Tulane University



English 101 Composition:

Animals and Human Surplus: Representations of Homelessness in America

English 101: Fall 2008, Section 23 Professor: Shannon Payne

TU 8-9.15am/TH 8-10.30am spayne1@tulane.edu

Office hours: 2-3pm Tuesdays; 214 Norman Mayer

Course Description

Writing and speaking are powerful ways of understanding ourselves and the world in which we live. It is through writing and speaking that the various disciplines and professions define the knowledge and methodologies that characterize them. And because effective writing and speaking in academic and professional settings often demand proficiency in the use of information technologies and resources, students must have a basic understanding of how information is identified and defined by experts, structured, organized, and accessed, in both the print and digital environments. Mastery of communication arts and information skills is central to engaging in the productive life of academic and professional communities.

This course seeks to extend your understanding of and control over the conventions of literary, academic, and public discourses. Specifically, the course focuses on how to generate and arrange ideas, how to support claims, how to revise and edit a draft, how to use stylistic and rhetorical strategies effectively, how to conduct library research, and incorporate published work into your own. The end goal is for you to create thoughtful and rigorous inroads into academic conversations. In this course we will look at contemporary representations of homelessness in order to give traction to ideas of personhood, species, sentiment, and place. We will situate our readings and discussions in their historical and social contexts, and incorporate these contexts in our analyses.

Learning Outcomes

Over the course of the semester, students will learn to:

1. communicate effectively in specific writing situations to various audiences; and

2. understand and respond appropriately to the critical elements that shape communication situations, such as audience, purpose, and genre; and

3. critique their own writing or speaking and provide effective and useful feedback to enable other students to improve their writing or speaking; and

4. demonstrate critical and evaluative thinking skills in locating, analyzing, synthesizing, and using information in writing or speaking activities.

Course Introduction

Narratives of homelessness have been circulating for a long time. Tramp narratives and hobo stories were particularly popular forms, and tended to do one of two things, sometimes both: romanticize homelessness (freedom, adventure), or portray it via realism (stark, unchanging images). Contemporary representations of homelessness are immediately more complex. Our work in this course is to analyze and forward some of the arguments and narratives they provide. We will read and analyze narratives by and about the homeless to better understand how these texts and images speak back to stereotypes of and solutions to homelessness. As writers, we will grapple with questions that prove both specific and foundational, for example: ‘What does it mean to have a home?’ Or, ‘What is a citizen?’

Some background on homelessness in the U.S.: Until 1987, the U.S. government did not recognize homelessness as a national problem. It was treated as a local phenomenon that affected “individuals” until the homeless population visibly included so many types of “individuals” - including women and children - that another approach became necessary. In response, anti-poverty activists created The Homeless Persons’ Survival Act of 1986 “to guide and give substance to a federal role in ending homelessness” (Baumohl xiv). It created funding for emergency shelters, and, through the courts and Congress, led to a larger commitment to eradicating homelessness. The McKinney Act of 1987 was the federal government’s official $1.47 billion response, and continued to provide emergency assistance. An overzealous public viewed the McKinney Act as the solution to homelessness, even though it continued to grow. Critics claim that the McKinney Act never addressed the root causes of homelessness, and so could never have been a solution.

Required Texts (available in the Tulane Bookstore)

Auster, Paul. Timbuktu

Berger, John. King: A Street Story

Rose, Chris. 1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina

Assessment and Assignments

Paper 1: 15%

Paper 2: 15%

Paper 3: 15%

Paper 4: 20% + 5% Presentation

Citizenship 10%

Ten Response papers: 20%

Papers: Brief descriptions listed on assignment day; more details to come.

Citizenship: This is a discussion and workshop-based, reading and writing intensive course. Your intelligent and engaged contributions to conversation, interaction with other students and their work, consistent preparedness (including reading quizzes and other in-class work), and rigorous thinking through the material are weighed heavily. Writing is a process, and your commitment to discussion and workshop is an integral part of that process. FYI: This is a real, accumulated grade.

Presentation: Drawing from the research you will do for the final paper on post-Katrina New Orleans, you will present images to, and critically read them for, the class. You will receive a detailed assignment sheet later, but you can begin immediately by keeping your eye out for passages or images you might want to return to for this assignment.

Response papers: You will have 13 opportunities to write the ten short papers (minimum 600 words) during the semester. Each response is worth 2% of your final grade. In the syllabus, you will find discussion prompts listed with each day’s readings, and you can use them as a springboard for a focused analysis of the text under analysis. You can write in response to whatever 10 prompts you like, but you must do ten short papers. These are not summaries or outlines; you are expected to address a substantial topic/idea within each response and develop it in your own voice to explore its depth. NB: I will not accept late response papers at all.

*Please note: I will not accept papers of any kind sent to me over e-mail. You must bring a hard copy of any paper to class the day it is due (this includes short response papers, and final papers with all accompanying drafts/work). Printer problems (etc.) are not valid excuses. If you do not have drafts of papers 1, 2, 3, 4 on appropriate workshop days, one full letter grade will be deducted from the grade you receive on the final draft. Late essays (papers 1, 2, 3, 4) will not receive comments, only a final grade (which will be lowered one letter grade every day it is late). Please back-up and save all your work.

Paper formatting

All papers handed in must conform to the following format:

- Times new Roman 12pt font

- 1.25 inch margins on left and right sides; one inch margin on top and bottom

- Stapled in upper left-hand corner

- Pages numbered (excluding first page)

- Your name, the date, and the name of the assignment (i.e. Paper 1 rough draft) in the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Attendance Policy

Students are permitted a maximum of four absences per semester. Any time you miss class, you assume the responsibility to catch up on all work (notes, viewings, readings, assignments). Plan accordingly. After four unexcused absences, your final grade will drop one full letter grade for each additional absence. (An “A” will become a “B”). If a student experiences a serious illness or injury that forces her or him to miss more than the four allowed classes, that student must notify me and work closely with me to complete any missed work in a timely fashion. I may ask for proper documentation or a note from your dean in some cases. If a student arrives in class after having been counted absent, the instructor is not obligated to suspend class business to amend the record; in other words, significant tardiness is the same as absence. This is not a nod to Totalitarianism, but rather a sign of respect for the volume of work before us, and for the intensive process that thoughtful workshops require.

Academic Integrity

You must abide by the Tulane Honor Code, which forbids plagiarism and academic dishonesty. It defines plagiarism as “unacknowledged or falsely acknowledged presentation of another person’s ideas, expression, or original research as one’s own work. Such use is defined as plagiarism regardless of the intent of the student.” Learn more at .

Students with Disabilities

A qualified student with a disability may not be excluded from Tulane University activities, services, or academic programs. To request accommodations for a disability, please contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at 504.862.8443. If you have already registered with ODS and have academic accommodations that you would like to use in this class, please see me during my office hours so that I can sign your Course Accommodation Form for the Fall 2008 semester and so that we can discuss the best way to implement your accommodations.

Tutoring

Free tutoring for writing is available through The Writing Studio. Call the ERC desk at (504) 865-5103 (M-F 9am-5pm) for their schedule. Keep in mind that this is not a proofreading service, and tutors will expect you to bring a copy of the assignment, all notes and drafts, pen or pencil, and your instructor’s e-mail address. Free, individual tutoring for other subjects is available through the Tutoring Center. Find more information at: .

Course Schedule

Week 1

TH 8/28 Introduction to course content and goals, policies and procedures. Short lecture: what is the rhetorical triangle?

Week 2

TU 9/2 In-class writing: What is “home”? HW: Read Kenneth Kusmer “The Problem of the Homeless in American History” and Barbara Duffield “Poverty Amidst Plenty” and develop a short response paper.

- How do these authors address homelessness, and what sort of stereotypes or set narratives are they

up against? How do they negotiate an interest and/or investment in the condition of homelessness against a (potentially) threatened readership? How do you read these pieces, given your encounters with and perceptions of homelessness? What does it mean to define ‘homeless’?

TH 9/4 Brief lecture: Critical reading (academic argument, reading for structure) – followed by discussion of introductory readings. HW: Read John Cassidy “Relatively Deprived: How Poor is Poor?” and James D. Wright, Beth A. Rubin, and Joel A. Devine “The Homeless: What are the Issues? What are the Controversies?” and (optional) develop a short response paper.

- How do figurations of the poverty line affect a popular understanding of what it means to be poor? How do you, before/after these articles, perceive extreme poverty and homelessness in a nation that is comparatively wealthy and upholds hard work and self-sufficiency? Address how the rhetorical strategies used by the authors of “The Homeless: What are the Issues” work to approach difficult issues, such as myths and stereotypes. How do these strategies function when the ‘common sense’ approaches to homelessness are so powerful?

Week 3

TU 9/9 Discuss Cassidy and Wright, Rubin, and Devine. HW: Read Kathleen Arnold excerpts on citizenship and Joanne Passaro “House and Home” and (optional) develop a short response paper.

- How does Arnold ground the idea of homelessness in the nation and concerns of citizenship? What is the significance of this line of thought/argument? How do you, as a reader (and most likely a citizen), respond to her as she presents her case?

- Identify the major contributions Passaro makes in this chapter (essay), and comment on why it is significant that she maps gender into space, be it private or public.

TH 9/11 Discuss Arnold and Passaro. Film: Dark Days. HW: Mike Davis Planet of Slums excerpts and Feldman excerpt. Start drafting critical response paper using at least two readings of your choice.

First paper: Begin with a stereotype of homelessness (a clear example) and unpack the image/idea associated with that stereotype. Your work in this paper is twofold. First, using readings and perhaps your own experience, explain how/why that stereotype persists. Second, using the readings, bolster an argument for a general audience that complicates this stereotype and (perhaps) dispels its claim to truth. Whatever the result, you will conclude with a more involved picture than a stereotypical image draws up. 3-4 pages.

Week 4

TU 9/16 Discuss Davis excerpts. Rough draft of paper due; guided peer review of drafts. HW: finish first paper.

TH 9/18 Final papers due. View and discuss “The Hero”. HW: Read King sections 1-3 and (optional) develop a short response paper.

- How does the form (including stylistic choices) that Berger uses impact the meaning of the language in King? If this is a novel with a social conscience, how does Berger ask the reader to (re)consider the plight of homelessness and the very nature of animality? How are Berger’s rhetorical strategies a departure from academic literature, and how does this shift the impact of his work?

Week 5

TU 9/22 Discuss King 1-3 and (handout) Elements of Narrative Form. HW: “Animal Spaces, Beastly Places” and (optional) create a short response paper.

- Bring together three texts: the novel, the reading for today, and one article from earlier in the course. Be sure to include parenthetical citations (Author page). What is at issue here? How is it (variously) important, and for whom? What is your ear/eye/mind directed to, and for what purpose?

TH 9/25 View and discuss “Sullivan’s Travels” as it relates to “The Hero,” King, and “Animal Spaces”. How does this film open a discussion of gender, nationality, and poverty? HW: Finish King and (optional) write a short response paper.

- Select one moment in the novel in which you clearly see an ethical dilemma taken up in a curious fashion, or not dealt with in traditional form (according to a mainstream morality, ignored, taken as commonsense, etc.). Address how and why this moment in the text builds the meaning of the novel as a whole, and how it affects Berger’s characters and you, the reader.

Week 6

TU 9/30 Conclude discussion of King. HW: From What is an Animal?, read “Beasts, Brutes and Monsters,” excerpts from Zygmunt Bauman, and (optional) develop a short response paper.

- Perhaps the global idea of human surplus lacks impact in a local setting. Explore how and why Berger uses this community (anywhere, any contemporary time) to tell the stories of these beings in particular, and explain your feeling on how/why this loose framework achieves emotional resonance. How is human suffering communicated in the novel and in these essays? Can it be communicated at all?

TH 10/2 Discuss “Beasts, Brutes and Monsters” and Bauman. HW: Polished rough draft. In class: Create rough sketch following this prompt:

- How does form influence and/or direct the significance of a work? Berger has created a rhetorical situation in King that produces unsettling moments for the reader. Focus on a theme in the novel and explain, to an academic audience, how that theme draws meaning (credibility, impact, significance) from elements of form in the novel. NB: You may want to turn to other readings in this unit to give depth to your argument, but it is not necessary. 4-5 pages.

Week 7

TU 10/7 Rough Draft Due for workshop. Topic sentences and transitions. Arrange to drop off a final paper to me by the end of the day Wednesday. HW: Read Animal Geographies “Le Practique Sauvage” and Kurt Borchard excerpt about “Jerry”. (Optional) Write a short response paper with the following prompt:

- Is the way that we (typically, conventionally) use animals in the U.S. based on a scheme of morality,

Intelligence, or something else? Do you have a sense how your feelings/desires are initiated and then directed when you eat certain animals or pamper others? What (history, practice, norms) do the authors of “Le Practique Sauvage” write against and with what rationale? How would a moral scheme, or one based on fitness, challenge or neglect what occurs in the Borchard piece?

TH 10/9 No school. Yom Kippur.

Week 8

TU 10/14 Discuss “Le Practique Sauvage” and Borchard excerpt. HW: Read Timbuktu parts 1-2.

TH 10/16 Discuss Timbuktu parts 1-2. HW: Read Timbuktu parts 3-4 and (optional) create a short response paper from one of the following prompts.

- Discuss how this novel is a departure from Berger’s in form/style as well as in content and literary devices. Refer to at least four items from handout: Elements of Narrative Form.

- Auster appears to be writing about commonsense understandings of homelessness uncritically. Willy, for example, is not a sympathetic character. But what if Auster was writing against a tradition while playing with it? Suggest ways that this is possible, staying close to the text.

Week 9

TU 10/21 Discuss Timbuktu parts 3-4. HW: Finish novel and (optional) short response paper.

- If you choose to write a short paper, refer to second prompt, listed under 10/17, incorporating the final chapter into your analysis. Auster plays with fundamental ideas we hold about life, love and peace here. How? Why? Use the text substantially, and do not simply repeat class discussion (such a response will not count).

TH 10/23 Discuss novel’s ending and view Charlie Chaplin’s “The Tramp” (1915) and “The Wire” (2002-2007). Draft a rough outline of Paper 3 in class (prompt is below). HW: Substantively (every sentence will change) revise draft for workshop.

- Auster’s novel presents a stereotype, but works it against the grain to produce a critique of such an idea/image. For you as a reader, it may be a more/less successful approach to representing homelessness or critiquing a “normal” viewing of it. Select a scene from Auster’s novel that you feel strongly about, and link it to a filmic representation we have seen. Discuss relevant parallels and differences as you address the idea driving both images/scenes. Keep in mind that this is not a compare/contrast paper – keep in mind that these images are constructed, not “natural.” Use at least two other sources from our class readings (so far) to scaffold your argument.

Week 10

TU 10/28 Workshop Rough Drafts. Integrate quotations, and build the argument. HW: Finish essay.

TH 10/30 Paper 3 Due. Library Database research. (Meet here and we’ll walk over together.) New Yorker slideshow. Introduce Paper 4 and Presentation.

- Paper: Draw from Chris Rose, at least two course articles from this unit, and at least two library sources of your own selection to map out a facet of post-Katrina New Orleans. Take care to choose an audience who will be challenged by what you argue, and ensure that they will not dismiss your angle. Be mindful in selecting your topic, as it should present (current and historical) complexities, including contradictions, that we have discussed. Present final paper (5-6 pages) with an annotated bibliography of all source materials.

- Presentation: Drawing from the research you have begun to accumulate for the final paper, groups will present photo images of post-Katrina New Orleans and critically read these images for the class with in-depth explications of their contents and contexts.

Week 11

TU 11/4 “This American Life” episodes and discussion. HW: Read “Leaving Desire” and “The Lost Year” from The New Yorker, “There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster,” and “New Orleans by the Numbers”. Optional: Develop a short response paper.

- How do you see the authors of these pieces address race and social class in their work? Certainly the damage from Katrina impacted people differently, but what are the specific issues people deal/t with that give traction to racial and class divides?

TH 11/6 Discuss articles. HW: “Shelter and the Storm,” “Rebuilding Affordable Housing: Inclusive Communities” and “Bringing Them All Home Six Months After” and (optional) develop a short response paper about the politics of place.

- We are reading about government policies that displace low-income residents, no matter how they are intended or presented. In these articles, authors suggest that there are many ways to read and interpret this displacement and the motivations that cause it. Perspectives are often polarized in this debate, and so your job is to rhetorically bridge oppositional perspectives. Offer a substantive reading of an instance of displacement from one perspective (e.g.: a city official, or a Lower Ninth Ward resident permanently uprooted) and explain to an oppositional perspective how and why this change had to occur.

Week 12

TU 11/11 Listen to “The Plan” from This American Life. Discuss articles. HW: Chris Rose book, pages 1-134. (It is a VERY fast read.) (Optional) Create a short response paper.

- Revisit the definitions of homelessness we entertained at the start of the semester, and compare them to the ways that Rose addresses homelessness. As you write, be mindful of the moment(s) he uses the word “homeless” and the other ways he addresses the condition of a post-Katrina New Orleans. How does economic and social privilege function in terms of “homelessness” (rhetorically, for you as a reader, and rhetorically, for Rose, the author) in this book?

TH 11/13 Discuss 1 Dead in Attic 1-134. Demonstration: Video Project. Handout: Short presentation (Due 11/21). HW: Finish 1 Dead in Attic and outline idea for presentation.

Week 13

TU 11/18 Finish discussion of 1 Dead in Attic. Workshop presentation material.

TH 11/20 Presentations. Handout: Final Project/Essay. HW: Find at least one article that will help you to build a rough draft of this project (print it, bring it in Monday).

Week 14

TU 11/25 Annotated bibliography introduction. Workshop ideas for Final Project/Essay and create rough draft.

TH 11/27 No Class – Thanksgiving Holiday.

Week 15

TU 12/2 Rough draft due with at least two library sources, 2 course sources, and Chris Rose. Guided peer-response workshop of drafts. HW: Finish research/revision.

TH 12/4 Final draft of paper 4 due with annotated bibliography. Close class.

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