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Syllabus Honors Proseminar: Willa Cather and William Faulkner Spring, 2006 The Texts: All are available at Prairie Lights Bookstore, 15 South Dubuque Street. I've ordered reliable and readable Vintage editions of the novels. Using these editions will allow us to easily find passages we want to discuss, but if you already have other editions of the novels, there's no need to buy new ones. Cather (1873-1947): My Ántonia (1918) A Lost Lady (1923) The Professor's House (1925) My Mortal Enemy (1926) Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940) Faulkner (1897-1962): The Sound and the Fury (1929) As I Lay Dying (1930) Sanctuary (1931) Light in August (1932) Absalom, Absalom! (1936) The Instructor: My office is 458 EPB, on the fourth floor near the elevator. My e-mail address is ed-folsom@uiowa.edu; my office phone is 335-0450 (with Voicemail, so you can leave a message if I'm not there). I'll usually be available before and after class, and my regular office hours are Mondays and Wednesdays after class until 3:30. I can meet with you at other times by appointment. I'm always happy to discuss Cather and Faulkner, and I'll be glad to talk with you about any of your concerns with the course. The Course: We will focus on the work of two of the major American novelists of the twentieth century, two of the most innovative and original fiction writers in the last hundred years. James Woodress, in his biography of Cather, says the following: "There are three famous towns in America that belong both to fact and to fiction: William Faulkner's Oxford, Mississsippi; Mark Twain's Hannibal, Missouri; and Willa Cather's Red Cloud, Nebraska." We'll be looking at the ways that two of these writers turned their actual regional small towns into fictional worlds and just what was involved in that endeavor. Faulkner and Cather as Poets: Faulkner: "I believe that any writer wants first to be a poet. When he finds that he can't write first-rate poetry-and poetry of all must be first-rate-there are no degrees of it . . . then he tries short stories, which is the next severe medium. When that fails, he goes to the novel. That is, he wants first to take the tragedy and passion of experience, life, and put it into fourteen words. If he can't, he tries two thousand words. If he fails that then he takes a hundred thousand." In 1957: "I wanted to be a poet, and I think of myself now as a failed poet. Not as a novelist at all, but a failed poet who had to take up what he could do." Cather: "There is nothing so unmistakable as a true poem; there is nothing over which the conventions of men and the laws of the schools have so little control as poetry. . . . A man can no more write a poem by mastering poetics than a botanist can make a rose, or an astronomer fashion a star. . . . The true poem is and must remain largely an accident. . . . [A] man either is a poet or he is not." (The male gender is no accident here: Cather once said, "It is a very grave question whether women have any place in poetry at all." [!]) Their Names: Both these writers invent their names. William Faulkner was born William Falkner; Willa Cather was born Wilella Cather, called Willie, and for awhile styled her name as "William Cather, M.D." Both Faulkner's and Cather's name changes involve tensions of identification with their ancestors, and both, remarkably, with Civil War soldiers. Faulkner's great-grandfather, Col. William C. Falkner, was the "first" William Falkner-a violent man who shot and killed a couple of men and was eventually shot and killed himself, the day he was elected to the state legislature, and a poet and novelist to boot. Faulkner's addition of a "u" to his name was a way to separate himself from the Falkner heritage while still identifying with it. Part of what defines Faulkner is his simultaneous attraction to and revulsion from the romantic, chivalric, Southern mind, emblematized by Col. Falkner; Faulkner's name-change is a kind of manifestation of this paradoxical acceptance/rejection. He first added the "u" while he was trying to get into the Royal Air Force in Canada and thought the "u" made him appear more British, but he kept the new spelling when he began to publish (The Marble Faun was by "William Faulkner"). In Cather's case, her great-grandfather, James Cather, was a Confederate during the Civil War, supporting his home state of Virginia even though he opposed slavery, but his son (Cather's grandfather) was her namesake: William Cather, who eventually had a long flowing white beard and looked like a prophet, broke with his family during the Civil War and fought for the Union against his own family. Their farm in Virginia was the site of many conflicts between North and South, and the area came under both Union and Confederate control. After the War, grandfather William Cather became sheriff of his county, and his son (Willa's father) married a woman from a strong Confederate family, Mary Virginia Boak, daughter of Rachel Boak (the model for Old Mrs. Harris). Rachel had three sons, all of whom served in the Confederate Army, and one of whom, William Seibert Boak, died in the battle of Manassas. Willa dropped the "e" in "Seibert" and added Sibert as her own middle name while she was living in Pittsburgh, pretending from then on that she was named for the dead uncle she never knew (her first book, April Twilights, was by "Willa Sibert Cather"). Willa's father had a sister named Wilella, who died in childhood, so this ghostly presence also haunts Willa's name-identity, a name that has elements of her family's Union past and her Confederate past, her father's family and her mother's, but mostly elements of her own imagination. Their Educations: The college educations of both these writers took place at state universities: Cather graduated from the University of Nebraska (Lincoln) and Faulkner attended the University of Mississippi. Their Careers: We'll be reading a lot of books, but in fact nowhere near the complete novels (let alone the complete fiction) of these two writers. Here is a list of their books, with the ones we're reading in boldface: Cather (1873-1947): April Twilights (1903) [poems] The Troll Garden (1905) [short stories] Alexander's Bridge (1912) O Pioneers! (1913) The Song of the Lark (1915) My Ántonia (1918) Youth and the Bright Medusa (1920) [short stories] One of Ours (1922) A Lost Lady (1923) The Professor's House (1925) My Mortal Enemy (1926) Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) Shadows on the Rock (1931) Obscure Destinies (1932) [short stories; includes "Old Mrs. Harris"] Lucy Gayheart (1935) Not Under Forty (1936) [essays] Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940)
Faulkner (1897-1962): The Marble Faun (1924) [poems] Soldier's Pay (1926) Mosquitoes (1927) Sartoris (1929) The Sound and the Fury (1929) As I Lay Dying (1930) Sanctuary (1931) These 13 (1931) [short stories; includes "A Rose for Emily"] Light in August (1932) Salmagundi (1932) [essays, poems] A Green Bough (1933) [poems, written earlier] Doctor Martino and Other Stories (1934) [short stories] Pylon (1935) Absalom, Absalom! (1936) The Unvanquished (1938) The Wild Palms (1939) The Hamlet (1940) Go Down, Moses (1942) Intruder in the Dust (1948) Knight's Gambit (1949) [short stories] Collected Stories (1950) Requiem for a Nun (1951) A Fable (1954) Big Woods (1955) [short stories] The Town (1957) New Orleans Sketches (1958) [early stories] The Mansion (1959) The Reivers (1962) Flags in the Dust (1973) [original version of Sartoris] The Writing: You will keep a proseminar journal, in which you will write a number of brief (1-2 page) entries about specific texts by Cather and Faulkner. Often, I will ask you to address certain specific questions in your entries. You can also use the journal to record ideas and starts of essays that might eventually spawn your proseminar essay. You will work toward the end of the term on a substantial essay of around 15 pages comparing a Cather and Faulkner novel. In the longer essay, you will explore some wider cultural resonances of the texts. Very little has been done on the relationships between Cather and Faulkner, so this is productive and relatively unexplored territory. Your essays will be informed by your wide and careful reading in the works of both authors. I have also put on reserve biographies of each writer: James Woodress's Willa Cather: A Literary Life (1987) and Joseph Blotner's Faulkner: A Biography (1974). Rather than putting a lot of criticism on reserve, we will make it a habit to let each other know what criticism we are finding most useful and making sure that we pass it around to each other. The Proseminar Sessions: I want to challenge you to do your best work. You are taking a proseminar, and it might be worth thinking about what that means. "Pro" means, of course, "projecting forward or outward," and "seminar" comes from roots meaning "seeds" (semen; seminary; semen-ar). A seminar is a place to scatter seeds and see which ones germinate and take root. It's a place to freely try out ideas, a nurturant ground that welcomes seeds in the forms of interpretations and ideas about the texts we'll be reading together. Each of us becomes, in a proseminar, an integral part of an evolving community of interpretation. The proseminar experience can be vitalizing, but we all have to work at it. Attendance, obviously, is expected and vital and necessary. What you say in the proseminar, the ideas you will come with each session to be ready to toss into the scatter, will energize the class and will create the proseminar. Grading: Grades will be based on a mix between journals, participation in proseminar discussions, and the final essay. I expect everyone to be here for all sessions; a crucial part of your performance is your involvement in the discussions. If you must miss a session for any reason, let me know ahead of time. I will expect everyone to come prepared to discuss the texts that are scheduled for discussion. Keep up with the reading! Some quotations from the Nineteenth Century about an Issue that Will Haunt Us All Semester Long: Mary Chesnut (1823-1886) was the daughter of a U.S. senator from South Carolina and was married to a huge plantation owner, himself a senator. She kept a journal during the Civil War about life in the Confederacy. Here's one excerpt, dealing with how the "miscegenation" between slaveowners and their slaves affected white women on the plantations: "We live surrounded by prostitutes. An abandoned woman is sent out of any decent house elsewhere. Who thinks any worse of a Negro or a mulatto woman for being a thing we can't name? God forgive us, but ours is a monstrous system and wrong and iniquity. Perhaps the rest of the world is as bad--this only I see. Like the patriarchs of old our men live all in one house with their wives and their concubines, and the mulattoes one sees in every family exactly resemble the white children--and every lady tells you who is the father of all the mulatto children in everybody's household, but those in her own she seems to think drop from the clouds, or pretends to think so." Henry Hughes (from Mississippi), Treatise on Sociology (1854): "Hybridism is heinous. Impurity of races is against the law of nature. Mulattoes are monsters. The law of nature is the law of God. The same law which forbids consanguineous amalgamation forbids ethnical amalgamation. Both are incestuous. Amalgamation is incest." To Begin: Read the selections of Cather and Faulkner poems I've handed out, and keep these for future reference. Read the two short stories I've given you, one by Cather and one by Faulkner--one I assume many of you have read at some point and one I assume few of you have encountered. These are both stories about the death of an old woman in a small regional town. Just to reverse the usual balance, Cather's is very long and Faulkner's is very short. "Old Mrs. Harris" appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal in 1931, where it was entitled "Three Women," and was republished in Cather's collection of three stories, Obscure Destinies (1932). "A Rose for Emily" originally appeared in Forum in 1930, Faulkner's first publication in a major national magazine, and was revised and included in These 13 (1931). So these two stories were written and published within a year of each other and deal with comparable situations. Let's use them as a place to begin to track out some differences and some similarities between the two authors. Schedule for Reading and Discussion: W Jan 18: Introduction; Cather and Faulkner as poets. M Jan 23: "Old Mrs. Harris"; "A Rose for Emily" W Jan 25: "Old Mrs. Harris"; "A Rose for Emily" / My Ántonia M Jan 30: My Ántonia W Feb1: My Ántonia M Feb 6: The Sound and the Fury W Feb 8: The Sound and the Fury M Feb 13: A Lost Lady W Feb 15: A Lost Lady M Feb 20: As I Lay Dying W Feb 22: As I Lay Dying M Feb 27: The Professor's House W Mar 1: The Professor's House M Mar 6: Sanctuary W Mar 8: Sanctuary [SPRING BREAK] M Mar 20: Sanctuary / My Mortal Enemy W Mar 22: My Mortal Enemy M Mar 27: My Mortal Enemy; Light in August W Mar 29: Light in August M Apr 3: Light in August W Apr 5: Light in August M Apr 10: Light in August; Sapphira and the Slave Girl W Apr 12: Sapphira and the Slave Girl M Apr 17: Sapphira and the Slave Girl; Absalom, Absalom! W Apr 19: Absalom, Absalom! M Apr 24: Absalom, Absalom! W Apr 26: Absalom, Absalom! M May 1: Absalom, Absalom! W May 3: Concluding Discussion
Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability which may require some modification of seating, testing, or other class requirements, please let me know so that we can make appropriate arrangements. See me after class or during my office hours. Time Expectation: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences wants me to remind you that this proseminar is a four-hour course and that the general expectation for time you spend outside the course for reading, writing, and course preparation should be around eight hours per week. This will vary from student to student, of course, but that's the general guideline, and I'll be making assignments with that guideline in mind. Expectations are high in an honors proseminar, so you should enter this course with the knowledge that the reading and writing commitment will be intense. Other Concerns: If you have general concerns, problems, or complaints about the class, please come talk to me so that we can try to resolve things. If you are not satisfied with the resolution, you may make an appointment to discuss your concern with Professor Doug Trevor, director of the undergraduate program, in 308 EPB. Appeals of Professor Trevor's decisions go to Professor Jonathan Wilcox, chair of the English Department, and then to the College of Liberal Arts Academic Programs Office. The full policy covering student complaint procedures and other academic concerns is available in the Student Academic Handbook, available online at: http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/students/academic_handbook/. This course is offered by the College of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This means that class policies on matters such as requirements, grading, and sanctions for academic dishonesty are governed by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Students wishing to add or drop this course after the official deadline must receive the approval of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Details of the University policy of cross enrollments may be found at: http://www.uiowa.edu/~provost/deos/crossenroll.doc . |
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