Syllabus
English 3900 Critical Theory, Fall 2023
TR 2:00-3:15 p.m., Arts & Sciences 340A
Professor
Dr. Alex E. Blazer
478.445.0964
Office Hours: TR 12:30-1:45 p.m. and T 3:30-4:45 p.m., Arts & Sciences 330 and Microsoft Teams, appointment preferred
The undergraduate course catalog describes English 3900 as "A course surveying a variety of critical approaches to selected literary, film, and new media texts." In this course, we will survey many of the current theoretical approaches to literature: formalism, structuralism, psychoanalytic criticism, phenomenology, post-structuralism, psychoanalytic criticism, Marxist criticism, historical studies; gender studies, ethinic studies, postcolonial criticism, cognitive criticism, and ecocriticism. For each theory, we will first gain a critical overview from Lois Tyson's Critical Theory Today. Next, we will read representative theoretical articles collected in Vincent B. Leitch's The Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism. Finally, we will practice using critical theory with selected texts: a poem, a novel, a play, a film, a television show, and a graphic novel. Students will summarize a theoretical article and apply a theoretical article. The three essay exams will test students' understanding of the theory as well as their ability to apply the method in literary and filmic interpretation. Student groups will present a theory to the class.
This course's topics include
- Critical approaches to literature, film, and new media, including postcolonialist, poststructuralist, feminist, cultural studies, and film studies;
- The application of these various approaches to selected literary and film text;
- Literary analysis and film interpretation; and
- The use of key terms applied to literary texts across poetry, fiction, drama, film, television and graphic literature.
As a result of completing this course, students will
- Understand a variety of modern critical approaches to literature and film;
- 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 and film texts;
- Articulate their critical views clearly in writing and in speech.
Skills practiced in this course include
- critical and theoretical thinking;
- analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information;
- written and oral communication;
- teamwork; and
- time management.
Our democracy needs citizens who can comprehend and assess complex issues presented across a wide array of media and who can judge and mediate distinct, divergent perspectives. Employers desire graduates who can write and communicate well; who can analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information; who have organizational, time management, and teamwork skills; and who appreciate diverse viewpoints. The courses and programs in the Department of English, which is the cornerstone of a liberal arts education, will help you practice these skills and become a lifelong learner and informed citizen.
This course is required for both the Literature Concentration and the Film, Media, and Culture Concentration of the English Major. This course's prerequisite is English 2200 or permission of the department chair.
required (Amazon or University Bookstore)
Leitch, The Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism, 3rd ed.
Tyson, Critical Theory Today, 4th ed.
required
Condé, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem | 2 | 3
Moore and Bolland, Batman: The Killing Joke
Waller-Bridge, Flea Bag, season 1, episodes 1 and 2
recommended
MLA Handbook, 9th ed. (Amazon)
Assignments and Grade Distribution
article summary, 5%
You will summarize one theoretical essay and share your informal summary with the class.
article application, 5%
You will apply one theoretical essay to the reading of a text and then share your informal application with the class.
group presentation, 5%
You will work with a group to formally present a critical theory to the class.
3 exams, 25%, 30%, and 30%
These three exams (exam 1, exam 2, and exam 3) will test your knowledge of key concepts of critical theory as well as your ability to apply critical approaches in interpretations of texts. Here's how to calculate your final grade.
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; if you experience technical issues with GeorgiaVIEW, contact the Center for Teaching and Learning at ctl@gcsu.edu or 478.445.2520. 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. In courses that meet two days per week, there will be a one letter final grade deduction for every unexcused absence beyond three; furthermore, any student who misses seven or more classes for any reason (excused or unexcused) will be dropped from the course and fail. In courses that meet one day per week, there will be a one letter final grade deducation for every unexcused absence beyond two; furthermore, any student who misses four or more classes for any reason (excused or unexcused) will be dropped from the course and fail. I suggest you use your skip days both cautiously and wisely; and make sure you sign the attendance sheets. Habitual tardies, consistently leaving class early, texting, and web surfing 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, extracurricular activity, or job that you anticipate will cause you to excessively miss class, I suggest you drop this section. The CDC COVID isolation and exposure calculator can be found here. The university absence policy can be found here. You can check your class attendance record here.
MLA Style and Length Requirements
An import 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 follow MLA style. Assignments such as 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. Before you turn in a formal paper, make sure your work follows MLA style by referring to 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 five days of its due date may result in failure of the course. Failing to submit a final exam or final paper within two days of its due date may 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 and Graduate Catalog define 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 may fail the assignment and the course. 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.
Writing Center
Writing consultants will work with any student writer working on any project in any discipline. To learn more about Writing Center locations, hours, scheduling, and services, please visit here. Send questions to writing.center@gcsu.edu.
Required Syllabus Statements
Additional statements regarding the Religious Observance Policy, Assistance for Student Needs Related to Disability, Student Mental Health, Student Rating of Instruction Survey, Academic Honesty, Student Use of Copyrighted Materials, Electronic Recording Policy, Academic Grievance or Appeals, and Fire Drills can be found here.
- Readings will be in Tyson's Critical Theory Today (CTT), Leitch's The Norton Anthology of Theory & Criticism (NATC), or the course packet (GeorgiaVIEW). Follow the links for lecture notes.
- For every theoretical article you read, select one passage that you can explain in your own words and one passage you have questions about.
- This schedule is subject to change.
Week 1 |
T, 8-22 |
|
R, 8-24 |
Formalism: Liberal Humanism, New Criticism, and Russian Formalism Overview: Tyson, "Everything You Wanted to Know about Critical Theory But Were Afraid to Ask" (CTT 1-8 or GeorgiaVIEW) Overview: Tyson, "New Criticism" (CTT 121-33 or GeorgiaVIEW) Theory: Ransom, "Criticism, Inc." (NATC 899-911 or GeorgiaVIEW) |
|
Week 2 |
T, 8-29 |
Theory: Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase" (NATC 1179-94) Theory: Wimsatt and Beardsley, "The Intentional Fallacy" and "The Affective Fallacy" (NATC 1195-1210) Criticism: Tyson, "The 'Death Song' of Longing: A New Critical Reading of The Great Gatsby" (CTT 134-48) |
R, 8-31 |
Theory: Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (NATC 881-90) Theory: Leavis, from The Great Tradition: George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Conrad (NATC 1050-63) |
|
Week 3 |
T, 9-5 |
Structuralism: Semiotics, Genre Criticism, Narratology, Interpretive Conventions Overview: Tyson, "Structuralist Criticism" (CTT 182-213) Theory: Saussure, from Course in General Linguistics (NATC 820-40) |
R, 9-7 |
Theory: Jakobson, "Linguistics and Poetics" and from "Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances" (NATC 1064-78) Theory: Frye, "The Archetypes of Literature" (NATC 1238-61) |
|
Week 4 |
T, 9-12 |
Theory: Todorov, "Structural Analysis of Narrative" (NATC 1916-24) Theory: Barthes, from Mythologies and "The Death of the Author" (NATC 1262-71) |
R, 9-14 |
Moretti, from Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History (NATC 2252-79) |
|
Week 5 |
T, 9-19 |
|
R, 9-21 |
Poststructuralism: Deconstruction & Postmodernism Overview: Tyson, "Deconstructive Criticism" (CTT 214-41) Theory: Barthes, "From Work to Text" (NATC 1277-81) |
|
|
T, 9-26 |
Theory: Foucault, "What Is an Author?" from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison from The History of Sexuality (NATC 1388-1439) |
R, 9-28 |
Theory: Derrida, from Dissemination from Specters of Marx (NATC 1602-45) |
|
Week 7 |
T, 10-3 |
Theory: de Man, "Semiology and Rhetoric" (NATC 1313-26) |
R, 10-5 |
Theory: Austin, "Performative Utterances" (NATC 1234-47) Theory: Butler, from Gender Trouble (NATC 2372-88) |
|
Week 8 |
T, 10-10 |
No Class: Fall Break |
R, 10-12 |
Theory: Baudrillard, from "The Precession of Simulacra" (NATC 1480-92) Theory: Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa" (NATC 1865-85) |
|
Week 9 |
T, 10-17 |
Overview: Tyson, "Psychoanalytic Criticism" (CTT 9-42) Theory: Freud, from The Interpretation of Dreams from "The Uncanny" "Fetishism" (NATC 783-820) |
R, 10-19 |
Theory: Bloom, from The Anxiety of Influence (NATC 1572-82) Theory: Lacan, "The Mirror Stage" "The Signification of the Phallus" (NATC 1105-16, 1129-37) Recommended Theory: Gherovici, "Depathologizing Trans" (GeorgiaVIEW) |
|
Week 10 |
T, 10-24 |
Theory: Kristeva, from Revolution in Poetic Language (NATC 1939-51) Theory: Deleuze and Guattari, from A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (NATC 1367-70, 1374-82) |
R, 10-26 |
Theory: Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (NATC 1952-65) Theory: Kaplan, from Trauma Culture: The Politics of Terror and Loss in Media and Literature (NATC 1853-64) |
|
Week 11 |
T, 10-31 |
Writing Day: Bring Your Laptops |
R, 11-2 |
Historical Criticism: Marxist Criticism, New Historicism, Cultural Criticism Overview: Tyson, "Marxist Criticism" (CTT 43-69) Overview: Tyson, "New Historical and Cultural Criticism" (CTT 242-71) 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, from "Letter from Friedrich Engels to Joseph Bloch" (NATC 652-80) Recommended Theory: Eagleton, "Categories for a Materialist Criticism" and "Towards a Science of the Text" (GeorgiaVIEW) |
|
Week 12 |
T, 11-7 |
Theory: Lukács, from The Historical Novel (NATC 866-80) Theory: Williams, "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory" (NATC 1335-50) |
R, 11-9 |
||
Week 13 |
T, 11-14 |
Theory: Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility" (NATC 973-96) Theory: Horkheimer and Adorno, from "The Culture Industry" (NATC 1030-49) |
R, 11-16 |
Theory: Althusser, from "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (NATC 1282-30) Theory: Jameson, "from The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act" (NATC 1731-57) |
|
Week 14 |
T, 11-21 |
Theory: Hall, "Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies" (NATC 1702-16) Theory: Hebdige, from Subculture: The Meaning of Style (NATC 2305-16) |
R, 11-23 |
No Class: Thanksgiving Holidays |
|
Week 15 |
T, 11-28 |
Overview: Tyson, "Reader-Response Criticism" (CTT 149-81) Theory: Fish, from Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities (NATC 1896-1909) |
R, 11-30 |
Overview: Tyson, "Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Criticism" (CTT 273-312) Theory: Sedgwick, from Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire from Epistemology of the Closet (NATC 2277-92) |
|
Week 16 |
T, 12-5 |
Overview: Tyson, "Feminist Criticism" (CTT 70-120) Theory: Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence" (NATC 1513-34) Theory: Bordo, from Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (NATC 2094-111) |
R, 12-7 |
Overview: Tyson, "Postcolonial Criticism" (CTT 363-409) Theory: Said, from Orientalism from Culture and Imperialism (NATC 1780-1821) |
|
Finals |
T, 12-12 |