English 399W English Honors Seminar
Humor as a Method of Inquiry
Fall 2013 - Spring 2014
Tuesdays—1:40 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Section: 01 (86121); Kiely Hall 148
Wednesdays – 6:30 p.m. – 9:20 p.m. Section: 02 (86129); Kiely Hall 248
Instructor: Fred L. Gardaphe, Ph. D.
Office: 535 Klapper
Phone: (718) 997-4655.
Email address: Fred.Gardaphe@qc.cuny.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. & Wednesdays: 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Other times by appointment.
What makes people laugh? How does that laughter affect the human psyche? How does
humor differ within and across cultures? These are just a few of the questions that
might arise when we use humor as a lens through which we examine culture. While the
seminar will focus particularly on the use of humor in English and American literary
culture, students will be free to choose anything as the subject for their seminar papers.
After an exploring the evolution of theories about humor from Classical to
Contemporary, students will interpret roles that humor plays in artistic expression in
relation to relevant theoretical bases. We will examine how modes of expression such as
irony and sarcasm are constructed, expressed and received through literature and
performance. Along the way we will explore the interaction between oral and literary
deliveries of humor, and the roles that historical, geographical, and social contexts of
race, gender, ethnicity and lifestyle play in the production and reception of humor in
England and the United States.
Artists covered include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Oscar
Wilde, Benjamin Franklin, Washington Irving, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain,
Ralph Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Artemus Ward, Mark Twain, Uncle Remus, Fanny
Fern, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Dorothy Parker, Woody Allen, Chris Rock,
Margaret Cho, Sherman Alexie, Russell Peters, Carlos Mencia, and others.
This focused investigation into humor and culture will provide you with a model for
creating your own, original investigation into a subject matter that will become the basis
for your seminar paper. The seminar is designed to model the sort of flexible,
multileveled analysis that you will pursue in your Honors Essay. I do not expect you to
resolve the generic and methodological complexities that we encounter, nor do I intend
to lead our texts into a definitive or unified narrative. It is my hope that the very
heterogeneity of our reading might help to suggest the range of projects that can spring
from our central theme.
Learning Goals
By the end of the semester you should be able to:
1. Think creatively, analytically, and experimentally about texts that challenge
conventional reading protocols.
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2. Bring local, dynamic, and form-sensitive interpretations together to pose
questions, locate contradictions, and frame arguments.
3. Glean essential and experimental ideas from academic writing that may be
dense, abstract, or otherwise alienating, and interplay your own ideas with them.
4. Identify genuine intellectual problems and conduct original research, attentive
both to the conventions of literary analysis and the boundaries of disciplinary
thinking.
5. Find and incorporate relevant source materials into your writing, using
appropriate scholarly resources such as books, journals, indexes, online
catalogues, web search engines, and libraries. Learn correct citation methods
(Chicago style, MLA), and use of the Oxford English Dictionary.
NOTE: Please remember that the grades I give you in the seminar are different from the
determination at the end of the year whether you receive honors and what level of
honors (honors, high honors, highest honors) it might be. Those distinctions are
awarded by the Honors Committee which makes its determination not on your
fulfillment of the course requirements given below, but solely on the basis of your
performance on the Honors essay, your performance on the Honors examination, your
overall GPA and your GPA in English.
Course Requirements
Attendance and Participation (15%)
Regular attendance and active participation are essential. Plan to attend every class
meeting and to arrive on time, especially when we have guests visiting the class. If an
absence is unavoidable, it is your responsibility to obtain any materials, notes, and
instructions that you have missed. For a classroom to be truly collaborative, everyone
must feel comfortable expressing his or her ideas. We need to respond to each other
with respect, even if we do not agree.
Class Blog (15%)
From the second week of the semester, you are required to produce a weekly blog post.
Each post should be the result of 15-20 minutes of concentrated thinking and writing or
at least one paragraph long (approx. 200 words). Make sure that your post is timely:
that it reflects critically on a recent or future reading, draws connections to previous
discussions and readings or comment constructively on someone else’s post. You will
not receive credit if your post recapitulates thinking that has already been done, either
in class or elsewhere on the class blog.
I will read your posts and respond to them informally during class discussion. I shall
also send you a midterm evaluation in the eighth week of the semester.
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Nancy Foasberg, the Humanities librarian who will be working with you on your Honors
Essays, will be posting/responding on the class blog, when appropriate. Please read her
advice and follow her instructions carefully. She can be reached via email at
nancy.foasberg@qc.cuny.edu or by phone 718-997-3751.
You can access our class blog at http://humorasinquiry.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/
Oral Presentation (10%)
A 10-minute oral presentation on a course “key word” followed by a 5-minute class Q
and A. These will begin week three and continue through week ten; you must schedule
yours with me as soon as possible.
Suggested keywords: absurd, American Humor, bizarre, black humor, buffonery,
burlesque, caricature, comedian, comedy, comic, English Humor, ethnic humor, folly,
gallows humor, humor, irony, jest, joke, laughter, ludicrous, mirth, parody, pun,
ridicule, sarcasm, spoof, satire, wit.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a keyword simply as “a word or thing that is of
great importance or significance.” I’m using the term in the stronger sense that
Raymond Williams developed in his 1976 Marxist study Keywords: A Vocabulary of
Culture and Society. Williams was interested in the constitutive force of language; that
is, he wanted to identify the power certain words play in our culture and to analyze their
influence over habits of thought. For Williams, keywords provoke debate; they unsettle
meaning and they show where meaning is—or has historically been—contested.
The aim of this exercise is twofold: 1) to help you develop proficiency in oral
communication; and 2) to build up a shared vocabulary for our seminar: “keywords for
English 399W.”
Research Essay (60%)
The formal writing assignment will be a 18-25 page (typed/double spaced/12 pt. font)
research essay on a topic developed by you in consultation with me. Your essay must
present a cohesive argument, be informed by copious research, and be presented in a
logical argumentative style. We will be working on these essays across the length of the
semester, and the assignment will include five formal stages (as well as a variety of
informal ones). These five formal stages are:
1. Draft Prospectus (P/F)
2. Close reading/textual analysis (1000 words, approx. 4 pages double-spaced) in
connection to your final paper (10%)
3. Revised Prospectus and Annotated Bibliography (15%)
4. Preliminary Essay Draft (25%)
5. Peer Review (10%)
After winter break, for those continuing in the Honors program:
5. Revised Draft and Argument Abstract
6. Formal Submission of Honors Essay
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We’ll discuss each stage in more detail as the semester progresses. Due dates are
indicated on the syllabus. All written assignments are to be submitted both digitally and
in hard copy, unless otherwise indicated.
Conferences
I will arrange one-on-one conferences twice during the semester, the first to discuss
your prospectus draft and the second to discuss your essay draft in progress. If you must
reschedule a conference, please let me know 24 hours in advance. Otherwise, I cannot
guarantee that the conference can be rescheduled.
Required Texts: In order of use
Critchley, Simon. On Humor. New York: Routledge, 2002. 0-415-25120-6
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”. Any version you can find. There’s one
online at BlackBoard.
Morreall, John, Ed. The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 1987. ISBN: 0-88706-327-6
Shakespeare, William. A Comedy of Errors. Any version you can find. There’s a link at
BlackBoard.
Pope, Alexander. “Essay on Criticism.” Any version you can find. There are links at
BlackBoard.
Swift, Jonathan. “A Modest Proposal.” Any version you can find. There’s one online at
BlackBoard.
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Any version you can find. There’s one
online at BlackBoard.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. “Rabelais in the History of Laughter.” In Rabelais and His World.
Bloomington: IN, Indiana University Press, 1984. 59-144.
Blackboard Files
Readings from:
Mark Twain's Library of Humor Mark Twain. New York: Modern Library, 2000.
ISBN: 978-0-679-64036-3. Listed as MT below. Online at BlackBoard.
The Signet Book of American Humor (Paperback), edited by Regina Barreca.
New York: NAL, ISBN-13: 978-0451210586. Listed as SB below. Online at BlackBoard.
Tentative Schedule:
Note that, because of how the holidays fall this autumn, the dates of the
corresponding Monday and Wednesday classes diverge in weird ways.
Mark your calendars.
Before class starts:
Please read pages 1-22 of Simon Critchley’s On Humor which is already online, you get
to it via BlackBoard. Then read Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale (you can find it at
BlackBoard or online at http://english.fsu.edu/canterbury/wife.html
Write up, in 3-4 pages, no more than 1,000 words, your impressions about the humor
you find there. Be sure to discuss the theories of humor Critchley presents and how
Chaucer uses one or more of them. You should also state whether you think it was or
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was not effective, successful and explain why. Email it to me before the first class (to
Fred.Gardaphe@qc.cuny.edu). This is a preliminary diagnostic paper, and while I will
read it carefully, it will not affect your grade (unless you don't do it). Bring a hard copy
of the paper to our first class.
Week I.
Wednesday Evening, August 28; Tuesday Afternoon, September 3.
Organizational Meeting. Give me your pre-course ideas (i.e. What you think you’d like
to focus on in terms of your own research?) via your blogs before class begins.
Discussion of creating sustained arguments in an age of tweets and slogans; the use and
abuse of academic writing; the role of the critic in today’s society.
Discussion of your diagnostic papers as a way of entering our discussion of theories of
humor. For next session: Read Morreall’s pp. 1-126: “Traditional Theories of Laughter
and Humor.”
Week II.
Tuesday Afternoon, September 10; Wednesday Evening, September 11.
Discussion of readings. For next session: Read Morreall’s pp. 127-261.
Week III.
Tuesday Afternoon, September 17; Wednesday Evening, September 18.
Discussion of readings. Keyword presentations. For next session: Read: Shakespeare’s
A Comedy of Errors.
Week IV.
Tuesday Afternoon, September 24; Wednesday Evening, September 25.
Discussion of reading. Workshop: Preparing for research. Keyword presentations. For
next session: Read: Critchley, Chapter Two through Chapter Four and Alexander Pope’s
“Essay on Criticism.”
Week V.
Tuesday Afternoon, October 1; Wednesday Evening, October 2.
Research Workshop with Prof. Nancy Foasberg. Discussion of reading. Keyword
presentations. For next session: Read Bakhtin and Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest
Proposal.”
Week VI.
Tuesday Afternoon, October 8; Wednesday Evening, October 9.
Discussion of reading. Keyword presentations. For next session: Read Oscar Wilde’s
The Importance of Being Earnest.
Week VII.
Tuesday, October 15, follows Monday schedule; Wednesday evening October 16.
Discussion of reading. Keyword presentations. For next session read: Critchley,
Chapters Five and Six and Early American humor: SB: Benjamin Franklin, Ralph
Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Fanny Fern. MT: Washington Irving, Oliver Wendell
Holmes,
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Week VIII.
Tuesday Afternoon, October 22; Wednesday evening October 23.
Discussion of reading. Prospectus Workshop. Keyword presentations. For next session
read: MT: Mark Twain, Artemus Ward and Uncle Remus.
November 4: Deadline for Honors Essay Prospectus.
Week IX.
Tuesday Afternoon, October 29; Wednesday Evening, October 30.
Discussion of reading. Keyword presentations. For next session read: SB: Will Rogers,
H.L. Mencken, Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker.
Week X.
Tuesday Afternoon, November 5; Wednesday Evening, November 6.
Discussion of prospecti. Keyword presentations. For next session: Read: SB: Zora
Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby, and Chris Rock.
Week XI.
Tuesday Afternoon, November 12; Wednesday Evening, November 13.
Individual conferences. Keyword presentations. For next session: Read: Critchley,
Chapter Seven and SB: Woody Allen; View American Standup Comedy.
Honors Essay Revised Prospectus with Bibliography due November 21.
Week XII.
Tuesday Afternoon, November 19; Wednesday Evening, November 20:
Discussion of reading. Keyword presentations. For next session: Read: Sherman Alexie
and Native American humor on Blackboard.
Week XIII.
Tuesday Afternoon, November 26; Wednesday Evening November 27: Follows Friday
Schedule.
This week is all about writing the Honors essay.
Thanksgiving Recess
Week XIV.
Tuesday Afternoon, December 3; Wednesday Evening, December 4.
This week is all about writing the Honors essay.
Week XV.
Tuesday Afternoon, December 10; Wednesday Evening, December 11.
First draft of the Honors Essay is due on your class date
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------During the Christmas break, I will return your first drafts with comments and you will
start working on further drafts leading to the final draft in early March.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------Looking ahead to the Spring Semester
Full-class work focuses on three tasks:
(1) Studying in groups for the Honors Exam, Preparations include class discussions and
electronic communications. The exam will be a two-part exam: in Part I, students
comment on nine (of eighteen) identified quotations from major British and American
literary works; in Part II, students provide a detailed analysis of two or three poems with
a common theme.
(2) Completing the independent research paper begun during the fall seminar. The final
paper will be from five-to-six thousand words (due early in the semester).
(3) Designing, organizing, and presenting an academic conference. The culminating
event of the Honors seminar, the conference is based on students’ research projects. It is
presented to an audience of faculty, students, family and friends. Further, a website may
be created to preserve the results of the conference.
Spring 2014 Semester Tentative Class Dates
Tuesday at 1:40 pm: January 28; February 4, 11, 18, 25; March 4, 11, 18, 25; April 1, 8,
22, 29; May 6, 13.
Wednesday at 6:30 pm: January 29; February 5, 19, 26; March 5, 12, 19, 26; April 2, 9,
23, 30; May 7, 14.
Spring Dates and Deadlines to keep in mind (dates are approximate and
subject to change):
Honors Essays must be submitted (final version) on: Friday, March 14,
February 4 and 5, 2014: Workshop led by Nancy Foasberg, What We Do When We Cite
2013 Honors Exam will take place roughly on: Friday April 4, 2014
2013 Honors Conference will take place roughly on: Wednesday May 7,
2014 in President's Conference Rooms A and B, Rosenthal Library
This syllabus is based on, and occasionally plagiarized from, syllabi for previous honors
seminars by Fred Buell, Andrea Walkden, and David Richter who have stressed to me
the absolute need for total commitment to organization and clarity of expectations and
deadlines.