I would like to call your attention to and invite your interest in the
Educational section of the Percy Project at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/wpercy/educational.html
Over time, with your help the project hopes to develop this resource of
materials related to teaching Percy at all learning levels, and I invite
you to forward any pertinent information (syllabi, essay topics, activity
proposals [such as the one below], etc.) you may have now or that you might
develop in the future to henm@mail.utexas.edu. Below, for your interest,
is an excellent example of one way to involve graduate students in Percy
scholarship as will be featured in the project.
Regards,
Henry Mills
Director, The Walker Percy Project
PS--you may wish to save this document for "cut and paste" if you intend to
teach WP in the near future.
____________________________________________________________
Graduate-level seminar assignment on Walker Percy
The following is an information sheet and assignment for a graduate-level
English seminar involving a comparative study of the works of Walker Percy,
Flannery O'Connor, and John Updike held at LSU in the Spring of 1997 (John
R. May). The students' annotative work as described in part 3 is forthcoming
in the Percy Project. It represents one way formal educational activities
may be involved in the Percy Project.
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1. Description of Percy Project
The Walker Percy Project (Internet Resource)
http://sunsite.unc.edu/wpercy
A comprehensive and up-to-date literary resource on philosophical
novelist Walker Percy is available through the Internet at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, archive of the "Walker
Percy Papers." The Walker Percy Project is accessible via the
WorldWideWeb at the above address and includes introductory as well as
special topic treatments of the writer and his thought, comprehensive
bibliographic resources, and photographs and other multimedia features.
Related information on forthcoming books, conference sessions,
calls-for-papers, the Percy-L mailing list, The Walker Percy
Symposiums, The Walker Percy Society, and the location of special
collections is also included. Access to the resource is unlimited, and
the site offers links to other prominent Internet resources dedicated
to literary study.
--Public-access Internet terminals are available in the Middleton
Library Reference section.
--For information on getting personal dial-up Internet access, contact
the LSU ITS Helpdesk at 33HDESK (4-3375).
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2. Description of Percy-L
ANNOUNCING PERCY-L
Percy-L is an electronic mailing list dedicated to the work and thought of
the late American novelist and philosopher Walker Percy.
WHAT IS A MAILING LIST?
Mailing lists allow e-mail users to post questions and responses to an
"on-line" discussion group with all postings automatically being distributed
to all members of the list. Some lists have as many as several hundred
members. Such a medium allows the possibility for scholars around the world
to be in regular community with one another about issues significant to
their scholarship and studies.
HOW TO JOIN PERCY-L
Send an e-mail to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU with the following line in the
body:
subscribe PERCY-L YourFirstName YourLastName
Further information will automatically forwarded to you. All messages are
archived at this WWW address: http://sunsite.unc.edu/wpercy/hypermail
--For information on getting an e-mail account and personal dial-up Internet
access, contact the LSU ITS Helpdesk at 33HDESK (4-3375).
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3. Walker Percy Project-Seminar Assignment
As a part of this seminar's requirements, we are going to gain some
first-hand critical studies exposure by doing a brief analysis and written
overview of the major scholastic works on Percy. Not only will this give you
an opportunity to look closely at key topics in Percy criticism, but it will
also give you a chance to reflect upon the current structure of formal
literary activity insofar as it has been manifest in book-length works.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this assignment is that your
review/annotation will have the chance to be featured as a lasting part of
The Percy Project, where it will, by special arrangement, be added on-line
to the project's bibliographic resources.
To complete this assignment, choose one of the books listed below to read
and analyze, and then write a short review/overview (500-word maximum) of it
addressing the following questions/topics:
1) When was the book published?
2) What Percy materials does it cover (i.e., which novels, essays does
it focus on)?
3) How is it structured and what is its length (chapters, parts, etc.)?
4) What is its major approach/critical thread?
5) What key evidence does it argue from/against?
6) Describe its bibliography and index
The structure of the paper should follow the order of the questions and
should be written as if another member in the course might be using your
annotation as a resource. Final version to be turned in on paper and on
diskette (IBM or MAC).
The books to choose from are as follows, all of which are available through
Middleton Library:
SURVEY STUDIES
1) The Sovereign Wayfarer: Walker Percy's Diagnosis of the Malaise.
Luschei, Martin, 1972
2) In Search of Self, Life, Death, and Walker Percy. Taylor, L.
Jerome,1986
3) Autobiography in Walker Percy: Repetition, Recovery, and Redemption.
Dupuy, Edward J.,1996
4) The Fiction of Walker Percy. Hardy, John Edward, 1987
5) Prophecy in American Fiction: A Study of the Novels of Walker Percy.
Madathiparampil, George, 1980
6) Walker Percy, A Southern Wayfarer. Allen, William Rodney, 1986
7) Walker Percy: Books of Revelations. Ciuba, Gary M., 1991
8) The Gift of the Other: Gabriel Marcel's Concept of Intersubjectivity
in Walker Percy's Novels. Howland, Mary Deems, 1990
9) Walker Percy and the Old Modern Age: Reflections on Language,
Argument, and the Telling of Stories. Poteat, Patricia Lewis, 1984.
10) Walker Percy. Tharpe, Jac., 1983
COMPARATIVE WORKS
11) The Language of Grace: Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy & Iris
Murdoch. Hawkins, Peter S.,1983
12) Plight in Common: Hawthorne and Percy. Oleksy, Elzbieta, 1993
13) Three Catholic Writers of the Modern South: Allen Tate, Carolyn
Gordon, Walker Percy. Brinkmeyer, Robert H., 1985
14) The Comedy of Redemption : Christian Faith and Comic Vision in Four
American Novelists (O'Connor, Updike, Percy, DeVries). Wood, Ralph
C.,1988
15) The Writer as Shaman: The Pilgrimages of Conrad Aiken and Walker
Percy. Spivey, Ted Ray, 1986
ALTERNATE
The Literary Percys: Family History, Gender, and the Southern
Imagination. Wyatt-Brown, Bertram, 1994
Walker Percy, An American Search. Coles, Robert, 1978
_______________________________________________________________________
Henry P. Mills, Director & Editor
THE WALKER PERCY EDUCATIONAL PROJECT, INC.
An Interactive Educational Project
http://sunsite.unc.edu/wpercy
Hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Send s-mail to:
P.O. Box 3561
Austin, TX 78764
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Subscribe to PERCY-L!
Send an email to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU with the following line in the body:
subscribe PERCY-L YourFirst Name YourLastName
(Listserv courtesy of Louisiana State University)
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