Survey of Ethnographic Novel
Course Outline by
Rosalie Stafford
September, 2007

 
SUBJECT AREA: English
COURSE NUMBER: ENGL 247
COURSE TITLE:  Survey of Ethnographic Novel

UNITS: 3 units


CATALOG COURSE DESCRIPTION:
"This transdisciplinary course is a historical survey of English-language novels whose content is based on ethnographic research. Students will be required to analyze traditional literary elements within cultural and historical contexts, to think critically about the role of formal and informal ethnographic and journalistic fieldwork in the creation of fiction, and to research and write critical essays which draw from fields outside of English, including Administration of Justice, Anthropology, History, Journalism, Psychology, and Sociology, while applying information and insights gained to their own career-choice. Students will read six ethnographically-based novels which focus on the occupational folklife of marginalized characters: Moll Flanders; The Jungle; The Man with the Golden Arm; One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Eat Everything Before You Die: A Chinaman in the Counterculture; and Thursday’s Child & The Queen of Swords. In addition to closely reading the six novels, students will analyze a variety of seminal articles from the fields of folklore, history, investigative journalism, anthropology, and sociology which directly bear upon the six primary literary sources. This course is designed for students planning to take advanced courses in English, Anthropology, Sociology, or History and is recommended for transfer students. UC Transfer Course List. Associate Degree Credit & transfer to CSU and/or private colleges and universities. Completion of ENGL 105 required. Completion or concurrent enrollment in ANTH 103 and HIST 110 required. Completion or concurrent enrollment advised in any of these courses: ADJU 160, JOUR 200, PSYC 101, SOCO 101.”
LECTURE HOURS PER WEEK: 3
PREREQUISITES/COREQUISITES/ADVISORIES
  Prerequisite – Completion of ENGL 105.
  Corequisite – Completion of or concurrent enrollment in
ANTH103 and HIST 110
 

Advisory – Completion of or concurrent enrollment in
PSYC 101, and/or ADJU 160, and/or SOCO 101, and/or JOUR 200.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Upon successful completion of the course the student will be able to:
1. Define ethnography and ethnographic novel
2. Compare/contrast journalistic research and its written products, enthnographic fieldwork and its written products, and the ethnographic novel
3. Examine and assess factors that created the conditions for the emergence of the novel in the eighteenth century, and for the emergence of Realism and Naturalism in the nineteenth century
4. Describe the role of the ethnographic novel in literary history and social history from the counterculture presented in the earliest English novel, Moll Flanders, to the present day
5. Identify and analyze ethnographic elements in a variety of novels from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries
6. Assess the depiction of cultures and folk-groups in various ethnographic novels
7. Examine and assess historical relationships of ethnographic novels’ subject matter to contemporary events and concerns
8. Assess and evaluate the artistic and popular success of various ethnographic novels within their historical context
9. Compare/contrast and assess various ethnographic novels and the authors’ various fieldwork experiences prior to writing them
10. Examine and discuss the roles of participant-observation fieldwork experience (both formal and informal) and of creativity in the author’s artistic progression from ethnographic fieldwork to the ethnographic novel
11. Analyze and assess the creative role of the author in selecting ethnographic elements to utilize in ethnographic novel
12. Compose short and long critical essays and research papers on the topics covered in course, utilizing standard modes such as explication, argument, and historical criticism
13. Examine and assess the transdisciplinary relationship of the study of the ethnographic novel to the student’s personal academic major or career interest, such as administration of justice, anthropology, history, journalism, language arts, psychology, or sociology

 

COURSE OUTLINE
I.
 Examine modes of writing about literature
    A. Examining different types of essays
      1. comparison/contrast
      2. historical, social, or cultural analysis
      3. argument
      4. critical analysis
    B. Writing the research paper
      1. conducting research
      2. using MLA
II.
Introduction to Survey of Ethnographic Novel
    A. Ethnography
      1. Define ethnography
      2. Compare/contrast ethnography, ethnology
    B. Describe history of ethnographic writings
      1. Examine Journalism, eighteenth century
        a. Moll Flanders (1722), first English novel, is first ethnographic novel based on investigative journalism of Daniel Defoe
      2. Examine investigative journalism, nineteenth century and twentieth centuries
        a. Speaking of present-day American investigative journalists, in Custodians of Conscience: Investigative Journalism (1998), James S. Ettema and Theodore L. Glasser state that these reporters: “[C]all attention to the breakdown of social systems and the disorder within public institutions that cause injury and injustice; in turn, their stories implicitly demand the response of public officials —and the public itself— to that breakdown and disorder.”
        b. Examine relationship of Reform Movement and investigative journalism
      3. Examine Reform Movement, late nineteenth and early twentieth century
        a. Examine ethnographic novel The Jungle (1906), ethnographic novel based on work of Chicago reformer Upton Sinclair
        b. Examine ethnographic photo-documentary work of Sinclair’s contemporaries, reformers Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine in New York celebrated for galvanizing effect on body politic as well as great artistic merit
      4. Examine Folklore, nineteenth century
        a. The Folk-Lore Record
          i. In 1878, The Folk-Lore Record began publication of ethnographies, analyses, articles, reviews, essays, etc; now includes “current scholarship in a wide range of adjacent disciplinesincluding cultural studies, popular culture, cultural anthropology, ethnology, and social history”
      5. Examine Anthropology, twentieth century
        a. Examine empiricism of anthropologist/folklorist Franz Boaz
          i. “… in 1949, Boas' student, Alfred Kroeber summed up the principles of empiricism that define Boasian anthropology…
            [1] “The method of science is to begin with questions, not with answers, least of all with value judgements" &
[2] “Science is dispassionate inquiry and therefore cannot take over outright any ideologies "already formulated in everyday life," since these are themselves inevitably traditional and normally tinged with emotional prejudice" &
[3] “Sweeping all-or-none, black-and-white judgements are characteristic of totalitarian attitudes and have no place in science, whose very nature is inferential and judicial”
        b. Analyze relationship of anthropological empiricism to literary realism
        c. Examine anthropologist James P. Spradley’s contribution to the literature
          i. You Owe Yourself a Drunk: Adaptive Strategies of Urban Nomads (1970)
          ii. Anthropology through Literature: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (1973)
          iii. The Cocktail Waitress: Woman's Work in a Man's World (1975)
          iv. Participant Observation (1980)
          v. Descriptive Sociology (1976)
      6. Examine Sociology, twentieth century
        a. Examine sociologist’s William Foote White’s contribution to the literature
          i. Street Corner Society (1943)
      7. Compare/contrast methodology and intent of ethnographic writings in journalism, anthropology, folklore, social reform movements, and sociology
      8. Analyze the literary movements of Realism and Naturalism in relation to anthropological theory of empiricism and ethnographic writings in journalism, anthropology, folklore, social reform movements, and sociology
      9. View and assess documentary film, Juvenile Correction, as an example of present-day investigative journalists dealing with ethnographic material
III.
 Moll Flanders
    A. Examine factors that created the conditions for the emergence of the novel in the eighteenth century
      1. Leisure and literacy
    B. Examine seventeenth century London
      1. Poverty and wealth
      2. Crime and punishment
        a. Crimes: theft, alcoholism, prostitution
        b. Punishments: debtors’ prison, hanging, transportation to America and indentured servitude
    C. Identify and analyze depictions of subcultures in Moll Flanders
    D. Identify and analyze ethnographic elements in Moll Flanders
    E. Analyze structure, setting, voice, and other literary elements in Moll Flanders
   

F. Analyze Daniel Defoe’s artistic progression from his investigative reporting of the London underworld through the creative process of selecting ethnographic elements to employ in Moll Flanders
    G. Analyze creative role of the author in composing the ethnographically-based novel Moll Flander
IV.
 The Jungle
    A. Examine factors that created the conditions for the emergence of the realism and naturalism in literature novel in the late-nineteenth century
      1. Examine French art and literature
        a. Balzac, Flaubert, Zola
b. Courbet, Rodin
      2. Examine social, political, economic factors in America
    B. Examine turn-of-the-century century Chicago
      1. Poverty and wealth
2. Health and hygiene
3. Labor issues
  a. Dangerous factory conditions
  b. Child labor
    C. Examine contemporary (turn-of-the-century) ethnographic photodocumentation
      1. work of Sinclair’s contemporaries, reformers Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine in New York
        a. examine political results of their work
  b. assess timeless artistic merit of their work
    D. Identify and analyze depictions of subcultures in The Jungle
    E. Identify and analyze ethnographic elements in The Jungle
    F. Analyze Upton Sinclair’s artistic progression from his fieldwork in Chicago’s meat-packing neighborhoods through the creative process of selecting ethnographic elements to employ in The Jungle
    G. Analyze structure and other literary elements in The Jungle
    H. Analyze creative role of the author in composing the ethnographically-based novel The Jungle
    I. Assess historical relationships of subject matter of The Jungle to contemporary (turn-of-the-century) events and societal concerns
    J. Examine the political and legal changes resulting from publication of The Jungle
    K. Assess and evaluate the artistic and popular success of The Jungle within its historical context
V.
The Man with the Golden Arm
    A. Examine post-WWII urban America
      1. Poverty and wealth
      2. Crime and punishment
        a. drug-addiction, gambling, prostitution
        b. prison for offences which are not now punished (e.g., drug possession)
    B. Identify and analyze depictions of subcultures in The Man with the Golden Arm
    C. Identify and analyze ethnographic elements in The Man with the Golden Arm
    D. Analyze structure and other literary elements in The Man with the Golden Arm
    E. Analyze Nelson Algren’s artistic use of his experiences in jail and of living among Chicago’s criminal classes in the creative process of selecting ethnographic elements to utilize in The Man with the Golden Arm
    F. Analyze creative role of the author in composing the ethnographically-based novel The Man with the Golden Arm
    G. Assess historical relationships of subject matter of The Man with the Golden Arm to contemporary (post-WWII) events and societal concerns
    H. Assess and evaluate the artistic and popular success of The Man with the Golden Arm within its historical context
VI.
 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
    A. Examine the paradoxical post-WWII American culture
      1. Unprecedented widespread material prosperity and upward mobility
      2. Spiritual malaise in some folk-groups
        a. Complaints about America’s materialism and repressiveness
        b. Increasing prevalence of drug-addiction and crime
        c. The Beats’ use of amphetamines and psychedelics in creative process
      3. Mental health issues
        a. Alienation
        b. Rise of psychiatry to treat mental patients
        c. Rise of meds to treat mental patients
    B. Assess historical relationships of subject matter of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest to contemporary (post-WWII) events and societal concerns
    C. Identify and analyze depictions of subcultures in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
    D. Identify and analyze ethnographic elements in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
    E. Analyze Ken Kesey’s artistic use of his experiences with psychedelics and of working in a Palo Alto mental hospital in the creative process of selecting ethnographic elements to utilize in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
    F. Analyze creative role of the author in composing the ethnographically-based novel
    G. Analyze Ken Kesey’s artistic use of his experiences with psychedelics and of working in a Palo Alto mental hospital in the selection of Chief Bromden as hallucinatory narrator in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
    H. View movie One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and compare/contrast film and novel
    I. Assess and evaluate the aesthetic effects and success of novel and film
      1. Compare/contrast voice and point-of-view
      2. Compare/contrast character development
      3. Compare/contrast plot pacing
    J. Assess and evaluate the artistic and popular success of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (novel and film version) within its historical context
    K. Analyze historical relationships of subject matter of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest to contemporary (post-WWII) events and societal concerns
VII.
 Eat Everything Before You Die:A Chinaman in the Counterculture
    A. Examine late-twentieth century American urban culture
    B. Identify and analyze depictions of subcultures in Eat Everything Before You Die:A Chinaman in the Counterculture
    C. Identify and analyze ethnographic elements in Eat Everything Before You Die:A Chinaman in the Counterculture
    D. Analyze Jeffrey Chan’s artistic use of his experiences with the immigrant and gay communities in the Bay Area in the creative process of selecting ethnographic elements to utilize in Eat Everything Before You Die:A Chinaman in the Counterculture
    E. Analyze creative role of the author in composing the ethnographically-based novel
    F. Analyze structure, setting, voice, and other literary elements in Eat Everything Before You Die: A Chinaman in the Counterculture
    G. Assess historical relationships of subject matter of Eat Everything Before You Die:A Chinaman in the Counterculture to contemporary (late-twentieth century early twenty- first century) events and societal concerns
IIX.
 Thursday’s Child & The Queen of Swords
    A. Examine late-twentieth century American urban culture
    B. Identify and analyze depictions of subcultures in Thursday’s Child & The Queen of Swords
    C. Identify and analyze ethnographic elements in Thursday’s Child & The Queen of Swords
    D. Analyze Rosalie Stafford’s artistic use of her varied experiences (while working as a folklorist performing participant-observation fieldwork at psychic hotlines and her fieldwork with methamphetamine addicts and professional sex workers in San Diego) in the creative process of selecting ethnographic elements to utilize in Thursday’s Child & The Queen of Swords
    E. Analyze creative role of the author in composing the ethnographically-based novel
      1. Both The Jungle and Thursday's Child & The Queen of Swords were written specifically to expose societal problems: labor abuses and methamphetamine addition
2. Both were researched using participant-observation fieldwork
  a. Assess the historical context of the two novels
  b. Compare/contrast the two novels
    F. Assess the use of black humor and satire in Thursday's Child & The Queen of Swords
    G. Analyze structure, setting, voice, and other literary elements in Thursday’s Child & The Queen of Swords
    H. Examine and assess historical relationships of subject matter in Thursday’s Child & The Queen of Swords to contemporary (late-twentieth century, early twenty-first century) events and societal concerns

 

APPROPRIATE READINGS
  • American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress offers a wealth of ethnographic material, research services, and information about the practice of ethnography. For instance, articles such as “What is Folklife?” at http://www.loc.gov/folklife/whatisfolklife.html or “What is an Ethnographic Field Collection?” at http://www.loc.gov/folklife/ethno.html collectively serve as a excellent introduction to the subject of ethnography and would certainly be included in the reading assignments, supplemental to the assigned novels, that will help achieve the course objectives.
  • Library of Congress holds vast stores of original digitally scanned ethnographic material which illustrates not only the range of the ethnographic medium but also the real human interest stories captured by ethnographers. See, for example, Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, which a student could research in order to analyze particular aspects of Moll Flanders, who had been marginalized in London – born in Newgate Gaol, and grown up to become a thief and a prostitute – but eventually ended up in Virginia, a wealthy woman and a slave-owner. The first-person narratives of various former slaves and the first person narrative of the wretched (but ultimately fortunate) Moll Flanders could easily provide material for a substantial research paper, while giving the student valuable experience in analyzing and synthesising primary sources.
  • PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide An Ongoing Project at http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/home.htm published by Professor Emeritus Paul P. Reuben, CSU, Stanislaus, Department of English, offers bibliographic and critical information covering the span of American literature, including topics such as Realism and Naturalism,. PAL includes links to primary sources collections containing items such as the scanned digitalized early-twentieth century letters from Jack London to Upton Sinclair, and archived Depression-era newspaper reports of Upton Sinclair’s political campaigns. This resource would be useful in locating information for historical/social/cultural analyses; through this research, students would gain valuable experience in analyzing and synthesising primary and secondary sources.
  • George Washing University’s School of Media and Public Affairs is a resource for information related to investigative journalism.  See, for example, Prof. Mark Feldstein's scholarly article“A Muckraking Model: Investigative Reporting Cycles in American History” at http://www.gwu.edu/~smpa/faculty/documents/Harvard.pdf . This resource would be useful in locating information for historical/social/cultural analyses; through this research, students would gain valuable experience in analyzing and synthesising primary and secondary sources. 

 

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
  • Students will keep journals in which they record observations of ethnographic detail in their own lives. This exercise will provide practice in identifying ethnographic detail in the “real world.” In addition, students will utilize these journals to record observations regarding the ethnographic novels they are studying. These journal entries will provide topics for classroom discussion as well as notes for essays assignments.
  • Students will write five papers, totaling 5,000 words, on various aspects of course material: [1] a comparison/contrast essay; [2] a historical, social, or cultural analysis essay; [3] an argument essay; [4] a critical analysis essay; [5] and a substantial research essay. These papers will be composed in MLA-format, with parenthetical citations.
  • These five papers will provide practice in utilizing the predominant modes and format required in upper-division literature courses. These five papers will require students to draw comparisons and contrasts between novels or literary elements (the comparison/contrast essay); analyze the role of historical, social, or cultural forces on folk-groups as well as the authors who synthesize the raw material of experience and create art (the historical, social, or cultural analysis essays); draw conclusions and convincingly argue their positions (the argument essay); and explore and analyze a single literary element, such as setting or point-of-view (the critical analysis essay). The research essay may be in any of the afore-mentioned essay types, but should treat the topic in greater depth or breadth.
  • Students would have considerable latitude in arriving at essay topics, and because of the fluid nature of the transdisciplinary subject matter, would have considerable latitude in combining the various essay modes. For instance:
    Example 1 (compare-contrast essay cum critical analysis)
      An essay on the two Chicago novels, The Jungle and The Man with the Golden Arm, could examine the element of setting, period, tone, or authorial intent; or an essay on the two first-person narratives in which both narrators are incarcerated, Moll Flanders and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, could analyze the elements of point-of-view and voice.
    Example 2 (a historical/cultural analysis cum argumentation)
      An essay on One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest could lead the student to research post-WWII American psychiatric establishment’s interest in pharmacological treatment of mental illness and the Beats’ use of amphetamines and psychedelics in the creative process. The student could argue that One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is thus firmly planted in both the greater American culture of the elite and the synchronous counter-culture of the period’s artistic vanguard.

 

APPROPRIATE OUTSIDE ASSIGNMENTS
  • Two hours of outside preparation per unit per week is expected of each student. This will include reading primary sources (the seven novels), reading secondary sources (supplementary articles provided by the instructor), recording ethnographic observations and text notes in journals, researching and reading secondary sources in the course of writing the five essay assignments.
  • Students’ journaling will give them practice in identifying and analyzing ethnographic elements.
  • Students’ researching and reading of secondary sources will give them practice in analyzing and synthezing transdisciplinary information, making text-to-self connections while examining these concepts through the prisms of a variety of academic disciplines.
  • Students’ reading of primary sources (while tasked with performing such independent higher order thinking as
    [1] assessing the depiction of cultures and folk-groups in various ethnographic novels,
    [2] assessing historical relationships of ethnographic novels’ subject matter to contemporary events and concerns,
    [3] assessing and evaluating the artistic and popular success of various ethnographic novels within their historical context,
    [4]assessing and evaluating the roles of participant-observation fieldwork experience (both formal and informal) and of creativity in the author’s artistic progression from ethnographic fieldwork to the ethnographic novel, and
    [5] analyzing the creative role of the author in selecting ethnographic elements to utilize in ethnographic novel)
will give them practice in assessing, evaluating, and analyzing a wide variety of transdisciplinary data.

 

METHODS OF EVALUATION

 
  • Assignments, attendance, participation, effort, improvement, etc. are all included in computation of grades.
  • Students will write five essays (see Writing Assignments, above) and will be evaluated on critical thinking and ability to gracefully communicate these thoughts in essay modes and combinations of essay modes standard to literature courses.
  • Students will take two exams, at mid-term and end-of-term. Both exams will consist of three questions, to be answered in critical essays. These essay exams will test multiple areas:
  [1] retention of information;
  [2] critical thinking;
  [3] ability to organize facts, inductions, and arguments; and
  [4] the ability to gracefully communicate in writing, as measured by this essay grading matrix (based on Kaplan):
    Outstanding Essay ("A") • Insightfully presents and convincingly supports an opinion on the issue or a critique of the argument • Ideas are very clear, well-organized, and logically connected • Shows superior control of language: grammar, stylistic variety, and accepted conventions of writing; minor flaws may occur
    Strong Essay ("B") • Presents well-chosen examples and strongly supports an opinion on the issue or a critique of the argument • Ideas are generally clear and well organized; connections are logical • Shows solid control of language: grammar, stylistic variety, and accepted conventions of writing; minor flaws may occur
    Adequate Essay ("C") • Presents and adequately supports an opinion on the issue or a critique of the argument • Ideas are fairly clear and adequately organized; logical connections are satisfactory • Shows satisfactory control of language: grammar, stylistic variety, and accepted conventions of writing; some flaws may occur
    Weak Essay ("D") • Succeeds only partially in presenting and supporting an opinion on the issue or a critique of the argument • Ideas may be unclear and poorly organized; logical connections are deficient • Shows unsatisfactory control of language: contains significant mistakes in grammar, usage, and sentence structure • Does not respond to topic or assignment
    Inadequate Essay ("F") • Shows little success in presenting and supporting an opinion on the issue or a critique of the argument • Ideas lack clarity and organization • Meaning is impeded by many serious mistakes in grammar, usage, and sentence structure • Does not respond to topic or assignment

 

METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
I.
Lectures:
  A. give students wide-ranging transdisciplinary information in well-organized oral format
  B. require students to listen closely and take notes.
II.
Reading assignments
  A. give students in-depth transdisciplinary information in well-organized written format
  B. require students to read carefully and take notes
III.
 Journaling
  A. requires students to observe critically and take notes
  B. gives students data-base from which to generate essay topics
  C. gives students ethnographic observations and other material related to course content to share in class discussion
IV.
 Discussion
  A. gives students practice in listen closely and speaking succintly
V
 Viewing films
  A. viewing documentary Juvenile Correction gives students real-life example of role of investigative journalism in the present day
  B. Analyzing film based on novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest gives students practice in assessing aesthetic properties two artistic media (literary and cinematic)

 

REQUIRED TEXTS
  • Algren, Nelson. The Man with the Gold Arm, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition. Simon, Daniel and William J. Savage, eds. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999. ISBN: 1583220089
  • Chan, Jeffrey Paul. Eat Everything Before You Die: A Chinaman in the Counterculture. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005. ISBN 0295984368
  • Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders: A Norton Critical Edition. Kelly, Edward H., ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 039309412X
  • Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Faggen, Robert, intro. New York: Penguin Group, USA, 2002. ISBN: 0141181222
  • Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. Spiegel, Maura, intro. Barnes & Noble Classics Series. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003. ISBN: 1593080085
  • Stafford, Rosalie. Thursday’s Child & The Queen of Swords. New York: Booklocker, 2007.  ISBN: 1601452217

 

REQUIRED SUPPLIES
  • Textbooks as listed above.
  • A bound blank book or large spiral-bound notebook to use as journal
  • Access to internet for reading online primary and secondary sources

 

Rosalie Stafford, September 2007