Loyola University Chicago

Professor:  Elizabeth Geoghegan

Email:  egeoghegan@luc.edu

Meeting Day, Time & Place:  TBD

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course provides a study of Hemingway as an artist and his contributions to 20^th Century literature.  We will cover five of Hemingway’s works, specifically the novels and stories set in Italy, France, and Spain.  Readings will also include a selection of the author’s letters, journalism, the original reviews of his published works, as well as literary criticism connected to the topics and texts covered.  This course will explore the writer’s life and literature, paying particular attention to Modernism and Hemingway’s ties to “The Lost Generation” or the American expatriate experience in Europe during the first half of the 20^th Century.

OUTCOME:  Student(s) will be able to demonstrate understanding of the topic of the course, and of the research and critical skills necessary to analyze and discuss it.

KNOWLEDGE AREA  (LITERARY KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE):

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
This class will deepen student knowledge and appreciation of Hemingway’s contributions to American literary history and modern language through the careful analysis of representative texts.

To increase student(s) understanding of the personal, cultural, and political experience of American expatriates in Europe during the early part of the 20^th Century will be enhanced, as well as the ways that Hemingway’s literature explores the relationship between the economic, cultural, political, and social forces of his time.

Enhance skills in critical thinking and oral and written expression. The student(s) will practice thinking critically about both the literature they study and the interpretations they produce by questioning the key assumptions operating in the literary texts they read and those that inform their own interpretations of those texts. The course will encourage student(s) to develop their own hypotheses, theories, and interpretations of the literature covered. Students will practice improving their descriptive, analytical, and argumentative skills in oral discussion and in formal, written critical analyses. They will improve their ability to frame questions, present background information, analyze specific images, symbols, passages, and scenes, and to present interpretations of literary work in both oral and written formats.

The course will improve student ability to understand how multiple interpretations of literary works are possible, and how differing interpretations reflect particular cultural and historical conditions that change over time. They will improve their ability to understand meaning in historical context, to explore the denotative and connotative meaning of words, and to develop a facility for using different critical approaches (such as formalist, psychological, political, biographical) to produce different analyses and interpretations of the texts they study

SKILLS (CRITICAL THINKING):

Through in-class discussion and writing assignments student(s) will learn to understand, paraphrase, summarize, and contextualize the meaning of assigned texts and develop their own ideas, hypotheses, theories, questions, and proposals about the works in question, synthesizing ideas to support their own arguments and analyses of the text(s).

LEARNING ACTIVITIES:

Readings and discussions will provide information regarding the texts, placing them in an historical context and providing avenues for critical analysis.

One on one meetings will be utilized to do a close analysis of texts.  Student(s) will be expected to read the materials in advance and be prepared to both ask and answer questions about the reading assignments. .

Discussion, homework assignments, written responses (shorter response papers), and one final, longer research paper will be used to assess literary knowledge and writing and critical skills.

EVALUATION & GRADE BREAKDOWN:

Paper #1 -- Response Paper The Sun Also Rises                                   15%

Paper #2 – Response Paper In Our Time & other stories                      15%

Paper #2 – Response Paper A Farewell to Arms                                   15%

Paper #3 – Response Paper A Moveable Feast                                    15%    

Final Research Paper –

The Garden of Eden and the other works covered                   40%

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Hemingway, Ernest, A Farewell to Arms, Scribner, 1995.

Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. Simon & Schuster Inc., 1996.

Hemingway, Ernest. Garden of Eden. 1st Scribner Paperback Edition. Simon & Schuster, 1995.

Hemingway, Ernest. In Our Time, 1^st Scriber Trade Paperback Edition, Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. Prentice Hall & IBD, 1995.

Note:  The course will also cover the following short stories: “Che Ti Dice La Patria”, “A Way You’ll Never Be”, “Hills Like White Elephants”.  The stories will be provided along with literary criticism .

RECOMMENDED READING:

Hemingway, Ernest

 - For Whom the Bell Tolls, First Scriber Paperback Fiction Edition, Simon & Schuster, 1995.

- Death in the Afternoon. Jonathan Cape: London, 1932.

- The Dangerous Summer.  Scribner, New York, 1960.

- Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters, 1917-1961., Ed.Carlos Baker, Scribner & Sons, New York, 1981.

Baker, Carlos. Hemingway: The Writer as Artist. Fourth edition, Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, 1972.

Bruccoli, Matthew J., and Robert W. Trogdon (Eds.). The Only Thing That Counts: The Ernest Hemingway-Maxwell Perkins Correspondence 1925-1947. Charles Scribner's Sons: New York, 1996.

Reynolds, Michael S. Hemingway: the Paris years. W.W. Norton: New York 1999.

REQUIREMENTS:

Participation is of the utmost importance. Literary criticism and lectures will provide a foundation for the course, however student(s) will be expected to come prepared to contribute to class discussions of the various texts.  Detailed guidelines will be handed out before each assignment is due.  If, at any time, you find you have questions about the assigned readings or the papers and other assignments, please feel free to contact me either via Email: egeoghegan@luc.edu

ATTENDANCE POLICY:

Since our discussions (and your participation in them) are such a large component of this course, attendance is mandatory.  Two unexcused absences will result in the lowering of your final grade by one complete grade.  More than four unexcused absences may result in failure for the course. If you have a valid reason to miss class, please try to let me know in advance of your absence or follow up with me as soon as possible afterward. 

DISABILITY POLICY:

If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me within the first week of classes

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

Plagiarism is considered a serious offense, will be reported to the Dean of the Loyola Rome program, and could result in expulsion.  Please see me if you have questions about how to do research, document and cite sources, or with any other questions you may have about papers and assignments. 

COURSE SCHEDULE:  Under separate cover. To be distributed in class.