Bernice
L. Hausman, Associate
Professor
Department of English
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA
|
Bernice
L. Hausman, Associate
Professor |
ENGL
3354: Fundamentals of Literary Criticism
Fall 2005, #92443
MW 2:30-3:45, Pamplin 3010
Course Texts (ordered at University Bookstore):
The
Cultural Studies Reader, Simon During
The
Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Wilfred Guerin, et al.
Ways
of Seeing, John Berger
Mythologies,
Roland Barthes
Crusoe's
Footprints: Cultural Studies in Britain and America, Patrick Brantlinger
Frankenstein,
Mary
Wollestonecraft Shelley (any
edition)
Course description:
This course
introduces students to basic critical practices in literary and cultural theory.
With “the
world as our text,” we will examine core concepts and methods in literary
theory and cultural
studies, focusing on the analysis of various kinds of discourses. Students will
be exposed to
canonical approaches in literary study as well as interdisciplinary methods
developed in art history,
semiotics, and philosophy. Some of the texts we will read include Roland Barthes’s
Mythologies,
John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Patrick Brantlinger's Crusoe's
Footprints, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein.
How to navigate this website:
Below on this page you will find the assignments and reading schedule for this course, as well as information about attendance . Under assignments, you will see how much each assignment is worth as a percentage of your final grade. The reading schedule includes the topics for discussioin, exam dates, and due dates for papers and presentations, as well as information about what to read when.
Under General Course Info (another web page) you will find links to Prof. Hausman's teaching pages, including information about how to read for her classes, expectations for written work, feminist pedagogy, undergraduate academic policies (see esp. pages on plagiarism) and the honor code, etc. It is your responsibility as a student in Prof. Hausman's class to be familiar with these guidelines and expectations.
Statement on student accommodation:
Students who have a disability or other condition that requires accommodation should discuss the issue with Prof. Hausman early in the semester. Students need not disclose their condition with the professor, merely provide her with documentation from the Dean of Students Office concerning the necessary accommodation. Students may make an appointment or come to Prof. Hausman's office hours (posted on contact info page). All conversations between individual students and the professor will remain confidential.
No absences are excused, but students have two allocated cuts that are "free"--use them wisely! More than two absences will affect your grade; each absence over two (one full week of class) will cause your grade to diminish 1 point. If there are ongoing issues that will affect your ability to attend this class, please see Profesor Hausman early in the semester.
Paper #1: Response to varieties of literary and cultural criticism: what makes sense to you and why? 4-5 pages. 15 points.
Paper #2: Critical response to cultural studies approach. 6-8 pages. 20 points.
Group project: Students will divide into groups based on interest. Groups will use texts read for class and others available in The Cultural Studies Reader to develop an interpretation of a literary text, nonliterary text, social institution, or cultural practice. The group will present their interpretation to the class during the final 1 and 1/2 weeks of the term. Individual group members will write a 5-page paper detailing their contribution to the group effort and their own understanding of the group's analytic model, methodology, and interpretive conclusions. 20 points for group with 5 points for individual contribution and paper.
Final Exam: Essay exam covering all texts read for the course and issues raised during class discussion. 25 points.
Reading Journal : Students will hand in one page of reading response each week, either in class on Wednesday or in Professor Hausman's mailbox (#43 on the 3rd floor of Shanks) by noon each Friday. The reading journal is an ongoing account of your responses to the readings and the issues that they raise. I will read and comment on the reading journal entries, handing them back the following week. The reading journals themselves will not be graded, but each journal entry is worth 1 point. To receive that point, the journal entry must be handed in by Friday the week it is due; late journal entries are not accepted. 15 points
Aug. 22: Introduction to the course.
Approaches to Literature and Culture
24: "Getting Started: The Precritical Response" and Appendix C, "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. Start reading Frankenstein and keep reading until you are finished.
29: "First Things First: Textual Scholarship, Genres, and Source Study" in Handbook.
31: "Historical and Biographical Approaches," "Moral and Philosophical Approaches," and Appendix A, "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, in Handbook.
Sept. 5: "The Formalist Approach" and "The Psychological Approach: Freud" in Handbook.
7: "Feminisms and Gender Studies" in Handbook.
12 and 14: "The Play of Meaning(s): Reader-Response Criticism, Dialogics, and Structuralism and Poststructuralism, including Deconstruction" in Handbook.
19 and 21: "Cultural Studies" in Handbook, "Cultural Studies in Britain" in Crusoe's Footprints, Stuart Hall's "Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies" in The Cultural Studies Reader, and Frankenstein.
26: Paper #1 due. Viewing of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff (71 minutes), in class.
28: Continued discussion of texts of Frankenstein.
Methods and Theories in Cultural Studies
Oct. 3 : Adorno and Horkheimer, "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" in The Cultural Studies Reader.
5: "From Althusser to Gramsci: The Question of Ideology" in Crusoe's Footprints.
10: no class (fall break)
12: Ways of Seeing by John Berger.
17: Mythologies by Roland Barthes, selections to be announced.
19: Mythologies, "Myth Today" section.
24: Raymond Williams's "Advertising: the Magic System" in The Cultural Studies Reader.
26: "Class, Gender, and Race" in Crusoe's Footprints.
31: Meaghan Morris's "Things to Do with Shopping Centres" in The Cultural Studies Reader.
Nov. 2, 7: bell hooks's "A Revolution of Values," Eric Lott's "Racial Cross-Dressing and the Construction of American Whiteness," and Cornell West's "The New Cultural Politics of Difference" in The Cultural Studies Reader.
9: Jonathan Metzl's "The Gendered Psychodynamics of Pharmaceutical Advertising," on reserve in Newman Library. Please note: At 4:30pm in 331 Randolph Hall, Dr. Metzl will be speaking as part of the Choices and Challenges Forum on Prozac.
Nov. 10: Choices and Challenges Forum all day, on Prozac and the New Technologies of the Mind.
14: Viewing of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh, Robert De Niro).
16: Continued viewing of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and discussion.
18--NOT A CLASS DAY, BUT PAPER #2 DUE TODAY.
Nov. 19-27, Thanksgiving Break.
28, 30, Dec. 5, 7: Group presentations.
Dec. 12: Final Exam, 3:25-5:25pm. Self-evaluation due.
©Bernice L. Hausman, all rights reserved.