ENGL 70593: Authorship in American Literary Culture Spring 2018: Mondays, 4:00-6:40; Reed 125

Computer # 34663; Section 074

Instructor: Sarah R. Robbins, Lorraine Sherley Professor of Literature

Office: REED 317 E (hall near stairwell on the Jarvis side of Reed, third floor)

Email: s.robbins@tcu.edu (online daily, M-F, and frequently on weekends)

Office hours: Check in ahead to use one of these times: Mondays, 1:00-2:00; Wednesdays, 3:30-4:30; after class

each week (Mondays at 6:45 p.m.). OR Connect online daily.

Websites: https://sarahruffingrobbins.wordpress.com/ and https://addran.tcu.edu/faculty_staff/sarah-ruffing-robbins/

Twitter: @sarahrrobbins [Let’s all follow each other on Twitter!]

Course description for fall 2012 offering: Drawing on a range of research approaches, students in this seminar will explore the cultural work and social practices linked to

authorship in American culture, historically and today. Students will also try out and reflect on various rhetorically productive

avenues to professional academic authorship. Examples of topics to be addressed are listed below:

What key trends in the professionalization of authorship can we trace across time in American literary and academic history, and

how have past and recent developments in the marketplace influenced (would-be) authors’ work?

How have specific audience expectations, genre conventions, and social reading practices influenced approaches to authorship

in US and transnational contexts?

What is gained and lost from a national (US-based) focus on authorship in cultural context and/versus a comparative or

broadened view of “American” writerly practice?

How can theory and differing approaches to research inform the study of particular American writers’ careers? of issues

associated with the practice of authorship (e.g., access to authorial production and circulation venues by potential writers, based

on factors such as gender and social class)?

What important scholarship has emerged in recent years around such issues as gender and authorship, intellectual property,

textual ownership both legal and ethical, collaborative authorship, and social media’s impact on the practice of authorship?

As scholars and thus authors ourselves, and as teachers mentoring student authors, what ethical and practical issues of authorial

practice should we address from an informed perspective, and how can we apply that learning?

Texts to purchase: Deborah Brandt, The Rise of Writing: Redefining Mass Literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 2014.

https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Writing-Redefining-Mass-

Literacy/dp/1107462118/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511219944&sr=1-1&keywords=rise+of+writing

Paul John Eakin, ed., The Ethics of Life Writing. Ithaca: Cornell U Press, 2004.

https://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Life-Writing-Paul-

Eakin/dp/0801488338/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511219841&sr=1-1&keywords=ethics+of+life+writing

Thomas King, The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2008.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0816646279/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

Andrea Lunsford and Lisa Ede, Writing Together: Collaboration in Theory and Practice. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2011.

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Together-Collaboration-Practice-Composition/dp/0312601786

Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. Reprint edition. New York: Harcourt/Harvest, 2003.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0156028646/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

Major whole-class reading available online (and/or in TCU BOX):

Elaine Goodale Eastman, Hundred Maples. Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Daye Press, 1935.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b111902;view=1up;seq=7

Note: To download a PDF copy of Hundred Maples, go to TCU library, databases, Haithi Trust, and enter

the book’s title. OR visit the class folder in our online BOX.

A memoir of authorship, to read with others in a small group or with partner—options: Alvarez, Julia. Something to Declare. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 1998.

Bishop, Wendy. Teaching Lives: Essays and Stories. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1997.

Focus sections: “Preface” (vii-xi) and Part V (“Composing Ourselves as Writers,” 219-292)

Cisneros, Sandra. A House of My Own: Stories from My Life. New York: Knopf, 2015.

Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. 1964. Restored/Reprint edition. New York: Scribner, 2010.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. In Other Words. Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein. New York: Knopf, 2016.

Smith, Larry. The Thick of Thin: Memoirs of a Working-Class Writer. Huron, Ohio: Bottom Dog Press, 2017.

Smith, Patti. Devotion (Why I Write). New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.

Walker, Margaret. How I Wrote Jubilee. Edited by Maryemma Graham. New York: Feminist Press, 1990.

Wright, Richard. Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth. New York: Harper, 1937. [Note: TCU library owns

1945 edition; first edition is also available for digital checkout from the Library of Congress:

https://archive.org/stream/blackboyrecordof00wrigrich#page/n5/mode/2up]

Young, Morris. Minor Re/Visions: Asian American Literacy Narratives as a Rhetoric of Citizenship. Carbondale:

Southern Illinois U Press, 2004.

Additional Required and Optional Readings: 1) See below, within the week-by-week schedule, for journal articles and other essays available online through the

TCU library’s digital collections or as PDFs in the online DROPBOX for our course.

2) Each student will also do some individualized reading aligned with personal interests and long-term research

goals associated with the study of authorship

Collection of three to five scholarly essays related to an individual project on authorship

Primary text(s) selected as the focus of an authorship research project

3) Interspersed throughout the syllabus, readings marked with YELLOW highlight are optional but potentially very

helpful now and in the future, especially in dealing with pragmatic questions about your own authorship or doing

follow-up research and teaching related to the course. To bolster your participation grade, consider providing

informal summaries and comments about these readings for the class.

Major Assignments and Grade Breakdown: Note: See blue highlights below & throughout syllabus for reminders on due dates for writing assignments.

Group/partner presentation (on a writer’s memoir/narrative) and individual written analysis—10%

Due date: Oral group presentation: Feb 19

Two Conversation Papers: Reflection with Analysis—20% [Choose two topics and associated due dates.]

February 12 (connections across an author’s texts OR compare/contrast authorial experiences)

February 26 (authorship memoir narrative)

March 19 (personal commentary paper on one of the Native writers’ texts assigned for reading on this date)

March 26 (reflection on life writing and ethics)

Authorship Research Project Plan—10%

Due date: April 2

Annotated Bibliography—20% Due Date: April 16

Portfolio—30%

Updated version of research project; Synthesis Narrative: take-aways from course for your research and/or

teaching; AND revision/update of one conversation paper along with copy of original

Due date: May 9

Participation, individual presentations, and ongoing (informal, in-class) presentations—10%

attendance, contributions to discussion, collegial support of seminar cohort in class and projects, presentation of

portfolio project, your individual class presentations [Time frame: throughout the term]

Student Projects as Aligned with Grad Program Learning Outcomes

Historical approaches/engagement:

Prepare an analysis situating an author’s career in historical context or positioning a key work by an author as a

response to a particular moment or timely issue (e.g., analyze a fiction writer’s text as responding to a social issue or

demonstrate how one scholar’s authorship represents a response to trends in his/her field). Share your findings in an

informal oral presentation. [group presentation based on small-group reading]

Collaborate with other class members to prepare and present an analysis of one narrative account of authorship. As

part of this project, set the narrative in its own historical moment; identify and elucidate specific examples of US

and/or transnational or cross-cultural values and/or social issues (e.g., social class consciousness, immigrant identity,

race relations, market capitalism) that are evident in the narrative. [See also national/transnational/comparative.]

Research Methods:

Create an annotated bibliography on research publications drawing from at least scholarly journals and/or academic

books; your selected readings should connect to an author whose career you propose to study and/or to an issue

associated with the practice of authorship (e.g., copyright, students’ intellectual property rights as authors, ethical

questions associated with authorial practice).

Generate a starter draft or plan for a “memoir” of your own authorial practices and link it to one or more issues

being explored in the course; later in the term, revisit your narrative to include projections on how you will apply

your course learning in future enactments of authorship (e.g., in writing collaboratively with another scholar, in

honoring student authorship rights and responsibilities). Refine your “memoir” piece for a course portfolio.

National/Transnational/comparative:

Evaluate (in discussion and informal writing) the particular situation of Native/Indigenous American authors as

engaged in issues of “rhetorical sovereignty” linked to national and transnational identity.

Collaborate with other class members to prepare and present an analysis of one American writer’s memoir of

authorship. As part of this project, identify and elucidate specific examples of US and/or transnational or cross-

cultural values and social issues (e.g., social-class consciousness, immigrant identity, race relations, market

capitalism) that are evident in the text. [See also historical approaches/engagement above.]

Synthesis:

1) Prepare a formal prospectus for a project on a topic linked to course themes and issues. Your prospectus should

include an abstract of anticipated content, a bibliography, a selection and justification of a venue where you could

submit your work, and a rationale explaining how your project relates to course themes. You might consider this

document as a starting point toward a doctoral exam project that includes submission of an essay for publication.

2) Assemble a portfolio with artifacts from your work in the course. Update of item (1) is required. Update of one

conversation paper is also required. In addition, prepare a reflective essay on course take-aways.

Tentative Schedule for Individual Course Meetings Note: Items listed for each date should be completed before you come to class. Thus, readings listed on a

particular day are texts that will be discussed in that session; written work listed on a specific date is due on

(or before) that day’s class meeting.

I. Navigating the Profession of “Author” in American Culture Monday, January 22: Historicizing Professional Authorship in American Literary Culture

Readings: Positioning Authorship in Historical, Cultural and Intersectional Context a) Elaine Goodale Eastman, Hundred Maples. Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Daye Press, 1935.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b111902;view=1up;seq=7

Note: To download a PDF copy, go to TCU library, databases, Haithi Trust, and enter title.

OR visit the class folder in TCU BOX.

b) From Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: “A Writer Because of, Not in Spite of, Her

Children,” “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” (231-243), “Looking to the Side, and Back”

(313-319), “To The Black Scholar” (320-325) and “One Child of One’s Own” (371-393)

Optional/supplemental reading (especially for those interested in gender and authorship): DuChamp, L. Timmel. “Creating ‘the Second Self’: Performance, Gender, and Authorship.” The WisCon

Chronicles 2: Provocative essays on feminism, race, revolution, and the future. Edited by L. Timmel DuChamp and

Eileen Gunn. Aqueduct Press, 2008. file:///C:/Users/sarah/Downloads/creatingthesecondself-

gender%20authorship%20(1).pdf

OR

Nichols, Catherine. “Homme de Plume: What I Learned Sending My Novel Out Under a Male Name.” Jezebel

(August 4, 2015): https://jezebel.com/homme-de-plume-what-i-learned-sending-my-novel-out-und-1720637627

AND

Schappell, Elissa. “Women Write of Home, and a Woman’s Place In It.” The New York Times (November 22, 2017):

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/books/review/this-is-the-place-margot-kahn-kelly-mcmasters.html

Monday, January 29: Authorship in Historical/Cultural—Attend Lecture & Read/Write 1.Selecting: By this date, you should have marked and returned a survey soliciting your potential

choices from readings for the small-group presentations on authorial memoirs. You should

identify three books from the list of options, in rank order, indicating your preference for the

February 19 small-group presentation. (Team assignments will be emailed.)

2. Reading and writing: Submit (digitally) a summary/reflection on a secondary essay below.

[Note: List of options is set up with topics addressed in approximate chronological order.]

a) Choose one of these secondary scholarship selections (via sign-up). Read and evaluate.

Charvat, William. “James T. Fields and the Beginnings of Book Promotion, 1840-1855.” The Profession

of Authorship in America, 1800-1870. New York: Columbia U Press, 1968, 168-189, AND Front

matter, including Table of Contents, Foreword, Editorial Preface, and Postscript (iii-xx). [PDF in

TCU BOX folder] OR

Wilson, Christopher. Labor of Words: Literary Professionalism in the Progressive Era. Athens: U of

Georgia Press, 1985. 92-112. [PDF in BOX folder] OR

Radway, Janice. “Writing Reading the Romance.” Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and

Popular Literature. 2nd edition with new introduction. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1991. 1-19.

Note: Focus on methodologies for researching the relationship between audience and authorship, audience

and genre interplay as shaping authorship [PDF on course website] OR

Glass, Loren. “Trademark Twain.” American Literary History 13.4 (Winter 2001): 671-693. [available

through Frog Scholar, TCU library, or the journal] OR

Staiger, Janet. “ Authorship Studies and Gus Van Sant.” Film Criticism, 29.1 (Fall 2004): 1-22. Robinson, Cynthia Cole. “The Evolution of Alice Walker.” Women’s Studies 38 (2009): 293-311.

Robbins, Sarah. “Making Corrections to Oprah’s Book Club: Reclaiming Literary Power for Gendered

Literacy Management.” In The Oprah Phenomenon. Edited by Jennifer Harris and Elwood

Watson. Lexington: U of Kentucky Press, 2009. 227-257. [PDF in BOX]

Homestead, Melissa J. “Edith Lewis as Editor, Every Week Magazine, and the Contexts of Cather’s

Fiction.” Cather Studies. 8.1 (2010) 325-352. OR

Robbins, Sarah. “Gendering Gilded Age Periodical Professionalism: Reading Harriet Beecher Stowe’s

Hearth and Home Prescriptions for Women’s Writing.” In Beyond Uncle Tom’s Cabin: The

Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Eds. Sylvia Mayer and Monika Mueller. Fairleigh Dickinson

University Press, 2011. 75-94. [PDF in TCU BOX folder] OR

Cohen, Lara Langer. “Mediums of Exchange: Fanny Fern’s Unoriginality.” The Fabrication of

American Literature: Fraudulence and Antebellum Print Culture. Philadelphia: U of

Pennsylvania, 2012. 133-161. [PDF in BOX]

Weber, Brenda R. “’A Sort of Monster’: Fanny Fern, Fame’s Appetite, and the Construction of the

Multivalent Famous Female Author,” in Women and Literary Celebrity in the Nineteenth

Century: The Transatlantic Production of Fame and Gender. Ashgate, 2012. 73-100. [available

as an e-book, TCU library] OR

Garcia, Michael Nieto. “Introduction: A Tale of Two Richards.” Autobiography in Black and Brown:

Ethnic Identity in Richard Wright and Richard Rodriguez. Albuquerque: University of New

Mexico Press, 2014. 1-38. [PDF in BOX] OR

Adams, Amanda. “Performing Ownership: Dickens, Twain, and Copyright on the Transatlantic Stage.”

Performing Authorship in the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Lecture Tour. Burlington, VT:

Ashgate Publishing, 2014. 57-83. [PDF in TCU BOX folder] OR

Robbins, Sarah Ruffing. “The ‘Indian Problem’ in Elaine Goodale Eastman’s Authorship: Gender and

Racial Identity Tensions Unsettling a Romantic Pedagogy.” Romantic Education in Nineteenth-

Century American Literature: National and Transatlantic Contexts. Edited by Monika M. Elbert

and Lesley Ginsberg. New York: Routledge, 2015. 192-207. OR

Faudree, Paja. “What is an Indigenous Author? Minority Authorship and the Politics of Voice in

Mexico.” Anthropological Quarterly 88.1 (Winter 2015): 5-35.

Moody-Turner, Shirley. “Dear Doctor Du Bois: Anna Julia Cooper, W. E. B. Du Bois, and the Gender

Politics of Black Publishing.” MELUS 40.3 (Fall 2015): 47-68.

b)Prepare and turn via email a summary and reflection on your reading. DUE today.

Monday, February 5: Professing Academic Authorship: Candace Spigelman

Readings: Texts by and about Candace Spigelman, Comp/Rhet Scholar [Note: Please read in chronological order as listed below!]

Spigelman, Candace. “Taboo Topics and the Rhetoric of Silence: Discussing Lives on the Boundary in a

Basic Writing Class.” Journal of Basic Writing 17.1 (1998): 42-55.

Available online: http://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v17n1/spigelman.pdf

Spigelman, Candace. "Habits of Mind: Historical Configurations of Textual Ownership in Peer Writing

Groups." CCC 49.2 (1998): 234-255. [TCU library]

Mikoni, Jane. “Book Review: Review of Across Property Lines: Textual Ownership in Writing Groups by

Candace Spigelman.” NWP Quarterly 22.4 (Fall 2000): 37-38. http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/776

Swirsky, Stuart. “Review of Across Property Lines: Textual Ownership in Writing Groups.” CCC 52.4

(June 2001): 662-666. [TCU library]

Spigelman, Candace. “What Role Virtue?” 21.2 JAC (2001): 322-48. http://www.jaconlinejournal.com/archives/vol21.2/spigelman-what.pdf

Spigelman, Candace. “Argument and Evidence in the Case of the Personal.” College English 64.1

(September 2001): 63-87. [TCU library]

Amy E. Robillard, Amy R. “Review of Personally Speaking.” Composition Studies 34.1 (Spring 2006):

156-59. http://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/journals/composition-studies/docs/bookreviews/34-1/robillard.pdf

“Candace Spigelman, in Appreciation, Collaboratively.” College English 68.1 (September 2005): 9-13.

Connections reading: Two selections from Alice Walker’s In Search: “But Yet and Still the

Cotton Gin Kept on Working” (22-32) and “A Letter to the Editor of Ms.” (273-277).

Note: We’ll also devote some time in class to sharing learning from the summaries you

turned in last week. In addition, we’ll discuss the expectations for conversation papers.

Monday, February 12: Celebrity Authorship in American Culture

Readings: Setting Authorial Celebrity in Context—Three Celebrity Writers

Anzia Yezierska

Yezierska, Anzia. Red Ribbon on a White Horse: My Story. New York: Persea, 2004. excerpts:

“Tiled Bathroom on My Own,” 36-40; “Picture of the Century,” 41-35; “Not a Woman—Not a

Writer,” 71-74; “A Cat in the Bag,” 83-87 [These excerpts are available in BOX.]

1951 Commentary review of the memoir, soon after its publication:

Langbaum, Robert. “Ambiguous Pilgrimage: Red Ribbon on a White Horse.” Commentary

https://www-commentarymagazine-com.ezproxy.tcu.edu/articles/red-ribbon-on-a-white-horse-

by-anzia-yezierska/ [copy in WORD also available in BOX]

Schoen, Carol. “Anzia Yezierska: New Light on the "Sweatshop Cinderella"

MELUS 7.3 (Autumn 1980): 3-11. [available online, JSTOR, TCU library]

AND

Komy, Hannah Adelman. “Lies Her Mother Told Us: Louise Levitas Henriksen’s Critique of

Anzia Yezierska’s Autobiography.” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 26.3

(Spring 2008): 33-47. [available through JSTOR, TCU library]

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Alexander, Michelle. “Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘Between the World and Me.’” Sunday Book Review:

The New York Times (August 17, 2015): https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/books/review/ta-nehisi-

coates-between-the-world-and-me.html

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Considering Reparations.” The Atlantic (January 27, 2016):

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/tanehisi-coates-reparations/427041/

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “On Homecomings.” The Atlantic (May 9, 2016):

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/on-homecomings/481818/

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Black Journalist and the Racial Mountain.” The Atlantic (June 2, 2016): https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/black-journalist-and-the-racist-mountain/484808/

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. The Atlantic “On the Right to Know Everything.” The Atlantic (October 4,

2016): https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/10/on-the-right-to-know/502916/

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “I Miss Blogging, Terribly.” The Atlantic (January 13, 2017):

https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/01/on-fame-and-blogging/513032/

From Alice Walker’s In Search, again: “Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and a

Partisan View” (83-92) and “Looking for Zora” (93-116)

Optional additional reading

Authoring Outside the Academy:

PowerPoint from a presentation by Bonnie Shaker and Angela Pettitt, who are academics promoting our writing

beyond the academy—e.g., in Op-Eds. [in BOX, alphabetized by Shaker and Pettitt]

OR

Cheung, Alexis. “What I Learned from Maxine Hong Kingston.” Catapult: Launching Remarkable Writing

(December 4, 2017): https://catapult.co/stories/the-woman-warrior-what-i-learned-from-maxine-hong-kingston

OR Joseph, Peniel. “Coates vs. West: Feud has its roots in long tradition of black intellectuals.” CCC (December 21,

2017): http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/21/opinions/west-coates-feud-black-intellectual-tradition-joseph-

opinion/index.html

Meeting time for presentation teams

Conversation paper option #1: Making connections across an author’s writings and/or comparing

and contrasting experiences of authorship

Monday, February 19: Group Presentations on Author Memoirs—A Public Event

II. (Re)Theorizing Author Function, Identity and Authorial Agency Monday, February 26: Theorizing Authorship, Author Function, and Remix Note: TWO major due dates for this class period:

A.Readings for class as outlined below

B. Brief Memoir of your own authorship—conversation paper option #2

Readings: Key Theories Associated with Studying Authorship

Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author.” (excerpt trans. Richard Howard)

http://www.tbook.constantvzw.org/wp-content/death_authorbarthes.pdf Note: Since Barthes’s writing (as available in translation) is rather dense, please do read, in addition, the

two commentaries below—especially if you have not studied Barthes’s work previously. Commentary 1:

Andrew Gallix, “In Theory: The Death of the Author.” The Guardian (Wednesday 13 January 2010) at

guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/jan/13/death-of-the-author

Commentary 2:

http://literarism.blogspot.com/2011/12/roland-barthes-death-of-author.html

Michel Foucault, “What is an Author?”

http://www.generation-online.org/p/fp_foucault12.htm Focus on Foucault’s “author function.” In that context, here is an excerpted version of Foucault’s

comments, zeroing in on that term: http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Foucault-AuthorFunction.html

From Alice Walker, In Search: “Saving the Life That Is Your Own” (3-14), “The Black Writer

and the Southern Experience” (15-21), and “Beyond the Peacock” (42-59)

On Authorial Identity (Again): Busse, Kristina. “The Return of the Author: Ethos and Identity

Politics.” A Companion to Media Authorship. Edited by Jonathan Gray and Derek Johnson.

Malden, MA: John Wiley and Sons, 2013. 48-68. [In BOX]

On New Media and Authorship: Van Deer Weel, Adriaan. “Appropriation: Towards a

Sociotechnical History of Authorship.” Authorship 4.2 (2015): 1-11.

Optional additional reading:

Brigitte Fielder, “Swing Low, White Woman.” Avidly: A Channel of the Los Angeles Review of

Books. (January 22, 2018): http://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2018/01/22/swing-low-white-women/

OR

Jaclyn M. Wells and Lars Soderlund, “Preparing Graduate Students for Academic Publishing.”

Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture

18.1 (January 2018): 131-156.

Monday, March 5: Collaborative Authorship

Readings I: Feminist Collaborations in the Academy Lunsford, Andrea A. and Lisa Ede, Writing Together: Collaboration in Theory and Practice. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012.

Read these chapters: “Confluences” and “Artifacts of Collaboration” (1-24); “Dear Lisa/Dear Andrea:

On Friendship and Collaboration” (51-66); “Collaboration and Collaborative Writing” (186-206);

“’Among the Audience’: On Audience in an Age of New Literacies” (236-258); “Collaboration,

Community, and Compromise: Writing Centers in Theory and Practice” (370-386). Based on individual research interests, each student should select one additional chapter to read; prepare a brief

abstract of “your” chapter to present orally to the group. Example topics/chapters include those on “Rhetorics and

Feminisms”; on techniques for collaboration and on reasons for collaborating; and on connections between audience

and collaborative writing.

Readings II: Extensions and Counterpoints to Studies of Feminist Collaboration Choose ONE from the list below. Online, prior to our class meeting, discuss key points of your

chosen/assigned supplemental reading with others exploring the same selection. Working collaboratively,

prepare the following materials, in a handout of 2 pages of less, for sharing with the class:

a) full citation with a brief abstract of (about ¼- to 1/3-page in length, approximately; b) 3 to 4

key/representative quotes; c) a paragraph of “response” or “interpretation” setting this text in dialogue

with the Lunsford-and-Ede material; d) additional commentary and/or questions you’d like to raise in

class discussion of the text.

1) Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar. “Introduction to the Second Edition: The Madwoman in the

Academy.” The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary

Imagination. Second edition. New Haven: Yale U Press, 2000. xv-xlvi. (PDF in BOX)

2) Lorraine York, “‘We Have Horrible Disagreements about “Moreovers’”: Collaborative Theory and

Criticism.” Rethinking Women’s Collaborative Writing. Toronto: U of Toronto Press, 2002. 38-61. (PDF

in BOX)

3) Joycelyn Moody and Sarah R. Robbins. “Seeking Trust and Commitment in Women’s

Interracial Collaboration in the Nineteenth Century and Today.” MELUS 38.1 (Spring 2013): 50-

75. [TCU library subscription]

4) David Dowling, “Conclusion: ‘Just Like Brothers’: Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.” Literary

Partnerships and the Marketplace: Writers and Mentors in Nineteenth-Century America. Baton Rouge:

LSU Press, 2012. 167-87. (PDF in BOX)

Gender, Collaboration, and Authorial Identity in Popular Culture

O’Sullivan, James. “James Patterson: Is the World’s Bestselling Author the Main Writer?” Independent

(April 4, 2017): http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/james-patterson-

a7665576.html#commentsDiv

AND

Loofbourow, Lili. “The tangled tale of two Italian Literary Giants.” The Week (March 7, 2017):

http://theweek.com/articles/683861/tangled-tale-two-italian-literary-giants

SPRING BREAK

III. Ethical Issues and Authorship

Monday, March 19: Authorship, Genre and Rhetorical Sovereignty

Readings: Authorship and Rhetorical Sovereignty in Native Texts

Thomas King, The Truth about Stories

Three related secondary essays, best read in chronological order, as listed here:

Lyons, Scott Richard. "Rhetorical Sovereignty: What Do American Indians Want from

Writing?" CCC 51.3 (2000): 447-468.

Powell, Malea. “Rhetorics of Survivance: How American Indians Use Writing.” CCC 53.3

(February 2002): 396-434.

Jackson, Rachel C. “Resisting Relocation: Placing Leadership on Decolonized Indigenous

Landscapes.” College English 79.5 (May 2017): 495-511.

One “Profile Piece” of a Popular Native American Indian Author, Sherman Alexie:

Mudge, Alden. “Sherman Alexie: ‘I Think We Live in a Constant Funeral.’: On Catharsis,

PTSD, and Being Unable to Forgive His Mother.” Literary Hub (June 1, 2017):

http://lithub.com/sherman-alexie-i-think-we-live-in-a-constant-funeral/

Conversation paper option #3: Abstract of one of the two assigned secondary texts with your

evaluative commentary OR response to one of Thomas King’s passages in light of course themes

(If you write on King, be sure to provide copies of relevant passages or page numbers.)

Forecasting Questions about Ethics and Authorial Roles: Editing as Complex (Care?) Labor

Blackwood, Sarah. “Editing as Carework: The Gendered Labor of Public Intellectuals.” AVIDLY (September 9,

2014): http://avidly.lareviewofbooks.org/2014/06/06/editing-as-carework-the-gendered-labor-of-public-intellectuals/

OR

Sessions, David. “The Rise of the Thought Leader: How the Superrich Have Funded a New Class of Intellectual.”

New Republic (June 28, 2017): https://newrepublic.com/article/143004/rise-thought-leader-how-superrich-funded-

new-class-intellectual

Monday, March 26: Vulnerable Subjects and Authorial Appropriations

Readings: Life Writing, Authorship, and Related Ethical Concerns

Paul John Eakin, ed. The Ethics of Life Writing. Ithaca: Cornell U Press, 2004. These chapters:

Eakin, “Introduction: Mapping the Ethics of Life Writing,” 1-18.

Paul Lauritzen, “Arguing with Life Stories: The Case of Rigoberta Menchú,” 19-39.

Craig Howes, “Afterword,” 244-264 AND Choose one additional chapter to read, summarize, and critique. You will do a brief, informal summary

and critique for the class when we meet. Select your chapter based on long-term research interests.

From Walker, In Search: “The Divided Life of Jean Toomer” (60-65), “Brothers and Sisters” (326-331).

Conversation paper option #4: A meditation about and/or reflection on and/or revisiting of

life writing and ethics questions from your personal experience; include analysis

Monday, April 2: Representation, Textual Ownership, and IP Principles

Readings: Authorial Codes of Conduct as Research Topic and Professional Concern Aufderheide, Patricia and Peter Jaszi, “The Culture of Fear and Doubt, and How to Leave It.” Reclaiming

Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 2011, 1-15.

[PDF in BOX]

Issues of Our Time: The Help, special issue of JENdA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies.

2011. [“Issues of Our Time: September 2011.” Introduction-- PDF in BOX]

For future reference, the entire issue is available here: http://www.africaknowledgeproject.org/index.php/jenda/issue/view/124

Writing assignment due: Proposed Research Plan

Monday, April 9: Who Owns Writing? Intellectual Property and Plagiarism

Whole-group readings: Bowers, Neal. “Preface” and “After Words.” Words for the Taking: The Hunt for a Plagiarist.

Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. 2014. 1-36 and 144-161.

Note: The entire book is available online as an e-book through TCU library.

Mallon, Thomas. “Postscript” and “Afterword to the New Edition.” Stolen Words. New York:

Harvest Books, 1989/2001. 236-250.

Class members will also be asked to read one of the following options and prepare a brief,

informal oral presentation of summary and critique:

Kennedy, Krista and Rebecca Moore Howard. “Introduction to the Special Issue on Western

Cultures and Intellectual Property.” College English 75.5 (May 2013): 461-69. [MA]

DeVoss, Danielle Nicole. “Intellectual Property in ‘College English’—and English Studies.”

College English 75.5 (May 2013): 534-547.

Grobman, Laurie. “The Student Scholar: (Re)Negotiating Authorship and Authority.” CCC 61.1

(September 2009): 175-96.

Lunsford, Andrea A., Jenn Fishman and Warren M. Liew. “College Writing, Identification, and

the Production of Intellectual Property: Voices from the Stanford Study of Writing.”

College English 75.5 (May 2013): 470-92.

Lyon, Arabella. “’You Fail’: Plagiarism, the Ownership of Writing, and Transnational

Conflicts.” CCC 61.2 (December 2009): 221-239.

Valentine, Kathryn. “Plagiarism as Literacy Practice: Recognizing and Rethinking Ethical

Binaries.” CCC 58.1 (September 2006): 89-109.

Zwagerman, Sean. “The Scarlet P: Plagiarism, Panopticism, and the Rhetoric of Academic

Integrity.” CCC 59.4 (June 2008): 676-710.

Supplemental/application readings on professional practices among non-academic authors:

Shapiro, Lila. “Ask an Expert: Can the Plagiarism Charges Against Emma Cline Hold Up in

Court?” SLATE (December 4, 2017):

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/12/04/can_the_plagiarism_charges_against_emma_c

line_hold_up_in_court.html [MA]

Lethem, Jonathan. “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism.” Harper’s (February 2007).

SKIM from https://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/the-ecstasy-of-influence/

To https://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/the-ecstasy-of-influence/11/ [DO read the notes!]

On separating the art from the (immoral?) artist: Gurantz, Maya. “’Carl Broke Something’: On Carl Andre, Ana Mendieta, and the Cult of Male Genius.” Los

Angeles Review of Books (July 10, 2017): https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/carl-broke-something-on-carl-

andre-ana-mendieta-and-the-cult-of-the-male-genius/#! [MA]

Dederer, Claire. “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?” The Paris Review (November 20, 2017):

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/20/art-monstrous-men/ [MA]

On negotiating your authorial IP rights:

Werner, Sarah. “More Lessons on Negotiating a Contributor’s Contract.” Wynken de Worde: In

Other Words (October 21, 2013): http://sarahwerner.net/blog/2013/10/more-lessons-on-

negotiating-a-contributors-contract/ [MA]

IV. Planning Your Research on/as Authorship—The Course and Beyond

Monday, April 16: Workshopping Your Research Project

Annotated bibliographies due

Students will meet in small groups or pairs. The goal of the discussion, in each case, will be to talk

through plans for the research project and possibilities for longer-term research agendas (e.g., for a

doctoral exam publishing product, for an M.A. thesis, or for post-doc research projects) related to

authorship.

Students should bring the following materials to the meeting: inquiry question(s) for a project being done

in this course, questions about methodology, ideas for long-term study of authorship related to the focus

and field of study being envisioned professionally.

Example topics:

analysis situating an author’s career or a particular “career moment” or product in context

“study of studies” synthesis of research on an issue related to authorship

ethnographic study of one audience or audience site(s) for a particular author’s work(s)

interpretive study of a gendered authorial practice (e.g., student collaboration)

Optional informal presentation opportunity: Share examples from following a particular author’s social media presence: Twitter, Instagram,

Facebook, Website as an author’s self-representation; share long-terms goals for your own management

of authorial identity in online spaces

VI. Complicating Authorial Practices: (New) Media, Markets, and Authorship Monday, April 23: New Literacy Spaces and Forms Shaping Authorship

Readings: Scholarship and Primary Texts Brandt, Deborah. The Rise of Writing: Redefining Mass Literacy [excerpts] NOTE: dense writing!

a) Read the introduction (1-15); focus on the content of the study (overall and individual chapters)

and interpretive framework and research methods employed by Brandt as an author preparing

academic research for a particular audience; strengths and weaknesses of the research project

b) Read chapter 3 (89-134); focus on connections between this chapter’s content and our course

content, ideas for building on Brandt’s work in this chapter

c) Each student should read ONE of these short sections closely, selecting short passages or a

sentence as a focus of class discussion and on links to course content, more broadly 1) 31-41 on ghostwriting; 2) 41-51 case studies of ghostwriting; 3) 139-148 how Brandt’s research subjects

think about (other) writers; 4) 148-158 case studies and synthesis on identities

OPTIONAL supplemental readings:

The Internet as a Scary Author Space

Bridle, James. “Something is wrong on the internet.” Medium (November 6, 2017):

https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2 OR

Forecasting Our Look at Market Forces and Authorship: Choose one--

1.Kim, Na. “When Your Favorite Author Does NOT Like Your Initial Cover Designs.” Literary Hub

(September 11, 2017): http://lithub.com/when-your-favorite-writer-does-not-like-your-initial-cover-

designs/ OR

2.Alioto, Daisy. “An Author Photo Is Worth a Thousand Words.” Racked (November 21, 2017):

https://www.racked.com/2017/11/21/16624768/author-photo-outfits

Monday, April 30: Markets, Genres and Authorship Today

Readings: How Do Markets, Genres, & Audience Response/Wishes Shape Authorship Today?

Choose one focus from the two options below—film text OR YA literatures:

I. Film readings

Paul Wells, Animation: Genre and Authorship (excerpts from “Animation Auteur” chapter; 72-

82—available as PDF in course BOX) Simone Murray, “What Are You Working On? The Expanding Role of the Author in an Era of Cross-Media

Adaptation.” The Adaptation Industry: The Cultural Economy of Contemporary Literary Adaptation. New York:

Routledge, 2011. 25-49. (available as PDF on course website)

Look for: Theorizing and historicizing authorship in the new media economy and film industry of today; re-visiting

and applying key concepts from Barthes and Foucault

Simone Murray, The Adaptation Industry: The Cultural Economy of Contemporary Literary Adaptation.

New York: Routledge, 2011. 178-188. Read brief excerpts on marketing authorship within the film industry, on audiences’ shaping of authorship, and on

textual “ownership” [PDF in course BOX]

Thomas Leitch, “The Adapter as Auteur: Hitchcock, Kubrick, Disney.” In Books in Motion: Adaptation,

Intertextuality, Authorship. Ed. Mireia Aragay. London: Rodopi, 2006. 107-124. [PDF course website]

What makes a film “auteur” successful in claiming that status?

Horowitz, Jason. “Elena Ferrante on ‘My Brilliant Friend’ Moving to the Screen.” The New York Times

(May 26, 2017): https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/books/elena-ferrante-on-my-brilliant-friend-

moving-to-the-screen.html?_r=1

II. YA Lit and Reading Communities

A. Authors online

1) Visit John Green’s web presence, track tweets on the website. Read postings on the blog.

Check out Vlog Brothers: http://johngreenbooks.com/

2) Visit Rainbow Rowell online:

http://rainbowrowell.com/blog/

B. Coverage of YA in the Popular Press Competition within the Field

Rosenfield, Kat. “The Toxic Drama on YA Twitter.” Vulture (August 7, 2017):

http://www.vulture.com/2017/08/the-toxic-drama-of-ya-twitter.html

Social Media as a Leveling/Opening Force for YA Authors

“Are Social Media the New Publishing Slush Pile?”

http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/11/social-media-sites-new-slush-pile/

An Atlantic Online series of essays on YA literature and authorship—and the genre’s appeal

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/from-harry-potter-to-twilight-the-enduring-draw-of-

young-adult-fiction/239639/ AND

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/07/from-the-giver-to-twilight-young-adult-fiction-helps-

teens-grow-up/241578/

OPTIONAL EXTENSION READINGS on the Literary Marketplace:

The Perils of the Literary Sequel:

Lawson, Mark. “Revenge of Gatsby, Mrs. DeWinter…the never-ending love for literary sequels.” The Guardian

(September 7, 2017): https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/sep/07/why-there-is-no-end-of-literary-

sequels-dr-jekyll-mr-seek

AND Extending a Text’s Life via a Minor Character:

Hasan, Anjun. “Minor Character Assassination: The uses and abuses of the literary little guy.” The Baffler (June 15,

2017): https://thebaffler.com/latest/minor-character-assassination-hasan

OR The Downside of Literary Prizes:

Chaudhuri, Amit. “My fellow authors are too busy chasing prizes to write about what matters.” The Guardian

(August 16, 2017):

Bellos, David. “Small World.” The Man Booker Prizes (July 5, 2016):

OR Waldman, Katy. “Is My Novel Offensive?: How ‘sensitivity readers’ are changing the publishing ecosystem—and

raising new questions about what makes a good book.” Slate (February 8, 2017):

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2017/02/how_sensitivity_readers_from_minority_groups_are_changin

g_the_book_publishing.html

Wednesday, May 9: Portfolios Due at or before 5:00 p.m.