Non-Fictional Prose Course

 I think that it would be interesting to discover America through non-fiction prose using biographies, histories of certain locations, and contemporary books.

1. Cadillac Desert

2. The Affluent Society

3. Why We Can't Wait

4. Theodore Rex

5. Helluva Town: The Story of New York City During World War II

6. The 9/11 Commission Report

 For the remainder of the semester I would like to look at different mediums besides that of just the printed book. I propose that we either watch or read Out of Africa for week one, watch the movie Out of Africa for week two, and read West With the Night for week three. I then want to transition into more modern non fiction; for week four I want to read a children's book- I'm not sure which right now but maybe Is A Blue Whale The Biggest Thing There Is? For week five I want to watch 13, and for our final week I suggest A Million Little Pieces. 

 I think an interesting idea that has come up a few times in the books we have read so far, is the idea that memory plays an important factor in determining what is real and what isn’t, according to the author. I would like to think about the question of “what is real?” is relation to memory and perceptions.  

A good place to start might be The Art of Memory by Frances A. Yates. This book studies how people remembered things before the invention of the printed page, and how the art of memory has progressed through time. 

October 3, 2010

Second-Quarter Syllabus Suggestions

The plan that I have for the rest of the semester includes looking at autobiographies of people under different circumstances and people in different periods in time. I would also like to look into documentaries that reflect either the life of a whole population or the experience of one person. I would be interested in focusing on either feminist film documentaries or conflict zone documentaries. The conflict zone documentaries usually involve a lot of emotion and can be partially biased, which might distort the truth and reality. I am also very interested in looking at journalism as a medium of reporting the truth.

 For the rest of the semester, I would like to read and discuss:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley: This book is an account of Malcolm X’s life as told to Alex Haley through interviews with Malcolm X. In researching this, I found that there has been controversy over if the book is a fully “accurate” representation of Malcolm X’s life when chapters were omitted from the novel that are to be published soon.  This could create a productive discussion on if an omission of knowledge falsifies a “true” account.