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Syllabus, English 361-001 (Fall 2017)
CONTINENTAL FICTION IN TRANSLATION
CHEKHOV TO CAMUS (1880-1950)
Tu, Th 10:30-11:45, Robinson A349
Instructor: John Foster
E-Mail: jfoster@gmu.edu
Phone: 703/993-1160 (during business hours)
Office: Robinson A426
Hours: Tu, Th 3:00-4:30,
and by appointment.
Required Books (listed in chronological order, by date of publication. Notice that both Proust’s and
Kafka’s novels originated before people had experienced the full impact of World War I):
1881 Giovanni Verga, I MALAVOGLIA: THE HOUSE BY THE MEDLAR TREE (Dedalus).
1890s Anton Chekhov, LADY WITH THE LITTLE DOG AND OTHER STORIES (Penguin).
1906 Robert Musil, THE CONFUSIONS OF YOUNG TORLESS (Penguin).
1919 Marcel Proust, WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE (Modern Library; based on earlier drafts
written from 1907 to 1914).
1921 Evgeny Zamiatin, WE (Penguin).
1925 Franz Kafka, THE TRIAL (Schocken, written 1914-15). Breon Mitchell translation!
1936 Vladimir Nabokov, DESPAIR (Vintage, 1965 English revision of the Russian original).
1939 Marguerite Yourcenar, COUP DE GRÂCE (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).
1947 Albert Camus, THE PLAGUE (Vintage).
Course Objectives:
1. To read a selection of the best fiction from Western Europe and Russia between 1880 and
1950, using works translated from French, German, Italian, and Russian. As time permits, we shall
view selections from films and graphic novel versions of several of the works.
2. To understand the main trends in fiction at this crisis-torn but creative period in Western literature. We start with Chekhov and Verga, who exemplify the realism and naturalism typical of
fiction written in the late 19th century. The middle sections of the course turn to the two waves of
innovation that turned against these trends. First comes the modernist fiction of Musil and
Proust, which looked inward to explore deeper psychological issues; then comes the experimental work of Nabokov and Kafka that sought to remake the experience of reading. The course
ends with three writers who responded to period’s historical crises: Zamiatin and the aftermath of
the Russian revolution, Camus and the civilian experience of World War II, and Yourcenar as a
pioneering female writer who dealt with similar crises.
3. To sharpen your skills as critical readers through discussions, a series of exercises, a course
paper, and a final exam. In running from 1880 to 1950, this course begins where ENGH 360,
“Continental Fiction from Goethe to Tolstoy,” ended last spring. I plan to follow this course with
ENGH 362, “Global Fiction since 1950,” to be given in 2018-19.
Course Requirements:
1. CLASS CITIZENSHIP: Regular attendance, participation in class discussions, and observance
of the George Mason Honor Code (including no plagiarism). Quality of discussion and/or
evidence of steady improvement will be factors in deciding close calls on the final grade. See
page 4 of this syllabus for more details on grading.
2. ESSAY: One course paper, 2500 words long (8 to 10 pages), due as an e-mail attachment by
Sunday, December 6. This should be an essay (not a research paper) on one or several novels
from the course. More details and some sample topics will be available later. Counts 40%.
You are welcome to email me about paper topics, with questions on the reading, and so on.
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3. SHORT PIECES OF WRITING: Two interpretation papers on Proust and Kafka, and two comparison/contrast exercises, one on Chekhov and Verga and the other on Nabokov and Musil. This
work, to be written out of class, offers feedback on your writing before the course essay and the
final; it also replaces the midterm exam. You will submit this work as online attachments.
These four items appear IN CAPITALS on the course schedule at the times when they are due.
They count 40%: the interpretation papers 1/8 each; the exercises 7½% each (3/5 as much).
4. FINAL EXAM: A 2 1/2-hour final exam from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm on Tuesday, December 19. It
will consist of brief IDs, a question on the novels in Unit IV, a passage for interpretation, and one
essay question from a list given out on December 3. The essay question can be written as a takehome essay and handed in at the start of the exam. Counts 30%. 7
* * * * *
SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND EXERCISES:
Please bring the assigned book to class in case we need to look at specific passages.
UNIT I – PRELUDE TO MODERN FICTION
Naturalism and Realism (Compare to Hardy and Dreiser)
Week I:
Tu, Aug 29
Th, Aug 31
Introductory Class: “A Map of Modern Fiction.”
Chekhov: “The Lady with the Little Dog,” 223-40.
Week II:
Tu, Sept 5
Th, Sept 7
Verga, I Malavoglia: 1-85 (Ch. 1-7). Last Day to Add.
Verga: 86-151 (Ch. 8-10).
Week III:
Tu, Sept 12 Verga: 152-246. (Ch. 11-15). Last Day to Drop, 33% penalty.
Th, Sept 14 Chekhov: “In the Ravine,” 241-83.
Sun, Sept 17 EXERCISE ON CHEKHOV AND VERGA (due as an email attachment).
UNIT II – MODERNISM COMES OF AGE
The Inward Turn—Individuality, Psychology, Art (Compare to Henry James and Woolf)
Week IV:
Tu, Sept 19
Th. Sept 21
Week V:
Tu, Sept 26
Th, Sept 28
Fr, Sept 29
Week VI:
Mon, Oct 2
Tu, Oct 3
Th, Oct 5
Su, Oct 8
Week VII:
Tu, Oct 10
Th, Oct 12
Proust, Within a Budding Grove: Paris and Gilberte, 79 (from “When New
Year’s Day came”) to the end of 121.
Proust: Seaside at Balbec, 325 (from “I found my grandmother”) to 387 (to
“the coolness of her soft palpitation”)
Proust: Albertine and Elstir, 502-82 (from “That day, as for some days past”
to “the little band to whom I should be introduced by him.”)
Musil: 3-67 (to “crept back to the dormitory “).
Last Day to Drop, 67% penalty
Selective Withdrawal Period Begins (runs until F Oct 30)
Musil: 67-160.
Proust: Elstir and the band of girls, 582-640 (from “I paced up and down” to
“pull a string or two if she’s to get through”)
EXERCISE ON PROUST (due as an email attachment).
NO CLASS: Columbus Day Weekend; Monday classes meet this day.
Proust: Albertine again, 641-730 (from “I returned to the hotel” to the end of
the volume.
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UNIT III – EXPERIMENTAL FICTION
Remaking Reading—Parody, Surreal Fantasy, Indeterminacy.
(Compare to Joyce and Faulkner)
Week VIII:
Tu, Oct 17
Th, Oct 19
Nabokov: Despair, 3-129 (Ch. 1-7).
Nabokov, 131-212 (Ch. 8-11).
Week IX:
Tu, Oct 24
Th, Oct 26
Kafka: The Trial: 3-79 + Fragment: “B’s Friend,” 235-43.
Kafka, 80-139 (to “to devote himself totally to his case for a while.”) +
Fragments: “Public Prosecutor,” “To Elsa,” and “Struggle with the Vice
President,” 244-58.
EXERCISE ON MUSIL AND NABOKOV (due as an email attachment).
Su, Oct 29
Week X:
Kafka, 139-198 + Fragment: “The Building,” 259-62.
Kafka, 199-231 + Fragment: “Journey to His Mother,” 263-66 and
“Publisher’s Note” and “Translator’s Preface,” vii-xxvi.
Tu, Oct 31
Th, Nov 2
UNIT IV – CRISIS FICTION
Witnesses to Revolution, Dictatorship, and Total War
(Compare to Orwell and Hemingway)
Week XI:
Tu, Nov 7
Zamiatin: We, 3-82.
Th, Nov 9
Zamiatin, 83-134.
Sun, Nov 12 EXERCISE ON KAFKA (due as an email attachment).
Week XII:
Tu, Nov 14
Th, Nov 16
Zamiatin: 135-223.
Camus, The Plague: 1-63 (Part I).
Week XIII:
Tu, Nov 21
Th, Nov 23
Camus, 67-164 (Part II).
NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY.
Week XIV:
Tu, Nov 28
Th, Nov 30
Sun, Dec 3
Camus, 167-265 (Parts III-IV).
Camus, 269-308 (Part V).
COURSE PAPER (due as an email attachment).
Week XV:
Tu, Dec 5
Th, Dec 7
Yourcenar: Coup de Grâce, 3-98.
Yourcenar, 99-151. Material for the Final Exam. Course Rating.
Week XVI:
Tu, Dec 19
FINAL EXAM, 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (essay question may be treated as a
take-home assignment and handed in as an email attachment)
* * * * *
STATEMENT ON PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism means using the exact words, opinions, or factual information from another person without
giving that person credit. Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual theft and cannot be tolerated in the
academic setting.
Writers give credit through accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citation, footnotes,
or endnotes. A simple listing of books and articles at the end of a paper is not enough. I will provide
more guidance on documentation in the assignment sheet for the course paper.
With reference to this class, you may certainly talk about the readings with other students. The original readers of these books often engaged in discussions of this kind, given the “newness” of their content or style. In your written work, however, the ideas, organization, and language must be your own.
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Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
Students with a disability that needs an academic accommodation should see me and must also contact
the Office of Disability Services (ODS), which makes formal arrangements for all such accommodations. ODS is located in Student Union I (Phone 703-993-2474; website: http://ods.gmu.edu).
GMU Email Accounts
Students must use their Mason email accounts to receive important University information, including messages related to this class. See http://masonlife.gmu.edu for more information.
The Numerical Grading System
I use number grades in evaluating student work, but the numbers are easily converted to the letter
grades used on Mason transcripts; i. e., A = 96, B = 84, C = 72; or A- = 92, B+ = 88, B- = 80, etc.
Generally speaking, the numbers correspond to the following levels of achievement, but I normally
add comments in the margins and at the end of the assignment that respond in more detail to the
specific piece of work.
========================== A level ==================================
99 = Outstanding: well-argued and thorough, with original insights.
96 = Exceptional command of the topic.
92 = Significance of topic discussed so as to illuminate the question very effectively.
========================== B level ==================================
88 = Discussion is well-managed, but could be more probing, wide-ranging, or convincing.
84 = Shows good insight, but the discussion is at times overly general, and/or relies too heavily on
material presented in-class discussion.
80 = The topic chosen is suggestive, but the discussion lacks a sustained, compelling thesis.
========================== C level ==================================
76 = Has good insights, but the discussion has some errors of fact or interpretation.
72 = Has good insights, but the thesis is weak and there may also be errors of fact or interpretation.
68 = Shows some insight into the topic, but the thesis is debatable and there are major errors of fact
or interpretation.
=========================== D level and Failing ==========================
Lower number grades are reserved for major failures in understanding and execution and may also
be used to award partial credit (Generally only used for in-class work).
Other Useful Campus Resources
WRITING CENTER: A114 Robinson Hall — (703) 993-1200 — http://writingcenter.gmu.edu.
Consult this website for other locations for writing assistance.
UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES: “Ask a Librarian” — http://library.gmu.edu/mudge/IM/IMRef.html
CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services): (703) 993-2380 — http://caps.gmu.edu
UNIVERSITY POLICIES: The University Catalog, http://catalog.gmu.edu, is the central resource for
university policies affecting student, faculty, and staff conduct in university academic affairs. Other
policies are available at http://universitypolicy.gmu.edu/. All members of the university community are
responsible for knowing and following established policies.
ENGLISH 361: Autumn 2017—Study Materials for the Final
The final exam will be held in our regular classroom on Tuesday, December 19 from 10:30 to 1:15.
It consists of three parts, and (after 15 minutes for preparation) will last for two and a half hours. If you
prefer to do the essay question in advance, you will need to finish by 12:15.
The exam will be closed book, except for a page of notes on normal-sized paper (both sides may be
used). To make your exam easier to read, please be ready to write in ink.
Part I: Brief Identifications (45 minutes; 30%)
Write a paragraph that explains the significance of each item chosen (do not simply give some facts, but
include meanings and importance). Twelve of the following fifteen items, which include characters, placenames, important objects, points of literary background, and memorable quotations, will appear on the final,
and you should plan to write on nine of those twelve items.
1. Elstir.
2. The parable “Before the Law.” 3. Yalta.
5. Crisis Fiction.
6. The Green Wall.
7. Tarrou.
9. La Longa.
10. “She wants it to be you.”
11. Felix
13. Fräulein Bürstener
14. The painting of “Miss Sacripant.”
4. The Surreal.
8. The Providenza.
12. The square root of -1.
15. Basini
Part II: Close Analyses of Passages (pick 1 of 3; 45 minutes; 30%)
As with the Kafka and Proust exercises, you will be asked to analyze a passage, this time from a work in Unit
IV. You should discuss how it illustrates the author’s themes and techniques, how they contribute to the work
they come from, and/or how they typify some important issue in Unit IV.
Part IV: Essay Question (Pick 1 of 3; 1 hour; 40%)
Write an essay on a broad topic involving four works from several units in the course. Be sure to plan an
answer that devotes several paragraphs to each work, including some detailed discussion of specific, telling
examples. If you wish, you may prepare the essay outside class and submit it in word-processed format at the
beginning of the final. These essays should be between1000 and 1200 words in length.
The three questions below will appear on the final. If the assumptions for the question you choose to discuss seem debatable, you may refute it or accept it with qualifications. But be sure to discuss the four authors
or works named in the question.
1. Among fiction writers on the Continent from 1880 to 1950, Kafka and Proust are the best-known; but
after reading them yourself, do you believe they deserve their fame? Using any criterion for evaluating fiction that you consider suitable – such as complexity of characterization, depth and variety of major themes,
originality of style, or some other factor or set of factors that you think is more appropriate – compare both
Kafka and Proust to one writer from Unit I and one from Unit IV and discuss how well their reputations
hold up alongside these possible rivals.
2. Adolescence has sometimes been described as a “season of youth and innocence,” one that has its own
distinctive attitudes and problems. To what extent does considering the period before full adulthood as a
special stage in life give insight into the following characters: Törless, Erick, Proust’s narrator, and
‘Ntoni’s ‘Ntoni? For the purpose of this question, you should bear in mind that in certain circumstances a
character who is no longer young might still display adolescent traits.
3. Individuality can mean the ideal of self-realization, or a full unfolding of one’s creative potential, while
avoiding excesses like an egotistical disregard for others, or (by contrast) the loss of a healthy sense of self.
Discuss how much the following characters live up to this ideal of individuality (or fall into excess of some
kind): Chekhov’s Aksinya, Nabokov’s Herman, Kafka’s Josef K., and Zamiatin’s I-330. With each
character, consider whether this assertion needs to be qualified or redefined to ensure that it is in fact
applicable. Which of these characters comes closest to this ideal and which one does so the least?
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