Eng 5/448
ATWOOD/ONDAATJE
Sue Danielson, 405M NH, x3569, daniels@pdx.edu
Office hours Weds. 1-3
As readers we may often find ourselves visitors in a different land, perhaps a strange
land; we learn its dimensions as we travel through, not by any maps we have
constructed prior to reading. – Minrose Gwin The Woman in the Red Dress: Gender,
Space and Reading, 52
All papers are to be typewritten and conform to formal essay style. The analytical papers
are basically argument papers – you will be graded on your ability to state a thesis and to
present textual evidence for your thesis. Spelling and grammatical errors will be noted
on your paper – they will not influence your grade unless the number of errors interfere
with my ability to do a careful reading of your work. As in any literature course the
quality of writing [as judged by me] will enter into considerations of grade – all papers
may be rewritten for a higher grade though a higher grade is not necessarily forthcoming
on a rewritten/revised paper. Students are encouraged to meet with me or with someone
in the writing center during the drafting of their paper.
Attendance and class participation are expected –more than two absences will lead to a
lowering of your grade. Students with disabilities, please let me know if any reading or
assignments require special consideration.
UG Requirements:
1) Write two short analytical papers on some aspect of one or more of the books by
each author. Paper #1 due Feb. 8. Paper #2 due March 10. 40% each
2) For your out-of class final exam write a comparison/contrast paper on some
aspect of Atwood/Ondaatje – characterization, theme, stylistic devices,
perspective on women/men/marriage/the state, etc. no more than 6 pages due
March 14. 20%
G Requirements:
1) Pick one book by each author and read two reviews and one critical article on it;
then write a one page summary of each of the three pieces and a 2-4 page critical
response to all three. 20% each
2) Lead class discussion on some aspect of one of the novels or poems – students
must meet with me before they present or lead discussion or their grade will be
lowered. Write a one page reflection on your class discussion. 20%
3) Write a 8-12 page research paper on some aspect of these novels/poems – you
may use both authors or only one. By Week VI you should send me a one page
paper proposal listing at least three sources you will be using in your paper. 40%
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Weeks 1-5 Focus on Margaret Atwood: The writer functions in her society as a kind of
soothsayer, a truth teller . . .the novel is a moral instrument. Moral implies
political…By political I mean having to do with power; who’s got it, who wants it, how
it operates; in a word who’s allowed to do what to whom, who gets away with it and
how. (Atwood qtd in Woodcock 1990:29)
Week I
1/4-1/6
Margaret Atwood
Surfacing
Quilt show opening in Littman Gallery on 2nd floor of SMC
Optional but useful reading on line:
“Anti-Panoptical Narrative structures in Two Novels by Margaret
Atwood” on line
“Canadian-American Relations: Surviving the Eighties” on line
“’I am a Place’: Internalised Landscape and Female Subjectivity”
on line
Week II
Selected Poetry from “Morning in the Burned House”
Finish discussion of Surfacing
A Last Time for This Also': Margaret Atwood's Texts of Mourning
By: Fiamengo, Janice; Canadian Literature, 2000 Autumn; 166:
145-64. PR9100 .C25
http://www.web.net/owtoad/lecture.html
Send me an email and I will forward Atwood’s “In Search of Alias
Grace: On Writing Historical Canadian Fiction”
Begin Alias Grace – for Thursday be prepared to discuss chaps IVII
GS Discussion Leader
Week III
1/18-1/20
film: “Handmaid’s Tale”
THE HANDMAID'S TALE (1985) was a dystopia, influenced by
Orwell's classic 1984. The story set in the near future USA in the
Republic of Gilead, a state ruled by religious fundamentalism. All
the freedoms women have gained are revoked and language is
forbidden to all but the male elite. The heroine, Offred, is a
'handmaid', valued for her ovaries. She one of the few women
whose reproductive systems have survived the chemical pollution
and radiation from power plants. The book was filmed in 1990 by
Volker Schlöndorff from a screenplay by Harold Pinter. In the film
version the protagonist becomes an active revolutionary who
finally cuts the throat of her owner. However, in Atwood's book
the events are seen through the eyes of the main character, whose
weapon is irony and keen observation - she keeps a secret diary. "I
try not to think too much. Like other things now, thought must be
rationed. There's a lot that doesn't bear thinking about. Thinking
can hurt your chances, and I intend to last." (from The Handmaid's
Tale) The tale is interspersed with flashbacks to her earlier life,
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when she had a husband, Luke, a 5-year-old daughter, and was
allowed to read.
Guest speaker Maxine on Journals of Susanna Moodie?
Week IV
1/25-1/27
Alias Grace
GS Discussion Leader
Week V
2/1-2/3
Oryx and Crake
GS Discussion Leader
Weeks 6-10 focus on Michael Ondaatje
Week VI
2/8-2/10
Michael Ondaatje
Coming through Slaughter
“Deconstructing the ‘Desert of Facts’: Detection and Antidetection
in Coming through Slaughter.” On line
“History and/or His Story? A study of Two Canadian Biograhical
Fictions” on line [only part I of essay] on line
Maxwell, Barry. “Surrealistic Aspects of Michael Ondaatje’s
Coming Through Slaughter.” Mosaic XVIII, no 3, p. 101-114.
Graduate paper proposals due
Paper #1 due
Week VII
2/15-2/17
Selected Poetry
On Rock and Book and Leaf: Reading Ondaatje's Handwriting
By: Vigurs, Rochelle; Studies in Canadian Literature/Etudes en
Littérature Canadienne, 2001; 26 (2): 71-90.
Film: “English Patient”
GS Discussion Leader
Week VIII
2/22-2/24
English Patient
“The Patients of Empire. . .” and other
articles to be named
GS Discussion Leader
Week IX
3/1-3/3
English Patient
Anil’s Ghost
GS Discussion Leader
Week X
3/8-3/10
Anil’s Ghost
Paper #2 due
GS Discussion Leader
March 14 all Graduate papers and UG finals are due – we will be meeting sometime this
week – preferably Monday to share papers and last thoughts.
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