College Lit Course

[Coolallosaurus]

Hello All!
I will be teaching an upper-level literature course on Stephen King in Spring 2019. I am planning the course now by re-reading King's entire body of work (fiction and non-fiction). So far I have re-read Carrie, 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Long Walk, Pet Sematary, Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and am just finishing up End of Watch. As you might have guessed from that list, I had intended to re-read in order of publication, but the books available at my library had a different timeline planned for me.
Anyway, as a King fan, I am so stoked about this course. It's also the first of its kind here at my university. While I look forward to using the boards for larger discussion about King's work, I want to start out by getting some feedback on teaching King especially from former or current students. Has anyone here taken a university course dedicated entirely to King's works? Have you read his work in other classes (maybe American lit or a genera-based seminar)? I am having a heck of a time narrowing the course reading list to fit into a 16-week semester. At present, the only things I absolutely know will be in the course are On Writing and excerpts from Danse Macabre. But it's killing me to narrow down his fiction. What books would you say are *must* reads for a course? This is only the first post in what I imagine will be many to come.

It's really exciting to see such a vibrant community here, and I look forward to joining in discussions.

Thank You!

 

[Moderator]

Welcome to the Board!

 

[Spideyman]

 

[king family fan]

 

[do1you9love?]

Welcome to the SKMB and good luck with your class! You will find wildly varied opinions on must reads. I would think that students who take the class would likely have already had some exposure to Mr. King's works. What if one assignment was for them to compare/contrast two or three of his short stories, letting the students pick or you could assign?

 

[swiftdog2.0]

As a HS student in the 80's / 90's and an older college student that just finished their degree after a prolonged absence, I have seen a horrible bias from educators against anything King has done. The majority of my English teachers and professors considered his work to be trash and not "serious" literature. Very sad that such closed-minded people are in charge of educating future generations. Hopefully, this will change. Your course sounds like a step in the right direction! I wish it were something that was available while I was taking courses!

That said, my humble recommendation would be to focus on 'Salem's Lot as the course novel. Classic example of a modern horror novel, IMHO.The Stand and IT are probably too long for a 16 week course. Pet Sematary might work as well if you don't mind the course going to very dark places.

You can't go wrong with any of the short stories from Night Shift or Skeleton Crew for shorter pieces.

Sounds like an interesting course. Would like to hear how it progresses!

 

[GNTLGNT]

….On-Writing is a must for budding novelists and that in and of itself can occupy quite a few days of classroom time....I would suggest Carrie as a novel to study that might hew close to their recently concluded high school days....

 

[skimom2]

If you want to hit 'literary' King, Lisey's Story is a must. It is his most intricately constructed novel, and delves into some deep water concerning the nature of long term relationships, loss, and the effect childhood has on an adult. The Colorado Kid is another interesting and different King novel.

It really depends on what your course focus is intended to be. It would be interesting to read non-trad King, since so many people think they 'know' all about his work.

Alternately, you could do the literary influences/homages of King, in which case 'Salem's Lot (Dracula, and the "The town knew darkness chapter sounds just like Faulkner), Revival (Frankenstein), and Blaze (Of Mice And Men) would be good choices (he has others--these were the first that came to mind).

If you can give an idea of what you hope to accomplish with the course, it would help in making suggestions.

Welcome to the board!

 

[chief4db]

Welcome welcome welcome.

King is very easy read. Great story teller. Since this is an upper lit course I would go for more of is novels that r more in line with a higher lit course.

Books like salems lot and it r fantastic but i would not recommend for this class . At the same time u want to pick books that r good reads and grab ur students. 3 that come to mind are Duma Key, 11/22/63 and Under the dome. The latter 2 are awesome reads and include intellectual topics. Utd brings society into the mix and how people interact in a captured universe. Much like lord of the flies. But these 2 are also bricks. I remember in my lit course we read 7 books in a semester. Page wise that would b equal to these 3 as far as time needed. But anyway thats my 2 cents. Also if they havnt read king before might want to give an intro to his writings bc they most likely have a pre disclosed view of his work on " oh the horror guy". He is so much more than that and u might want to shatter that pre disclosed notion. Good luck and have fun with it

 

[Tery]

Welcome to the SKMB! My suggestion is Joyland. It's one of his newer books and is not horror but mystery. It's also not very long.

 

[mal]

Sounds like fun! Please post your course synopsis once you have it all figured out. All the best, mal.

 

[Doc Creed]

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[GNTLGNT]

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...that is the most beautiful punctuation I’ve ever seen....

 

[not_nadine]

It's magnificent.

 

[Doc Creed]

...that is the most beautiful punctuation I’ve ever seen....

I need help. Period.

 

[king family fan]

I need help. Period.

 

[Doc Creed]

It's magnificent.

I'm a minimalist.

 

[Coolallosaurus]

Welcome to the SKMB and good luck with your class! You will find wildly varied opinions on must reads. I would think that students who take the class would likely have already had some exposure to Mr. King's works. What if one assignment was for them to compare/contrast two or three of his short stories, letting the students pick or you could assign?

Thank you! I imagine I will get a few King readers in my class, but since my course will fulfill a writing requirement for non-majors I may get students who haven't read Stephen King, but think my class sounds more appealing than, say, "Marxist Interpretations of Freudian Biopower." I love the idea of having the students choose short stories. I know I will be assigning short stories, but definitely can't assign them all, so a "choose your own adventure" assignment is a great idea! Thank you!

 

[Coolallosaurus]

As a HS student in the 80's / 90's and an older college student that just finished their degree after a prolonged absence, I have seen a horrible bias from educators against anything King has done. The majority of my English teachers and professors considered his work to be trash and not "serious" literature. Very sad that such closed-minded people are in charge of educating future generations. Hopefully, this will change. Your course sounds like a step in the right direction! I wish it were something that was available while I was taking courses!

That said, my humble recommendation would be to focus on 'Salem's Lot as the course novel. Classic example of a modern horror novel, IMHO.The Stand and IT are probably too long for a 16 week course. Pet Sematary might work as well if you don't mind the course going to very dark places.

You can't go wrong with any of the short stories from Night Shift or Skeleton Crew for shorter pieces.

Sounds like an interesting course. Would like to hear how it progresses!

Congratulations on finishing your degree! I can definitely empathize with the experience of meeting English professors who don't consider King "serious." I actually ran in to that mentality when I was designing this course. We have to designate our classes along with our course description. I wanted to teach my course under the label of "Major Authors," but had to change it to the heading of "Literature and Popular Culture" because, I was told, I would have to make a "case" for King being a major author . . . the designation doesn't change my approach to the course (I would incorporate popular culture anyway), but does show how there is definitely still a bias in academia. However, on the other end of the spectrum, I have also met people (mostly outside of academia), who hear about my class and think it's the coolest thing.
Thank you for your recommendations! I 'Salem's Lot is on my list of potential novels. I was thinking of pairing it with excerpts from Stoker's Dracula and Polidori's The Vampyre. I also do like Pet Sematary (maybe excerpts?). Ah, such a tough decision! And yes, short stories are a fabulous idea! Thank you!

 

[Coolallosaurus]

….On-Writing is a must for budding novelists and that in and of itself can occupy quite a few days of classroom time....I would suggest Carrie as a novel to study that might hew close to their recently concluded high school days....

Definitely agree with On Writing. As someone who has taught rhet/comp I can also vouch for how handy it is as a general guide for writing non-fiction. My hope is On Writing will be one of those books my students end up keeping and referencing throughout their lifetime as writers.
Good point about Carrie. It's also a good text for discussing King's early work/themes as well as the idea of metatexts. Thank you!