unacceptable; it can only come from serious amounts of missing work, absence, and/or poor participation. I have given C grades to students that I genuinely liked. It was a reflection of how disorganized and depressed they were at the time, not a measure of my regard for them, much less a gauge of their intelligence or worth as people. Grades are made necessary by this institution and our society, but I regard them as a serious obstacle to learning, and especially to the pleasure of learning. If you care about this class and seek pleasure in the work, you'll do fine.
Here is where your grades will come from:
The class will be broken up into groups of three, and each group will sign up for a day on which it will lead class discussion on one of our readings. Each group is expected to meet outside of class to prepare together -- to discuss the reading among themselves, pick out some thing or things to focus the discussion on (themes, subjects, characters, events in the plot, specific passages in the book), do a little extra research (to find out what other readers have said about the author and his/her work -- this might also be a chance to do some advance research for your final paper), and write some notes for themselves to refer to. You might also want to meet with me outside of class to talk about your ideas for discussion-leading, either individually or as a group.
This is not a presentation: you're not expected to get up in front of the class and lecture. Your job is not to explain the reading to the class; instead, it is to start up a good conversation about the text, to get it going and keep it going. One way to do that is to ask the class questions about the text. Obviously, not just any kind of question will do; factual questions (like "What is Rachel's job?") will produce factual answers ("she works at the Department of Transportation") and then silence. Yes-or-no questions (e.g., "Was Bob a Vietnam veteran?") are equally useless. Better questions go beyond the facts to ask about the meanings of things (e.g., "Why does Jane Smiley have the main character working at the Department of Transportation? Anyone have any ideas?", or "Does anyone see how Bob's Vietnam experience might still be affecting him?"). These questions are better, because 1.) they are harder to answer (they require thinking), 2.) they can be answered a number of different ways, and 3.) the different answers can be argued for or against by pointing to actual passages in the text. For all of these reasons, they are more likely to start up a good conversation. Although you are not lecturing or presenting, you may want to start things off by talking for a few minutes about some aspect of the story to create a context for discussion. This is one way to get people to think about what the importance of a question might be. For instance, you might try staging the discussion as a debate, encouraging people to take one side or another in response to some question; in that case, it might help to suggest what is at stake in the debate -- what the consequences of those different positions might be for how we read the text as a whole.
Another thing that might help is if you can provide an echo for people who speak up. Particularly at the start, when things haven't gotten warmed up yet, it's hard for an individual student to speak up because it's likely that his or her remark will be followed by silence -- an instant punishment. Instead of waiting for another student to say the next thing, you might echo what the first student said -- essentially, repeat it back to him or her in a slightly different form, in paraphrase ("Okay, so you're saying..."). This also helps ensure that the speakers' points don't get lost; it even gives them a chance to clarify themselves ("No, what I meant was...") or amplify on their point ("Right, and also..."). Most importantly, have fun with it! Be creative, use your imagination -- there are lots of different ways to do this well.
It has many participants, not just two or three talkers, and all of the listeners have opportunities to jump in. You can acknowledge the raised hands (or eager looks) of people who are waiting to talk, and help them break into the conversation.
It doesn't just stick with the known, but delves into the unknown. It moves from simple questions and easy answers towards more complexity and difficulty. You can steer the conversation away from the "safe" areas (where nothing really important is being argued) and ask people to focus on the harder stuff.
It is rooted in the text; everything spoken of is tied to concrete examples in the text, and people in arguments use textual evidence to support their claims. If the conversation floats away from the text, if it gets too vague and abstract, try asking people to find an example of what they're talking about in the text; have them give the page, and maybe read the example aloud.
It's flowing, dynamic, unpredictable; it can start by heading in one direction and end up taking another direction completely. You are in charge of directing the conversation, but you don't have to force it to stay inside the narrow boundaries of your notes. If it's going someplace interesting, follow it where it goes!
By the way, the "debate" approach can be fun, but it has its pitfalls: often there are more than just two sides to a question, and sometimes the third side is not simply a compromise between the first two -- and sometimes there are four or five or six sides... Test out the different positions in your group first, assemble evidence for different sides, make sure each side is defensible and worthy of consideration. The longer the back-and-forthness of the argument can be sustained, the higher the quality of the conversation.