MEDUSA
(from MythNET)
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MEDUSA |
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Fall 1999 – English 202 |
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How might reading literary works from different critical perspectives change our understanding of these works, of the art of reading, of ourselves as readers? These are the main questions we will be exploring in this course. This course should make you more aware of the importance of assumptions that readers bring to what they read, more curious about other ways of approaching literature, and more cognizant of the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of literary criticism.The point of the course is neither to denigrate nor to endorse any particular approach, but rather to work towards a basic understanding of a variety of critical perspectives -- their interpretive assumptions, the kinds of questions they bring to a text, what they might help us to see more clearly, and what they may tend to overlook or exclude. You will be encouraged to experiment with these different approaches in your journal entries, class discussions, and special projects.
Some of the broader questions we will be considering include the following: What is an author? Should we care about the author's intention? What is at stake when we interpret literature? Does literature reflect life? What is literature, and what isn't? Who decides? How do we judge the value of a literary work? Where do these value judgements come from? On what assumptions are they based?
Joseph Conrad,The Secret Sharer (Bedford Critical Edition)
D.H. Lawrence, St. Mawr
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice (Bedford Critical Edition)
Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (Bedford Critical Edition)
Peter Barry, Beginning Critical Theory
Xerox packet of other readings ($10 fee)
In keeping with College policy, you are expected to attend all of our class sessions.
You also are expected to prepare the readings assigned for each session (including any assigned critical materials) and to take an active role in class discussion. You will be graded on the extent of your preparation as evidenced by the cogency of your contributions and the extent to which, by responding to others, introducing ideas, and raising questions, you help to sustain a useful exploration of the readings and issues we are addressing.
You and a partner will be assigned responsibility for leading 20-30 minutes worth of class discussion for certain sessions. Think about the readings for those sessions in particular depth and identify several problems, questions, or points of interest which you think the class should address. You also might point out certain lines or passages which you think are especially important and use them to generate discussion. Xerox copies of your list of problems or questions that you think we should address and distribute them at the beginning of the session. (If this xeroxing is done in the Printing Office, it may be charged to the English Department.)
You also will be expected to keep an on-going critical journal throughout the term. (For specifics, see "Journal Guidelines" below.)
A special project also is required for the course. (For further details, see "Special Projects" below.) Note deadlines on the class schedule for a project proposal, a detailed outline, and the completed project.
In lieu of a final examination, you will be giving a formal presentation to the class, based on your special project, during final exam week. For specifics, see "Presentations" below. Majors using this course to fulfill their senior exercise requirement will give their presentations on the last day of class. They are also expected to attend the presentation session during final exam week.
Approximate breakdown of final grade: 25% for contributions to class discussions; 40% for the critical journal; 20% for the special project; 15% for the final presentation.
Deadlines will be extended and absences excused only in the case of an urgent personal problem, a family emergency, or a serious illness, verifiable by the Dean. Absences from class will limit what you will gain from the course and what you can contribute to it. Unexcused absences also will lower your final grade for the course.
Late work for which no extension has been granted will be docked at the rate of one-half letter grade per day of lateness. All work must be submitted by the last day of class.
For your own protection, always make a copy of your work before submitting it. Remember to "save" your work every five minutes or so when you are working on a computer.
Note: All submitted work must be typed and double-spaced. Turn in
work on time. Late work will be penalized at the rate of one-half letter
grade per day of lateness.
A critical journal offers a regular opportunity for you to think your way more deeply into the material of the course, to make connections, test out arguments, think through topics for discussion or for your special project, and plant the seeds for future research. Here are some practical guidelines.
Write regularly. Date your entries. The number of pages you write in your journals is less important than the evidence your entries provide of serious, sustained inquiry and engagement in the course. Often, however, quantity and quality are intertwined. The more you write, the better you will get at producing entries that push your thinking forward.
Vary the kind of entries you write, but make sure that you keep your focus on the course, the readings, our discussions, and closely related topics. Sometimes the entries might be critical, sometimes creative, as long as you focus on something specific.
It is fine to start with your pre-critical, "gut" reactions to the readings; see if by reflecting upon them you can gain insights into yourself as a reader and critic and into how your assumptions affect your response to the works and issues at hand.
Ask questions. A good question opens up to other questions that in turn will lead you to new insights. At times you might want to respond at some length to one or two of the questions that you raise here or that were raised in class. You don't have to come up with "definitive" answers. Think of yourself as trying to keep the discussion going, instead of trying to shut it down. ("Shutters shut." -- Gertrude Stein) It often helps to focus on trying to describe what you find especially 'odd', mysterious, or frustrating about a particular work, passage, character, or critical argument.
Make connections. To do this, you may need to put your ideas in a larger or different context. (Example: "In class today, I was struck by the comment that great American literature, like Huck Finn,tends to revolve around the theme of the journey. Is this as true of literature by women writers as it is of that by male writers? Weren't most women traditionally much more confined than their male counterparts?" Here the student has taken an idea or claim and placed it in within a wider context that would allow her to explore, and perhaps challenge, the claim's validity.)
Explore some of the weblinks below or those on the "Class Schedule" page, or other related websites of your own choosing. Use some of your journal entries to evaluate these sites. Click here to see how to go about evaluating a website.
Although the writing that you produce in a journal is not meant for the general public, I do have to be able to read your entries with relative ease, so don't simply abandon all concern for proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Note: Deadlines for your project proposal, a detailed outline, and
the completed project are listed on the "Class
Schedule."
•Projects need not be in written form (that is, they may consist primarily of photographs, paintings, videos, audiotapes, webpages, etc.), but they must contain a written component in which you expand upon your project proposal and presentation outline.
•Projects should be theoretical or critical experiments of your own devising, drawing upon the perspectives you found most interesting among those we studied or exploring an approach we did not have time to take up in class.
•The projects may develop out of reflections on your own journal entries about the readings and class discussions. They may focus on connections between works we are reading or may involve a more in-depth study of one particular approach to that work (perhaps making use of the bibliographies at the end of each critical section in our Bedford critical editions). They may focus on other works by the writers we have studied (for example, on Lawrence's paintings or on the letters he wrote during the same time he was writing St. Mawr). These are just suggestions and are not meant to limit your imaginations! We will discuss this assignment further in class.
•Examples of special projects in this course in previous years include a study of postmodernist theory in relation to Toni Morrison's Beloved; a feminist/psychoanalytic analysis of the relationship between the two main characters in The X-Files; a cultural studies approach to Ann Rice's Vampire books; a feminist/psychoanalytic study of Hitchcock's Rebecca; a cultural studies approach to Plath's The Bell Jar; and a comparative analysis of Joyce's The Dead, the film version by John Huston, and critical commentaries on the relation between the two works.
Format: Prepare a 10-15 minute presentation (15-20 minutes for senior exercises) in which you address the items described below (and others, if you wish). If possible, please address these items in the order that follows. This should help you to organize your remarks; it will definitely help us to follow them.
(1) State what you were trying to explore and why, how you went about it, and what problems you encountered, if any. Clarify what theoretical or critical approaches you drew upon and comment on how what you learned in this course did or did not help you with this project. BE AS SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE ON THIS POINT, given the time limits.
(2) Summarize the discoveries or insights gained through your work on your special project (including insights into the strengths and limitations of your project and your own strengths and limitations, at present, as a reader and writer).
(3) Discuss what you would do differently, if anything, if you were to do this project again, what else you had hoped to do and did not have time for, and what new ideas for further possible research or experimentation occurred to you while working on this project.
Outlines for Presentations: E-mail an outline of your remarks to everyone else in the class (including the instructor) at least 24 hours before the presentations are to take place. The point of this part of the assignment is to encourage you to give a well-organized presentation and to provide the rest of us with a sneak preview of sorts, so that we might be thinking of questions to ask you during the discussion session after your presentation.
Discussion sessions: Presentations will be followed by a brief discussion session. You will all be expected to have read one another's outlines beforehand and to have given some thought to possible questions you might raise during the discussion sessions.
Criteria for Evaluation: Presentations will be evaluated on the basis of organization; coherence; coverage of the items mentioned in (1), (2), and (3) above; your ability to observe time limits; and your ability to field questions raised in class about your work.
Some Pointers: PRACTICE your presentation. Time it carefully beforehand so that you know you can meet the time limits without rushing. If you're soft-spoken, you will need to make a conscious effort to speak up. Since most of us tend to talk very fast, it's a good idea to keep reminding yourself to slow down as you give your presentation. Feel free to refer to your notes occasionally, but don't stay glued to them. When you are talking about the problems or limitations that you see in your work at present, don't put yourself down. Evaluating one's own work is often difficult and requires skills that are well worth cultivating. It shouldn't be confused with self-deprecation, which is usually a defensive tactic, an unconscious habit, or both.
In the discussion period after your presentation, listen carefully to people's questions and responses and see if you can learn something from them. If the group has no substantive questions, bring up one of the questions that occurred to you when you were preparing your presentation, one that you thought your peers might ask and that you would like to talk about with them. Then, if they still fail to respond, that's their problem, not yours. You will have done your part and will have tried to help them do theirs.
Good range of resources, including some of the best links available on Queer Theory.
Constructed by Professor John Lye at Brock University in Canada, this remarkable site features extensive course materials and many well-chosen links to other helpful sites. It is clearly organized and fun to explore.
Reference work on contemporary theory and theorists, organized alphabetically. Once you're at the site, if you want to access any of the entries, you will get a message box asking you for a username and password. Type "jmark" for the username and "nolan" for the password.
An awesome humanities site. The place to go for links to practically anything you'd want to explore in the field (for example, Minority Studies and Women's Studies, Gender Theory, and Queer Theory).
A very comprehensive site developed by Jack Lynch, "perhaps the most wired man in literary studies today."
A rich and interesting site developed by Barry Laga, a professor at Mesa State College in Colorado. You can also access Warren Hedges's Timeline of Critical Paradigms from this site. Hedges is a professor at Southern Oregon University. http://www.sou.edu/English/IDTC/timeline/uslit.htm
This excellent site out of Penn has links to a wide range of interesting sites (such as the Bakhtin Center).
Best source for up-to-date sites in cultural theory. Also includes some resources in psychoanalysis and theory.
"The most comprehensive guide to postmodern theory on the web today."