English
4650: Metafiction, Abstract Expressionism, and
Film Noir
Winter 2007—Brian Kiteley
Office: Sturm Hall, 487C ◙ Phone: 303-871-2898 ◙ Class meets 4:00 to 5:50, Tuesday and
Thursday in Sturm 379
Office hours: Tuesday 1-3 ◙ Email: bkiteley@du.edu
Reading Assignments
Th January 4—Introductions
Tu January 9—Davenport,
“Civilization and Its Opposite in the 1940s”; John Berger,
“The Moment of Cubism” (on e-reserve)
Th January 11—The Introduction to the Film Noir Reader, by Alain
Silver; “The Simple Art of
Murder,” by Raymond Chandler
Tu January 16—Film: “The Big
Sleep”; Danto, Introduction, “The ‘Original Creative
Principle,’” and “The Philosopher as Andy Warhol”;
Davenport, “The Hunter Gracchus”
Th January 18—Davenport,
“Style as Protagonist in Donald Barthelme”; Barthelme Sixty Stories: the David Gates
introduction, “See the Moon”, “Views of My Father
Weeping”; Forty Stories:
“On the Deck,” “The Film”
Tu January 23—Film: “Double
Indemnity”; Barthelme Sixty Stories:
“Shower of Gold,” “The Glass Mountain,” “Robert
Kennedy Saved from Drowning”
Th January 25—Barthelme, Sixty Stories, “Paraguay,”
“The Indian Uprising”; Forty
Stories: “Sindbad,” “Conversations
with Goethe,” “Paul Klee”; William
Gass, “The Ontology of the Sentence or How to Make a World of
Words” in The World Within the Word
(on e-reserve)
Tu January 30—Gass In the Heart of the Heart of the Country:
“In the Heart of…,” “The Pederson Kid,”
“The Order of Insects”
Th February 1—Film: “The Big
Heat”; Seymour Chatman, “The Cinematic Narrator” (on
reserve); an essay on pulp fiction
by Michael of 2Blowhards.com.
Tu February 6—Barthelme Sixty Stories: “Report,”
“The Dolt,” “On Angels,” “The Sandman,”
“The Policeman’s Ball,”
Th February 8—Coover stories:
“The Babysitter,” “The Magic Poker,” “A
Pedestrian Accident”
Tu February 13—Gass, On Being Blue; Barthelme, Not-Knowing: “Jim Love Up to
Now,” “Being Bad,” “On the Level of Desire”
(handouts)
Th February 15—Barthelme, Not-Knowing: “After Joyce,”
“Not-Knowing” (on e-reserve); Sixty
Stories, “The Party”
Tu February 20—Mary Ann Caws, Robert Motherwell:
with pen and brush
Th February 22—Grace Paley stories:
“Two Ears, Three Lucks,” “The Pale Pink Roast,”
“Wants,” “Debts,” “Faith in the Afternoon,”
“Faith in a Tree”
Tu February 27—“Enormous
Changes at the Last Minute,” “Politics,” “The Little
Girl”
Th March 1—AWP Conference—No
class
Tu March 6—Grace Paley stories:
“A Conversation with My Father,” “Dreamer in a Dead
Language,” “Listening”
Th March 8—Barthelme Sixty Stories: “Bishop,”
“A Manual for Sons” “The Captured Woman” “I
Bought a Little City”; Forty
Stories: “Chablis,”
Tu March 13—Last class
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