Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University


2202374  Fiction and Fact in English Prose

 

Puckpan Tipayamontri

Office: BRK 1106

Office Hours: M 1–3 and by appointment

Phone: 0-2218-4703

puckpan.t@chula.ac.th

 

Section 5  (BRK 311)

W 8:00–9:30, F 9:30–11:00

 

Tentative Schedule

*Indicates course packet reading

Week 1

Jan. 7

1: Introduction 

Reading

Discussion: Genre expectations; suspension of disbelief; reader faith; authorial responsibility

Jan. 10

2: Points of Contact

Reading

Discussion: Negotiating values; cultural literacy; cultural rights and obligations; hospitality etiquette (like Ancient Greek xenia?); ideological assumptions; cross-cultural, generational communication; identity; labels, labeling; stereotypes; suggestiveness: denotations, connotations; personal bias; conventions of fiction ex. unity, coherence (of style, tone, focus), relevance, form; cosmopolitanism

Week 2

Jan. 15
No class (Intervarsity Games: January 13–17, 2020)

Jan. 17
No class (Intervarsity Games: January 13–17, 2020)

Week 3

Jan. 22

3: The Spirit of Literature: How Do Stories Haunt You?

Reading

Discussion Leaders: Fasai and Napada
  • Do you consider "Late Returns" a horror story?
  • How does the inclusion of contemporary novels and people affect the story?
  • How does time play an important role in the story?
  • How does the first person point of view narration scope the way readers conceive the story?
  • What elements from the story make you think it is a fiction/fact?
 
Quiz 1

Jan. 24

4: Impact: Who Engenders What?

Reading

Discussion: Legacy; anxiety of influence; intertextuality; pop culture references; literal and figurative play in fiction and nonfiction; talent and the work of writing; censorship, freedom to read and write; the value, seriousness and depth of entertainment; defense of the arts

Week 4

Jan. 29

5: Spinning Fictional Families

Reading

Discussion Leader: Pitipohn
  • What do you think of the frequent repetition of words like "always," "again" and "as usual" in the story?
  • What happens in the night (as opposed to in the daytime)?
  • Who wakes up? What are the consequences of their waking up?
  • How does the ending compare to the rest of the story?
  • What, in your opinion, does "dreams" mean in "Bad Dreams"?
Quiz 2

Follow Me: Each student begins playing either or both of the following games. You can play as many times as you like. In Friday, February 7 class, tell us your best number of followers.

Jan. 31

6: What Makes a Real Family?

Reading

Discussion: Negotiating step relationships: stereotypes, reality, role models, support; theory and practice; the fears and joys of parent-child interaction; the language and symbols of love; meanings of silence

Week 5

Feb. 5

7: Social Media Life

Reading

  • *Ella Martinsen Gorham, "Protozoa," New England Review, vol. 39, no. 4 (2018)
  • Emily Mitchell, "Ella Martinsen Gorham," Interview, New England Review (2019)
  • Do you consider Noa in daily life, at home or at school to be the same as Noa on the Internet?
  • Noa and Paddy have "been together since kindergarten." How does social media change their relationship?
  • In what way is the sexual relationship between Noa and Paddy private or public?
  • Do emojis in "Protozoa" convey characters' real emotions?
  • If you were a friend of Noa's, what would you do?
 
Quiz 3

Feb. 7

8: Social Media Literacy  

Reading

Discussion: Web harassment types and tricks; perpetrators and victims; policies, regulations and punishment; connection to research, marketing, economics, crime, entertainment, and politics

Do Not Track Experiment: Watch the personalized documentary with and without customized information. On one watch or episode, provide your information when prompted, on another minimize doing so. How does this affect your documentary experience?
Follow Me: Follow up on game play results. After playing either or both of the following games, what is your best number of followers in a game?

Week 6

Feb. 12

9: Age Appropriateness and Art  

Reading

Discussion Leaders: Jittraporn and Yanisa
  • After watching the snuff film, how does Shane, the narrator, actually feel about the film and the violent action?
  • Do you think age plays a big role in how people perceive violent content? And how?
  • Why do snuff films appeal to some people?
  • Why does Shane start to sympathize with his father's worry about Charlotte?
  • Before the two main incidents, what was the relationship between Shane and Charlotte like? How does their relationship shift throughout the story?
Quiz 4

Feb. 14

10: Age-Inappropriate Moments

Reading

Week 7

Feb. 19

11: Who Am I?

Reading

Discussion Leaders: Siraprapa and Saruttaya
  • What are the similarities and differences between dream and destiny? Is destiny uncontrollable? How does destiny affect life?
  • What does the narrator's father expect from his son?
  • What makes a good actor?
  • Does the narrator consider his work as a job or an acting role?
  • How can we distinguish delusion from reality?
  • What is the role of time in the story?
 
Quiz 5

Feb. 21

12: Who Do You Want to Be?

Reading

Cultural Communication: Each student chooses a cultural reference from this week's reading to look up and share in class. Find out what that person, thing or phrase refers to, and tell us about it in our morning discussion. What does the author mention in the writing that you don't recognize? If you are curious about cultural tidbits that appear in readings for other weeks, you can certainly learn about those and explain them to us as well. In week 7 selections, consider, for example,
  • Neil Simon
  • Seinfeld
  • U-Haul
  • Employee health benefits
  • three-piece suit
  • ThighMaster
  • Tupac
  • pop psychology
  • drywall
  • Chore Boy
  • Richard Wright
  • Joy Harjo
  • endearments ex. sweet pea
  • racial segregation
  • Samuel R. Delany
  • Essence magazine
Discussion: Finding and knowing yourself; designing personal plans; ambition; future conditions; planning for the future; meanings of obstacles and failure; coping with social and peer pressure; defining success; types of values (ex. utilitarian, aesthetic, monetary, spiritual); applicability and relevance; liberal arts/foundational and vocational education; cultural bias and cultural literacy

Week 8

Feb. 26

13: Coming out of the Dark

Reading

  • What aspects of the story is unusual, terrible or shocking?
  • What in the story is fascinating or beautiful?
  • How does Miss Mooney's self-perception/description compare to other characters' behavior toward her?
  • What is McSorley's (2, 15) compared to McDonald's (14)?
 

Quiz 6


Writing: Test 1 practice (Time yourself for 90 minutes responding to the prompts. Or, you can do the half-practice, which is time yourself for 40–45 minutes doing only one prompt.)

  • Practice test questions 374 practice test 1
  • Practice test discussion

Feb. 28

14: Temptations and Control

Reading

Substance Fact Check
Addiction Prone Personality Test

Discussion: Addictions; vulnerabilities; role of substance use and abuse; myths and facts of drinking, smoking, and drug use

Week 9

Mar. 4
Test 1
(90 minutes, in-class, closed-book) You have the option of writing your response in a booklet or typing it out and e-mailing it to me. The prompt includes a list of works for your reference.
  • Test questions 374 test 1 questions
  • Test discussion (comments and response samples)

Mar. 6

No class (Midterm week: March 2–6, 2020) 

Week 10

Mar. 11

15: Death, Life, and Identity

Reading

  • *T. C. Boyle, "Admiral," Stories II (2005)
Study Questions:
  • What does Mrs. Striker recognizing Admiral change?
  • What does Erhard's failed experiment change?
  • What doubling play and vocabulary do you see in the story? What are these instances of twoness about?
  • What role is the narrator's race compared to Admiral's uniqueness?
  • What issues or incidents in the story are objectionable? In what way?
  • Is cloning Admiral an animal rights or cruelty issue? Why or why not?
Quiz 7

Video Discussion Testing

Mar. 13

16: Life, Death, and Identity

Reading

Discussion: Life and living; death and aftermath; influences on identity; definitions of being a slave and of slavery; taking things for granted; guilt; obligation; indebtedness; dependency; threat and fear (for ethnic/racial, age, gender groups; immigrants); jealousy; exploitation and denial; complicity; empathy; context (historical, cultural, generational, gender); what is a victim?; the emotional and psychological toll of abuse and violence; resilience, power and strength of survivors; the role and consequences of silence and speaking out

Discovering a Person

Week 11

Mar. 18

17: Profiles of People

Reading

Critical Creative Writing: Write a "fancy sketch" or two or five of Chula students à la Thompson-Spires as a reply to this blog post. What does a Chula student "see, hear, love, or imagine" (Laymon)?

Mar. 20

18: Stereotypical Blindspots

Reading

  • Classcast link: https://au.bbcollab.com/guest/5c649017503b4eb1884b751a19a31d30
  • Discussion
    • Stereotypes and meta-awareness discussion
    • What is the significance of heads in the story?
    • Why isn't the shooting shown?
    • What do sketches provide? What is lacking in sketches? What needs to/should be filled in? Does this imply that we know the details or information to do so?
    • Why is there no apology? Whose apology? What are the implications for the apology?
  • Session critique and ongoing discussion

Week 12

Mar. 25

19: Thinking As You Like It

Reading

Discussion:
  • Classcast link: https://au.bbcollab.com/guest/6350ceb89ece4b539cdc1c451e67012e
  • Cultural literacy: Cultural, literary, biographical and topical information to look up:
    • omakase
    • Harlem
    • New Yorkers
    • Asian American stereotypes
    • White American stereotypes
    • Norman Rockwell
    • Weike Wang
    • wuxia
    • yellow fever
    • nigori sake
    • Sino-Japanese War
    • cookie-cutter (suburb)
    • JC Penney
    • lukewarm (reception)
    • dressage
    • mansplaining
    • patronization
    • cultural etiquette
    • The New Yorker
  • Study questions
    • What are the values or problems of overthinking? How do you know when you are overthinking or overanalyzing? What about the advantages or disadvantages of underthinking?
    • How might victimhood or marginalization be exploited? Or is this an impossibility, as Runyowa argues, for instance when he claims that "Minorities, by virtue of their being in the minority, do not and cannot exert robust social control of any kind at elite universities like Oberlin"?
    • What good does political correctness do? What about harm?
    • How effective is relating to someone as an individual vs. relating to them as a group?
    • Why are the characters called, the woman, the man, the chef, etc.?
    • What does the man mean when he says to the woman at the end that she should "be a little more self-aware"?

Mar. 27

20: To Be or Not to Be Oblivious

Reading

Discussion:
  • Classcast link: https://au.bbcollab.com/guest/95172b739fbb42be954fcc4626235cab
  • Discussion leaders: Panas and Phitchayawi
    • Why is the short story titled “Omakase”?
    • What is the significance of the use of “the man” and “the woman” instead of identifying the individuals?
    • How can people deal with stereotypes and microaggression?
    • Are people allowed to compare two or more cultures to find out which one is better?
    • Are people allowed to criticize other cultures that have different norms from theirs?
    • What is the meeting/agreeing point when two or more cultures are meeting?

Week 13

Apr. 1

21: Creating More Than Art about Creating More Than Art

Reading

 
Presentation stories and blurbs posted on the course webpage. Groups e-mail your first three preferences to acharn Michael Crabtree at crabtree@chula.ac.th by 4 p.m. on Friday, April 3.

Apr. 3

22: The Best of Various Worlds?

Reading

Discussion:
Group story selection due 4 p.m. (E-mail your group's first three fiction preferences to acharn Michael Crabtree at crabtree@chula.ac.th.)

Presentation stories selection results announced on the course webpage

Week 14

Apr. 8

23: What Is Love?

Reading

Review and Writing Practice:
  • Classcast link: https://au.bbcollab.com/guest/cd8f993f25504aa28275cd9866bac3cb
  • Study questions
    • What things is Rae Brown embarrassed about in "Pity and Shame"? What does she consider "bad" or turn "red" about? Why? Should she be?
    • Consider the sounds, voices, noises, and quietness described in the story. Who or what makes them? What do they communicate?
    • Some aspects of the story is overstatement, others understatement. What reason do you see for this? When is overblown, hyperbolic language used, and when is understated language used? Which scenes are grandly done and which are handled with a soft touch?
    • What psychological need do you see robots fulfilling in humans in Alex Mar's article "Love in the Time of Robots"? What do you think of Ishiguro's statement that "It's not just robot—it's almost human. It's ideal"? Why is loving an ideal disturbing? Why is having sex with an android a praiseworthy achievement or goal?
  • Session comments and ongoing discussion

Apr. 10

Test 2

(90 minutes; essay-type; covers material after midterm)  Like in test 1, you will be given several questions, from which you will choose two to write an essay in response to. Read instructions carefully and follow them. Prompts will be posted on the course webpage at 9:30 a.m. Responses should reach my inbox when the 90 minutes are up (plus five minutes grace period).

  • Test questions 374 test 2

Week 15

Apr. 14

Group presentation and paper consultation (Sign up here. Click on your time link to go to the meeting room.)

2:30:

2:40:

2:50:

3:00: Jittraporn and Yanisa

3:10:

3:20:

3:30:

3:40:

3:50:

Apr. 15 No class

Group presentation and paper consultation (Sign up here. Click on your time link to go to the meeting room.)
8:00:
8:10:
8:20:
8:30: Panas and Phitchayawi
8:40:
8:50:
9:00:
9:10:
9:20: Napada and Fasai

Group presentation schedule posted on the course webpage

Apr. 17
No class

Week 16

Apr. 22

Student Presentations

Groups give a 20–25-minute presentation on a pair of short work via Zoom to two instructors.
Apr. 24 Student Presentations
Groups give a 20–25-minute presentation on a pair of short work via Zoom to two instructors.

Apr. 26

Student Presentations

Groups give a 20–25-minute presentation on a pair of short work via Zoom to two instructors.
Week 17 Apr. 29 Final Exam paper 1 Final exam paper 1 (90 minutes during class time; open-book; essay-type)  Like for test 2, prompts will be posted on the course webpage. Responses should reach my inbox when the required time is up, with five minutes grace period after 9:30 a.m.
May 1
 Final Exam paper 2 374 final exam paper 2 (90 minutes during class time; open-book; essay-type)  Prompts will be posted on the course webpage. Responses should reach my inbox when time is up, with five minutes grace period after 11:00 p.m.
 
Group paper due (4–5 pp., MLA format; e-mail your group paper to your presentation instructors by 4 p.m.)

Course comments and review: There are two avenues where you can give feedback about this course: the Chula CU-CAS official online teaching and learning assessment channel, and an informal one on our section Blackboard page. Please help us learn about what worked and didn't work this semester, what aspects of the course you particularly enjoyed, what you suggest we try next time, etc.

 

 

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Last updated May 1, 2020