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P.O. Stories: Intersubjective Aesthetics
Post Office Stories: Intersubjective Aesthetics
M/W 12:30-1:50 303C Dr. Hollis Robbins
T/TH 1-2:20 B28 hrobbins@jhu.edu
Course Overview:
How has regular mail delivery influenced culture and the nature of intersubjectivity? This course will consider the extent to which postal mail delivery has affected the circulation of stories, the circulation of information within stories, and the emergence of a brand new literary type: the postman. Over the course of the semester we will explore the representation and use of the post office in 19th- and 20th Century literary works from Thomas Hardy to Charles Bukowski. We will examine the physical and metaphysical space of mail, a place of privacy, anonymity, safety, and equality produced by the postal system. Is the mail like sex (circulating promiscuously)? Or is it like salvation (don’t we all want deliverance)? Does literature and culture simply migrate or is it delivered or transmitted by national government mandate?
Course Requirements:
• Attendance
• Class Presentations (2)
• Two analytical papers (4-6, 6-8 pages)
Required Texts:
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (any edition)
Charles Bukowski, Post Office (there is only one edition)
Course Reading Packet (Reader)
SCHEDULE: PAY ATTENTION TO READINGS AND THEMES
Week 1 Introduction & the letter as literature
W 1/17 Introduction to the course and its objectives. Definitions: receiver, transmittor, message, medium, circuit, post, intersubjectivity, metaphor, deliverance. Mathematical Model of Communication (Reader)
Week 2: Postal History
M 1/22 History of Rowland Hill’s Reform Pamphlet (Reader)
W 1/24 Postal History (reader)
Week 3: The Mail Route
M 1/29 Thomas De Quincey, The English Mail Coach (1849) (reader)
W 1/31 Kipling (reader)
Week 4: (more) Mail Route
M 2/5 Film: “Night Mail” (1935); WH Auden “Commentary for a G.P.O. Film” (reader)
W 2/7 Post Office Poetry (reader)
Week 5: The Post Office and Body Parts
M 2/12 Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Cardboard Box” (1893) (reader)
W 2/14 Unmailable/Comstock Acts (reader)
Week 6: No classes but read Narrative of Henry “Box” Brown (1849)
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brownbox/brownbox.html
Week 7: The Democratic Post—They Should Not Look Inside
M 2/26 Henry “Box” Brown, Narrative of Henry “Box” Brown (1849)
W 2/28 Church Commission Report, 1976 (CIA/FBI Mail Opening Programs)
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIh.htm
***** 1st Paper Due
Week 8: Mail Movies
M 3/5 “Overland Mail” (1942); Seinfeld, “The Junk Mail,”
W 3/7 “There Goes the Mail Truck”; TBA
Week 9: S P R I N G B R E A K
Week 10: Postman Fantasies
M 3/19 Rabindranath Tagore The Post Office (1914) (reader)
W 3/21 Charles Olson The Post Office: A Memoir for His Father (1975) (reader)
Week 11: More Postman Fantasies: Power of Delivery
M 3/26 Eudora Welty: “Why I Live at the P.O.” (1941)
http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypostoff.html
W 3/28 [in class] Michael Radford’s 1995 film of Antonio Skármeta’s Il Postino (1985)
Week 12: Postal Impotence
M 4/2 Charles Bukowski, Post Office (1971)
W 4/4 Continue Post Office
Week 13: Circuit Theory: Entropy and Communication
M 4/9 Lecture& handouts: entropy and communication theory
W 4/11 Thomas Pynchon The Crying of Lot 49 (1965)
Week 14: The Postal Aesthetic: Mail Routes, Postmen, and Paranoia
M 4/16 Continue Crying
W 4/18 Wrap-up Crying
Week 15: The Postal Aesthetic: New World Order
M 4/24 [in class] Kevin Costner’s 1997 film of David Brin’s The Postman (1985)
W 4/26 [in class] Kevin Costner’s 1997 film of David Brin’s The Postman (1985)
T 5/2 Final Paper Due
M/W 12:30-1:50 303C Dr. Hollis Robbins
T/TH 1-2:20 B28 hrobbins@jhu.edu
Course Overview:
How has regular mail delivery influenced culture and the nature of intersubjectivity? This course will consider the extent to which postal mail delivery has affected the circulation of stories, the circulation of information within stories, and the emergence of a brand new literary type: the postman. Over the course of the semester we will explore the representation and use of the post office in 19th- and 20th Century literary works from Thomas Hardy to Charles Bukowski. We will examine the physical and metaphysical space of mail, a place of privacy, anonymity, safety, and equality produced by the postal system. Is the mail like sex (circulating promiscuously)? Or is it like salvation (don’t we all want deliverance)? Does literature and culture simply migrate or is it delivered or transmitted by national government mandate?
Course Requirements:
• Attendance
• Class Presentations (2)
• Two analytical papers (4-6, 6-8 pages)
Required Texts:
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (any edition)
Charles Bukowski, Post Office (there is only one edition)
Course Reading Packet (Reader)
SCHEDULE: PAY ATTENTION TO READINGS AND THEMES
Week 1 Introduction & the letter as literature
W 1/17 Introduction to the course and its objectives. Definitions: receiver, transmittor, message, medium, circuit, post, intersubjectivity, metaphor, deliverance. Mathematical Model of Communication (Reader)
Week 2: Postal History
M 1/22 History of Rowland Hill’s Reform Pamphlet (Reader)
W 1/24 Postal History (reader)
Week 3: The Mail Route
M 1/29 Thomas De Quincey, The English Mail Coach (1849) (reader)
W 1/31 Kipling (reader)
Week 4: (more) Mail Route
M 2/5 Film: “Night Mail” (1935); WH Auden “Commentary for a G.P.O. Film” (reader)
W 2/7 Post Office Poetry (reader)
Week 5: The Post Office and Body Parts
M 2/12 Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Cardboard Box” (1893) (reader)
W 2/14 Unmailable/Comstock Acts (reader)
Week 6: No classes but read Narrative of Henry “Box” Brown (1849)
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brownbox/brownbox.html
Week 7: The Democratic Post—They Should Not Look Inside
M 2/26 Henry “Box” Brown, Narrative of Henry “Box” Brown (1849)
W 2/28 Church Commission Report, 1976 (CIA/FBI Mail Opening Programs)
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIh.htm
***** 1st Paper Due
Week 8: Mail Movies
M 3/5 “Overland Mail” (1942); Seinfeld, “The Junk Mail,”
W 3/7 “There Goes the Mail Truck”; TBA
Week 9: S P R I N G B R E A K
Week 10: Postman Fantasies
M 3/19 Rabindranath Tagore The Post Office (1914) (reader)
W 3/21 Charles Olson The Post Office: A Memoir for His Father (1975) (reader)
Week 11: More Postman Fantasies: Power of Delivery
M 3/26 Eudora Welty: “Why I Live at the P.O.” (1941)
http://art-bin.com/art/or_weltypostoff.html
W 3/28 [in class] Michael Radford’s 1995 film of Antonio Skármeta’s Il Postino (1985)
Week 12: Postal Impotence
M 4/2 Charles Bukowski, Post Office (1971)
W 4/4 Continue Post Office
Week 13: Circuit Theory: Entropy and Communication
M 4/9 Lecture& handouts: entropy and communication theory
W 4/11 Thomas Pynchon The Crying of Lot 49 (1965)
Week 14: The Postal Aesthetic: Mail Routes, Postmen, and Paranoia
M 4/16 Continue Crying
W 4/18 Wrap-up Crying
Week 15: The Postal Aesthetic: New World Order
M 4/24 [in class] Kevin Costner’s 1997 film of David Brin’s The Postman (1985)
W 4/26 [in class] Kevin Costner’s 1997 film of David Brin’s The Postman (1985)
T 5/2 Final Paper Due
