Adam Jernigan | University of Chicago (original) (raw)
Ph.D., English, University of Chicago (2011)
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MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 2014
Sylvia Plath typed the early drafts of The Bell Jar on the same pink office paper that she had us... more Sylvia Plath typed the early drafts of The Bell Jar on the same pink office paper that she had used to prepare lesson plans and quizzes during her appointment as a freshman English instructor at Smith College. In a journal entry dating from March of 1958, Plath confesses that an urge "to write, or typewrite, my whole novel on the. .. Smith memorandum pads" had already impelled her to pilfer several notepads "from the supply closet" (Journals 344). For anyone reading the journals, Plath's determination to continue using the paper is likely to come as a surprise. In entries penned during previous months, Plath had repeatedly complained of being exhausted by her teaching duties, and she had already turned down the offer of a contract extension. What's more, in letters written to her family during the same period, Plath had emphasized the incompatibility between teaching and writing. As early as November of 1957, just two months into the school year, she had confided to her brother that her "ideal of being a good teacher" while "writing a book on the side" was "rapidly evaporating" (Letters 329). One month later, in a letter to her mother, she would observe, "I now know that I can never combine teaching and writing" (333). If Plath had come to view teaching as an impediment to her writing career, why was she
Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory, 2014
O ne of the ironies of modern-day literary criticism is that the scholars who identify with the s... more O ne of the ironies of modern-day literary criticism is that the scholars who identify with the sensibility found in James Baldwin's essays frequently distance themselves from the author's fiction. The most recent enactment of this irony comes from Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who uses his editorial introduction in The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin (2006) to undertake a "reassessment both of the novel and of James Baldwin's critique, itself now part of the canon" ("Introduction" xiii). Although Gates states that his objective is to establish the transcendence of Stowe's novel over Baldwin's critique, his method is not, as might be expected, to refute the critique itself. Instead, he turns from Baldwin's essays to his literary output, and seeks to show that Stowe's sentimental opus profoundly influenced Baldwin's fiction. Focusing on the "novels about race" that Baldwin wrote in the 1960s (xxviii), Gates argues that the "Manichean simplicity" which Baldwin diagnosed in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) would become the "central flaw" in works like Another Country (1962) and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone (1968) (xxvi). Alleging that the characters in these novels "seem to exist as set pieces for ideological diatribes rather than nuanced explorations of their full humanity," he determines that Baldwin was never able "to extricate himself from sentimentality" (xxvi, xxx). Ultimately, then, it is a "reassessment" of Baldwin's fiction that enables Gates to affirm the resilience of Stowe's novel. Gates closes with the provocative suggestion that the essayist who was Stowe's most acute critical executor would also become the novelist who was her
Syllabi by Adam Jernigan
What are emotions? Are emotions located in the body or in the mind? Which aspects of emotional ex... more What are emotions? Are emotions located in the body or in the mind? Which aspects of emotional experience are universal, and which are culturally specific? How do emotions help to bridge social differences or foster a sense of civic connectedness? This interdisciplinary course draws upon insights and methodologies from a wide range of scientific and humanistic disciplines. During the first week of course, we will explore recent breakthroughs that researchers have made about emotional life in general. During each of the remaining weeks, we will focus on insights that scholars have made into one particular emotion: hope, laughter, fear, love, surprise, shame, envy, and so on. The students enrolled in the course will be invited to help decide which particular emotions we end up studying. Reading dossiers have been generated for more than a dozen emotions, so please think about which emotions you might like to focus on! Here is how I'll propose that we organize the texture and trajectory of each week. First, we will examine recent insights into a particular emotion generated by neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists. Do emotions have an evolutionary purpose? Do people control their moods and passions, or do people's moods and passions control them? Second, we will explore what social scientists have revealed about the role that emotions play in people's social and political lives. How have norms related to the expression of emotion changed in recent years? Which emotions are most important in modern democracies? Third, we will examine how various literary and cinematic fictions are able to generate emotion in readers. How are fictional texts able to "move" readers emotionally? And how can fictional texts move people to take action within the real world? Towards the end of each unit, we will devote some time to thinking synthetically about the insights that scientists, historians, and creative writers have generated about emotion.
MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 2014
Sylvia Plath typed the early drafts of The Bell Jar on the same pink office paper that she had us... more Sylvia Plath typed the early drafts of The Bell Jar on the same pink office paper that she had used to prepare lesson plans and quizzes during her appointment as a freshman English instructor at Smith College. In a journal entry dating from March of 1958, Plath confesses that an urge "to write, or typewrite, my whole novel on the. .. Smith memorandum pads" had already impelled her to pilfer several notepads "from the supply closet" (Journals 344). For anyone reading the journals, Plath's determination to continue using the paper is likely to come as a surprise. In entries penned during previous months, Plath had repeatedly complained of being exhausted by her teaching duties, and she had already turned down the offer of a contract extension. What's more, in letters written to her family during the same period, Plath had emphasized the incompatibility between teaching and writing. As early as November of 1957, just two months into the school year, she had confided to her brother that her "ideal of being a good teacher" while "writing a book on the side" was "rapidly evaporating" (Letters 329). One month later, in a letter to her mother, she would observe, "I now know that I can never combine teaching and writing" (333). If Plath had come to view teaching as an impediment to her writing career, why was she
Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory, 2014
O ne of the ironies of modern-day literary criticism is that the scholars who identify with the s... more O ne of the ironies of modern-day literary criticism is that the scholars who identify with the sensibility found in James Baldwin's essays frequently distance themselves from the author's fiction. The most recent enactment of this irony comes from Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who uses his editorial introduction in The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin (2006) to undertake a "reassessment both of the novel and of James Baldwin's critique, itself now part of the canon" ("Introduction" xiii). Although Gates states that his objective is to establish the transcendence of Stowe's novel over Baldwin's critique, his method is not, as might be expected, to refute the critique itself. Instead, he turns from Baldwin's essays to his literary output, and seeks to show that Stowe's sentimental opus profoundly influenced Baldwin's fiction. Focusing on the "novels about race" that Baldwin wrote in the 1960s (xxviii), Gates argues that the "Manichean simplicity" which Baldwin diagnosed in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) would become the "central flaw" in works like Another Country (1962) and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone (1968) (xxvi). Alleging that the characters in these novels "seem to exist as set pieces for ideological diatribes rather than nuanced explorations of their full humanity," he determines that Baldwin was never able "to extricate himself from sentimentality" (xxvi, xxx). Ultimately, then, it is a "reassessment" of Baldwin's fiction that enables Gates to affirm the resilience of Stowe's novel. Gates closes with the provocative suggestion that the essayist who was Stowe's most acute critical executor would also become the novelist who was her
What are emotions? Are emotions located in the body or in the mind? Which aspects of emotional ex... more What are emotions? Are emotions located in the body or in the mind? Which aspects of emotional experience are universal, and which are culturally specific? How do emotions help to bridge social differences or foster a sense of civic connectedness? This interdisciplinary course draws upon insights and methodologies from a wide range of scientific and humanistic disciplines. During the first week of course, we will explore recent breakthroughs that researchers have made about emotional life in general. During each of the remaining weeks, we will focus on insights that scholars have made into one particular emotion: hope, laughter, fear, love, surprise, shame, envy, and so on. The students enrolled in the course will be invited to help decide which particular emotions we end up studying. Reading dossiers have been generated for more than a dozen emotions, so please think about which emotions you might like to focus on! Here is how I'll propose that we organize the texture and trajectory of each week. First, we will examine recent insights into a particular emotion generated by neuroscientists and evolutionary biologists. Do emotions have an evolutionary purpose? Do people control their moods and passions, or do people's moods and passions control them? Second, we will explore what social scientists have revealed about the role that emotions play in people's social and political lives. How have norms related to the expression of emotion changed in recent years? Which emotions are most important in modern democracies? Third, we will examine how various literary and cinematic fictions are able to generate emotion in readers. How are fictional texts able to "move" readers emotionally? And how can fictional texts move people to take action within the real world? Towards the end of each unit, we will devote some time to thinking synthetically about the insights that scientists, historians, and creative writers have generated about emotion.