“Truth depends on an encounter with something
that forces us to think and to seek the truth.” (14)
 
“if the resonance has both objective and subjective conditions,
what it produces is of an altogether different nature:
the Essence, the spiritual Equivalent….that breaks with the subjective chain.” (154)

— Deleuze, Proust and Signs (1972)

 
M 30-Nov     Foer: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (through p. 173)
                       (Laura Hampson & Tahara Franklin)
 
 
W 02-Dec     Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (pp. 174-259)
                       (Krystal Sardinas & Paige Miller)

Due: Project Proposal Update (revised/finalized; 7pm, on blog)
(counts as blog entry; add Foer to your “poetics inventory”)

→ Notes from class discussion (plus reminders and clarifications)

 
 
F 04-Dec     Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (pp. 267-326)            (Sarah Zimmerman)

plus: (required): “Mystory” excerpts by Ulmer (PDF)

 
M 07-Dec    Due: Final Project — “Resonance Assemblage” (checkpoint / partial)
 
 

I am interested in the intersection between poetry and history. How does history make its path in a poetic work?
We rarely see history in a literary text since it is so hard to deal with. Perhaps poetry does not know how to say or utter history. …History simply smothers and squashes.
Yet some books show that one can remain poetic in the very midst of history. (110)

–Hélène Cixous, “Poetry, Passion, and History” (1985)

 
M 26-Oct     Jazz     (Chp. 6-10, pp.137-229)            (Tahara Franklin)

 
W 28-Oct      Silko: Ceremony      (Intro + through p.37)           (Laura Hampson)

 
F 30-Oct     Ceremony     (pp.38-85)            (Maria Tamayo)

 
                     Due: Response 4 (deadline: 11:59pm)

Resp 4: Imagining Experience through Jazz
500 words, 10 points; due F 30-Oct (deadline TBA)
Review assignment criteria here.
 

“To have only the value of knowledge is not to have the value of life, or love.” (64)

–Hélène Cixous, “Grace and Innocence” (1982)

 
Choose an historically specific experience from the novel
(for example, from general categories of “loss,” “desire,” “freedom,” “alienation/isolation,” parentage/progeny relation — but do not generalize, stereotype, re-situate in present day, etc.)

 
Option 1

 
First, briefly define (”explain”) the experience either in the mode of belief or of reason (rational mode/knowledge).
Present one textual illustration that aptly supports your definition.

 
Next, discuss the same experience, but in terms of what you intuit from your reading (from the novel’s expression); describe this in more detail than the first definition, showing an attempt at working with the aesthetic mode. As always, provide the key figures from the novel that enable your understanding, and discuss figures in form+content terms (considering both dimensions).

Major tip/reminder: remember to consider “affect” and “lived” or “embodied” experience…

 
To conclude, speculate about your new understanding — either in terms of the novel (function/effects? significance?); or of consequence (”what changes?” new perspective?). In any case, explicitly describe the qualities (”benefits”?) or implications of this mode for working with the novel, as you’ve experienced thus far.

 
 
Option 2

 
Having selected a specific experience, examine this in both Jazz and Ceremony together — focusing upon a respective character from each, with this perspective on experience.

 
Discuss an understanding of this experience through an intuitive reading of the novels’ expression. Not necessary to simply compare/contrast the characters; rather, describe the unique aspects of your respective examples toward an illustration of the aesthetic mode, providing specific figures (support).

 
To conclude, consider your new intuitive description of this experience against one (or both) of the modes of judgment (belief/morality, reason/knowledge)–with which you might contrast, if you’d like. Overall, address the key difference(s) and the implications/value of attempting this mode for working with literature and understanding experience.

 
 
Note: contact me (soon/Mon.) with questions; subsequently I will add/elaborate the prompts if necessary.
 

 
“By the roots of my hair some god got hold of me.
I sizzled in his blue volts like a desert prophet.”

– Plath, “The Hanging Man” (1960)

At work in novels is “a new logic, definitely a logic, but one that grasps the innermost depths of life and death without leading us back to reason. The novelist has the eye of a prophet, not the gaze of a psychologist” (82).

– Deleuze, “Bartleby, or the Formula” (1989)

 
M 21-Sep      Plath: The Bell Jar     (through Chp. 9)           (Sarah Zimmerman)

 
                      ”Plath’s Life and Career” (Illinois)

 
 
W 23-Sep      The Bell Jar     (Chp. 10-14)           (Krystal Sardinas)

                       plus poems (optional / select) — see below.      cf. List: all poems (Stanford)

 
 
F 25-Sep      The Bell Jar     (Chp. 15-20)           (Jessica Brousseau)

                       plus (required):
                       “Ariel” (1962); “Daddy” (1962); & “Lady Lazarus” (1962)

 
                       Due: Response 2 — Prompt

 
Response 2: Bell Jar and Experience
 
500 words (min.); 10 points.
Due: F 25-Sept. Post to your blog, by class time midnight.

 
 
Given that this is not an autobiography, and yet highly “experiential,”
what can we learn from The Bell Jar about experience, from Plath’s literary expression?

 
Start by considering and/or (re-)defining “Experience”
(as a noun or verb? as a narrative or event? a combination?).

Another point of departure (contrast) is the “referential function” (153) that Abbott discusses, in that we are not evaluating this in terms of “factual, false, and fictional” (157). Rather, this novel illustrates the uncertain or undecidable status between literature and life (cf. Derrida and Miller, Cambridge 210).

 
In this view, consider experience as narrative: Plath presents multiple narratives throughout, concerning the past, present, and future within the time of the plot-events, specifically in the
memories (past) and aspirations (future) that she notes in parallel. This non-linear sequence gives us a thematic starting point, both in the overall structure and in the vivid image of the fig tree.

 
Use two to four specific descriptions from the novel as support examples for your definition, being careful not to summarize; remember to work from (and “with”) the textual instances toward an overall conclusion for your response.

 
 
Notes / suggestions:

Likewise, be careful not to generalize (e.g. “society’s view of women…”); rather, discuss the unique circumstances and ordeals that Esther undergoes or that Plath describes, as your examples.
 
You might find it easier and/or more effective to narrow your scope to a particular aspect or element (”sub-category”) of experience, using one of the contexts or circumstances from the plot (e.g. gender relations/roles, institutions, mental illness). This is a fine approach, but still try to pose an overall conclusion about experience from your specific example.
 
Finally, the references from Abbott in the prompt come from Chapters 11 and 14, which might be helpful to review (especially pp. 153-7 & pp.209-10; as well as autobio. and performance on pp. 138-43).
 
Sidenote: like the fig tree vision, another of Plath’s percepts to consider in your definition is the shadow that she mentions, beautiful or otherwise, there or not…

 
Sylvia Plath: all poems (Stanford)

 Suggested

“Ariel” (1962)
“Daddy” (1962)
“Lady Lazarus” (1962)


“The Hanging Man” (1960)
“Love Letter” (1960)
“The Moon and Yew Tree” (1961)
“Berck-Plage“(1962)
* “Death & Co.” (1962)
* “Elm” (1962)
* “Event” (1962)
“Fever 103″ (1962)
“Little Fugue” (1962)
“Poppies in July” (1962)
“Poppies in October” (1962)
* “Stings” (1962)
* “The Bee Meeting” (1962)