ENGLISH 500
MASTERS PROSEMINAR
Practicing Literature, Practical Criticism
This course introduces new MA students to a range of English literatures (essays, novels, poems, memoirs) and to some of the current professional conversations in the field of English Studies (the dismantling of the university, the question of public humanities). Bodies of literature are linked to the domains of literary criticism, public writing, and the vocation of teaching by the underlying promise of words doing things. Throughout the semester, students will exercise this promise in genres like the pop-culture review, the op-ed, the profile, and study it in literary works from a variety of contexts and genres. Whether focusing on criticism, rhetoric, pedagogy, or creative writing, seminar participants should come away newly equipped to practice and advocate for literature as a way of life.
REQUIRED TEXTS (at the UIC Bookstore)
Jasper Bernes, We Are Nothing and So Can You
Peter Coviello, Long Players
Rachel Cusk, Outline
Samuel Delaney, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
Claudia Rankine, Citizen
Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140
Articles, essays, and supplemental readings available in our course dropbox. In some cases, you will find there PDFs of entire books even though we’re only reading sections of those books – be sure to check the reading assignments.
WRIITNG ASSIGMENTS
rapid-writing: 7 prompts for 7 days before the semester starts; write for 30
minutes or 250 words, whichever comes first (prompts distributed over email)
intellectual self-description: 250-500 words profile of your interests, writerly/readerly activities, networks or communities in which you participate (optional: close
with an author bio for who you want to be in 5 years)
listicle: bullet-pointed, highly-circulatable, catchy-titled compendium of something
pop culture review: 1000-2000 words evaluative essay on literature, film, tv, music for a venue of your choice like the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Chicago Reader, Avidly, Public Books
space mapping:250-1000 words conjuring a locale in Chicago or elsewhere; real or
imaginary; present, past, or future
op-ed: 250-750 words arguing for / about something that matters today, but drawing
upon the literary, the personal, or the past to do so, making specific recommendations, in short sentences, short paragraphs, active voice.
expository/technical writing: 250-1000 words clearly explaining how to do something
(tie shoes, make ice cream, teach writing, solve climate change)
personal essay / profile: 500-3000 words; use what you know about good literary narrative, evocative literary description, and compelling literary voice to write about yourself or someone else in very specific terms / situation that blends the local and the global / the personal and the universal
longform writing: 750-4000 words in any genre, including repeating/revising one of
the genres we’ve already worked in, or doing more straightforward academic literary criticism or creative writing
GUIDELINES
We will approach the seminar space as a laboratory for experimenting with collective reading and discovering, and as a workshop for writing. This requires active seminar participation, including careful completion of assigned reading, consistent, thoughtful contribution to discussion, and attentive feedback to colleagues sharing work. Discussion participation is key to a strong seminar and an important basis for your evaluation.
Each student will sign up for one seminar session to lead a chunk of discussion time focusing on the texts assigned for a given session (drawing connections to previous readings where useful). Take pedagogical liberties as far as activities, discussion plan, etc, but be sure highlight at least three passages of interest, and to pose questions to your colleagues.
Every student will produce writing in multiple genres, and will participate in reading / editing the writing of their colleagues. Seminar time will regularly be used for these exchanges.
Each writing assignment genre will be discussed during seminar in advance of the due date, with samples and how-tos at hand. Samples appear below in italics.
Students are encouraged to compile their writing assignments into a portfolio to be revised and revisited throughout their time in the MA program, culminating in materials useful for post-graduation job applications.
Please note that the first novel in the course, assigned for week 5, is long; students are advised to begin reading it before week 4.
SCHEDULE
PART ONE: THE UNIVERSITY, THE PROFESSION, THE VOCATIONS
29 AUG
infrastructures of the university
J Hillis Miller, On LiteratureChapters One and Two
Jonathan Culler, Literary TheoryChapters One, Two, Three
Peggy Kamuf, “The University in Deconstruction”
Eric Hayot, “The Sky is Falling”
David Theo Goldberg, “The Afterlife of the Humanities”
Fred Moten, “Studying through the Undercommons”
Henry Turner “Universitas”
intellectual self-description activity
rapid writing DUE
5 SEPT
publics and the new public criticism
Michael Warner, “Styles of Intellectual Publics”
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “What It Means to be a Public Intellectual”
Lili Loofbourow and Philip Maciak, “The Time of the Semipublic Intellectual”
Evan Kindley, “Growing Up in Public”
Sharon Marcus, “How to Talk about Books You have Read”
McKenzie Wark, General Intellectsintroduction
in-class workshop: public writing theory, public writing practice
intellectual self-description writing DUE
listicle samples:
JORDAN STEIN, TOP 10 FAG HAGS OF HENRY JAMES
TITA CHICO, BOOKS I’D LIKE TO WRITE
PUBLIC BOOKS STAFF, 12 GREAT BOOKS ABOUT WOMEN AND WORK
THE LISTICLE AS A LITERARY FORM
12 SEPT
doing things with words
Jacques Ranciere, “The Politics of Literature”
Caroline Levine, FormsIntro
Martin Puchner, Poetry of the Revolutionintro, chapter 1
James Baldwin, “In Search of a Majority”
listicle DUE
19 SEPT
criticism as vocation
Oscar Wilde, “The Critic as Artist” (1-20)
GeorgLukacs, “On the Nature and Form of the Essay”
Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Textexcerpt (pages 3-30)
Rita Felski The Limits of Critique“In Short”
Joseph North, Literary Criticism: A Concise Political Historyintro
popculture samples:
ADRIENNE BROWN, NEW FORMATION
ANNA KORNBLUH, CHICAGO LAW
JANE HU, CAN HORROR MOVIES BE PRESTIGIOUS?
PART TWO: GENRES OF WORD DOINGS
writing and abstraction
26 SEPT
Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
pop culture review DUE
3 OCT
Rachel Cusk, Outline
writing disaster
10 OCT
Samuel Delaney, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
space mapping samples:
LIESL OLSON, MY LA
THOMAS HARDY, RETURN OF THE NATIVE EXCERPT
NATHAN HILL, THE NIX EXCERPT
17 OCT
Peter Coviello, Long Players
space mapping DUE
op-ed samples
LENNARD DAVIS, WHAT DO PROFESSORS, WALMART, AND PIG NUTRITION HAVE
IN COMMON
CAROLINE LEVINE, YOUR TURN BUILDING BRIDGES
LISI SCHOENBACH, ENOUGH WITH THE CRISIS TALK
THE OP-ED PROJECT TIPS AND TRICKS
writing for change
24 OCT
Jasper Bernes, We Are Nothing and So Can You
expository/tech sample
HOW TO EMAIL A PROFESSOR
ERIC HAYOT, PARAGRAPHING
ROY SCRANTON, LEARNING HOW TO DIE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE
op-ed DUE
31 OCT NO CLASS
7 NOV
Claudia Rankine, Citizen
personal essay / profile samples
JORDY ROSENBERG, GENDER TROUBLE ON MOTHERS DAY
MERVE EMRE, TWO PATHS FOR THE PERSONAL ESSAY
THE REAL ESTATE ARTIST
expository / technical writing DUE
14 NOV
Rob Nixon, “Slow Violence”
Jed Purdy, After Nature Prologue and Intro
Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything Intro and Conclusion
David Wallace Wells, “The Uninhabitable Earth”
personal essay or profile DUE
28 NOV
Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140
CONCLUSION: SPEECH ACTS AND THE FREE UNIVERSITY
5 DEC
Tressie McMillan Cottom, “Why Free College Is Necessary”
Astra Taylor, “Unschooling”
The Invisible Committee, The Coming Insurrection
Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Darkexcerpt
12 DEC
longform writing due