ENGL 151-03, American Representations of Friendship and Platonic Tradition, Fall 2008

Abstract

Throughout Western philosophy, from Plato onwards, friendship has been figured as the ideal mode of human interaction. While erotic, familial, financial, or ethnic relations are inextricable from obligation or self-interest, friendship, the argument typically goes, offers the promise of free and disinterested love. But, as Jacques Derrida has shown, each time a philosopher has posited a version of perfect or true friendship, it has turned out to be a relationship that would be compromised with its enactment. In other words, friendship as an ideal and friendship as a practice are two very different things. Is true friendship a theoretical abstraction or fantasy, therefore, with no correlation to actual experience? In this writing-intensive course, we’ll explore the ways in which American essays, short stories, novels, and films about friendship answer this question. Readings will include philosophical texts by Plato, Emerson, and Montaigne, literary works by Sherman Alexie, Herman Melville, and Alice Walker, and magazine articles from The Atlantic and The New Yorker. We will also discuss and write about the films Men in Black and Mean Girls.The goal of this course is to develop your ability to think, read, and write critically. In particular, I want you to learn to produce clear and compelling prose in support of a thesis. We will emphasize successive stages of the writing process, including pre-writing, drafting, and revision. Your final paper will involve the use of the library and research material and proper documentation.