ISHU 3485

ISSS 3485

 

Childhood, Memory, and Society

Instructor: Sharon Leiter

Summer Semester 2014

June 4 – August 6

Wednesdays, 6:00 – 9:45 pm

Saturday, July 19, 9:00 am to 12:45 pm

 

The conception of the child has changed over the course of modern history, spanning the gamut from   “inadequate adult” to “little monarch” of the contemporary middle-class Western household.  This course explores the experience of childhood by examining childhood memoirs and literary visions of the child. Our focus this semester will be on classic memoirs of growing up in America during the twentieth century. We will read: Russell Baker’s Growing Up, the poignant, humorous tale of a boy’s journey through the Great Depression; Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the renowned poet’s sensitive account of an African American girlhood in the South of the 1930s and 1940s; The Blessing, poet Gregory Orr’s harrowing  lyrical memoir of surviving his accidental killing of a brother in the 1950s; The Liar’s Club, Mary Karr’s hilarious account of her hellish Texas childhood and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, a moving  story of growing up as part of a nomadic, dysfunctional family in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

As we focus on memoir, a genre balanced precariously between fiction and nonfiction, we will explore the interrelationship of memory and artistic shaping. How does the adult author recreate the sense of childhood? How does his present “agenda” influence his perception of the past? How is her re-imagining of childhood influenced by shifting belief systems and social realities?

 

In addition to textual analyses, students will write about a personal childhood memory, which may take the form of a memoir or short story.

 

Books:

Maya Angelou. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House, 2009 Re-issue edition.

ISBN-13: 9780345514400

 Russell Baker. Growing Up. Signet, 1992. ISBN-13: 9780451168382

Mary Karr. The Liar’s Club. Penguin Books, 2005 Tenth Anniversary Edition. ISBN:

978-0-14-303574-9

Gregory Orr. The Blessing. Council Oaks Books, 2004. ISBN-13: 9781571781413

Jeanette Walls, The Glass Castle, Scribner, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-4754-2

 

Requirements:

Papers: Students will write a 5 page childhood memoir, and a final 10 page paper. Memoir:  30%.  Final paper: 55%.

 

Attendance: Given the importance of discussion and collaborative work in this course, attendance is particularly important. If you must miss a class, please notify me by e-mail or telephone in advance, if possible. Students will be responsible for learning about and completing assignments made during class. Missing class, for any reason, will affect the class participation grade: one missed class will have no effect on the grade, but each subsequent class missed will lower the class participation grade (15%). There is no “make-up work” for missed classes. If you miss as many as three classes, you cannot receive a passing grade.

 

Class Schedule:

 

Advance Reading Assignment: Growing Up, chapters  1-10

 

Class 1: June 4  Life with Mother During the Great Depression

Text: Growing Up by Russell Baker

Reading Assignment: Chapters 1 -10

 

Class 2: June 11  Growing Up (continued)

Reading Assignment: Chapters 11 – 18

 

Class 3: June 18 A Black Childhood in the Rural South

Text: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Reading Assignment: Chapters 1 - 20

 

Class 4: June 25 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (continued)

Reading Assignment: Chapters 21 - 36

Five page childhood memoir due

 

Class 5: July 2 A Childhood in the 1950s: Becoming Cain

Text: The Blessing by Gregory Orr

Reading Assignment: Chapters 1 - 23

 

Class 6: July 9 The Blessing (continued)

Reading Assignment: Chapters 24 - 45

 

Class 7: July 16  A Hellish Texas Childhood

Text: The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr

Reading Assignment: Chapters 1-7

 

Class 8: July 19  Poems of Childhood

Reading Assignment: Handout [Collab]

 

Class 9: July 23 The Liars’ Club (continued)

Reading Assignment: Chapters 8-14

 

Class 10: July 30 Chaos Transformed: A Nomadic Childhood

Text: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells

Reading Assignment: pp 1 - 144

 

 

Class 11: August 6

The Glass Castle (continued)

Reading Assignment: pp 145-288

 

 

Final paper due

 

University Email Policies: Students are expected to check their official U.Va. email addresses on a frequent and consistent basis to remain informed of University communications, as certain communications may be time sensitive.  Students who fail to check their email on a regular basis are responsible for any resulting consequences.

University of Virginia Honor System: All work should be pledged in the spirit of the Honor System at the University of Virginia.  The instructor will indicate which assignments and activities are to be done individually and which      permit collaboration. The following pledge should be written out at the end of all quizzes,

examinations, individual assignments and papers:  “I pledge that I have neither given nor received help on this examination (quiz, assignment, etc.)”.  The pledge must be signed by the student. For more information please visit Honor System

Special Needs: It is the policy of the University of Virginia to accommodate students with disabilities in accordance with federal and state laws. Any SCPS student with a disability who needs accommodation (e.g., in arrangements for seating, extended time for examinations, or note-taking, etc.), should contact the Learning Needs and Evaluation Center (LNEC) and provide them with appropriate medical or psychological documentation of his/her condition.

 Once accommodations are approved, it is the student’s responsibility to follow up with the instructor about logistics and implementation of accommodations. Accommodations for test taking should be arranged at least 14 business days in advance of the date of the test(s). Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the LNEC:

434-243-5180/Voice, 434-465-6579/Video Phone, 434-243-5188/FaxFor more information visit U.Va. Special Needs Website. For further policies and statements about student rights and responsibilities, please see U.Va  Website (http://www.scps.virginia.edu/audience/students)

 

 

 

 

ISHU 3485

ISSS 3485

 

Childhood, Memory, and Society

Instructor: Sharon Leiter

Summer Semester 2014

June 4 – August 6

Wednesdays, 6:00 – 9:45 pm

Saturday, July 19, 9:00 am to 12:45 pm

 

The conception of the child has changed over the course of modern history, spanning the gamut from   “inadequate adult” to “little monarch” of the contemporary middle-class Western household.  This course explores the experience of childhood by examining childhood memoirs and literary visions of the child. Our focus this semester will be on classic memoirs of growing up in America during the twentieth century. We will read: Russell Baker’s Growing Up, the poignant, humorous tale of a boy’s journey through the Great Depression; Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the renowned poet’s sensitive account of an African American girlhood in the South of the 1930s and 1940s; The Blessing, poet Gregory Orr’s harrowing  lyrical memoir of surviving his accidental killing of a brother in the 1950s; The Liar’s Club, Mary Karr’s hilarious account of her hellish Texas childhood and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, a moving  story of growing up as part of a nomadic, dysfunctional family in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

As we focus on memoir, a genre balanced precariously between fiction and nonfiction, we will explore the interrelationship of memory and artistic shaping. How does the adult author recreate the sense of childhood? How does his present “agenda” influence his perception of the past? How is her re-imagining of childhood influenced by shifting belief systems and social realities?

 

In addition to textual analyses, students will write about a personal childhood memory, which may take the form of a memoir or short story.

 

Books:

Maya Angelou. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House, 2009 Re-issue edition.

ISBN-13: 9780345514400

 Russell Baker. Growing Up. Signet, 1992. ISBN-13: 9780451168382

Mary Karr. The Liar’s Club. Penguin Books, 2005 Tenth Anniversary Edition. ISBN:

978-0-14-303574-9

Gregory Orr. The Blessing. Council Oaks Books, 2004. ISBN-13: 9781571781413

Jeanette Walls, The Glass Castle, Scribner, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-4754-2

 

Requirements:

Papers: Students will write a 5 page childhood memoir, and a final 10 page paper. Memoir:  30%.  Final paper: 55%.

 

Attendance: Given the importance of discussion and collaborative work in this course, attendance is particularly important. If you must miss a class, please notify me by e-mail or telephone in advance, if possible. Students will be responsible for learning about and completing assignments made during class. Missing class, for any reason, will affect the class participation grade: one missed class will have no effect on the grade, but each subsequent class missed will lower the class participation grade (15%). There is no “make-up work” for missed classes. If you miss as many as three classes, you cannot receive a passing grade.

 

Class Schedule:

 

Advance Reading Assignment: Growing Up, chapters  1-10

 

Class 1: June 4  Life with Mother During the Great Depression

Text: Growing Up by Russell Baker

Reading Assignment: Chapters 1 -10

 

Class 2: June 11  Growing Up (continued)

Reading Assignment: Chapters 11 – 18

 

Class 3: June 18 A Black Childhood in the Rural South

Text: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Reading Assignment: Chapters 1 - 20

 

Class 4: June 25 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (continued)

Reading Assignment: Chapters 21 - 36

Five page childhood memoir due

 

Class 5: July 2 A Childhood in the 1950s: Becoming Cain

Text: The Blessing by Gregory Orr

Reading Assignment: Chapters 1 - 23

 

Class 6: July 9 The Blessing (continued)

Reading Assignment: Chapters 24 - 45

 

Class 7: July 16  A Hellish Texas Childhood

Text: The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr

Reading Assignment: Chapters 1-7

 

Class 8: July 19  Poems of Childhood

Reading Assignment: Handout [Collab]

 

Class 9: July 23 The Liars’ Club (continued)

Reading Assignment: Chapters 8-14

 

Class 10: July 30 Chaos Transformed: A Nomadic Childhood

Text: The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells

Reading Assignment: pp 1 - 144

 

 

Class 11: August 6

The Glass Castle (continued)

Reading Assignment: pp 145-288

 

 

Final paper due

 

University Email Policies: Students are expected to check their official U.Va. email addresses on a frequent and consistent basis to remain informed of University communications, as certain communications may be time sensitive.  Students who fail to check their email on a regular basis are responsible for any resulting consequences.

University of Virginia Honor System: All work should be pledged in the spirit of the Honor System at the University of Virginia.  The instructor will indicate which assignments and activities are to be done individually and which      permit collaboration. The following pledge should be written out at the end of all quizzes,

examinations, individual assignments and papers:  “I pledge that I have neither given nor received help on this examination (quiz, assignment, etc.)”.  The pledge must be signed by the student. For more information please visit Honor System

Special Needs: It is the policy of the University of Virginia to accommodate students with disabilities in accordance with federal and state laws. Any SCPS student with a disability who needs accommodation (e.g., in arrangements for seating, extended time for examinations, or note-taking, etc.), should contact the Learning Needs and Evaluation Center (LNEC) and provide them with appropriate medical or psychological documentation of his/her condition.

 Once accommodations are approved, it is the student’s responsibility to follow up with the instructor about logistics and implementation of accommodations. Accommodations for test taking should be arranged at least 14 business days in advance of the date of the test(s). Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the LNEC:

434-243-5180/Voice, 434-465-6579/Video Phone, 434-243-5188/FaxFor more information visit U.Va. Special Needs Website. For further policies and statements about student rights and responsibilities, please see U.Va  Website (http://www.scps.virginia.edu/audience/students)