| Course description |
Writing Seminar: Milestones in American Censorship Brian Mooney Wednesday and Friday 11:30 - 12:50, D38 Email: brianm@marlboro.edu
In this class we will explore several significant cases of censorship and suppression, beginning with James Joyce's Ulysses (banned in 1921 by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, and burned in 1922 by the United States Post Office). We will look at the changing definitions of “obscenity” and the implications of our First Amendment right to free speech. We’ll spend time with Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Bruce, and Vladimir Nabokov. We’ll visit the Hollywood Blacklist of the 1950s and the NEA imbroglios of the 1980s and 1990s. Some of the questions we will ask as we examine works suppressed on sexual, social, religious, and political grounds are: Who are the censors? Whom are they protecting? What forms can censorship take? Is there an intersection of commerce and censorship? Are there materials that should be censored? This is first and foremost a writing class, and as you read and think about the issue of censorship, you should always be asking yourself, “How can these readings make my own writing better?” You must be vigilant about pursuing the answer to this question; a serious writer has no compunction about poking around under the hood to see how everything works. Throughout the semester I will help you get under the hood of the assigned readings and your own essays, as will your classmates. Remember: writing is like any other discipline, and you improve through lots of practice, experimentation, and reflection. In this class, not only will you be writing and reading every day, you will be thinking about your writing and reading everyday. And that’s a fine thing indeed. In particular, this class should help you:
This isn’t a text, but I will post some Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, and assorted audio files on iTunes for you to listen to. You will write four papers in this class:
You will also create a portfolio of your writing throughout the semester, and you will re-visit your portfolio at the end of the semester when we do a portfolio review, which will be approximately six pages long. You will also write ten commentaries (more on that in a moment), as well as complete some short in-class and take home assignments. About the Papers Sure, sometimes it’s possible to crank a paper out the night before it’s due. You know that; I know that. However, that sort of last-minute sprint towards the due-date is not what this class is about. The central aim of this course is to teach you a longer and more thoughtful writing process that invites more development and evolution in your thinking. You will be required to write at least two drafts of each essay. This process lets you explore and take risks early in your writing process, and it allows you to be more focused later on. Also, as you work from one draft to the next, you’ll have the chance to assess your goals for yourself, and you’ll also receive substantial feedback from your classmates (peer review) and from me. With that in mind, all final drafts must also include all your preliminary work: notes, drafts, peer responses, teacher responses… everything. If you don’t include these things, I can’t get a sense of the progression of your thinking, and I’ll have to give you a zero. And you don’t want a zero. Two of the terms I use in class might be different than what you are used to. Here’s a little glossary: Mid-process draft This is NOT a rough draft. A rough draft is what you write when you sit down with your pen and doodle and brainstorm and outline and freewrite and do whatever it takes to get your thoughts and ideas onto the page. A mid-process draft is what comes a draft or two after a rough draft. A mid-process is typed. It’s more than two or three pages. It is reasonably well organized. Your essay should be taking shape by your mid-process. It’s not final yet, but it’s about halfway there. Again: it is NOT a rough draft. Process letter With each draft you hand in, you will write a process letter. Your process letter is a letter from you to me in which you discuss where you are with your essay, what you feel good about, what you don’t feel so good about, what you intend to do as you revise, and so forth. Writing such a letter (or memo, if you prefer to think of it that way) may be different than what you’ve done in the past. I realize this. But get in the habit of handing in the process letter with every draft. I will not read your essay if it doesn’t have a process letter. And now a few words about how to format your papers:
Consult either the Chicago or MLA sections in Hacker for what your paper should look like. About Your Portfolio Do not throw any of your work away! At the end of the semester you will do a portfolio review in which you perform a self-analysis of your work throughout the semester. Your portfolio includes all the major essays, the drafts and preliminary work that accompany the final draft, the additional in-class and out-of-class writing exercises you do (including commentaries), the written feedback from me, and the written feedback you give to your classmates. I repeat: do not throw your work away. About the Commentaries Commentaries are brief (200-300 words), semi-formal writings in which you respond to the readings. Commentaries are this length because I want you to get to your point quickly. To give you an idea of how long 300 words is, this section is exactly 296 words. Commentaries will be posted to a class forum on Nook. Go to https://nook.marlboro.edu/forum and click on Studies in Censorship - Spring 2007, which is under the Restricted Forums section. Your commentaries can take several forms. Occasionally I will assign a commentary topic, but often the commentaries are open. When writing an open commentary you might be moved to analyze some element of craft within something we’re reading (how and why Nabokov uses many different languages in Lolita, for example, or whether you agree with Nafisi that Humbert is to Lolita what a totalitarian ruler is to his subjects), or you might want to relate something we have been talking about in class to a recent news story. You might want to compare the themes of two or three different writers, or you might want to respond to a previous commentary… Youhave lots of choices available to you. The important thing to keep in mind when writing commentaries is to actually comment on something. You are responsible for posting your commentary and reading all the other commentaries. You will do so before we have class. See the schedule for due dates. Did you catch that? Commentaries are due BEFORE we have class. Not after. Before. They are due before class because your commentaries will provide a foundation for class discussions, and they are a way of continuing our discussions outside of class. They can alsoserve as catalysts to longer papers. Did I mention that the commentaries are due before class? About the Presentations In early February you will assign yourself a book to read. It really goes without saying that you should choose a book that interests you, but there, I said it anyway. An entire world of banned books is available to you (it’s sort of odd to think of it that way, isn’t it?), and you can choose one of those books, or you can choose something that involves or analyzes an issue related to censorship. Do not simply assign yourself a book you’ve already read. This assignment is not about re-reading Cuckoo’s Nest, The Giver, or Harry Potter and so forth. If you aren’t sure what you want to read, your classmates and I will help you find something interesting and challenging. After spring break, class-time will be dedicated to presentations about your books. In other words, for half an hour or so, you will teach the class. This doesn’t mean you have to prepare a lecture; your presentation may take the form of a game, a debate, or a discussion… We will, of course, discuss the presentations in more detail as the semester chugs along, but for now let’s leave it at this: your presentations should let everyone know what the book is about, why you picked it, what issues surround it, and why we should care about these things. Journal Although I will not require it, I strongly suggest you maintain a journal and write at least five pages a week. Journals are catch-alls for your creative process. Thoughts and ideas can be fleeting, and your journal is a place to save these precious things before they vanish. It’s aplace for you to think about your own work, to reflect on your reading, and to record ideas for essays, stories and poems before they disappear. Use your journal to jot down cool words and their definitions, or to save bits of dialogue you’ve overheard in the dining hall. Make lists of questions you have so that you can actively participate in class. Dreams, fantasies, descriptions that suddenly come to you… put them in your journal. Keeping a journal helps you reside in a creative place, and it is very difficult to write creatively if your mind isn’t in that place. When an idea comes to you, you must be ready for it. When Things Are Due You should be prepared to hand things in at the beginning of class, no exceptions. If you don’t have a preliminary draft when it’s due, you will be unable to fully contribute to our peer review sessions, and will therefore be considered absent (see the Attendance and Absence Policy section for what this means). If you don’t have a final draft when it’s due, it’s a zero. And like I said before, you don’t want a zero. Commentaries are due before class. I think I mentioned that already. Attendance and Absence Policy It’s a simple policy: show up on time. You get two absences without seeing your grade change, though I will most likely ask you why you are having difficulty making it to class. Save those absences for when you’re sick, or if you have an emergency. Except for exceptional circumstances, being sick does not entitle you to an extra absence. Being absent does not change due dates, and it is your responsibility to make sure you turn in work on time. For each absence beyond the allowed two, you will lose a half-grade for the semester. That means that a B turns into a B- if you miss three classes. Miss four, and a B turns into a C+, and so on. You will be considered absent if you come to class without the work that is due, if you are so late that you cannot actively participate in the work of the day, or if you miss a conference. Chronic lateness will also affect your final grade. The Bathroom Policy Okay, I really shouldn’t have to have a section in the syllabus called “Bathroom Policy.” To be honest, I feel kind of silly putting such a thing in here. But here’s the deal: go to the bathroom BEFORE class, or hold it until after class. It is disruptive and disrespectful to wander in and out of class during a discussion. If you really do need to leave class, I will not say no, but these moments shouldn’t happen very often. Conferences and Office Hours I will hold short (20 minutes or so) conferences every 3 weeks or so to discuss your current work and your progress through the course. These conferences are important because they enable us to talk one-on-one about your work. Sometimes we’ll have longer conferences with two or three people at a time. I’ll send around a sign up sheet a couple of classes before the conferences so you can sign up at a time that is convenient for you. Failure to attend a conference equals an absence. Since conferences may occur outside of regularly scheduled class time, I will probably cancel a class or two. My office hours are Thursday, 10-11, and Friday, 2-3. This is time set aside for you, and I encourage you to use it. Grading Happens You are guaranteed a B for the final grade if you meet the following conditions:
To get a higher grade (A/B or A) you must fulfill the B contract and demonstrate throughout the semester that you are actively using what you are learning, that you are putting time and energy into your writing, that you are giving full and thoughtful responses to your peers’ work, that you are participating in class discussions, and that you are using your conference time with me so as to best benefit you. In order to give you a yardstick by which to measure your work throughout the semester, I will mark assignments with a Ö, Ö-, Ö+, or 0, based on three criteria. I will then average these scores and give an overall letter grade. The criteria are content, revision, and mechanics. CONTENT Here I’m looking for a few things. I want to see how interested you are in your topic (because if you aren’t interested, how can you expect your readers to be?), and I want to see how thoroughly you examine your topic. I’m interested in seeing what kinds of risks you’re taking: how difficult and challenging a task have you undertaken? Put simply, I want to see if you are genuinely interested in your topic, or if you are desperately trying to crank out a few pages so you can call it a day. REVISION When you finish your first draft, do not sit on your hands until the final draft is due– continue working on your ideas. Look at your essay again (that’s why it’s called re- vision). What else can you do to make this an even better paper? Your peers and I can help you with this. MECHANICS You must be serious about the work you hand in. What this means is what John Gardner in The Art Of Fiction calls, “grammar and syntax, punctuation, diction, sentence variety, paragraph structure, and so forth.” This is what I’m looking for in terms of mechanics: Organization Do you have a clear focus/purpose (even if your purpose is to explore your own confusion)? Is the essay coherent? Does it move the reader smoothly to the conclusion/focus/purpose? Voice/Language/Style Appropriate? Consistent? Interesting? By “voice” I mean that there is an actual person revealed in the words, and not just an anonymous typist. Grammar/Punctuation/Proofreading Did you spell everything correctly? Is documentation cited correctly? Are your pronoun references clear? Is faulty grammar getting in the way of your meaning? You get the drift. A Ö- in any of these categories means that:
A Ö means that:
A Ö+ means that:
If assignments are not turned in on time I will record them as a zero. If at any point it appears that your ship is sinking, there will be a formal review of your progress, and I will encourage you to drop the class and take it when you are better prepared. Reading through several pages of policies about grading, attendance, and homework can make any course sound daunting. But don’t be intimidated. Keep this fact in mind: we’re gonna read some excellent stories. Writing about them will be interesting and provocative, and we’ll have some laughs as we go. And remember that there are many resources available to you besides your classmates and me. There is a tutoring lab on campus, and on the Web there are excellent sources of information at www.marlboro.edu/academics/writing_program. CALENDAR
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