Course Requirements:

1 final exam (essay and objective)                                           25% [LETTER GRADE]

6-7 HW Logs & 6-7 Pop Quizzes                                            25% [10 point logs & quizzes]

Attendance, participation & presentation                                 20% [LETTER GRADE]

1 paper or long presentation (9-12 typed double-spaced pages)             30% [LETTER GRADE]

            You will also have opportunities to learn about Beckett by imitation, i.e. you can write your own Beckett sketches and scenes. You can adapt scenes from his prose into dramatic sketches or scenes that Beckett himself never wrote. You could even invent scenes that he never wrote for the plays but which he could have written. You could also write a parody of a famous Beckett play.

{Why there are creative alternatives for some assignments:

(1) One great way to appreciate literature is to try to write some yourself—even if you fail. When you experience first-hand how hard it is to write something great, you gain greater insight into the craft of writing and the art of literature.

(2) Writing creatively and imaginatively puts your mind in the kind of state that makes reading literature far more powerful and productive—even if you are completely unaware that this is happening. (Reading is and should be a profoundly creative experience. To put this into blunt physiological terms, if you aren’t burning as many calories while reading as you are while seriously studying something you care about or watching a film that has you completely mesmerized, you are not completely there as a reader yet.)

(3) Critical and analytical writing is, at its best, a creative process; therefore, creative writing should strengthen your ability to do the thinking required in critical and analytical assignments.}

            How classes typically run:

            I will lecture as needed to give you important biographical, historical, literary, cultural, social information etc., but there will almost never be a day when a class is mostly lecture. The class works best when everyone reads the assignments and actively participates, so there will be regular pop quizzes on the readings. Attendance and participation are 20% of your final grade (this includes some kind of presentation to the class, usually an early version of your paper project or collaborative creative project). If you are a quieter student in the class, you can compensate for not talking much by writing more.

            Discussion and participation will begin with questions that I bring to the class as well as questions that you bring. Many of these questions will become your HW log assignments. We may sometimes break into smaller groups so that a lot of harder questions can be dealt with more efficiently than by having everyone work through every question all together.

            The film versions of the plays are important, but they do not replace reading the texts. No film version is the same as the text, so please remember that when you write about the plays that you need to refer to the texts unless we are specifically talking about a film version.

Advisories:

* Attendance policy: Four (4) or more unexcused absences will result in an automatic F. If you are physically present but totally unprepared, this can also count as an absence! Latenesses can also add up to absences.

* LATE HW IS NEVER ACCEPTED unless you have a valid excuse that you tell me about in advance and which we agree upon, or there are truly dire circumstances that you tell me about later.

* Some of the readings for this course include mature themes such as sexual deviance, incest, violence etc. It is possible that some students may have moral/religious difficulties with the actual contents of these works. If you have troubles of this sort, please talk to me ASAP.

* Plagiarism policy: If you ever knowingly use someone else’s writing and try to pass it off as your own, you are guilty of plagiarism, which warrants an automatic F on at least the assignment. An F may also be given for the whole course. Plagiarism does not include acknowledged collaborations or other approved learning situations.

* Cheating policy: penalties are similar to those above for plagiarism.

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Schedule: (Please note that this schedule will change. Assignments will be added and subtracted and updated as the term progresses.)

1. January 14, 16

M        Introduction to the class. Ice breaker exercise. Cover syllabus. First readings assigned.

W        Some Beckett backgrounds & first discussion questions.  

Weeks 2-3 (Collected Poems)

Weeks 3-6 (First Love and Other Shorts & Molloy)

Weeks 7-13 (Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Act Without Words I, Act Without Words II, Krapp’s Last Tape, Happy Days, Cascando, Breath, Not I)

Collaborations may be group projects that adapt, interpret, or otherwise illuminate some aspect of Beckett’s work or take his work as a point of inspiration. Solo projects are also possible.

Weeks 14-15 (class presentations—may extend into finals week if necessary.)