Dr. Laurence Roth
Office: Fisher 243
Tel.: x4202; e-mail: roth@susqu.edu
ENGL: 390:01
MWF 12:30-1:35, FISH 239
Office Hours: TTh 1:00-4:00
Unpacking the Bookstore
Required Texts:
Lewis Buzbee
Greg Ketter
Laura Miller
Robin Sloan
On Blackboard:
Walter Benjamin
Barabara Brannon
Bill Brown
James Clifford
Tim Cresswell
Harvey Dong
David Emblidge
Madge Jenison
Bruno Latour
Archibald MacLeish
Karla Mantilla
Montague Lawrence Marks
Christopher Morley
Jack Perry
W.G. Rogers
John Tebbel
Raymond Williams
Michael Winship
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores
Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
“Unpacking My Library”
“The Bookshop as ‘An Arsenal of Democracy’”
“Thing Theory”
“On Collecting Art and Culture”
“Defining Place” and “Reading ‘A Global Sense of Place’”
“A Bookstore for Everybody”
“Rallying Point: Lewis Michaux’s National Memorial African Bookstore”
Sunwise Turn: A Human Comedy of Bookselling (excerpt)
“Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?” (excerpt)
A Free Man’s Books
“Feminist Bookstores: Where Women’s Lives Matter”
“In a Jewish Bookstore”
“Escaped Into Print”
“Bookstores, Communist and Capitalist”
Wise Men Fish Here (excerpt)
“A Brief History of American Bookselling”
“Literature”
“‘The Tragedy of the Book Industry’? Bookstores and Book Distribution in the
United States to 1950”
Objectives:
This course explores the history and cultural functions of bookstores in the U.S. in order to understand better how
they shaped, and continue to shape, public conceptions and meanings of “literature.” Using my investigation into
and memoir of my father’s Jewish bookstore as a model, students this semester will analyze these four significant
bookstores that exemplify the issues the course raises: Women and Children First (Chicago, IL), Square Books
(Oxford, MS), John K. King Used and Rare Books (Detroit, MI), and Politics & Prose (Washington, D.C.).
Over the past twenty years there’s been a great deal of press devoted to the dire state of bookstores and bookselling
in the U.S. At first, the battle to maintain the bookstore as a culturally and commercially viable retail operation
appeared to pit independents against corporate chain bookstores that were accused of valuing profits over literature.
More recently, with the demise of Borders and the rise of Amazon and e-books, the battle seems to be over the very
concept of a brick and mortar bookstore that’s wedded to a supposedly obsolete literature delivery system, the book.
The cultural, social, and technology conflicts these battles highlight, distressing as they may be to those who care
deeply about books and literature, also invite important and timely questions about readers as consumers, writers as
products, and literature as an activity, constituted not only by authors and texts but also through commerce and
within social space.
We’ll consider such questions using both the traditional tools of classroom instruction and those now available
through new media and digital technology. After all, if the bookstore and literature are changing under the pressure
and allure of new media, then it seems only appropriate to consider how researching and writing in/through new
media enables us to track and analyze such changes. That component, in tandem with the project-based emphasis of
the class assignments, underlines this course’s heuristic approach to teaching and learning about the bookstore.
Course Requirements/Grading:
For this course you’ll be divided into four groups corresponding to the four bookstores that we’re studying.
Information about each bookstore will be available through the library in a curated archive managed by Kathy
Dalton, reference librarian at the Blough-Weis Library. Your grade in the course will be determined by four
assignments that ask you to write blog posts, and create a final group blog, about the bookstore you’re researching,
and by your class participation. Posts must include visual materials such as photographs, maps, timelines, floor
plans, slide shows, videos, and the like, and Marie Wagner, instructional technologist in the IT office, will provide
IT support throughout the course. The course website was built on WordPress and is a publicly accessible site.
These are the graded course requirements and their grade weight:
Assignment #1: Place and People, Present (20%): In this fist blog post each of you will provide a brief survey and
description of the neighborhood of the bookstore that you’re researching, as it presently appears.
Assignment #2: Place and People, Past (20%): In this second blog post each of you will create a timeline and
provide a brief history of the bookstore that you’re researching and of the neighborhood in which it thrives/thrived.
Assignment #3: Space and Objects (20%): In this third blog post each of you will describe the interior space of the
bookstore that you’re researching—incorporating into your post a floor plan that also maps the placement of the
store’s genre and subject categories—and consider ways of reading that space and the objects contained within it.
Assignment #4: Space and Place, People and Objects: Final Group Blogs (20%): In this final assignment everyone
will work with their respective bookstore group to reflect collectively on all the information gathered in the first
three assignments. Each group will interpret how that information describes the cultural function(s) of the bookstore
the group has researched and that bookstore’s configuration of “literature.”
Facebook Discussion/Class Participation (20%): Your participation grade will be determined by your engagement
in class discussion of the assigned readings (in person or through Blue Jeans) and your active involvement in our
Facebook discussions/postings.
Facebook discussions will ask you to respond to or comment on one of the readings scheduled for that day. These
are asynchronous discussions; you have until midnight to post your responses. The discussion prompt, which
will appear as the initial post in the thread, will summarize the issues raised by the readings and also provide a
choice of topic questions (related to the section topics), or specific insights from the readings, or visual examples
that you can use to focus your response. For some discussions you’ll be required to comment on your peers’
responses; for others I’ll choose a lead respondent to start the thread and a recapper to monitor and recap the major
points in the discussion. Facebook postings ask you to visit a bookstore and discuss it in relation to a section topic or
that day’s reading. The course TA will be the facilitator for all Facebook discussions/postings.
Academic Culture/Personal Responsibilities:
—All texts must be read by the scheduled deadlines, and you must be prepared to discuss the texts or
materials assigned for class. If you haven’t read the texts and cannot contribute to class discussion there is no
need to explain or provide an excuse; it’s up to you to monitor your class participation.
—Three to five absences will lower your course grade significantly. You cannot pass this course with five or
more absences. If you must miss class for any reason there’s no need to explain or provide an excuse for your
absence; it’s up to you to monitor your class attendance.
—Everyone must attend class for the labs and on the assignment due dates/review sessions. You cannot pass this
course if you miss a lab or an assignment due date/review session.
—All assignments must be posted no later than 12:00 PM on the due date. No late assignments will be
accepted, and missing an assignment will lower your grade significantly.
—All cell phones and electronic devices must be turned off during class. Text messaging during class will be
treated as a form of class disruption and students who do so will be asked to leave class; ejection from class will
count as an absence. Students who wish to use a laptop in order to take notes must first ask for instructor
permission. No email or Internet surfing is allowed while the laptop is in use; students who do so will be asked to
leave class and ejection from class will count as an absence.
—Note: There will be no incompletes given for this course.
Plagiarism:
The Department of English and Creative Writing reports every violation of academic honesty (plagiarism or
cheating on an exam) to the Dean of Academic Engagement. No English or Creative Writing major who has violated
academic honesty is eligible for academic honors in the Department. In addition, students in my courses who
plagiarize or cheat in any way will be severely punished, up to and including failing the class. If you use someone
else's words or ideas—whether from a speech, an article, a book or any site on the Internet—either footnote it, if the
language is yours, or enclose it in quotation marks and acknowledge your source.
Communications:
I will always be available during office hours in order to talk, answer questions, or address any difficulties you may
have with the course. You can leave messages for me via e-mail, phone, or by dropping a note in my mailbox in
Fisher 236. Off campus students can use Blue Jeans for personal consultations, meetings, and conferences.
Schedule
Week 1
Mon. 1/18:
Introductions
Critical Contexts and History
What are the meanings of “literature”? How are those reflected in the history
and commercial design of bookstores? What impact does location have on a
store’s social functions?
Wed. 1/20:
Fri. 1/22:
Williams, “Literature”
Facebook discussion: Tebbel, “A Brief History of American Bookselling;” Winship,
“‘The Tragedy of the Book Industry’? Bookstores and Book Distribution in the
United States to 1950”
Week 2
Mon. 1/25:
Wed. 1/27:
Fri. 1/29:
Miller, RC Chapters 1 and 2
Cresswell, “Defining Place” and “Reading ‘A Global Sense of Place’”
Lab: Using WordPress and other course IT issues (Marie Wagner)
Week 3
Mon. 2/1:
Wed. 2/3:
Fri. 2/5:
Miller, RC Chapters 4 and 5
Facebook discussion: Morley, “Escaped Into Print”
Assignment #1 Due: Place and People, Present
Week 4
Mon. 2/8:
Wed. 2/10:
Morley, Parnassus on Wheels (1917 edition; online at HathiTrust Digital Library)
Facebook posting: Visit a chain bookstore and discuss it in relation to design and place
Consumers and Communities
How do consumers shape the business of bookselling? How do bookstores serve
the gender, ethnic, and political identities of consumers?
Fri. 2/12:
Week 5
Mon. 2/15:
Miller, RC Chapter 3
“In a Jewish Bookstore; ” excerpt from Jenison, Sunwise Turn; excerpt from Rogers,
Wise Men Fish Here
Wed. 2/17:
Fri. 2/19:
Week 6
Mon. 2/22:
Wed. 2/24:
Facebook discussion: MacLeish, A Free Man’s Books; Brannon, “The Bookshop as ‘An
Arsenal of Democracy’;” Perry, “Bookstores, Communist and Capitalist”
Lab: Drafting Assignment #2, troubleshooting
Emblidge, “Rallying Point: Lewis Michaux’s National Memorial African Bookstore;”
Dong, “A Bookstore for Everybody;” Mantilla, “Feminist Bookstores: Where
Women’s Lives Matter”
Assignment #2 Due: Place and People, Past
Collection, Objects, Politics
What role does collection play in bookstores? Are books a special kind of
consumable object? What is a “citizen consumer”?
Fri. 2/26:
Week 7
Mon. 2/29:
Wed. 3/2:
Fri/ 3/4:
Facebook discussion: Benjamin, “Unpacking My Library”
Clifford, “On Collecting Art and Culture”
Excerpt from Latour, “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?;” Brown, “Thing Theory”
Facebook posting: Visit an independent bookstore and discuss it in relation to Miller,
RC Chapter 7
Week 8
Mon. 3/7:
Wed. 3/9:
Fri. 3/11:
Spring Recess
Spring Recess
Spring Recess
Week 9
Mon. 3/14:
Wed. 3/16:
Fri. 3/18:
Lab: Drafting Assignment #3, troubleshooting
Miller, RC Chapter 8
Assignment #3 Due: Space and Objects
Contemporary Representations
How is the bookstore portrayed in literary and mass cultures? What challenges
do these portraits raise for how you’ll tell the story of the bookstore you’re
studying?
Week 10
Mon. 3/21:
Wed. 3/23:
Fri. 3/25:
Buzbee, The Yellow Lighted Bookshop 3-81
Facebook discussion: Buzbee, The Yellow Lighted Bookshop 83-146
Easter Break
Week 11
Mon. 3/28:
Wed. 3/30:
Fri. 4/1:
Easter Break
Facebook discussion: Buzbee, The Yellow Lighted Bookshop 146-216
Ketter, Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores ix-85
Week 12
Mon. 4/4:
Wed. 4/6:
Fri. 4/8:
Facebook discussion: Ketter, Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores 87194
Facebook discussion: Ketter, Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores 195
285
Curatorial Plan for Final Group Blog Due
Week 13
Mon. 4/11:
Wed. 4/13:
Fri. 4/15:
Week 14
Mon. 4/18:
Wed. 4/20:
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Facebook discussion: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Lab: Coordinating group work, developing an idea story
Fri. 4/22:
Rough Draft of Final Group Blog Due
Facebook posting: Visit an online bookstore and discuss the site in relation to the themes
raised in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Selections from You’ve Got Mail, Stacked, Black Books, and other visual media
Week 15
Mon. 4/25:
Wed. 4/27:
Fri. 4/29:
Conferences
Conferences
Lab: Fact checking, copyediting, final polish
Week 16
Mon. 5/2:
Tues. 5/3:
Conferences
Conclusions
Assignment #4: Space and Place, People and Objects due Friday, May 6 by 5:00 PM
Note: Schedule is subject to change. All changes will be announced in class.