Introductions: Prepare to introduce your neighbor after talking in a group of 3-4:

Name
Favorite Novel
Foreign language knowledge

Course goals for the Modern European Novel: Authoring the Experimental Self

- Genre: Focus on the development of the novel during the period of European Modernism

- Period: European Modernism (ca. 1910-1930) and its roots in the late nineteenth century (Dostoevsky)

- Philosophical themes: Existentialism, Nihilism, and Surrealism (“Authoring the Experimental Self”)

- Student Writing: Be able to demonstrate a sophisticated level of discourse about the emergence of the novel by articulating its relation to late nineteenth-century and late twentieth-century issues

Course thus addresses 3 main questions:

1) How did the Modernist novel (Hesse, Kafka, and Breton) influence the contemporary novel (Kundera)?

2) How can one challenge past traditions and conventions and still retain a sense of self?

3) Yet what is so wrong with modern life that the tyrannies of the past--bourgeois family, gender inequality, and oppressive laws--still seem to haunt the present?

What is the novel?

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, new, from Latin novellus, from diminutive of novus new (adjective); Italian novella (noun)

Definition: an invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events

Started as epistolary (Richardson, Clarissa)

18th century: the loss (and reclamation of) virtue (Defoe, Moll Flanders);

19th century: orphan rediscovers noble heritage / inheritance (Bronte sisters); the Bildungsroman (literally, novel of education; journey of protagonist from imprisonment of childhood toward mature freedom

Additional vocabulary: exposition, turning point(s), climax, and denouement

What is modernity?

- Etymology: Late Latin modernus, from Latin modo (just now), from modus (measure)

- Self-conscious break with the past and a search for new forms of expression
not quite the same as Modernism . . .

- Modernism (1910-1930s/before WWII): Literary, artistic, and intellectual movement associated with many other ones (Dada, Surrealism, Futurism, etc.)

QUOTES:

1. "Modernity exists in the form of a desire to wipe out whatever came earlier, in the hope of reaching at least a point that could be called a true present, a point of origin that marks a new departure." -- Paul De Man (1919–1983), Belgian-born U.S. literary critic.

2. “'Modernity' signifies the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the other half is the eternal and the immutable." Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867), French poet, critic.

3. "By Modernism I mean the positive rejection of the past and the blind belief in the process of change, in novelty for its own sake, in the idea that progress through time equates with cultural progress; in the cult of individuality, originality and self-expression." -- Dan Cruickshank (b. 1949), British architectural critic.

The Benefits and Trials of Online Learning

Positives:

- You will learn to communicate quickly and effectively in writing, a skill that is key for the modern workplace;

- You can complete work at your own pace;

- Offers a different way to participate in class;

- Learn new technologies and build confidence in learning new tools;

- Less commuting to campus (and frustrations with traffic, parking)

Negatives:

- Difficult for struggling students: It is very important that you keep up with the work! Students who complete their work on time seem to have very little problem adjusting to online learning. Students who procrastinate and have a difficult time keeping to a schedule, however, often fail to complete coursework. So if you tend towards the latter, please consider ways to become more diligent about deadlines this semester. I am more than willing to talk to you about how to become a more efficient learner.

* Another way we will combat the issue of keeping up is that there will be no make ups of missed online classes. The only way not to fall behind is to keep moving forward!

- Difficulties in absorbing the material: Some students report learning more during our live class days. It's very important to participate in all activities I give you for our online class meetings. Not only does incomplete participation count as an absence, I feel you might not be learning all the knowledge I aim to share with you.

- Technology: I am very understanding about any problems with technology you might encounter. Just email me about what's going on, and we will try to find a solution.

Class in Crime and Punishment:

- Luisa + Heather: no middle class
- Brianna: many in poverty, few in upper class (signaled by their cleanliness)
- Jose: close proximity of lower and upper classes

Criminality in Crime and Punishment:

- Maureen: Marmeladov steals wife's money; Livaveta works w/o her sister's knowledge
- Brianna + Marlana: drinking + prostitution
- Becca + others: role of alcohol
- Sam: debt

Think about yourself for a few minutes, and then compare opinions with your neighbor(s): What does Raskolnikov seem to like/dislike about modern life, and do you agree or disagree with him?

- desperation, starvation > create a culture of immorality
- no middle class
- people seem to choose poverty
- lack of empathy
- poor somewhat criminalized
- people forced into choices that don't suit them

Online Feedback 9/18:

- Common concern for students: When students post last minute, there is no one to respond to online.

Proposed solutions:

- Please post earlier so that students can respond to you.
- I will decrease choices for discussion forums if possible
- I will try to increase choices of where you can respond to other students (allowed in most forums)

--> Will start requiring responses by 1pm, and replies by 2:30pm

- Other suggestions welcome!

Questions 9/20:

1. Philosophical Reasons for Murder

> Beverly, Luisa

2. Sonya's wisdom

> Megan, Samantha

3. Svidrigaylov

> Beverly, Luisa

4. Lazarus

> Valerie, Kimberly, Matt

5. Man in the long robe

> Maureen, Luisa, Valerie, Brianna

1. The Woman Question:

- Are women human like men? (J. S. Mill, The Subjection of Women, 1869); see Dostoevsky 94-5, 309

- Debated at the same time as Socialists were considering life in communes, and the consequences of free love (Dostoevsky 318).

- Significance: Are the women in Crime and Punishment human like men?

2. Raskolnikov and Sonya

- Does she represent wisdom as her name implies?

- Why is he attracted to her?

- religious allusion: Mary Magdalene

3. Lazarus motif

- rebirth

- Raskolnikov's (ambivalent) faith

- To what extent might Raskolnikov resemble a Christ figure?

What does being "middle class" (bourgeois) mean to you? What might be wrong w/it?

living comfortably
having enough money for what you need
being financially stable (not struggling but not excessively wealthy)
being able to live in a decent area
life sentence
provokes materialism
too much emphasis on things

Why does he keep talking about the araucaria? (28, 37, 40)

Review

Middle Class Identity: In what ways does he hate it? In what ways does that mean hating himself?

2. Narrative Structure of the novel: landlady's nephew; Haller's first-person narration; (part of the novel's pretense of realism in parts); Treatise on the Steppenwolf

- reliable or unreliable narrators?

3. Significance of araucaria

4. Suicide

Several: Mozart, Goethe // Napoleon in C&P

Why is HH interested in the Romantics?

>> Why Goethe and Mozart? Marlana

Meaning of Scorpion? Beverly and Matt

Review

1. Please always cite when you consult an outside source, including any sites on the internet.

2. Who is Hermine? What does she want?

his feminine side

his complement / foil

like Sonya: wise, sacrifices for family

instructor

courtesan

clairvoyant (154)

3. Why do you think the book was banned in Germany by the Nazis?

pacifism (116)
emigrates out of Germany
vs. brainwashing of masses (117)
critical of Germany

Review

1. Masculine Identities > Matt, Valerie

2. Magic Theater > Beverly, Jason, Karin

3. Why does Haller kill Hermine, and what does it signify? Beverly, Valerie

In what ways is the law unjust? In what ways is religion unjust?

The Law

discrimination
makes exceptions for famous people or relatives
money might determine whether one gets quality defense
bias / conflicts of interest
people enforce the law according to their personal ideas

Religious Law

biased and possibly prejudiced
some laws cause death (Christian Science)
absolute
depends on the individual
not uniform (different religions

What crimes does K. commit?

- "behaved quite recklessly" (7)

- 33: sexually assaults Fr. B. (Felice Bauer)

- ruthless boss

- 20: mistress

- 40: thinks about committing violence

- arrogant, thinks he's above the law

How is K.’s work related to his trial? (131, 137, 140-41, 150-51, and 164)

-    Whipping occurs in a room in the bank

-    Another crime: lets people wait in the anteroom for hours

-    131: Boundaries between work/reality world and court/surreal world start to blur

-    137: “almost a lawyer” (re: Kafka had degree in law)

-    140-41: Cannot concentrate on work; paranoid about Assistant Manager; loss of authority in trial = loss of authority in work

-    Could his workplace belong to the court? Everything belongs to the court (150)

-    151: talent for organization now being applied to his case

-    164: Could be (completely ignorant about the law and courts; cf. also 153)

-    Blurring of boundaries between so-called ‘real’ world of work and surreal world of trial

- Were there ever distinct boundaries? (colleagues present at initial interrogation, whipping scene on work premise, uncle’s arrival, client’s knowledge of Chief Clerk’s predicament)

How is Leni different than or similar to K.’s other women (Elsa, Fräulein Bürstner, the usher’s wife)? Why does he pursue her when the relationship endangers his trial?

Similarities:

-    Connected in some way to his trial (but more closely connected than the others)
-    Like the usher’s wife (49), she directs him over the threshold into part of Court life (99 opens door, gives him key 111)

-    Like other women of the courts: promises him aid but just entangles him more in the trial / Courts

-    Interesting: no women we know of are ever accused, just men (Block); usher’s wife: only fears danger when she wants to (52)

-    Has big beautiful eyes (like usher’s wife 53)

-    Like usher’s wife (and Elsa) belongs to other men

-    So having her represents an affront to the court (usher’s wife: “belongs to K and K alone” 56)

-    Comes on to him before he does (100, 106)

-    Like usher woman, has connections to court (possibly more than we know, Titorelli? Knows how judge really looked when he was painted (108)

-    Elsa doesn’t know anything about his trial (110)

-    Reenacts mode of trial with his women
* F.B.: indignity of arrest

•    Leni: draws up a brief to defend his actions (107)

Differences:

-    Elsa: we never see her (object of fantasy and jealousy, much like woman w/fur in Metamorphosis)

-    More suggestions that he actually has sex with her (111, falls to floor w/him)

-    Not respectable (no ‘Fräulein’ in front of her name)

-    Uncle disapproves of her (100-02, 111)

-    Quieter about her other affairs (seemingly just interested in him)—contrast Elsa, usher’s wife (54-5)

-    Animalistic (110) → Like Gregor accepts retreat into animalistic because it allows him to avoid real problems: family, work, and the law

-    She’s always telling him he doesn’t like her but he does (180)

-    Makes a habit of sleeping with accused men (183) → Is being attractive to women K.’s crime? ; not accused because he sleeps with Leni; he sleeps with Leni because he is accused

Emerging Qualities of the Modern European Novel

I. General

-    Open-ended
-    Multiple narrative perspectives, unreliable narrators
-    Experimental use of space and time
-    Skeptical about and apt to write ironically about “sincerity” and “authenticity” in art
-    Use of dream, trance, and fantasy to express the ineffable (limits of language)
-    Demands a critical eye/I from the reader (and a good sense of humor)
-    Subject matter: the construction of the self, suicide, love and infidelity

II. Narrative style: shift between third- and first-person; shifts in perspective; floating above epic story; consciousness of purpose, genre (novel), and fictionality; narrative as musical composition (several voices and modes); self-consciously experimental; the role of novelist as experimenter

III. Contempt for authoritarian (here: religious and social) attempts to control individual mores and behaviors; Critique of fascist and totalitarian dictatorships, philosophies, and attitudes (Kafka)

Critique of Bourgeois (Middle Class, Romantic) Sentimentality (in Kundera = kitsch)

IV. Plurality of Gender Roles and Definitions

Ending of The Trial > Luisa, Michelle G.

Ques. about Breton

1. Breton's use of the term "ghost" > Beverly, Matt, Aleks

2. Duality of ego > Marlana, Jose

3. Automatic writing > Valerie

4. Glass house > Luisa, Becca

What similarities does Nadja share with Steppenwolf and The Trial?

- Theater (Hesse)
- separation of id, ego, and superego into different characters
- Court / Legality
- Lack of clarity on the surface
- No clear chapter breaks (Hesse, Breton)

- Female muse(s)
- Male protagonist from the upper classes

- Liminality (71)

- Metaphysical ques.

Other Characteristics of the Modern European Novel:

    Protagonists who are dissatisfied with the system
    Protagonists realize that there is a system
    Faceless people operate/control system
    Focus on the indvidual
     Women playing a key role in characters' self-realization
    Women act as guides
    Dichotomy of the self
    Fatalism
    Mental/physical suicide and isolation
    Time / Waiting / Impatience
    How to live in a godless world
    Rebellion is futile in the end
    Dream sequences/motifs