"Wouldn't it be great to make up a syllabus featuring all the authors we never have time to teach?"
I had been complaining to my colleague about the difficulty of cutting great readings off a literature survey syllabus, and he suggested that we gather up all those neglected authors and put them on their own syllabus, a sort of B Side to the usual smash hits.
The B Side syllabus for my American Lit Survey would include the William Dean Howells story "Editha" and all the parts of Winesburg, Ohio that didn't make it into the Norton Anthology, plus a good selection of Robinson Jeffers poems and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. I would add the wonderful Philip Roth short story "Defender of the Faith" and liberal dashes of Vonnegut, DeLillo, Pynchon, and Proulx. If I wanted to go really crazy, I would assign one of Dawn Powell's novels (maybe The Locusts Have No King) and Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West. Wouldn't that be an interesting course?
Now what about you? What authors and works would be on your B-Side syllabus?
2 comments:
I'm teaching this course right now, and we spent the first class discussing my reading list and what was left out.
Since I only have 10 weeks (!) to teach American Lit after the Civil War, even more is left out. Basically, I have nothing after 1980 right now unless we count the Billy Collins poem "Introduction to Poetry" that I use for other reasons....
I'd love to chat more about Amer Lit syllabi, Bev, but oh too swamped right now. Thanks for reminding me, though, that I'm not alone...
I want to take that course! Can you teach it over the summer? It might be something faculty or staff may enjoy - it could become an entire series on the MC campus.
Pat Green, a favorite songwriter/musician of mine, joined forces with his friend, Cory Morrow, (another fantastic songwriter/musician) to create the CD "Songs We Wish We'd Written" - it's fantastic because you see inside their heads through their song choices.
How fun would it be to host a series "Classes we wish we'd taught" on campus. It could be an exciting opportunity for those of us in the community to go deeper with all aspects of education at the college.
Oh, and I'm still bucking for an all Irish, all the time class. Or rather, "Beyond Joyce." (Although I still want the Joyce class, too).
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