English 525: LIT OF THE US 1960PRESNT {Surveillance, Sexuality, & "Sinema" in the Americas, Post-1960} | 9:30am-10:45am | TTH
SDSU | Spring 2013 | English 525

Eye/I Pledge Allegiance
Surveillance, Sexuality & "Sinema" in the Americas Post-1960
 
 
Thursday, January 17, 2013

The first day--we all rise and perform the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (an odd ritual we may not have performed since we were in grade school). We will need a flag and the internet obliges.



A decidedly peculiar practice/habit--hand over heart, we turn and recite words at some nicely decorated fabric.  The gesture, of course, is symbolic--a show of patriotic fervor, nationalist loyalty (particularly effective during times of war, etc.)

But we live in a different age, a markedly different virtual time where war always already still lurks albeit in "evolved" forms--a time of satellite surveillance and drone warfare.

America 2013!

But this is NOT a class in political science. Nor is it an exercise in the the anthropology of war. It is a literature class, an American literature survey class charged with surveying the terrain of United States fiction since 1960. 

Today's class is an exercise in greetings, salutations and welcomings--and, of course, random advertisements for a certain graduate program ;-)

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Today, we begin this survey with a large dose of cinema--David Lynch's BLUE VELVET. It is an adult film, a disturbing film, and yet it also very much encapsulates the ruling metaphors for American fiction since 1960, a world where desire, surveillance, cameras, voyeurs, criminals, conspiracies, and corruption lurk around every corner with the veneer of the innocent, the suggestion of good in a world careening between avarice, vice, and more.

WARNING: BLUE VELVET deals with adult issues--you are NOT compelled to watch this movie for the class and can petition for an alternate assignment.

 
Thursday, January 24, 2013

During seminar today, we will finish screening BLUE VELVET and break into a discussion on ways of connecting the lurid vision/imaginings of America conjured by the peculiar minds of David Lynch and his wonderful company of actors, designers, and cinematographers. One of the undercurrents of this class concerns what I call "sinema"--to be understood as a critical approach to film (and fiction in general) that addresses ideas of transgression, seduction, and the psyche. As we screen and then discuss BLUE VELVET make note of scenes, images, motifs, and symbols that are decidedly sinematic.

 
Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Having survived the semiotically charged fabric that is BLUE VELVET, we turn now to the focus of the class and the fiction since 1960 that has helped shape the contours of American literature in the late 20th century and early 21st. Walk into seminar having read the first 125-150 pages of WALKER PERCY's micro-epic from 1961 (the year I was born, ack!) THE MOVIEGOER.  Don't be deceived by the "slow" pace of this psychological novel; rather, allow your mind to mesh with the decidedly particular and peculiar resonances to be found in the mind of Binx Bolling.  Be sensitive to setting as you read--this is very much a piece of Southern fiction (as is CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES)


Thursday, January 31, 2013


Go ahead and finish the MOVIEGOER--in class, we will discuss the novel; be prepared to discuss connections between DAVID LYNCH and WALKER PERCY.

 
Tuesday, February 5, 2013

We now turn to the mad paranoid America of THOMAS PYNCHON and THE CRYING OF LOT 49 (1966)... enter the room having read the first 119 pages of Pynchon's epic peripatetic madhouse--to the end of chapter 5.  In addition to being an "American" novel, this is also very much a key piece of Californiana--as you read, see how many references to Califas you can spy that would only be recognizable to a "local" Cali-head! Additionally, be sure to be on the lookout for figures, scenes, and themes that jive with our focus on s/cinema, sexuality, surveillance, and the United States.


Thursday, February 7, 2013

Walk into our fine room having finished THE CRYING OF LOT 49. In class we will continue our discussion and attempt to mesh the world views on display in the work of Lynch, Percy, and Pynchon.
 
Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Ira Levin is IN THE HOUSE as we turn our attention to the short, fast-paced pages of THE STEPFORD WIVES (1972). Walk into our occasionally flooded chamber of literary hedonism having read up to the middle of page 95... you can finish the novel is you wish, but we won't be discussing anything that happens after page 95 till Thursday. By this early part of the semester we have already experienced brave new worlds parsed via the images and words woven by Lynch, Percy, Pynchon, and Levin--in class, let's begin to discuss what they have in common as well as places that they clash.


Thursday, February 14, 2013

Finish Levin's novel. It is Valentine's day--walk into class and tape on the back wall a hand-crafted valentine to one of the authors or director we have encountered this term. Be sure to weave in direct quotes/images from their works onto this valentine.  Other than your Etsy-inspired crafts project, be sure to finish reading Levin's uncanny tour of suburban America.

 
Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Begin THE BLUEST EYE (1970)--read to page 93 in Toni Morrison's opus. A guide to your reading? Well, read closely and slowly--allow the lyric meanderings of her prose to scar/tattoo the synapses, to touch your imagination. Here is a reading prompt I shared with graduate students last year--feel free to use it or ignore it.

UPDATE: here is a link to your first essay assignment.


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Continue your reading to page 131 in THE BLUEST EYE. Be prepared to be moved/disturbed/exhilirated by the writing you find in these pages.  Following the mandate of the class, do find moments to focus on issues of subjectivity and representation (especially with regard to issues of race), but don't be afraid to pursue your own lines of analysis as you move forward through the book
 
Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Walk into class having finished your reading of Toni Morrison's first novel.  How does Morrison's novel augment or supplement or change our understanding of late 20th century American literature? In particular, consider Morrison's engagement with Surveillance, Sexuality, & "Sinema." Motion pictures drive key elements of this singular novel.

 
Thursday, February 28, 2013

NO SEMINAR TODAY in COM 206--use the class time to see a performance of THE BLUEST EYE at the MOXIE THEATRE...  Details? Go here:


Tuesday, March 5, 2013


From African Americans in the American imaginary, black subjectivities injecting toxic self-loathing from the silver screen and the eyes of whites and blacks alike, we move now to our home turf, the U.S./ Mexico borderlands and to the unique vision of an American original, Orson Welles--especially unique when it comes to figuring/parsing the "Mexican" body in the American oculary imagination. Enter the class having read the introduction to my Tex[t]-Mex, the first half of the chapter on ORSON WELLES' TOUCH OF EVIL, and the two Seductive Hallucination Galleries.  In class we will screen a good chunk of TOUCH OF EVIL, but leave room for some discussion.

 
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Enter the room, having finished the TOUCH OF EVIL chapter--in class we will continue screening the movie and have a general discussion. If you have time, start to read the SPEEDY GONZALES chapter of Tex[t]-Mex. Optional reading... the chapter on Rita Hayworth. As you read, try to imagine ways of connecting the ideas you come across with the major themes/ideas fueling this class.

 
Tuesday, March 12, 2013

In class today, we will finish our discussion on Welles and Tex[t]-Mex. Also, turn in your first Analytical Imagination Challenge.  If you want to get ahead, read the first 103 pages of CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Read to page 183 in CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
No SEMINAR today--enjoy one of your OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES as a substitute.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Walk into the seminar room having finished CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. Our wide-ranging discussion will seek to embrace comprehensively the wide range of materials conjoined by Toole's wild imagination and euphoric comedic vision.  Be sure to have prepared at least two moments in the reading that you find to CRY OUT FOR scintillating literary exegesis--with YOU, the remarkable exegete!
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
As we prepare for our well-deserved Spring Break, we plunge into the magic of Eduardo Galeano and a true "novel" of the Americas. CENTURY OF THE WIND spans the continents of North and South America in the 20th century, ending in 1984 (not an accident).  Galeano's voracious appetite for story and history, individual and nation/state/corporation will haunt you for weeks. Come to class having read to the bottom of page 199--yes, a ton of reading, but once you start it will be hard to put down...
Thursday, March 28, 2013
It's bon voyage day for our English 525 experiment--enter our seminar room having finished the novel.  As an extra-credit opportunity, see if you can write an entry for a revision of Galeano's text that ends in 2013.  Do one entry between 1984 and the year 1999 and another for something that went down 2000 to 2013. As a resource for the class, you may want to take a peek at these FRIENDLY DICTATOR TRADING CARDS--I used to teach them as a required text in my Latin American literature seminars.
 
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Spring Break | No Seminar

 
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Spring Break | No Seminar
 
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Daniel Clowes GHOST WORLD is the order of the day with a guest lecturer from writer, professor, photograper and director Neil Kendricks. Enter the room having FINISHED Ghost World in preparation for Kendrick's lecture/discussion.

 
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Screen the trailer for Neil Kendricks documentary in progress COMICS ARE EVERYWHERE.  Consider the connection between comics, film, and American literary history as you prepare for today's lecture. 


Sunday, April 14, 2013--> Paper 2 assignments distributed online!
Tuesday, April 16
HERNANDEZ | HUMAN DIASTROPHISM

We are going to concentrate on the first 122 pages of Gilbert Hernandez's magnum opus--as you read consider the connection between art, violence, culture and more in this profoundly moving and disturbing American bildungsroman.
Thursday, April 18
HERNANDEZ | HUMAN DIASTROPHISM

Walk into class having completed, carefully & diligently, your reading of the first 122 pages of Gilbert Hernandez's magnificent HUMAN DIASTROPHISM. Come to class with a xerox, or, using your smartphone, a picture, you have printed out of the ONE panel (not page! panels are the boxes that make up the page) you view to be the most complex/problematic/loaded/provocative of the novel.  You will use this in an in-class writing assignment that will open our session. Also, please do not come to seminar if you have not purchased and read HUMAN DIASTROPHISM--university-level work demands university-level preparation! Thanks!

Also, remember, TODAY is the deadline to submit a proposal for an independently derived thesis for your 2nd paper!!!

 
Tuesday, April 23
FIGHT CLUB! The first rule in an American Literature survey course, 1960 to the present is that YOU READ Fight Club. All of it--the novel! Save the afterword for later.  That's right. You read the novel.  The second rule of the class is that you walk into the seminar room ready to..... er, not fight, but TALK about Chuck Palahniuk's FIGHT CLUB, and talk about it in a way that matters, that sweats, that bleeds, that rocks the house.  So read it already--we are going to be in for a hell of a ride! For today's class, read to page 136.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
FIGHT CLUB is now over, as, before you enter the seminar room, you have completed your reading of the novel--whilst you are not REQUIRED to read Palahniuk's Afterword, it won't be a waste of time if you do.

(note change)
MONDAY, APRIL 29, 2013

Your 2ND ANALYTICAL IMAGINATION CHALLENGE is DUE today, at my office, Arts and Letters 273--drop by before noon with your pile of delightful hermeneutical issue and sneak a peek at my ridiculous office.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Walk into class having read the first 100 pages of Salvador Plascencia's remarkable PEOPLE OF PAPER. Lurking somewhere between the real and the fantastic, Plascencia's eclectic first novel explores an American (Latin American  & Unitedstatesian) terrain  populated with singular characters and scenarios. In the end, both "fiction" and "America" are less knowable than they might have appeared to be at first glance.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Finish your reading of PEOPLE OF PAPER; also, please do walk into our chamber of literary delights having visually consumed CHRIS WARE's ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY volume is filled with memorable stories.  For the purposes of our class, you are only REQUIRED to read the stories focused on BIG TEX, RUSTY BROWN, and ROCKET SAM.  
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
FINAL EXAM! Actually! the final in-class imagination challenge...only painful if you have not done the readings/screenings!!!!!

Thursday, May 16, 8am in COM 206
This is the day designated to us for our "final exam"--in lieu of this, I will be in our classroom at this time to return your finals, final papers, and share with you if you wish, your final grade (this will take place between 8 to 8:20, after that, we will screen Alex Rivera's SLEEP DEALER, a final, fitting text to close our 20th and 21st century meditations on surveillance, sinema, and the Americas). You are welcome to stay for the screening or not! If you do, feel free to bring food to share, drinks, etc...

Wallpaper: "Flag-waving Patriot"
Guillermo Nericcio García, 2013