January 4th, 2011 / 11:59 pm
 Behind the Scenes

Spring Semester Started

I am teaching two courses this semester…here are the reading lists, feel free to follow along:

LIT 2230 – Global Literature
The European Avant-Garde 1900-1945

Alfred Jarry – Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll Pataphysician
Tristan Tzara – The Gas Heart
Penelope Rosemont (Editor) – Surrealist Women: An International Anthology
Max Ernst – Une Semaine De Bonte: A Surrealistic Novel in Collage
Vitezslav Nezval – Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Gherasim Luca – The Passive Vampire
Futurist, Dada, and Surrealist Manifestos
Antonin Artaud exerpts from The Theatre & Its Double
Clement Greenberg “Avant-Garde & Kitsch”
José Ortega y Gasset “The Dehumanization of Art”

LIT 2020 – The Short Story
Challenging Conventions:
20th-21st Century Experimental Short Stories

Gertrude Stein – “Composition as Explanation”
Susan Sontag – “Against Interpretation”
Ben Marcus – “Why Experimental Literature Threatens to Destory Publishing…”
R.M. Berry, Lance Olsen, Brian Evenson, Susan Steinberg, Michael Joyce – “The Question of Writing Now: FC2 responds to Ben Marcus”
Anne Carson – The Beauty of the Husband
Blake Butler – Scorch Atlas
Russell Edson – The Tunnel
Renee Gladman – Juice
Thalia Field – Point and Line

37 Comments

  1. January 5th, 2011 / 5:56 am Homeboi—

      Blake Butler with Edson? Really? Wow…

  2. January 5th, 2011 / 6:02 am andrewworthington—

      Isn’t “Against Interpretation” a non-fiction book? I’ve only read “Notes on Camp” but I think it is all essays (too lazy too click a new tab and look it up right now). If I am correct, thats kind of cool that you make them to read it in a short story course, because it works well as to how to be creative and textual and short at the same time.

      I might have asked this a while ago, but do you know other languages fluently? Just wondering because of the global lit course (although i think a lot of my global lit professors got away with just being bilingual since birth, but I don’t have any specific opinions on whether it really matters for such a course since its read and taught in English probably)…..

  3. January 5th, 2011 / 6:04 am andrewworthington—

      Also, re: Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas, I liked the stories pretty much, although I read it quite a bit ago, but the texture/presentation of the pages kind of bothered me….thoughts anyone?

  4. January 5th, 2011 / 6:05 am andrewworthington—

      like the pages were physically kind of heavy i think and it was weird and seemed a bit unnecessary maybe

  5. January 5th, 2011 / 6:07 am andrewworthington—

      also fake burns marks i think, which i also didnt understand the point of (although i hate having “points”, but people are so into “points” that ive been plagued)

  6. January 5th, 2011 / 8:05 am reynard—

      une semaine de bonté is the best book i’ve ever read on teen dating

  7. January 5th, 2011 / 12:08 pm Bxbbc—

      love-shopping.org

  8. January 5th, 2011 / 2:40 pm rk—

      terrific stuff. i like the idea of using those essays in your short story course. the sontag in particular.

  9. January 5th, 2011 / 3:03 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Hey, Andrew,

      I’m not using the whole Sontag book, just that essay. Like the Stein and the Marcus and the FC2 essays, those will work to establish the critical framework for the course. We’ll read them first and then get to the primary texts. That said, at least two of the five primary texts (the Carson and the Field) could be considered books of essays — but that’s sort of what I want to explore: boundary zones of genre definition, etc.

      re: other languages…sadly, I am weak in Spanish and even weaker in French, otherwise I know only variations of English.

  10. January 5th, 2011 / 3:04 pm Christopher Higgs—

      I love this comment! Am going to quote you to the class when we get around to this one. Thanks!

  11. January 5th, 2011 / 3:06 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Thanks, Robert.

  12. January 5th, 2011 / 5:39 pm Jon Cone—

      I’m reading Gordon Lish’s COLLECTED FICTIONS (Or Books, 2010). This book
      would surely contain a story or two
      relevant to your ‘Short Story: Challenging
      Conventions’ course. I recommend
      you consider ‘Narratology to the People!’
      — which contains a wonderful joke about
      a man named Schmulevitz who will not
      live to see the morning unless he drinks
      mother’s milk — or the wonderful parody
      ‘For Jerome — With Love and Kisses’.

  13. January 5th, 2011 / 5:49 pm Retfsfgjmmrht—

      b2cshop.us

  14. January 5th, 2011 / 5:49 pm Retfsfgjmmrht—

      b2cshop.us

  15. January 5th, 2011 / 5:49 pm Retfsfgjmmrht—

      b2cshop.us

  16. January 5th, 2011 / 6:13 pm Tummler—

      Those seem like handsome lists to me. Wouldn’t mind taking either class if I could.

  17. January 5th, 2011 / 7:31 pm shaun gannon—

      Normally I don’t care about course reading lists, but man these look like two sweet classes

  18. January 5th, 2011 / 7:31 pm shaun gannon—

      Normally I don’t care about course reading lists, but man these look like two sweet classes

  19. January 5th, 2011 / 7:52 pm Andrew Zornoza—

      I find William Gass’ book, Finding a Form: Essays, very useful when teaching this sort of thing, the essay in there is called THE VICISSITUDES OF THE AVANT-GARDE, and you can read a piece of it here:

      http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=1289

      But what usually sparks even better debate is the short essay below, by Dushko Petrovich that appeared in N + 1’s art spin-off, Paper Monument. It alludes to current culture, enough to make the avant garde seem relevant — enough to get thoughts moving from historical considerations to future considerations. It’s also brief and a good conversation starter. He has slightly different versions of it around, but you can get the idea from this:

      http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/03/04/out_of_the_box/
      http://store.nplusonemag.com/product/a-practical-avant-garde

      Georges Bataile also started a journal called Encyclopedia Acephalica that is worth buying if you can find a copy, Atlas Press translated it back in the ’90s. . . .

  20. January 5th, 2011 / 8:27 pm Margaret—

      Hooray for more people teaching Dada!

  21. January 5th, 2011 / 9:24 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Hi, Jon,

      Thanks for these recommendations. That Gordon Lish book is on my list of things to get, but I’m so far behind right now. That said, you’ve encouraged me to move it higher up on the list.

  22. January 5th, 2011 / 9:24 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Hi, Jon,

      Thanks for these recommendations. That Gordon Lish book is on my list of things to get, but I’m so far behind right now. That said, you’ve encouraged me to move it higher up on the list.

  23. January 5th, 2011 / 9:25 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Thanks, Tummler!

  24. January 5th, 2011 / 9:25 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Thanks, Tummler!

  25. January 5th, 2011 / 9:26 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Thanks, Shaun!

  26. January 5th, 2011 / 9:26 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Thanks, Shaun!

  27. January 5th, 2011 / 9:33 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Andrew, thank you very much for this comment. I had forgotten about that Gass essay, but I own that book so will hunt it down and relook at it. The Petrovich article is completely unknown to me, so I’m excited to check it out.

      I had wanted to offer some Bataille, but at the last minute changed my mind. That happened with a few different things — had also considered including Benjamin’s essay on surrealism, but changed it out at the last minute. The hardest thing about developing a syllabus, I find, is what you have to leave out.

      Anyway, thanks!

  28. January 5th, 2011 / 9:33 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Andrew, thank you very much for this comment. I had forgotten about that Gass essay, but I own that book so will hunt it down and relook at it. The Petrovich article is completely unknown to me, so I’m excited to check it out.

      I had wanted to offer some Bataille, but at the last minute changed my mind. That happened with a few different things — had also considered including Benjamin’s essay on surrealism, but changed it out at the last minute. The hardest thing about developing a syllabus, I find, is what you have to leave out.

      Anyway, thanks!

  29. January 5th, 2011 / 9:35 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Yesterday was the first day of class and I opened it by playing about 15 minutes worth of Kurt Schwitters’s “Ursonata.” I think the students dug it. We’ll see if they return for class tomorrow!

  30. January 5th, 2011 / 9:35 pm Christopher Higgs—

      Yesterday was the first day of class and I opened it by playing about 15 minutes worth of Kurt Schwitters’s “Ursonata.” I think the students dug it. We’ll see if they return for class tomorrow!

  31. January 5th, 2011 / 10:00 pm Anonymous—

      i’d take these classes

  32. January 5th, 2011 / 10:28 pm deadgod—

      the heavy paper of a cartographic atlas? scorch “marks”?

  33. January 6th, 2011 / 2:09 am Tyler G—

      I think that Scorch Atlas is one of the better looking/feeling books I own. I think deadgod “the point” right. Works for me.

  34. January 7th, 2011 / 8:09 am jenandthepen—

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  36. January 25th, 2011 / 7:15 am Brooks Sterritt—

      Belated comment: Chris, these reading lists are a goldmine. Are the Dada manifestos the seven from Tzara? And I don’t suppose you have one text with the Dada, Futurism, and Surrealism texts together? Would be interested to know if that existed.

  37. September 8th, 2011 / 11:19 am HTMLGIANT loves HTMLGIANT « How Publishing Is Rigged—

      […] have a look to see which great artists are being taught by one Christopher Higgs in LIT 2020: LIT 2020 – The Short Story Challenging […]