Comparative Literature—the grotesque in art and literature
Fall 2010
Thursday 1:10-4:00, 文D221
Instructor: Prof. Jen-yi Hsu
Office hours: Fri. 2-4 p.m., and by appointment (jyhsu@mail.ndhu.edu.tw)
Course Description:
As an idea, “grotesque” is hard to pin down and capable of assuming many forms. The word itself comes from the same Latin root as “grotto,” meaning a small cave or cavern. Therefore, the many connotations of the grotto—earthiness, fertility, femininity, darkness, death—link to the various incarnations of the grotesque. In this class, we will explore the grotesque in art and literature. Three forms of the grotesque will be examined: 1) the grotesque as a way of challenging authority and official order, 2) the grotesque and its associations with the feminine, and 3) the grotesque and its racial representations.
Required Books: 1) course packages available at the Xerox Center 2) books to be purchased at the University Bookstore:
--《陰性顯影：女性攝影家的扮裝自拍像》
-- Waiting for the Barbarians
-- The Bluest Eye
Grading Policy:
Midterm 30%, final exam 30%, presentation and class participation 30%, blog entries 10% (http://literarycollage.blogspot.com/)
Course Schedule:
Week1: 9/16 Introduction
Part I: The grotesque as a way of challenging authority and official order
Week2: 9/23 〈大眾文化的狂歡節〉(in《對話的喧聲：巴赫汀文化理論述評》by劉康)(Zark, Andy, Tim) ; ”The Banquet, the Body and the Underworld” (in The Bakhtin Reader)(Kevin)
Week3: 9/30 〈陳界仁的歷史肢解與死亡鈍感〉(Lena, Joanne)，〈症狀─賤斥─恐懼──另外一種觀看的方式〉(怡安&怡潤) (both in 《心的變異：現代性的精神形式》by劉紀蕙); “Approaching Abjection” (in Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection)
Week4: 10/7 “In the Penal Colony” by Kafka (Connie, Dalia); 〈狂人日記〉(“A Madman’s Diary) by 魯迅 (Lu Xun)
Week5: 10/14 The Metamorphosis (Jasmine, Abby, Stacie), and "First Sorrow" by Kafka
Week6: 10/21 selections from Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919): “The Book of the Grotesque,” “Hands”(Jodie), “Paper Pills”(Stacy), “Mother”(Norah), “The Strength of God,” “Death”
Part II: Female grotesques
Week7: 10/28 《陰性顯影：女性攝影家的扮裝自拍像》by劉瑞琪( Ch3&4, pp.143-243)(Nina &Emma); “Female Grotesque: Carnival and Theory” by Mary Russo (in Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory, edited by Conboy, Medina, and Stanbury)
Week8: 11/4 Orlando；〈兩種《歐蘭朵》──文字/影像互動與性別/文本政治〉by張小虹 (in 《性別越界：女性主義文學理論與批評》)(Angela, Maggie)
Week9: 11/11 midterm (take-home exam)
Week10: 11/18“A Temple of the Holy Ghost” by Flannery O’Connor; “Freak Photography” by Rachel Adams (in Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination)(Bella, Maggie, Vanessa)
Week11: 11/25 no class
Week12: 12/2 The Ballad of Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers (Claudia, Brant)
Week13: 12/9 finish The Ballad of Sad Cafe; “Two Bodies in One” by Sarah Gleeson-White (in Strange Bodies: Gender and Identity in the Novels of Carson McCullers) (Alvis, Monica)
Part III: Racial grotesques
Week14: 12/16 Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee (Sasha, Susan)
Week15: 12/23 finish Waiting for the Barbarians (Sharyl)
Week16: 12/30 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Chet, Mike)
Week17: 1/6 finish The Bluest Eye
Week18: 1/13 final exam
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