ENGLISH
4538: LITERARY CRITICISM MW 5-6:15, Newton 2206
D. H. Thomson; e-mail address: <dhthom@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu> Newton 2220B/x0232. Office Hours MWF 9-10, MW 4-5 (and by app't)
· SYLLABUS AND COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Immanuel Kant
Friedrich
Nietzsche
COURSE
DESCRIPTION
The course in Literary
Criticism has two closely allied goals: 1) a close study of the HISTORY of
literary commentary from Plato to the present; 2) a practical survey of
contemporary critical approaches and THEORY. The course provides students not
only an understanding of the great tradition of Literary Criticism but a chance
to reflect on their own literary and critical interests.
- The History of Literary Criticism: The study of the great tradition of critical commentary, beginning with Plato's attacks on poetry and ending with the writings of some important 20th critics, offers a history in miniature of literature and its sister arts throughout the ages. All the big issues are raised: the ethical value of poetry; its impact--good and bad--on its various audiences; the relation of literature to science, philosophy, history and the other arts; high literary culture vs. low; the material base of aesthetic experience; gender and the question of the other--the list goes on. In this survey students also find some of the most memorable affirmations of the study of literature. You'll come to look at your selection of literature as a field of concentration in a whole new light. A special feature of this year’s course will be the inclusion and study of brief literary works from each historical period in terms of how they relate to the critical writings of the time.
- Critical Approaches: Have you ever been perplexed (or perhaps delighted?) by coming across a particularly ingenious interpretation and wondering where in the world the teacher or writer came up with that reading? Welcome to the world of critical approaches, in which you'll study an impressive array of various schools of literary theory: scholarly; formalist; pyschologial; cultural; feminist; post-structuralist; hypertextual (lit. and the www). Our textbook does not just "theorize" about these approaches but applies them to clear readings of certain well-known, shorter literary works. You'll gain hands-on training in the practice of advanced literary interpretation and gain confidence in saying what you want to say.
· Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent Leitch and others.
·
A Handbook of Critical Approaches to
Literature (
· a literary text of our choosing
SYLLABUS (tests and due dates in bold
red)
[names of student reporters in green]
Section I: The History of Literary Criticism
August 21 . . . . Introduction to the Course. The Abrams Model. “Introduction to Theory and Criticism” 1-28.
26 . . . . . Prelude to Literary Criticism: What the myths tell us about artistic power (visit The Major Greek and Roman Gods and Myths; emphasis on Deucalion and Pyhrra, Daedalus, Orpheus, Odysseus). Classical Poetics: Plato’s case against the poets: 33-85
28 . . . . finish Plato. Gorgias 29-32. Go here for the sample outline for oral reports (modeled on Plato). Go here for a page explaining the parts of a classical argument, which will help you discern the structure of some of the essays we will read.
4 . . . . Aristotle 86-120. Cory Parrott
9, 11. . . . Longinus 135-154. Literary Excursion: Blake’s “The Tyger.” Study Glossary of Rhetorical Terms and here’s another: A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms. You’ll need to know these for the test on the S. 18: alliteration; anaphora; antithesis; aporia; apostrophe; assonance; asyndeton; catachresis; chiasmus; euphemism; hyperbole; irony; metaphor; metonymy; onomatopoeia; oxymoron; paradox; paronomasia; personification; polysyndeton; simile; syllepsis; synecdoche; zeugma. Horace 121-134. Finish Classical poetics and literary criticism.
16 . . . . Begin Medieval Poetics: Augustine 185-195; Macrobius 196-200;
Aquinas 240-245; Dante 246-248, 251-252. Danny
Morrison
18 . . . . Test on Rhetorical terms. Continue medieval poetics. Moses Maimonides 211-226
23 . . . . Literary Excursion: Dante: Canto I of the Inferno; Chaucer: The Pardoner’s Tale and Prologue. You can also visit Harvard’s general note on the Pardoner. Also see the Serious vs. the Playful Thinker
25 . . . . Renaissance Poetics: Christine de Pizan 263-270; Sidney 323-362.
Sept. 30 . . . . Literary Excursion: selected sonnets. You can also go to a study
guide I have prepared; ignore the instructions for an assignment designed
for another class. First take-home exam, due Oct. 7
Oct. 2, 7 . . . Neoclassical Poetics: Corneille 363-378; Pope 438-457; Johnson 458-465, 468-479.
9,14 . . . Romantic Poetics: Kant: 519-535 (John Harris); Coleridge 668-681; Shelley 695-716: Anna Geiss
16 . . . Literary Excursion: Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” and maybe a few other shorter lyrics.
21, 23 . . . Nineteenth Century Criticism: Arnold 802-824 vs. Nietzsche 870-894. We’ll also chart some other favorite Victorian oppositions. Arthur Henry Hallam: Kortni Potter. Identify and define at least one dialectic (contrasting of terms) in the essays of Arnold (students with last name beginning A-M) and Nietzsche (N-Z). Extra-credit available for those who find and define more than one or do a particularly good job of explaining the importance of the dialectic. Literary Excursion: Tennyson, “The Lady of Shalott.”
28 . . . On the threshold of Modernist Criticism and the Institutionalization of Literary Studies: Eliot 1088-109: David Cox. Begin discussion of Critical Approaches. For our brief survey of critical approaches (7 lessons), we’ll rely primarily on the Guerin text, which provides a very clear and readable overview of the approaches. But see the “Alternative Table of Contents” in the Norton text (xxi-xxiv), which list writings of seminal 20th C. critics under each approach or school. Oral reports on these figures would be especially helpful. Zora Neale Hurston: Ashley Arnold Second take-home exam due Nov. 4
Section
II: Critical approaches to Literature
(readings refer to page numbers in Guerin text)
Oct. 30 Begin Traditional Scholarly Approaches 1-65. Virginia Woolf: Sam Pierce
Nov. 4: continue Traditional
Scholarly Approaches: 1-65. Brief 10 point assignment for next class (formalism): Cite a brief passage from an earlier
critic which anticipates the issues addressed by formalist critics. In other words, what is formalist about
the passage you have found in an earlier critic?
6: Formalism: 70-124 Anna Geiss: Cleanth Brooks
11: Psychoanalytic approaches: 125-195 Freud: Kofi Broadnax; Brooke Brenan: Harold Bloom
13: Marxist approaches: tba; Terrence McDonald
18: Feminist Approaches: 196-238. Helene Cixous: Jenny Theologus; Simone de Beauvoir:
Mandy Hayes. Cite from one of these
two authors or from the Geurin text a passage that reveals feminism’s interest
or engagement with one of the four areas from the Abrams model. Explain your choice.
20: Structuralism and Deconstruction: 337-342 Josh Ferguson: Walter Benjamin
25: New Historicism, Multiculturalism. 239-301. Becky Ott: Bell Hooks. Also see An Introduction to Literary Theory. This class we’ll also set up the parameters of the debate and the final assignment.
Dec. 2, 4 : Discussion and
debate over issues raised by Larissa MacFarquhar’s “The Prophet of Decline:
Harold Bloom’s Anxiety and Influence.”
The New Yorker.
Monday Dec.
9:
The final essay assignment:
Taken together, the arguments of Steven Willet and Harold Bloom represent a call for the return to the traditional understanding of literary studies. Both express great skepticism about recent critical schools, such as Marxist, feminist, and cultural approaches, that shift the standards of literary evaluation away from aesthetic standards of artistic excellence to the demands of social and political agendas. Bloom has gone so far as to label these more recent approaches “The School of Resentment” (MacFarquhar 95), consisting of a group of emerging university critics who are unwilling or unable to recognize what constitutes literary genius. Both Willet and Bloom uphold the idea of a traditional canon and see the widening of literary studies to include non-literary texts, minor genres, and popular culture as characteristic of a crisis in the humanities.
In an essay of at least five well-developed paragraphs, have your say and take a position on this issue. You can agree with or attack the position of Bloom and/or Willet, or you can modify the terms of the argument. Be sure in your essay to draw from (that means quote from) at least two of the critics that we have read this term; close attention to the article on Bloom is also necessary, and you can also draw from the Geurin text. Be sure to acknowledge your sources
Below find some more specific “debating points” that you may wish to consider:
1. Literary studies should deny the separation of high and low or elite and popular culture.
2. The sole aim of studying literature is to understand how the literary text illuminates the political and economic nature of its culture.
3. Any canon of prescribed literary works (the basis for a curriculum of study) must by necessity be exclusionary and discriminatory.
4. Literary studies must dispense with evaluative criteria such as “excellence,” “genius,” “universality,” “uniqueness,” “permanence,” etc.
5. Multicultural studies must take precedence over gaining literacy in the Western (European / American) tradition.
6. Literary texts, especially from the great tradition, are of little use in helping freshman learn to write; they are too difficult and provide models of written expression that cannot be emulated (or even understood) by underclassmen; better choices would be texts from popular culture, current events, or adolescent literature. The main purpose of college writing classes should be to help students find their own unique “voices” or modes of expression; the big ideas and styles of the great writers do not prove useful in achieving this goal.
7. Georgia Southern should not require all of its English majors to take both surveys in British literature and at least one in American literature (too Anglo-American centric). Note: you can on this issue consider other curricular changes to the major.
8. Course “such and such” (your choice) should / should not be required of/ offered to English majors or all Georgia Southern students.
One big final note for your paper:
no matter what position you take on whatever issue, be sure to include
treatment of the opposing point of view. That’s what will make your paper an argument.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
a 50 point test on rhetorical terms; an oral report on literary critic (50 points); 2 take-home exams covering the History of Literary Criticism section, worth 50 points each (100 points total). a take-home final exam on critical approaches (100 points). Total = 300 points.
Attendance and participation in class discussion are essential for success
in this class. I will occasionally
ask for shorter, informal reports or for students to formulate some questions
that might start class discussion.
Credit for these shorter assignments and class participation
activities will amount to 50 points, which the student may substitute for the
lowest of the 50 point factors defined in the above paragraph.
· Voice of the Shuttle Literary Theory Page: a superb gateway of links and information
· An Undergraduate Introduction to Literary Theory: lucid introductions to postmodern theory tied to a specific readings
. A Literary
Lexicon: basic definitions of
literary terms
· A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms: your first exercise may include examples from this site
. The Virtual Classroom Glossary of Literary Terms
GUIDELINES FOR THE ORAL REPORT
Each student will deliver an oral report on a figure from the critical tradition You can choose any critic from the Norton anthology, whether listed on the syllabus or not. Each report will be accompanied by an outline for other members of the class (and me).
Each outline will be in three parts:
· Major critical formulations: the heart of you report. Drawing (quoting) from the text you've chosen, articulate three or four of the critic's key ideas.
· Influence/Contribution to the Tradition: Briefly assess the importance of the critic in terms of influence and place in the tradition.
Each outline will also end with a Works Cited section. See my Plato report as a
sample outline.
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Grades 50 50 50 50 50* 100 = total of 300
ss#
terms test
take home 1
take home 2
oral
misc. /40
final
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- the miscellaneous category may substitute for the lowest of the other 50 point factors. Each X = 10 points. An underline (_) means the student did not take the opportunity of earning points.
- Small x under oral report indicates student has chosen his or her critic.
Willet’s “Checklist for Poetic Excellence”
What follows below are Steven Willet's criteria for great poetic art, art that deserves high canonical status. Willet formulates these to contest the recent insistence by some critics that many once neglected women poets of the Romantic period should join the canon: although many have praised the poems of a Mary Robinson, A. L. Barbauld, and Felicia Heamons, for example, Willet argues they don't measure up to the criteria. His is something of an Arnoldian argument but grounded in the classical (both western and eastern) rhetorical tradition; it's anything but politically correct. See what you think:
I certainly do think there are some fairly simple, time-tested and true principles for assessing poetry:
1. Craftsmanship in versification over a wide range of genres;
2. Exploitation of the poetic tradition as given to the poet;
3. Verbal creativity in imagery, simile, metaphor and aural effects--the "incarnadine" factor;
4. Emotional intensity or, as Pseudo-Longinus has it, "hypsos" ("elevation");
5. Broad range of stylistic registers;
7. Deft use of semantic density and polysemy and/or
8. Deft use of complex simplicity;
9. Mastery of rhetoric;
10. Avoidance of trite, simplistic and callow emotions;
11. Ability to form aesthetic unity in diversity;
12. Skill in fashioning what Liu Xie called concealed beauty;
13. Memorability and inevitability of statement--"The best lack all conviction" factor;
14. Originality incremental (Wordsworth) or radical (Celan).
Great poets need not have all these, which are really just a narrow
selection I've chosen for ease of argument, but they must have a fair
proportion of them. Any poet who lacks Nos. 1, 3, 4, 13 and 14 is going to find
himself far out in the suburbs of