Samford University
Dr. Ken Kirby
ECEN209 Special Topics in Literature: Literature of the Family
Fall 2013

Syllabus with daily schedule

Critical paper - The paper will be a class handout.  You will respond to a critical essay on Austen or Cather and report informally to the class about how this critic's ideas provide insight into the novel and agree or disagree with our reading and discussion.  The paper will be 3-4 pages (1000-1200 words) and will not require any library research.

"Subjective" paper-- This paper will be about 5 pages, 1500 words, and will ask you to write about which authors in the course have meant the most to you in relation to your educational and other life goals.

ECEN209 was designed to give students a topical approach to literature rather than a regional or national focus.  This course will focus on the subject of the family in drama and prose fiction.  We will examine how writers of the past 200 years have explored the joys and frustrations of husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings, and cousins as they grow and learn about themselves and those closest to them. The film and readings in this course are also designed to reveal what changes and what remains the same, whether we compare social classes, races, or historical eras. Because this is a literature course, we will focus on how authors create meaning and how readers interpret texts and not on sociological or other aspects of the family relationships, though these topics may enter into our discussions, perhaps frequently.  Our reading list is rather short, which will give us time to get some depth on these works and their authors.

Here is a brief intro to our authors and works.

		Jane Austen Persuasion is often spoken of as Austen's most mature novel; our editor remarks that "In Anne Elliot, the author created perhaps her sweetest, most appealing heroine."  Yet "sweet" does not mean "dull," for watching her find true love and financial security is as enjoyable as observing the growth and maturing of Austen's more comically flawed heroines like feisty Elizabeth Bennett or meddlesome Emma Woodhouse. The Oscar and Golden Globe winning film of Austen's Sense and Sensibility is one of the finest film adaptations of a classic novel.  The film at first appears to focus on the problems of the Dashwood sisters as they adapt to the loss of their father and the financial security he provided, but as the film goes forward, we see that the male characters also must face the consequences of their families' reaction to their behavior.  The theme of this film, as with all of Austen's work, is the goal of becoming "properly married," which for Austen meant an appropriate measure of both love and money.
		Ernest J. Gaines Perhaps most famous for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Gaines writes clearly and powerfully of the issues of society, race, and family in the South in the mid-20th century.  In our novel, a local leader and pastor must revisit the sins of his past and cope with pressures from community, family, and his own conscience. (The best photo of Gaines I found was this color photo; I do not intend to give him any more prominence than any of our other authors, for all are equally important.)
		Arthur Miller Miller was one of the most successful playwrights in one of the most important eras of drama, the 20th century.  In our play an aging father must do what he can to correct mistakes of his past and continue to provide for his wife and sons.
		Willa Cather Cather's O Pioneers! draws heavily on childhood memories of her life on the Nebraska prairie. It is a novel of community and of coming of age as much as a novel of family relations.