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English 118W Escape and Travel Barsky.doc

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Literature of Escape and Travel
ENGL118W: Literature of Escape and Travel
Professor Robert Barsky, robert.barsky@vanderbilt.edu
www.vanderbilt.edu/french_ital/barsky

MTWR 3:10 PM-5:30 PM; 302 Buttrick Hall; office Furman Hall 219

This course will examine literatures of travel and escapism, and their relation to ideas about creativity and literature. We’ll discuss ‘literary classics’ considered essential reading for any liberal arts student (notably Lolita, Down and Out in Paris and London, and Tropic of Cancer) and we will consider the ways in which readers thereof can be led to consider activities that are specifically outlawed in their own culture. Some of these texts have been written by authors who would be ‘outlaws’ in the society that now reveres their work (Ginsberg, Orwell, Nabokov, Chomsky), and yet reading them is part of a solid academic curriculum. A range of issues flow from these considerations, relating to the ways in which exotic or escapist travels (geographical or mental) draw attention to texts, providing them with the audiences and the notoriety to allow them, under certain circumstances, to become ‘classics’. Or the fact that the many contradictions of this tradition points to a deeper ambivalence in our society, indeed in all societies, about the relationship between creativity and reason. The “obscenity” of these texts, or the “radicalism” of their ideas, also force us to consider the function of literature in society, and the relationship between the author and his/her work. Employing a varied approach that allows students to consider these issues from historical, literary, legal, sociological and philosophical perspectives, and drawing from some very provocative texts, will provide students with ample ways to explore this challenging and creative realm of literary and cultural research.

Books (available in the bookstore; note, if you have a limited budget and wish to have alternative methods of reading these texts, I can help you out):
Nabokov, Lolita, Knopf Publishing Group
Martel, Life of Pi
Ginsberg, Indian Journals
Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London
Miller, Tropic of Cancer
Nabokov, Novels & Memoirs 1939 To 1951
Barsky, Chomsky Effect

Handouts (available on-line)
Angenot, “What Can Literature Do?” You can access this article through your library by going to http://lion.chadwyck.com/contents/abl_toc/YaleJournalofCriticisminterpret/20041001.jsp, and then logging-in as a student of Vanderbilt. If you have difficulty, I’ll make you copies.

Writing requirements: As per the rules in the college as set forth in AXLE, students in this First Year Writing Seminar shall be required to write a minimum of 20 typescript pages in the course of 4 writing assignments. A considerable portion of each student’s grade will be from written assignments, in addition to class participation. The four assignments will be graded at intervals during the semester, enabling the instructor to provide feedback that will enable students to improve their writing. Revision will be possible for each assignment, and students will be encouraged to complete all assignments in advance to allow for discussion with the professor before work is handed in.

Grading policies: Assignments 1, 2 and 3 are worth 20% each; assignment 4 is worth 25%; attendance and participation 15%. The first two assignments MUST be revised, and the grade will be revised accordingly. All papers are due in class on the day indicated in this schedule (below), and all papers will be returned to the students one week after their due date.  NOTE: This course will include discussion of several texts, fictional and otherwise, and it’s unlikely that you will be able to read everything in one month. Indeed, the idea is to open your mind and heart to new ideas, and to introduce to you some texts which are worth discovering, perhaps after the course is already over. You can complete the requirements for the course without reading everything, but hopefully you’ll want to return to these books, over and over, in the years to come. In all matters, relating to reading and writing, I’m going to encourage you to follow your interests and your passions. As such, if you become ‘hung up’ on one or two texts, you can write several assignments on them; I have nevertheless offered an array of assignment topics for those of you who wish to explore more broadly!

Assignments (these are suggestions; if you wish to follow other pathways, I’m happy to work with you!)

Assignment 1: choose one of the three topics and write (roughly) 5 pages (length depends upon the genre you employ and upon what you need to write to complete the task at hand). 
option 1: Using Allen Ginsberg’s method as set forth in his long diary about his voyages to and India, consider the role of ‘creativity’ and ‘thinking for yourself’, as described by Noam Chomsky. You can use Ginsberg’s and/or Chomsky’s words or approach to inspire you, since so much of their writings have to do with the 'problem' of being creative in the face of restrictive social norms.  
option 2: Write a manifesto or a long treatise or academic essay about the relationship between creativity and reason. You may use any of the texts from this course to inspire your words, including Angenot’s and Chomsky’s thoughts on this subject, or you can undertake the assignment from a personal perspective.  
option 3: Imagine you or someone else meeting up with Allen Ginsberg, and using whatever you have learned about him and his work, engage in a conversation with him (perhaps you have met him in the course of your own voyage or, if you prefer, you meet him before departing for India in, say, the airport bar). You can be yourself, you can be someone else (including Chomsky or Angenot), you can be his contemporary, or you can imagine him in the current era, whatever you wish, but try to be faithful to whatever you know about him in constructing your dialogue.  

4th possibility! 2009 Nation Student Writing Contest

Sponsored by the BIL Charitable Trust to recognize and reward the best in student writing
subject: How has the recession affected you, your family or someone you know?

Essays should not exceed 800 words and should be original, unpublished work that demonstrates fresh, clear thinking and superior quality of expression and craftsmanship. Winners receive $1,000 and are published in The Nation magazine and at TheNation.com. We'll select five high school and five collegiate finalists and two winners--one from college, one from high school. Each winner will receive a $1,000 cash prize and a Nation subscription. The two winning essays will be published in a special youth issue of the magazine in October, 2009, and will be featured at TheNation.com. The finalists will be awarded $250 each, and their entries will be published online. Entries will be accepted through June 15, 2009. A winner will be announced by September 15. Please send submissions and questions to studentprize@thenation.com

Assignment 2: Choose from one of the three following options and write a 5 page essay  
option 1. Write a defense of a "perversion" or obscenity, referring to Humbert Humbert’s interest in young girls, or Miller’s approach to discussing sexuality. It can by any kind of perversity, invented or real, for whatever setting you wish. Handouts are available to help you with legal definitions, if you wish to take a formal legal approach.
option 2. Write the testimony by either Lolita, or the narrator of Tropic of Cancer, describing why Humbert Humbert or (the narrator in) Henry Miller should be deemed "innocent" ... or guilty!  
option 3. Introduce Humbert Humbert to Henry Miller, in whatever genre you wish.  

Assignment 3: Choose from one of the three following options and write a 5 page essay  
option 1: Choose a scene from any of the texts discussed thus far and make a 'ruling', as though you were a judge, about its value for society. You can be a judge either from the contemporary era or today, and you can draw upon discussions about the ‘space of literature’. You can come down on either side of the discussion, arguing for its worth or condemning it for what it describes or represents.  
option 2: You meet George Orwell in a bar or a restaurant, and he describes the novel he is writing, about working ‘down and out’ as a dishwasher. Discuss how you feel about his work, and ask him questions that pertain to our course, to glean some opinions and perspectives. You need not adhere to one line or approach, but do address some of the questions we have taken up in class.
option 3: Imagine you are Marc Angenot or Noam Chomsky, and you wish to write about the value of literature, using the example of Down and Out in Paris and London. This assignment can take the form of a dialogue, in which characters meet to discuss ideas.  

Assignment 4 Choose from one of the three following options and write a 5 page essay  
option 1. Describe your own imaginary voyage across the high seas accompanied by animals of your choice. You can, as with Pi, be stuck on the same raft as them, or in some other close quarters on the high seas. Draw inspiration from Life of Pi.  
option 2. Describe your meeting with the author of either Indian Journals, Speak, Memory, Lolita, or Down and Out in Paris and London, as though you were one of the people he describes in his memoir. For example: you are interested in science or the natural world, you might consider discussing the importance of butterfly hunting as a metaphor for Nabokov’s work; or the role that the Russian Revolution played in making Nabokov or Orwell into the writers they became; or the importance of social action for choosing subject matter for a novel (such as dishwashing) or a poem (about, say, your travels in India).
option 3. Write a "book review" of several chapters or sections of any text in this course, for the New York Times book review section. You might consider how the book you’ve chosen bears upon current events in America.

Calendar: 
Tuesday June 2nd, Introduction, “The nature of (fictional) possible worlds”

Wednesday June 3rd, Reason and creativity. A discussion on the work of Chomsky
We will discuss the complex relationship between reason and creativity, and various ways in which authors and philosophers have considered it. In the discussion we will make specific reference to the lives and works of Noam Chomsky and Allen Ginsberg.

Thursday June 4th. An overview of the issues raised by Allen Ginsberg (and other members of the “Beat Generation”) and the relationship between their creative work and their ideas about new ‘spaces’ in the world. This will be followed by a discussion of how creative work, particularly the production of (fictional) texts such as Ginsberg’s poetry (and his other intellectual meanderings), alters our perception of the world.

Monday June 8th, What is literature? What is it for? What is the relationship between literary and non-literary texts? An open discussion of Ginsberg and Chomsky will guide the questioning.

Tuesday June 9th, Marc Angenot and the ‘value’ of literature. We will carefully read through “What Can Literature Do”, assessing the ideas and the approach presented. We will apply some of the ideas to Henry Miller and to Allen Ginsberg.

Wednesday June 10th, Allen Ginsberg goes to India, and Henry Miller Goes to Paris; continued discussion of creativity, with reference to the new spaces opened up by your reading from Indian Journals, and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer.

Thursday June 11th. Library day. You will meet with a librarian to discuss sources and approaches to writing your work: Rendez-vous at the reference desk, near the entrance to the Main Library for meetings with Lisa Weiss and Yvonne Boyer.   See the research tool at the top of this page.

Monday June 15th: Continued discussion of Henry Miller, followed by an introduction to Nabokov. Assignment 1 due; we will discuss your findings in class!

Tuesday June 16th: Lolita, the film and the text.

Wednesday June 17th: Lolita and Speak, Memory; how can we distinguish the man from his work?

Thursday June 18th: Lolita, and (literary) travels across America., and a discussion of the work of Nabokov, with consideration of his literary treatments of ‘taboo’ subjects, and how this relates to opening up new and creative spaces in the mind.

Monday June 22nd: George Orwell’s spaces of investigation.

Tuesday June 23rd: George Orwell’s ‘muckraking’ and its relation to the work of Noam Chomsky.

Wednesday June 24th How being “down and out”, in fiction and in life, helps us to understand the world.  

Thursday June 25th Assignment 2 due; discussion in class. Fictional renditions of ‘real events’: the example of Life of Pi.

Monday June 29th Fantastical voyages in reality, and in the mind: Pi takes to the high seas.

Tuesday June 30th Fictional adventures and cognition; what we are learning about the reading brain (in this class I will present current work at the Yale Haskins Laboratory on reading and brain development).

Wednesday July 1st: The Life of Pi and the spaces of travel literature.

Thursday July 2nd: Assignment 3 due; discussion in class. What is the nature of literary knowledge? We will have a broad-ranging discussion, with reference to different texts in the course.

Monday July 6th: final assignment due!