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Subject: English (UG) (ENGL)
CRN: 42696
Lecture
St Paul: McNeely Hall 106
Old Core Requirements Met:
UG Core Literature/Writing
Other Requirements Met:
Writing Intensive
This course explores performativity, exhibition, and exploitation in the circus through a series of texts told from multiple perspectives: ringmasters, sideshow acts, animal tamers, and acrobats. Moving back and forth in time, this class examines the origins of the circus in Rome, its transformation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in France, Britain, and America, and its triumphs and challenges in twentieth century America, particularly during the Great Depression. From non-fiction essays on carnies and famous bearded ladies, by Harry Crews and Joseph Mitchell respectively, to Toulouse-Lautrec’s depictions of the circuses of Molier and Fernando and the Nouveau Cirque, to excerpts from P.T. Barnum’s autobiography, THE ART OF GETTING MONEY, OR HINTS AND HELPS TO MAKE A FORTUNE, to guest speakers in the fields of magic and tattoo artistry, this course respects the extraordinary and redefines definitions of “normal.” Texts for the class include the collection, STEP RIGHT UP: STORIES OF CARNIVALS, SIDESHOWS, AND THE CIRCUS, which features works by Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain, Angela Carter, Flannery O’Connor, and Franz Kafka. Katherine Dunn’s GEEK LOVE and Erin Morgenstern’s THE NIGHT CIRCUS will be read in their entirety. Carol Birch's ORPHANS OF THE CARNIVAL will be examined using Helen Davies theoretical approach to "Neo-Victorian Freakery." The film adaptation of Sara Gruen’s WATER FOR ELEPHANTS will also be screened outside of class. The writing load for this course is a minimum of 15 pages of formal revised writing. This course satisfies the Writing Across the Curriculum Writing Intensive requirement.
4 Credits