Dr. Alex E. Blazer Course Site Syllabus
First Day Questionnaire Article Summary 1 Article Summary 2
Exam 1 Exam 2  

Assignments

Critical Theory

English 491-75: Interpretive Theory: The New Criticism to the Present

Fall 2005, MW 5:30-6:45PM, Bingham Humanities Bldg 223

First Day Questionnaire

I would greatly appreciate it if you would complete the following questionnaire in Blackboard > Assignments > Questionnaire by Tuesday, August 23. This survey is completely optional. I simply want to get a sense of the class's exposure to critical theory, and this questionnaire will give you practice with Blackboard if you need it.

 

1. What is your name?


2. If it is not apparent from the roster, how do you pronounce your name?


3. Do you prefer to be called something other than the name which appears on the roster?

4. What is and/or what are your favorite work(s) of literature (poem, play, film, television show, novel, or short story)?

5. Do you have any prior experience with critical theory?

6. How do you feel about critical theory and/or taking a class in critical theory?

Article Summary 1: Theory

You will summarize and then present to the class two essays, one theoretical (Summary 1: Theory) and one interpretive (Summary 2: Criticism). Once in the semester, you will summarize a particular theorist's essay, or group of essays, and post your summary to our course discussion board: Blackboard > Assignments > Article Summaries. Typically this due date will be the Wednesday before the class discusses the work. If there is more than one essay by the author, see the accompanying note to determine which essay you may summarize. The summary should

You will also be responsible for an informal, 3 minute presentation which introduces the essay by defining key points and terms, without simply reading your written summary, and broaches issues for class discussion. Approximately one week after submission, your graded response will be returned to you in Blackboard > My Grades > Summary 1: Theory.

 

Note: As I wrote on the syllabus course schedule, we may have to slow down for certain theorists and theories. We will not be able to discuss each and every article in class. Thus, some articles may only be summarized on Blackboard's Article Summaries discussion board and presented to the class by the person assigned to the article. Therefore, it is extremely important for each person to turn in the summaries on time and attend class for the presentation component. Summaries will be penalized one letter grade for each day, not class period, that they are turned in late. Failing to present the article to the class without providing a valid absence excuse will result in a one letter grade penalty.

 

NOTE: Your written article summary will be due to Blackboard on the Wednesday before we discuss an essay in class and you do your informal presentation.

 

Week Due Date Article Student
Week 1 W, 8-24

New Criticism

Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase" and "The Formalist Critics" [summarize one or both]

Katie Brown

Ransom, "Criticism, Inc."

Daniel Davis

Wimsatt and Beardsley, "The Intentional Fallacy" and "The Affective Fallacy" [summarize one or both]

 
Week 2 W, 8-31 none none
Week 3 W, 9-7

Poststructuralism

Foucault, "What Is an Author?"

Maryanna Watts
Foucault, from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison Michelle Smock
Butler, from Gender Trouble Melissa Offutt
Week 4 W, 9-14 de Man, "Semiology and Rhetoric" [summarize only "Semiology and Rhetoric"]  

Derrida, from Of Grammatology

Di'yana Howard
Derrida, from Dissemination

Anthony Cekay

Week 5 W, 9-21

Baudrillard, from "The Precession of Simulacra"

 
Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa" Bryan Young

Marxism

Trotsky, from Literature and Revolution

Vanessa Coleman
Ryan Fenwick
Week 6 W, 9-28 Lukács, "Realism in the Balance" Brendan Higginbotham
Horkheimer and Adorno, from Dialectic of Enlightenment Danielle Baines
Week 7 W, 10-5 Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" Cassie Miller
Week 8 W, 10-12

Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" [summarize only "Ideology and ISAs"]

Jesse Houk

Jameson, from "The Political Unconscious"

Rhys Cundiff
Jameson, "Postmodernism and Consumer Society" Betsy Wade
Week 9 W, 10-19

Psychoanalysis

Freud, from The Interpretation of Dreams

Stephanie Armstrong
Freud, "The Unconscious" Kevin Webb
Bloom, Introduction, The Anxiety of Influence

none

Week 10 W, 10-26

Lacan, "The Mirror Stage"

Angela McKenzie

Lacan, from "The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious" Matt Mattingly
Kristeva, from Revolution in Poetic Language Fran Schueler
Week 11 W, 11-2

Deleuze and Guattari, from A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia [summarize only A Thousand Plateaus]

Heather Martin

Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"

Robin Durham

Week 12 W, 11-9

Reader-Response Criticism

Iser, "Interaction between Text and Reader"

Raymond Ott

Norman Wilcox

Poulet, "Phenomenology of Reading" Kristen Blythe
Week 13 W, 11-16 Sartre, from What Is Literature? Ben Unwin
Week 14 W, 11-23 Fish, "Interpreting the Valorium"

none

Jauss, from "Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory" none
Week 15 none

none

none
Finals none none none

Article Summary 2: Criticism

Once in the semester, you will summarize an interpretive essay on The Awakening, The Great Gatsby, The Turn of the Screw, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, or Hamlet, which exemplifies one of four theoretical methodologies, poststructuralism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, or reader-response criticism, and post your summary to our course discussion board: Blackboard > Assignments > Article Summaries. Typically this due date will be the Wednesday before the class discusses the work. The summary should

You will also be responsible for an informal, 3 minute presentation which introduces the essay by defining its thesis and method as well as evaluating its interpretive usefulness, without simply reading your written summary. Students who are summarizing the same article should coordinate with one another so their informal presentations do not overlap. Approximately one week after submission, your graded summary will be returned to you in Blackboard > My Grades > Summary 2: Criticism.

 

Note: As I wrote on the syllabus course schedule, we may have to slow down for certain theorists and theories. We will not be able to discuss each and every article in class. Thus, some articles may only be summarized on Blackboard's Article Summary discussion board and presented to the class by the person assigned to the article. Therefore, it is extremely important for each person to turn in the summaries on time and attend class for the presentation component. Summaries will be penalized one letter grade for each day, not class period, that they are turned in late. Failing to present the article to the class without providing a valid absence excuse will result in a one letter grade penalty.

 

NOTE: Your written article summary will be due to Blackboard on the Wednesday before we discuss an essay in class and you do your informal presentation.

 

Week Due Date Article Student
Week 1 none none none
Week 2 W, 8-31

Poststructuralism

Tyson on Fitzgerald, "A Deconstructive Reading of TGG"

none
Week 3 W, 9-7 Yaeger on Chopin, "'A Language Which Nobody Understood'" Daniel Davis
Week 4 W, 9-14 Felman on James, "A Child Is Killed in TTotS" Danielle Baines
Herr on Joyce, "Deconstructing Dedalus" Jesse Houk
Week 5 W, 9-21 Garber on Shakespeare, "H: Giving Up the Ghost" Angela McKenzie

Marxism

Tyson on Fitgerald, "A Marxist Reading of TGG"

Di'Yana Howard
Maryanna Watts
Week 6 W, 9-28 Rowe on Chopin, "The Economics of the Body in KC's TA" Kristen Blythe
Robbins on James, "The Unfinished History of TToS" Heather Martin
Week 7 W, 10-5 Naremore on Joyce, "Consciousness and Society in APotA" Vanessa Coleman
Raymond Ott
Week 8 W, 10-12 Bristol on Shakespeare, "Carnival and the Carnivalesque in H" Michele Smock
Ben Unwin
Week 9 W, 10-19

Psychoanalysis

Tyson on Fitzgerald, "A Psychoanalytic Reading of TGG "

Fran Schueler
McGowan on Chopin, "TA of Desire" Katie Brown
Robin Durham
Week 10 W, 10-26 Renner on James, "Sexual Hysteria, . . . and the 'Ghosts' in TTotS" Betsy Wade
Brivic on Joyce, "The Disjunctive Structure of J's P" Todd Wilcox
Week 11 W, 11-2 Adelman on Shakespeare, "H and the Confrontation with the Maternal Body" Anthony Cekay
Cassie Miller
Week 12 W, 11-9

Reader-Response Criticism

Tyson on Fitzgerald, "A Reader-Response Reading of TGG"

Brendan Higginbotham
Bryan Young
Treichler on Chopin, "The Construction of Ambiguity in TA" Melissa Offutt
Week 13 W, 11-16 Booth on James, "Are We Blessed or Cursed by Our Life with TTotS?" Matt Mattingly
Week 14 W, 11-23 Holland on Joyce, "AP as Rebellion" Ryan Fenwick
Kevin Webb
Booth on Shakespeare, "On the Value of H" Stephanie Armstrong
Rhys Cundiff
Week 15 none

none

none
Finals none none none

Exam 1

The first exam will be composed of two 5-7 page essays. In the first essay, you will define and debate the key terms of what constitutes meaning for New Criticism and poststructuralism. In the second essay, you will apply New Critical and poststructuralist methodologies to either a short story or a few poems.

Exam 2

The second exam will be composed of two 6-8 page essays. In the first essay, you will define and debate the key terms of what constitutes meaning (in the world and in literature) for two of the following three interpretive theories: Marxism, psychoanalysis, and reader-response criticism. In the second essay, you will apply those same two theories from the first essay, using a different set of particular theorists, to a work of literature of your choice, a novel, short story, poem or set of poems, play, film, or television program

Student Text Theorists
Stephanie Armstrong Carroll, Through the Looking Glass Freud and Iser
Danielle Baines Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God Horkheimer & Adorno and Kristeva
Kristen Blythe Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun Brivic and Jameson
Katie Brown Selby, Jr., Last Exit to Brooklyn Althusser and Lacan
Anthony Cekay Hughes, Crow Gramsci and Iser
Vanessa Coleman Tykwer, The Princess and the Warrior Althusser and Freud
Rhys Cundiff Kafka, The Trial Lukács and Sartre
Robin Durham Palahniuk, Choke Bloom and Trotsky
Ryan Fenwick Hejinian, My Life Kristeva and Poulet
Brendan Higginbotham Peckinpah, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia Iser and Lacan
Jesse Houk The Critic

Althusser and Sartre

Heather Martin Wright, "Long Black Song" Althusser and Freud
Matt Mattingly DeLillo, White Noise Deleuze & Guattari and Jameson
Angela McKenzie Singleton, Baby Boy Fish and Freud
Cassie Miller Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day Bloom and Iser
Melissa Offutt Ridley, The Passion of Darkly Noon Freud and Holland
Raymond Ott Butler, Kindred Althusser and Iser
Fran Schueler Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" Fish and Freud
Michelle Smock Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" Jauss and Lacan
Ben Unwin Jonze, Adaptation Freud and Horkheimer & Adorno
Betsy Wade Coen, The Big Lebowski Freud and Jameson
Maryanna Watts Brooks, As Good as It Gets Althusser and Freud
Kevin Webb Six Feet Under Freud and Horkheimer & Adorno
Todd Wilcox Miller, The Crucible Althusser and Freud
Bryan Young Wilder, Double Indemnity Mulvey and Poulet