English 308 - Course Schedule


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8/2005
Final Version

English 308: Literature and the Related Arts - Paris in the 1920s

A note on daily responsibilities: The readings for each week are listed under the date they will be addressed in class. Please come to class with the readings completed and several ideas for class consideration. Each week will include the distribution, reading, and discussion of something called an "excursus" - a one-page position paper based on one (or more) of the readings due that evening. Each student is responsible for preparing one excursus (sign-up during first class meeting). The excursus should assess the chosen reading, propose and consider interesting points in and issues raised by the reading, and end with a few thoughtful evocative questions which you believe merit in-depth discussion. Please bring enough copies of your excursus for everyone in the class; we will discuss the issues raised therein either at the beginning of class or right after the break, depending on the specific week.

Week 1 - August 25

I. Course Introduction - Policies, Syllabus

II. Course Overview: Myth, Memory, and Modernist Paris.

Video Excerpts to be shown - technology willing - Phantom, Moulin Rouge
In-class:
Rorschach Survey
Sign-up for Excursus Dates
"Why Do Americans Live in Europe?" transition. 14 (Fall 1928) (handout)

Class tonight will end early; we will generally take a 15-minute break at ~7:15.


Week 2 - September 1

Th: Readings:

Handouts:

1. Sinclair Lewis: "Self-Conscious America" The American Mercury 6.22 (October 1925) (handout)

2. Bruccoli/Trogdon: "Introduction" (to DLB v. 15 - American Expatriate Writers: Paris in the Twenties)

3. Flanner chapter from DLB (handout)

Books:

1. Kennedy: Chapter 1. Place, Self, and Writing: Towards a Poetics of Exile (pp. 1-37)

2. Pizer: Prologue: The Shape of the Myth (pp. 1-6); Epilogue (pp. 141-143)

3. Benstock: Chapter 1. Women of the Left Bank (pp. 3-36); and
Chapter 2. Secret Passages: The Faubourg St. Germain (pp. 37-70); and
Chapter 3. Simultaneous Existences: Four Lives in St. Germain (pp. 71-98); and
Chapter 4. From the Left Bank to the Upper East Side: Janet Flanner's Letter from Paris (pp. 99-140);
and also check out the pictures that start after page 140 and again after p. 307.

4. Flanner ("Genet"): "Introduction," 1925 (pp. 3-5), 1926 (pp. 7-14), 1927 (pp. 15-38), 1928 (pp. 39-46)

In Class:

1. Streetwise Map: Where Are We?

2. The Music of Erik Satie


GERTRUDE STEIN, 27 rue de Fleurus

Week 3 - September 8

Th: Readings:

Packet:

1-6. Stein: Excerpts from Selected Writings (packet)
1. The Making of Americans pp. 259-326
2. Three Portraits of Painters pp. 327
Cezanne 329
Matisse 329
Picasso 333-336
3. Composition as Explanation pp. 511-524
4. As a Wife Has a Cow: A Love Story pp. 541-546
5. Excerpt from Tender Buttons: "Objects"
6. Erik Satie 493

7. Bruccoli/Trogdon: Stein chapter from DLB

Books:

1. Wagner-Martin: Favored Strangers: Gertrude Stein and her Family (entire)

In Class:

We will consider selected works by Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso. We may view excerpts from the movie The Moderns


Announcement of an Event, although not a required one:

On the evening of September 14, Public Television is airing a new documentary entitled "Rivers to the Sea," by director DeWitt Sage, about Ernest Hemingway. I saw a rough cut of it this summer and it looks to be extremely interesting. It airs at 8 p.m. Central time; this is not required but you might enjoy it. Sage made some cool choices for this (although the talking heads propose a few too many old saws and occasionally offer unsupported opinion as fact - *sigh*). If you do decide to watch it (and it's completely up to you), pay particular attention to the soundtrack - we'll be considering the issue of Hemingway and music later in the semester.


Week 4 - September 15

Th: Readings:

Packet:

1. Sherwood Anderson on Stein

2.-3. Mina Loy on Stein (2 pieces)

Books:

1. Benstock: Chapter 5. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas: Rue de Fleurus (pp. 143-193)

2. Mellow: Charmed Circle (entire: warning - long - it's ok to skim; despite its relative antiquity, this work is a goldmine of figures to consider for final projects)

In Class:

We will consider Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, the Ballet Russe, and the influence of Nadia Boulanger on music in Paris


Week 5 - September 22

Th: Readings:

Packet:

1. Bruccoli/Trogdon: Toklas chapter from DLB

Books:

1. Stein: The Autiobiography of Alice B. Toklas (entire)

2. Pizer: Chapter 3. Gertrude Stein: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (pp. 27-48)

In-Class: Cubism (Architecture, Expositions, and Gerald Murphy; a bit more on theatre set design)


Week 6 - September 29

Th: Readings:

Books:

1. Stein: Paris, France (entire)

2. Toklas: What Is Remembered - this book is out of print but you can find it on BookFinder. PLEASE FIND THIS BOOK ASAP It is also on reserve in Milner.

3. Kennedy: Chapter 2. The Outside and the Inside of Stein's Paris (pp. 38-78)


DJUNA BARNES, Rue St.-Romain

Week 7 - October 6

Th: Readings:

Packet:

1. Barnes: "The Robin's House" (The Little Review)

2. Barnes: "Aller et Retour" (Transatlantic Review)

Books:

1. Barnes: Nightwood (entire)

2. Benstock: Chapter 7. Djuna Barnes: Rue St.-Romain (pp. 230-267)

3. Kennedy: Chapter 5. Modernism as Exile: Fitzgerald, Barnes, and the Unreal City (pp. 185-242)

In-Class:

(possible: excerpts from Metropolis and Eyes Wide Shut)


SYLVIA BEACH, Shakespeare & Company, 12 rue de l'Odeon

Week 8 - October 13
***Contemporary Source Paper Due***

Th: Readings:


Packet:

1. Bruccoli/Trogdon: Beach chapter from DLB (packet)

Books:

1. Beach: Shakespeare and Company

2. Benstock: Chapter 6. Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier: Rue de l'Odeon (pp. 194-229)

In-Class:

The Music of George Antheil - Ballet Mecanique (sets by Gerald Murphy); Tristan Tzara and Dada


Week 9 - October 20

Th: Readings:

Handouts:

1. Joyce (TBA)

2. Monnier (TBA)

Books:

1. Fitch: Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation


In-Class:

We will consider the phenomenon of publishing in Paris and examine two publications - one by Shakespeare & Co., one by La Maison des Amis des Livres


INTERLUDE II: The Little Magazines

Week 10 - October 27

Th: Readings:

Packet:

1. Several excerpts from various Little Magazines (see table of contents for packet)

2. Bruccoli/Trogdon: Chapters on The Little Review, The Transatlantic Review, This Quarter, transition in DLB (packet)

Books:

1. Benstock: Chapter 10. At the Sign of the Printing Press: The Role of Small Presses and Little Magazines (pp. 357-395)


In-Class:

Erte and Fashion


ERNEST HEMINGWAY, 74 rue du Cardinal Lemoine

Week 11 - November 3

Th: Readings:

Packet:

1. Bruccoli/Trogdon: Hemingway Chapter in DLB

2. Curnutt: "In the Temps de Gertrude: Hemingway, Stein, and the Scene of Instruction at 27, rue de Fleurus"

Books:

1. Hemingway: A Moveable Feast (entire)

2. Pizer: Chapter 2. Ernest Hemingway: A Moveable Feast (pp. 7-27)

3. Reynolds: The Paris Years Chapters 1 (1922) through 7 (Late Spring and Summer 1923) (pp. 3-144)

In-Class:

More on Cezanne, a bit on Frank Lloyd Wright, a few words about Grace Hemingway, and "Mr. Johann"


ERNEST HEMINGWAY, 113 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs

Week 12 - November 10

Th: Readings:

Packet:

1. Hemingway: Selected Letters (I) (packet)

2. Hemingway: Selected Letters (II) (packet)

Books:

1. Hemingway: In Our Time

2. Reynolds: The Paris Years Chapters 8 (Fall and Winter 1923) through 14 (Spring 1925) (pp. 145-297)

In-Class:

1. Hemingway manuscripts (these do not circulate)

2. Buenas Dias: the paintings of Miro, the music of Manuel De Falla, and a bit more on Picasso (sculpture)


Week 13 - November 17
***Last Day Project Component Drafts Accepted***

Th: Readings:

Handout:

1. Hemingway: Excerpt from Islands in the Stream

Packet:

1. Wickes: "The Right Place at the Right Time"

Books:

1. Kennedy: Chapter 3. City of Danger: Hemingway's Paris (pp. 79-141)

2. Reynolds: The Paris Years (remainder of book - through Winter 1926)

In-Class:

"Paris est une carte" - maps, more maps, and transportation


-----THANKSGIVING BREAK-----


Week 14 - December 1

Th: Cafe Society - Bring your favorite coffee, tea, or other non-alcoholic beverage, as well as a snack to share.

Readings:

Handout:

1. Fitch: Excerpts from Walks in Hemingway's Paris

Packet:

Bruccoli/Trogdon: "Cafes, Brasseries, and Bistros" in DLB

Books:

1. Benstock: Chapter 12. The City They Left (pp. 442-454)

2. Flanner ("Genet"): 1929 (pp. 47-62), 1930 (pp. 63-73)

In-Class:

"We're going to Cannes!" Movie viewing: The Moderns




Week 15 - December 8

Th: Presentation of Final Projects - Order to be determined by surrealist method. There will be different amounts of time assigned for Undergraduates, M.A. students, and Ph.D. students, and will necessarily depend on the number of students in the class.

FINAL PROJECTS DUE AT MY OFFICE (421E) AT THE STARTING TIME FOR THE FINAL EXAM
ON THE DATE SET BY UNIVERSITY REGISTRAR
No extensions, no exceptions.