UWS 18B: Queer Pulp Fiction

Instructor: Brenden ODonnell Email:

Office: TBA Office Hours: MW 10-11

Mandel Center for the Humanities G10Mondays and Wednesdays, 9-9:50am

Introduction

What do we mean when we say literature is “queer”? In this class, we will attempt to answer this question as we explore one genre: the midcentury pulp novel. Caught between the sexual and gender experimentalism of high modernism and the Stonewall riots, postwar gay and lesbian fiction has been largely overlooked as a dry spell in queer history. The widespread popularity of homoerotic and lesbian-themed fiction has been dismissed as a perverse fascination with the sexual repression and social oppression of gays and lesbians. But what if we read this popularity as a victory of, rather than a failure to, contemporary notions of queerness? What if even the most repressed and frustrated gay and lesbian pulp characters actually present unprecedented complexities, rather than social problems that need to be fixed? By reading homoerotic and lesbian-themed fiction, you will be able to stake your own claims in this debate, making arguments about whether and how these works can be understood as queer.

Objectives

  • Think of gay and lesbian representation more critically, beyond the strictly positive or negative question, “is it good for the gays?”
  • Learn about the fictional conventions and literary context of the midcentury pulp novel
  • Write convincing essays by carefully constructing arguments and using evidence effectively

Course Information

Required Texts

  • Write Now!, ed. Jodie Austin, Waltham, MA, 2015
  • Writing in Response, Matthew Parfitt, New York, 2011
  • Course Pack

Requirements

Essay One: The Close Reading Essay. In this assignment, you will argue whether or not a text is pornographic by analyzing the moral implications of the language it uses to describe homosexual life.

Essay Two: The Lens Essay. You will use Adrienne Rich’s “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” to support your claim that a text of your choice either succeeds or fails to authentically represent lesbian experience.

Essay Three: The Research Essay. Drawing upon both frames used in class and outside resources, make an informed argument about pulp fiction’s influence on a queer short story written since 1970.

Portfolio: At the end of class you will collect all of your work (including pre-draft assignments, rough drafts, final drafts, and peer review sheets) and put it together in a folder. You will give it to me, together with a letter describing how your understanding of yourself as a writer has changed over the course of the semester. This means that you need to keep all of your writing from the semester.

*All assignments are to be delivered electronically, by uploading them to LATTE.

Grading

  • Predrafts: 15%
  • Close reading essay: 15%
  • Lens essay: 20%
  • Researched argument: 30%
  • Class participation (includes research presentations): 10%
  • Portfolio (includes Latte posts, pre-drafts, and peer reviews): 10%

Policies

  • Writing Center

The University Writing Center, located on the first floor of Goldfarb Library just around the corner from the computer clusters, provides free one-on-one help with your essays. You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this service. Writing Center tutors are well trained and will work with you in 45 minute sessions that you can schedule online: ( Students who take advantage of this service will receive a form during their tutorial that will entitle them to a 24-hour extension on the final draft of their essay. Essays will be due electronically by midnight on the following day. Only one extension is allowed per essay.

  • Late Work, Extensions and Minimum Page Requirements

I am usually willing to offer extensions, given legitimate reasons. If a catastrophe happens and you are afraid your work will not be completed in time, contact me more than 24 hours before the due date and arrange for an extension. Otherwise, late work, including first drafts, will be penalized by a third of a grade per day (B+BB- and so on) on the final paper. If a paper is due electronically at midnight and you submit it at 12:01 AM, it is late. In addition, final papers that do not meet minimum page requirements will be penalized by a third of a grade for each page that the paper falls short.

  • Attendance

Missing classes is strongly discouraged. You are allowed three absences. For each additional absence your final grade will be penalized by a third of a grade. Seven or more absences will result in a failing grade. Please contact me in the event of an emergency.

  • Laptops and Food

Laptops are not allowed in this class unless you require special accommodations. Please keep food and chewing gum out of the classroom, as it can be distracting.

  • Academic Honesty

You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. The University policy on academic honesty is distributed annually in section 5 of the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Instances of alleged dishonesty will be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible referral to the Student Judicial System. Potential sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from the University. If you have any questions about my expectations, please ask.

  • Accommodations

If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in class, please see me right away.

UWS Outcomes

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

Use writing and discussion to work through and interpret complex ideas from readings and other texts (e.g., visual, musical, verbal)

Critically analyze your own and others' choices regarding language and form (e.g., in student texts or formally published texts)

Engage in multiple modes of inquiry using text (e.g., field research, library-based inquiry, web searching)

Incorporate significant research (as above) into writing that engages a question and/or topic and uses it as a central theme for a substantive, research-based essay

Use writing to support interpretations of text, and understand that there are multiple interpretations of text

Consider and express the relationship of your own ideas to the ideas of others

Processes

  • Use written, visual, and/or experience-based texts as tools to develop ideas for writing
  • Understand that writing takes place through recurring processes of invention, revision, and editing
  • Develop successful, flexible strategies for your own writing through the processes of invention, revision, and editing
  • Experience and understand the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
  • Learn to critique your own and others' work
  • Be reflective about your writing processes

Knowledge of Conventions

  • Understand the conventions of particular genres of writing
  • Use conventions associated with a range of dialects, particularly standardized written English (but not necessarily limited to it)
  • Recognize and address patterns in your writing that unintentionally diverge from patterns expected by their audience/s
  • Practice using academic citational systems (MLA) for documenting work

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

Unit One: Close Reading

Week 1

Aug 27(Th, Monday schedule)

Introductions

Week 2

Aug 31 (M)Read:Introduction (Bronski), The Night Air (Dowd 1950),

In Class:Go over syllabus, discuss readings, motive worksheet, close reading

Sept 2 (W)Read: New Yorker article “Pulp’s Big Moment,” via link on LATTE,

Sam (Coleman 1959), “Spur Piece,” (Barr 1951)

In Class:Discuss readings, motive exercise

Week 3

Sept 7 (M)*No Class

Sept 9 (W)Read:Maybe—Tomorrow (Little 1952)

In Class:Discuss readings, motive exercise

Sept 10 (Th, Monday Schedule)

Due: Pre-Draft 1.1 due tonight (remember to do both parts)

In class:close reading exercise

Week 4 (Conference week 1)

Sept 14 (M)*No Class

Due: Pre-draft 1.2

Sept 16 (W)Due: Full draft of Essay 1 with cover letter to me and your peers(Midnight)

In class: Writing workshop to addressintroduction/conclusion, structure/transition

Sept 18 (F)*No Class

Due: Essay 1 peer review letters to me and your peers (by 5pm)

Week 5

Sept 21 (M)In Class: Peer review

Sept 23 (W)*No Class

Unit 2: How to Work with a Text as a Lens

Week 6

Sept 28 (M)*No Class

Due: Essay 1 final draft (by 5pm)

Sept 29(Tuesday, Monday Schedule)

Read: Introduction (Katherine V. Forest), Spring Fire (Vin Packer), Chris (Randy

Salem)

In Class: Discuss Readings

Sept 30 (W)Read:Beebo Brinker (Ann Bannon), Return to Lesbos (Valerie Taylor)

In Class: Discuss Readings

Week 7

Oct 5 (M)*No Class

Oct 7 (W)Due: Pre-draft 2.1

Read: “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” (Adrienne Rich)

In Class: Discuss reading

Week 8

Oct 12 (M)Due: Pre-draft 2.2 (mini lens essay)

In Class:lens application practice

Oct 14 (W)Due: Pre-draft 2.3

In Class:lens application practice

Week 9(Conference week 2)

Oct 19 (M)Due: Full draft of essay 2 with cover letter to me and your peers(by 5pm)

In Class:Essay presentations, evidence/analysis exercise

Oct 20 (T)Due: Essay 2 peer review letters to me and your peers(by 5pm)

Oct 21 (W)In Class: Peer review

Unit 3: Research Essay

Week 10

Oct 26 (M)Due: Essay 2 final draft

Read:Write Now! Essay (TBD)

In Class: Research introduction, sources handout, Write Now! Essay

Oct 28 (W)Read: fromRubyfruit Jungle (Rita Mae Brown 1973)

In Class: Discuss Reading, Write Now! Essay

Week 11

Nov 2 (M)Read: fromInvisible Life (E. Lynn Harris 1991)

In Class: Discuss Reading

Nov 4 (W)Read: “Brokeback Mountain” (Annie Proulx 1999),

In Class: Discuss Reading

Week 12

Nov 9 (M)Read: “Caravan” (Gerry Gomez Pearlberg), “The Great Baptism” (Thurmond)

In Class: Discuss Reading

Nov 11 (W)Read:“Reprise” (Edmund White)

In Class:Discuss reading, workshop ideas, asking analytical questions

Week 13

Nov 16 (M)Due: Pre-draft 3.1

In Class:FLIP Session

Nov 18 (W)Due: Pre-draft 3.2

In Class:Library field trip

Week 14

Nov 23 (M)Due: Pre-draft 3.3, Research presentations

In Class:Research presentations

Nov 25 (W)*No Class

Due: Full draft of essay 3 with cover letter to me and your peers(by 5pm)

Week 15(Conference week 3)

Nov 30 (M)Due: Essay 3 peer review letters to me and your peers (by 5pm)

In Class:Writing Exercise

Dec 2 (W)In Class: Peer Review

Week 16

Dec 7 (M)In Class:Write Now!Essay, discussion

Dec 9 (W)Due: Essay 3 final draft

Due:Essay 3 review letters

Due:Portfolio with cover