American Catholic Women Writers
Prof. Angela O’Donnell
[email protected]
Office: Duane 263
Office Hours: Mon & Thurs 12-2:30, 4-5
!
!
AMCS 3359.001
Class: Mon & Thurs 2:30-3:45
Classroom: Duane 352
Fall 2015
!
!
This course will explore American Catholic Women's imaginative writing and its
expression of the broad range of attitudes American Women have held towards the
Church in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will read memoir, poetry, and
fiction by female Catholic writers of every stamp: cradle and convert, traditionalist
and feminist, conservative and liberal, lapsed as well as active. Despite the
considerable differences among these writers in terms of their practice of faith and
craft, we shall explore the ways in which their art bears the stamp of their
experience with the Church and what the nature of that stamp might be.
In addition, we shall discuss the ways in which these writers, many of whom have
figured prominently in secular literary circles, have shaped the public discourse
regarding the imaginative, religious, and practical life of Catholics. In addition to
their contributions to American literature, the activism, reputations, and
relationships of these women have profoundly affected the current cultural climate
of the American Catholic Church and of America in general. We shall examine the
ways in which excellent faith-based writing provides a forum for the intersection of
the secular and the theological imagination and can exert influence in these two
spheres of human activity often mistakenly believed, in our modernist era, to be
separate from one another.
As we explore the work of these thoughtful artists whose depictions of Catholic life
in America and explorations of Catholic themes span a century of enormous change
in the Church (typified most visibly by Vatican II and its continuing social and
theological ramifications with regard to women), we shall attempt to arrive at some
understanding of the shaping forces of faith, culture, gender, and the literary
imagination.
REQUIRED BOOKS
Memoir
Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness (HarperOne) ISBN 978-0060617516
Mary McCarthy, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (Vintage) ISBN 978-0099283454
Patricia Hampl, Virgin Time
Poetry
Louise Erdrich, Baptism by Desire (Harper Perennial) ISBN 978-0060920449
Josephine Jacobsen, In the Crevice of Time (JHU Press) ISBN 978-0801863394
Mary Karr, Sinners Welcome (HarperCollins) ISBN 978-0060776541
Denise Levertov, The Stream and the Sapphire (New Directions) ISBN 978-0811213547
Fiction
Elizabeth Cullinan, Yellow Roses (out of print, used copies available online)
Mary Gordon, Final Payments (Anchor) ISBN 978-0307276780
Alice McDermott, Charming Billy (F, S & G) 0312429428
Flannery O’Connor, The Complete Stories (F, S & G) ISBN 978-0374515362
ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amber Coverdale Sumrall, Patrice Vecchione, eds., Catholic Girls
Anita Gandolfo, Testing the Faith: The New Catholic Fiction in America
*Paul Giles, American Catholic Arts and Fictions
*Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage
Jeanna Delrosso, Writing Catholic Women: Contemporary International Catholic Girlhood
Narratives
Elizabeth Evasdaughter, Catholic Girlhood Narratives: The Church and Self-Denial
SYLLABUS
September
Thursday 3
Introduction
Conversion Narrative : Memoir and Spiritual Autobiography
Monday 7
Labor Day—No Class
Wednesday 9
Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness (1952)
Brief Essay # 1 Due
Student Presenter (1):
Thursday 10
“The Art of the Brief Essay”:
Writing Workshop/Peer Review
Monday 14
Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness
Student Presenter (1):
Thursday 17
Mary McCarthy, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (1957)
Brief Essay # 2 Due
Student Presenter (1):
Monday 21
Mary McCarthy, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
Student Presenter (1):
Thursday 24
Patricia Hampl, Virgin Time
Brief Essay # 3 Due
Student Presenters (2):
Monday 28
David Jones, Art and Sacrament (essay, photocopy)
St. Ignatius and the Spiritual Exercises (photocopies)
Student Presenters (2):
Cradle-Catholics & Converts: Catholic Women Poets
October
Thursday 1 The Incarnational Vision
Denise Levertov : The Stream and the Sapphire
“A Poet’s View” (essay, handout)
“Annunciation,” “Flickering Mind,” “Candlemas,”
“The Tide”
Brief Essay # 4 Due
Student Presenters (2):
Monday 5
Levertov : “Work That Enfaiths” (essay, handout)
“On a Theme by Thomas Merton,” “Caedmon’s Hymn”
(photocopy) & “Caedmon,” “St Thomas Didymus”
Student Presenters (2):
The Sacrament of Art
Thursday 8
Josephine Jacobsen: In the Crevice of Time
“The Instant of Knowing” (essay, photocopy)
Report on “The Monosyllable,” “The Lovers,” “In the
Crevice of Time”
Brief Essay # 5 Due
Student Presenters (2):
Monday 12
No Class—Columbus Day
Thursday 15
Jacobsen, Reports on “Non Sum Dignus,” “Ballad of the
Saints,” “Instances of Communication,” “Poems for My
Cousin”
Student Presenters (2):
Monday 19
Jacobsen, “Lion Under Maples” (essay, photocopy)
Report on “Lion Under Maples” (poem), “The Chosen,”
“Interrogation,” “Mr. Mahoney,” “The Arrivals,”
“Hourglass”
Student Presenters (2):
The Mythic Imagination: Catholicism & Native American Tradition
Thursday 22
Louise Erdrich : Baptism of Desire, Part I
Reports on “Fooling God, “Saint Clare,” and “The Visit”
Brief Essay # 6 Due
Student Presenters (2):
Monday 26
Erdrich : Baptism of Desire, Parts II, III
Reports on “The Savior,” “Christ’s Twin,” “The
Sacraments.”
Student Presenters (2):
Thursday 29
November
Monday 2
The Saving Word
Mary Karr, Sinners Welcome, “Facing Altars: Poetry &
Prayer” (essay)
Brief Essay # 7 Due
Student Presenters (2):
Karr, Sinners Welcome
“Descending Theology” poems
Student Presenters (2):
Thursday 5
Kate Daniels, Four Testimonies (handout)
Brief Essay # 8 Due
Student Presenters (2):
Monday 9
Kate Daniels, Four Testimonies (handout)
Student Presenters (1):
Faith & Fiction
Thursday 12
Mary Gordon, Final Payments
Brief Essay # 9 Due
Student Presenters (1):
Monday 16
Gordon, Final Payments
Student Presenters (1):
Thursday 19
Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
Brief Essay # 10 Due
Student Presenters (1):
Monday 23
McDermott, Charming Billy
Student Presenters (1):
Thursday 25
Thanksgiving—No Class
Monday 30
Elizabeth Cullinan, stories from Yellow Roses (1977)
“Estelle,” “Life After Death,” “The Sum and Substance,”
“The Perfect Crime,” “The Voices of the Dead,”
“Only Human”
Brief Essay # 11 Due
Student Presenters (1):
December
Thursday 3
Flannery O’Connor, Collected Stories
Student Presenters (2):
Monday 7
O’Connor, Collected Stories
Brief Essay # 12 Due
Student Presenters (2):
Thursday 10
Editing Workshop
Draft of Final Paper/Project Due
The Arts and Sciences Policy on Academic Integrity
A University, by its nature, strives to foster and recognize originality of thought.
Originality can only be recognized, however, when people acknowledge the sources of
ideas that are not their own. Therefore, students must maintain the highest standards with
regard to honesty, effort, and performance. Violations of academic integrity include, but
are not limited to, plagiarism, cheating on exams, false authorship, and destruction of
library materials needed for a course.
Plagiarism occurs when individuals attempt to present as their own what has come from
another source. Plagiarism takes place whether such theft is accidental or deliberate.
Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to
1. Failing to acknowledge the ideas of another person, whether or not such ideas are
paraphrased from whatever source, including oral, print, broadcast or computer-mediated
communication.
2. Attempting to rewrite borrowed material by simply dropping a word here and there,
substituting a few words for others, or moving around words or sentences. [Cutting and
pasting material from print sources and/or internet websites is a form of
plagiarism.]
3. Failing to place quotation marks around borrowed material.
4. Presenting as one’s own an assignment or paper partially or wholly prepared by
another person, whether by another student, friend, or by a business or on-line service
that sells or distributes such papers or programs.
If a student is found guilty of violating academic integrity, the student shall at least
receive an F on the assignment or examination and may receive an F in the course in
which the violation occurred. In addition, the case will be documented in the
student’s file.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Reading: Students are required to read all of the assignments listed on the syllabus for
each day. Come to class prepared to participate in discussion about the works.
Attendance: Come to every class. Miss class only when it is impossible for you to
attend. If you must be absent, please contact me. Be sure to be present on days when
you are delivering an oral report. (We are all counting on you!) If you should miss three
or more classes, you may receive an F for your class participation grade. Excessive
absence will result in failure of the course, regardless of a student’s grades on other
assignments.
Class Participation is essential to this course. Though I will spend some time presenting
biographical information and establishing religious, philosophical, and historical contexts
these books are grounded in, during most of our class time we will be engaging in close
consideration of the texts as a community of readers. Our focus will be as much on how
the writer conveys her ideas as well as on the ideas themselves. The relationship between
form and content is as complex and essential as the relationship between body and soul.
Daily preparation should include formulating critical responses to the texts that you will
share with your classmates. Your class participation grade will be determined by a
number of factors: your brief essay / oral report grades; grades on quizzes; your daily
attendance, preparation and contribution to discussion. Class participation accounts
for 33% of the grade.
Brief Essays / Oral Reports: Each student will present / submit a weekly essay (2-3
pages in length) on assigned poems and prose. Each day we will have scheduled student
presenters who will offer brief reports on the assigned reading and will facilitate
discussion. The report should attempt to establish some context or background for the
work, highlight key areas/aspects of interest, and open up possibilities for further
interpretation, and discussion.
Exams: There will be a final exam. It will account for 33% of the final grade.
Term Project: Each student will write either an academic research paper or a sustained
piece of creative writing as a term project. The final version of the project will be due on
the last day of class. The project will count for 33 % of the final grade.
1. Students may write an extended research paper/argumentative essay (10-12 pages)
devoted to a writer, a collection of poems/stories or novel, or a recurrent theme, image, or
idea that interests you. I will provide a list of possible topics—though my hope is that
students will discover their topics on their own.
2. Students may write a creative piece (or a series of pieces) in a genre of his/her choice.
This includes memoir, fiction, poetry, and/or drama. The project should amount to
approximately 15-20 pages of considered/revised writing.