Research Seminar: Rhetoric & Narration
Forums
In this seminar, we'll examine narrative and narration not just as literary practices but as rhetorical strategies. We'll approach narration as a motivated act—the product of a particular rhetorical situation—and narratives as rhetorical transactions between narrators and narratees, authors and audiences, writers and readers.
We will read some contemporary theoretical and critical material to orient ourselves in the fields of narrative and rhetorical theory, and you will learn some intimidating yet awesome narratological terminology with which to impress and/or appall your friends, but our main focus will be novels from a variety of historical periods (from the eighteenth century to the present) and national/cultural positions (British, American, postcolonial).
In addition to writing and presenting the research paper (see below), you'll be expected to keep up with the reading (of which there will be a great deal!), contribute thoughtfully and frequently to in-class discussion, post to the class's online discussion board, and probably do some other brief informal writing assignments as well.
Texts
We'll be reading nine novels:
- Charlotte Brontė, Jane Eyre
- J. M. Coetzee, Foe
- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
- Emma Donoghue, Kissing the Witch
- William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
- Henry James, What Maisie Knew
- Toni Morrison, Beloved
- Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
We will almost certainly be watching part of the newly-airing TV adaptation of Robinson Crusoe, because I need people to share that particular trauma with me, and there will probably be some Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well, because teaching a seminar and not including Buffy would be a sad, sad waste of my power.
Assignments
The major project for this course will be a 12-20 page research paper with an argumentative thesis dealing with one or two of the novels we read in class. Which aspects of the novel(s) your paper takes on will be up to you; we'll devote some time, both in class and in one-on-one meetings, to sorting through options and anticipating possible pitfalls of various approaches. The topic will need to be something within the general field of narrative and rhetorical theory—but, as we'll be addressing in class, that's a pretty big field, so there should still be plenty of room for you to stake out a particular piece of territory you find interesting.
The paper must also engage with the critical work of other scholars: at least five secondary sources. Secondary material we read in class is fair game, but doesn't count towards the five-source minimum.
In addition to writing the paper itself, writers will present abstracts of their papers to the class and will present 7-8 pages from their papers to the university community at the end-of-semester seminar symposium.
last updated: Wednesday, 26-Aug-2009 10:36:18 CDT