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Eng. 500 Syllabus continued
Assignment 4: Mini research Project (30%) A list of more specific research topics will be provided later. Basically this assignment will involve a study of some problem in two of the “texts” assigned in this course. One of the texts should be one you haven’t written about on previous papers in Eng. 500. Details and topics will be provided later. Topics might include, for example, a) function of one or more allusions to Heart of Darkness in Roy’s God of Small Things or b) a comparison of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness with Conrad’s essay, “The Unlighted Coast” c) a comparison of Heart of Darkness with Conrad’s The Secret Agent, or one of his other texts; d) a comparison of Roy’s The God of Small Things with another novel about India: Amitav Ghosh, The Glass Palace, Bapsi Sidwala, Cracking India, Monica Ali Brick Lane, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, or Shalmir, the Clown, or other post-colonial novel representing India; d. or Conrad’s Heart of Darkness with some other postcolonial novel representing Africa, including Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions, or Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible d) Comparison of Roy’s concerns about environmental destruction in The God of Small Things compared with film “Dam/age” (2002) or relevant essay, play, or set of poems, or e) Keats’ influence on Langston Hughes, or a living British or American poet, etc. Whatever your topic for assignment 4, your argument should be framed by a theoretical essay (Deconstruction, Feminist, Postcolonial, Cultural Studies, film theory or some other theoretical work) that is consistent with the questions you pose about your text or texts and the secondary sources you cite. Your final grade on this paper will be determined by the originality of your research and argument, your organization, form, style, and content of your argument, by your awareness of the theoretical platform you have chosen, by your selection of the most relevant and appropriate sources, and by evidence of successful revision. In order for me to assess your revisions, please include a complete first draft (handwritten or typed) along with your final version of your paper. Given the schedule, there can be no re-writes on this final paper. I will give you comments via email on your prospectus which will help you avoid major problems on the final paper.
Course Rules: 1. All writing assignments are to be written originally for this class. Revised papers that have been presented in other classes are not acceptable. 2. In keeping with University policy, plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students must credit all sources consulted, including electronic sources, to receive full credit for any paper written in this class. 3. Papers must be submitted in class on the dates listed below. Late papers will not be accepted without prior arrangements and a legitimate university excuse. 4. I do not accept papers via email. One exception: I will ask you to submit your prospectus electronically in order to get comments back to you as soon as possible.
Aug. 25 Introduction: Being Professional Read: Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, Introduction and ch. 1, Theory before Theory, pp. 1-38. And on E-Reserve: 1. Martin Danahay, “Professional Subjects,” from Smith, Getting a Life, 2. Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran, ch. 1-2, pp. 1-77 (E-Books) 3. Gerald Graff, “Disliking Books at an Early Age,” David Richter, Falling into Theory, 40-48;
Why We Read Sept. 1 No class meeting: Labor Day: University is closed;
Sept. 8 Assignment 1 due and Read: Shakespeare, The Tempest, acts 1-2 And in Graff and Phelan, ed. Aime Cesaire, excerpt from “A Tempest,” 246-54; and E-Reserve: Robert Browning, “Caliban upon Stetebos,” Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Spirit Ariel,” Ted Hughes, “Setebos.”
What we Read
Sept. 15 Considering the Uses of History Read: Shakespeare, The Tempest, acts 3-5 and essays in Graff and Phelan: “Why Study Critical Controversies?” pp. 91-108; Sources, pp. 116-18, Richard Hakluyt, “Reasons for Colonization,” 125-34; Essays: Ronald Takaki, “The ‘Tempest’ in the Wilderness” 140-72; and Francis Barker and Peter Hulme, “Nymphs and Reapers Heavily Vanish,” 229-46; Meredith Anne Skura, “Discourse and the Individual: The Case of Colonialism in The Tempest,” 286-322 and Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, ch. 9, New Historicism; 172-91
Team Report 1: Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama
Sept. 22 Thinking about Manuscripts and Archives Please Read: John Keats, “Canonized Sonnets”: “On the Sea” 101-02; “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” 72; “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles,” 99-100; “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear...”, 220; “When I Have Fears...” 221; ”To Sleep,” 338; “Bright Star,” 452; compare with 5 uncanonized sonnets (you select) from pp. 40, 55, 62, 63, 64, 72, 73, 74, 75, 94-98, 99-100, 101-02, 328, 340, and On E-Reserve: 1. Lillian Robinson, “Treason Our Text,” Robin Warhol and Diane Herndl Feminisms, pp. 115-28 2. Richard D. Altick and John J. Fenstermacher, The Spirit of Scholarship, 22-60.
Sept. 29 Considering Genres and Literary Influences Please read, John Keats, “Ode to Apollo” 43-44; “Ode to Psyche,” 340-41; “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” 344-46, “Ode to a Nightingale,” 346-48, “Ode on Melancholy,” 348-49; “To Autumn,” 434-35, and “Lamia” 414-433; “Eve of St. Agnes,” 312- 324, and “Eve of St. Mark” 324-327 Keats’ notes on John Milton, pp. 517-526 Selection of Keats’ letters, pp. 535-554 and on E-Reserve: 1. Ian Jack, “A Choice of Orders,” Jerome J. McGann, Textual Criticism and Literary Interpretation, 127-43.
Team Report 2: Uses and Abuses of Biographical Writing on Keats
Oct. 6 Using Cline Library resources Assignment 2 due Please read Peter Barry, Beginning Theory, ch. 2-4, Structuralism, Post-structuralism, and Postmodernism, pp. 39-95 and on E-Reserve: 1. Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author,” in David Richter, Falling into Theory, 253-57. 2. Michel Foucault, “What is an Author,” Hazard Adams and Leroy Searle, eds. Critical Theory since 1965, pp. 138-48. 3. David Miall, "The Library versus the Internet: Literary Studies Under Siege?" PMLA 116 (2001): 1405-1414.
How We Read
Oct. 13 Read Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness, pp. 17-95 And in Murfin, A Critical History of Heart. . . ., pp. 99-114 and read on E-Reserve: 1. Marjorie Perloff, “Modernist Studies,” in Stephen Greenblatt and Giles Gunn, eds. Redrawing the Boundaries, pp. 154-77. 2. Douglas Mao and Rebecca L. Walkowitz, “The New Modernist Studies,” PMLA, vol. 123, no. 3 (May 2008): 737-48. 3. Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin, Illuminations. New York: Schocken Books, 1968, 217-51.
Team Report 3: New perspectives on Modernism, 1998-2008 |