ENGL/WLIT 387/487
Critical Theory
Calendar of readings and assignments
Updated April 7, 2007
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Week One |
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overview of the not so obvious domains of literary theory |
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Jan 16 |
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Jan 18 |
Culler, chapters 1-4 |
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Week Two |
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Jan 23 |
Culler, chapters 5-8 |
First half of class, we'll meet in White 411, jointly with course on video games, for a lecture on narrative |
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Jan 25 |
Murfin, pp 273-294 (and review The Scarlet Letter) |
brief history of reading styles and schools; brainstorming the first batch of reports |
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Week Three |
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claims about
reading: how, what, and why |
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Jan 30 |
Richter, pp 754-759 and 962-978; Murfin, pp 331-343 Recommended: Eliot, “Tradition and the Individual Talent;” Leavis, “From The Great Tradition” and Wimsatt & Beardsley, “The Intentional Fallacy” |
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Feb 1 |
Rabinowitz, “From Before |
487: reports on Rabinowitz by Rachel, Chris, Jason B., and Kate |
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Week Four |
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Feb 6 |
Fish, “How to Recognize a Poem When You See One”; Culler, “Reading as a Woman” and the attached dialogue |
387/487: reports on Fish by Allyson, Max, Michael, and Alex; reports on Culler by Erin, Paul, Jason K., Graham, and Steve |
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Feb 8 |
Railton, “The Address of The Scarlet Letter” in Murfin Recommended: Jauss, “From Toward an Aesthetics of Reception |
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Week Five |
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Claims about the
foundations of meaning |
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Feb 13 |
Richter, pp 1198-1214 and Williams, “From Marxism and Literature” |
Marxisms and materialisms |
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Feb 15 |
Lukacs, “The Ideology of Modernism” Recommended: Marx, excerpts in Richter; Horkheimer and Adorno, “From The Culture Industry”; and Althusser, “From Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” |
387/487: report on Lukacs by Michael |
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Week Six |
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psychoanalysis |
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Feb 20 |
Murfin, 297-308; Richter, pp 1106-1119 |
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Feb 22 |
Yonjae Jung, “The ‘Imaginary’ Wilson” and “The Symbolic Father” [from a Case doctoral dissertation, 2000, to be supplied by instructor] |
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Week Seven |
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Feb 27 |
Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” and Diehl (in Murfin), “Re-reading The Letter” Recommended for the brave: Lacan excerpts in Richter. |
387/487, reports on Mulvey by Erin and Jason B. |
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Mar 1 |
Richter, pp 819-836 Recommended: Derrida, “Structure, sign, and Play . . . “ |
theories of language and signification; report on Derrida by Alex |
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Week Eight |
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Mar 6 |
Barthes, “The Structuralist Activity” “The Death of the Author” and “From Work to Text” Recommended: Saussure excerpts in Richter |
report on "The Death of the Author" by Kate; report on "From Work to Text" by Rachel |
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Mar 8 |
Foucault, “What is an Author |
387/487, reports on Foucault by Michael and Paul |
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Spring Break |
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Week Nine |
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Mar 20 |
Derrida, “The Father of Logos” and “Signature Event Context” [to be supplied by instructor] |
387/487: report son Derrida’s “Signature Event Context" by Erin and Jason B. |
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Mar 22 |
de Man, “Semiology and Rhetoric” Recommended: “The Resistance to Theory” [to be supplied by instructor] |
387/487: reports on “Resistance to Theory” by Max and Jason K; report on “Semiology and Rhetoric” by Alex. |
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Week Ten |
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Partisan perspectives; claims about what’s most worthy of attention |
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Mar 27 |
Richter, pp 1502- 1516 and 1611-1625; Murfin 372-388 |
sex and gender |
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Mar 29 |
Benstock (in Richter), Kristeva, “Women’s Time” Recommended: Baym, “Melodramas of Beset Manhood” and Fetterly, “Introduction to The Resisting Reader” |
report on Kristeva by Allyson |
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Week Eleven |
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Apr 3 |
Recommended: |
387/487, reports on Butler by Chris and on Sedgwick by Graham |
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Apr 5 |
Lecture by Kenneth Price on digital scholarship, Dampeer Room, KSL, 1:30 pm |
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Week Twelve |
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Apr 10 |
Richter, pp 1753-1774 Morrison, “From Playing in the Dark” and Anderson, “The Origins of National Consciousness” Recommended: hooks, “Postmodern Blackness” |
subalternship and canonicity
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Apr 12 |
Murfin, pp 412-427 and Thomas (in Murfin), “Citizen Hester” |
civic duty: the new historicism and some versions of cultural studies |
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Week Thirteen |
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Apr 17 |
Richter, pp 1320-1338, Bourdieu, “From Distinction” and Foucault “From The History of Sexuality” |
reports on Bourdieu by Paul and
on Foucault by Jason K. |
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Apr 19 |
Recommended: Guillory, “From Cultural Capital”; Armstrong, “Some Call It Fiction”; Hall, “Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms” and Jameson, “Postmodernism and Consumer Society” |
387/487: reports on Hall by Chris, on Jameson by Rachel, and on Guillory by Allison |
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Week Fourteen |
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Apr 24 |
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A backward look o’er well-travel’s roads and a time for breath-catching; final paper drafts due |
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Apr 26 |
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grand finale: in which goodness triumphs and the double-super-secret literary theorist’s handshake is revealed to all who are worthy |
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Reading Days and
Finals Week |
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May 1 and 2 |
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workshops on final papers, to be scheduled |
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May 7 |
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Final paper due, 12 noon |