course guidelines path one calendar writing assignments class discussion


Engl 459: Conrad & O'Connor
Calendar for Class Discussion & Exams ("Path 1")

"Fiction doesn't lie, but it can't tell the whole truth."
 F. O'Connor to 'A" (19 May '56)



for pre-class "points of reflection," click on the color bar
above each day's assigned readings

Date
Readings: Path 1
Topics
T, 1-4

Introduction
no assigned reading
  • format: O'Connor lecture; lecture on genre; close rdng
Link to Points for Reflection: Extra People
R, 1-6

Extra People
 Flannery O'Connor's "The Fiction Writer and His Country" (1957) in Collected 801-806
Flannery O'Connor's "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction" (1960; 1965) in Collected 813-21
Flannery O'Connor's "The Displaced Person" (1955) in Collected 285-327
  • format: roundtable discussion
Link to Points for Reflection: Children in the Dark
T, 1-11

Children in the Dark
Joseph Conrad's "An Outpost of Progress" (1897) in Tales 63-84
Joseph Conrad's Preface to The N--er of the Narcissus (1898) / PDF
  • format: roundtable discussion
R, 1-13

Illusions That Give Joy
Joseph Conrad's "Karain, a Memory" (1897), in Tales 8-42
students each generate--and print out, bring, and turn in--five discussion questions linked to this tale
  • format: roundtable discussion
T, 1-18

NO CLASS / classes follow Monday schedule

  
Link to Points for Reflection: The action of mercy
R, 1-20

The Action of Mercy
Flannery O'Connor's "The Enduring Chill" (1958; 1965), in Collected 547-72
Flannery O'Connor's "The Artificial N--er" (1955), in Collected 210-31
  • format: sml grp discuss & report
Link to Points for Reflection: Concentric, Eccentric
T, 1-25

Concentric, Eccentric
Joseph Conrad's "The Idiots" (1896), in Tales 43-62
Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907), chps. 1-3
  • format: roundtable discussion
Link to Points for Reflection: The absurdity of things human
R, 1-27

The Absurdity of Things Human
Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907), chps. 4-9
  • format: roundtable discussion
Sat., 1-29 Short Paper DUE by 9 p.m.  
Link to Points for Reflection: The force of insane logic
T, 2-1

The Force of Insane Logic
Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907), chps. 10-13
Paul Wake's "The Time of Death" (2007) PDF
Ludwig Schnauder's "The Materialist-Scientific World View in the Secret Agent" (2007) PDF

  • format: choreographed debate
Link to Points for Reflection: A rage of vision
R, 2-3

A Rage of Vision
Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away (1960), chps 1-4
  • format: roundtable discussion
Link to Points for Reflection: a peculiar hunger
T, 2-8

A Peculiar Hunger
Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away (1960), chps 5-12
  • format: roundtable discussion
Link to Points for Reflection: redefining savagery
R, 2-10

Redefining Savagery
Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly (1895), chps. 1-8
Flannery O'Connor's "The Comforts of Home" (1960; 1965), 573-94
  • format: research & report
Link to Points for Reflection: signtless eyes
T, 2-15

Sightless Eyes
Joseph Conrad's Almayer's Folly (1895), chps. 9-12
Flannery O'Connor's "A Late Encounter with the Enemy" (1953), 252-62
  • format: argumentation exercise

Link to Points for Reflection: unbearable light
R, 2-17

Unbearable Light
Flannery O'Connor's "Greenleaf" (1956; 1965), 501-24
Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900), chps. 1-7
assign tailored tenth & term paper

  • format: passage analysis
Link to Points for Reflection: The spirit of illusion

T, 2-22

The Spirit of Illusion
Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" (1955), 263-84
Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900), chps. 8-15
  • format: research and report
Link to Points for Reflection: the world pain
R, 2-24

The World Pain
Flannery O'Connor's "Parker's Back" (1965), 655-75
Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900), chps. 16-24
  • format: passage analysis & cross-pollination
 
T, 3-1

The Tailored Tenth
students creatively enact and/or represent portions of text by Conrad
Grp 6: project

  • format: student presentations
Link to Points for Reflection: some mystic element of sympathy
R, 3-3 Some Mystic Element of Sympathy
Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge" (1961), 485-500
Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900), chps. 25-35
  • format: roundtable discussion
Sun., 3-6 thru Fri., 3-11

Paper Conferences
students, in groups of three, meet for an hour with Dr. M to discuss the detailed outlines of their term papers

 
Link to Points for Reflection: an undiscovered country
T, 3-8

An Undiscovered Country
Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" (1953), 137-53
Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900), chps. 36-45

  
Link to Points for Reflection: a layered reality
T, 3-10 A Layered Reality
 Flannery O'Connor's letter to "A," 20 July 55, 942-43
Flannery O'Connor's "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South" (1963), 853-64
Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900), critical articles: 393-403 (that is not a typo--read only part of Guerard's article), 439-54

  
Sat, 3-19 TERM PAPER due at 9 p.m. (submit to via email)  


an array of brightly colored shapes and objects on a light blue background.
Sky Blue (1940)
Wassily Kandinsky




Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu