Margaret Doherty
doherty4@fas.harvard.edu
English 98, Spring 2012
Barker 029, M 3:30-5:30pm
Minimalists and Maximalists: Returns to Realism in American Fiction
This course juxtaposes two realist modes in recent American fiction: minimalism
(exemplified by the short stories of Raymond Carver) and “maximalism,” a term that describes
ambitious, encyclopedic novels that attempt to document American life at particular historical
moments. Both of these schools of writers, so different in style and scope, have been attacked by
critics who sneer at their subject matter or criticize their well-crafted sentences. We’ll engage with
these critiques by attending to the techniques these writers use—including the use of detail, the role
of dialogue, and the importance of narrative perspective—as they attempt to capture “ordinary life”
in late-twentieth-century America. We’ll also examine how these authors evoke place (the city, the
suburb, the frontier) and develop a specific perspective on these fictional worlds. Students will be
exposed to excellent fiction that is not often included in literature courses.
The research component of the course will help us better understand both our primary texts
and their historical contexts. In addition to learning how to engage with arguments put forth in
academic articles, students will also learn how to conduct research using American periodicals. For
students who study contemporary literature, training in periodical research can be especially useful,
since book-length studies of some contemporary authors may not yet be available. At the conclusion
of the course, students will be able to use a broad of secondary sources and will know how to use
these sources to advance their own arguments. Research assignments and discussions of secondary
criticism will prepare students to produce their final research papers for the course.
Requirements:
Regular reading, attendance, and participation; completion of short research and writing
assignments; attendance at research session in Widener library; 20-25 page final research paper
(partial and full drafts due over the course of the term) including a bibliography with 10+
annotations (also due in segments over the course of the term)
Primary Texts:
NB: There is some flexibility regarding the selection of primary readings, which may be adjusted
according to student interest.
Photocopies of selected stories will be distributed in the week prior to the assignment. Novels
should be purchased or borrowed by students.
Ann Beattie, from The New Yorker Stories
Raymond Carver, from Will You Be Quiet Please: Stories; What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Don DeLillo, Underworld
Jonathan Franzen, Freedom
Richard Ford, from Rock Springs
Dagoberto Gilb, from The Magic of Blood
Amy Hempel, from The Collected Stories
Bobbie Ann Mason, from Shiloh and Other Stories
Joyce Carol Oates, them
E. Annie Proulx, from Close Range: Wyoming Stories
Mary Robison, from Days: Stories
Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
Tobias Wolff, from Back in the World
Margaret Doherty
doherty4@fas.harvard.edu
English 98, Spring 2012
Barker 029, M 3:30-5:30pm
Secondary Texts:
All critical selections will be photocopied and distributed in the prior week’s class. Different
secondary readings may be substituted for those listed, though the quantity of reading will remain
roughly the same.
Recommended Secondary Materials:
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 7th Edition (2009)
Wayne C. Booth et. al, The Craft of Research 3rd Edition (2008)
WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS:
“Dirty Realism”: Working-Class Fictions Small and Large
Week One, Thursday 2/2: Raymond Carver, “Neighbors” (1979),“Why Don’t You Dance,” “The
Bath,” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” (1981); Mary Robison, “Apostasy”
and “Relations” (1979)
-Bill Buford, “Editorial,” Granta: Dirty Realism 8 (1983)
-John Barth, “A Few Words About Minimalism,” The New York Times Book Review (December 18,
1986)
Week Two, Thursday 2/9: Joyce Carol Oates, them (1969), first half
-James R. Giles, “Suffering, Transcendence, and Artistic ‘Form’: Joyce Carol Oates’s them,” Arizona
Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory 32 (1976)
Week Three, Thursday 2/16: Oates, them, second half
-Peter Hitchcock, “They Must Be Represented? Problems in Theories of Working-Class
Representation,” PMLA 115 (2000)
-From Mark McGurl, The Program Era (2009)
Week Four, Thursday 2/23: Bobbie Ann Mason, “Shiloh” and “Still Life With Watermelon” (1982);
Richard Ford, “Rock Springs” and “Optimists” (1987); Tobias Wolff, “The Barracks Thief” (1985);
Amy Hempel, “In the Cemetery Where Al Johnson is Buried” (1985) and “Harvest” (1990)
-Frederick Barthelme, “On Being Wrong: Convicted Minimalist Spills Beans,” The New York Times
Book Review (December 28, 1986)
-From John W. Aldridge, Talents and Technicians (1992)
* 4-page paper due in class *
New York, the New Yorker Story and the New Social Novel
Week Five, Thursday 3/2: Ann Beattie, stories from The New Yorker Stories
* Periodicals research assignment *
** Week Five: Research Session at Widener Library with Laura Farwell Blake **
Week Six, Thursday 3/9: Don DeLillo, Underworld (1997), first half
-Tom Wolfe, “Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast,” Harper’s (1989)
Margaret Doherty
doherty4@fas.harvard.edu
English 98, Spring 2012
Barker 029, M 3:30-5:30pm
-James Wood, “Human, All Too Inhuman” (The New Republic, 2000)
** SPRING BREAK: MARCH 11-MARCH 18 (THINK ABOUT PAPER TOPIC) **
Week Seven, Thursday 3/22: Don DeLillo, Underworld, second half
-Tony Tanner, “Afterthoughts no Underworld,” Raritan
* Select, summarize, and evaluate one critical article on DeLillo *
* Selection of author(s) and text(s) for final paper (1-2 page prospectus); partial bibliography
with 5+ annotations due Monday, March 26th *
Week Eight, Thursday 3/29: David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest (1996) (excerpt)
Stories from Oblivion
Essays from Consider the Lobster
-Jonathan Raban, “Divine Drudgery” in The New York Review of Books (May 12, 2011)
-From Timothy Aubry, Reading as Therapy: What Contemporary Fiction Does for Middle-Class Americans
Beyond City Limits: Stories from the West
Week Nine, Thursday 4/5: E. Annie Proulx, “The Half-Skinned Steer” and “Brokeback Mountain”
(1999); Dagoberto Gilb, “I Danced with the Prettiest Girl: A Tex-Mex Song” and “Parking Places”
(1993)
-From B. R. Myers, A Reader’s Manifesto (2002)
* Student selection of reading for next week *
* Partial draft (10 pages) due; bibliography with 10+ annotations *
Attending to Detail in the Twenty-First Century
Week Ten, Thursday 4/12: student choice of recent short fiction
* Select and distribute reviews of Freedom *
Week Eleven, Thursday 4/19: Jonathan Franzen, Freedom (2010), first half
* Complete draft due *
Week Twelve, Thursday 4/26: Jonathan Franzen, Freedom, second half
* Student paper workshop *
-Mark Greif, “‘The Death of the Novel’ and Its Afterlives: Toward a History of the ‘Big, Ambitious
Novel,’” boundary 2 36:2 (2009)
-Student-selected reviews
Week Thirteen, Thursday MAY 3: Final Paper due in to me by 7pm, perhaps at celebratory
dinner??