January 2009
Mark K. Jensen, Department of Languages and Literatures
Basics
Going deeper
Required texts
The following texts are required and may be purchased at the PLU
bookstore:
A booklet of supplementary readings will also be distributed to
students enrolled in the course.
Please spend some time exploring this site. A good place to do this
is the Language
Resource Center in
the Mortvedt Library or
some other campus computer user room to
see images and to print any material you need. When checking in at the
LRC, please identify yourself as a languages student.
Help is available from staff at the LRC.
Course description
This course aims to be an intensive investigation into the relation of
society and self in the culture of modern Europe, as this has been
represented in literature and film. European societies and
American society are parts of a larger "Western civilization," a.k.a "the
West, an amorphous
and conceptually controversial entity that has now aggressively morphed
into a global form that in the name of pleasure, profit,
and power so vast that the West has succeeded in destablizing "nature"
itself. This is a
subject about which you already possess not only information but
experience. Throughout the course you
will be asked to draw upon your own
experience of Western societies to deepen understanding of how self
and society relate in our modern, or perhaps postmodern, culture.
Four classic novels and a play written during the past century
and a half and nine films
will be
analyzed, all
in the short space of one month.
The structure of the course is
straightforward.
In Part 1 (Jan. 5-9), with the help of a number of
supplementary readings in psychology, sociology, philosophy,
contemporary journalism, and literary criticism, basic terms will
be complicated and clarified: "self,"
"society," "modern Europe," "literature," and "film." Three films will be
viewed in class: "The Wild Child" (1970), a film by
François Truffaut that will serve as a
first-day introduction to provoke thought about some basic themes; Ingmar
Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage," (1973), focusing on the demands of the
self; and Ettore Scola's "We All Loved Each Other So Much" (1974),
focusing on the demands of society.
In Part 2 (Jan. 12-16), two novels will suggest
how the demands of society can threaten to overwhelm and even crush the
self: Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857) and Franz
Kafka's
The Trial (1925). We'll also a film with a comparable theme:
Alain
Resnais's "Mon Oncle d'Amérique" (1980). A short essay on one
of these works
will be due in class on Tuesday, January 20.
In Part 3 (Jan. 20-23), two works will
present the self triumphing, in very different ways, over the demands of
society: James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(1916) and Eugène Ionesco's Rhinoceros
(1958).
We'll also watch film versions of the Joyce's novel and Ionesco's play.
A short essay on one of
these works will be due in class on Monday, January 26.
In Part 4 (Jan. 26-29),
we'll
examine
some subtler attempts to portray the ways in which the demands of the self
and the demands of society mesh in the modern world. George Eliot's
Middlemarch (1872) will be our principal literary exemplar of this,
and we'll return to the filmmakers of Part 1 and view François
Truffaut's "Small Change" (1976) and, finally, Ingmar Bergman's
"Wild Strawberries" (1957).
There will be Discussion in class and viewing the films are essential
parts of
the
course. Absences will affect your participation grade.
Important
note: The
course will be fast-paced and very demanding. Many of you will not
have been asked to read this intensively before. In
addition to about fourteen hours in class, you should expect to
spend at least thirty-five hours a week reading and writing.
The
texts we'll read are subtle; they make considerable demands upon the
reader. They
deserve and will repay every effort of attention you can bring to bear
upon them: they are worth
careful reading and rereading. They cannot be
profitably skimmed or speed-read. I cannot recommend strongly
enough that
you resolve at the outset to make the investment of time necessary
to succeed in the
course. You
should budget AT LEAST five hours a day
for reading and writing; more may be necessary.
Schedule of reading assignments
Grading policy
Your grade in the course will
be determined according to the following formula:
| Participation | 20% |
| Quizzes | 20% |
| January 20 essay | 20% |
| January 26 essay | 20% |
| Final exam | 20% |
Office hours
Office hours will be held on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday from 1:30
p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and by appointment.
Campus phone: (253) 535-7219
Last revised: January 12, 2009
Home phone: (253) 756-7519
E-mail: jensenmk@plu.edu
Comments and questions are welcome.
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