September: Fri



Tulane University

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Engl 101-11: Writing, Satire, and Humor: Negotiating Power and Authority Through Rhetoric.

Instructor: M.J. Severson Fall Semester 2005

Office Hours: Mon. 1pm-3pm Mon./Fri.

Thurs. 12pm-1pm or by appointment 11am-12:50pm

Office: 214 Norman Mayer/ph.314-2314

E-mail: mseverso@tulane.edu

Course Description:

This course seeks to extend your understanding of and control over the conventions of academic and public discourse. It will emphasize the strategies for writing analytically and argumentatively about a particular set of concepts and the ways that others have written about them. More specifically, this class teaches students how to generate and arrange ideas, how to support claims, how to revise and edit a draft, how to stylize particular sentences for maximum effectiveness, how to conduct library research and incorporate quotes from others, and, most broadly, how to begin to take part in the kinds of conversations that define the university. Toward this end, the readings for the course will enable students to explore, rhetorically, a variety of issues surrounding the social formation of knowledge, authority, and power as they are encountered in and countered by satirical authors.

Course Introduction:

We will read several articles engaging issues critical to rhetoric, composition, and the social development of meaning-making and authority. Moreover, several satirical pieces will be read in order to investigate how they are rhetorically structured such that they are positioned within and against various arguments and social practices. In this regard, satire, as a sophisticated form of social argument, is well suited to our inquiry into cultural constructions of power, meaning, and significance. However, while students will be reading several key satirical authors and texts, this class is NOT an overview of satire as a genre. It is first and foremost a writing course, and the satirical texts read are solely meant to be an interesting and hopefully enjoyable means of illuminating important issues in composition—specifically, tone, style, and modes of argument within a broader social context.

Course Goals and Objectives:

Students who have successfully completed this class should:

• Understand invention as a set of tools (reading, discussing, freewriting, clustering) for generating ideas within a specific context—in this case, contemporary academic ideas concerning rhetoric, culture, and power as applied to satirical writings. Students will cultivate this skill by participating daily in class discussion of assigned readings and completing all writing assignments.

• Understand revision as an essential step in structuring and developing a text to connect with a particular audience—in this case, an audience comprised of one’s classmates within a constructed academic community. Students will cultivate this skill by writing multiple drafts of each long paper, by revising shorter papers and freewrites, and by critiquing and revising the writings of other students.

• Understand analysis as a method of reading one text through the lens of another to discover its key components, subtle connections between these components, and the similarities and differences between it and others of its kind. Students will cultivate this skill in each of the major writing assignments of the semester and by carefully applying the theoretical texts we will read to each other and to the satirical texts we will read.

• Understand argument as a mode of language-use that can include but that ultimately differs from narration, description, exploration, and ornamentation, among others. Again, students will cultivate this skill in the course assignments, which will often require the students to advocate one side or the other in key scholarly debates we’ll consider this semester.

• Understand style as a tool for tinkering with sentences and paragraphs to manage ever greater complexity ever more coherently and, ultimately, to tap into the “musical” dimension of language’s power. Students will cultivate this aspect of their writing by including an increasing number of stylistic devices in the handout on style in each of their writing assignments.

• Understand research as a skill that involves exploring both library and internet resources to substantiate claims with academically sound evidence. Students will cultivate this skill by including outside sources on their last two major papers of the semester.

Attendance Policy: Participation is an important part of this course and accounts for a sizeable chunk of a student’s final grade. So, attendance is expected and required for all class sessions. All students are allowed 2 unexcused absences. 1/3 of a letter grade will be deducted for every unexcused absence after the second one. 6 unexcused absences will result in a failing grade.

Honor Code: All Tulane students are required to behave according to the Honor Code. It states, in part, “In all work submitted for academic credit, students are expected to represent themselves honestly. The presence of a student’s name on any work submitted in completion of an academic assignment is considered to be an assurance that the work and ideas are the result of the student’s own intellectual effort, stated in her or his own words, and produced independently, unless clear and explicit acknowledgement of the sources for the work and ideas is included. This principle applies to papers, tests, homework assignments, artistic productions, laboratory reports, computer programs, and other assignments. Students are expected to report to the instructor or associate dean any observed violations of the Honor Code. A copy of the complete Honor Code may be obtained from the student’s dean’s office.”

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the use of another person or group’s words or ideas without proper acknowledgement of those sources. There are stiff penalties for anyone who plagiarizes. We will discuss this issue—particularly how to avoid plagiarism—at greater length in class.

ADA Statement: If you have a disability that requires special accommodations, please speak to me in my office so that we can discuss the proper arrangements.

Classroom Protocol: Disruptive and/or disrespectful behavior will not be tolerated. Moreover, all cell phones, pagers, or other noisemaking devices must be turned off during class. Any student displaying persistent problems in these areas will have points deducted from his or her class participation grade.

Required Texts:

Ways of Reading (WR), David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky, eds.

The Malcontents (M), Joe Queenan, ed.

Readings on Blackboard Reserve (BB)

Students are also required to read all other student writings posted on Blackboard

Recommended Texts:

The Everyday Writer, Andrea Lunsford

MLA Handbook

Grading and Assignments: (All assignments and readings are to be completed by the date next to them on the syllabus.)

10% of grade—Ten 1-2 page papers on topics provided. These are to be posted on the blackboard discussion board and are due by the midnight prior to the class for which they are assigned. You will often be expected to read these aloud in class, and they will be a topic for group discussions. (Note: More than ten topics are given in the schedule; you only have to complete 10. So, you will have to choose which ones you do and do not wish to do). However, you must do at least three in both units I and IV.

80% of grade—Four 5-6 page papers. The ideas for these papers will be extensively discussed in class prior to being due. You will be expected to write multiple drafts, which will be reviewed and critiqued by your classmates before you finalize your drafts. Each of these papers is worth 20% of your grade for the semester.

10% of grade—Class Participation. You will be expected to actively participate in class discussions, peer reviews, and in-class writing sessions. Also, you are expected to respond to other students’ short papers on the Blackboard discussion board at least 10 times throughout the semester. These replies need not be long, but they should significantly engage with the issues other students raise. (Note: Though I do not intend to do so, I reserve the right to add quizzes and/or other assignments, or otherwise change this syllabus at any time.)

Schedule

Week 1

Fri. 9/2—Introduction

Week 2

Mon. 9/5—Labor Day, No Class

Fri. 9/9—Bartholomae “Introduction” pgs. 1-16 (WR) and Berger “from Ways of Seeing (WR)

Writing Prompt: How have these readings changed your understanding of reading (or seeing or hearing in the case of audio/visual works) and meaning? Or, Have they? What was your understanding coming to these works and why has or hasn’t it changed?

This introductory section is a little heavy on the reading, but I don’t intend to spend too much time specifically on writing in this section. So, that class (Fri. 9) will be almost entirely dedicated to discussing the Bartholomae and Berger. I think that it is important that we spend time on them in order to give my students a more mature idea of reading, one that will be necessary for the tough reading they will be doing in the units after this. Specifically, they need to know, as Bartholomae suggests, that reading is an act that occurs “with and against the grain of a text, reproducing an author’s methods, questioning his or her direction and authority” (10). That is, I want to ensure that my students understand how to actively read and interrogate a text, and moreover that this is what I expect of them all semester (not to mention the fact that this is what their later professors will expect). Furthermore, I want them to understand the ways in which texts can be made to mean different things depending on various contexts and expectations that are brought to them and that this is an integral part of academic discourse across fields.

Unit I: Writing Against Power—Invention as Rebellion

Week 3

Mon. 9/12— Aristophanes The Birds (M); Invention

Writing Prompt: Aristophanes discusses a retreat from society. Discuss a time in which you have retreated from social engagement and why you did so.

Fri. 9/16— Aristophanes (cont.); Invention

Writing Prompt: Aristophanes discusses taking control of a social situation and its environment. Discuss a time in which you have taken control of your social ituation and the results of this control.

Week 4

Mon. 9/19—Aristophanes (cont.); Stylistic devices

Fri. 9/23—Foucault “Panopticism” (WR); Stylistic devices

Writing Prompt: Describe a time in the past week in which you felt like you must behave a certain way because you might be seen. Use 1 stylistic device.

Week 5

Mon. 9/26—Foucault (Cont.); Sign up for peer review session

Fri. 9/30—Foucault (Cont.) Rough draft due, in class discussion

Week 6

Mon. 10/3—1st Paper Due; Juvenal “Satire I” (M) and Selections (BB)

1st Paper Topic: Aristophanes, Juvenal, and Foucault all discuss both the powerful social/ideological institutions (the law, religion, money/economics, etc.) that can constrain us and revolt against those institutions. Describe a time when you have felt similarly oppressed by such institutions and how you rebelled against those restraints with reference to Foucault and either Aristophanes or Juvenal. Use at least 2 stylistic devices. 5-6 pgs.

As its title suggests, this unit will center on invention. Aristophanes uses an inventive method of conceiving and arguing against various issues. Juvenal on the other hand bemoans the lack of creativity in Roman writers. In class I intend to assign multiple freewrites and to introduce students to a number of invention techniques discussed by Elbow. However, I include Foucault both as a means of understanding and interpreting the ways in which Aristophanes, Juvenal, and the students exist with in various power structures and how invention occurs within a social context. In keeping with both Guy Allen and David Bartholomae, short papers and in-class writings in this unit will focus on invention and the personal experiences and views of the students. However, while their 1st longer paper will concentrate on the personal, I am rejecting Allen’s simple personal narratives, and having my students write about their personal experiences through and in relation to Foucault and the satirical authors we will have read. In this way, they will use the personal as a means of engaging with and inventing within academic discourse in a Bartholomaean manner. Ideally, this will capture the best of both worlds, getting them more or less excited about writing through the personal aspects of the assignment, while having them simultaneously engage in academic discourse. Moreover, it should emphasize—although perhaps not explicitly—that, as Bartholomae claims, academic discourse negotiates “between idiosyncracy, a personal history, and the requirements of convention, the history of an institution” (Facts, Artifacts, and Counterfacts 8). In this quote he is speaking of reading, but it could equally be applied to his discussion of writing within academic discourse.

Unit II: The Flexibility of Language—Revision and Argument

Fri. 10/7—Nietzsche “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense” (WR);

Writing Prompt: Rewrite Nietzsche’s first paragraph in your own words. Change the content to fit your own ideas on the subject. Use 1 stylistic device.

Week 7

Mon. 10/10—Nietzsche (cont.); Revision, Stylistic devices.

Writing Prompt: Take any previous short paper and completely rewrite it using Nietzsche. Use 2 stylistic devices.

Fri. 10/14—Nietzsche (cont.) Revision, Stylistic devices

(Oct. 19th, Midterm Grades Due)

Week 8

Mon. 10/17—Twain “A Plan…” (BB), Bierce “from The Devil’s Dictionary” (BB)

Writing Prompt: Bierce demonstrates the flexibility of language. Pick one or two words that Bierce redefines, and make up your own definition. Why do you choose to define these words as you do? Use 2 stylistic devices.

Writing Prompt 2: Is Twain’s piece satire? Also, though his plan for a simplified alphabet has obvious practical problems, it speaks to real difficulties; do you think it (or something similar) could or should be implemented? Predict what the results would be. Use 2 stylistic devices.

This unit centers on language itself, particularly its mobility, how it cannot be pinned down or made static. Of course this is touched upon directly by Nietzsche, and the pieces by both Twain and Bierce are themselves satirical accounts and usages of language as a mobile force producing multiple meanings. In the in-class writings I assign, I want to emphasize how this mobility of language almost necessarily results in revision as ideas must be rethought, reargued, and rewritten in response to a number of social and contextual cues. Elbow and his heavy emphasis on revision as a necessary, even central part of writing as a process, will once again be useful for this. This is furthermore supported by Bartholomae’s conceptualization of reading and writing as acts of revision, and in this section I emphasize revision of past writing and ideas in terms of what has since been read/written. This is meant to prepare them for the second paper, in which they must dramatically revise previous writing(s), though it isn’t due for a few more sessions.

Unit III: Research—Placing Yourself Within an Argument

Fri. 10/21—Franken “from Lies…” (BB) and Coulter’s reply (BB); Library Research; Rough drafts due, sign up for peer conferences.

Writing Prompt: Franken essentially accuses Coulter of dishonesty, of lying. Given all that we have read, what is the “truth,” and what is a writer’s responsibility toward it? Use 2 stylistic devices.

Week 9

Mon. 10/24— Tompkins “’Indians’…” (WR); 2nd drafts due, in class discussion

Fri. 10/28— 2nd Paper Due Tompkins (cont.)

2nd Paper Topic: Revision—Take any two short papers you have written and combine and rewrite them in terms of each other and the readings we have done for class. They should be substantially revised such that they form a single, coherent paper. Use at least 3 stylistic devices. 6-7 pages.

OR: Expand and rewrite your first paper in terms of issues brought up in what we have read since then. (Note: if you rewrite your first paper, you will need to add approximately 4-5 pgs. in length and substantially reconceive and rewrite your previous material for a total of 8-10 pgs.).

Research is, of course, an integral part of many types of writing, especially academic writing. In this short unit I’ll introduce my students to research and the library. I will discuss how to find reliable sources, how to cite them, and I will re-emphasize the problems of plagiarism. Also, I will discuss how research is to be used; the selection from Al Franken is helpful in this capacity, as he satirically criticizes Anne Coulter’s shoddy research methods and her manipulation of data. Moreover, Jane Tompkins serves as an excellent transition into the next section as her essay is so self-reflexive on the issue of her own research and the academic argument into which she enters, while the content of her argument fits well with the works discussed in the next unit. Ultimately, academic discourse boils down to the matter of argument, as Bartholomae defines academic discourse as critical discourse; it is the placing of one’s self within a certain field of contentious discourses and encountering that field in a critical manner. Of course, this is more broadly true of many public discourses. Thus, the Franken/Coulter debate while not entirely indicative of academic discourse, is obliquely illustrative of the argumentative nature of academic discourse. During and after this unit I will more vigorously encourage and even require that students take various argumentative stances in their writing and discussion.

Unit IV: Style, Representation, and Critical Engagements with the Domestic and the Other

Week 10

Mon. 10/31—Tompkins (cont.)

Writing Prompt: What is race? How is it typically defined? How would you define it? And what are the results of these definitions? Use 2 stylistic devices.

Fri. 11/4— Swift “A Modest Proposal” (M) and selected readings (BB); Stylistic devices

Week 11

Mon. 11/7— Austen “Lady Susan” (M); Stylistic devices

Fri. 11/11—Austen (Cont.)

Week 12

Mon. 11/14—Twain “A Medieval Romance” (M), “The Story of the Good Little Boy” (M), and “The Grateful Poodle” (M); Sign up for peer conferences

Fri. 11/18— Bierce “Oil of Dog” (M), and “A Revolt of the Gods” (M); Stylistic devices; Rough drafts due, in class discussion

Week 13

Mon. 11/21—3rd Paper Due: Baudrillard “Utopia Achieved” (WR)

3rd Paper Topic: Research paper—The pieces we have read are all critically engaged with issues that pertain to or are analogous to current events. For instance, Nietzsche claims that language, and the knowledge it constitutes, are mobile, constantly changing. This could be used to engage with diverse issues, such as religious fundamentalism or constitutional originalism in the judicial rulings of Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Similarly, the political corruption discussed by Juvenal and Aristophanes might bear in multiple ways on a number of recent political scandals. Using one of your previous writings, pick and research a topic relevant to relatively recent events with reference to what we have read since you wrote the original piece. Use three or more outside sources and at least two in-class sources to formulate an argument about the issue. Also, use at least 5 stylistic devices. 5-7 pgs.

Fri. 11/25—Thanksgiving Break, No Class

Week 14

Mon. 11/28—Baudrillard (cont.); Stylistic devices

Writing Prompt: What does it mean to be “American”? Un-American? To an American? To non-Americans? Use 3 stylistic devices.

Writing Prompt 2: Write your own brief satire of some aspect of current American culture. Use 3 stylistic devices.

Fri. 12/2—Baudrillard (cont.)

Writing Prompt: Argue against some specific claim that Baudrillard makes. Use 3 stylistic devices.

Week 15

Mon. 12/5—Baudrillard (cont.)

Writing Prompt: Use Baudrillard as a means of interpreting one of your previous short papers. Use 3 stylistic devices.

Writing Prompt 2: Write a satire of Baudrillard in his own style.

Fri. 12/9—Last Day of Class; Rough drafts due, discuss final papers

Thurs. 12/15—Final Paper Due

Final Paper Topic: Baudrillard discusses America as a Utopia. Many other authors we have studied have described or invented utopian ideals. Write an essay describing how utopia functions in one or more texts and in your own responses to those texts within a broader social context in order to assume a more powerful role or fight dominant social discourses. You must use 10 stylistic devices, and use at least two sources from outside of class. 5-7 pgs.

I will use Tompkins in order to transition from research into a discussion of the various discourses producing the other and the domestic situation as seen in the satirical writings of Twain, Bierce, Swift, Baudrillard, and Austen. Moreover, discussion will simultaneously center upon both the discourses that produce and maintain certain power structures and the style, the rhetorical “tricks” and skills employed by these authors in order to make their arguments. In class I will issue a handout discussing various stylistic devices and explain them to the class (I will actually do this early in the semester, making this a semester long project, but I will more forcefully emphasize stylistic devices in this unit). I will then have the students practice using them in class, and require their use in all writings for this section. The goal of this is, as Johnson’s A Rhetoric of Pleasure claims, to break them of masochistic approaches to writing in order to more enjoyably interact with language and argument, to see the play in language that this course has been designed to emphasize. Of course, at this point I want my students to be using all of the lessons from the course within academic discourse. Therefore, the final paper is designed to integrate previous lessons by engaging with and analyzing the topics discussed throughout the course and requiring both research (though to a lesser extent than the specifically research paper) and extensive use of stylistic devices in order to analyze various thematic elements of the class. If my writing prompts seem sparser in this section it is because I want to see where we are in our discussions at this point and use this as a gauge of where I should point their writing prompts.

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