Sociology 329: Topics - Literature and Society
Summer 2 2003
Dr. Scott Schaffer

Class Meetings: MTWTh 1pm to 320pm, Hash 210
Office Hours: MTWTh 12pm to 1pm, Susquehanna House 105
Phone: 717/872.3567 Fax: 717/872.3942 email: scott.schaffer@millersville.edu

Course web site: http://www.millersville.edu/~schaffer/courses/su2003/soc329

Course Description:

This course takes as its starting point a simple claim: that literature and sociology often do the same kinds of things for us though in drastically different ways. Put another way, the kinds of issues discussed and futures predicted by each mode of understanding the world perform similar functions in helping us to understand the world while at the same time give us different ways of understanding society and our place in it. Throughout this course, we will attempt to understand the ways in which each medium performs as a way of better grasping the operation of the world around us and to examine how these media compare as tools for the evocation of our embeddedness in the social world.

The first part of this course will examine the position of literature and literacy in the world. It is only an advent of modern society (since the democratic revolutions of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and the Industrial Revolution) that a need for an informed citizenry has developed. Literacy programs and the creation of the need for reading and readers spawns from this requirement, and in the last 200 years reading has moved from a royal endeavor to a populist pastime. We will examine these historical trends, the creation of markets for reading and readers, and social theories of literature and reading in the first phase of the course.

The second phase of the course will deal with looking at literature as sociological commentary. All good literature approaches the world around the author and characters with a skeptical eye, often moving the social and political events that surround the plot developments to the foreground as a literary device. This section of the course will read a number of works of fiction in order to examine the use of society as a literary device and, very frequently, as a character in the story at hand. We will also read sociological texts regarding the events dealt with by the authors discussed in this phase of the course in order to see how literary and social-scientific depictions of world events present different aspects of the world to us.

The third segment of the course will work from the premise that both sociology and literature can prescribe future paths of action and prognosticate future social problems, thereby serving as a form of social commentary and activism. Works discussed during this phase of the course will be approached from a “what if?” perspective – that is, we will take these texts as warnings to the reader about the impact of certain modes of social action on our future.

The first week of this course will be primarily lecture, in order to familiarize you with the varieties of sociological theory on literature. The remainder of the course will be a combination of lecture, student presentations on the reading materials, and class discussion, and I expect that you will come to each class session having read the materials and being ready to discuss them thoughtfully. The success of this course is just as dependent on you and your efforts as it is on mine.

Required Readings:

The following books can be purchased from the Marauder Bookstore or from any reputable online bookseller. They will be read in the order listed below.

Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf

Ross (ed.), Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction: An Anthology

Rushdie, Fury: A Novel

Naipaul, A Bend in the River

There are also a number of required readings available through Ganser Library’s eReserve service. You must download, print, and read these materials for the first week of classes.

Course Assignments:

Papers: There will be four short papers for this course. The first three will be distributed on Thursdays and will be due the following Mondays; the last paper will be distributed during the last week of class. The first two papers will be three-page papers dealing with issues relating to the readings; the third, a five-page paper, will ask you to analyze literary works we’ve discussed that week from a sociological perspective; and the final paper, a seven-page paper, will ask you to be a bit creative. You should refer to the “How to Write a Schaffer Paper” handout (available on the course web site) for more details on my evaluation of your work.

In-Class Presentations: You will be asked to give two presentations during this term. These presentations, approximately fifteen minutes in length, will require you to engage with that day’s readings in a thoughtful manner, highlighting themes and issues you see as important in them, and drawing linkages between that day’s readings and others we’ve done this term. These presentations will be evaluated by both your peers (40% of each presentation’s mark) and by me (60% of each presentation’s mark). Guidelines for these presentations appear later in the syllabus.

Class Participation: In a class as small as this one, the success of the course is almost entirely incumbent upon you and your contributions to the discussion. As such, class participation – contributing productively and thoughtfully to the discussion, and displaying to me a commitment to doing well in the course – is a required component of the course. You need to ensure that you come to each class session with at least the following items prepared:

I guarantee that if each of you prepares at least this bare minimum, this course will go remarkably well.


Grading Breakdown:

You must submit all work in a timely manner (defined below) in order to pass this course. All grades will be letter grades with +/- modifiers, and will be converted to GPA equivalents (e.g., A = 4.0) at the end of the term.

Paper 1                         10%      Due M Jul 28 at start of class

Paper 2                         15%      Due M Aug 4 at start of class

Paper 3                         20%      Due M Aug 11 at start of class

Final Paper                   30%      Due F Aug 15, 202pm, to me or Sociology/Anthropology Dept

Presentation 1               7.5%

Presentation 2               7.5%

Class Participation         10%

Course Policies: Timeliness, Presentation, Academic Honesty, Grading

Timeliness: As you know, the tempo of a summer session does not allow one to fall behind, and everything in this course builds to the final paper. As such, you are requested and required to submit all assignments on the time and date announced. Except in the case of a severe, catastrophic, and well-documented misfortune that befalls you (such as your departure from this mortal coil), no late papers will be accepted; in the event of a catastrophe, you must contact me by phone or e-mail as early as possible. Papers must be submitted to me in person at the time and date due, to the Sociology/Anthropology Department office prior to the deadline, or by fax or e-mail to me before the deadline (measured by the time of receipt in my email inbox or on a fax).

Presentation: The research papers you will undertake in this course represent a significant portion of your time this term and are intended to get you to think about the nature of the society in which you find yourselves. The expectation is that you will pursue these assignments with vigor and a clear intent to do well in the development of your analytic and critical thinking skills. As such, you are required to proofread and spell- and grammar-check all work submitted during this course. There is no excuse for submitting shoddy work in a time when any decent word processing program can polish your work. Any paper submitted with copious errors will automatically lose two full letter grades (with no appeal) and may be returned for correction. With the second presentation foul, your paper will receive a zero (0), and any subsequent paper submitted in a sloppy manner will receive a zero (0) as well.

Academic Dishonesty: Absolutely NO form of academic dishonesty (defined as the use of prohibited materials during an examination, any kind of communication with another person other than the professor or an exam proctor during an examination, the representation of another’s work as your own whether that work was purchased or freely offered) will be tolerated in this course. As it is contrary to both the mission of the university and to MU policies, any act of academic dishonesty will be met with an immediate failure on the assignment at minimum, and referral to Student Affairs for judicial board proceedings at most. Just don’t even think about it – it robs us all of the learning experience.

Grading: Conflicts about my evaluation of your work can be satisfied through discussion. If you have a problem with my evaluation of your work, you may write a one-page rebuttal that clarifies elements you feel I may have misunderstood in the work you presented at the submission deadline. If there are sufficient grounds for re-evaluating your work, I will do so; however, your grade may be elevated or lowered depending upon that second evaluation. Also, as I grade on a letter-grade basis, there should be no debates or discussions about points.

Lecture and Reading Schedule: Schedule: Please note that you are expected to have completed the readings listed for each class session on the day they are listed and have prepared the items listed under “Class Participation” above. While my lectures will touch on issues raised in the readings, you should not presume that they are a substitute for actually doing the readings or vice versa.

Week 1: Sociological Theories of Literature – All readings for this week are available on eReserve. Each student will be assigned to Group A or Group B, and you should read the readings listed for each group as assigned below (though reading the others is strongly recommended).

M Jul 21: Introduction to the Course: Mechanics, Themes, Concepts and Issues

T Jul 22: Burke, On Symbols and Society; Hutner, American Literature, American Culture; Egan, Authorizing Experience

W Jul 23: Group A: Marx, The Marx-Engels Reader; Gramsci, Selections from the Cultural Writings; Williams, Marxism and Literature; Group B: Lukács, The Theory of the Novel; Lowenthal, Literature, Popular Culture and Society; Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.

Th Jul 24: Group A: MacKinnon, Only Words; Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses” (Boundary 2 12:3); Scheck, selections from Authority and Female Authorship; Group B: Achebe, “Colonialist Criticism,” from Hopes and Impediments; Prentice, “Some Problems of Response to Empire in Settler Post-Colonial Societies”; Griffiths, “The Myth of Authenticity: Representation, Discourse, and Social Practice”; Thiong’o, “The Language of African Literature” (from Decolonising the Mind)

Week 2: Sociology of Literature and Literacy – readings from Griswold and Zaret are available on eReserve. Student presentations begin this week.

M Jul 28: First paper assignment due at the start of class; Zaret, Origins of Democratic Culture

T Jul 29: Griswold, Bearing Witness

W Jul 30: Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf, first half

Th Jul 31: Second paper assignment handed out and discussed; Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf, second half

 

Weeks 3-4: Literature as Sociological Knowledge – additional readings to be read in combination with Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction, as well as those to be used for the final paper assignment, will be available on the course web site

M-Th Aug 4-7: A Bend in the River and Fury

M Aug 4: A Bend in the River, pp. 3-182 + one of the readings on Indian communities in Africa (see web site)

T Aug 5: A Bend in the River, pp. 183-278

W Aug 6: Fury, pp. 1-142 + Simmel readings (see web site)

Th Aug 7: Fury, pp. 143-259

· Th Aug 7: Third paper assignment handed out and discussed


M-Th Aug 11-14: Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction

M Aug 11: Group A: pp. 3-60; Group B: pp. 61-120

·       M Aug 11: Third paper assignment due at start of class; final paper assignment handed out and discussed

T Aug 12: Group A: pp. 121-208; Group B: pp. 209- 262

W Aug 13: Group A: pp. 263-318; Group B: pp. 319-362

Th Aug 14: Group A: pp. 363-398; Group B: pp. 399-457

 

F Aug 15, 402pm: Final paper due to me, the Sociology/Anthropology department office (Susquehanna House), or to be received by me via fax or email

 

Paper Evaluation Guidelines

More information on these guidelines and examples of what I expect is available in the “How to Write a Schaffer Paper” handout, which is available on the course web site. These, though, are the overall guidelines in order of importance.

1. Strength and clarity of response to the paper topic’s main question. Each paper assignment will ask you to respond directly to an argumentative question, and you should ensure that your paper contains a direct and clear response to this question.

2. Strength and cohesiveness of the argument. The papers you will write in this class are argument-based – it isn’t enough to deliver a simple one-sentence statement that answers the question. Instead, you need to take the time to show me how it is you came to that response – the thought process you went through, the references you drew from in order to figure out your position, and how you put everything together. In algebra, it was called “showing your steps”; here, it’s just good argumentation.

3. Accuracy in presentation and understanding of materials. While most of this course is devoted to the development of your own perspective on these thinkers and the world, there are some minimum “correct” and “incorrect” understandings of what the authors said. You need to be sure that you accurately represent what each author says, that you accurately and adequately cite any reference to the original text(s), and that you explain any unorthodox presentation of the authors’ works.

4. Presentation – spelling, grammar, tone, and the actual submitted paper. As it’s become ridiculously easy to ensure that your work is cleanly presented, you must ensure that your paper is spell- and grammar-checked prior to submitting it for evaluation. You should also endeavor to ensure that it’s proofread, either by you, a discussion group member, or someone else – and this proofreading should be both for the technical matters and for clarity of argument. Otherwize, you’re paper will appeer bad, even iff its the most briliant thing ever writen.

Deductions: The following are automatic deductions without appeal:

Also, note that I grade on a letter grade with +/- additions, so there should be no dallying around with the math.

Affixed to your paper will be the evaluation of the work as indicated on the Paper Evaluation Sheet (also available on the web site). This details how the various elements of your paper were evaluated, and provides you with the opportunity to figure out ways to improve your writing.

 

Presentation Guidelines

Length, Format, and Style

Your presentation should be approximately 15 minutes long, though somewhat shorter and somewhat longer presentations are most certainly acceptable. You should not simply read from a prepared paper – that’s boring for all of us, most especially you. Instead, come prepared with an outline, notes, a list of quotations to which you want to refer, and the like. If you want, feel free to distribute an outline of your talk, either in class or before the session by e-mail (address lists will be provided). Be conversational; the presentation, after all, is designed to spark further discussion on the reading materials and on the talk you give in class.

Content

The seminar presentation is not supposed to be merely exegetical; that is, you’re not supposed to come in and give a detailed summary of the readings for the week. Assume that everyone has read the materials and go on from there. You can provide a brief, integrative summary of the readings, but don’t take much more than a couple of minutes to do this.

Your presentation is meant to do three things: to spark the conversation we have the remainder of the evening; to highlight what you think are important issues or themes that are raised in the text; and to help you and the group synthesize the materials in preparation for the two course papers. Discussion questions will be provided each week to cover the assigned materials and to give you a set of signposts for getting through the material. Everyone will have dealt with these questions, so you don’t want to just give your answers to them. Instead, talk about what you found most interesting, challenging, intriguing, or insightful. Give us your ideas about the material, and be prepared to explain them, defend them, etc.

In general, you should think of your presentation as a mini-lecture, a conference presentation, or an oral presentation of a short paper. Present your findings in a clear, coherent, thematic manner; make some kind of argument about what you’ve found; give supporting evidence (i.e., page references and/or quotations, when relevant) for your findings; and all will be right with the world.

Evaluation Criteria

Your presentation will be evaluated on the following criteria: breadth of knowledge of the material; your ability to thematically analyze the materials and present key issues in a synthetic form; the success of your presentation in sparking discussion among your fellow classmates; and the cogency and clarity of your presentation. Your absence on your scheduled presentation date is not acceptable; please do your best to attend every session (especially when you’re scheduled to present), and let me know as early as you possibly can if you’ll be unable to attend your presentation session so we can make alternate arrangements for you and the class.

Discussant Requirements

As a discussant, your job is to address some of the more important elements of the presenter’s discussion. In order to do this, you need to ensure that (a) you and the presenter(s) have talked about the presentations in advance, and (b) that you add your own ideas to the presentation(s) given, ideas that deal with the higher-order elements of the discussion and add to what’s been discussed. Mere summations of the presentations will receive a zero (0) on the discussant service.

Audience Response

Class members should ensure their attendance at every session. You should pay careful attention to the presentation given, looking for key points for discussion and/or debate. Use the discussion questions as a way of preparing for the discussion, and bring your own findings to the table. Above all, please be courteous and collegial in your reception of each presentation, and engage the presenter’s ideas and understandings of the materials so that we all have a good, enjoyable time discussing these important works.

Submissions

On the day of your presentation, you need to turn in to me a copy of your outline, which should show your thesis, your evidence for that thesis (i.e., page numbers and quotations), and how you’re putting it all together. This outline must be typed, and full quotes need to appear on the outline.

Evaluation

There will be two evaluations given – mine of the outline you submit, and the class’ evaluation of your presentation. Each person in the class will be asked to anonymously give you a grade and feedback on your presentation, including ways to improve future presentations you’ll have here and elsewhere. Part of that evaluation will include the extent to which your presentation sparked discussion during the class, so be sure to take this into account when you work up the presentation. My evaluation will follow the criteria listed in the course syllabus for papers, though they will obviously be less fully developed than your papers will be. The evaluations will be put together as follows: student evaluations – 40%; my evaluation – 60%.

Student evaluation forms will be available on the course web site: http://www.millersville.edu/~schaffer/courses/su2003/soc329. Please be sure to print one out before each session.

 

Course Expectations

1. That you will come to each class session prepared, having read that day’s assigned readings and any recommended outside readings, and that you will be prepared to engage in discussion regarding those readings;

2. That you will maintain high standards of academic integrity and achievement, including your responsibility for your contributions in class, the timely and diligent completion of all assignments, and your willingness to challenge yourself and others in a constructive and intellectually beneficial way;

3. That you will avail yourself of all opportunities afforded to you by this course, including participation in outside cultural or intellectual events, availing yourself of opportunities for consultation with me and other appropriate faculty members regarding your work in this course, and the pursuit of opportunities for intellectual and cultural exchange with other members of the course;

4. And, that you will work to ensure that this class is fulfilling for all of us involved in it. I know I’ll do my best to ensure that this happens.

 

Course Objectives

By the end of this term, you should be able to do the following:

·       Discuss and evaluate the relative merits of a variety of sociological theories about literature;

·       Use sociological theories of literature to develop analytic frameworks for use in further research;

·       Discuss and analyze the importance and place of literature and literacy in modern society;

·       Evaluate the ways in which different forms of writing (namely sociological vs. literary) are able to establish different relationships between writers and readers;

·       Construct an argument in response to particular questions about the sociological analysis of literature;

·       Present and foster a coherent and lively discussion on the course materials;

·       Develop a different kind of sociology, one that fosters a more ethical relationship between author and reader.