Syllabus

 

ENGL 40713/90706

& NOW:  Lit as a Contemporary Art

 

 

Dr. Steve Tomasula

Office: 162 Decio Faculty Hall

Office Hours: MW 12:30-1:15 and by Appointment

Office Phone: 631-7647

Home Phone: 232-0933

E-Mail: Tomasula.4@nd.edu

 

Course Description

&NOW is a course focused on writing as a contemporary art form. Sometimes called experimental, conceptual, avant-garde, hybrid, postmodern, innovative, extreme, alternative, e-, anti-, or new literature, writing conceived as a contemporary/conceptual art rather than as a craft can be thought of as the literary equivalent of the sculpture that has genetically engineered cells instead of bronze as its medium. That is, contemporary art-lit is a kind of writing that is as invested in its own medium, history, materials and issues of representation as it is engaged with the contemporary world:  writing that displays an awareness of itself as textual object or language game as well as window on the world.  While this kind of writing has a genealogy that stretches back to the beginnings of writing itself, today it often stands in relation to mainstream literature as electronica, or alternative music stands in relation to mainstream/pop.

 

Reading List

The course is being held in conjunction with the &NOW Festival of Writing as a Contemporary Art to be held at Notre Dame in April and so our reading list will include prose, poetry, hypermedia and writing of indeterminate breed from authors visiting campus for the festival in addition to a core of other readings.  The list of authors coming to campus, and therefore our reading list, is still evolving, but a partial and tentative line up includes:

 

Lydia Davis, Samuel Johnson is Indignant; R.M. Berry, The Dictionary of Modern Anguish; Stacey Levine, Dra--; Debra Di Blasi, Drought and The Real Jiri Cech; Joe Amato, Selected E-Poetry; Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves; David Markson, Wittgenstein's Mistress; Lee Siegel, Love in a Dead Language; William Gass, The Tunnel; Lidia Yuknavitch, Her Other Mouths; Ben Marcus, Notable American Women; Michael Joyce, afternoon, a story; Paul Auster, City of Glass; Martin Nakell, Two Fields That Face and Mirror Each Other; Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris eds., Poems for the Millennium.

The list will be firmed up as we begin the semester.  For more information on the &NOW Festival, visit: www.nd.edu/~andnow.

 

Course Requirements

The class will be interactive in that most of the writing done outside of class will be in the form on an on-line discussion which everyone, including several of the authors we are reading, will be invited to join.  Those enrolled in the class will be expected to participate at least twice for each work studied.  Those taking the class for undergrad credit will be asked to develop these discussions into two short papers; those taking the class for graduate credit will be asked to write a more substantial, graduate-level work.  In either case, students will be asked to develop a project involving the work, and/or one or more of the authors coming to campus (not necessarily one of the authors we are reading as a group).  We will work out the specifics of what this means for each student on an individual basis.  There will also be a midterm, and final. 

 

Class Attendance

Since we have no Òtextbook,Ó much the value of this course will come out in class lectures and discussion.  Therefore, you are expected to attend class regularly.  Documented illness and extreme emergencies are the sole acceptable reasons for missing class.  All assignments will be collected on the dates they are due whether you were in class to receive the assignment or not.  This means that if you are absent, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed.  If you are absent more than two classes, the grade on your final assignment (and if necessary, other assignments) will be lowered one grade for each additional class missed.

 

Grades

Your final grade will be based mainly upon the quality of the work you submit.  However, when calculating final grades I will also take into consideration class participation, and effort. No late work is accepted without prior arrangement. Incompletes are not given.  Loosely defined, I interpret letter grades as follows: A = Exemplary; distinctly above very-good work: a maturity of ideas and craft.  B = Very Good; better than what can be expected from the majority of students in course at this level.  C = Good; competent writing that shows a conscious attempt to absorb the material and put it into oneÕs own context even though it might also exhibit some problems.  D = Substandard; exhibits more problems than might be expected from someone who is concentrating on the task at hand.  F = Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200; in general it's hard to fall into this category unless through some combination involving lack of effort, participation and/or attendance.