ENGL 399: SATIRE

 

Shawn Maurer

 

Spring 2004

 

Course Description and Goals:

 

What makes satire such a powerful—and persistent—literary mode? In this course, we will approach works of literature classified as “satire” in relation to the contexts—aesthetic, social, economic, political—that make them possible and to which they are responding.  Examining both “classic” and lesser-known examples of satire, we will read various types of literature—including poetry, plays, essays, novels, utopian and dystopian satire—across diverse historical periods.  Not only will we attempt to understand the circumstances surrounding each work, but we will also endeavor to identify shared themes and narrative strategies: attacks on women, for example, or a positing of the corrupt present against an idealized past (or, in the case of utopian fiction, against an idealized future).  My hope is that the study of satire will force us to engage not only with the past, whether distant or immediate, but also with our demanding present.

 

Required Texts (please buy the editions specified):

  • Horace’s Satires and Epistles, Trans. Jacob Fuchs (Norton)
  • Juvenal, Sixteen Satires, Trans. Peter Green (Penguin)
  • William Wycherley, The Country Wife, Ed. James Ogden (Norton)
  • Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (Penguin)
  • Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (Penguin)
  • Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (Penguin)
  • George Orwell, Animal Farm (Plume)
  • Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland, The Yellow Wall-Paper, and Selected Writings (Penguin)
  • Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (Random House)
  • Percival Everett, Erasure (Hyperion)
  • Additional readings available on ERes.

 

Course Requirements:

 

  • Class participation (10%): This is a discussion-based course, which depends upon a high level of student preparation and involvement. I expect you to come to class having carefully read and thought about each day’s assignment.  Come with your insights, questions, likes and dislikes—all will add to our discussions! Because your participation plays such an important part in this course, more than two unexcused absences will lower your final grade.  To insure that you are coming to class prepared, there may be occasional unannounced quizzes. 
  • Oral presentation and outline (5%):  For this assignment, you will find, analyze, and briefly present to the class a contemporary example or use of satire, one which addresses, in salient ways, some of the themes and issues we will be exploring in class.  You are not limited to literary sources or print media, but I do ask that you be able to show the class an example of what it is you’re analyzing (e.g., a TV commercial, a brief film clip, a web site, etc.).  Your presentation should last no more than five minutes; you should also include a hand-out for the class that contains the main points of your presentation.  We will have two presentations per class, starting on February 26. 

 

Written Assignments:

  • Two analytic essays (5 pp.) focused on works we read in class [20 % each]
  • Final Paper, for which you can either analyze a work of satire not on the course syllabus or write an analyze an original piece of satire [25 %]
  • Final Exam, containing identification passages taken from the course and essay questions [20 %]

 

Late Paper Policy:

Unless you have a prior extension from me (please note: extensions, for whatever reason, will not be granted on the day a paper is due) or a dean’s letter, late papers will be accepted at my discretion.  If I accept one, it will be marked down one half-grade for each day they are late (for example, a “B” paper that is two days late will receive a “C+”).

 

A Critical Note on Academic Honesty:

I expect that any work you submit for this class will be your own and will be prepared specifically for this class.  Whenever you make use of outside sources (including web-sites, articles, books, roommates) for language or ideas, you must acknowledge them in formal citations (that is, footnotes or bibliography). Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, a serious academic offense that will result in your receiving a failing grade for the assignment and may result in suspension or even expulsion from the college. If you are confused about what needs to be cited and what does not, please see me.

 

 

SCHEDULE OF READINGS & ASSIGNMENTS

 

R (1/22):         Introduction: What is satire?

 

T (1/27):         Semonides, “Females of the Species”; Spectator 209; “Jonathan Swift, “A Modest

                        Proposal”; Jane Austen, “Love and Friendship” (ERes)

 

R (1/29):         Roman Satire

Horace: Satires—Book I: 1, 2, 4, 6

 

T (2/3):           Horace: Satires—Book II: 1, 2, 6, 7; Alexander Pope, “Imitations of Horace” (ERes)

 

R (2/5):          Juvenal: Satires 1, 3, 6

 

T (2/10):         Juvenal: Satire 10; Samuel Johnson, “The Vanity of Human Wishes” (ERes)

 

R (2/12):         Restoration Satire

                        Rochester, “Satyr,” “The Imperfect Enjoyment”;

                        Aphra Behn, “The Disappointment” (ERes)

 

T (2/17):         William Wycherley, The Country Wife, Acts I-III

 

R (2/19):         The Country Wife, Acts IV-V

                        Sign-up for Presentations

 

T (2/24):         18th-Century Satire

                        Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, “Epistle to Miss Blount, with the Works of Voiture,”

“An Epistle to a Lady”;

                        Spectator Nos. 41 and 144 (ERes)

 

R (2/26):        Jonathan Swift, “Phillis, or, The Progress of Love,” “The Progress of Beauty,” “The Furniture of a Woman’s Mind,” “The Lady’s Dressing Room,” “A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed,” “Strephon and Chloe,” “Cassinus and Peter”;

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, “The Reasons that Induced Dr. S. to write a Poem called

The Lady’s Dressing Room” (ERes)

Presentations begin

 

 

T (3/2):           Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Parts I and II

                       

R (3/4):          Gulliver’s Travels, Parts III and IV

Paper 1 due

 

Spring Vacation

 

T (3/16):         The Satiric Novel of Manners

                        Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813), Vol. I

 

R (3/18):         Pride and Prejudice, Vol. II

 

T (3/23):         Pride and Prejudice, Vol. III

 

R (3/25):        Film screening, The Importance of Being Earnest (Oliver Parker, 2002)

 

T (3/30):         19th-Century Satiric Drama

                        Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

 

R (4/1):          Utopian Satire

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland (1915), Chs. 1-6

 

T (4/6):           Herland, Chs. 7-12

 

R (4/8):          Easter Recess

 

T (4/13):         Political Allegory

George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)

                        Final Paper choice due

 

R (4/15):        Animal Farm, continued

Paper 2 due

 

T (4/20):        Dystopian Satire

                        Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chs. 1-23

                       

R (4/22):        The Handmaid’s Tale, Chs. 24-end

 

T (4/27):         Post-Soul Satire

Percival Everett, Erasure (2001), Chs.  1-6

 

R (4/29):        Erasure, Chs. 7-18

 

Film screening: Andrew Niccol, SImOne [Simone] (2002) (date and time tba)

 

T (5/4):           Class discussion, SImOne

                        Review for final

                        Final Paper due

 

T (5/11):         Final Exam (2:30 p.m.)