ENGL 461/562

Literary Criticism: Senior Seminar (Spring 2004)

 

UPDATED 24 March 2004

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 the syllabus that contains links to study and research resources. See my handouts for suggestions on writing about literature.
Office hours: MW 10:00-11:30 and by appointment.
Class meets:

8:00-9:15 Tuesdays and Thursdays in Grainger 114.

 

 

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)

 

INTERNET RESOURCES

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

 

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.  Failure to participate in assessment testing will result in a grade of F for the course.

 

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.  In case of inclement weather, please continue with the scheduled assignments and consult the web pages for announcements.

 

CALENDAR

 

 

13 January Course introduction.
15 January Plato, selections from the Republic (CLC pp. 15-56--see also the note on p. 169 for the context of these excerpts). Come to class prepared to respond to Socrates's declaration that "all poets from Homer onwards are imitators of images of virtue, and all the other subjects which they write about, and have no grasp on truth" (p. 46 [Stephanus 600e]). What, according to Plato, is the relationship between literature and philosophy?  What, precisely, is Plato's problem with imitation?  Can you think of at least one example from Homer, Shakespeare, or any other poet that either supports or refutes Socrates's claim?  Better yet, can you think of an example that both supports and refutes Socrates's claim? 
20 January Aristotle, Poetics (CLC 57-95). Compare Aristotle’s view of poetry to that of Plato.  Which do you find more persuasive or useful, and why?  Read Aristotle's definition of tragedy carefully (p. 64 [Bekker 1449b]).  Do you agree with it?  Can you think of tragedies that don't fit this definition?  What do you think Aristotle means by the word catharsis?  What does Aristotle find to be a more important component of tragedy, character or plot?  Do you agree with him?  Can you think of works of literature that might be used to refute his claim?  What, according to Aristotle, is poetry's relationship to philosophy and history?
22 January Aristotle, continued, and Shakespeare, Hamlet, Acts 1-2. Read 2.2.358-585 closely:  How does Hamlet’s view of drama correspond to that of Plato and Aristotle?  How would you characterize, judge, or critique the Player's speech about Aeneas's tale to Dido (Pyrrhus's slaughter of Priam).  Is it, as Hamlet says, "caviare to the general," or is it pompous bombast?  Note that Aristotle (and Plato, for that matter) frequently points to specific poets and works as examples of superior poetry in particular genres (e.g., Homer for epic, Sophocles's Oedipus for tragedy).  Hamlet also seems to be making a distinction between great poetry and mediocre poetry.  Come to class prepared to discuss at least one "canonical" writer from Greek or Roman antiquity, and one canonical writer in any genre, any time period, any language.  This discussion will constitute the first of our canon debates, in which we try to establish literary works that constitute, in Matthew Arnold's words, "the best that has been known and thought."  Be prepared to explain why your author or work merits a place in our canon, and you might want to keep a running list of criteria for literary "greatness" that you update throughout the semester--this will be particularly useful to you as you turn your attention to the capstone project, in which you'll need to think about how your own views of literature intersect with the views of other critics.  And feel free challenge the idea of establishing a canon altogether.  I'll maintain an updated list of your suggestions on the following web page:  Longwood Literary Canon.  (I also welcome suggestions for a better name for this web page.) 
27 January Class canceled because of snow:  We'll discuss both Horace and Longinus on 29 January.  Horace, Ars Poetica (CLC 98-112) and Hamlet, Act 3. How is Horace’s understanding of audience similar to or different from that of Plato and Aristotle?  What, according to Horace, is the function of literature?  Hamlet's "Mousetrap" is very much concerned with how audiences respond to drama, in particular.  How does Shakespeare's dramatization of audience response square with Horace's principles?  Look at Claudius's response to the Mousetrap carefully--how do you imagine this response to be dramatized on the stage?
29 January Horace, see assignment above.  Longinus, On the Sublime (CLC 113-166).  Try to find an example of at least one rhetorical figure discussed by Longinus (ch. 16 to end) in Hamlet or another work (browse the poems in the Renaissance sections of the Norton Anthology and you'll find yourself wading in them).  Feel free to consult my own list of rhetorical figures for additional definitions and examples.  Do you agree that such rhetorical figures, "when properly handled, will contribute in no small measure . . . to the effect of grandeur" (p. 136)?  With reference to a specific example, can you explain how rhetorical figures heighten or intensify the effects of literature?  Or do you think they are merely baroque extravagances that diminish literature's ability faithfully to reflect reality?
3 February Sidney, excerpts from the Defense of Poesy (NAEL 1.939-943, and the paragraph on Alexander Pheraeus on 944-945); Astrophil and Stella 1-2, 9 (917-919).  Sidney again raises the issue of poetry's relationship to philosophy and history.  How does Sidney's response compare to that of the classical literary critics?  Which classical critic does Sidney seem most similar to?  Try to identify as many rhetorical figures as you can in Sidney's sonnets.
5 February Hamlet, Acts 4-5.  Canon debates, continued.  Come to class prepared to discuss at least one medieval and one Renaissance writer who merit placement in the Longwood Literary Canon.
10 February Johnson, Preface to Shakespeare (NAEL 1.2725-2735).  What parts of Johnson's response to Shakespeare do you agree with, and which parts do you disagree with (and why)?  Can you think of specific examples from Shakespeare to support or refute his claims?
12 February Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (NAEL 2.238-251); "A slumber did my spirit seal" (254), "The world is too much with us" (297-298).  In what ways are Wordsworth's critical principles different from those of any critic we have read so far?  In what ways is Wordsworth's poetry different from any poetry that precedes it in the Norton Anthology?
17 February Keats, "Negative Capability" (NAEL 2.889-890); "On first looking into Chapman's Homer" (826-827); "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (851-854).  William Empson's variation on "Negative Capability" might be useful here:  "Life involves maintaining oneself between contradictions that cannot be resolved through analysis" (note to "Bacchus").  Is Keats's "Negative Capability" a characteristic of all great literature?  Can you think of an example to refute Keats?  Can you identify "Negative Capability" in Keats's own poetry?  
19 February Matthew Arnold, "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" (NAEL 2.1514-1528).  What, according to Arnold, should the relationship between politics (or contemporary social concerns in general) and poetry be?  Do you agree with him?  Do you agree with Arnold's definition of criticism:  "a disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world"?  Come to class prepared to discuss at least one Restoration/eighteenth-century and one Romantic/Victorian writer who merit placement in the Longwood Literary Canon.
24 February T. S. Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (NAEL 2395-2401).  What is Eliot's definition of "Tradition," and how does it relate to "Individual Talent"?  How does Eliot's view of the role of emotions in literature compare to that of other critics we have read, Aristotle in particular?  What poets or works do you think Eliot would place in the Longwood Literary Canon?  Would you agree with those choices?  
26 February Formalism/New Criticism:  William Empson, excerpts from Seven Types of Ambiguity, and Cleanth Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase," from The Well Wrought Urn.  Empson and Brooks are examples of formalist critics--look up "formalism" in the Bedford Glossary before class.  Read my handout on Empson and ambiguity, and read Shakespeare's Sonnet 73.  Do you agree with Empson about the importance of ambiguity in great poetry?  Can you think of examples of ambiguity in literature other than the ones Empson mentions?  What does Brooks say a critic should do and shouldn't do?  What do you find useful about these formalist approaches?  Can you identify any limitations of formalism?
2 March Canon debates. Come to class prepared to discuss at least one twentieth-century writer who merits placement in the Longwood Literary Canon.
4 March Annotated bibliography due.  Lecture on structuralism (please look up this term in the Bedford Glossary before class).
Powerpoint presentation on structuralism.
9, 11 March Spring Break
16 March Psychoanalytic criticism:  Wofford 241-282.  In what ways is psychoanalytic theory a useful tool for literary study?  In what ways is it not?  Can you think of literary works other than those mentioned by Freud, and other than Hamlet, that are appropriate objects of psychoanalytic study?  Can you think of literary works that are not?  In what ways does Adelman's essay on Hamlet highlight aspects of the text that can only be accessed through a psychoanalytic method?  Are there aspects of the play that the psychoanalytic approach has trouble explaining?
18 March Feminist criticism:  Wofford 208-240.  In what ways is feminist theory a useful tool for literary study?  In what ways is it not?  Can you think of literary works that are appropriate objects of feminist criticism?  Can you think of literary works that are not?  In what ways does the feminist essay on Hamlet highlight aspects of the text that can only be accessed through this method?  Are there aspects of the play that the feminist approach has trouble explaining?
23 March

Deconstruction:  Wofford 283-331.  Apply the questions above to Deconstruction, and the essay on Hamlet. 

Powerpoint presentation on Deconstruction.
25 March Marxist criticism:  Wofford 332-367.  Apply the questions above to Marxist criticism, and the essay on Hamlet. 
30 March New Historicism:  Wofford 368-402.  Apply the questions above to New Historicism, and the essay on Hamlet. 
1 April Harold Bloom on the "School of Resentment."  "Elegiac Conclusion," from The Western Canon (1994), and "The Prophet of Decline," by Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker (30 September 2002).
6 April Individual conferences in my office--bring a copy of your draft.  Draft of capstone paper due in our classroom at 9:00 a.m.  Note:  this should not be a first draft, but a penultimate draft. You will exchange your draft with another student at this time.
8 April Individual conferences in my office--bring a copy of your draft.
13 April Responses to paper drafts due (bring two copies--one for me, one for the paper's author).  Assessment testing, day 1.  Please bring several #2 pencils to class.  For information on the MFAT in English, go to:  ftp://ftp.ets.org/pub/corp/ContEnglit.pdf
15 April Assessment testing, day 2.
20 April Viewing of Derrida.
22 April Viewing of Derrida.  Review for final exam.
27 April FINAL EXAM (8-10:30).  Capstone project due.