Assignments

(Numbered assignments are written and should be posted in the Writing Room. Dated entries indicate other work to be prepared for class participation.)

1. (September 4 & 6) WRITE and POST a brief SELF-PORTRAIT Who are you? What made you you? How would you like to change in coming years? What are your goals in life?  What is most important to you?  Bring it to class to share. Then, post it in the Writing Room. If you do not have an email address, get one (free for life at UMB). Get The Immoralist at the UMass bookstore or elsewhere. It is important to have the same edition as everyone else.

September 6: our Academic Advisor, Teresa Goyette, who was to join us at 10 to introduce herself and share information about the various resources available to you at UMB, has had to reschedule for next week, details to come. In addition to our session together, you should plan to make a personal appointment with her within the next three or four weeks.

(September 11& 13) : Read The Immoralist through page 20. Here are a few pointers to guide you.

    1. Read Gide's preface with care. What is his attitude towards his work?  What criticisms is he anticipating or responding to?  What counter-arguments does he present?  Does his position seem valid to you?  Why?  Remember as you read that Michel, like the rest of the book, is a creation of Gide's and that one cannot simply identify narrator and author (despite the many autobiographical elements in the story).

     2. The letter from one of Michel's friends sets up a context (or pretext?) in which the narration supposedly takes place. Is it plausible, or even possible?  (Remember that there were no tape-recorders at the time.)  What is the function of this opening gambit? Does it work?          3.  Remember this context as you read and note each time that Michel reverts to the present tense (i.e. the present of the narrative moment, on his rooftop, after the fact of the events of his narrative). Does he at times omit or misrepresent things he in fact knows, after the fact, as he tells the story?

     4.  Note recurring words or phrases; they will often be significant. It is helpful to keep an index of characters, themes, images, important words—it will greatly facilitate subsequent study or paper writing. Some of the things to look out for: freedom, sincerity, dissimulation, the 'authentic self',  self-delusion, sickness, death and dying, conformity, law and lawlessness, order and disorder, nature and culture, energy and discipline.

     5.  Everything we hear about Michel's evolution is from his point of view. Can we take it at face value, or does he have a hidden agenda? Are there times when his account is patently self-serving or dishonest?  Are there things that we, as readers, understand that Michel apparently does not?  How does Gide manage this?

ATTENTION: 9 :00am on Tuesday means 8:50 or 8:55 so we can actually START at 9am sharp!!!  If you are there ahead of time we can use a few minutes to pass out (or pass in) papers and not waste actual classtime for such busywork.

September 11: our Academic Advisor, Teresa Goyette, will join us at 9:30.

(September 18 & 20) Read The Immoralist through page 68 (the end of Part I). Some things to keep in mind:

    1. Gide uses a quote from the Bible (and will come back to it later—one of those significant repetitions). What is the function of the quote here?  What is Michel's religious background?  What is his attitude toward religion, including Marceline's. Is he a believer?  What is the meaning of the quote?  What is left out of it? Do you know how the sentence ends in the Bible and what it means there? 

    2. Who is Michel? How has he defined himself earlier? How and why does he decide that his 'authentic self' has been hidden, imprisoned beneath several layers or veneers? What are these layers that he must strip away? How does he go about doing it?   Does he 'throw out the baby with the bath'?

    3.  Follow Michel's evolution as he slowly recovers his health. He takes an interest in young Arab boys (they are so healthy!). We, as readers, can understand better than he what is going on—an indication of Gide's talent as a writer. How does Michel's relationship with Marceline evolve?  Does what he says about his love for her jive with his actions?

    4.  Note several telling images: the palimpsest, the sunbath, the beard he shaves off...

   5.  Note what Michel says about happiness in the last paragraph of Part One.

On September 20 we will meet at 10am (i.e. 9:50 or 9:55!!) in the Library Instruction Room on the 4th floor of Healy Library (around the corner to the left after you leave the elevator or main staircase and directly across from our classroom) where our Library Buddy, Frances Schlesinger, will show us how to use the many resources of Healy including several electronic databases. We will have the opportunity to search for documents, articles, etc. on Gide. It's an extremely valuable session which will be of great benefit for the rest of your time at UMB. Don't miss it!

NOTE: If you have not as yet acquired or ordered the remaining books, immediately procure at least MAURIAC, Vipers' Tangle which we will need shortly.

(September 25 & 27)  Read The Immoralist through page 116. Part Two begins at La Morinière, in Normandy. Part One has been a gradual ascension from near death to an ever fuller life (though with its questionable aspects), from North Africa to Paris/Normandy. In Normandy Michel presents an ideal image of balance, equilibrium, between Nature (including the physical, the sexual, the impulsive—'powerful savagery') and Culture (man's 'skillful effort', control and direction) which guides the forces of nature ('savage energy') towards harmony and fruitful abundance (pp. 71-72).  Much of Part Two will be a gradual descent from this moment of balance and abundant life back towards North Africa and death.

Note the arrival of Charles and Michel's interest in him to the near exclusion of Marceline. Note carefully the episode of the 'colt': what does it convey?  And the image of the 'stain' (86) which will return later (116): what's going on here?  And what about the ducks?

Back in Paris, Michel sets up an apartment far beyond his means, to tie himself down (just as Bocage had caged the barnyard ducks), to keep in check his impulses to fly off like the wild ducks. He finds a disconnect with 'life' among his social contacts, even among poets and philosophers. He wants something more, different... without knowing exactly what. His intellectual pursuits, the thrust of his lecture course, reflect his quest for... what, exactly?

It is within this context that he meets Ménalque—modeled in part on Oscar Wilde—, a sort of foil to contrast to Michel himself. What are differences between the two? What do we learn during their conversation about Moktir and the scissors?  Michel does not know how to explain his action, reaction... or lack of reaction. What can we as readers deduce?

Note Michel's attitudes regarding blemishes and 'stains' on page 102. Compare pages 86 and 116.  Follow his discussion with Ménalque about freedom, about happiness, about being oneself and not a simple imitation of others. Compare Michel's reaction on page 105 to Marceline's statement to him on page 91.

Note the interaction between Michel and Marceline regarding her rosary on page 115. The rosary will show up again at the end of the book.

(October 2 & 4)   Finish Part 2 and Part 3.  Follow Michel’s perverse interest in farm workers, his curiosity “urging him on,” his subversion of his own interests through poaching, his privileging the life of the senses, his impulsive decision  to sell La Morinière.

Everything begins to go to pieces around him. He drags Marceline first to Switzerland (boring), then in stages down through Italy, and finally back to Biskra, his real goal, “persuading” her and himself that this “descent” towards the south is necessary. She understands his “doctrine,” which suppresses the weak (cf. Nietzsche), and, mirroring his earlier ascent towards health and vitality, she descends towards her death.

Note, too, the times when Michel’s narration is pulled back to the present of the rooftop, e.g. “I remember,” “I now prefer...”; the number of times Michel is led or drawn, or lets himself go; and the reiteration of the quote of Jesus to Peter.

What do you make of the new episode with the rosary?  How do you read Michel’s current state, at the end of his tale? Is he still “dedicated,” as his friend wrote in the opening letter? How would you try to help Michel, if you were his friend?  Is he open to being helped, to changing?  Or is his current “happiness” too much to sacrifice? Begin to prepare your thoughts and ideas to write your letter about what is to be done with Michel, or, alternatively, with a real (or imagined) contemporary friend who is in equally bad shape. Write a first draft of this letter to share on Thursday.

Begin to think about a paper topic for your first graded writing exercice, a 2-3 page paper on ONE aspect of The Immoralist that interests, intrigues, provokes or bothers you, i.e. a topic which engages you in one way or another. We will share our ideas about paper topics and approaches on Tuesday and also speak about proper documentation for such papers.

October 8: Columbus Day (no classes)

(October 9 & 11)   I will return your letters which you may revise as you wish and include in your portfolio. Remember that you should also be keeping your reading journal as you read and reflect on each work. It will also be part of your portfolio.

Bring your first paper on one aspect of The Immoralist on Tuesday. It should be double-spaced, 2-3 pages in length, with a 12-point font like Times and 1" margins. It should have an interesting title that makes the reader want to actually read it. It should use at least one outside source—article, book chapter, internet—and document all references properly.

Begin reading François MAURIAC's Vipers' Tangle. Here is a little background information and some guides for your initial reading:

Born into a bourgeois family in Bordeaux, orphaned by his father, raised by his mother and grandmother, educated by the Marists, Mauriac will remain faithful both to the Bordeaux region of his childhood—family residences, vines, forests of pines which will constitute the backdrop of his novels—and to the Jansenist religion of his milieu, while separating himself from the Phariseeism of the bien-pensants and making political commitments clearly on the left (Spanish Civil War, Resistance, decolonization). He will in fact be considered scandalous by the majority of people of his own milieu, both for the sinners whom he portrays in his novels and for his political commitments. Still, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1952.

Mauriac draws the substance of his novels from introspection nourished by the examination of conscience practiced since childhood, as well as from observation of his surroundings. He knows how to ferret out hidden motives, buried feelings, unavowed or unavowable passions, whether in himself or in others. He has special affection for passionate characters, even or above all when they are sinners, mistaken about what they want, overcome by desires or passions unworthy of them. What he hates, on the other hand, are the 'established',  the self-satisfied, who no longer call themselves into question.

In Vipers' Tangle  he gives the narrative voice to an old, dying man, bitter, hated by his own who are only waiting—or so he thinks—for his death in order to inherit his fortune. Louis begins to write a letter to his wife, Isa, to try, after decades of silence and misunderstanding between them, to make her understand who he is and how he became the "old crocodile" whom everyone fears. This letter will gradually become an intimate journal in which Louis, too, will discover himself  and where we readers can follow his transformation. We will discover, with him, that he has been mistaken for years, that he has nourished mistaken hates and disappointments. We will be able to choose between the two readings of his journal, of his life, offered by his son, Hubert, and his granddaughter, Janine, in the letters which close the novel.

Read the Introduction by Robert Coles (a major writer in his own right). Read the epigraph at the beginning of the book carefully and keep it in mind while reading the rest of the book. How does it apply to Louis? What does it reveal about Mauriac’s attitude towards his character?

Note the pretext of the text: it is to be a letter that his wife will find after his death. (The pretext or purpose will change later on.) Note as you read all the indications of the writing process itself, which lend credibility to the text we are reading.

Louis wants to explain how he came to be this old, embittered man, hated and feared by his own family: “...by nature I was not a monster.”  Pay attention throughout to Louis’ self-definitions, which evolve considerably.

Much as in The Immoralist, everything we read is filtered through the narrator/writer, Louis, who has his own take on reality, past and present. He will have to revise his understanding at various points: there is no omniscient narrator who knows and we, as readers, are dependent on Louis’ perhaps limited, biased, or even mistaken perceptions and understandings.

Note Louis’ portrayal of his mother and of her love for him, which he only comes to appreciate much later, as well as his insights into his actions as a young man.

How does Louis explain the origins of his hatred of religion?

Here are some things to note in the early pages of the novel:

• the short texts at the beginning and their relationship to the novel

• the attitude of Louis towards religion, the Church, the seminarian

• the self-portrait sketched by Louis from the outset: how does he become “another”

Note the many self-definitions or -descriptions that Louis provides, and the changes in him that they reflect. Louis will continue to change in the course of the novel, and change in his understanding of himself.

Thursday October 11: We will begin to read and discuss Mauriac's novel, Vipers' Tangle.

NOTE: If you have not as yet acquired or ordered the remaining books, please do so immediately. They are in the UMass bookstore, or can be found on-line, for example at www.bigwords.com.

(October 16 & 18)  Continue reading Vipers' Tangle through page 121 for Tuesday, p. 149 for Thursday. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• the importance of the revelation made by Isa about Rodolphe, and its effect on Louis

• the conception that Louis has of  “love” thereafter

• Louis' relations with his daughter Marie, Marinette, his nephew Luc, the seminarian, Janine

• the discussion of the Dreyfus affair (a major conflict at the time)

• the death of Marie and the very different reactions of Isa and Louis

Some questions for reflection and discussion:

• Like Michel (and like Clamence, the speaker in La Chute), Louis delays, puts off, the recounting of a painful episode, “what happened that night.” How and why is his self-image changed by that fateful event?

• Why is the Villenave case so important to Louis?

• How does his attitude toward religion change? How does it work itself out within his relations with Isa and the family? What about l’Abbé Ardouin?

• what do you make of Louis’ relationship with his sister-in-law, Marinette? What is the Dreyfus case, major subject of dispute in the family, all about?

• What do you make of what Marie says on her deathbed? What Biblical references can you pick up? To what effect? 

2. Hand in and also POST your (revised) letter as assignment #2 in the Writing Room.

(October 23& 25)  Read through page 237. Bring your questions and observations to class for discussion. Remember your keep your Reading Journal current: that's a good place to write down such things. A few things to note:

• Why is Louis' journal dated from Paris? What motivated his trip?

• What does Louis say about the text he is writing (letter? journal? confession?)?

• To whom, for whom, is he writing? Compare page 153 and 193.

• What and whom does Louis find in Paris?

• What do we learn about Isa that comes as news to Louis?

• How does Louis discover Robert's betrayal?

• What do you make of Hubert's actions in the church at St.-Germain-des-Prés?

• What do you make of the next scene on page 200?

• Louis feels his life at an end: "I am what I am?"  Can he change?

• What happens to turn everything upside down?

(October 30 & November 1)  Finish reading the novel. We will be continuing our short ORAL presentations begun last time. If you haven't as yet done one, prepare about 3 minutes on ONE aspect of Mauriac's novel (or even, of the first novel, or a comparison between the two).

In the last sections of the novel, pay attention to the changes that Louis goes through. What does he discover in the fireplace? What is the effect on him? How is he now feeling about Isa, the family, himself?

Follow carefully the developments with Janine after Phili leaves her. What does Louis understand about her that no one else does? What leads Janine to take refuge with her grandfather? What happens during their stay at Calèse? How does Louis deal with her? How is he changing. What is he writing about as he dies?

What light do the two letters throw on everything we have read so far? They are, as it were, two 'readings' of Louis life (and of his letter/journal, though Janine has yet to see it). How do they differ? Are they equally credible? Why? Where do YOU come down on the spectrum from Janine to Hubert?

REMINDER: We will be starting the next book soon, Camus' The Fall. GET IT if you do have it as yet.

(November 6 & 8)   For Tuesday bring a first draft of a paper on Mauriac, dealing with ONE aspect of his work that interests you. You should use at least one, preferably two or three outside sources and reference them appropriately. There are some on this website under 'resources' and you now know how to search electronic data bases for articles and books. You can also go to the 9th floor of Healy and see what's on the shelf. Again, two or three pages will do, with an appropriate title and a coherent structure.

You should also begin to read Camus' The Fall—20 pages or so. Bring your initial observations and questions to participate actively in class.

The Fall stems in part, at least, from a very serious falling out between Camus and Sartre, with whom Camus is often, and abusively, linked as 'existentialists'. The novel contains a biting satire of Sartre and his disciples, 'café atheists' all.

The Fall resembles The Immoralist to some extent in that it is a long monolog, the account of the narrator, 'Jean-Baptiste Clamence' (not his real name)—his is the only voice we hear—to an anonymous listener, one of many, whom he has buttonholed in a bar in Amsterdam. Like Michel, he recounts where he came from and how he came to be in his current situation where he plies his trade as a 'judge-penitent.' It is a confession, of sorts, but not seeking forgiveness or absolution. He finds himself in a kind of 'hell' of his own making—compared to Dante's image of Hell with its concentric circles resembling the canals of Amsterdam. Clamence anticipates staying there and continuing to do what he's doing, despite a few fleeting evocations of what 'salvation' might be.

Pay attention to the many religious and even Biblical references (the title, the narrator's name, etc.) and, in later sections, to the critique of the church and of Christians in general, a critique echoing that of the French, of French intellectuals, of Parisians, of existentialists... of modern man.  What exceptions are there to this general condemnation?

For Thursday continue reading The Fall.  Bring your paper on Mauriac, as nearly finished as possible, as well as your portfolio (all written assignments as well as your reading journal, in presentable form). I will return them on the 13th.

November 8: Deadline for Pass/Fail and Withdrawal [ask about these options!]

November 12: Veterans Day (no classes)

(November 13 & 15)   For Tuesday continue reading The Fall, at least through page 71. Note how Clamence keeps announcing but putting off the telling of what happened on a certain evening. The laughter he hears on a bridge creates a crack in the protective shell of his self-contentment and he begins to 'remember' a number of things in his past which he had conveniently 'forgotten' or suppressed. He also realizes that his previous self-image was false, that he had not in fact lived up to his 'dream' of himself, that his eagerness to help the blind across the street was really to project his own image to an admiring audience, that he had never loved anyone except himself.  Remember to keep your reading journal up to date.

For a visual and interactive exploration of the concentric circles of Dante's Inferno, visit http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/utopia/index2.html

For those who have not turned in their portfolio and/or their paper on Mauriac, do so!

If you have not as yet gotten the last book, Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, do so NOW! The Bookstore has it, perhaps including several copies signed by the author when she was at UMB last year.

The second hour we will welcome back our Academic Advisor, Teresa Goyette, who will help us plan coursework for spring semester and beyond.

For Thursday continue reading The Fall, at least through page 118.

(November 20)  For Tuesday finish reading The Fall. Maintain your reading journal. Bring your observations and questions to class.

If you have not turned in your portfolio and/or your paper on Mauriac, it's more than time to do so!

November 22 is a holiday, Thanksgiving.  Enjoy the break... and finish reading The Fall.

(November 27 & 29)  We will finish discussing The Fall and begin discussing Faïza Guène, Kiffe Kiffe Tomorow. 

For Tuesday reflect on The Fall and its relationship with the other works we have read. What can we take away from the text that might prove useful in reflecting on our own life? Come prepared to give a 2-minute oral presentation on your reading of the novel.

Begin thinking about connections that you might make for a final paper dealing with an issue or theme linking Camus with Gide and/or Mauriac.  We'll try to make a few such connections during the first hour.

Read the first few sections of Kiffe Kiffe Tomorow. It is a very different take on life, from the point of view of a young girl growing up in the suburbs of Paris—which correspond, socially and economically, with our inner-city neighborhoods like Dorchester, Roxbury or Mattapan. We again have a single narrative voice, with language and attitudes appropriate to a 15 year-old from the 'hood. It has been translated into 23 languages, which indicates that its interest is not limited to the particular neighborhood from which it sprang.

(December 4 & 6)  Read Kiffe Kiffe Tomorow at least through page 87 for Tuesday and through the end of the novel for Thursday. It is easy going, so don't panic. Note the language, tone, perspective of the 15-year-old narrator—once again, the single voice we'll hear. Compare and contrast with Michel, Louis and Jean-Baptiste as you read.

Use the electronic databases available though Healy Library to find and bring to class a photocopy of a significant article on Camus' The Fall ; it will be added to a small library of such documents available for class use in a specially labeled mailbox (Fr 150) in the Modern Language Department (M-4-234) as you prepare to write your final paper. Begin thinking seriously about your final paper which will be due during exam week.

(December 11 & 13)  For Tuesday, bring a first draft of your final paper for feedback and discussion. On Thursday we will tie up loose ends, and also fill out course evaluations for both the Modern Language Department and the First Year Seminars.

The final paper with be 'synthetic', that is, a synthesis including (necessarily) Camus as well as one or more of the other writers of your choice from the course. It should deal with one or another of the subjects that have been raised in the course and which interest you personally. It should use at least three outside sources, preferably reputable scholarly journals or books, such as many of the articles just mentioned. It should be at least 5 pages in length (so as to be eligible to serve for the Writing Proficiency portfolio option) and include a complete bibliography and references, both properly formatted. If you still have questions about this, ASK!

You might be interested in checking out a short video based on texts by Camus overlaid on an iconic image from the Vietnam war: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUyosPLC7XQ

Final papers and portfolios are due either in my office (M-4-220) or in my mailbox in the Modern Language Department (M-4-233) on or before Tuesday December 19 at 5pm.

I'll be in Paris for most of the month of January. You can still reach me by email at any time. I will leave your portfolios and final papers with Harriette, the secretary of Modern Languages. You can pick them up starting December 21.

BEST WISHES FOR THE HOLIDAYS AND SEMESTER BREAK.  Come back energized for a great second semester!