Spring 2008 Advance Course Information

This information effective for spring 2008. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Modern Literature

[ LTMO-145F ] [ LTMO-231 ]

145F. Animal Studies in Literature.

Instructor: Natalie C. Hansen
E-mail:nchansen@ucsc.edu

Course Description

This course examines how nonhuman animals and nonanimal aliens appear in a variety of narrative forms: prose fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The course is organized around different envisionings of relationships that humans have, in reality and in fantasy, with nonhumans. Incorporated into the course are feminist and queer critiques of gendered subjectivities, ecofeminist and animal studies examinations of species differences, and ethical considerations of relations between humans and animals.

We begin the course by considering anthropomorphic reversals in human-animal roles, asking what relationships these reversals enact and what questions they pose to conventional assumptions about species differences. In the second section of the course, we investigate human relationships with animals as pets and as prey. At the center of the course is the section on ethics, in which we read fictional and non-fictional texts that address questions of animal rights and animal welfare. After a midterm interlude on the topic of imaginative representations of becoming animal, we focus on how human and nonhuman subjectivities emerge from mutual engagements. In this section, we will also begin looking at science fiction and fantasy as alternative imaginings of being in the world and being with others. The final section of the course is dedicated to nonhuman and nonanimal otherness in science fiction and fantasy, focusing on how these genres represent alternative embodiments, subjectivities, and relational practices.

Required Texts

All readings for the quarter will be collected in a course reader available at Bay Tree Bookstore. Purchase of the reader is required for the course. Bring the reader to all class meetings. A copy of the reader is on reserve at McHenry library.

Assignments

1. Two short papers
(4-5 pages each, typed, double-spaced; 20 points each; 40 points total)

The first of these short papers must respond to the themes introduced in the first three weeks of the course. The second short paper must respond to the themes introduced in subsequent sections of the course. Each paper must utilize textual citations and practice close readings of both literary and critical texts. Further guidelines will be distributed in class.

Essays will be evaluated on the depth of analysis, the integration of ideas presented in the class, the quality of textual readings, and the presentation of the essay (format, spelling, grammar).

2. Annotated Bibliography (15 points total)

This assignment leads up to the final essay. Detailed instructions will be provided in class.

3. Final essay (6-8 pages) (30 points total)

Analyze one or more of the literary text(s) that we have read over the course of the quarter using analytic frameworks from at least one of the critical articles we have read and one article chosen either from the books on reserve or from references included in any article we read. You must include a copy of the latter with your annotated bibliography and you must turn in both the annotated bibliography and the article with your final essay. Detailed instructions will be provided in class.

Essays will be evaluated on the depth of analysis, the integration of ideas presented in the class, the quality of textual readings, and the presentation of the essay (format, spelling, grammar).

4. Participation (15 points total)

Attendance and active participation reflecting completion of the reading assignments is required. In cases where participation is lagging, students will be requested to attend office hours and/or pop-quizzes will be instituted. All students are required to schedule one individual meeting with the professor during weeks 7-8.

Late Work: Points may be deducted for late work. Submit your work on time.

Special Arrangements: Students with special needs should contact the instructor during the first week of class to arrange accommodations.

Bibliography of Course Reader

Adams, Carol. “Ecofeminism and the Eating of Animals.” Hypatia. Vol. 6, No. 1. Spring 1991. 125-145.

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Interface.” With a Fly’s Eyes, Whale’s Wit, and Woman’s Heart: Animals and Women. Eds. Theresa Corrigan and Stephanie Hoppe. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1989. 128-133.

Atwood, Margaret. “Landcrab II.” With a Fly’s Eye, Whale’s Wit, and Woman’s Heart: Animals and Women. Eds. Theresa Corrigan and Stephanie Hoppe. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1989. 98-99.

Barthes “Wine and Milk” and “Steak and Chips.” Mythologies. Trans. Annette Lavers. NY: Hill and Wang, 1972. 58-64.

Bekoff, Marc. “The Case for Animal Emotions.” The Emotional Lives of Animals. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2007. 1-28.

Boone, J. Allen. Kinship With All Life. New York: Harpers & Brothers, 1954. 7-9, 22-28, 42-56, 61-64, 73-76, 81-84.

Borges, Jorges Luis. “The Handwriting of God” and “The Other Tiger.” Borges: A Reader. Ed. Emir Rodriquez Mondegal and Alastair Reid. NY: Dutton, 1981. 235-238; 281-282.

Burt, Jonathan. “Conflicts Around Slaughter in Modernity.” Killing Animals. The Animal Studies Group. Urbana and Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2006. 120-142.

Burt, Jonathan. “Prologue.” Animals in Film. London: Reaktion Books, 2002. 6-15.

Butler, Octavia. “Blood Child.” Blood Child and Other Stories. NY: Seven Stories Press, 1996.

Bulter, Robert O. “’Help Me Find My Spaceman Lover.” Tabloid Dreams. 1996. 147-268.

Calvino, Italo. “The Belly of the Gecko.” Mr. Palomar. Trans. William Weaver. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. 56-60.

Coetzee, J.M. “The Lives of Animals: ONE: The Philosophers and the Animals.”Elizabeth Costello. NY: Penguin, 2003. 59-90.

Cortazar “Axolotol.” Blow-Up and Other Stories. NY: Pantheon, 1985. 3-9.

Cussins, Charis Thompson. “Confessions of a Bioterrorist: Subject Position and Reproductive Technologies.” Playing Dolly: Technocultural Formations, Fantasies, and Fictions of Assisted Reproduction. Eds. E. Ann Kaplan and Susan Squier. NY: Rutgers U P, 1999. 189-219.

Daston, Lorraine and Gregg Mitman. “Introduction: The How and Why of Thinking With Animals.” Thinking With Animals: New Perspectives on Anthropomorphism. New York: Colombia U P, 2005. 1-14.

Donovan, Josephine. “Animal Rights and Feminist Theory.” Beyond Animal Rights: A Feminist Ethic for the Treatment of Animals. NY: Continuum, 1996. 34-59.

Donovan, Josephine and Carol J. Adams, eds. “Introduction.” Beyond Animal Rights: A Feminist Ethic for the Treatment of Animals. NY: Continuum, 1996. 13-16.

Ferlinghetti “Dog”

Franklin, Sarah. “Origins.” Dolly Mixtures: The Remaking of Geneology. Durham and London: Duke U P, 2007. 1-17.

Grandin, Temple. “A Cow’s Eye View: Connecting with Animals.” Thinking In Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism. NY: Vintage Books, 2006. 167-183.

Hart, Donna and Robert W. Sussman. Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution. NY: Westview Press, 2005. [selection]

Hasselstrom, Linda. “Beef Eater.” Graining the Mare: The Poetry of Ranch Women. Ed. Teresa Jordan. Salt Lake City: Gibbs-Smith Publisher, 1990. 78.

Haraway, Donna. “Chicken.” Shock and Awe: War on Words. Eds. B. Kekelen, J. Gonzalez, B. Stötzer, and A. Tsing. Santa Cruz: New Pacific Press, 2004. 23-30.

Haraway, Donna. The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2003. 26-54.

Hearne, Vickie. “What’s Wrong with Animal Rights: Of Hounds, Horses, and Jeffersonian Happiness.” Originally published in Harper’s 1991 and in The Best American Essays 1992, Ed. Susan Sontag. Houghton Mifflin.

Hemingway, Ernest. Chapter Twelve. The Green Hills of Africa.  NY: Scribner’s Sons, 1935. 216-244.

Kafka, Franz. “A Report to the Academy.”The Basic Kafka. NY: Washington Square Press, 1979. 245-255.

Kusz, Natalie. “Small Purchase.” Theresa Corrigan and Stephanie Hoppe, eds. With a Fly’s Eye, Whale’s Wit, and Woman’s Heart: Animals and Women. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1989. 51-54.

Lawrence “Love”

Le Guin, Ursula K. “She Unnames Them,” “Mazes,” “The Wife’s Tale,” “Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight.” Buffalo Gals and Other Presences. Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1985. 194-196, 61-66, 67-74, 17-54.

Levine “Animals Are Passing From Our Lives”

London, Jack. “White Fang.” Jack London: Novels & Stories. NY: The Library of America, 1982. 134-154.

Lorenz “Affection’s Claims”

Regan “Are Zoos Morally Defensible?”

Serpell, James A. “People in Disguise: Anthropomorphism and the Human-Pet Relationship.”Lorraine Daston and Gregg Mitman, eds. Thinking With Animals:New Perspectives on Anthropomorphism. New York: Colombia U P, 2005. 121-136.

Singer, Peter. “Preface” and Chapter I: “All Animals are Equal…” Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals. New York: Random House, 1975. vii-xiv and 1-27.

Smuts, Barbara, “Encounters with Animal Minds.” Journal of Consciousness Studies 8, nos. 5-7 (2001). 1-17.

Swift, Johnathan. “A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms.” Gulliver’s Travels. New York: W.W. Norton, 1970. 190-260.

Tiptree, James Jr. “Love is the Plan, The Plan is Death.” Warm Worlds and Otherwise. New York: Ballatine Books, 1975. 173-193.

Walker, Alice. "Am I Blue?" Living by the Word. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Co, 1988. 3-8.

Books on Reserve (at McHenry)

Armstrong, Susan. The Animal Ethics Reader.
Bekoff & Allen. Species of Mind.
Burt, Jonathan. Animals in Film.
Cavalieri & Singer. The Great Ape Project.
Corrigan & Hoppe. With a Fly’s Eyes…
Daston & Mitman. Thinking With Animals.
Donovan & Adams. Beyond Animal Rights.
Franklin, Sarah. Dolly Mixtures.
Griffin, Donald. The Question of Animal Awareness.
Hearne, Vickie. Adam’s Task.
Hogan, Metzger, & Peterson. Intimate Nature.
Kaplan & Squire. Playing Dolly.
Midgley, Mary. Animals and Why They Matter.
Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation.
Wise, Steven. Rattling the Cage.

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231. Flaubert: Modern Literature and Contemporary Criticism.

Note: This course is also taught as LTFR 231.

Instructor: Dick Terdiman
Phone: 9-2030 (office); 9-1923 (messages)
E-mail:dick@ucsc.edu

Course Description

This seminar will try to make sense of the relationship between “modernist” themes that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century in Europe (with Flaubert chosen as a privileged instance), and on the other hand fundamental postmodern, poststructuralist, feminist, and postcolonial critical practices that intend to radicalize, rewrite or subvert these themes.  What generic continuities, what conceptual reversals link these two moments?  And what historical and cultural lessons can be drawn from these links? 

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