Emily C. Friedman

ENG 2200/1 - Topics in British Literature:
Lies! False Documents, Fictional Frauds, and Literary Hoaxes
Fall 2007
MWF 12-12.50, Tate 123
Office hours: MWF 10-11 and by appointment (Tate 1)

Texts
There are six required books for this class, available at the University Bookstore:

These books are also available on Amazon, but if you go that route, make sure you will receive your books in time for class. Several of the other texts are also available online, but if you choose to read in that format, I expect that you bring some paper-based form to class to annotate and make reference to (in the case of longer online readings, I will indicate shorter sections that can be brought to class). Also, know if you choose an alternate edition, you may be sacrificing illuminating notes, introductions, or other material which will provide you with context.

This course will examine several kinds of literary "lies" -- the fictional "true story" (like Defoe's Moll Flanders or The Blair Witch Project), forgeries (like the Ossian poems or false Shakespeare plays of William Henry Ireland), frauds (like Laura Albert, AKA "JT LeRoy" or Carter's "The Education of Little Tree"), and false documents (such as in the work of Borges, Nabokov, or Bram Stoker's Dracula). We'll be investigating what makes a text "authentic" or "inauthentic" by examining works (novels, films, and everything in between) which play with our ideas of what makes for a "true story".

Note: This class shares its readings with my ENG2100 course for this semester, but our approach in this course will be quite different.

You will be graded on active class participation, weekly responses, class presentation, two short response papers, and a final.

General Class Policies

30%	Response Paper 1 (3-5 pages) – 10%
	Response Paper 2 (3-5 pages) – 10%
	In-Class Presentation – 10%
30%	Short Weekly Responses
20%	Final
20%	Class Attendance and Participation

You will write two response papers, each responding to one work of your choice, due on the Tuesday of the week following the week the work is read. Extensions on these assignments will only be granted with more than 24 hours’ notice. Each should be three to five pages long and should discuss the works in terms of the course topic. They should be presented—word-processed or typed—using parenthetical documentation according to the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (or see http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/english.html).

A complete grading rubric is available online and at Blackboard, and will be handed out before the first paper. Remember: I grade you on the work I see, not on your good intentions. I expect that you will have personally proofread (and ideally, had someone else read over) your formal writing prior to handing it in. Egregious grammar errors, typos, improper citation, formatting errors, etc. are unacceptable on formal writing assignments, as they imply sloppy thought and hasty writing. Papers with such errors will be marked down a letter grade.

Extensions on formal paper assignments (including drafts and proposals) will only be granted with more than 24 hours' notice. Late work without a prior extension will not be accepted.

At the beginning of the second week, I will pass around a signup sheet listing days for in-class presentations, which will occur at the beginning of class. You (and a partner, if you choose) will be responsible for a 5-10 minute presentation on a work of literary fraud (You might consult this Amazon list of works of fiction presented as fact or this Wikipedia list of mockumentaries to start, or you may propose your own). Your presentation should aim to explain the work, situate it in its author’s larger body of work and in its moment, and evaluate it in some way. You should prepare typed notes for your presentation; these should not be in essay or script form but rather should be an outline that allows you to structure your remarks, refer to particular passages (if necessary), and remember what the hell it was you were just talking about. These notes will be collected. As our classroom is "smart," you may choose to take advantage of our ability to show DVD clips, pages of text, and the like.

You will write once a week in response to each other and to our assigned readings, using Blackboard. Your responses should be at least 250 words in length and should demonstrate that you have read and carefully thought about the assigned reading.

You will be assigned one of three due dates - either Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday at 9 PM (In other words, the night before one of our class periods.) You should use this forum to:

I am less interested in what you liked or disliked about the reading (although that may be relevant to your response) than in what issues you found central and why. I will grade responses higher that clearly make connections to specific passages in the day's reading.

As we proceed, I will point out questions and responses that I think are particularly strong (and you can check some out from a prior class here), so that you may consider them as models for your future work. I will also provide additional feedback about your individual progress in this area when you request it. Each Friday, I will grade your online contributions as excellent (A/90-100), good (B/80-90), satisfactory (C/70-79), poor (D/60-69), and not adequate (F/below 60). You will be able to keep track of your grades via Blackboard.

Late work in this category will be accepted up to one week afterward but will not be graded higher than a C. Missed work is automatically recorded as an F. Multiple weeks of missing questions and responses will jeopardize your ability to pass the course.

Final
You will be evaluated for your mastery of content knowledge, i.e. your understanding of points of fact (time periods, vocabulary, etc.) which will have been presented in the readings and in class. I reserve the right to include reading pop quizzes, if necessary.