English 008:074:001—Selected American Authors:

Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick

Instructor: Rob Latham

Course Times: Tuesday & Thursday 5:30-9:00 PM, in EPB 205

Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday 4:00-5:20 PM, in EPB 472

Phone/E-mail: 335-0465 (office); rob-latham@uiowa.edu

Required Texts (all at Prairie Lights Bookstore):

Dick, Eye in the Sky

Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan

Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Dick, The Man in the High Castle

Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

Dick, VALIS

Vonnegut, Galapagos

Also Required (at Zephyr Copies on Washington Avenue):

Course Reader

Description: This course surveys the work of two major American authors whose careers followed contrasting paths. While both began as writers of science fiction and currently enjoy reputations as serious postmodern novelists, Vonnegut very early on managed to work free of generic pigeonholing, publishing works with major hardcover houses that were reviewed in mainstream venues, while Dick was ghettoized as a paperback SF writer whose realistic novels remained unpublished during his lifetime. Both authors, however, were brilliant chroniclers of postwar society, satirizing the idiocies of Cold War militarism, mass consumerism, and bureaucratic capitalism, and flirting with counterculture possibilities during the 1960s. This course will read novels and short fiction by both writers ranging from their early 1950s work to their mature efforts of the 1970s and 1980s.

Requirements and Assignments: You must be here for every class session with the assigned reading completed. Participation in class discussion is an important component (15%) of your final grade, so please attempt to contribute to each class session. Attendance will not constitute a specific percentage of your final grade, but if you miss more than two classes you will definitely fail this course.

The major assignments are a series of weekly reading responses and two 7-8 page essays. The reading responses are designed to record observations, questions, concerns, and/or criticisms that emerge from your reading of the assigned texts; they should be relatively brief (one single-spaced, printed page is fine) and fairly informal, but they should be more cohesive than raw reading notes. You are required to produce a response every week on a rotation format based on the first letter of your last name (see below); the responses will be collected at the beginning of each class session and are in part designed to provide fodder for our discussions. No late responses will be accepted under any circumstances, and if you miss handing in more than one of them, your grade on this assignment will be an F. The responses will count 25% towards your final grade.

The two 7-8 page papers will be comparative-contrastive, requiring you to work with at least two novels, one by each author. At least one week before each paper is due, I will hand out topic sheets, from which you will select topics to focus your essays. Late papers will not be accepted. The papers will each count 30% towards your final grade.

Various policy matters: This course is given by the 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. Students wishing to add or drop this course after the official deadline must receive the approval of the Dean of the College.

Students with disabilities that may require some modification of seating, testing, or other class requirements should visit me during my office hours so that appropriate arrangements can be made. It is the student’s responsibility to contact Student Disability Services, 3100 Burge Hall (335-1462), and obtain a Student Academic Accommodation Request form (SAAR). This form specifies what course accommodations are judged reasonable for a given student.

If you have any concerns about grading or the conduct of class discussion, please come and speak with me. If a satisfactory resolution cannot be achieved, you may contact the Director of Undergraduate Programs, Douglas Trevor (douglas-trevor@uiowa.edu, 335-0454). If the two of you are unable to resolve the issue, you should contact Jonathan Wilcox, Chair of the English Department (jonathan-wilcox@uiowa. edu, 335-0454). After these options have been exhausted, you may turn to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and submit a written complaint to the Associate Dean for Academic Programs, 120 Schaeffer Hall (335-2633). Please note: in complaints involving the assignment of grades, it is college policy that grades cannot be changed without the permission of the department concerned.

A student who plagiarizes or otherwise cheats on any assignment will receive an F on the assignment and may even fail the course. Plagiarism occurs when you use someone else’s work without due credit, whether you do this intentionally or not. This means that whenever you employ another person’s words or ideas, you must cite them directly. For more informa-tion, consult the Student Academic Handbook statement on “Academic Fraud, Dishonesty, and Cheating” at: <http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/ students/academic_handbook/ix.shtml#1>.

Reading Schedule:

Week 1.

Tues. 6/20: Vonnegut, “Science Fiction” (1965) – handout

_____, “Harrison Bergeron” (1961) – handout

Dick, “Notes Made Late at Night by a Weary SF Writer” (1968) – handout

_____, “Who Is an SF Writer?” (1974) – handout

Thurs. 6/22: Dick, “The Android and the Human” (1972) – in Course Reader

_____, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” (1966) – in Course Reader

_____, “The Electric Ant” (1969) – in Course Reader

Week 2.

Tues. 6/27: Dick, Eye in the Sky (1957) A-J Responses Due

Thurs. 6/29: Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan (1959) K-Z Responses Due

Week 3.

Tues. 7/4: No Class

Thurs. 7/6: Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (1963) A-Z Responses Due

Week 4.

Tues. 7/11: Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) A-Z Responses Due

Thurs. 7/13: Dick, The Man in the High Castle (1962)

First Paper Due

Week 5.

Tues. 7/18: Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five (1969) A-J Responses Due

Thurs. 7/20: Dick, VALIS (1981) K-Z Responses Due

Week 6.

Tues. 7/25: Vonnegut, Galapagos (1985) A-Z Responses Due

Thurs. 7/27: Blade Runner (1982), screening (in EPB 107) & discussion (in EPB 205)

Final Paper Due (by Friday 5 PM)