ENGL 461/562
Literary Criticism: Senior Seminar (Fall 2003)
Changes
and revisions are indicated in RED.
**The
university has cancelled classes on 18 and 19 September because of
hurricane Isabel--see below for syllabus changes.**
Instructor: Dr. Shawn Smith
Office: Grainger G06
Phone: 395-2797
E-Mail: ssmith@longwood.edu
(This is the best way to contact me.)
Web page: http://www.longwood.edu/staff/ssmith
Consult this page for a version of this syllabus that contains links to study and research resources.
You will also be able to access your grades and supplementary course materials via Blackboard.
Office hours: MWF 10:00-11:30 and by appointment.
Class meets: 8:00-9:15 Tuesdays and Thursdays in Grainger G18.
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES
This course is a study of the history and aims of literary criticism from Plato and Aristotle to the present, including oral and written criticism of literary works. It is the capstone course for English majors. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: understand the history of literary criticism and theory from Greek antiquity to the present, critique and analyze literature using a variety of methodologies, demonstrate an understanding of key periods and trends in literary history, and respond to texts and ideas in writing that is concise and persuasive.
TEXTS (available at the Longwood University Bookstore)
David Richter, The Critical Tradition, second ed. (Bedford).
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, ed. Susanne Wofford (Bedford).
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, ed. Linda Peterson (Bedford).
Additional readings can be printed from links on this page. Note: Good, annotated versions of most of these texts are also available in your British Literature anthologies.
Please also keep your British literature (and, if you have them, American literature) anthologies close at hand for review of literary history.
INTERNET RESOURCES
Voice of the Shuttle: Web Site for Humanities Research. See especially the sections on literary theory and literature.
Luminarium (medieval and Renaissance texts)
Perseus Project (classical texts)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Paper #1: A 3-4 page paraphrase and analysis exercise (15%). The first paper is a paraphrase and analysis exercise. Go here for instructions.
Paper #2: A 3-4 page comparison of two or more critical approaches to literature (15%)
Paper #3: A 4-5 page summary of the history of critical responses to a work of literature (20%)
[Other information on papers: Go here to learn about MLA format (but note that this style sheet is not comprehensive--you may need to consult the MLA Handbook on some formatting issues). Papers that do not quote and cite verse (and prose, for that matter) properly will be returned for reformatting. Please include your e-mail address on your paper. See my handouts for information on writing about literature. See the Longwood University Style Manual for other formatting issues.]
Quizzes on literary history and critical terms and principles (20%)
Class preparation and participation (10%)
Final exam (20%)
(ENGL 562 students will make an oral presentation and write an 8-10 page final paper.)
MAJOR FIELD ASSESSMENT TEST (MFAT)
At the end of this course you will take the Major Field Assessment Test in English Literature. The results of this exam will not be a factor in your final grade, but they provide Longwood University with important information about the knowledge and skills acquired by students in the undergraduate English curriculum.
For information on the MFAT in English, go to: ftp://ftp.ets.org/pub/corp/ContEnglit.pdf
For sample questions, go to: ftp://ftp.ets.org/pub/corp/englitques.pdf
POLICY MATTERS
Please arrive on time, and be prepared to listen, think, and contribute. Please turn off wireless phones, pagers, headphones, and other electronic devices that might disrupt class. Please treat other students and your instructor in a civil and respectful manner. Note that classroom disruption is a violation of Longwood University's honor code.
The Longwood University attendance policy in the 2003-2004 Undergraduate Catalog will be the attendance policy for this course. You will receive an F on work missed because of unexcused absences. Your grade will be lowered by one letter grade if you miss 10 percent of the scheduled class meeting times for unexcused absences. You will receive an F if you miss a total (excused and unexcused) of 25 percent of the scheduled class meeting times. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to obtain notes from a classmate (as well as announcements about syllabus changes or other matters). Exams can be made up only under the most grave circumstances, and with documentation from an MD or a Longwood University official. If you foresee a conflict, I expect you to discuss it with me beforehand. Written assignments handed in late will lose one letter grade for each class day late. Plagiarism, cheating, and other forms of intellectual dishonesty will result in an F for the course and referral to the Longwood University Judicial system. For details on Longwood University's honor code and judicial system, direct your web browser to: http://www.longwood.edu/judicial.
Note: the syllabus may be changed at any time if necessary,
though I'll try to give you as much advance notice as possible. Please
check the web page regularly for updates.
CALENDAR
Although they are not included in the page references below, you
will find it tremendously useful to consult the editorial headnotes
preceding our readings in Richter (and in the critical editions of Hamlet
and
Wuthering Heights, for that matter). Please read actively.
Mark up your text, take notes, and bring lists of questions to class.
26
Aug: Course introduction.
28 Aug: Plato, Republic 10 (Richter 21-29); Homer, Iliad 6.439-600. Make sure you read Plato first, and when you come to class, be prepared to respond to Socrates’s declaration that Homer and other poets "are only imitators, who copy images of virtue . . . but have no contact with the truth" (p. 24).
2
Sep: Aristotle, Poetics (Richter 42-64). Compare Aristotle’s
view of
poetry to that of Plato.
4
Sep: Aristotle, continued, and Shakespeare, Hamlet 2.2.358-585
(Wofford).
How does Hamlet’s view of drama correspond to that of Plato and
Aristotle?
9
Sep: Horace, Ars Poetica (Richter 68-78). How is Horace’s
understanding
of audience similar to or different from that of Plato and Aristotle?
11
Sep: Longinus, On the Sublime (Richter 81-107). QUIZ on classical
literary
terms, and discussion of same.
16
Sep: Dante, Letter to Can Grande (Richter 120-122) and Inferno
1and 5. To what extent are Dante’s characters (e.g., Francesca)
allegorical? To
what extent are they not?
18
Sep: HURRICANE ISABEL--CLASS
CANCELLED.
23
Sep: Sidney, Apology
for Poetry
(Richter 134-159) and, in Astrophil
and Stella, read sonnets 1, 2, 7, and 9. [You should be
able to find these poems in the Norton
Anthology of English Literature, or in the Sidney section of www.luminarium.org.]
25
Sep: Johnson, Preface to Shakespeare
(Richter 224-238). QUIZ
on
medieval
literature and critical terms, and discussion of same.
30 Sep: Wordsworth,
Preface to Lyrical Ballads (Richter 302-314)
and Coleridge,
"Kubla Kahn." Paper #1 due.
2
Oct: CLASS CANCELLED.
7
Oct: Keats, "Negative Capability" (Richter 234-236), "Ode on a
Grecian Urn," and
"On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer."
QUIZ on Renaissance and medieval literary
and critical terms, and discussion of same.
9
Oct: Matthew Arnold, "The Function of Criticism," "The Study of
Poetry" (Richter 397-416), and
"Dover Beach."
14
Oct: Fall Break
16
Oct: T.S. Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (Richter
498-503) and "The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."
QUIZ on
eighteenth- and nineteenth century literature and critical terms, and
discussion
of same.
21
Oct: New Criticism: William Empson, from Seven Types of
Ambiguity
(Richter 736-748); read also additional excerpt and Shakespeare’s
Sonnet 73.
23
Oct: Structuralism: Ferdinand de Saussure, "Nature of the
Linguistic
Sign," and Claude Lévi-Strauss, "The Structural Study of Myth"
(Richter 832-844).
28
Oct: Feminist Criticism: Wofford 208-240 and Peterson 468-477.
30
Oct: Psychoanalytic Criticism: Wofford 241-282 and Peterson
364-378. QUIZ
on twentieth-century literature and modern critical terms, and
discussion of
same.
4
Nov: Paper #2 due.
6
Nov: Deconstruction: Wofford 283-331.
11
Nov: Marxist Criticism: Wofford 332-367 and Peterson 394-410.
13
Nov: New Historicism: Wofford 368-402. Review for Assessment
testing.
18
Nov: Assessment testing.
20
Nov: Assessment testing.
25
Nov: Assignment TBA.
2
Dec: Readings TBA. What’s next? Or should we return to traditional
methods of
literary study?
4
Dec: Review for final exam. Paper #3 due.
10
Dec: FINAL EXAM 8:00-10:30