Course description: 'Theory' doesn’t seem critical to most people, unless they can be turned on to the exciting work that is being done on the carnivalesque, the mind/brain relation, the origins of human language, and why it is that we can be so turned on, or upset, or inspired, or shocked, by the stories that are told in literature. In this course we shall read great works of fiction in English that move us to reflect upon the really basic questions about reading, writing, and telling stories, and along the way we’ll be inspired by powerful words to laugh, to cry, to dream and to wonder why fiction is the gateway to the magic of abstract exploration of our minds, and the possible worlds they can create.
Books: There is an enormous amount of reading for this course, and you may not get through it all; however, I urge you to buy all the books, and try to get through all or as many as you can. If you need assistance in procuring copies, I’m happy to help out; the suggested editions are available in the bookstore.
Paul Auster’s short prose
Robert Barsky, The Chomsky Effect
Terry Eagleton, Introduction to Literary Theory
Franz Kafka, Collected Works
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook (read by the author)
Michel Meyer, Philosophy and the Passions
Vladimir Nabokov's, Lolita
Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Richard Wright, Native Son
W.B. Yeats, Collected Poetry
Assignments:
Four short (6-10 pages) assignments on issues and texts discussed in class. There is no “one way” to do these assignments, the work you do should reflect your own engagement and commitment to the material. Given the vast array of texts, I must ask that you stick to the works that have been assigned in this course, even if you choose a somewhat more ‘creative’ approach to presenting your ideas. I will not favor theoretical or literary or creative work, but rather am looking for your own ‘voice’, your own set of questions, and our peculiar and peculiarly situated approach to the material at hand.
Grading:
Each written assignment is worth 20%
Participation and one short oral presentation (on the work being presented that day) 20%
Week-by-week
August 31st: introduction
September 7th: From the Modern World to New Criticism Texts:
topics addressed:
epistemology of literature;
history of the literature department;
history of literary criticism
September 14th: William Butler Yeats and the Rejection of Modernism
Texts: W.B. Yeats, “The Wild Swans at Coole”, “Michael Robartes and the Dancer, and “The Tower”.
Topics addressed: Modernism
formalist literary criticism
New Criticism
poetics
NOTE: THE CLASS TIME FOR THIS SESSION IS T.B.A.: From Poetry to Prose: Paul Auster, Structuralism and a scientific approach to language – and to the world
Texts: Terry Eagleton, chapter 3, “Structuralism and Semiotics” Barsky chapter 3: “Effective Precursors” Paul Auster, “Twentieth Century French Poetry”
Topics: structuralism
semiotics
relationship between structuralism and formalism
the challenges of a structuralist approach for the study of prose
September 28th: from Narratology to the “postmodern”
Texts: Paul Auster, “Pages for Kafka” Paul Auster, “The Art of Hunger” Franz Kafka, “A Hunger Artist” Barsky chapter 6: “Obfuscating the Chomsky Effect”
Topics
narratology
the representation of the self in administrative settings
postmodernity
Paper 1 is due in class (please send an e-mail version as well)
October 5th: Franz Kafka, hermeneutics and the Nightmare of Administrative Law
Texts: Franz Kafka, “Before the Law” Terry Eagleton, Chapter 3, “Hermeneutics and Reception Theory”
Topics
hermeneutics
reception theory
literature and law
October 12th : Passion, Reason and Kafka’s “The Test”
Texts: Franz Kafka, “The Test” Michel Meyer, “Translator’s Preface” Michel Meyer, “Translator’s Introduction” Michel Meyer, “Introduction” and “Chapter 1” From the Passion of Discourse to the Discourse of the Passions”
Topics
Problematology
Questioning
Passion and literature
NOTE: THE TIME FOR THI S COURSE IS TBA: Passion and Literature, from Meyer to Nabokov
Texts: Michel Meyer, chapter 2:”Passion as a New Relationship with Being” Michel Meyer, Chapter 3: “From Sickness to Sin” Michel Meyer, Chapter 4: “The Genesis of the Individual and the Eruption of Guilt” Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Topics Passion and reason
October 26th: Nabokov’s Legal Argumentation
Text: Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
In 1954 Vladimir Nabokov asked one American publisher to consider "a firebomb that I have just finished putting together." The explosive device: Lolita, his morality play about a middle-aged European's obsession with a 12-year-old American girl. Two years later, the New York Times called it "great art." Other reviewers staked a higher moral ground (the editor of the London Sunday Express declaring it "the filthiest book I've ever read"). Since then, the sinuous novel has never ceased to astound. Even Nabokov was astonished by its place in the popular imagination. One biographer writes that "he was quite shocked when a little girl of eight or nine came to his door for candy on Halloween, dressed up by her parents as Lolita." And when it came time to casting the film, Nabokov declared, "Let them find a dwarfess!"
Topic
Literary censorship
argumentation theory
Paper 2 is due in class (please send an e-mail version as well)
November 2nd: Vladimir Nabokov comes to The Silver Screen
Texts: Nabokov, Lolita Nabokov, Lolita: A Screenplay “Lolita”, the film by Stanley Kubrick
Topic: film theory
November 9th: Colonialism, Postcolonialism and the Discontented: The Example of Duddy Kravitz
Texts: Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” the film.
Topics colonialism
post-colonialism
Quebec and Canadian Studies
November 16th: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (continued) and an introduction to Jeannette Winterson and Feminist Lesbian Writing
Text: Jeannette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Terry Eagleton, “Conclusion: Political Criticism”
Topics: Queer theory
feminism
postmodernism November 23rdth: thanksgiving! No class
November 30th: Jeannette Winterson and Feminist Lesbian Writing We will pursue our discussions of feminism, and we'll work as well on questions of the postmodern world NOTE NEW DEADLINE: Third paper due in class (please send an e-mail version as well).
December 7th: African American Narratives: Against the Grain Text: Native Son
Topics
African American Studies
postcolonialism
diaspora studies
December 14th: Towards A Digital Reading Experience: Doris Lessing Reads To Us.
Texts: Barsky chapter 7: “Literature, Humor and the Effects of Creative Discourses” Doris Lessing: The Golden Notebook
Topic
Reading in the digital age
final paper is due in class
For more information, please contact Robert F. Barsky. copyright Robert F. Barsky, 2006
English 244
