Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac

English 329W: Contemporary Literature Fall 2008 Jefferson Hendricks Centenary College of Louisiana contact info texts/syllabus policies/requirements theory links literature links writing links

Zadie Smith

Texts:

• Required reading:  
• Allen Ginsberg,  "Howl"  
• ....., "America"   [also hear Ginsberg read the poem; need Real Player]
• ....., "A Supermarket in California"  [also hear Ginsberg read the poem; need Real Player]
• Gregory Corso,  "Destiny"
• ....., "The Mad Yak"
• ....., "Marriage"  
• .....,  "Bomb"
  
• Jack Kerouac, On the Road   (begin reading)

• Further reading (and listening and viewing): 
• Jack Kerouac  --  Wikipedia
• Dharma Beat:  A Jack Kerouac Website
• Allen Ginsberg @ Modern American Poetry (MAPS)  --  James Sullivan
• "The Art of Poetry:  Allen Ginsberg"  --  Thomas Clark, The Paris Review
• hear Allen Ginsberg read his poem "A Supermarket in California"  --  Academy of American Poets, Poets.org
• Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassaday @ City Lights Bookstore:  Part I,  Part II, and Part III  [mid 60s?]  --  You Tube
• Allen Ginsberg reading "Hum Bom!"  --  You Tube      [text of  "Hum Bomb!"]
• Allen Ginsberg reads "America"  --  You Tube
• Allen Ginsberg reads "Father Death Blues"  --  You Tube    [from BBC's Face to Face]
• Allen Ginsberg interview excerpt: on Poetry and altered consciousness  --  You Tube    [from BBC's Face to Face]
• Allen Ginsberg reads "Put Down Your Cigarette Rag"  --  You Tube
• Allen Ginsberg interview with Charlie Rose [1995]  --  You Tube   [from 22:30 to 44:20]
• Allen Ginsberg interview  --  You Tube
• Groundbreaking Book: Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg (1955)  --  Academy of American Poets, Poets.org
• "A Howl That Still Echoes:  Ginsberg Poem Recalled"  --  Paul Iono,  San Francisco Chronicle
• Gregory Corso @ Modern American Poetry (MAPS)  --  Michael Skau
  
• Corso reading the last lines of "Bomb" at the Rock Flats protest   (August, 1979)
• Anne Waldman reading "Skin Meat Bones"  --  You Tube  [early 80s?] 
• Anne Waldman reading "Makeup on Empty Space"  --  You Tube 
• interview with Anne Waldman by Waylon Lewis --  You Tube  [2007?]
• American Musuem of Beat Art
• Beat Generation Video Archive @ The Museum of American Poetics
• The Museum of American Poetics
• "Can Poetry Matter?"  --  Dan Gioia Online

• Required reading:
• Jack Kerouac, On the Road  (1957)  
• "Still Vital, On The Road Turns 50"  --  Motoko Rich and Melena Ryzik,  New York Times  (2007)
• "You Don't Know Jack"  --  Matt Weiland,  New York Times  (2007) 
• "Drive, He Wrote:  What the Beats Were About"  --  Louis Menand,  The New Yorker  (2007) 

• Further reading (and listening and viewing):
• On the Road  --  Wikipedia
  
• On the Road  --  Spark Notes
• On the Road  --  Book Rags
• "Roamin' Legions"  --  David L. Ulin,  Bookforum
  
• "Beating Time:  Configurations of Temporality in Jack Kerouac's On the Road"  --  Erik R. Mortenson,  College Literature (2001)  
• Featured Author:  Jack Kerouac  --  reviews of Kerouac's books and books about him  --  New York Times
• Kerouac reads from On the Road  [on the Steve Allen Show, with Allen playing the piano]  --  You Tube
• Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Friends in NYC  --  You Tube
• Kerouac interview in French w/English subtitles [mid-60s?]  --  You Tube
• Jack Kerouac (1922 - 1969):  a webliography  --  Donna Jan Pridemore,  Literary History.com 

• Quiz #1 

• Required reading:
• Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar  (1963) 
• Sylvia Plath biography --  Peter Steinberg, "A Celebration, This is..." 

• Further reading: 
• Sylvia Plath photo album  --  Peter Steinberg, "A Celebration, This is..."
• The Bell Jar discussion questions  --  ReadingGroupGuides.com
• Sylvia Plath @ Modern American Poetry (MAPS)  --  Karen Ford and Cary Nelson
• "The Real Sylvia Plath" Part 1  [review of The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath and Karen V. Kukil]  --  Kate Moses,  Salon.com
•  "The Real Sylvia Plath"  Part 2 [review of The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath and Karen V. Kukil]  --  Kate Moses,  Salon.com
• "Voices of Feminism and Schizophrenia  in Plath's Poetry" --  Clarissa Lee Ai Ling,  Applied Semiotics
• "A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry"  --  Academy of American Poets
• The Bell Jar  --  Spark Notes
• The Bell Jar  --  ClassicNotes
  
• The Bell Jar  --  Book Rags
• The Bell Jar  --  Cliffs Notes
  
• "'A Ritual for Being Born Twice': Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar" -  Marjorie Perloff,  Contemporary Literature (1972)  
• article on Aurelia Plath, Sylvia Plath's mother  --  New York Times (1979) 
• "Plath's The Bell Jar as Female 'Bildungsroman'"-  Linda W. Wagner,  Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal  (1986)
• "On Sylvia Plath" -- Ted Hughes,  Raritan (1994)   [on Plath writing The Bell Jar]
• list of online articles about Sylvia Plath's poetry and prose
• Featured Author:  Sylvia Plath  --  reviews of Plath's books and books about her  --  New York Times
• Sylvia Plath  (1932-1963):  a webliography  --  Donna Jane Pridemore,  Literary History.com
• list of Sylvia Plath poems online  --  Stanford U. English department

• Quiz #2

• Required reading:
• Vladimir Nabokov, The Annotated Lolita  (1955/57)

• Further reading: 
• Lolita  --  Amy Tan, Salon.com
• Lolita  --  Mary Elizabeth Williams,  Salon.com
• "Socerer of Cruelty"  --  Mary Gaitskill,  Salon.com
• On Lolita  --  Martin Amis,  Random House.com
• Vladimir Nabokov and Lionel Trilling discuss Lolita, Part I and Part II  --  You Tube
• interview with Vladimir Nabokov  --  You Tube
  
• discussion questions on Lolita  --  Random House.com
  

• Required reading:
• Vladimir Nabokov, The Annotated Lolita  (1955/57)

• Further reading:
• "The Function of the Phallus:  Lolita and/as Children's Fiction"  --  Vadim Linetski
• Zembla:  official site of the International Vladimir Nabokov Society  --  Pennsylvannia State U. Library
• bibliography of criticism on Lolita  --   Dieter E. Zimmer  and  Jeff Edmunds,  Zembla

• Required reading:
• Vladimir Nabokov, The Annotated Lolita  (1955/57)

• Further reading: 
• Vladimir Nabokov:  articles and reviews --  New York Times
• Lolita  --  Spark Notes
• Lolita  --  Classic Notes
  
• Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977):  a webliography  --  Donna Jan Pridemore,  Literary History.com

• Quiz #3 

• M  Oct 9:     Turn in prospectus for final research essay

• W  Oct 11:     No Class    (Fall break starts at 8:00 pm) 

• Required reading:
• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale   (1985) 
  
• The Handmaid's Tale  --  Wikipedia

• Further reading:
• Margaret Atwood  --  Wikipedia
• Margaret Atwood  --   Petri Liukkonen and Ari Pesonen, Pegasos
• Margaret Atwood  --   Anniina Jokinen,  Luminarium
• Interview with Margaret Atwood about art and politics  --  Marilyn Snell, Mother Jones
• "Spotty-Handed Villainesses: Problems Of Female Bad Behaviour In The Creation Of Literature"  --  Margaret Atwood
• study questions and an interview with Atwood about The Handmaid's Tale  --  Random House
• Study Guide to The Handmaid's Tale  --   Paul Brians,  Washington State U.
• The Handmaid's Tale  --  SparkNotes
• The Handmaid's Tale  --  ClassicNotes
• Margaret Atwood's The Handmade Tale  -- Anniina Jokinen,  Luminarium
• Margaret Atwood  --  articles and reviews  --  New York Times

• Quiz #4 

• Required reading:
• Don DeLillo, White Noise   (1985)
• "Don DeLillo"  --  Jeffrey MacIntyre,  Salon

• Further reading:
• Don DeLillo  --  Wikipedia
• Don DeLillo  --   Petri Liukkonen and Ari Pesonen, Pegasos
• Don DeLillo's America  --  Curt Gardner
• "Intensity of a Plot:  An Interview with Don DeLillo"  --  Mark Binelli,  Guernica:  A Magazine of Art and Politics  (2007)  
• "Crowding Out Death"  (review of White Noise)  --  Jayne Anne Phillips,  New York Times  (1985)
• "Conspirators"  (review of White Noise)  --  Diane Johnson,  The New York Review of Books  (1985)  
• "Don DeLillo's White Noise:  The Natural Language of the Species"  --  Cornel Bonca,  College Literature
  
• "We Simply Walk Towards the Sliding Door:  White Noise as a Postmodern Ars Moriendi"  --  Mikko Kallionsivu
  
• "Circuits, Simulations and Viruses: A Case Study of Media Brandscapes"  --  Paul Privateer, Applied Semiotics
  
• "Television and Literature: David Foster Wallace's Concept of Image-Fiction, Don DeLillo's White Noise and Thomas Pynchon's Vineland"  --  Volker Hummel
• "White Noise"  --  SparkNotes
  
• "White Noise"  --  ClassicNote
• Featured Author:  Don DeLillo  --  New York Times

• Quiz #5

• Required reading:
• Zadie Smith, On Beauty (2005)

• Further reading: 
• Zadie Smith  --  Wikipedia
• "Love, Actually"  --  Zadie Smith,  The Guardian  (2003)   [article based on Smith's 2003 Orange Word Lecture, "EM Forster's Ethical Style: Love, Failure and the Good in Fiction," given at the Gielgud Theatre in London on October 22, 2003]
• Zadie Smith interview  --  Kurt Andersen,  PEN American Center  (2006)  
  
• Zadie Smith video interview in Stockholm, 2006  --  You Tube
• "Fail Better"  --  Zadie Smith,  The Guardian  (2007)
• "Read Better"  --  Zadie Smith,  The Guardian  (2007)
  
• "E. M. Forster, Middle Manager"  --  Zadie Smith,  New York Review of Books  (2008)
• Reading Guide/Discussion Questions to On Beauty  --  Penguin Books
  

• Quiz  #6

• Required reading:
• Zadie Smith, On Beauty  (2005)

• Further reading: 
•  "Zadie Smith's Culture Warriors"  [on On Beauty]  --  Frank Rich, New York Times  (2005)
• "On Beauty by Zadie Smith"  --  Laura Miller,  Salon.com  (2005)
  
• "Dear Booker Committee..."   [on On Beauty]  --  Stephen Metcalf,  Slate.com  (2005)
• "White Knees"  [on On Beauty]   --  Wyatt Mason, Harpers (2005)     [pdf file;  scroll down to page 83, third page of this file, to get this review]
  
• "Only Connect": an interview with Zadie Smith  --  Joy Press,  Village Voice  (2005)
• "Zadie Smith's Academic Tomato-Meter"  --   Amardeep Singh,  Lehigh U.  (2006)

• Required reading:
• Steve Davenport,  Uncontainable Noise and  Murder on Gasoline Lake

• Further reading:

• Required reading:
• Cormac McCarthy,  The Road  (2006)

• Further reading:  
• "After the Apocalypse"  --  Michael Chabon,  New York Review of Books  (2006)
• "Left Behind"  --  William Kennedy,  New York Times Book Review  (2006)
• "End of the Line"  --  Mark Holcomb,  Village Voice  (2006)
• "Apocalypse Now"  --  Ron Charles,  Washington Post  (2006)
• "The Road to Hell"  --  Alan Warner,  The Guardian  (2006)

• Quiz #8

• Monday, Dec 8:  research essay due by 2:00 pm in Jackson Hall 307 

• Wednesday  Dec 10:    Evaluations; review for final exam