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LITR 5439 Literary & Historical Utopias
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This webpage constitutes this summer's final exam assignment, which will be updated until Tueday, 7 July, when paper copies will be distributed.
Date & time: 9 July 2013. No regular class meeting. Instructor keeps office hours. (Also in office 9am-noon & maybe more)
- in-class: students may write exam in Bayou 1439 from 3-6pm) on Thursday, 9 July; or . . .
- Email exams any time after last meeting on 7 July; Final exams and 2nd Research Posts are due by noon Saturday 11 July.
No meeting 9 July:
Instructor in office (B2529); confer, phone (281 283 3380), or email (whitec@uhcl.edu).
Relative weight:
30-40% of final grade
Contents:
Two essays of 1-2 hours each
Essay 1: Oryx and Crake as utopian fiction (6-10 paragraphs?)
Essay 2: Choose one or combine 2-6 options (6-10 paragraphs?)
Utopia as Literature
Teaching Utopia
Personal / professional interests in subject incl.
research post(s)
Historical utopias / experimental communities and / or history of
utopian fiction and communities
Multicultural Utopias
Your own topic or emphasis, either overlooked by seminar or buried in objectives or
presentations (relation to seminar content must be self-evident)
Content details below. Throughout exam,
references to “utopia(s)” or “utopian
literature” may be understood to include dystopias, ecotopias, historical
communities as convenient.
Undergraduate requirements: Part 1: 5+ paragraphs; Part 2: 6-8 paragraphs. No required references to Research Posts.
Special Requirements
(for entire exam, not each question):
Title both essays.
Refer to at least one final exam submission from a previous summer somewhere in your exam.
Refer to
course objectives (or parts) more than briefly—discuss,
develop, question or vary.
Objectives are listed with most topics. Don't feel limited to those
objectives, but refer to and develop objectives with both essays.
Special Advice:
Don't hurry to email exam. When finished drafting, rest, review, edit, revise, improve unity and connectivity.
Since the course has more material before the midterm, don't hesitate to revive pre-midterm texts + discussions. Some overlap with or repetition of midterm materials may be natural and welcome.
If final exam essays overlap with each other or midterm, refer quickly to your own writing as you would someone else's. No need to avoid; no need to write everything over.
Question prompts are not checklists. Your essays establish their own
premises with reference to texts, terms, and objectives.
Essay 1: Oryx and Crake as utopian fiction? (6-10 paragraphs?)
Possible Objectives: 1b. What genres join with or branch from utopia? Examples: dystopia, ecotopia, Socratic dialogue, science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, novel / romance, adventure / travel narrative, journalism, tract, propaganda, satire. Others? . . .
1c. Can utopias join science fiction, speculative fiction, and allied genres in a “literature of ideas?”
-
Can knowledge of utopian literature be applied to texts that are not exclusively utopian or dystopian?
Compare-contrast Oryx and Crake
with at least
two pre-midterm texts
as
fiction, utopian / dystopian
fiction,
tract / nonfiction, etc.
Refer to objective 1 selections above, other relevant objectives, two or more texts before midterm.
Critical Sources:
reviews, interviews re Margaret Atwood, Oryx
& Crake, Year of the Flood;
Hannah Wells, research
post 2: Speculative
Fiction: A Genre of Actuality;
Relevant handouts: Standard features / conventions of utopian / dystopian literature
Relevant terms highlighted in objectives: fiction, novel, science fiction, speculative fiction, literature of ideas, satire, entertain and educate, conventions, tract, utopian author, millennialism;
As with the midterm, prompts, objectives and terms are not a checklist but guides and / or possibilities for content. Combine materials to develop a thesis-centered essay to be judged on thematic unity, quality of content, and surface style.
Essay 2: choose one topic below or combine 2-6 topic options (6-10 paragraphs total?)
Utopia as Literature
Teaching Utopia
Personal / professional interests in subject incl.
research post(s)
Historical utopias / experimental communities and / or history of utopian
fiction and communities
Multicultural Utopias
Your own topic or emphasis, either overlooked by seminar or buried in objectives or
presentations (relation to seminar content must be self-evident)
Identify which topic(s) your essay addresses, either by title, in text, or prefatory notes. Direct questions may or may not appear in specifics below. Student combines course materials as inclined to develop a thesis-centered essay to be judged on thematic unity, quality of content, and surface style.
Utopia as Literature
(Objectives 1 & 2, maybe others)
Discussion of utopias often leads to other topics: religion, history,
politics, sociology, economics, gender, family—all the dimensions that constitutes a
society. (Interdisciplinary objective 4.) How does a Literature course keep
literary considerations foremost in the study of utopias?
- What do you learn about literature and fiction from studying the special genre of utopian / dystopian fiction?
- How does fiction prosper learning about utopian societies and thought, or about society and human nature generally?
-
Since utopian fiction is written mostly for social purposes, and students
will often prefer to discuss ethical or ideological values, what strategies,
frustrations, or rewards in keeping literary aspects in sight?
- In contrast, how may Utopia's non-literary aspects appeal to non-Literature students or students lacking confidence or interest in utopian studies?
-
Recall and analyze passages or scenes in utopian fiction that deliver literary
satisfactions (more or less). Identify what may be literary as opposed to cultural or
social about such pleasures.
- How does or doesn't utopian fiction measure up to the quality of literature you expect in a graduate seminar? How may these questions of literary quality be rationalized?
Standard features / conventions of utopian / dystopian literature
Teaching Utopia
(Obj. 5 & others depending on answer content)
Assignment: Evaluate the significance, worthiness, and range of
utopian studies as a topic for literature courses at any educational level.
What gains and risks does the subject pose?
What potential for motivating or alienating students?
What positives and negatives for utopian studies in
contrast to our educational & economic emphasis on heroic individualism in
dystopian texts like Nineteen Eighty-Four
and Anthem?
Personal & professional experiences are welcome, but return to objectives and texts for this course or other courses, including those you may teach or design.
As texts for public school curricula, how successfully
might utopian texts replace standard assigned
dystopian texts ilike Anthem,
Nineteen Eighty-Four,
Brave New World,
etc.? What
problems or rewards?
Personal / professional interests in subject + research post(s)
Assignment:
Continue, refer to, or diverge from "special
interests" passages of your midterm exam essay.
Refer to at least one of your research posts.
Relate your essay to at least one course objective (or part of one, or some combination). Evaluate and revise.
Plan or imagine a larger research project (or teaching endeavor) based on your research post(s) and
other sources in this course or beyond.
Consider web reviews, class discussions, outside readings, other courses at any
level as student or teacher.
Refer to 3 or more texts from across the semester.
Outside texts, courses, issues are all possibilities, but speak to this course's
objectives, materials, and methods.
Relevant content from midterm assignment: [>text from midterm question>] 3. Highlight special interests in course (potentially involving 1st &/or 2nd research post)
·
What personal attraction or
apprehension toward subject of utopia? How has this reaction developed?
· What are you most interested in learning from or about this subject? Or, what aspect(s) seems most valuable? Consider in relation to your 1st and/or 2nd research post?
·
Relate your interests to a
course objective (or
part of one, or some combination of 2 or more, which may overlap w/ 2 & 3
above).
o
Analyze your interest in the
objective(s) and review the seminar's discussion.
(If
this objective hasn't yet received much coverage, welcome to play it off what we
have discussed)
o
An option here (and on the
final): revise an objective or offer a new one. Relate your new objective to the
existing objectives or their organization.
o
Explain and defend your
emphasis and relate it back to the seminar's attractions, distractions, etc.
Historical utopias / experimental communities and / or history of utopian fiction and communities
Possible Objectives: 3a.To review historical, nonfiction attempts by “communes,” “intentional communities,” nations, or cults to institutionalize or practice utopian ideals. What relations are there between fictional and actual utopian communities? What has been the historical impact of utopian fictions? Do utopian forms mirror and confirm social norms or oppose them? . . .
3e. Since our major texts are set in North America, how do Americans regard utopias? What problems do the Founding and recent history of the USA present for utopian discussion? For example: socialism or communism, the Cold War and collapse of Stalinist-Maoist Communism; discussing alternative economic, reproductive, or child-rearing policies, the ascendance of religious and freemarket fundamentalism or American culture's stress on the family?)
-
Why do American school curricula emphasize dystopic fiction (Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, The Giver) over utopian fiction?
3f. Are utopias limited to Western Civilization, rationalism, and social engineering, or may they exemplify multiculturalism?
-
Is the utopian impulse universal or specific only to Western culture or civilization?
-
If utopias or millennia are detected in non-Western texts or traditions, are such terms appropriate, or do we simply project our identities and values on cultures that are in fact doing something else altogether?
4a. What academic subjects or disciplines are involved with utopian studies? Examples: literature, history, sociology, economics, architecture, urban planning?
4b. How may utopian or millennial studies serve as an interdisciplinary subject of study? What strengths and weaknesses result from this status? (Comparable interdisciplinary subjects include women’s studies, gender studies, ethnic studies [e. g., African American studies, whiteness studies], future studies, millennialism.)
Assignment / Question: Since utopias are typically dismissed as unreal, students are often surprised at the range of actual communities, past and continuing, that appear in our course's web reviews and discussions. How do these historical communities impact our reading of utopian fiction, or vice versa? How may the combination of history and fiction model interdisciplinary studies that may also include the social sciences (e.g. anthropology, economics, psychology, etc.).
Sources: Consult web reviews of intentional communities in history and now.
Utopian Fiction & Experimental Communities in North America / USA; List of Utopian Communities and Texts; Jane Addams; Thomas More sites; Kibbutzim of Israel; Charlotte Perkins Gilman sites; Ayn Rand biography, institutes, ideology
Multicultural Utopias
Objective 3f. Are utopias limited to Western Civilization, rationalism, and social engineering, or may they exemplify multiculturalism?
-
Is the utopian impulse universal or specific only to Western culture or civilization?
-
If utopias or millennia are detected in non-Western texts or traditions, are such terms appropriate, or do we simply project our identities and values on cultures that are in fact doing something else altogether?
Assignment / Question: See questions above in Objective 3f. Are minority and multicultural studies a repressed subject in utopian studies? Can utopian studies serve as a critique and / or defense of Western civilization and / or multiculturalism? How do utopian / dystopian values and narratives conform to the dynamics of Western Civilization or culture? How comfortably or productively may utopian studies extend to multicultural studies?
Sources: Utopian Fiction & Experimental Communities in North America / USA
African American dystopias / utopias incl. Morrison's Paradise
Refer to multicultural concerns in course readings or relevant texts beyond seminar.
Your own topic or emphasis, either overlooked by seminar or buried in objectives or presentations (relation to seminar content must be self-evident)
Evaluation standards: Readability & surface competence, content quality, and thematic organization or unity.
Readability & surface competence: Your reader must be able to process what you're reporting. Given the pressures of a time writing exercise, some rough edges are acceptable, but chronic errors or elementary style limit quality.
Content quality: use of course resources (objectives, terms, lecture, discussion, instructional links, coverage of required texts; comprehension of subject; demonstration of learning.
+ interest & significance: Make your reader want to process your essay. Make the information meaningful. Make everything matter to our study of literature and culture.
Thematic organization: Unify materials along a line of thought that a reader can follow from start to finish.
Audience: Write so someone in our seminar could recognize your terms, process your explanations, and enjoy your personal contributions and style. Future students may read your essays in our "Model Assignments." Keep instructor and assignment in sight—connect with shared objectives, terms, and texts, and "write up" in terms of organization and ambition of thought.
Return of final exams
Receipt of your email final exam will be
acknowledged by reply email, usually within a few hours.
Grade and note for your final exam will be emailed individually, usually within a week after deadline, as part of final grade report (which will also include grade and note for 2nd research post).
