Williams :: English 483 :: 1 ENGLISH 483: THEORY OF LITERARY CRITICISM USC UPSTATE :: SPRING 2008 Dr. Williams 213 HPAC 503-5285 gwilliams@uscupstate.edu IM (AOL/MSN): ghwchats HPAC 218, MWF 12:00-12:50 Office Hours: MW 1:00-2:30; TTh 12:00-13:30 http://blackboard.sc.edu Students contact info: COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is designed to introduce you to major critical approaches to literature. The aims are threefold: 1. to help you develop and apply standards of judgment; 2. to help you recognize critical approaches to literature and their underlying assumptions in the scholarship you encounter as a student and scholar of literature; 3. to help you apply critical approaches to literature in your own written, scholarly work about literature. You will become familiar with the authors of critical and theoretical works that influence contemporary criticism, and you will learn the key words and concepts associated with those authors and with different schools of thought. You will read and analyze several influential primary critical works, and you will read and analyze scholarly works from different critical or theoretical perspectives. Students are expected to think for themselves, to form strong opinions, to disagree, to argue persuasively and eloquently when they speak and when they write. REQUIRED TEXTS Peter Barry, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory ISBN 0719062683 Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club ISBN 0393327345 Mary Wollstonecraft, Frankenstein (edited by Johanna M. Smith) ISBN 031219126X COURSE REQUIREMENTS: You must complete all requirements (except extra credit) to pass the class. % Assignment Due Date 10% Theory Application Paper #1 Feb 25 10% Theory Application Paper #2 Mar 31 10% Presentation on Independent Research Project Variable 20% Independent Research Project Apr 30 20% 4 Short Response Papers & Presentations (5% each) Variable 15% Midterm Examination: Identifications & short answers Mar 3 15% Final Examination: Identifications & short answers May 2 10% Extra Credit (optional): Research & write about an approach we re not studying [e.g. Book History, Cognitive Linguistics, Ecocriticism, Film Studies, Narratology, Postmodernism, Postcolonial Criticism, Reader Response, Stylistics, Textual Studies.] See me
Williams :: English 483 :: 2 COURSE POLICIES Academic integrity: This is a senior-level course, and so students are expected to be familiar with USC Upstate s policies concerning plagiarism, cheating, and academic integrity. Be aware that the consequences of plagiarism range from a failing grade for the course to expulsion from the university. Please come speak with me if you need help understanding the standards for academic integrity. Students who admit responsibility or who are found responsible through the Student Code of Conduct will receive the appropriate grade determined by the professor, which may include an X to signify academic dishonesty. Grades with an X are not subject to grade forgiveness. Accommodations for special needs: To request accommodation for a disability, please contact the Office of Disability Services (CLC 107, 503-5123) and see me as soon as possible. Attendance: I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. You can miss up to three class periods without lowering your grade. After four absences, each subsequent absence lowers your final grade by half a letter. Class time is important and impossible to make up. Your attendance is integral to your success as a student and to the success of this course; attendance is therefore mandatory. Excessive absences can result in failure of the course. Please do not bring doctor s notes or other evidence of crisis. If you miss class, email me within 24 hours, check with a classmate for notes, and return to class fully prepared. I expect basic academic etiquette attend class, arrive on time, come prepared, stay until the end of class, turn cell phones off during class, listen to classmates and respond with civility to divergent opinions and I expect deep and sustained attention to the course texts and concepts. Demonstrate the latter by contributing regularly and substantively to class discussions, and by undertaking the whole writing process for each paper: pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. Communication: You should take advantage of my office hours, during which time I am happy to talk with you in person. You may also call me on my office telephone, send me an email, or instant message me (feel free to add me to your list of contacts in your instant messaging client). I respond to phone calls and IMs instantaneously (if you reach me), and I do my best to respond to emails within 24 hours. Written Assignments Format: All work done outside of class to be turned in must be typed or produced on a word processor. Your papers should have the following: no cover page; one-inch margins all the way around the page; text that is double-spaced, 12 point/10 cpi (Times New Roman type face preferred); page numbers on every page; one staple in the upper left-hand corner. The first page should have your name, the name of the assignment, the due date, the course number, and my name on the first page in the upper left-hand corner, like this: Chris Student Theory Application Paper #1 January 19, 2008 English 483 Dr. Williams
Williams :: English 483 :: 3 Your paper must adhere to MLA style, with proper in-text citations and a works cited page. I do not accept papers turned in as email attachments. Late papers: Papers are due at the beginning of class on their due date. If you turn your paper in on time, I will return it to you with a grade and with comments in response to what you have written. If you turn it in up to one week late, I will return it to you with a grade but no comments. If you turn it in more than one week late, I will not accept it and you will receive a grade of zero (0) for the assignment. Do not leave papers outside my door; if you must drop your paper off, leave it with the office staff of the Department of Languages, Literature, and Composition. A paper is not considered turned in until I have it in my hands. Please plan accordingly.
Williams :: English 483 :: 4 KEY PASSAGES Our course text is Peter Barry, Beginning Theory The following passages are especially important: Chapter 1: Theory before theory liberal humanism 34-36: Some recurrent ideas in critical theory Chapter 2: Structuralism 49: What structuralist critics do Chapter 3: Post-structuralism and deconstruction 63-65: How structuralism and post-structuralism differ 73: What post-structuralist critics do Chapter 5: Psychoanalytic criticism 105: What Freudian psychoanalytic critics do 115: What Lacanian psychoanalytic critics do Chapter 6: Feminist Criticism 124-126: Feminism and critical theory (see 34-36 above) 126-130: Feminist criticism and language (see 49 & 73 above) 130-133: Feminist criticism and psychoanalysis (see 105 and 115 above) 134: What feminist critics do Chapter 7: Lesbian/gay criticism 143: Queer theory (see 124-126 and 34-36 above) 148: What lesbian/gay critics do Chapter 8: Marxist criticism 161-166: The present: the influence of Althusser (see 34-36 above) 167: What Marxist critics do Chapter 9: New historicism and cultural materialism 175-177: New historicism and Foucault (see 161-166 & 34-36 above) 179: What new historicists do 184-186: How is cultural materialism different from new historicism? 187 What cultural materialists do Basic things you should know When did each approach first gain currency in literary studies? Who are the major names associated with each approach? What are the underlying assumptions of each approach? What are the basic terms associated with each approach and what do they mean? What would a literary critic do using each approach? Advanced things you might try to tackle: How does one school of thought influence another? For example, what role does post-structuralism play in Lacanian psychoanalysis? How did feminism affect the creation and development of lesbian/gay studies? What role does Marxist theory play in new historicism? What would it look like if a literary critic were to combine two approaches? For example, what would it be like to analyze Fight Club using a Marxist approach combined with queer theory?
PREPARING FOR THE EXAMS The midterm and the final will each consist of two parts. Each part is worth 50% Williams :: English 483 :: 5 Part I. Identification and definition of key terms (10% each). You will choose five terms and 1. Identify which theoretical approach it belongs to. 2. Define what it means. 3. Explain how a literary critic might use this concept. Part II. Short answers. You will be asked to choose two questions (25% each) from a long list and write a paragraph or two in response. Material to be covered on midterm: Structuralism; Post-Structuralism; Psychoanalysis; Feminism Material to be covered on final: Gay/Lesbian Criticism; Marxist Criticism; New Historicism; Cultural Materialism Keep in mind that much of what we learn in the first half of the semester (especially with regard to psychoanalysis and post-structuralism) plays a huge part in the approaches to literature in the second half of the semester. How best to prepare before the exams Re-read the Barry sections outlined on the Key Passages page of the syllabus. Make sure you understand what the key terms below mean. Study with other people from the class. Some Key Terms for Midterm author function chain of signification close reading condensation deconstruction diegesis disinterestedness displacement disunity dyad essentialism langue mimesis mirror stage parole presence repression signified symbolic order sublimation unconscious Some Key Terms for Final base/superstructure class economic determinism essentialism gynocriticism/gynotexts hegemony homosocial ideology interpellation ideological state apparatus lesbian feminism libertarian feminism materialism overdeterminism positivism queer reification relative autonomy repressive state apparatus subject/object
COURSE SCHEDULE Williams :: English 483 :: 6 M Jan 14 Introduction to class and to each other W Jan 16 Frankenstein F Jan 18 Frankenstein : Informal 2-page responses from half the class M Jan 21 MLK Day : No classes W Jan 23 Frankenstein: Informal 2-page responses from the other half of the class F Jan 25 A Critical History of Frankenstein (Smith 237-250) M Jan 28 Barry, Introduction (1-10) and Theory before theory liberal humanism (11-38) W Jan 30 Barry, Psychoanalytic Criticism (96-108) F Feb 1 *Sigmund Freud, from The Interpretation of Dreams M Feb 4 Barry, Structuralism (39-60) W Feb 6 *Ferdinand de Saussure, from Course in General Linguistics F Feb 8 Barry, Poststructuralism and deconstruction (61-80) M Feb 11 Barry, Psychoanalytic Criticism (108-120) W Feb 13 *Jacques Lacan, from Écrits: a Selection F Feb 15 Barry, Poststructuralism and deconstruction (61-80) M Feb 18 *Jacques Derrida, Signature Event Context W Feb 20 *Michel Foucault, What Is An Author? Due: Topic and rough thesis statement for Theory Application Paper #1 F Feb 22 David Collings, The Monster and the Maternal Thing: Mary Shelley s Critique of Ideology (Smith 280-295) M Feb 25 Theory Application Paper #1 Due Barry, Feminist Criticism (121-138) W Feb 27 * Luce Irigaray, The Power of Discourse and the Subordination of the Feminine F Feb 29 Johanna M. Smith, Cooped Up with Sad Trash : Domesticity and the Sciences in Frankenstein (Smith 313-333) M Mar 3 MIDTERM W Mar 5 Barry, Lesbian/Gay Criticism (139-155) F Mar 7 *Eve Sedgwick, from Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire Article on Frankenstein: TBA M Mar 10 Spring Break W Mar 12 Spring Break F Mar 14 Spring Break M Mar 17 Fight Club W Mar 19 Fight Club F Mar 21 Fight Club M Mar 24 Barry, Marxist Criticism (156-171) W Mar 26 *Louis Althusser, "Ideology and the State" Due: Topic and rough thesis statement for Theory Application Paper #1 F Mar 29 Warren Montag, The Workshop of Filthy Creation : A Marxist Reading of Frankenstein (Smith 384-395)
M Mar 31 Theory Application Paper #2 Due Film & Frankenstein, Film & Fight Club Begin research for your final project. (Gather scholarly material & start skimming/reading it.) W Apr 2 Film & Frankenstein, Film & Fight Club F Apr 4 Film & Frankenstein, Film & Fight Club Williams :: English 483 :: 7 M Apr 7 Barry, New Historicism and Cultural Materialism (172-191) W Apr 9 *Stephen Greenblatt, Towards a Poetics of Culture F Apr 11 Bouriana Zakharieva, Frankenstein of the Nineties: The Composite Body (Smith 416-431) M Apr 14 No classes: Research + conferences with me regarding final project W Apr 16 No classes: Research + conferences with me regarding final project F Apr 18 No classes: Research + conferences with me regarding final project M Apr 21 Student Presentations on Independent Research Projects W Apr 23 Student Presentations on Independent Research Projects F Apr 25 Student Presentations on Independent Research Projects M Apr 28 Last Day of Class May 2 FINAL EXAM 11:30am-2:30pm