Dr. Andrew Strombeck
4:40 pm – 6:00 pm MW
Medical Sciences 145
Office hours MW 1:30-2:30 and by appointment 24 hours in advance.
To salvage means to save something from loss. This course will explore salvage as a metaphor for the present, asking: How does literature represent acts of salvage? How does crisis—economic, climate-driven, or otherwise—highlight salvage as a practice? What can salvage tell us about the future or the past? What does salvage tell us about poverty, the state, race, ability, or gender? How does the novel salvage other genres? In what ways does literature itself need salvaging?
Salvage Literature will take up these questions and more, reading books by Ling Ma, Colson Whitehead, Octavia Butler, Jeff VanderMeer, and Jesmyn Ward.
After completing this course, students will
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- Acquire some sense of salvage as a mode of living that fits current conditions of austerity, climate change, and over-piling waste.
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- Acquire some sense of salvage as a critical term, as describing a tension between the present and past, value reclaimed from amidst refuse, and so on.
- Acquire some sense of how literature itself is often in the business of reuse—reusing other discourses (Bakhtin), appropriating other texts, finding value in untold stories.
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Informal goals for course:
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- Work on your writing.
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- Do some critical thinking.
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- Make something useful.
- Read some literature and criticism.
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Required Texts
Available at bookstore:
- Colson Whitehead, Zone One
- Jeff Vandermeer, Borne
- Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
- Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
- Ling Ma, Severance
Links to full versions of material discussed in class:
Note on texts and discussion: some of the texts under study contain racist and misogynist tropes, violence, sexual material, including, though limited, sexually violence. This course will also involve open discussions of homosexuality, ecology, racism, and other politically vibrant topics.
Note on Class Participation and Texts:
On the day material is assigned, you are responsible for bringing material to class in a usable form. Print is ideal, because you can write on the material, flip through it, point out passages to other students, and otherwise refer to it. It’s also acceptable to have material available on tablet or laptop. But please don’t rely on a smartphone to read this material. As an instructor, I find it distracting when students are looking at their phones, and I can’t tell if you’re looking at the material, texting, or looking at social media.
Assignments
- Salvagebook: 20%
- Short paper: Defining Salvage 15%
- Group Project 15%
- Class participation 10%
- Reading Assessments 20%
- Final Paper 20%
Class participation
I expect you to read and think about the material before you come to class. In addition to attendance, your class participation grade measures both quantity and quality of contributions. You’ll get the most credit for class participation if you point out passages or draw connections between one work we’ve studied and another.
Also: I call on students during class, but only after I’ve given you a chance to write down your thoughts. Usually this works out fine—I’m calling on you because you have something smart to say, but you might not say it if I don’t ask you directly. If, for whatever reason, you are uncomfortable talking in class, please let me know, and we can work out another arrangement for your participation.
Office Hours
I hold office hours on Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM. If neither of these times work for you, just let me know, and we can figure something else out.
Salvagebook
Throughout this course, we will be interested in how acts of salvage–making a shopping mall into living space, reusing appliances as places to find chicken eggs, putting futuristic “biotech” to other ends–entwine with writing.
Throughout the semester, in response to your reading, I will ask you to keep a “salvagebook.” A salvagebook is a variation on a commonplace book. Commonplace books are a collection of quotations, images, observations, and other information on a common theme. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace_book for more about commonplace books and https://www.pinterest.com/inspire_lab/commonplace-books/ for examples of commonplace books old and new.
You can use any medium that supports text and images for your salvagebook.
Examples might include:
A notebook.
A web site (your own, created through WordPress, whatever works for you).
A Word document, PDF, a Google doc, or other desktop medium.
Each week, you will fill pages with the following:
- One substantial quotation copied from the week’s reading.
- One substantial paragraph of writing in response to the week’s reading.
- An example of salvage found “in the wild”–a tire repurposed as a planter, a big box store made into a school, an old crate made into a garden, and so on. These should be “real”–there are plenty of restaurants, consumer products, and so on that seek to imitate the “look” of salvage.
- Images, charts, other thoughts, other quotations–the rest is up to you.
You should date and title your entries. I will check your salvagebooks 1) scheduled intervals throughout the semester 2) at the end of the semester.
In order to receive a C, you’ll need to ensure that there is one substantial entry (as defined above) for every week of the semester, beginning with week 4 and ending with week 14. You need to have a total of 11 substantial entries. From there, your grade can only go up; salvagebooks that receive a grade of A are creative works of art and thinking that show concerted and consistent ongoing effort.
Salvage Survival Manual
In groups, you will complete a project that provides viewers with a “salvage survival manual,” drawing on course material as a whole. This should give readers hints as to how salvage functions as a survival strategy, whether for people, books themselves (Salvage the Bone “salvaging” Greek mythology; Zone One “salvaging” the zombie film/novel), animals, or whatever you can think of.
This is an open project, designed to get you thinking creatively about the material we’re reading. Projects will be evaluated on their depth of engagement with the literature, polish, ability to connect different texts, creativity, and insight. But basically: I want you to make something wonderful, based on the literature we’re reading.
A manual might function literally, as with the Zombie Survival manual: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide
Or it might include a map, as with the Map of Metal: http://mapofmetal.com/#/home
Or you might set the manual up as a flowchart, as with the Gothic and Horror flowchart: https://imgur.com/jDd4E
Or it might combine graphic elements, as with Ten Signs You’re in a Gothic Novel: https://www.informationisbeautifulawards.com/showcase/554-10-signs-you-re-reading-a-gothic-novel
Throughout the course, we will continue to develop questions and ideas related to salvage, as with those we developed the first week: “salvage is improvisatory” and “can animals salvage?” As the semester proceeds, these will emerge with more clarity, and you can use these to shape your project.
These are due on the last two days of class.
I will assign you to groups during the third week of class. Once groups are formed, I will ask for regular updates on the project throughout the semester.
I’m aware that group work poses challenges. But the truth is, much workplace deliverables are produced collaboratively, and I think it’s good to get you used to producing collaborative work. You need to figure out how to contribute, communicate, and otherwise work as a group. Part of your grade will come from your group members.
Reading Assessment
Five times throughout the semester, you will complete a reading assessment consisting of the following:
- 4-5 informational questions (designed to demonstrate that you have completed the day’s reading)
- A short response to a passage from the day’s reading (designed to demonstrate that you are engaged with the course and work themes).
These will be completed online (change from previous version of syllabus).
Schedule of Work
Monday, January 14, 2019
Introductions
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Salvage the Bones 1-57
Monday, January 21, 2019
Martin Luther King Day
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Replacement instructor–Parable of the Sower
Monday, January 28, 2019
Replacement instructor–Parable of the Sower
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Wright State closed re: inclement weather
Monday, February 4, 2019
Class canceled by replacement instructor
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Class canceled by replacement instructor
Monday, February 11, 2019
Class canceled by replacement instructor
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Salvage the Bones 58-108
Monday, February 18, 2019
Salvage the Bones 109-193 (The Sixth Day > The Eighth Day)
Reading assessment Salvage the Bones
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Salvage the Bones 194-end (The Ninth Day > end)
Monday, February 25, 2019
Parable of the Sower 1-85 (Chapters 1 > 7)
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Parable of the Sower 85-149 (Chapters 8 > 16)
Monday, March 4, 2019
Spring Break
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Spring Break
Monday, March 11, 2019
Parable of the Sower 153-end (Chapters 14 > end)
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Zone One 1-break on 81 (next section begins “On Last Night, the sprinkler”)
Monday, March 18, 2019
Zone One 81-break on 160 (next section begins “Mark Spitz thought of Mim”)
Conceptualizing Salvage paper due, printed copy, beginning of class. Link to prompt here.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Zone One 160-break on 209 (next section begins “His final night in the wastes”)
Salvagebooks checked today; if you are using an electronic format, please make this available to me over email.
Monday, March 25, 2019
Zone One 209-end (end of section “Saturday” + section “Sunday”)
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Borne 1-75
Monday, April 1, 2019
Borne 76-150
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Borne 151-225
Proposal for final paper due. Prompt linked here. Possibly useful sources on salvage linked here.
Salvagebooks checked today; if you are using an electronic format, please make this available to me over email.
Monday, April 8, 2019
Borne 225-end
Revisions of Conceptualizing Salvage paper due.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Severance 1-75
Monday, April 15, 2019
Severance 1-150
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Severance 150-225
Monday, April 22, 2019
Severance 225-end
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Informal project presentations (these will need to be no more than 15 minutes each)
Monday, April 29, 2019
Final paper due over email. Link to prompt.
Andrew Strombeck 