ENGLIT 0088 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE: GENRE FICTION Dr. Patrick Scott Belk, Biddle Hall 225, Office Hours: 12:30-1:50 PM MWF, Email: belk@pitt.edu DESCRIPTION This course explores the literary devices that writers use to produce texts and readers use to interpret them. The texts change from section to section and instructor to instructor, but they always stimulate investigation into reading and writing as ways of knowing (Course Catalog 2017-2018, University of Pittsburgh System). PRÉCIS Students in this course will read a wide variety of genre fiction and discuss key developments in publishing, marketing, and distribution of genre fiction during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Genre fiction is a category of popular literature characterized by similarities in style and subject matter. Examples this semester will include romance, western, detective, and science fiction, but could also include adventure, fantasy, horror, sports, or flapper fiction. The course approaches genre fiction in terms of both literary form and cultural artifact, as well as highlighting fiction s role as social, political, and philosophical commentary. To further ground our discussion of literature published over roughly one hundred years, we will also focus on the study of various periodicals from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, asking how the growth of magazines and magazine cultures in Britain, Europe, and the U.S. helped to shape and define --- and introduce diverse audiences to --- the broad cultural, historical, and aesthetic shifts that characterize literary periods. Along with reading novels and short stories in the first contexts in which these works were published, we will be discussing a variety of features crucial to understanding periodicals. Editorial features, illustrations, advertisements, cultural and political criticism, and letters to the editor will hopefully broaden our idea of what constitutes literature and encourage us to read these magazines as both complex aesthetic objects and documents of cultural history. TEXTS All required primary readings may be viewed online (Flash-based FlipBook) or downloaded (PDF) to print from my website, The Pulp Magazines Project @ http://www.pulpmags.org/, or The Internet Archive @ http://archive.org/. You will need reliable access to a computer and a fast Internet connection as well. The secondary readings are found in David Glover and Scott McCracken, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction (Cambridge UP, 2012), which is available from the campus bookstore or through Amazon.
GRADING Your final grade for this course will break down as follows (details of each category are described below): Participation, Attendance 20% Daily Reading Responses 20% Leading Class Discussion 20% Daily Reading Quizzes 20% Semester Research Paper 20% PARTICIPATION (20%) This class requires your active participation in a way in which your other classes may not, since it is not a lecture class but one in which you will engage with ideas in conversation. You must prepare for class by reading the assigned literature thoughtfully. This may take more time than you would at first anticipate. A quick run-through will not allow you to engage closely enough with the reading to understand it. I suggest that you begin your reading well in advance of class time and be prepared to return to the readings and think about them carefully. You should also be aware of the time it takes to read these long assignments. You will need to read beyond the plot of novels, and think about the significance of what you are reading so you can come to class prepared to be involved in active discussion. Please make the effort to be reflective about your part in class discussions. It is important that we always behave respectfully towards each other. Class participation will significantly contribute to your grade. READING RESPONSES (20%) There is a required 150-word typed (long paragraph), written response to each reading assignment. These responses will primarily serve as an ongoing journal of your reading experiences in the class, and you will be writing them for an educated, college-level audience. In these responses, you will record your reactions to the works assigned, include an explanation and short discussion of key concepts of the reading, and list questions and key terms that pertain to them. These responses will help provide a basis for class discussion, and be turned in before you leave at the end of each class. CLASS DISCUSSIONS (20%) Each student will choose ONE day this semester to prepare questions which guide class discussion. A signup sheet will be circulated in class. Sign up for the day of your choice. If you are not in class on the day the sign-up sheet is circulated, I can also assign one for you. For this day, you will be responsible for preparing 4-5 open-ended questions to launch and guide class discussion (15-20 minutes), using a Powerpoint or other visual supplement (Prezi, Google Slides, etc.). Also, be prepared to pose/address these questions and present topics relevant to the readings assigned that day for the benefit of everyone in class. Topics are open and to be developed by each student individually. Consult with me outside of class if you have questions, or if you have any trouble getting started. READING QUIZZES (20%) Short quizzes will be given on a regular basis to ensure that students are keeping up with the assigned readings. You should be prepared for a quiz, delivered at the beginning of class, on all reading assignments on the day that the reading is due. Reading quizzes will not receive a letter grade or comments. Grades will be determined by students having completed them on time, and are due on the day assigned. No exceptions. Together these reading quizzes will comprise 20% of your final grade for the course. RESEARCH PAPER (20%) There will be a major research paper (10-15 pgs.) assigned at the end of this semester, which is worth 20% of your final grade for the course. This paper should be in MLA format, typed, and double-spaced. Include
your name, my name, the title of the course, and the date on which the paper is due in the upper-left corner of the first page. Include your last name and page number on all subsequent pages. Margins must be 1 inch, and fonts no larger than Times New Roman, 12 pt. Please do not skip a line between paragraphs. Make sure you proofread the paper before submitting it. Use spell-check, but remember that this tool is not a substitute for your own diligence. I also suggest that you have someone else proofread your paper outside of class, as it is sometimes difficult to catch your own mistakes. Typographical errors will considerably lower the final grade on this paper. The final research paper must be submitted on time and is due on Friday of finals week. No exceptions. Suitable topics for your research will be made available at the end of September. OTHER POLICIES Attendance is required. More than three absences and you risk having your grade lowered. If you need to schedule appointments make sure that they do not take place during class time. Be punctual at the beginning of class, and do not make plans to leave before class ends. Plagiarism is an extremely serious offence which will not be excused. Be sure that you see the distinction between collaboration with and the kind of help with writing which involves someone else doing the work for you. To present the language or ideas of others as if they are your own is plagiarism and this applies to Internet sources as well. If you have a disability for which you are requesting an accommodation, you should contact Counselling Services, G10 Student Union, (814) 269-7186, as early as possible in the term. The Office of Health & Wellness Services will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. SCHEDULE FOR FALL 2017 WEEK 1 08/29: Introduction to the course: Syllabus, Assignments, Readings 08/31: READ Introduction, David Glover & Scott McCracken. The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction (2012): pp. 1-14 Tender Arms, Elise Phillips. Love Story Magazine (Oct. 20, 1934): pp. 67-74 WEEK 2 09/05: READ Extra Sheer, Knight Jesse. Love Story Magazine (Mar. 10, 1934): pp. 5-22 09/07: READ Heartless Flirt, Ives Tudor. Love Story Magazine (Mar. 30, 1935): pp. 78-92 WEEK 3 09/12: READ A Coach for Love, Elizabeth LeFevre. Sweetheart Stories (Aug. 1942): pp. 6-18 09/14: READ Heritage of Conflict, L.P. Holmes. Ranch Romances (Sep. 8, 1933): pp. 5-20 WEEK 4 09/19: READ Heritage of Conflict, L.P. Holmes. Ranch Romances (Sep. 8, 1933): pp. 20-35 09/21: READ Heritage of Conflict, L.P. Holmes. Ranch Romances (Sep. 8, 1933): pp. 35-52 WEEK 5 09/26: READ Chap 7. Gender and Sexuality in Popular Fiction, Kaye Mitchell. The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction (2012): pp. 122-40 Man From Blue River, Marion O Hearn. Ranch Romances (Feb. 25, 1943): pp. 70-86 09/28: READ When a Texas Town Goes Gun Crazy, George Conklin. Two-Gun Western Novels (Apr. 1942): pp. 8-18
WEEK 6 10/03: READ When a Texas Town Goes Gun Crazy, George Conklin. Two-Gun Western Novels (Apr. 1942): pp. 18-30 10/05: READ When a Texas Town Goes Gun Crazy, George Conklin. Two-Gun Western Novels (Apr. 1942): pp. 30-42 WEEK 7 10/10: NO CLASS (Fall Break) 10/12: READ When a Texas Town Goes Gun Crazy, George Conklin. Two-Gun Western Novels (Apr. 1942): pp. 42-61 WEEK 8 10/17: READ Saddleful of Dynamite, Jim Kjelgaard. Western Story Magazine (Jul. 27, 1940): pp. 66-73 10/19: READ Man-Hunting Mustang, Jack Sterrett. Masked Rider Western (Jan. 1945): pp. 53-58 WEEK 9 10/24: READ Chap. 6. Reading Time: Popular Fiction and the Everyday, Scott McCracken. The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction (2012): pp. 103-121 A Scandal in Bohemia, A. Conan Doyle. The Strand Magazine (Jul. 1891): pp. 61-75 https://archive.org/stream/strandmagazine7/strand7#page/n59/mode/2up 10/26: READ The Adventure of the Speckled Band, A. Conan Doyle. The Strand Magazine (Feb. 1892): pp. 142-157 https://archive.org/stream/strandmagazine14/strand14#page/n33/mode/2up WEEK 10 10/31: READ The Plymouth Express Affair, Agatha Christie. The Blue Book Magazine (Jan. 1924): pp. 136-42 11/02: READ The Brand of Cain, Ward Sterling. The Black Mask (Apr. 1922): pp. 90-96 WEEK 11 11/07: NO CLASS (Reading Day) 11/09: READ A Line to Lefty, Robert H. Rohde. Detective Fiction Weekly (Jun. 28, 1930): pp. 201-12 WEEK 12 11/14: READ Chap. 8. Pulp Sensations, Erin A. Smith. The Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction (2012): pp. 141-158 The Crystal Egg, H.G. Wells. Amazing Stories (May 1926): pp. 128-134 11/16: READ The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, Edgar Allan Poe. Amazing Stories (Apr. 1926): pp. 92-96 WEEK 13 11/21: NO CLASS (Thanksgiving Recess) 11/23: NO CLASS (Thanksgiving Recess) (NOTE: Begin the reading assignment for Tuesday, Nov. 28, Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell).
WEEK 14 11/28: READ Who Goes There?, John Campbell. Astounding Science-Fiction (Aug. 1938): pp. 60-97 11/30: READ A Sound of Thunder, Ray Bradbury. Planet Stories (Jan. 1954): pp. 4-11 WEEK 15 12/05: READ The Crystal Crypt, Phillip K. Dick. Planet Stories (Jan. 1954): pp. 54-65 12/07: READ Mars Minus Bisha, Leigh Brackett. Planet Stories (Jan. 1954): pp. 94-105 WEEK 16 12/15: RESEARCH PAPERS DUE