FRS 002 — Sec. 001 — (2 units) — CRN 74142 — F 10:00-11:50am — 123 Wellman
Narration on the Brink: Three Contemporary Novels

Instructor: Greg Miller, English, College of Letters and Science

Description: Some of the most interesting novels of recent years have featured first-person narrators who, finding themselves overwhelmed by the accumulation of time and experience, stop to take stock of their lives. In this class, we will examine three such novels written in English: John Banville’s Eclipse (2000; Ireland), David Markson’s Wittgenstein’s Mistress (1988; U.S.) and Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead (2004; U.S.). The protagonist of Eclipse is a successful theater actor who, having recently suffered a nervous breakdown on stage, returns to his boyhood home to confront haunting memories and an the increasingly troubling present. In Wittgenstein’s Mistress, a seemingly deranged woman meditates on her past; she believes that she is the only person left on earth. Gilead, set in 1956, is told by an elderly reverend anxious to explain himself to the young son he will soon leave behind. These singular works, each experimental in its own way, explore the borderline between the particular and the universal, between madness and sanity, and between affirmation and despair. While reading these works closely and comparatively, we will explore the novel as a formal invention and we will consider the role of the novel (and of fiction generally) in the world today.

Format: The seminar will meet for two hours each week. Students will be asked to read very carefully the portions of the book assigned for each week. Supplemental critical articles will be available either on reserve or in a small course reader available at Navin’s. To expand class assignments and discussion, each student will pair up with a partner and pick a week to make an oral presentation; this presentation should illuminate a theme, motif or stylistic point of interest in the novel (outside material may be part of the presentation). In addition, each student will be responsible for leading one segment of discussion; this will entail launching a preliminary question to set the discussion on a relevant path, and being at the ready with additional questions and passages of interest as needed. In addition to the readings, oral presentations and discussion leading, students will write a course paper (6-8 pages); this paper may examine one of the novels or it may be comparative (preferably concerning two novels rather than all three). Grading: Participation (including Discussion Leading): 25%; Oral Presentations: 25%; Course Paper (6-8 pp.): 50%.

About the Instructor: Greg Miller is a Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellow who has taught in the Department of English and the Department of Comparative Literature. His research interests include twentieth century American, British and Irish literature, critical theory and film. His dissertation concerns the implications of Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy for aesthetic theory, particularly with regard to contemporary artistic practice. He has published articles on playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and novelist Carolyn Chute, and he has written on film and philosophy, jazz, James Baldwin, Jamaica Kincaid and the Harlem Renaissance. He has reviewed books for the San Diego Union-Tribune since 1997.