English 352--------------Hemingway & Fitzgerald

Room: Buck 11    Time: MF 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

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

Hours: MWF 9-10 a.m. & by appointment

URL: http://sun.iwu.edu/~jplath/plath.html    Email: jplath@iwu.edu

Texts:
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Vinca Vigia Edition
The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: A New Collection (ed. Matthew Bruccoli)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway)
A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway)
Tender Is the Night (Fitzgerald)
plus, students will be expected to read one additional text for small group presentations.

Course Description/Goals: 

Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald were two of America's great writers of the 20th century. Both men came from midwestern backgrounds, but Fitzgerald, who became a symbol of the Jazz Age, wrote about the rich and would-be socialites, while Hemingway was drawn to a rougher class of people and became associated with modernism. The two men met for the first time in Paris in April 1925 at the Dingo American Bar shortly after The Great Gatsby was published, and thus began an often ambivalent literary friendship that would last until Fitzgerald died in December 1940.

The goals of this course, in addition to the accelerated level of reading and criticism expected at the 300 level, are to acquaint students with this unique literary friendship and the contributions that Hemingway and Fitzgerald made to American literature, and to appreciate how that friendship may have influenced each author. Though a skeletal syllabus is provided, the class will be conducted in seminar fashion—meaning, students will be responsible for the trajectory and shape that discussions take.

Course Requirements:

    • Attendance is mandatory; more than 3 unexcused absences may affect your grade, and in a seminar you're considered absent if you don't participate.
    • Students will be expected to keep up with the reading, to contribute significantly to class discussion with informed opinions (based on reading a research, not b.s.). Cell phones and laptops are allowed only if students need them for note taking or if they bought ebooks.
    • Each student must work in a small group to present additional assigned readings, along with appropriate secondary sources. In addition, for "brick" days, students must come prepared to talk about agreed upon short stories in greater detail, and that might mean bringing in additional sources.
    • All assignments must be completed for students to receive a grade for the course; work must be submitted in hard copy, double-spaced with standard margins, preferably in 12pt. Times New Roman. No email submissions unless cleared in advance with the instructor.
    • Papers must be submitted in MLA style (handout and examples to be provided); students will present a portion of their final paper at the class "conference" held during the final exam period. Late papers will be downgraded a half grade for every day they are late.
    • One conference is required, but more are encouraged.

Grades Will Be Determined on the Following Basis:

Tentative Calendar

Week 1 (Aug 26, 30)--Intro/selected poetry; Fitzgerald's "Head & Shoulders," "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," "Ice Palace"

Week 2 (Sept 2, 6)--Fitzgerald's "The Offshore Pirate" and "May Day"; Brick day (SS to discuss in greater detail)

Week 3 (Sept 9, 13)--Second brick day; Hemingway SS pp. 59-120, "Up in Michigan" through "The Revolutionist"

Week 4 (Sept 16, 20)--Hemingway SS pp. 121-182, Ch. IX through "L' Envoi"; Excerpts from Hemingway's Toronto dispatches, brick day

Week 5 (Sept 23, 27)--Brick day; Flappers & philosophers: The Great Gatsby (entire novel)

Week 6 (Sep 30, Oct 4)--So-called "Gatsby-cluster" stories: "Winter Dreams," Dice, Brassknuckles & Guitar," "Absolution," "The Sensible Thing, "The Rich Boy"; Continued discussion with a critical article on Gatsby added

Week 7 (Oct 7, 11)--Pamplona and The Sun Also Rises (1st 10 chapters); remaining Sun chapters + critical article

Week 8 (Oct 14)--Small group presentations (35 min. each) on first novels: Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise and Hemingway's Torrents of Spring

Week 9 (Oct 21, 25)--A Farewell to Arms (Books 1-2); A Farewell to Arms (Books 3-4)

Week 10 (Oct 28, Nov 1)--Fitzgerald's "Diamond as Big as the Ritz" and "Babylon Revisited"; Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants," "A Canary for One," "The Killers," and "After the Storm"

Week 11 (Nov 4, 8)--Hemingway's "Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber"; Tender Is the Night (Book 1)

Week 12 (Nov 11, 15)--Tender Is the Night (Book 2); Tender Is the Night (Book 3)

Week 13 (Nov 18, 22)--Excerpts from Save Me the Waltz and the Tender "cluster" stories "The Bridal Party" and "Jacob's Ladder"; cluster stories "The Swimmers," "One Trip Abroad," and "The Hotel Child"

Week 14 (Nov 25, Thanksgiving)--"Turkey" day: Small group presentations (35 min. each) Fitzgerald's (Group 3) and Hemingway's (Group 4) worst novels/short stories.

Week 15 (Dec 2, 6)--Hemingway's "The Butterfly and the Tank" and excerpts from A Moveable Feast, "The Crack-Up";  The English 352 Bad Hemingway Competition

FINAL EXAM: Thurs., Dec. 12, 8-10 a.m.

Plath Country