CONTEMPORARY FICTION COMING OUT OF
SMALL PRESSES: A CRITICAL WORKSHOP
David Vichnar, PhD (david.vichnar@ff.cuni.cz) Office Hours: by appointment (Room 219b);
Elective M.A. Course (Wed 12.30-14.00); Program in Critical & Cultural Theory;
Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (Room 34)
Based on some 30 books published since 2018, the course will explore ten contemporary independent publishers/presses that have worked, over the past decade or so, outside of the mainstream as defined by the Anglo-American publishing industry, bringing out radical, experimental, or otherwise “unusual” fiction.
The goal of the course will be not only to cover and evaluate what is currently “out there,” but to produce hands-on critical research on the contemporary publishing scene: reviewing books, interviewing authors and publishers, writing critical pieces on the publishing plan, presentation & “poetics” of selected houses, etc. Final research papers will be framed with view towards its publication online and elsewhere. Work in the seminar includes 3 short reviews on individual novels & one longer concluding presentation, covering a selected press, at the final roundtable discussion in mid-May.
The ten publishers covered include 11:11 Press, Anti-Oedipus Press, Calamari Press, Corona Samizdat, Equus Press, Expat Press, Inside the Castle, Orbis Tertius, Sublunary Editions, and Sweat Drenched Press.
SYLLABUS
Feb 19 Introduction: Course Overview
Feb 26 Equus Press
Harold Jaffe, Performances for the End of Times (2022)
Vasicek & Ferguson, 404_error: memoir of a nobody (2023)
Louis Armand, Anizar (2024)
Mar 5 Anti-Oedipus Press
Harold Jaffe, Brut (2021)
Ansgar Allen, The Wake and the Manuscript (2022)
Lance Olsen, Shrapnel (2024)
Mar 12 11:11 Press
Collected Voices in the Expanded Field (2020)
Danika Stegeman LeMay, Ablation (2023)
Vi Khi Nao, Suicide (2023)
Mar 19 Inside the Castle
John Trefry, Apparitions of the Living (2018)
Karolina Zapal, Notes for Mid-Birth (2019)
Robert Kloss, A Light No More (2022)
Mar 26 Expat Press
James Nulick, The Moon Down to Earth (2020)
Elizabeth V. Aldrich, Ruthless Little Things (2021)
Olivia Kan-Sperling, Island Times (2023)
Apr 9 Sublunary Editions
Jessica Sequeira, Luminous History of the Palm (2020)
Coma-Thompson & Foster, 926 Years (2020)
Christina Tudor-Sideri, The Sign of the Labyrinth (2020)
Apr 16 Orbis Tertius Press
Mark Wilson, Until No Crevice Remained (2021)
Matthew Kinlin, Teenage Hallucination (2021)
Ryan Madej, Aurora Archive (2023)
Apr 23 Calamari Archive, Ink
Kelly Krumrie, Math Class (2022)
Laura Ellen Joyce, The Museum of Atheism (2024)
Janalyn Guo, Our Colony Beyond the City of Ruins (2024)
Apr 30 Sweat Drenched Press
Zak Ferguson, On the Blink (2022)
N. Casio Poe, Deracinate (2023)
Christopher Owens, Dethrone God (2024)
May 7 Corona Samizdat Press
Rick Harsch, Adriatica Deserta (2021)
David Vardeman, “Easter” (Suggestion Diabolique, 2022)
Zachary Tanner, Some Features of Living Matter (2022)
May 14 Concluding Roundtable Discussion
COURSE READER
All of the primary reading will be available from the faculty Moodle system for the students to study as part of their weekly readings.
PRESENTATIONS
Each student will prepare 3 brief “review”-type book presentations during the semester, hopefully in tandem with a colleague. With all texts extending 100 pages, the presenter will assign (via email) a 50-page excerpt of passages to read for the rest of the class in reasonable advance (by Monday previous). The rest of the class will read the excerpts and come to class ready to discuss them.
FINAL RESEARCH PAPER
The final paper (“zkouška”) shall have the scope of 4,000 words and will be due by the end of June 2025. It will present a comparative critical evaluation & analysis of 2 publishers of choice, discussing their selected thematic parallels and contrasts. Individual deadline extensions are possible but need to be discussed with the lecturer in reasonable advance.
N.B. Students need to discuss their final paper topics, bibliography, etc. with the lecturer ahead of the end of the course, i.e. in mid-May.
CREDIT
Students will be given their non-graded (“zápočet”) credit for presence at, and active participation in, a minimum 10 sessions of 12 total (40%), the concluding roundtable (30%) & their three presentations (30%). The “graded-paper” (“zkouška”) credit option will include, in addition to the above, the submission of a final research paper.
N.B.1 Due to Departmental policy, only MA students are allowed to enroll for the graded paper credit option.
N.B.2 for Erasmus students: you can only enroll for the non-graded/Zápočet credit option; however, should your home university demand it, you can consequently receive a “grade” for your overall performance.
- Teacher: Louis Armand
- Teacher: David Vichnar
- Teacher: Helena Znojemská