Syllabus
ííFor a general description of Jungle Books, and for information on the organization of this site, please see the About page.
On workload: SPRING 2010: There will be weekly journal entries and/or brief quizzes, two oral presentations (one on either Williams or Darío, the other on your research project), a shorter paper (5-6 pp.) at midterm, and a longer one (based on your research project) at the end of the course. Active participation in class discussion is expected.
SPRING 2008: There will be weekly journal entries (tentatively to be posted in these pages), an oral presentation on one of our secondary sources, and a take-home midterm and final. Active participation in class discussion is expected.
Journal entries: These will be written weekly except in the first week of classes, the week of the midterm, and the last week. They will consist of close readings in some weeks, and thematic commentary in others.
Sample oral presentation/research topic: Kipling’s Jungle Book vs. the Disney videos; consider also the representation of the primitive in other works of Kipling’s such as The White Man’s Burden, and/or postcolonial considerations of Kipling as an imperialist writer. [Note: a glance through the MLA Bibliography or JSTOR will net you numerous references on this theme.] Strongly suggested oral presentation topics will include or involve our secondary readings and films.
Tentative Schedule, Spring 2010:
Week 1: Introduction and Film, The Couple in Cage
Weeks 2-3: Torgovnick, and introduction to Facundo
Week 4: Facundo
Week 5: Research preparation: Darío and Williams, while seeing the Les Blank film
Week 6: Group presentations on Williams and Darío
Week 7: Paper preparation (Tuesday) and introduction to Gallegos (Thursday); papers due Friday.
Weeks 8-10: Gallegos and Gallegos film, and work toward research projects
Week 11: Andrade, and work toward research projects
Week 12: Said, and work toward research projects
Weeks 13-14: Rivera, and work toward research projects
Week 15: Research presentations
Tentative Schedule, Spring 2008:
Week I: Introduction: The Couple in the Cage and Gone Primitive. Discussion: colonialism and the anthropological gaze; the fascination with the primitive in modern art.
Required Reading: Gone Primitive, Chapter 1 (pp. 3-41), “Defining the Primitive”
January 22: Introduction.
January 24: Viewing and discussion of The Couple in the Cage; lecture and discussion on Gone Primitive.
Week II. What are jungles? Exoticism, gender, “othering,” race. The Jungle Book, Tarzan, Burden of Dreams.
Required Reading: Gone Primitive, Chapter 2 (pp. 42-72), “Taking Tarzan Seriously”
Suggested Reading: The Jungle Book, Tarzan, She
January 29: Viewing of Burden of Dreams.
January 31: Discussion of the film, Gone Primitive, and the relevance of the suggested reading.
Week III. A classic jungle: Heart of Darkness.
Suggested Reading: Gone Primitive, Chapter 7 (pp. 141-158), “Traveling with Conrad”
Week IV. Jungle and “desert:” Facundo.
Suggested Reading: Edward Said’s Orientalism
Weeks V-VI. The jungle and the modern: The Lost Steps.
Additional (required) reading: Gone Primitive, Chapter 3 (pp. 75-84), “But is it Art?”
Suggested (but not required) reading: Gone Primitive, Chapters 4-6 (pp. 85-137) and 8 (159-174), on primitivism, racism, sexism, colonialism, and the world of modern art.
Week VII. Midterm.
a. First set of oral presentations (see suggested reading, week II; additional suggestions for Spanish majors include more extensive study of Sarmiento, the gauchesca, and the “desert” motif, or a consideration of the primitive in Carpentier)
b. Midterm
Weeks VIII-IX. Critical jungles: The Vortex.
Suggested reading: Gone Primitive, chapter 9 (177-191), “Adventurers”
Weeks X-XI. Metacritical jungles: Macunaíma.
Suggested reading: Gone Primitive, chapters 10 and 11 (194-223), “Entering Freud’s Study” and “Remembering with Lévi-Strauss”
Weeks XII-XIII. Political jungles: The Green House.
Suggested Reading: Gone Primitive, chapter 12 (227-243), “Physicality”
Week XIV. Guess who also went to the jungle? Candide!
Suggested Reading: Rousseau, “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality,” Montaigne, “On Cannibals”
Week XV.
a. Second group of oral presentations [but maybe move these to other days]
b. General discussion and presentation by Leslie on Oswald de Andrade’s Cannibalist Manifesto.
Suggested reading: Gone Primitive, Epilogue (pp. 244-248); Lévy-Bruhl, The Primitive Mentality
Possible FINAL EXAM question: relate one of the texts to Torgovnick’s epilogue (refine this and perhaps make the midterm similar)
