English 490: Senior Seminar

Masculinity in Literature & Culture

Fall 2016 | Dr. Terry Lee

 

McMurran 357 T Th 3-4:15

Office: McMuran 201b | Office Hours: T 10-11; W 3-4; Th 10-11

757-594-7686

tlee@cnu.edu

  This is the capstone class for the English Major. As such, the class demands initiative for sustained critical reading and research, as well as incisive, analytical writing.  We will use class to workshop your ideas and questions. This is a seminar, and you are expected to share your thoughts and research with the class actively, as a matter of course. Class time is  the time to raise questions, share problems and successes.

   Be aware that the Senior Seminar Paper is a work-in-progress from the first day of class. Have an opinion. Research. Finely tune an informed opinion. Write, write, write to find that elusive fellow, the focused statement of thesis. Again, a process that develops throughout the semester. The bar for success is relatively high: a paper with a diffuse thesis and weak support (e.g., much summary, little analysis) will not succeed.

 

Goals of the class

• To research and develop one's own critical interpretation and analysis of fiction, poetry, or nonfiction of a literary quality and/or analysis of trends in the culture, examining the work and/or culture from a position highly informed by contemporary literary theory or theoretical approaches from other scholarly fields, all with an emphasis on masculinity.

 

• To draft and refine a scholarly paper of 20-25 pages (5,000-6,250 words) that uses secondary research to help persuasively argue, evaluate and/or analyze primary texts in support of your own original thesis concerning masculinity.

 

Requirements

 

Assignments

8/23 — Masculinity as an Unstable Social Construction

Manhood in America, Kimmel—"Preface" and "Introduction"

Suggested reading:

Kilmartin on "Frameworks for Understanding Men" in The Masculine Self

 

8/25

Manhood in America, Kimmel—"Chapter 1: Birth of the Self-Made Man"

• "Comedy as Correction: Humor as Perspective by Incongruity on Will & Grace and Queer as Folk," Rachel Silverman. (Link go library database.)

Suggested reading:

"The Myth of Male Decline," New York Times, Stephanie Coontz

____________________________________

 

8/30 — Obeying the Cultural Father

Manhood in America, Kimmel— "Chapter 2: Born to Run: Self-Control and Fantasies of Escape"

Hamlet (brush up on the play: re-read it or see a good production/film)

 

9/1

Changing Fictions of Masculinity, "Preface" & "Chapter 3: Mothers & Fathers: Change and Stability in Hamlet's World" (on reserve)

• "The Things They Carried," O'Brien (Vintage Stories)

____________________________________

 

9/6— Self-destructive Masculinity

Jarhead, Anthony Swofford

 

 

9/8

Jarhead

__________________________________

 

9/13

Changing Fictions, "Chapter 1: The Armor of the Man-Monster in Beowulf" (reserve; summary of Beowulf)

• "All the Way in Flagstaff" (Vintage)

• "Introduction" in Chilvalry to Terrorism: War & the Changing Nature of Masculinity, Leo Braudy ( book is on reserve)

• "from Homeric Hymn to Ares" (Rag & Bone 83)

• "The War Prayer," Mark Twain (Rag & Bone 215)

 

Suggested reading:

From Chilvary to Terrorism, Braudy, Chapts. 1-8

Beowulf

 

9/15

Final Salute, Jim Sheeler

_______________________________

 

9/20

 • Final Salute
• Dr. Deborah Vick, V.A. psychologist

 

9/22

 

• Skype talk with Jim Sheeler

 

____________________________________

 

9/27— Black Masculinity

 Etheridge Knight

in Rag & Bone Shop text:

• "Those Winter Sundays," Robert Hayden (Rag & Bone 141)

• "The Idea of Ancestry" (44)

• "The Bones of My Father" (125)

•  "On the Yard" (210)

• "Feeling Fucked Up" (344)

ª "Welcome Back, Mr. Knight: Love of My Life" (452)

• "Re/constructing Black masculinity in prison" M. Nandi.

 

Suggested viewing:

• "I Am A Man: Black Masculinity in America (DVD, 1998) (reserve)

• "Malcolm X" (VHS, 1992; DVD, 2000)

 

Suggested reading:

• Constructing the Black Masculine: Identity & Ideality in African-American Men's Literature and Culture, Maurice Wallace (scholarly essays/book chapters)

Makes Me Wanna Holler, Nathan McCall (autobiography about growing up in Hampton, Va.)

Reaching Up for Manhood, Geoffrey Canada (Boys are socialized to ignore pain and to risk-taking behaviors and to practices of "consuming" masculinity)

 

9/29

•He Is a "Bad Mother*S%@!#": Shaft and Contemporary Black Masculinity, Matthew Henry; African American Review, Vol. 38, 2004, Spring.

Amiri Baraka

• "A Poem Some People will Have to Understand" (211)

Gwendolyn Brooks

• "We Real Cool" (204)

Claude McKay

• "The White City" (309)

Langston Hughes

• "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (101)

• "Necessity" (452)

• "Harlem" (310)

• "No More Auction Block," Spiritual (107) (Rag & Bone)

____________________________________

 

10/4 — Masculinity, Women & Work

The Hearts of Men, Ehrenreich

 

Suggested reading:

Manhood in America, Kimmel, Chapt. 6, "Muscles, Money, & the M-F Test"

• "Men Not Working, And Not Wanting Just Any Job," Louis Uchitelle & David Leonhardt

• "Men at Work? Not These Men," NYTimes

 

10/6

• "Who is the Perfect Man?" from Houdini, Tarzan & the Perfect Man, Kasson (on reserve)

• "In Hiding and on Display," from The Male Body, Bordo (on reserve)

• "'Gosh, Boy George, You Must Be Awfully Secure in your Masculinity,'" Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, in Constructing Masculinity, eds. Berger, Wallis, Watson (on reserve)

• "Performance Anxiety: Mehinaku," Gillmore, chapter in Manhood in the Making (in library stacks)

____________________________________

 

10/11

• Break

 

 

10/13

• class does not meet: conferences, research & writing

____________________________________

 

10/18

• class does not meet: conferences, research & writing

 

10/20—On The Brink

• "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," Carver

• "I Could See the Smallest Things," Carver

roundtable: proposal previews

 

Suggested reading:

The Symposium, Plato

• "Gazebo," Carver

• "Mr. Coffee & Mr. Fixit," Carver

• "Why Don't You Dance," Carver

• "Killings," Andre Dubus, available in a Dubus short story collection in library

• "Oui," Michael Dorris in Working Men

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier

 

Suggested viewing:

• "Fight Club"

 

____________________________________

 

10/25—Hope

Seminar Paper Proposal due (Proposal Guide)

 

• "Cathedral," Carver (in Vintage Stories)

• "Viewfinder," Carver

• "After Making Love, We Hear Footsteps," Galway Kinnell (Rag & Bone 59)

• "Men and Birth: The Unexplainable," Haki R. Madhubuti (Rag & Bone 46)

• "Dance Russe," William Carlos Williams (Rag & Bone 6)

 

10/27

• No class. I'm at a conference in Ithaca, N.Y.

 

____________________________________

 

11/1

• class does not meet: conferences, research & writing

 

11/3

• class does not meet: conferences, research & writing

 

____________________________________

 

11/8

• class does not meet: conferences, research & writing

 

11/10

Annotated bibliography & Rough draft due in my office, or in my English department mailbox, by 3 p.m.

• class does not meet: continue research & writing

 

____________________________________

 

11/15

• one-half of class meets

 

11/17

• one-half of class meets

 

____________________________________

 

11/22

• Research  & Revise day

 

11/23

• Thanksgiving break

____________________________________

 

11/29

Formal precis presentation in class—bring copies for each member of class

 

12/1

Formal precis presentation in class—bring copies for each member of class

____________________________________

 

12/6, Tuesday

Final Seminar Paper due at 2 p.m. (our final exam period) in our classroom: Head with your precis. Put at top of material in your research portfolio. For a guide on writing the Seminar Paper, see "Requirements."

Class Texts

Fall 2016

 

Manhood in America, Michael Kimmel

Final Salute, Jim Sheeler

Hearts of Men, Barbara Ehrenreich

The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Stories, ed. Wolff

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver

Jarhead, Anthony Swofford

Changing Fictions of Masculinity, David Rosen (Optional purchase—a copy of the book and assigned chapters on library reserve)

The Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart, eds. Bly, et al.

• Reserve readings... forthcoming

• Recommended resource: The Male Experience, James Doyle (on library reserve)

 

A Glossary of Literary Terms, Abrams (optional)

A Dictionary of Literary Terms, Cuddon (optional)

 

Online bibliography:

click here

 

On reserve:

click here

_______________________________

General Course Policies

Coming Late to Class & Waltzing In and Out

   Walking in late is disruptive and counts as absence, as does walking in and out during class. If you have a special, documented need, let me know.

 

Office Hours

   My door is always open, and I am happy to see you during my office hours, as well as other times that I'm in my office—drop by or call or e-mail to see if I'm in. You are welcome anytime to come by and talk about your class work in general, or about a specific reading or essay draft on which you are working.

 

Learning Disabilities

   CNU Disability Policy: Students with documented disabilities are required to notify the instructor on the first day of class and in private if accommodation is needed. The instructor will provide students with disabilities with all reasonable accommodations, but they are not exempted from fulfilling the normal requirements of the course. Work completed before the student notifies the instructor of his/her disability may be counted toward the final grade at the sole discretion of the instructor.

   If you believe that you have a disability, you should make an appointment to see me to discuss your needs. In order to receive an accommodation, your disability must be on record in the Dean of Students’ office, 3rd Floor David Student Union/DSU (Telephone: 594-7160).

 

CNU Success Policy

   We want you to succeed at CNU; therefore I may notify the Academic Advising Center if you seem to be having problems with this course. Someone may contact you to help you determine what help you need to succeed. You will be sent a copy of the referral form. I invite you to see me at any time that I can be of assistance in helping your with the course material.

 

Attendance

   Not Attending Class Can Result in Failure of Course

   You may miss one week of class without any penalty or consequence. You are responsible for the material covered, of course, and I draw my exam questions from material covered in class, class discussion and lecture, as well as from our texts.

   Additional absences will result in reduction of your final course grade.

   That means that a "B" in all of your coursework can become a "C," if you have excessive absences. It also means that a passing grade for the course can become a failing grade for the course.

   In the case of an emergency, contact me as soon as possible. Emergency absences can be excused, and I may ask for documentation.

 

 Complete All Work

   You must complete all work by the last day of class to receive a passing grade.

 

Incompletes

   Given only in extraordinary circumstances. Plan to complete work by last day of class. Not completing the work results in an "F," not an "I."

_____________________________

A Few Themes &Works of Fiction to get you thinking about approaches you might take.

 

• Masculinity as performance

• Endless proving of masculinity for an audience

•Masculinity moving from inner values to outer show—consuming, body

•Social construction of gender v. essential gender identity

• Gender role abrasion

•Separate Spheres

•Black Masculinity —rage, justifying existence, self worth; holism, group identity, beyond social pathology

•Breadwinner Masculinity

• Self-made men

•Self-Actualizing Masculinity

 

Fathers

• "All the Way in Flagstaff" (Vintage)

• "Minor Heroism" (Vintage)

• "The Benchmark"( Dorris)

• "Jeopardy" (Dorris)

• "Winter Father," Andre Dubus

 

 Lost Men (and boys) & Loss

• "Murderers" (Vintage)

• "Talk of Heroes" (Vintage)

• "Men Under Water" (Vintage)

• "Emergency" (Vintage)

• "Qiana" (Dorris)

• "Name Games" (Dorris)

• "The Vase" (Dorris)

• "Rock Springs" (Vintage)

• "One More Thing" (Carver)

• "Mr. Coffee & Mr. Fixit" (Carver)

• "So Much Water, So Close To Home" (Carver)

 

 

Men Embattled

Dispatches, Herr

• "The Things They Carried" (Vintage)

Changing Fictions of Masculinity, Rosen

—introduction & chapter 1 (on Beowulf)

Hamlet, Shakespeare

Changing Fictions, chapter 3 (on Hamlet)

• "So Much Water, So Close to Home" (Carver)

 

 Men in Transformation

• "Cathedral" (Vintage)

• "Earnest Money" (Dorris) in Working Men

• "Oui" (Dorris) in Working Men

• "Viewfinder" (Carver)

• "The Calm" (Carver)

• "Why Don't You Dance?" (Carver)

• "Groom Service" (Dorris)

 

 

Men & War

• From Chilvalry to Terrorism: War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity, Leo Braudy (reserve)

Primary texts:

Henry IV: Part II, Shakespeare

Henry V, Shakespeare

The Illiad, Homer

The Odyssey, Homer

Dispatches, Michael Herr

Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier

•  Beowulf (a story summary)

 

Perceptions of Masculinity & Men in the Media

• "Merchants of Cool" PBS documentary and interviews, full video available online

• "Queer Guy With A Slob's Eye,"John Weir (8/10/03 NYTimes)

• "Coming Together Where A River Forks," Lou Ureneck (4/13/2003 NYTimes)

• "The Weaker Sex," Maggie Jones (NY Times 3/16/03)

• "Masculinity as Fact: A Review of Empirical Mass Communication Research on Masculinity," Fred Fejes

• "Masculinity as Signs: Poststructuralist Feminist Approaches to the Study of Gender," Diana Saco

• "Beer Commercials: A Manual of Masculinity," Lance Strate

Manhood in America, Kimmel, Chapt. 5, "A Room of His Own: Socializing the New Man"

 • "When Dad's Resume Lists Carpool," NYTimes, Lisa Belkin

• "Is There Anything Good About Men?" NYTimes, John Tierney

• "When Mom and Dad Share It All," NYTimes Magazine, Lisa Belkin

• "An Ideal Husband," NYTimes, Maureen Dowd

• "Commute to Nowhere," New York Times Magazine, Jonathan Mahler

• "Double Lives on the Down Low" New York Times Magazine, Benoit Denizet-Lewis

• "Coming to Terms with the Men on the Corner," NYTimes, Fernanda Santos

• "The Winter Father," Andre Dubus, available in a Dubus short story collection in library