Brian A. Connery
connery@oakland.edu
522 Wilson Hall, x2266
Hrs: T/Th 11:00-12:00; Th 3-4, 5-6, and by appointment

"Difficile est non scribere satura." ["It is difficult not to write satire."]
--Juvenal

"Satire is a sort of glass [mirror], wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it."
--Jonathan Swift

Course description: W. H. Auden said that literature is a kind of writing that "makes nothing happen." Yet satirists have always claimed the contrary: that they are writing to change the world. We'll put these contradictory claims to the test, asking what difference literature can make and whether or not satire is literature, through readings of major and minor satirists, primarily classical, British, and American. Along the way, we'll also explore related literary kinds and modes (comedy, science fiction, utopian and dystopian literature, parody) and several theories of humor and laughter (which is not to imply that satire is necessarily funny). We will study works by Horace, Juvenal, Thomas More, John Wilmot, Lady Mary Montagu, Jonathan Swift, Nathanael West, George Schuyler, Langston Hughes, Fay Weldon, and Kubrick and Southern (Dr. Strangelove). Students will keep a reading journal, write and present a class report, and write a term paper, along with two take-home examinations. Warning: Satire strives to be offensive. Prerequisite: Rhetoric 101 or equivalent.

Policies: Faithful attendance and regular participation in class are expected. This is not a correspondence course.

Students with special needs are welcome to discuss them with me. Some services for students with special needs are available through the Office of Special Advising, 144 Oakland Center.

The grade of Incomplete is available only to students who have demonstrated regular and steady progress in the course but for whom unforeseeable and uncontrollable circumstances make impossible the timely completion of the course.

Students suspected of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Students for consideration of the Academic Conduct Committee of the University Senate. Cheating or plagiarism on any course assignment may result in failure for the course. For further information, please see the section on "Academic Conduct" in the Schedule of Classes.

Major Assignments:

The following simple formula will determine your final grade for the course:

Report	15%
Mid-term exam	20%
Term paper	20%
Final exam	20%
Journal	15%
Participation	10%
	100%

Students must complete the report, the term paper and both examinations in order to pass the course.

Schedule: Unless we grow very weary very quickly, we will try to adhere to the following schedule, even if a class meeting should be cancelled due to weather, professorial delinquency, or other causes.

Tue	Sept 3	Disorientation
Th	5	Formal verse satire: Horace, "First Satire of the First Book" (c. 30 B. C.) (handout) ---. "First Satire of the Second Book" (handout) Juvenal, "First Satire" (c. 40 A. D.) (handout)
Tue	10	More, Utopia, (1516; trans. 1551), Book 1 (1-41)
Th	12	Utopia, Book 2, chs. 1-6 (42-86)
Tue	17*	Utopia, Book 2, chs. 7-9, (87-127) Journals will be collected.
Th	19	Joseph Hall, "Proemium" from Virgidemiarum (1597) (handout) John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, "A Satyr against Reason and Mankind" (c. 1675) (handout) Jonathan Swift,. "Phyllis"(1719) (handout) ---. "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed" (1734) (handout) ---. "The Lady's Dressing Room," (1732) (handout) Lady Mary Montague, "The Reasons that Induc'd Dr. S--- to Write the Lady's Dressing Room"(1732) (handout)
Tue	24	Jonathan Swift, "An Argument to Prove that the Abolishing of Christianity in England . . . May Be Attended with Some Inconveniences . . ." in Gulliver's Travels &c (1708) (443-454)
Th	26	Gulliver's Travels, (1726) Part 1 (Lilliput)
Tue	Oct 1	Gulliver's Travels, Part 2 (Brobdinrag)
Th	3	Gulliver's Travels, Part 3 (The Flying Island, &c)
Tue	8*	Gulliver's Travels, Part 4 (Houyhnhnmland) Journals will be collected.
Th	10	Swift, "A Modest Proposal" (1729) in GT, 486-495. Alexander Pope, "Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue II" (1738) (handout)
Tue	15	Midterm examination is due.
Th	17	Mark Twain, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), Foreward and chs. 1-9 (pp. 11-63)
Tue	22	CY, chs. 10-24 (63-161)
Th	24	CY, chs. 25-30, (161-218)
Tue	29	CY, to "Final P.S. by M.T.", (218-320)
Th	31	Langston Hughes, "A Note on Humor" (1966) (handout) ---. "Simple Writes Dr. Butts"(1965) (handout) ---. "Bomb Shelters" (1965) (handout) ---. "Coffee Break"(1965) (handout)
Tue	Nov 5	George Schuyler, Black No More, (1931) chs. 1-3 (pp. 17-62)
Th	7	BNM chs. 4-10 (pp. 62-172)
Tue	12	BNM to conclusion.
Th	14	Nathanael West, A Cool Million, (1934) chs. 1-7 (pp. 62-90)
Tue	19	CM, chs. 8-22 (pp. 90-143)
Th	21*	CM to conclusion Journals will be collected.
Tue	26*	Fay Weldon, The Heart of the Country, (1987) pp. 1-99. Term paper is due.
Th	28	Thanksgiving
Tue	Dec 2	HC, 100-199.
Th	5	Viewing of Dr. Strangelove (1963)
Th	Dec 12	3:30-5:30 Turn in your final examination at my office: 522 WH.

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