English 496Dr. Morillo
Seminar in Literary CriticismHar. 333 MWF 12:25-1:15
Fall 1998Office=Tompkins 103; phone: 515-4163
email = morillo@unity.ncsu.edu
webpage syllabus = http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/users/m/morillo/public/496.htm
Office Hours W, F 10:30-11:30; T, Th 10-11 & 4-5 and by appointment

 

Seminar in Literary Criticism: Classical and Modern Foundations of Theory

Required Texts (books are in NCSU Bookstore; Xeroxes at my office)

Criticism: Major Statements [CMS]. Eds. Charles Kaplan and William Anderson. 3rd. ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.

The Marx-Engels Reader [MER]. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. 2nd. ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1978.

Modern Literary Theory: A Reader [MLT]. Eds. Philip Rice and Patricia Waugh. 3rd. ed. New York: Arnold, 1996.

Freud, Sigmund. New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. Ed. and trans. James Strachey. New York: W. W. Norton, 1990.

Joyce, James. The Dead. Ed. Daniel R. Schwartz. New York: Bedford, 1994.

xeroxes of stories and poems (Fitzgerald "A Diamond As Big as the Ritz"; Lawrence "The Rocking-horse Winner"; Dacre "The Female Philosopher"; Clare "I Am"; Atwood "Spelling")

Class requirements: 4 papers, 40% of the grade: Paper 1 = 1-2 p. summary of critical argument (5%) Paper 2 = 3-4 p. metacritical, comparative (15%) Paper 3 = 1-2 p. summary of critical argument (5%) Paper 4 = 5 p. interpretation of literature (15%).

2 Exams for 40% of the grade: Midterm exam -- closed book, recall and detail (15%) Final exam - open book/notebook 2 hrs. metacritical evaluation of Bedford essay on Joyce novella; 2 hrs. independent interpretation of Joyce (25%)

1 oral presentation (10%): brief summary of critical argument plus focused discussion question about it. Attendance and participation (10%)

Participation includes reading quizzes, and your coming to class prepared, having done the readings and being ready to talk about them intelligently. This is a senior seminar so you will be expected to read dilligently and to contribute to discussions.

You must complete all the required work to pass the class. I grade plus/minus.

Attendance: You are allowed 3 absences. If you are absent, unexcused, more than 3 times over the course of the semester, your absences will count progressively against your final grade.

Plagiarism: Anyone convicted will receive an F for the paper, or the course at my discretion. And yes, I have caught people in the past.

Late Papers: Papers received ONE class session late will be accepted but docked a full grade. No late papers accepted after one class session late.

I. Classical foundations and Constructions

8/17 Introduction: What is Theory?

8/19 Plato, from Republic and Ion pp. 1-20 in CMS

8/21 Plato cont.

8/24 Aristotle, Poetics pp. 21-53 in CMS

8/26 Aristotle cont. Paper one (1-2pp) due.

8/28 Longinus, from On the Sublime pp. 54-93 in CMS

8/31 Sidney, An Apology for Poetry pp. 108-147 in CMS

9/2 Sidney cont.

9/4 Shelley, Defence of Poetry pp. 309-335 in CMS

9/7 Labor Day, no class.

9/9 Shelley cont.

9/11 Horace, Art of Poetry pp. 94-107

9/14 Pope, Essay on Criticism

9/16 Pope cont. Paper two (3-4 pp) due

II. Modern Foundations and Constructions

9/18 Marx. Tucker, introduction in MER, esp. xxii-xxiii.

9/21 "Theses on Feuerbach" pp. 143-5 in MER; "Estranged Labour" pp. 70-81 in MER

9/23 German Ideology, pp. 147-163 in MER

9/25 German Ideology, pp. 164-186

9/28 Capital 1.1 pp. 302-308; Capital 1.4 pp. 319-329

9/30 Marx cont.

10/2 Marxist Literary Theory pp. 51-2 in MLT; Eagleton pp. 551-573 in CMS

10/5 Eagleton pp. 69-72 in MLT; Balibar and Macherey pp. 61-68 in MLT

10/7 Interpretation: Fitzgerald "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz" (short story)

10/9 Midterm Exam

10/12 Fall Break

10/14 Freud. Lecture 1 "Introduction"; Lecture 9 "Censorship"; Lecture 11 "Dream Work"

10/16 Lecture 20 "The Sexual Life of Human Beings"

10/19 Lecture 21 "The Development of the Libido" (the infamous Oedipus Complex)

10/21 Lecture 19 "Resistance and Repression"

10/23 "Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming"

pp. 419-28 in CMS Paper 3 ( 1-2 pp) due

10/26 Interpretation: Lawrence "The Rocking-Horse Winner" (short story)

10/28 Lacan "The Mirror Stage" pp. 123-131 in MLT

10/30 Gilbert & Gubar "Forward into the Past" pp. 763-777 in CMS

11/2 Feminism: Introduction pp. 98-9 in MLT; Woolf "Shakespeare’s Sister" pp. 443-455 in CMS

11/4 Marxist-Feminist Collective, "Women Writing" pp. 109-113 in MLT

11/6 Showalter "Toward a Feminist Poetics" pp. 99-108 in MLT

Interpretation: Dacre "The Female Philosopher" (lyric poem)

11/9 Structuralism, introduction pp. 22-3 in MLT; Barthes "Structural Analysis of Narrative" pp. 595-629 in CMS

11/11 Todorov "How to Read" pp. 630-641 in CMS

11/13 Language and Textuality, pp. 173-175 in MLT; Derrida "Structure, Sign and Play" pp. 515-534

11/16 Derrida cont.

11/18 DeMan "Semiology and Rhetoric" pp. 661-677 in CMS

11/20 History and Discourse pp. 226-29 in MLT; Foucault "The Order of Discourse" pp. 239-49 in MLT

11/23 Interpretation. Paper 4 (5 pp) due

11/25 Interpretation. Advertisement of your choice

11/27 Thanksgiving, no class.

11/30 Joyce The Dead (novella)

12/2 Joyce cont.

12/4 review

12/11 Final exam 1:00-4:00

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