Meeting Times: MW, 1:00-1:50, Brown Social Science Center 115

Matthew Schratz

UWS Syllabus

Office: Rabb 322

Office Hours: Thursday, 10-12

Cold War Fiction

American fiction in the middle of the twentieth century is sometimes maligned for getting itself detached from the real world: for becoming fiction only interested in itself, unconnected to real life. In this course, we will look at some of these fictions to see the ways in which mid-twentieth-century authors’ apparent detachment is not a retreat into language, but instead a reaction to their particular historical moment in the United States during the Cold War. In this course, you will learn the basic techniques of constructing an academic essay by focusing on three themes that developed in American fiction of the Cold War in the work of three different writers. First, we will look closely at short stories by Donald Barthelme and analyze their connection to the increased presence of bureaucracies in twentieth century American life. Then, we will read Thomas Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49 in the light of scholarly articles about the American cultural reactions to the development of atomic weapons. Lastly, we will read essays by Joan Didion, and you will do further research on your own, to make an argument about the disillusionment that many writers and thinkers describe experiencing in this time period.

The goals of this class are to help you learn to write in the way that is expected at the college level. We will build up a set of skills that will serve you well throughout your career at Brandeis, and beyond, as you learn both to form arguments that engage with texts and to present those arguments through your writing.

Required Materials

Writing in Response, Matthew Parfitt

Write Now, publication of Brandeis student essays

The Crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon

(other readings available on LATTE)

Evaluation

10% Attendance, conferences, participation

75%Assignments:

20% Close Reading Essay

25% Lens Essay

30% Research Essay

10%Peer reviews, workshops, exercises

5%Portfolio

Overview of Assignments

Close reading

In this essay of five to seven pages, you will close read a passage from one of four assigned short stories by the American writer Donald Barthelme.

Lens Analysis

Now that you’ve begun to develop the skills for constructing an argument based on textual details, you will now begin to develop an argument based on both textual detail and other, theoretical material. For this essay, of seven to nine pages, you will close read some elements of Thomas Pynchon’s novella The Crying of Lot 49 in the light of Richard Hofstadter’s essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.”

Research Essay

For the final essay, as you have now developed a skill set to write argumentatively and incorporate more than one text and have also begun to be familiar with some of the themes running through American fiction written during the Cold War, you will research some piece of writing on your own, and make an argument that makes use of both your close reading skill and your ability, honed during the writing of the lens assignment, to present an argument about a Cold War fiction of your choosing (I will help you find an appropriate text). This essay will be between ten and twelve pages.

Portfolio Review

Finally, at the end of the semester, you will collect the work you’ve completed during the course and reflect on the ways in which you’ve developed as a writer. In a review of at least four pages, you will evaluate your own work, and the changes you’ve seen in your own writing style and new relationship to the course material.

Policies

Absences

Please come to class on time, and please come to class. If either coming to class on time, or coming to class at all are going to be an issue, please e-mail me before the class in question. After your third absence, your final grade will be decreased by one-third of a letter grade per absence; more than six absences will result in failure for the course.

Late Work

Please hand your work in when it is due. Because I will be giving you your assignments well in advance of their due dates, there should not be circumstances that lead to your needing an extension. If, in extremis, such circumstances do arise, please inform me of them as soon as possible – that is to say, not the night before an assignment is due. Late work will be marked down a third of a letter grade for each day that it is late.

Accommodations

If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately and we will work it out.

Academic Integrity

Do not plagiarize or cheat. You are expected to be familiar with the university’s policies on academic integrity. If any instance should arise in which you are unsure whether something would constitute cheating or plagiarism, please come talk to me before handing something in.

Conferences

You must meet with me at my office for three twenty minute conferences, one session for each paper this term. Come with drafts, ideas, notes, outlines and questions, so that we can make good use of this time to work together to create your best work.

Peer Review

As a means of receiving more feedback on the writing that you will do in this course, you will conduct peer reviews. On the days marked in the syllabus, you will work in groups to read and revise one another’s drafts. We will talk more about the specific mechanics of the peer review later, but do bear in mind that the most important thing you should be reading for is content and structure of your peers’ arguments, rather than the diction or style of their writing. It is essential that you bring in paper copies of your drafts for peer review, so that your colleagues can mark your papers up successfully. (You can submit your final drafts to me electronically, but you need to bring hard copies for your peer reviewing).

Writing Center

Feel free – and even encouraged! – to make use of the Writing Center. The Writing Center is located in the library, where Brandeis graduate students will look over your work to help you structure your argument within your paper. You will receive a one-day extension on the final draft of any paper if you visit the Writing Center for an appointment and bring me a form from your writing tutor attesting to your visit.

Laptops and Technology

As this is a discussion-intensive course, laptops and tablets are not allowed in class without an accommodation. You should bring a hard copy of readings to class. You should never use your cell phone during class; if I see you on your cell phone, you will be considered absent.

Week 1

Aug. 28: In class: Introduction to writing and the topic of the seminar; diagnostic writing

Week 2

Sep. 3:Reading Assignment: Course Syllabus; “On Endings” by Daniel Grausam (LATTE)

Writing Assignment: None

In class: Discussion of high school writing versus college

writing, and what good writing is

Week 3

Sep. 8: Reading Assigment: “Cat People” by Louis Menand (LATTE) Parfitt,

Introduction and Chapter One

Writing Assignment: none

In class: how to do a close reading

Sep. 10:Reading Assignment: “I Bought a Little City,”“Game,” “Concerning the Bodyguard,” “Me and Miss Mandible” by Donald Barthelme (LATTE)

Writing Assignment: Pre-draft 1 (mini close-reading)

In class: more on how to do a close reading; discussion of introductions

Week 4

Sep. 15Reading Assignment: Parfitt, Chapter 6 (to page 190)

Writing Assignment: Predraft 2 (introductory paragraph)

In class: Peer reviewing introductory paragraphs

Sep. 17Reading Assignment: close reading sections from Write Now

Writing Assignment: Essay #1 Draft Due

In class: workshopping a close-reading essay from Write Now

Week 5

Sep. 22Reading Assignment: Parfitt, Chapter 7

Writing Assignment: Draft responses to draft writer(s)

In class: Peer review

Sep. 24Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Essay #1 Final Draft Due

In class: Discussion of what we learned in our close reading; introduction of

concept of the lens text

Week 6

Sep. 29Reading Assignment: “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” by Richard

Hofstadter (this is short; you may want to also get started on Pynchon)

Writing Assignment:

In class: exercises to work on incorporating quotations

Oct. 1Reading Assignment: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, ch. 1-3

Writing Assignment: Predraft 2.1 (quotation exercise)

In class: Beginning to apply the lens text to a specific moment in Pynchon

Week 7

Oct. 6Reading Assignment: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, ch. 4-6

Writing Assignment: LATTE post on Pynchon

In class: Motive and thesis in the lens essay

Oct. 8Reading Assignment: Lens essay from Write Now

Writing Assignment: Predraft 2.2 (supplying a motive)

In class: Reviewing the Write Now! essay

Week 7

Oct. 13NO CLASS – BRANDEIS THURSDAY

Oct. 15Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Essay #2 Draft Due

In class: Style workshop – looking for weak sentences and vapid verbs

Week 8

Oct. 20Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Draft responses to draft writer(s)

In class: Peer review

Oct. 22Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Essay #2 Due

In class: Introducing the research essay; discussing what we learned in the

lens unit and how to apply it to the next paper

Week 9

Oct. 27Reading Assignment: “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” by Joan Didion (LATTE)

Writing Assignment: LATTE Response to Didion

In class: developing a research question; looking forward to the library

session

Oct. 29FLIP Session – meet in the library

Reading Assignment: Parfitt, Chapter 9

Writing Assignment: none

In class: Library session on available resources

Week 10

Nov. 3Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Predraft 3.1 (research proposal)

In class: workshopping/discussing research proposals

Nov. 5Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: none

In class: skimming scholarly books and articles

Week 11

Nov. 10Reading Assignment: Parfitt, Chapter 10

Writing Assignment: Predraft 3.2 (annotated bibliography)

In class: discussion of the sources found for the annotated bibliographies;

plagiarism and the logic of citation

Nov. 12Reading Assignment: Research essays from Write Now!

Writing Assignment: none

In class: going over the Write Now! essays

Week 12

Nov. 17Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Essay #3 Draft Due

In class: Essay structure and stitching; working out titles

Nov. 19Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Draft responses to draft writer(s)

In class: Peer review

Week 13

Nov. 24Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Predraft 3.3 (Reverse Outline)

In class: more on structure and stitching; conclusions

Nov. 26NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING BREAK

Week 14

Dec. 1Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Essay #3 due

In class: review of course; discussion of portfolio requirements

Dec. 3Reading Assignment: none

Writing Assignment: Portfolios due

In class: brief review of research findings