ENG 120: Animal, All Too Animal

Professor Lucinda Cole, Spring 2004


Horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, lions and other real or mythical beasts have played an important role in the tradition of Western literature. More precisely, they have served different functions at different times, and the major purpose of this class is to isolate and analyze how writers have used animals in their works, sometimes to reinforce and sometimes to contest prevailing ideas about ethics, politics, and the self. This project entails placing texts back into the philosophical and historical contexts from which they emerged-in other words, it requires reading with some sensitivity to debates and values of other places and other times. In the case of so-called "children's stories" such as Black Beauty and Tarzan, historically-specific reading may seem to be counter-intuitive: animal tales, one could argue, are "timeless" and "universal," or represent qualities humans and other animals share. We'll explore that assumption as well. A second purpose of the course is to review basic terminology in literary analysis, and a third is to offer practice in writing and research.

Required Texts:

Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Oxford)

Swift, Gulliver's Travels (Norton Critical)

Sewell, Black Beauty (Signet)

Salten, Bambi

Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes (Penguin)

London, The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories (Penguin)

Orwell, Animal Farm (Signet)

Coetzee, The Lives of Animals (Princeton)

Course Requirements:

Essays: The grade will be based mostly on three assigned essays of 3-5 pages, each of them designed to provide practice in a different analytical or interpretive skills. The first paper involves work with archaic English and may require use of the Oxford English Dictionary. The second requires students to locate, read, and incorporate a story not discussed in class. The third asks for outside historical research. All students should, then, become familiar with the USM library and interlibrary loan. Papers should be typed and should conform to guidelines set forth in the MLA handbook on style (available in the bookstore, in most handbooks, and online).


In-class and impromptu writing assignments: On the theory that students should receive frequent feedback, you will sometimes be asked to write short response papers which will serve as the basis of classroom discussion. These papers will be checked rather than graded.

 

Reading and Quizzes: Every student is expected to come to class having read the material assigned. You should also read the introductions, which will form a part of our classroom discussions. I will sometimes give quizzes on the reading material and you will often be put into groups to organize responses to an assigned topic.


Attendance: No student missing more than three classes may pass this course. Please attempt to attend every class meeting. If your absence is unavoidable, you should contact a classmate for notes, handouts, and syllabus changes. I will give you the opportunity to exchange phone numbers during the first week of class.


Late papers and incompletes: The class is organized so as to minimize the possibility of late papers, and except under the most unusual, unavoidable, and documented of circumstances, I no longer give incompletes. Please keep this in mind as you are planning your semester. Papers will be marked down one-half letter grade for every day they are overdue. Papers postmarked on the due date will not be penalized.

 

Office hours: I will announce my office hours during the first week of class, and hope to meet with each of you at least once during the semester. My office phone number is 780-4093, but I am more easily reached through email. My email address is lcole@maine.rr.com.

 

Schedule of Readings

Please note that what follows is subject to change. Students are responsible for keeping up with changes whether or not they are present on the day such changes are announced.


I. "Reason" and Humanity

 

January 26

Introduction: The Culture of Pets

Film: Best In Show

 

February 2

Reading: Shakespeare, A Midsummer's Night Dream

Lecture: Role of animals in philosophy from ancient Greeks to Renaissance; the fable

Discussion: Plot, characters, and symbolism in MND.

February 9

Reading: Shakespeare, A Midsummer's Night Dream

Discussion: Animal imagery in play


Winter Vacation

 

February 23

Reading: Swift, Gulliver's Travels

Lecture: The Great Chain of Being and philosophical contexts of neo-classical literature.

Discussion: Gulliver's Travels in relation to Great Chain of Being and within historical context of "children's literature."

 

March 1

Reading: Swift, Gulliver's Travels and Rochester, "Satyr Against Mankind" (to be distributed)

Discussion: Animal imagery in both texts, with special attention to the Great Chain of Being.

 

II. Animals in the New Moral Economy

 

March 8

*First Formal Essay Due.

Reading: Sewell, Black Beauty

Lecture: Middle class reform movements in the nineteenth century, including Bushnell's Essay on Animals. Industrialization and the city.

Discussion: How point of view is related to doctrine of "sympathy"

 

March 15

Reading: London, Call of the Wild and White Fang

Lecture: Naturalist movement and capitalism

Discussion: "Wilderness" and modern economy.

Spring Vacation

 

March 29

Reading: Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes

Lecture: Primitivism, Social Darwinism, Burroughs as businessman

Discussion: Darwinism in Tarzan

 

April 5

Reading: Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes

Film: Tarzan

Discussion: Differences between novel and film; point of view

 

III. Political Animals

 

April 12

*Second Formal Essay Due

Reading: Salten, Bambi

Film: excerpts from Disney version

Discussion: Novel as political allegory; comparison with film

 

April 19

Reading: Orwell, Animal Farm and "Why I Write" (to be distributed)

Lecture: Socialism, Stalin, Trotsky, Soviet Union

Discussion: Genre of Orwell's "Fairy Tale"; question of human rights

 

April 26

Reading: Coetzee, Lives of the Animals, including essays

Discussion: Genre of Coetzee's text; question of animal rights

May 3

Film: National Geographic documentary TBA

Discussion: Culturally-specific attitudes towards animals


*Third Formal Essay Due TBA