Syllabus
English 3900 Critical Approaches to Literature, Spring 2017
TR 2:00-3:15PM, Arts & Sciences 340B
Professor
Dr. Alex E. Blazer
478.445.0964
Office Hours: MTW 1:15-1:45PM and 5:00-5:30PM, Arts & Sciences 330
The undergraduate course catalog describes English 3900 as "A course studying a variety of critical approaches to selected literary texts. Required for graduation with literature concentration." In this course, we will survey most of the current theoretical approaches to literature: liberal humanism, New Criticism and Russian formalism; structuralism and semiotics; poststructuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism; psychoanalytic criticism; and Marxist criticism. We may cover feminist criticism, lesbian/gay criticism, New Historicism and cultural materialism, postcolonial criticism, stylistics, ecocriticism, existentialism and phenomenology, and reader-response criticism, and cognitive criticism, depending on student selection. For each theory, we will first gain a critical overview from Lois Tyson's Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Next, we will read representative theoretical articles collected in Vincent Leitch's The Norton Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Finally, we will discuss representative works of criticism on various canonical literature and interpret Elizabeth Bishop's "Crusoe in England," F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and Henry James' The Turn of The Screw through the lens of theory. Students will keep a critical reading journal applying the theories to a work of literature; and they will post both a theoretical article summary and a critical reading to the class discussion board and then informally present the responses to the class. The three exams will test students' understanding of the theory as well as their ability to apply the method in literary interpretation. Groups of 3-4 students will present a theory to the class.
This course's Academic Assessment page describes our topics:
- Critical approaches to literature, including postcolonialist, feminist, New Historical, reader response, and deconstruction;
- Canon formation and literary history;
- The application of these various approaches to selected literary texts;
- Literary analysis and interpretation; and
- The use of key terms applied to literary texts.
as well as course outcomes:
- Understand a variety of modern critical approaches to literature;
- Identify these critical approaches by their assumptions, methods, discourse, and/or conclusions;
- Discuss the relative merits and weaknesses of various critical methods;
- Apply several of these critical approaches in closely reasoned and well supported and documented analyses and interpretations of selected literary texts;
- Articulate their critical views clearly in writing and in speech.
Note that this course's prerequisite is English 2200 or permission of the department chair.
required (Amazon or GCSU Bookstore)
Tyson, Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide
Leitch, The Norton Introduction to Theory and Criticism
required (online)
recommended (Amazon or GCSU Bookstore)
Gibaldi, MLA Handbook, 7th ed.
Macey, The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory
recommended
Assignments and Grade Distribution
article summary, 5%
You will summarize on GeorgiaVIEW and then informally present to the class one theoretical essay.
critical reading, 5%
You will interpret on GeorgiaVIEW and then informally present to the class your critical reading of a work of literature applying the ideas of one theoretical essay.
reading journal or blog, 10%
You will keep a reading journal or blog that interprets an outside work of literature from the range of positions held by the various theorists studied in class.
group presentation, 10%
You will divide into groups of 3-4 to formally present a critical theory to the class.
3 exams, 20%, 25%, and 25%
These three exams, the first in-class, second in-class and take-home, and third take-home, will test your knowledge of key concepts as well as your ability to apply critical approaches in interpretations of works of literature.
Technology
We will use the course site for the syllabus schedule and assignment prompts; supporting documents include an attendance record, a course grade calculation spreadsheet, FAQ, a GeorgiaVIEW walkthrough, a guide to literary analysis, a research methods guide, and paper templates. We will use GeorgiaVIEW for assignment submission and the course packet (electronic course reserves); if you experience problems with GeorgiaVIEW, immediately contact support. Check your university email for course-related messages. Use an online backup or cloud storage service to not only save but also archive versions of your work in case of personal computer calamities.
Attendance
Because this liberal arts course values contemporaneous discussion over fixed lecture, regular attendance is required. Any student who misses seven or more classes for any reason (excused or unexcused) will fail the course. There will be a one letter final grade deduction for every unexcused absence beyond three. I suggest you use your three days both cautiously and wisely; and make sure you sign the attendance sheets. Habitual tardies, consistently leaving class early, texting, and surfing the internet will be treated as absences. Unexcused absences include work, family obligations, and scheduled doctor's appointments. Excused absences include family emergency, medical emergency, religious observance, and participation in a college-sponsored activity. If you have a medical condition or an extracurricular activity that you anticipate will cause you to miss more than four days of class, I suggest you drop this section or risk failure. The university class attendance policy can be found here. You can check your attendance in GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Attendance.
MLA Style and Length Requirements
Part of writing in a discipline is adhering to the field's style guide. While other disciplines use APA or Chicago style, literature and composition follows MLA style. In-class exams, discussion board responses, informal/journal writing, and peer review may be informally formatted; however, formal assignments and take-home exams must employ MLA style. One-third of a letter grade will be deducted from a formal paper or take-home exam for problems in each of the following three categories, for a possible one letter grade deduction total: 1) margins, header, and heading, 2) font, font size, and line-spacing, and 3) quotation and citation format. A formal paper or take-home exam will be penalized one-third of a letter grade if it does not end at least halfway down on the minimum page length (not including Works Cited page) while implementing 12 pt Times New Roman font, double-spacing, and 1" margins. Each additional page short of the minimum requirement will result in an a additional one-third letter grade penalty. It is your responsibility to learn how to control your word-processing program. Before you turn in a formal paper, make sure your work follows MLA style by referring to the FAQ handout and using the MLA style checklist. Feel free to use these templates that are preformatted to MLA style.
Late Assignments
We're all busy with multiple classes and commitments, and adhering to deadlines is critical for the smooth running of the course. There will be a one letter assignment grade deduction per day (not class period) for any assignment that is turned in late. I give short extensions if you request one for a valid need at least one day before the assignment is due. I will inform you via email if I cannot open an electronically submitted assignment; however, your assignment will be considered late until you submit it in a file I can open. Because your completion of this course's major learning outcomes depends on the completion of pertinent assignments, failing to submit an assignment that is worth 15% or more of the course grade within a five days of its due date will result in failure of the course. Failing to submit a final exam or final paper within two days of its due date will result in failure of the course.
Academic Honesty
The integrity of students and their written and oral work is a critical component of the academic process. The Honor Code defines plagiarism as "presenting as one's own work the words or ideas of an author or fellow student. Students should document quotes through quotation marks and footnotes or other accepted citation methods. Ignorance of these rules concerning plagiarism is not an excuse. When in doubt, students should seek clarification from the professor who made the assignment." The Undergraduate Catalog defines academic dishonesty as "Plagiarizing, including the submission of others’ ideas or papers (whether purchased, borrowed, or otherwise obtained) as one’s own When direct quotations are used in themes, essays, term papers, tests, book reviews, and other similar work, they must be indicated; and when the ideas of another are incorporated in any paper, they must be acknowledged, according to a style of documentation appropriate to the discipline" and "Submitting, if contrary to the rules of a course, work previously presented in another course," among other false representations. "As plagiarism is not tolerated at GCSU, "since the primary goal of education is to increase one's own knowledge," any student found guilty of substantial, willful plagiarism or dishonesty will fail the assignment and the course. Here is how I have dealt with plagiarists in the past. This course uses plagiarism prevention technology from TurnItIn. The papers may be retained by the service for the sole purpose of checking for plagiarized content in future student submissions.
Passing or Failing of the Course
There are three ways to fail the course: failing to regularly attend class, plagiarizing, failing an assignment that is worth 15% or more of the course grade, be it from poor quality, lateness of submission, or a combination of poor quality and lateness. By contrast, students who regularly attend class, complete their work with academic integrity, and submit assignments on time will pass the course.
The Writing Center
The Writing Center is a free service available to all members of the university community. Consultants assist writers in the writing process, from conception and organization of compositions to revision to documentation of research. Located in Library 228, the Center is open Monday through Friday. Call 445-3370 or email writingcr@gcsu.edu for more information.
Additional Policies
Additional statements regarding the Religious Observance Policy, Assistance for Student Needs Related to Disability, Student Rating of Instruction Survey, Academic Honesty, and Fire Drills can be found here.
- Most of our readings will be in the Tyson and Leitch textbooks; however, follow the links for lecture notes and online readings.
- At some points in the semester, we may have to slow to focus on one theorist while not fully covering the other assigned theorist for the day.
- For every theoretical article you read, select one passage that you can explain in your own words and one passage you have questions about.
- Use The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory as a reference for key terms.
- This schedule is subject to change, so check back in class and online for possible revisions.
Week 1 |
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R, 1-12 |
Overview: Tyson, "Everything You Wanted to Know about Critical Theory But Were Afraid to Ask" (Tyson 1-10 or GeorgiaVIEW) Overview: Tyson, "New Criticism" (Tyson 129-43 or GeorgiaVIEW) Theory: Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" "The Metaphysical Poets" (Leitch 951-68 or GeorgiaVIEW) Recommended: Eagleton, "The Rise of English" |
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Week 2 |
T, 1-17 |
Theory: Ransom, "Criticism, Inc." (Leitch 969-82) Theory: Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase" (Leitch 1213-29) Criticism: Tyson, "The 'Death Song' of Longing: A New Critical Reading of The Great Gatsby" (Tyson 144-60) Primary Text: Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (GeorgiaVIEW) |
R, 1-19 |
Theory: Wimsatt and Beardsley, "The Intentional Fallacy" "The Affective Fallacy" (Leitch 1230-61 or GeorgiaVIEW) Theory: Eichenbaum, from The Theory of the "Formal Method" (Leitch 921-51 or GeorgiaVIEW) Primary Text: Bishop, "Crusoe in England" (GeorgiaVIEW) Criticism: In Class Activity: Bishop and New Criticism |
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Week 3 |
Overview: Tyson, "Structuralist Criticism" (Tyson 198-220) Theory: Saussure, from Course in General Linguistics (Leitch 845-66) Criticism: Tyson, "'Seek and Ye Shall Find' . . . and Then Lose: A Structuralist Reading of The Great Gatsby" (Tyson 221-34) Recommended: Eagleton, "Structuralism and Semiotics" |
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R, 1-26 |
Theory: Jakobson, "Linguistics and Poetics" from "Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances" (Leitch 1141-56) Theory: Frye, "The Archetypes of Literature" (Leitch 1301-15) |
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Week 4 |
T, 1-31 |
Theory: Todorov, "Structural Analysis of Narrative" (Leitch 2021-30) Theory: Barthes, from Mythologies "The Death of the Author" (Leitch 1316-31) Reading Journal Entries 1-2 Due (submit on January 26 if you want feedback before the exam) |
R, 2-2 |
Criticism: In Class Activity: Reviewing the Theories Primary Text: James, The Turn of the Screw (GeorgiaVIEW) |
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Week 5 |
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R, 2-9 |
Poststructuralism and Deconstruction Overview: Tyson, "Deconstructive Criticism" (Tyson 235-51) Overview: Murfin, "What Is Deconstruction?" (GeorgiaVIEW) Criticism: Tyson, "'. . . The Thrilling, Returning Trains of My Youth . . .': A Deconstructive Reading of The Great Gatsby" (Tyson 252-66) Theory: Barthes, "From Work to Text" (Leitch 1316-31) Recommended: Eagleton, "Post-Structuralism" |
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Week 6 |
T, 2-14 |
Theory: Foucault, "What Is an Author?" from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison from The History of Sexuality (Leitch 1469-1521) |
R, 2-16 |
Theory: Derrida, from Of Grammatology from Dissemination (Leitch 1680-1734) |
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Week 7
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T, 2-21 |
Theory: de Man, "Semiology and Rhetoric" (Leitch 1361-78) Criticism: Felman, "Turning the Screw of Interpretation" (GeorgiaVIEW) |
R, 2-23 |
Theory: Austin, "Performative Utterances" (Leitch 1286-1301) Theory: Butler, from Gender Trouble (Leitch 2536-53) Criticism: Teahan, "'I caught him, yes, I told him": The Ghostly Effects of Reading (in) The Turn of the Screw" (GeorgiaVIEW) |
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Week 8 |
T, 2-28 |
Theory: Baudrillard, from "The Precession of Simulacra" (Leitch 1553-66) Theory: Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa" (Leitch 1938-59) |
R, 3-2 |
Overview: Tyson, "Psychoanalytic Criticism" (Tyson 11-37) Overview: Murfin, "What Is Psychoanalytic Criticism?" (GeorgiaVIEW) Theory: Freud, from The Interpretation of Dreams from "The Uncanny" "Fetishism" (Leitch 807-45) Recommended: Eagleton, "Psychoanalysis" |
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Week 9 |
T, 3-7 |
Theory: Bloom, from The Anxiety of Influence (Leitch 1648-59) Theory: Lacan, "The Mirror Stage" "The Signification of the Phallus" (Leitch 1159-69, 1181-9) Criticism: Tyson, "'What's Love Got to Do with It?': A Psychoanalytic Reading of The Great Gatsby" (Tyson 38-50) |
R, 3-9 |
Theory: Kristeva, from Revolution in Poetic Language (Leitch 2067-81) Theory: Deleuze and Guattari, from A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Leitch 1454-62) Criticism: Zacharias, "'The extraordinary flight of heroism the occasion demanded of me': Fantasy and Confession in The Turn of the Screw" (GeorgiaVIEW) |
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Week 10 |
T, 3-14 |
Theory: Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (Leitch 2081-95) Theory: Žižek, "Courtly Love, or, Woman as Thing" (Leitch 2402-27) Criticism: Renner, "'Red Hair, Very Red, Close-Curling': Sexual Hysteria, Physiognomical Bogeymen, and the 'Ghosts' in The Turn of the Screw" (GeorgiaVIEW) |
R, 3-16 |
Overview: Tyson, "Marxist Criticism" (Tyson 51-65) Overview: Murfin, "What Is Marxist Criticism?" (GeorgiaVIEW) Theory: Marx and Engels, from Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, from The German Ideology, from The Communist Manifesto, from Grundrisse, from Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, from Capital Volume 1, and from "Letter from Friedrich Engels to Joseph Bloch" (Leitch 647-76) Recommended: Eagleton, "Categories for a Materialist Criticism" and "Towards a Science of the Text" (GeorgiaVIEW) |
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Week 11 |
T, 3-21 |
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R, 3-23 |
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Week 12 |
T, 3-28 |
Theory: Trotsky, from Literature and Revolution (Leitch 877-92) Theory: Lukács, from The Historical Novel (Leitch 905-21) Criticism: Tyson, "You Are What You Own: A Marxist Reading of "The Great Gatsby" (Tyson 66-78) |
R, 3-30 |
Theory: Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility" (Leitch 1046-71) Theory: Horkheimer and Adorno, from "The Culture Industry" (Leitch 1107-27) |
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Week 13 |
T, 4-4 |
Theory: Williams, "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory" (Leitch 1420-37) Theory: Jameson, "from The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act" (Leitch 1818-46) Criticism: Robbins, "'They don't much count, do they?" The Unfinished History of The Turn of the Screw" (GeorgiaVIEW) |
R, 4-6 |
Theory: Althusser, from "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (Leitch 1332-61) Theory: Hall, "Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies" (Leitch 1779-95) |
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Week 14 |
Catch Up Day / Group Conferences |
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R, 4-13 |
Group Presentation: Feminism and Gender Studies Overview: Tyson, "Feminist Criticism" (Tyson 79-128) Theory: Sedgwick, from Epistemology of the Closet (Leitch 2470-7) |
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Week 15 |
T, 4-18 |
Group Presentation: Reader-Response Criticism Overview: Tyson, "Reader-Response Criticism" (Tyson 161-97) Theory: Fish, "Interpreting the Variorum" (Leitch 1970-92) |
R, 4-20 |
Group Presentation 3: Existentialism Overview: Solomon, Introduction, Existentialism (GeorgiaVIEW) Theory: Beauvoir, from The Second Sex (Leitch 1261-73) |
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Week 16 |
T, 4-25 |
Group Presentation 4: Postcolonial Criticism Overview: Tyson, "Postcolonial Criticism" (Tyson 398-447) Theory: Fanon, from The Wretched of the Earth (Leitch 1437-46) |
R, 4-27 |
Overview: Tyson, "Gaining an Overview" (Tyson 448-54) |
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Finals |
W, 5-3 |