Kentucky Institute for International Studies (KIIS): France Program 2005
ENG 330: American Expatriate Writers in Paris
Dr. Kenneth King
Western Kentucky University
Course Description and Objectives:
This course will study the writings of prominent American authors who lived in Paris: Edith
Wharton, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Students will gain a sense
of the cultural environment of Paris in each of the eras in which these authors inhabited the city,
and they will study major works by each author that engage with issues of expatriatism and
cultural contrasts between American and French life.
Required Texts:
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night (ISBN 068480154X)
Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (068482499X) (selections)
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (ISBN 0684800713)
Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (ISBN 067972463X) (selections)
Edith Wharton, Madame de Treymes and Three Novellas (ISBN 0684806843)
Course Packet (purchase from the instructor at April 16 orientation)
Grading:
Reading Response papers (5 at 10 points each)
Final exam
Research presentation/write-up
Participation during class discussion and excursions
50 points
100 points
100 points
50 points
300 points
17%
33%
33%
17%
Grading Scale: 300-270 = A, 269-240 = B, 239-210 = C, 209-180 = D, 178 and below = F
The reading response papers will be one-page maximum papers written in response to prompts
on the readings.. They must be turned in on the days assigned for the readings and cannot be
turned in late.
The final exam will include both short-answer identification items from the texts in the course
and an essay question.
For the research presentation, you will be asked to conduct independent research on one topic
related to the course readings and to present your research to the class during the final week. You
will also be expected to write up your findings in a two-to-three page paper.
You may either research a particular aspect (related to France) of one of the four major authors,
or to research the involvement with France of another author. These may include (but are not
necessarily limited to): Ezra Pound; John Dos Passos; Malcolm Cowley; Janet Flanner; Edna St.
Vincent Millay; William Faulkner; Sherwood Anderson; Henry Miller; T.S. Eliot; Langston
Hughes; Countee Cullen; James Baldwin; Richard Wright; E.E. Cummings; Archibald MacLeish;
James Thurber; William Shirer; Katherine Anne Porter.
I will provide some research materials on site, or you may use the internet. You are encouraged
to begin research before leaving the US, especially if you are researching an author other than the
major four. Feel free to contact me during the spring for approval of your topic or suggestions
regarding it.
Attendance and Due-dates Policy:
As per K.I.I.S. policy, attendance at all class meetings is mandatory. No absences are permitted
without a verifiable, documented medical reason. A single absence will lower your course grade
by one half letter; anyone who misses three or more classes will not pass the course. There will be
a sign-in sheet for every meeting and it is your responsibility to sign it. Late arrivals cause class
interruptions; for every two late arrivals you will be assessed one absence.
I will not accept late work. Due to the compressed nature of this course and the limited amount of
time available for reading and grading your work, it is particularly important for you to be aware
of the due-dates for all assignments and to turn them in on time.
Schedule (subject to changes as necessary):
Sat 5/28-Sun 5/29:
Backgrounds on Paris and literary expatriatism; reading response 1 due.
A Moveable Feast, pp. 3-8, 35-38, 41-45, 69-77, 91-96, 107-113, 133140, and assignment TBA from packet.
Mon 5/30-Thu 6/2
Wharton, Madame de Treymes; excursion to Wharton and/or Steinrelated sites; reading response 2 due; begin Stein, The Autobiography of
Alice B. Toklas (chapters 2 & 3).
Mon 6/6-Thu 6/9
Finish The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (First 10 pages Chapter 4;
Chapter 7). Read A Moveable Feast, 11-21, 25-31, 117-119. Excursion
to Chartres; begin Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises; reading response 3
due.
Mon 6/13-Thu 6/16
Finish The Sun Also Rises; excursion to Hemingway-related sites;
reading response 4 due; begin Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night.
Mon 6/21-F 6/25:
Finish Tender is the Night; reading response 5 due; research
presentations and final exam. Excursion to Fitzgerald-related sites.
Recommended Reading:
Beach, Sylvia. Shakespeare and Company. An engaging memoir by this pivotal Englishlanguage bookstore owner in Paris. Beach was crucial to the publication of
James Joyce, and was important to Hemingway and others.
Callaghan, Morley. That Summer in Paris. Another readable memoir by a man who boxed
(apparently outboxed) the bigger Hemingway, and was friends with Fitzgerald
and Hemingway both.
Carpenter, Humphrey. Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation. I’m in the midst of this right now.
Quite interesting.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Walks in Hemingway’s Paris. I’m using this to plan pour excursions, but still
full of interesting literary tidbits.