Gallatin School of Individualized Study
New York University
First-Year Research Seminar
Animality and the Problem of Description
FIRST-UG 751
Spring 2014 Tuesday, Thursday 2:00-3:15
40 West 4th St, TISCH, Room LC 5
Instructor: S. Pearl Brilmyer
Email: pearlb@nyu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 12-2 and by appointment
Office: 1 Washington Place, Room 622
Course Website: howtodescribeananimal.wordpress.com
This course will address problems of language and writing through the rapidly growing
theoretical field of animal studies. We will examine a diverse array of writing about animals—
from literature to philosophy and science writing—considering what depictions of animals
(including humans) tell us about emotion, language, agency, humanity, and animality. How do
we describe the animal and what do the words we use tell us about how animals are understood?
Why has the animal posed such a problem for philosophers of language and literature, especially
those concerned with the problem of description? Students will learn how literary and scientific
texts use words to make explicit and implicit claims about animals and how to make interpretive
arguments that intervene in a scholarly conversation about a text. Students will write several
short essays that compare representations of the animal in the texts under discussion as well as
research and participate in a critical debate about a text. The class culminates with a research
paper in which students examine a piece of writing of their choice engaging the question how
animals are or should be described.
Required Texts
Books available at Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers (716 Broadway):
J.M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello
Virginia Woolf, Flush
Lester Faigley, The Little Penguin Handbook
A course packet available at Advanced Copy Center (552 LaGuardia Place) including:
Friedrich Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense”
Ludwig Wittgenstein, selections from Lectures on Philosophical Psychology
Heather J. Gert, “Wittgenstein on Description”
Roland Barthes, “The Reality Effect”
Gertrude Stein, “An Acquaintance with Description,” and Natural Phenomena
Lisa Robertson, Introduction to The Weather; “Soft Architecture: A Manifesto;” “Doubt
and the History of Scaffolding;” “Residence at C__”
Michel de Montaigne, “Man is No Better Than the Beasts”
René Descartes, “Animals are Machines”
Canguilhem, “Machine and Organism” and “The Living and its Milieu”
Charles Darwin, from The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animal
Jakob von Uexküll, excerpts from A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans
Shannon Walters, “Animal Athena: The Interspecies ‘Mētis’ of Women Writers with
Autism”
Films on reserve at the Avery Fisher Center at the Bobst Library:
Sweetgrass
Temple Grandin
In addition to the required readings, I encourage you to follow up whatever topics, authors, or
texts particularly interest you. You could do this by looking up background information,
searching for criticism, or getting further reading recommendations from me or your classmates.
Course Objectives
This course will provide you with the tools to research and write academic essays and to discover
your own voice as an academic writer. Our readings and viewings of works by philosophers,
film-makers, scientists, poets, fiction writers will provide you with a broad sense of the history of
shifting representations of the animal, and our readings on the problem of description will
encourage you to reflect on the role of language specifically in representation. More basically,
this course will sharpen your ability to comprehend and paraphrase challenging writing and to
improve your own interpretation and argumentation skills.
Writing
Over the course of the semester, you will write two blog posts, three blog post comments, four
précis, and three essays.
1. Blog Posts (200-300 words). This online response, to be presented in class on the following
day, will perform a short, close reading of a passage from the reading assigned for the following
day and pose an interpretive thesis about the passage. Three times throughout the semester you
will also be responsible for responding to the post of another student in the form of a (100-word)
Comment to be published on the blog.
2. Précis (1 paragraph). In this short assignment you will concisely describe the argument of the
reading for that day. Identifying the thesis and evidence given in the author’s argument among
other elements, you will produce a concise and clear paragraph that will be a great building block
for other assignments.
5. Mindmaps and Bibliographies (1-2 pages). Throughout the course we will be creating a
series of mindmaps that will help us to map out the similarities and differences between positions
on a given issue. We will also be creating two bibliographies, one of which will be extensively
annotated. Both bibliographies will be in MLA format.
3. Paper I: Rhetorical Analysis (2 pages, doubled spaced). This assignment asks you to analyze
the rhetorical strategies of a single source discovered in your research. The paper will center
around the development of a thesis statement regarding how, specifically, the author/creator
makes their argument, You will stay as close to the text as possible, quoting the author's exact
words at times, and citing page numbers for all quotations. Your aim is to explain to readers your
understanding of how this text argues its position.
4. Paper II: Comparative Analysis (2 pages, double spaced). What is the relationship between
language and the world it attempts to describe? For this assignment you will compare the
arguments of two writers on the topic of description. What is description for Nietzsche,
Wittgenstein, Stein, or Robertson? What is distinct about each author’s position and how do they
compare to one another?
5. Paper III: Research Paper (6-8 pages, double spaced). This paper asks you to analyze how
animals are described within a single literary or scientific text. How does the text you have
chosen describe animal life and what claims do they make about animals? You will put forth an
interpretive thesis about your text supported by close readings of the text, drawing on 3-4
secondary sources in order to make your argument.
Grading
I will base your grades on your class participation, the quality of your essays, and your responses
to the work of others, both written and oral. Each draft of your essay matters (though it will not
get a separate grade). Presentation (i.e. grammar, proof-reading, MLA format) as well as style
and substance counts. All papers should be instances of academic writing, with a thesis,
argument structure, and a conclusion. They should also be standard format—Times New Roman
or equivalent, 12 point font, one inch margins, double spaced. Be sure to cite all sources. All
papers should be turned in, as hard copies, at the beginning of class on the day that they are due.
Final grades will be determined on the basis of the rubric below. I will be using the plus/minus
system for final grades. Please note: to ensure fairness, all numbers are absolute, and will not be
rounded up or down at any stage. Thus a B- will be inclusive of all scores of 80.000 through
83.999. The university does not recognize the grade of A+. This course will not have a final or
midterm exam.
A = 94-100
C = 74-76
A- = 90-93
C- = 70-73
B+ = 87-89
D+ = 67-69
B = 84-86
D = 64-66
B- = 80-83
D- = 60-63
C+ = 77-79
F = 0-60
Assignment
Due Date
Grade %
Two in-class expositions of blog post
Two Bibliographies
Paper I: Rhetorical Analysis
Paper II: Comparative Analysis
Paper III: Research Paper
Participation (incl. Comments and Précis)
see presentation schedule
2/13, 4/22
2/20
3/13
5/6 (draft), 5/8
constant
10% each
5% each
15%
15%
25%
15%
Attendance and Lateness Policy
Students are expected to attend every class. If illness or a religious holiday prevents you from
doing so, please notify me, and be sure to get the class notes from another student. Repeated
tardiness will accumulate as absences—every three tardies count as one absence. More than two
unexcused absences will have an adverse effect on your grade.
This class will move very quickly and include many detailed writing assignments. You must
keep up with the pace of this course. Late work will be progressively downgraded for every day
that it is late. As large component of the class will be devoted to in-class presentations, you will
be required to be present and on time. Unless agreed upon beforehand, if you miss a
presentation, you cannot reschedule it.
Please utilize my office hours if you are struggling with this course, particular assignments or
simply want to talk about a paper topic. The more you communicate the better I can help you
push forward.
Writing Support
I strongly encourage you to make use of the Gallatin Writing Center, (Room 423, 4th Floor, 1
Washington Place; amallia.orman@nyu.edu). The Writing Center offers free and individualized
help with writing for any Gallatin student, by appointment or on a drop-in basis. Any
undergraduate enrolled in a course at Gallatin can visit the Writing Center for assistance with
any writing project. Whether you are writing a lab report, a resume, a term paper, a statement for
an application, or your own poetry, peer writing assistants will be happy to work with you. Their
services are not just for writing with “problems.” Getting feedback from an informed audience is
a normal part of a successful writing project. Peer writing assistants help students develop
strategies to improve their writing. Each student determines how to use the assistant’s
advice. The assistants are trained to help you work on your writing in ways that preserve the
integrity of your work. If the Gallatin Writing Center is busy or if you prefer, there is also the
NYU Writing Center (411 Layfayette, 4th Floor; writingcenter@nyu.edu).
A Note on Plagiarism
As a Gallatin student you belong to an interdisciplinary community of artists and scholars who
value honest and open intellectual inquiry. This relationship depends on mutual respect,
responsibility, and integrity. Failure to uphold these values will be subject to severe sanction,
which may include dismissal from the University. Examples of behaviors that compromise the
academic integrity of the Gallatin School include plagiarism, illicit collaboration, doubling or
recycling coursework, and cheating. Please consult the Gallatin Bulletin or Gallatin website
www.gallatin.nyu.edu/academics/policies/policy/integrity.html for a full description of the
academic integrity policy.
Students with Disabilities
New York University provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified
students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Henry and Lucy Moses Center for
Students for Disabilities (CSD), at 212-998-4980 or mosescsd@nyu.edu
Course Schedule (see final page)
Subject to change based on scheduling needs