ENGL-525.01 SCHED#: 21391 LIT OF THE US 1960-PRESNT | 1100-1215 TTH W. NERICCIO


#americansubterranean

Probing Post-1960 Existential Noir in U.S. Literature, Graphic Narrative, Film, Photography, & Art

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“The dream-thoughts and the dream-content lie before us like two versions of the same content in two different languages, or rather, the dream-content looks to us like a translation of the dream-thoughts into another mode of expression, and we are supposed to get to know its signs and laws of grammatical construction by comparing the original and the translation.”


Sigmund Freud
The Interpretation of Dreams

photography by Francesca Woodman--more here.

A DROP CAP OF THE LETTER
                        "I"--FIRST WORD OF PARAGRAPH HERE IS
                        "INTO."nto the deep, into the subterranean -- a shadowy realm of dreams and nightmares: literature. Beneath the surface we will go, probing shadows in the dark -- finding out that the shadow is a mirror: surprise!


There are any number of ways of understanding our adventure together this semester, our examination of something I am calling the #american subterranean. And while Freud's passage above partially outlines the essence of our mission, it does not utterly contain or complete it. What we will find together, here at the outset, is unknowable and, ultimately, will be determined by what YOU bring to the table in our weekly Zoom-based adventures.


As this is, on the surface, a survey of American literature and culture after 1960, there are some things we can expect from the start, and a quick perusal of the required book list reveals this: Thomas Pynchon. Check. Kurt Vonnegut. Check. Chuck Palahniuk. Check. But there is more to "American" literature than outrageously fantastic masterworks by that rowdy triumverate. And so other talents will come to our attention: cutting edge graphic narrative by Emil Ferris; mesmerizing memoirs and family history by Maxine Hong Kingston; eerie fictional labyrinths by Susan Daitch, and more.

 

Inspired by these ideas and others, our class will walk together into what I am calling the “American Subterranean,” a haunting, sensual, disturbing, evocative world of mirrors, books, movies, photography, art and cinema, focused on the underworld, the unconscious, and more.  In the recent Netflix series Stranger Things, young Americans are harassed by creatures from a place called “the upside down”—this dangerous dark underworld evolves into a dominating figure or organizational symbol for the series (and maybe for our era).

 

All of our adventures this semester will fall into this seamy dark noir category.  The final lineup of writers/works is still under construction, but the final roster will likely include novels by Carlos Fuentes, Thomas Pynchon, and Rosina Conde; movies by Orson Welles and Spike Lee, photography by Francesca Woodman and Diane Arbus, and much more to come. The class is designed for English undergraduates and graduate students, but open to all majors and minors with no expertise in literature, art, etc. expected or preferred.




his is a university-level course in comics, literature, film, art, and the internet--as it is thematically focused on issues of representation, subjectivity, psychology, and sexuality, it should not come as a shock that students in the class may, from time to time, encounter characters, ideas, situations, images, language, and scenarios that make them uneasy.


WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSITY!  The antithesis of a place of worship, the flipside of a space dedicated to faith and belief, the university is a site of questioning--a sacred space of critical thinking, skepticism, cynicism and irony. So open your eyes, jump-start your mind, and prepare to enter the choppy corridors of the always already evolving world of comics and history.

Required Books and Cinema

The best place to get books is where they are cheapest; some of the books have special deals associated with them if you get them through Aztec Shops Campus Bookstore--their book portal is here.



Click each cover below to see the proper edition of all the books we are studying together this semester!  Should you buy print editions or digital editions? What about pirated pdfs? You are welcome to pursue what you see fit, but, despite the expense, nothing beats working with the best, printed edition of the book. Should you rent or buy? That is up to you!  But remember, your bookshelf is like a mirror of the journey of your psyche -- a snapshot of the evolution of your imaginations.

An empty bookshelf  =  an erased intellectual legacy/heritage.


century of the wind
eduardo galeano

the crying of lot 49
thomas pynchon

aura
carlos fuentes

slaughterhouse five: the graphic novel, k vonnegut + R North + A Monteys, ill.


american beauty
sam mendes



blue velvet
david lynch


proust in black
fanny daubigny

china men
maxine hong kingston

l.c.
susan daitch

fight club
chuck palahniuk


sleep dealer
alex rivera


la jetée
chris marker


talking #browntv: latinas & latinos
on the screen
frederick luis aldama
& william "memo" nericcio

drone visions
naief yehya

my favorite thing is monsters
emil ferris

intruders
adrian tomine


OPTIONAL

BOOKS


sabrina & corina
kali fajardo-anstine

people of paper
salvardor plascencia


Spring 2021
PASSPORT
ENGL 525: #americansubterranean
A Description of How Your Work Will Be Evaluated

William A. Nericcio | memo@sdsu.edu
Director, MALAS; Professor, English y CompLit

his section of your subterranean syllabus documents how your work will be evaluated this Spring 2021 semester. Here you will find all the bureaucratic gates, cages, and locks -- all the meager statutes, ordinances, edicts, and formulas -- that will allow our zoom-based (thx Covid_19!) American Literature-focused literary collective to thrive. Let me underscore that you have absolute intellectual freedom in our seminar, BUT to receive these awesome rights, you must also follow the reasonable responsibilities outlined on this page. After all, we want to have a great time, be the best literature/film studies class on the West Coast even (take that USC! Eat my dust Stanford!) But to do that, we need room for intellectual play--a safe subterranean asylum that will allow us to complete our semester-long project.

PASSPORT RULE 1
BOOKS_BOOKS_BOOKS

BUY THE BOOKS AND READ THEM--DON'T LOG ONTO ZOOM WITHOUT HAVING READ YOUR BOOK! Though we very much adore living in the 21st century, I am asking you to use ANALOG, printed, old school, old gangster paper books in this class. Of course, if you prefer kindle, noom, etc, there is nothing I can do about it.

My main concern is that when I do a page call-out during lecture, you will not know where in the book I am doing a close reading. 

Why is that important?

Because I want YOU to be in a critical position to question my close readings or to augment and adjust them with your own interpretations and suggestions. So the way it works is that when you log-onto Zoom for our synchronous class sessions, you will have completed the reading that appears on your the day-to-day class calendar!

Please note the word "finished" (not "started," not "skimmed," not "glanced," and most decidedly NOT "but I read the Cliffs/Sparks Notes!)

Coming to a university literature / film / cultural studies class without doing the reading is like a gardener trying to raise roses without getting her/his hands filthy, a surgeon trying to operate without a scalpel, a fireman without an axe ...

Do the readings. Do them twice if you can MAKE the time! The quality of our class depends upon your dedicated work and your relentless and independent curiosity. Without your periodic intellectual donations, the class is likely to evolve into a boring, even painful waste of time. 

PASSPORT RULE 2
Charlie-Delta_Thief:

PLAGIARISM is for cads, thieves, and idiots who desire an "F" for the class. Plagiarism comes from the Latin word, "plagiarius" which means kidnapper, plunderer, or (get this!) thief--not a GOOD thing. In the university, plagiarism refers to the art and crime of presenting other people's work under your own signature, aka cutting and pasting copied crap from Wikipedia--definitely a BAD thing. While your professor is forbidden by CSU/SDSU code from tattooing the word LOSER on the foreheads of guilty students, he can promise that felonious students will be remanded to the state-authorized SDSU executioners.  Read THIS as well--SDSU is SERIOUS about this shit, so don't take any chances!  Rely on your own mind and your own precious imagination!

Major Course Requirements

GRADING INFORMATION
  • 25%  Attendance, Quizzes, In-class, In-class writing
  • 25%  The Subterranean Imagination Challenge (Essay)
  • 25%  Final Examination
  • 25%  Participation: in-class; online; social media; office hours, etc

THE SUBTERRANEAN IMAGINATION CHALLENGE

You will be asked to write ONE 8-10 page essay (also know as THE SUBTERRANEAN IMAGINATION CHALLENGE) during the course of the term. Please note that you will never be compelled to write about something you absolutely hate. Though I will provide you with a list of prompts, please feel free to see me at any time over the course of the semester during office hours to pitch/brainstorm essay ideas.

FINAL EXAMINATION

There will be an Imagination Challenge In-Class Festival (aka, the FINAL EXAM) on the last regularly scheduled day of class: Thursday, May 6, 2021 at our regular class time of 11am. Your final is absolutely comprehensive; it assumes you have read all the books and screened all the movies that are part of our required work. If you do the work, the final is a breeze--even "fun" if you can believe it.

QUIZZES & ATTENDANCE

During the semester, you can expect several In-class Panic-Inducing Challenges otherwise known as CHECK-YOU-DID-THE-READING QUIZZES. You can expect these miserable quizzes from time to time, the number of quizzes depending on how many of you are nostalgic for high school. In other words, if everyone acts like a talented university student, we will enjoy FEW if any quizzes during our semester. 

Coming to class for each seminar session is NOT optional--the whole point of this class is to work together, the idea being that we creatively and magically convert our classroom into a chaotic, unpredictable, and exciting intellectual laboratory. Missing class, you miss, as well, the whole point of the adventure. So please bypass no more than three classes during the semester--you are responsible for any work/notes you miss when you are absent. If you miss MORE than three classes during the term and your grade will decay in an ugly way. EXAMPLES: your hard-earned A- will morph into a B-; your "gentleman's C" will appear on the webportal as a "D. Ditching this class too often will be as fun as a case of flesh-eating virus.

Do you receive any second chances in this class on the off chance you miss a quiz, blow an assignment, or generally screwup altogether? Luckily, your eccentric Professor is a recovering Catholic and believes in the wonders of absolution--from time to time we will have out-of-class cineTREK© assignments, aka EXTRA-CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES; these can be used to atone for an extra-absence, a missed quiz, or some other class-impacting catastrophe you may experience during the term.

DIGITAL/VIRTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Our main social media site for this class, Facebook-based, is located here (it will say "Simulated Americans," the name of an past class). If you are a member of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s mad hallucinatory experiment in digitized, self-mirroring, then you are invited to post class-related links, images, videos, articles, etc at least ONCE a month or 5 total for the whole semester. If you have not bought into Zuckerberg’s mad experiment and stay away from Facebook like the plague, you have a second choice--you can directly submit a posting to the simulated americans tumblr page--anonymous submissions are allowed here for those of your who don't want Edward Snowden peering in your digital window!  You can also contribute to our own instagram hashtag, which goes by the catchy, if difficult to type, #americansubterranean. If Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram remain alien to your consciousness, you can send your suggested links/images/videos to me via email to memo@sdsu.edu; I don’t promise that I will post ALL of your forwarded materials but I will try, however, to see that some of them make their way to the fabulous internets.  

OFFICE HOURS

nericcio's office, a viewWhy visit me during 'office hours'? Why not? If only to experience the madness of my working studio space! You are warmly invited to visit me in office hours at least once during the semester if you can. At SDSU, it's easy to fall through the cracks, to feel that you are nothing but a Red ID# or some warm pile of sentient flesh filling a seat. In order to convince you that the Professor teaching you is occasionally human, please make a point during the semester to take the time to introduce yourself in person. My office hours will be on Tuesday afternoons from 2pm to 4pm in AL 273 (if I am not there, look for me in the SDSU Press office, AL 283). If these hours are inconvenient, do not hesitate to email me for an appointment either at  memo@sdsu.edu or bnericci@mail.sdsu.edu

You can also call me at 619.594.1524 either to schedule an appointment or discuss your questions via telephone, but keep in mind I don't check my answering machine very often!

professor nericcio in office
                  hours
Professor Nericcio awaiting students in office hours, AL 273



Subterranean Calendar

THURSDAY, January 21, 2021

It's the first day of the semester and we hit the ground running with our first book, Eduardo Galeano's remarkable opus CENTURY OF THE WIND. Read up to the year 1960 in preparation for the first class. That's a fair amount of reading before the semester starts, but two things: 1. You are English and Comparative Literature majors or graduate students so reading is your life's blood; and 2. With the pandemic ongoing, reading is the safest thing you can do these days. When you arrive at the year 1960 in Galeano's amazing whirlwind of a "novel" (no, really, what is this book!?) put it down and throw yourself into the amazing prose stylings of American legend James Baldwin: "Fifth Avenue, Uptown. My suspicion is that Galeano's review of the century will bring you up to speed in such a way so that hitting Baldwin's essay will make you feel part of that moment -- we will see how it plays out in class. About class, which starts at 11am sharp, ... how do you join it? Click the Zoomlink here.




Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Class starts at 11am sharp--
Click the Zoomlink here.

We enter our chamber of zoom having finished our reading of Eduardo Galeano's CENTURY OF THE WIND. Galeano's vision of the Americas is wide-ranging. And, for a class tasked with studying American Literature from 1960 to the present, it provides a necessary review of a wildly unpredictable and violent 20th century. In class we will continue our discussion of Galeano's project -- come to class with a passage from the book that you want to do a close reading of in class (if you want to write out this brief close reading, do so, but do also be prepared to share your writing with the class).




THURSDAY, January 28, 2020

Leaving the visionary prose and prose fiction of Eduardo Galeano and James Baldwin, we dig deeper into the #americansubterranean as we turn to the mad paranoid America of THOMAS PYNCHON and THE CRYING OF LOT 49 (1966). Enter our Zoom session 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" born and raised Californian!
Additionally, be sure to be on the lookout for figures, scenes, and themes that jive with our focus on what we are calling existential noir: mirrors, duplicity, paranoia, shadows, darkness, and more. For instance, ponder the following -- why is a haunting painting, "Embroidering Earth's Mantle" by a Spanish ex-pat who relocated to Mexico, Remedios Varo, woven into the DNA of this singular novel? Click the image opposite and study it before reading the novel.




Tuesday, February 2, 2021

First edition, The Crying of Lot 49 | 1965 | Click to expand

Over the weekend you have diligently finished reading Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 for today's class via Zoom.  Pynchon's novel does not come out of nowhere -- something had happened to Americans and "America" since Fitzgerald's Gatsby was all rage on the East Coast, and since Hemingway's stoic heroes braved the wilds of Europe for war, existential crisis and more. Featuring Oedipa Maas, one of the more striking characters in 20th century American Literature, 'Lot 49, plumbs the depths of the #americansubterranean -- a perfect, timely compliment to our American age of fear, loathing, QAnon, Parler, fake news and more. Really, is Oedipa's conundrum any less profound than our own? She confronts, as we do an American republic beset by subterranean resistance -- much of it to fictions consumed at face value as "real." Pynchon's micro-epic, his shortest work, packs a wallop as he treats us to a labyrinth of dark shadows and disguised players.  In the end, we walk into this 20th century heart of darkness knowing less than when we came in, and fearing more. When you finish the novel, read this feature piece on Pynchon from New York Magazine's The Vulture.





Thursday, February 4, 2021

First American edition, Aura | 1965 | Click to expand


From Pynchon's 'Lot 49, an American novel conceived in Mexico we move to Mexico itself and into the dark corridors of Carlos Fuentes's Aura -- our class meeting is here via Zoom. Fuentes was the poster boy for the Latin American Boom novelists -- along with others like Julio Cortázar, Luisa Valenzuela, and Gabriel García Márquez.

Handsome, dashing, and dramatic, the son of a Mexican diplomat, Fuentes spent his teen years from 12 to 18 in Washington DC, becoming a sort of proto-Chicano -- Mexican to be sure, but suffused with an American East Coast sensibility (and an international world view). Fuentes's Aura is a classic gothic novella, but it is also something more as well, inscribing an allegorical history of European conquest in Mexico while also telling one hell of a psychological horror tale. As with Pynchon's 'Lot 49, the novella evinces a postmodern, post-structural sensibility, focused on hermeneutics and textuality, with the chief male protagonist, Felipe Montero, a cocky historian, ruling the roost till he is subsumed (eliminated?) by a matriarchal new world order -- imagine Edgar Allan Poe combined with the Marquis de Sade and you get Aura. Read the whole novela for class today -- tons of reading? Not at all!

Did you know? Your professor worked as Fuentes's Graduate Teaching and Research assistant at Cornell in 1985. Here is a picture of us, together, from a feature lecture he delivered at UCSD years later.





Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Zoom calls and so, you jump onto the streaming channel to thrill to the dark, funny satire of Kurt Vonnegut -- some of you will be reading SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE, others will be reading the graphic novel.  I will try to run the lectures / discussions so they are diverting and compelling for both of these readerly constituencies. If you are reading Ryan North's and Albert Monteys's graphic novel adaptation of SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE OR THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE, read up to page ... yikes, no page numbers in the graphic novel ... so read up to this double-page spread:


If you are reading the novel, read up to the end of Chapter 6, regardless of the edition you have -- I have the Delacorte Press hardcover and in that edition, Chapter 6 ends on page 145. Since the 1960s till today (reading Galeano suggests since 1900 till today) the United States has been at war with this nation or that in declared and secret (subterranean) conflicts spanning the globe. Vonnegut's anti-war anthem novel is also a dynamic dissection of the cultural and sociological consequences for individuals and the general population of these decades of war. His is a lurid, funny, tragic eye -- the Twain of our century, the Moliere and Swift of our American nightmares, Vonnegut's lucid, down-to-earth ironies will keep you turning the pages whether it is the novel or the graphic novel you are reading.  If you have the time and own both works, read the novel first and then the graphic novel in term, trying to imagine the decision making that went into the comic adaptation of Vonnegut's masterpiece.


Thursday, February 11, 2021

Enter your Zoom portal having finished your reading of Kurt Vonnegut's SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE -- either the original novel or the graphic novel adaptation by North and Montey.  By this point of the semester you have Galeano, Baldwin, Fuentes, and Vonnegut under your belt, into your eyes and psyche. Are there any general conclusions we can begin to make about the #americansubterranean? Any trends or tendencies we can begin to enumerate?

Not required but valuable are Salman Rushdie's thoughts on Vonnegut's SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE ... give it a read when you finish the novel.


Signed First Edition of Slaughterhouse-Five, click to enlarge




Tuesday, February 16, 2021


On your own, before class begins, screen AMERICAN BEAUTY, directed by Sam Mendes, a Brit, and written by Alan Ball, from Atlanta, Georgia. We will have a one-hour Zoom discussion today at 11:00am sharp. You may also want to check out the discussion linked to here -- not required -- only recommended!

As you watch the film, take notes as you would for any text in the class--consider thematic connections, in particular, between the world view of Kurt Vonnegut and that of Sam Mendes/Alan Ball. What has happened to the America of the 1970s as we move closer to the 21st century we live in?




Thursday, February 18, 2021


On your own, before class begins, screen BLUE VELVET, written and directed by David Lynch. We will have a one-hour Zoom discussion today at 11:00am sharp. If you can, skip down below to the description of our Thursday, February 25, 2021 guest lecture which will focus both on BLUE VELVET and your next reading, PROUST IN BLACK.

David Lynch is a cunning master of the American Subterranean and his masterwork, BLUE VELVET, knowingly plumbs the depths of "innocent" Mid-America with a razor sharp eye dipped in a reality that is hard to witness; as with AMERICAN BEAUTY, take notes as you sceen the film, making sure to identify moments in the movie that cry out for investigation and discussion.




Tuesday, February 23, 2021

class zoom link

What in the hell are we doing reading a piece of intellectual history, literary criticism, and film/cultural theory in an American literature class? The mystery is solved as you begin to read Fanny Daubigny's PROUST IN BLACK. What begins as a piece inspired by French writer Marcel Proust (IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME) ends up being an existential meditation on Los Angeles, the City of Angels, as a kind of Proustian fiction, with Hollywood and its productions feeding the shadowy pulse of this West Coast urban site.  For class today read to page 75--don't be shy about looking up and screening scenes from films written about in these pages (it's kind of what YouTube was inventend to do!). As you read, consider the goals (and the tricks) of Professor Daubigny, a CSU Professor at Cal State Fullerton--the book unfolds as a kind of labyrinth about the labyrinth that is LA. In addition to reading these pages from PROUST IN BLACK also read the interview with Daubigny here on the SDSU Press blog.

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Finish reading PROUST IN BLACK--then strap yourself in for ...

Hearing with a Severed Ear
In Search of Le Petit Noir Musical Phrase in David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET and Fanny Daubigny’s PROUST IN BLACK
Dr. Pam Fox-Kuhlken

Thursday Feb. 25, 2021, 11am to 12:15
live on ZOOM! Register here:  http://bit.ly/proust-fox-kuhlken-malas



MALAS 2021 CULTURAL STUDIES LECTURE SERIES
malas.sdsu.edu | co-sponsored by sdsupress.sdsu.edu
What is the sound of noir? Like subterranean existential American noir, a fictional Sonata catapulted Marcel Proust’s Parisian narrator into ethereal timelessness with its hidden portions veiled in mist…offering elusive melancholic knowledge to anyone with ears to hear. It takes a subterranean, altered ear to hear noir’s wistful melody.  Join this investigation into Proust’s le petit phrase in our noir texts: the triggering phrase that ignites Frank’s deviant fantasies in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, and the undisclosed phrases Fanny Daubigny heard while composing her silent experimental essay, Proust in Black, set in noir’s capital city, Los Angeles. Please enter this multi-media cabaret of music and music theory. What to expect? Imagery; interviews and essays by David Lynch and Fanny Daubigny; theory including the musical semiotics of Gilles Deleuze and Umberto Eco; phenomenology of Gaston Bachelard and Edmund Husserl; and mystery.

Pam Fox Kuhlken taught English & Comp Lit, Religious Studies, and Classics & Humanities for 13 years at SDSU (the highlight was Intro to Cultural Studies for MALAS!) and is now professing the Humanities at Pepperdine University, writing creative projects (about T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land at its centennial in 2022) and nonfiction poetic monologues (of the 117 Nobel Literature Laureates' banquet speeches), contemplating law school or the next big thing. With Hamlet, she remains ready: "Not a whit, we defy augury. There's special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.” She has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, an M.A. in Poetics, and an M.A. in Theological and Biblical Studies, and just returned from oyster bar-hopping in a foot of Boston snow after helping her daughter move in for her first in-person semester at M.I.T. Find her essays in such journals as Modernism/Modernity (Johns Hopkins), Comparative Literature (Penn State), Confluence(Loyola), Christianity and Literature (Tulane), Religion & Education (Taylor & Francis).

The Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences Program in the College of Arts and Letters | malas.sdsu.edu | Co-sponsored by the publisher of Fanny Daubigny’s PROUST IN BLACK, SDSU Press, and the #americansubterranean class, English 525, @ SDSU Spring 2021 | Register for the lecture free here:

ZOOMLINK
http://bit.ly/proust-fox-kuhlken-malas





Tuesday, March 2, 2021--via Zoom.

From our daliance with Daubigny, Proust, Lynch and more--a week where a Comparative Literature approach to American Literature was in full force--we move back to our post 1960s chronology and to the striking prose of Maxine Hong Kingston. As with Galeano was are with a writer resurrecting via narration the shades of fallen figures from the past. But Hong Kingston is more genealogist than historian as she converses with the ghosts of her own family, retelling their stories and bringing them to life again. Hong Kingston had already achieved fame and fortune with her classic WOMAN WARRIOR when she changed gears and opted to focus on men from her family. Read to page 162, the end of the short chapter entitled "Alaska China Men." If you can, make the time and read this engrossing feature piece on Maxine Hong Kingston from the New Yorker.

Thursday, March 4, 2021

Weary, with eyes blurry, you stumble onto Zoom for our class today having finished the epic amazingness that is CHINA MEN. As with Galeano we may be at pains to characterize this writing. Is it history? memoir? genealogy? homage? Then again, does it matter? Rereading the tales of tragedy, success, discovery, disappointment and more that we gather from Hong Kingston's pages, we emerge from the exercise having learned so much more. For class today, write a page or two in the style of Hong Kingston on a man from your family. Have it ready to share for the final segment of today's class.


Also, surprise! Today you will receive your Subterranean Imagination Challenge (aka, the big scary essay / paper/ thingie). It is due Friday, March 26, 2021 at noon--sent to me via email as an attachment.






Tuesday, March 9, 2021 via Zoom!

Cover of the 1st British edition of LC

There is no better American fiction writer presently spelunking the corridors of the American unconscious than Susan Daitch. Obsessively exposing the threads feeding the dreams and nightmares of Americans everywhere, Daitch etches micro-histories of erased fictional personages at the crossroads of history, technology, and art. The women personages you will encounter in LC are remarkable for having been unremarkable, unforgettable for having been overlooked and erased (and, in this novel, restored). Read LC to page 129
Thursday, March 11, 2021 via Zoom!

Read LC to page 215--the novel leads throught the lives and imaginations of three remarkable women: Lucienne Crozier, Willa Rehnfield, and Jane Amme. As you the pages turn readers become more and more aware of the subterranean connections that connect these three lives--simultaneously, however, Daitch's novelistic machinations are working like Remedios Varo's painting in THE CRYING OF LOT '49. Watch for this as you are reading!







UPDATED Subterranean Imagination Challenge Prompts!


Subterranean Imagination Challenge (aka, the big scary essay / paper/ thingie). It is due Friday, March 26, 2021 at noon--sent to me via email as an attachment.





Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Finish L.C., hang with Daitch! Hit the poster below to get all the details! It should be a very special day--you are welcome to have your book-loving friends join us (just share this registration link here.




click to expand:





Thursday, March 18, 2021

Welcome to the pages of FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahniuk--you will enter the our
Zoom! session this morning having read the first 10 chapters up to page 85 in the most common trade paperback edition!





It is Tuesday, March 23, 2021 and you have finished reading Palahniuk's FIGHT CLUB. Join us live via Zoom! and be sure to bring a select quotation from the last 20 pages or so of the novel, that you view/read to be essential for an understanding of the book. Please write this out this quote along with a paragraph justification for your selection and have it ready to share in class with your classmates.
Thursday, March 25, 2021

No Class--work on your essays!

Friday, March 26, 2021: Your Subterranean Imagination Challenge Due! Noon! via email to bnericci@sdsu.edu







Tuesday, March 30, 2020
REST AND RECOVERY DAY





Thursday, April 1, 2020

No synchronous class today -- however ... As an addition to your REST AND RECOVERY this week, I want you to screen the two movies listed on your list of required texts: Chris Marker's La Jetèe and Alex Rivera's Sleep Dealer. If you wish, you can begin reading Drone Visions by Naief Yehya as it is this book that I want you to filter the film screenings through--or is it the film screenings I want you to filter the book through? Probably both! You can also start reading chapters in Talking #BrownTV. Only if you want to! Not required today!





Tuesday, April 6, 2020

Synchronous class though the magic of
Zoom! Today we turn to the pages of Frederick Aldama's and yours truly's TALKING #BrownTV. Read to page 109. As you read, try to read our critical cultural studies text through the lenses of both SLEEP DEALER (which has a cameo in the book) and LA JETÈE (whose savvy Chris Markerian spirit infuses the work of both Aldama and myself).


Thursday, April 8, 2020

You fire up your magic Zoom machine having pre-registered here--a special link for our public lecture today! You've also prepared for today's class by finishing the book. All of it! Every page! ;-)

Decoding Latinx Dreams & Nightmares of Speedy Gonzales, Pepe Le Pew, the Frito Bandito, Breaking Bad and Narcos: Talking #BrownTV

With Frederick “Fede” Aldama, Professor, The Ohio State University, and, yours truly, William “Memo” Nericcio

#BreakingNews!!! –you’re hosting a public real-time streaming lecture by me and Frederick Aldama, the Ohio State University. The lecture will feature readings from our new OSU Press book TALKING #BrownTV: Latinas and Latinos on the Screen as well as a discussion of contemporary raging debates concerning stereotypes, cancel culture, beloved cartoon characters, and scary Latinas/os on TV.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2020

Day 1: DRONE VISIONS, read to page 83


Thursday, April 15, 2020

REST AND RECOVERY DAY
CATCH UP WITH YOUR READING DAY







Tuesday, April 20, 2020 Zoom! DAY 2 Drone Visions, Finish the book. Special Lecture!





Thursday, April 22, 2020 VIA Zoom!

You can't wait to get to class today as we dive into the quiet minimal existential sadness that is Adrian Tomine's INTRUDERS. There is much akin between the subterranean and the intestitial, between the underground and transience. And Tomine hits it just right in this mini graphic novella masterpiece! Read the entire book for class today.

When you finish this short work--read this! I think you'll like it.... AFTER you finish it!






Tuesday, April 27, 2020 VIA Zoom!

Day 1, Emil Ferris's MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS--no page numbers, oddly, read to here:

Thursday, April 29, 2020 -- Zoom!
 

Day 2, MY FAVORITE THING IS MONSTERS--Again, the book has NO PAGE NUMBERS--so try to read/see to this page:





Tuesday, May 4, 2020 via  Zoom!

Day 3 of My Favorite Thing is Monsters--for today, finish Emil Ferris's remarkable graphic novel.

We will also have, towards the end of class, a
Quick Mini Review for the Final!!! Utterly optional--
so if you want to leave when the review starts, that is cool as well.

Thursday, May 6, 2020

Subterranean Final Exam -- Sign on to Zoom! at 11am sharp--if you can, sign on at 10:55am so you can be settled. The exam will be sent to me via email so have an email made out to bnericci@sdsu.edu ready to go when we begin the exam! How exciting! We a are almost done!




#davidlynch #thomaspynchon #francescawoodman
#kurtvonnegut #DianeArbus + more to come ...

animated gif by annaxmalina


The Fine Print |  SDSU POLICIES

Accommodations: 


If you are a student with a disability and are in need of accommodations for this class, please contact Student Ability Success Center at (619) 594-6473 as soon as possible.  Please know accommodations are not retroactive, and I cannot provide accommodations based upon disability until I have received an accommodation letter from Student Ability Success Center.


Student Privacy and Intellectual Property: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) mandates the protection of student information, including contact information, grades, and graded assignments. I will use [TinyLetter.com] to communicate with you, and I will not post grades or leave graded assignments in public places. Students will be notified at the time of an assignment if copies of student work will be retained beyond the end of the semester or used as examples for future students or the wider public. Students maintain intellectual property rights to work products they create as part of this course unless they are formally notified otherwise.


Religious observances: According to the University Policy File, students should notify the instructors of affected courses of planned absences for religious observances by the end of the second week of classes


Student email addresses: Students are provided with an SDSU Gmail account for their official use.  This SDSU email address will be used for all communications.  Per university policy, students are responsible for checking their official university email once per day, please see Student Official Email Address Use Policy here.


Academic Honesty:  The University adheres to a strict policy prohibiting cheating and plagiarism. Examples of academic dishonesty include but are not limited to:


      copying, in part or in whole, from another's test or other examination;

      obtaining copies of a test, an examination, or other course material
without the permission of the instructor;

      collaborating with another or others in work to be presented without the permission of the instructor;

      falsifying records, laboratory work, or other course data;

      submitting work previously presented in another course, if contrary to the rules of the course;

      altering or interfering with grading procedures;

      assisting another student in any of the above;

      using sources verbatim or paraphrasing without giving proper attribution (this can include phrases, sentences, paragraphs and/or pages of work);

      copying and pasting work from an online or offline source directly and calling it your own;

      using information you find from an online or offline source without giving the author credit;

      replacing words or phrases from another source and inserting your own words or phrases.

The California State University system requires instructors to report all instances of academic misconduct to the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities. Academic dishonesty will result in disciplinary review by the University and may lead to probation, suspension, or expulsion.  Instructors may also, at their discretion, penalize student grades on any assignment or assessment discovered to have been produced in an academically dishonest manner.


Resources for students:  A complete list of all academic support services--including the Writing Center and  Math Learning Center--is available on the Student Affairs’ Academic Success website. Counseling and Psychological Services (619-594-5220) offers confidential counseling services by licensed therapists; you can Live Chat with a counselor at http://go.sdsu.edu/student_affairs/cps/therapist-consultation.aspx between 4:00pm and 10:00pm, or call San Diego Access and Crisis 24-hour Hotline at (888) 724-7240.

 

Sexual violence / TItle IX mandated reporting:  As an instructor, one of my responsibilities is to help create a safe learning environment on our campus. I am a mandated reporter in my role as an SDSU employee. It is my goal that you feel able to share information related to your life experiences in classroom discussions, in your written work, and in our one-on-one meetings. I will seek to keep the information you share private to the greatest extent possible. However, I am required to share information regarding sexual violence on SDSU’s campus with the Title IX coordinator, Jessica Rentto 619-594-6017. She (or her designee) will contact you to let you know about accommodations and support services at SDSU and possibilities for holding accountable the person who harmed you. Know that you will not be forced to share information you do not wish to disclose and your level of involvement will be your choice. If you do not want the Title IX Officer notified, instead of disclosing this information to your instructor, you can speak confidentially with the following people on campus and in the community. They can connect you with support services and discuss options for pursuing an investigation. Sexual Violence Victim Advocate 619-594-0210 or Counseling and Psychological Services 619-594-5220, psycserv@sdsu.edu. For more information regarding your university rights and options as a survivor of sexual misconduct or sexual violence, please visit titleix.sdsu.edu or sdsutalks.sdsu.edu.


Classroom Conduct Standards:  SDSU students are expected to abide by the terms of the Student Conduct Code in classrooms and other instructional settings.  Prohibited conduct includes:

      Willful, material and substantial disruption or obstruction of a University-related activity, or any on-campus activity.

      Participating in an activity that substantially and materially disrupts the normal operations of the University or infringes on the rights of members of the University community.

      Unauthorized recording, dissemination, or publication (including on websites or social media) of lectures or other course materials.

      Conduct that threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person within or related to the University community, including

1.   physical abuse, threats, intimidation, or harassment.

2.   sexual misconduct.


Violation of these standards will result in referral to appropriate campus authorities.


Medical-related absences: Students are instructed to contact their professor/instructor/coach in the event they need to miss class, etc. due to an illness, injury or emergency.  All decisions about the impact of an absence, as well as any arrangements for making up work, rest with the instructors.  Student Health Services (SHS) does not provide medical excuses for short-term absences due to illness or injury. When a medical-related absence persists beyond five days, SHS will work with students to provide appropriate documentation. When a student is hospitalized or has a serious, ongoing illness or injury, SHS will, at the student's request and with the student’s consent, communicate with the student's instructors via the Vice President for Student Affairs and may communicate with the student's Assistant Dean and/or the Student Ability Success Center


SDSU Economic Crisis Response Team: If you or a friend are experiencing food or housing insecurity, technology concerns, or any unforeseen financial crisis, it is easy to get help! Visit sdsu.edu/ecrt for more information or to submit a request for assistance.

SDSU's Economic Crisis Response Team (ECRT) aims to bridge the gap in resources for students experiencing immediate food, housing, or unforeseen financial crises that impacts student success. Using a holistic approach to well-being, ECRT supports students through crisis by leveraging a campus-wide collaboration that utilizes on and off-campus partnerships and provides direct referrals based on each student’s unique circumstances. ECRT empowers students to identify and access long term, sustainable solutions in an effort to successfully graduate from SDSU. Within 24 to 72 hours of submitting a referral, students are contacted by the ECRT Coordinator and are quickly connected to the appropriate resources and services.


For students who need assistance accessing technology for their classes, visit our ECRT website (sdsu.edu/ecrt) to be connected with the SDSU library's technology checkout program. The technology checkout program is available to both SDSU and Imperial Valley students.
Lurking Subterranean Visitors