Eng 480--Senior Seminar: American Magical Realism

Room: CLA 100    Time: 10:50-12:05  TTH

Instructor: James Plath     Office: CLA 143     Phone: 556-3352

Hours: MWF, 11-12 and by appt.  Website: https://sun.iwu.edu/~jplath

Email: jplath@iwu.edu

Texts: Going After Cacciatto (Tim O'Brien), Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison), Tracks (Louise Erdrich), The Witches of Eastwick (John Updike), Shoeless Joe (W.S. Kinsella), plus selected readings in literary criticism.

Course Goal: To provide English majors with a final, intensive study of literature and practice in research and discourse, both written and verbal.

Course Requirements:

• Attendance is mandatory. More than 3 unexcused absences affects grade. And in a senior seminar, you're considered absent if you don't participate in class discussion.
• Students will be expected to keep up with the reading, to contribute significantly to class discussion with informed opinions (i.e., opinions based on reading and research, not b.s.). Though a skeletal syllabus is provided, since this is a seminar students will responsible for the trajectory of the class.
  
• Each student must work in a small group, each of which will compile a complete bibliography for one work, lead the classroom discussion, and act as respondents to another group's discussion.
  
• All assignments MUST be completed for students to receive a grade for the course.
• All work must be typed and double-spaced with standard l to l l/2" margins. Computer work should be submitted in 12pt Times, double-spaced (printed both sides okay). Only hard copy will be accepted.
  
• Papers must be submitted in MLA style--handout and examples to be provided--and students must present a portion of the final paper at the class "conference" held in lieu of a final exam. The usual conference fare (coffee and donuts) will be provided.
• Two conferences are required, more encouraged. And despite the miracle of technology and the MLA Online Bibliography, computer searches will always prove incomplete. Students should count making several trips to Ames and nearby Milner.

Grades will be determined on the following basis:

Class participation (includes active discussion, oral presentations, etc.)------25 percent

Exercises (bibliography, quotes, abstract, short assignments, etc.)-------------25 percent

Critical paper, journal length (20-30pp)--------------------------------------------50 percent

(OR instead of the critical paper, a creative option consisting of 15-20pp magical realist fiction and 12-15pp critical paper with secondary sources, treating your fiction as the topic of investigation and discussing your story and yourself in the third person, OR an unrelated capstone project proposed by the student and approved by the instructor)

Tentative Calendar:

Jan 9--Introduction and expectations; group bibliographies due the first day a text is discussed

Jan 14, 16--European & Latin American precursors; essays on magical realism

Jan 21, 23--The Witches of Eastwick

Jan 28, 30--The Witches of Eastwick; Going after Cacciatto

Feb 4, 6--Going after Cacciatto

Feb 11, 13--Song of Solomon

Feb 18, 20--Song of Solomon; Tracks

Feb 25, 27--Tracks

Mar 3, 5--"Magical realism" reexamined; Shoeless Joe

Mar 8, 10--SPRING BREAK

Mar 17, 19--Shoeless Joe; paper topic and baseline research list due

Mar 24, 26--Individual bibliographies (annotated as best you can) due; in-class work on paper openings, organizational strategies

Mar 31, Apr 2--Research, plagiarism, and quotation workshop on the 24th; creative writing workshop on the 26th

Apr 7, 9--NO CLASS (R&R--research and 'riting)

Apr 14, 16--NO CLASS; small group workshopping and individual conference options

Apr 21--NO CLASS; continued workshopping and individual conference options

Final Exam:  Friday, April 24, 1:15-3:15 p.m. — Final projects due at the start of the exam period; Senior Sem "Conference" (each student will present 2-4 pages)