ENGLISH 4973 005
Spring, 2011
Professor: Steven G. Kellman
Office hrs. Tuesday 2-5:30 & by appt.
Senior Seminar: The Translingual Imagination
Tuesday 5:30-8:15 p.m. MB 1.208
Office 2.454 MB tel. 458-5216
steven.kellman@utsa.edu
SYLLABUS
No man fully capable of his own language ever masters another.
--George Bernard Shaw
I speak three languages, write in
Two, dream in one.
--Kamala Das
Geographical and psychological exile has been the pervasive condition of modern
authors--Cortázar and Hemingway in Paris, Singer and García Lorca in New York, Joyce in
Zurich, Pound in Italy, Solzhenitsyn in Vermont, each stubbornly scribbling in a language alien
to their strange new neighbors. However, a remarkable group of men and women have been
linguistic exiles: writing, out of choice or compulsion, in a language not learned at their mothers’
knees. It is difficult enough to write well in one’s native language; how much more
extraordinary is the accomplishment of Beckett, Celan, Conrad, Dinesen, Nabokov, and Pessoa
in excelling in a second, third, or even fourth language. With a focus on both fictional and
nonfictional narratives, ENGLISH 4973 will examine texts by agile linguistic chameleons. We
will be attentive to what they might have in common and to whether language is itself a theme
within their narratives. In vivid, varied ways, translingual fictions confront the role of language
in shaping and even determining our cultures and our selves.
January 11
Introduction
January 18
Switching Languages
January 25
Hoffman, Lost in Translation
February 1
Hoffman, Lost in Translation
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February 8
Dorfman, Heading South, Looking North
February 15
Nabokov, Pnin
February 22
Nabokov, Pnin
March 1
Makine, Dreams of My Russian Summers
Paper #1 due
March 8
Makine, Dreams of My Russian Summers
March 14-19
Spring Break
March 22
Begley, Wartime Lies
March 29
Begley, Wartime Lies
April 5
Beckett, Molloy
April 19
Beckett, Molloy
April 26
Cha, Dictée
Paper #2 due
April 28-29
Student Study Days
May 3
FINAL EXAM 5:00-7:30 p.m.
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Required Texts:
Samuel Beckett. Molloy. Grove. 039417027X.
Louis Begley. Wartime Lies. Ballantine. 0449001172.
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Dictée. University of California Press. 0520231120.
Ariel Dorfman. Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey. Penguin. 014028253X.
Eva Hoffman. Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language.
Penguin. 0140127739.
Steven G. Kellman, ed. Switching Languages: Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft.
University of Nebraska Press. 0803278071.
Andreï Makine. Dreams of My Russian Summers. Touchstone.
0684852683.
Vladimir Nabokov. Pnin. Vintage. 0679723412.
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ENGLISH 4973 is a senior seminar in literature offered on the premise that those who
sign up for it are able and eager to undertake sophisticated study of works by authors who have
switched languages. Students are expected to have read their assignments carefully by the date
specified and to come to class prepared for active engagement in analysis of the texts. In contrast
to a lecture course, a seminar presupposes that each of its members is primus inter pares (first
among equals) and willing to take responsibility for mutual enlightenment. The seminar aspires
to the oxymoronic condition of collective independent study. In addition to reading the texts
assigned to everyone in the class, members of the seminar will be pursuing individual, original
research projects on translingual authors and texts of their choosing.
The professor is pleased to share his insights into the works being studied, but he finds no
pleasure--and no point--in summarizing their contents to students who have not done the reading.
He is glad to teach and gladder to learn, from students who come to class equipped for the day's
topic and for consistent effulgence. Weekly class attendance for the entirety of each session is
expected and required, and absence from more than two sessions will result in a lowered grade.
In addition to assigned readings, class attendance, and active, informed, and scintillating
contributions to class discussions, students will be responsible throughout the semester for two
written papers, two oral presentations, and a final exam. The final grade will be a function of:
paper #1 (25%) + paper #2 (35%) + class work, including quizzes, discussions, and oral
presentations (15%) + final exam (25%) = 100%.
During his office hours or by appointment, Professor Kellman is available for questions,
comments, or further discussion. He also welcomes telephonic and electronic communications.
To facilitate further thoughts about our subject, to provide a practical means for conveying
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occasional information about course procedures, and to receive supplemental information about
literary translingualism, the course maintains a Blackboard site that each member of the class
should consult at least once a week.
Because class meetings can accommodate only one speaker at a time, please do not
engage in private conversations. As a courtesy to everyone, cell phones, iPods, video games,
radios, internet connections, and other electronic distractions must be turned off throughout each
session. Once class has begun, please remain seated until its conclusion.
In cooperation with the Office of Disability Services, the class accommodates student
disabilities.
UTSA issues the following official caveat: "The University expects every student to
maintain a high standard of individual integrity for work done. Scholastic dishonesty is a serious
offense that includes, but is not limited to, cheating on a test or other work, plagiarism (the
appropriation of another's work and the incorporation of that work in one's own work), and
collusion (the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing work offered for
credit)."