.XT:3
English 856 -- Graduate Seminar in LITERARY CRITICISM
Fall, 1993 at Armstrong State College, Savannah, Georgia
Thursday 6-10:30 in Gamble 204
Instructor: Dr. David Robinson (GSU)
Office: 309 Newton (GSU)
GSU English Department Telephone: (912) 681-5471
Office Telephone: (912) 681-0155
Home Telephone: (912) 764-8263
Office Hours: By appointment.
SYLLABUS
The place of theory in literary studies continues to be a hotly
debated topic, but regardless of the outcome of this struggle
over methodologies, canons, and institutional power, no graduate
student will be prepared for the current state of the profession
without being conversant in the principal discourses of critical
theory. This seminar will introduce students to those
discourses, help them to develop their own sense of how to
approach literature, and enable them to put the practices of
individual critics in historical perspective.
The course aims specifically at providing students with a broad
grasp of the issues and major voices in literary theory, and at
identifying some of the current trends in the field. Using
Hazard Adams's Critical Theory Since Plato, we will trace the
development of ideas about the nature of literature and
interpretation, covering Plato and Aristotle, the Middle Ages,
the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Romantic movement, the
rise of formalism(s) (such as the "New Criticism"),
psychoanalysis, feminism, structuralism, various types of post-
structuralism, "New Historicism," and varieties of Marxist
criticism. We will also look at the current debates surrounding
Deconstruction -- in particular its alleged "death" -- and other
juicy matters.
Short paper reviewing a non-assigned work in the Adams
anthology, in-class presentation on same, research paper tracing
the development of critical response to a work of literature
chosen by the student, and final.
Grading: Short Paper............ 15%
Oral Presentation...... 5%
Research Paper......... 50%
Final Examination...... 30%
100%
2
Tentative Schedule of Classes:
Thursday Sept. 16 -- Introductory remarks.
Thursday Sept. 23 -- Plato (11-48); supplementary hand-out from
the Republic.
Thursday Sept. 30 -- Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, Horace,
Plotinus (49-106).
Thursday Oct. 7 ---- Biblical hermeneutics & Renaissance
Humanism: Augustine (107-113), Aquinas
(116-119), Dante (120-122), Sidney (142-
162).
Thursday Oct. 14 --- Neoclassicism: Corneille (205-212), Locke
(253-268), Burke (298-306), Johnson (316-
327). Introductory remarks about Kant.
Thursday Oct. 21 --- Kant and the Romantics: Kant (374-393),
Blake (400-414), Wordsworth (436-446),
Coleridge (468-480), Shelley ("Mont Blanc"
-- hand-out).
Thursday Oct. 28 --- Art and Society: Arnold (585-607), Marx
(624-627), Nietzsche (628-639), Freud (711-
716).
Thursday Nov. 4 ---- Varieties of Formalism:
Russian Formalism -- Shklovsky (750-759)
New Criticism -- Eliot (760-766), Richards
(826-837), Wimsatt & Beardsley (944-959),
Brooks (960-974). Introductory remarks
about Structuralism.
Thursday Nov. 11 --- Structuralism & Post-Structuralism:
Barthes (1127-1133), Derrida (1116-1126),
de Man (1174-1182); the "Death" of
Deconstruction (hand-outs).
Thursday Nov. 18 --- Directions, controversies: Foucault & New
Historicism, Gender Studies (Feminist &
Gay), Post-Colonial Studies, state of the
Canon, politics in academe. (Readings to
be announced).
Thursday Nov. 25 --- THANKSGIVING (no class)
Thursday Dec. 2 ---- Final examination (two hours)
English 856 -- Graduate Seminar in LITERARY CRITICISM
Fall, 1993 at Armstrong State College, Savannah, Georgia.
Thursday 6-10:30
Instructor: Dr. David Robinson (GSU)
SYLLABUS
The place of theory in literary studies continues to be a hotly
debated topic, but regardless of the outcome of this struggle
over methodologies, canons, and institutional power, no graduate
student will be prepared for the current state of the profession
without being conversant in the principal discourses of critical
theory. This seminar will introduce students to those
discourses, help them to develop their own sense of how to
approach literature, and enable them to put the practices of
individual critics in historical perspective.
The course aims specifically at providing students with a broad
grasp of the issues and major voices in literary theory, and at
identifying some of the current trends in the field. Using
Hazard Adams's Critical Theory Since Plato, we will trace the
development of ideas about the nature of literature and
interpretation, covering Plato and Aristotle, the Middle Ages,
the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Romantic movement, the
rise of formalism(s) (such as the "New Criticism"),
psychoanalysis, feminism, structuralism, various types of post-
structuralism, "New Historicism," and varieties of Marxist
criticism. We will also look at the current debates surrounding
deconstruction -- in particular its alleged "death" -- and other
juicy matters.
Mid-term, short paper reviewing a non-assigned work in the Adams
anthology, in-class presentation on same, research paper tracing
the development of critical response to a work of literature
chosen by the student, and final.
English 856 Research Paper Assignment Dr. Robinson
Select a work of literature (poem, play, story, or novel) that
has had time time to accumulate a significant body of criticism
around it. Survey that criticism, including initial reviews (if
applicable), and write an essay describing the early, middle,
and recent reception of the work by the critics. What changes
have taken place from one phase to the next? Have the issues
remained the same? Any dramatic breakthroughs? Stupid errors?
Major reassessments? Try to draw some conclusions about the
evolution (or chaos) that you uncover. This last requirement is
important: I don't just want a list of critical views, but an
analysis and critical assessment of those views. The goal is to
come to a greater understanding of how critics do their work,
and how works of literature fare in their hands.
Note: This assignment will be more survivable if you are
cautious about the literary work you choose, avoiding any with
too large a body of criticism. Hamlet has the most interesting
critical history of any work, perhaps, but that history might be
hard to grapple with in the time available to you. On the other
hand, if you have done extensive research on a suitable work
already (Hamlet included), this might be an opportunity to
extend or reconsider the results of that labor from a different
angle.
Length: At least 12 pages, no more (God help us!) than 50.
Style : MLA.
Due: Monday, Nov. 29 in the Armstrong State Univ. English
office.
English 856 Short Paper Asssignment Dr. Robinson
Select a theoretical text in the Adams anthology that is not
among the assigned readings. Discuss the major critical issues
that the text raises, comment on the apparent intentions of the
theorist/critic, and situate the text within the categories of
theoretical orientation that were discussed at the first class
meeting.
Note: You will be presenting a ten-minute oral summary of this
paper to the class.
Length: 5 pages maximum.
Style: MLA.
Due: Thursday, October 14.
.XT:3
English 856 Reading Experiment Dr. Robinson
.H: $$$
.H:
Read each of the following five poems carefully, and in a
paragraph or so per poem, evaluate them -- state whether the
poems are good, bad, or indifferent, and why. Please do not put
your name on your response sheet. This is not a test.
1. On My First Daughter
Here lies, to each her parents' ruth,
Mary, the daughter of their youth;
Yet, all heaven's gifts being heaven's due,
It makes the father less to rue.
At six months' end she parted hence
With safety of her innocence;
Whose soul heaven's Queen (whose name she bears),
In comfort of her mother's tears,
Hath placed amongst her virgin train;
Where, while that severed doth remain,
This grave partakes the fleshly birth;
Which cover lightly, gentle earth.
2. Ode to Stephen Dowling Bots, Dec'd
And did young Stephen sicken,
And did young Stephen die?
And did the sad hearts thicken,
And did the mourners cry?
No; such was not the fate of
Young Stephen dowling Bots;
Though sad hearts round him thickened,
'Twas not from sickness' shots.
No whooping-cough did wrack his frame,
Nor measles drear with spots;
Not these impaired the sacred name
Of Stephen Dowling Bots.
Despised love struck not with woe
That head of curly knots,
Nor stomach troubles laid him low,
Young Stephen Dowling Bots.
O no. Then list with tearful eye,
Whilst I his fate do tell.
His soul did from this cold world fly
By falling down a well.
They got him out and emptied him;
Alas it was too late;
His spirit was gone for to sport aloft
In the realms of the good and great.
2
3. Cast up
the heart flops over
gasping "Love"
a foolish fish which tries to draw
its breath from flesh of air
And no one there to hear its death
among the sad bushes
where the world rushes by
in a blather of asphalt and delay
4. What are all the charms of earth,
All its prideits treasures, worth,
With no partner at your side,
Thoughts and feelings to divide?
Therefore God, with gracious plan,
Saw, and said, and showed that man
Ne'er was made to live alone--
Therefore marriage first was known.
But without divine communion,
What is nature's tenderest union;
'Tis no portion for the soul,
Joy to fix, or grief control.
Where no heavenly love is found,
There can human long abound?
Iron there, the silken chain,
'Tis mere doubleness of pain!
Still may heavenly love secure
Human ties more sweet and pure:
So these human ties shall prove
Means to aid that holier love.
Then, your trial done, from this
School and type of perfect bliss,
Ye, rejoicing, in the skies,
To the marriage-feast shall rise!
3
5. To a Child Dancing in the Wind
Dance there upon the shore;
What need have you to care
For wind or water's roar?
And tumble out your hair
That the salt drops have wet;
Being young you have not known
The fool's triumph, nor yet
Love lost as soon as won,
Nor the best labourer dead
And all the sheaves to bind.
What need have you to dread
The monstrous crying of the wind?