syllabus
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Early in 1880, in spite of a
well-founded suspicion as to the advisability of
perpetuating that race which has the sanction of the Lord
and the disapproval of the people, Hedvig Volkbein, a
Viennese woman of great strength and military beauty, lying
upon a canopied bed, of a rich spectacular crimson, the
valance stamped with the bifurcated wings of the House of
Hapsburg, the feather coverlet an envelope of satin on
which, in massive and tarnished gold threads, stood the
Volkbein arms, - gave birth, at the age of forty-five, to an
only child, a son, seven days after her physician predicted
that she would be taken.
--opening paragraph of Nightwood
Published in 1937, Djuna
Barnes's novel
Nightwood was
immediately recognized as a great work of art, a masterpiece
comparable, T.S. Eliot argued in his enthusiastic
introduction, to the finest Elizabethan tragedy. In complex,
dense, and stunningly beautiful prose, Barnes delineates the
lives of her characters: the mysterious expatriate American
Robin Vote, her Viennese husband Felix Volkbein, her lover
Nora Flood, and their loquacious, outrageous friend Dr.
Matthew O'Connor. As a meditation on love, loss, language,
and identity, Nightwood invites study from a variety of literary,
linguistic, and philosophical perspectives. Moreover,
readers interested in history and religious studies will
find much to repay their attention. Set mostly in Paris
between the world wars, the novel has been seen as both a
prescient critique of fascism and a trenchant deconstruction
of the illusions of historical progress and historiography.
Religious as well as national differences among the
characters occupy much of the text's attention: Felix is a
self-hating Jew, Nora a puritan Protestant, Matthew an Irish
Catholic sinner, and Robin a Catholic convert. In short,
Nightwood is an extraordinarily rich text and an ideal
candidate for study in a Humanities Senior Seminar.
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Humanities Senior
Seminar
Spring 2004
[site no longer updated]
Nightwood
by Djuna Barnes
MW 3-4:30
FAW 223
Frann
Michel
office hours MWF 10:20-11:20, 1:50-2:50, and
by appointment
fmichel@willamette.edu
x6389
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The purpose of this course is to provide seniors in the humanities
with an opportunity to synthesize the liberal arts experience through
intensive study of an important text of the modernist era and through
the production of a substantial scholarly and analytic essay.
Requirements: active participation, brief writing assignments, oral
report, one seminar paper of 20-25 pages.
I encourage you to read the novel as soon as possible. During the
first half of the semester, we will reread the novel together and
will read selected works of criticism. Students will complete short
written assignments on these readings: for each chapter of the novel,
choose one sentence and write an explication; for each critical
essay, locate the thesis and write a discussion question about the
essay. My hope is that these brief assignments will not only
contribute to our discussions in class but also help students develop
individual seminar projects.
On March 15, each student will turn in a proposal (about three
pages) for a final seminar paper (about 20-25 pages), and in April
will have the opportunity to discuss these proposed projects with
visiting scholar Carolyn Allen. Final papers will be workshopped
through oral presentations and through peer editing of multiple
drafts. Seminar projects may focus on any aspect of Nightwood,
and may examine the novel through any relevant theory, context, or
intertext.
Please speak with me individually if you have a disability for
which I can make accommodation.
See below for more information.
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discussion
board: sign in to our class at
blackboard
(http://blackboard.willamette.edu/) to post your
explications, discussion questions, and thoughts about
Nightwood.
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Required text ordered at WU Bookstore:
Djuna Barnes, Nightwood: The Original Version and Related
Drafts. Ed. Cheryl Plumb
Additional required texts will be placed on
library
reserve or available online
Recommended texts:
Any other edition of Nightwood
MLA Handbook or other style sheet including the most recent
MLA guidelines
Barnes texts in Hatfield
Library:
Nightwood: the Original Version and Related Drafts
PS 3503.A614 N5 1995
Ryder (novel)
PS3503.A614R9
Ladies Almanack….(novel, sort of)
PS3503.A614 L3
Selected Works (includes the play The Antiphon)
PS3503.A614 A6 1962
Collected Stories
PS3503.A614 A6 1996
New York (essays)
PS3503.A614 N4
Biography: Djuna: The Life and Works of Djuna Barnes, by
Phillip Herring
PS3503.A614 Z68 1995
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Barnes links:
The
Barnes papers at U Maryland
The
Book of Repulsive Women (poetry and drawings by Barnes)
a
Barnes page with Eliot's Nightwood introduction & a
short biography
a
review of the collected stories
an
appreciation, with links
back to top of page
Tentative Schedule
M Jan 19 Introductions
W Jan 21 "Bow Down"
M Jan 26 Plumb, Cheryl. Introduction (vii-xxvi ) and
Textual Apparatus (143-319, esp. 143-155, 187-190, 211-218) to the
Original Version and Related Drafts
Allen, Carolyn. "'Dressing the Unknowable in the Garments of the
Known': The Style of Djuna Barnes' Nightwood." Women's Language
and Style. Ed. Douglas Butturff and Edmund L. Epstein. Akron: L
& S Books, 1978. 106-18. On reserve.
W Jan 28 "La Somnambule"
M Feb 2 Eliot, T.S., Introduction to Nightwood.
http://www.studiocleo.com/librarie/barnes/djunabarnes.html
(From that page, click on the link at left for Eliot's
introduction)
Marcus, Jane. "Mousemeat: Contemporary Reviews of Nightwood."
Silence and Power: A Reevaluation of Djuna Barnes. Ed.
Mary Lynn Broe. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1991. 195-204. On
reserve
W Feb 4 "Night Watch"
M Feb 9 Frank, Joseph. "Spatial Form in Nightwood"
(from "Spatial Form in Modern Literature"). The Widening
Gyre: Crisis and mastery in Modern Literature. New Brunswick,
NJ: Rutgers UP, 1963. 25-49. On
reserve
Singer, Alan. "The Horse Who Knew Too Much: Metaphor and the
Narrative of Discontinuity in Nightwood." Contemporary
Literature 25.1 (1984): 66-87. Available through
Academic
Search Premier; accession number 5034492.
W Feb 11 "'The Squatter'"
M Feb 16 Marcus, Jane. "Laughing at Leviticus: Nightwood
as Woman's Circus Epic." Silence and Power: A
Reevaluation of Djuna Barnes. Ed. Mary Lynn Broe. Carbondale:
Southern Illinois UP, 1991. 221-50. On reserve.
Kaivola, Karen. "The 'beast turning human': Constructions of the
'Primitive' in Nightwood." The Review of Contemporary
Fiction. 13.3 (1993): 172-185. Available through
Academic
Search Premier; accession number 9401201021
W Feb 18 "Watchman, What of the Night?"
M Feb 23 Altman, Meryl. "A Book of Repulsive Jews?:
Rereading Nightwood." The Review of Contemporary
Fiction 13.3 (1993): 160 71. Available through
Academic
Search Premier; accession number 9401201020
Veltman, Laura J.
"'The
Bible Lies the One Way, But the Night Gown the Other': Dr.
Matthew O'Connor, Confession, and Gender in Djuna Barnes's
Nightwood." MFS: Modern Fiction Studies 49.2 (2003):
204-27. Available through
Project
Muse
W Feb 25 "Where the Tree Falls"
M Mar 1 Harris, Andrea. "The Third Sex: Figures of
Inversion in Djuna Barnes's Nightwood." Eroticism and
Containment: Notes from the Flood Plain. Ed. Carol Siegel and Ann
Kibbey. New York: New York UP, 1994. 233 59
Smith, Victoria L. "A Story beside(s) Itself: The Language of Loss
in Djuna Barnes's Nightwood." PMLA: Publications of the
Modern Language Association of America. 114.2 (1999): 194 206.
Allen, Carolyn. "The Erotics of Nora's Narrative in Djuna Barnes's
Nightwood." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and
Society. 19.1 (1993): 177 200. Available through
Academic
Search Premier; accession number 9403082356
W Mar 3 "Go Down, Matthew"
M Mar 8 "The Possessed"
W Mar 10 no class meeting
M Mar 15 -F Mar 19 and M Mar 29-F Apr 2 individual
conferences
M Mar 15 Project proposal due; oral presentations
W Mar 17 oral presentations continued
M Mar 22-W Mar 24 spring break: Be working on your drafts
M Mar 29 Draft due (minimum12 pages, maximum 30 pages);
peer editing (three copies)
W Mar 31 Peer editing continued
F Apr 2 250-word abstract due by 3pm
M Apr 5 Working bibliography due
Tu Apr 6- Th Apr 8 Carolyn Allen on campus; individual
conferences
W Apr 7 Carolyn Allen class visit
Th Apr 8 Carolyn Allen lecture: "Djuna Barnes: Looking Like
a (Lesbian) Poet" Hatfield Room, 7pm
M Apr 12 Detailed outline due (one copy)
W Apr 14 SSRD; no class meeting
M Apr 19 Revised draft, complete (20-25pages)
W Apr 21 peer editing
M Apr 26 Complete revised draft due; copy editing
W Apr 28 editing
M May 3 last day; Final essay due
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Assignments: Explications, Thesis &
Discussion Question, Proposals, Draft, Outline
Explications
For W Jan 21 & 28, Feb 4, 11, and 25, and Mar 3 and M Mar 8
About one page (1-2 pages, 250-500 words) typed
Choose one sentence from the chapter of Nightwood assigned
for that day. Retype the sentence (both for ready reference, and for
the sake of the detailed attention required to copy a text exactly;
include page number). Then, as the term "explication" suggests,
unfold its meaning, give a detailed explanation of it, develop its
implications, analyze it logically. Consider what it says at the most
denotative level (often itself a challenge in Nightwood), as
well as how it says it and what it suggests. Look closely at the
grammar and structure of the sentence, assess its figurative language
and connotations (you might want to check the OED, available
online through the Hatfield Library webstation), consider its role in
the immediate context and in the book as a whole-its implications for
character, narrative, or themes.
Thesis & Discussion question
For M Jan 26, Feb 2, 9, 16, 23, and Mar 1
About one page (½- 1 page, 150-250 words) typed
You are responsible for all of the readings assigned for a given
day, but you may choose to focus your writing on a single critical
reading for the day. Locate the thesis--either rephrase it in a
single sentence of your own words, or quote a thesis sentence (give
page number). In addition, write a discussion question. This need not
focus on the thesis of the article. It may address the internal logic
of the critical argument or the essay's application to the novel. A
discussion question is one that cannot be answered simply by looking
the answer up somewhere, one that does not have an obvious answer,
but that must be explored and argued. It is not completely
open-ended, but specifically grounded in the text. It arises from
careful consideration of the reading assignment: what the text says,
and how it says it. In about half a page (150 words), explain what
prompted the question, what thinking went into arriving at the
question, what possible answers (if any) have been considered, and
why those answers are unsatisfactory. You may wish to quote from the
text (include page numbers). Try to frame the question itself in one
brief interrogative sentence.
Project proposals
Due M Mar 15; oral presentations M Mar 15 and W Mar 17
About three pages (2-3 pages, 500-750 words) typed
What will you be writing your final paper about? The topic is up
to you, as long as it's about Nightwood. You might compare the
original and published versions, or the related drafts and final
text. You might focus on a particular section, chapter, character,
motif, or theme. You might examine the novel in relation to another
work by Barnes or another literary or artistic work mentioned or
alluded to in the text. You might place the novel in the context of a
contemporary issue or movement (e.g., modernism, surrealism,
eugenics) or approach it through a particular theoretical lens.
Describe your thinking about the project so far and your plans for
future research and study. Include a working thesis; this will
presumably be developed and refined as you continue to think and
research and work on the project, but formulate your central idea as
fully and precisely as you can at this stage.
First draft - Monday Mar 29
Ideally, this will be close to the final length of 20-25 pages, but
it may be longer or shorter depending on your own writing style and
revising process. It should contain the complete argument and
discussion of the essay as you understand it at this point. If your
overly dense drafts tend to get longer as you revise, 12 pages is an
acceptable (minimum) length; if your diffuse drafts tend to get
shorter as you revise, 30 pages is an acceptable (maximum) length. At
this point you should have completed additional research (for
example, other critical responses to the novel, and if you're working
with another literary text, criticism of that work as well).
Abstract - F Apr 2
This should be a one-page (250-word) version of your paper. See a
recent table of contents of PMLA for examples. These will be
made available to Carolyn Allen before your individual meetings with
her.
Bibliography - M Apr 5
List the sources you are currently using for your paper. Use MLA
style.
Detailed Outline
Monday April 12
This should include your revised working thesis, and should provide a
brief sketch of the current state of your essay and its structure
(that is, please use complete, informative sentences).
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