SYLLABUS

**Note: Each class has several essays; authors listed in order of importance to class discussion -- read as much as you can each day.

**Note: IR= Revised edition of Adams, Critical Theory since Plato; II= Adams, Critical Theory Since 1965.
**Other readings: cross-references from available texts. Not required

Week 1: 26 August

TH: Introduction to the Course: The Art and Science of Criticism

WEEK 2: 31 August, 2 September

TU: The Profession of Comparative Literature

• Charles Bernheimer, ed. Comparative Literature in the Age of Multiculturalism -Introduction, 1-17
  -Part I: "Three Reports," 21-48
  -passim the rest of the volume

1. Text-Intrinsic Criticism (including New Critics, Chicago Neo-Aristotelian, mythopoetic criticism)

TH:

• T.S. Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent," "Hamlet and His Problems," I: 783-790; IR: 760-766
• I.A. Richards, "Practical Criticism," I: 847-859; IR: 826-837
• W.K. Wimsatt & Monroe C. Beardsley, "The Intentional Fallacy," "The Affective Fallacy," I: 1014-1031; IR: 944-959
• R.P. Blackmur, "A Critic's Job of Work," I: 891-904; IR: 884-896
• Kenneth Burke, "Literature as Equipment for Living," I: 942-947; IR: 920-924
  • **Background: René Wellek, Vol. 5, Chaps 6-8
  • **Background: René Wellek, Vol. 6, Chaps. 4, 8, 9, 13,14, 16
  • Other Readings: John Crowe Ransom, Wallace Stevens, Robert Penn Warren, Murray Krieger

WEEK 3: 7, 9 September

TU:

• Cleanth Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase," "Irony as a Principle of Structure," I: 1032-1048; IR: 960-974
• Northrop Frye, "Ethical Criticism: Theory of Symbols," I: 1117-1147; IR: 1045-1072; "The Critical Path," II: 251-264
• Ernst Cassirer, "Art," I: 993-1013; IR: 925-943
• E.H. Gombrich, "From Representation to Expression," I: 1167-1175; IR: 1082- 1089
• **Background: René Wellek, Vols. 5 & 6

TH:

• Hayden White, "The Historical Text as Literary Artifact," II: 394-407
• Meyer H. Abrams, "How to Do Things with Texts," II: 435-449
• Frank Kermode, "Fictions," II: 70-78
• Stanley Fish, "Is There a Text in this Class?," II: 524-533;"Normal Circumstances, . . . ," IR: 1199-1209
  • **Background: Jonathan Culler, The Pursuit of Signs, Chaps. 6 & 8

  **Critical Precis Due: New Criticism

WEEK 4: 14, 16 September

2. Formalism/Prague School

TU:

• Boris Eichenbaum, "The Theory of the 'Formal Method'," I: 828-846; IR: 800- 816
• Jan Mukarovsky, "Standard Language and Poetic Language," I: 1049-1057; IR: 975-982
• Mikhail M. Bakhtin, "Discourse in the Novel," II: 664-678; "Epic and Novel," IR: 838-855
  • **Background: J.G. Merquior. From Prague to Paris, Chaps. 1 & 2
  • **Background: F.W. Galan, Historic Structures: The Prague School Project
  • **Background: Victor Erlich. Russian Formalism
  • R. Wellek, History, Vol. 7, Chaps. 13, 15, 18

TH:

• Roman Jakobson, "The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles," I: 1113-1116; IR: 1041-1044
• Tzvetan Todorov, Genres in Discourse, 1-49
• Tzvetan Todorov, Theories of the Symbol, Chaps. 8-10, 246-284
  • **Background: Terence Hawkes, Structuralism and Semiotics
  • Jonathan Culler, Structuralist Poetics
  • Robert Scholes, Structuralism in Literature
  • R. Wellek, History, Vol. 7, Chap. 16

    **Critical Precis Due: either Formalism or Prague School (or amalgam)

WEEK 5: 21, 23 September

3. Phenomenology/Hermeneutics

TU:

• Edmund Husserl, "Phenomenology," II: 657-663 E.D. Hirsch, Jr., "Objective Interpretation," I: 1176-1194; IR: 1099-1115
• Paul Ricoeur, " The Metaphorical Process as Cognition, Imagination, and Feeling," II: 423-434
  • **Background: Kurt Mueller-Vollmer, "Introduction," The Hermeneutics Reader
  • **Background: R. Wellek, History, Vol. 7, Chap. 17

TH:

• Martin Heidegger, "Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry," II: 757-765
• Hans-Georg Gadamer, "Truth and Method," II: 839-855
• Georges Poulet, "Phenomenology of Reading," I: 1212-1222; IR: 1146-1154
• Maurice Blanchot, "The Essential Solitude," II: 823-831

  **Critical Precis Due: Phenomenology or Hermeneutics

WEEK 6: 28, 30 September

4. Linguistics/Speech Act

TU:

• Benjamin Lee Whorf, "The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language," II: 709-723
• Noam Chomsky, "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax," II: 37-58
• Emile Benveniste, "The Nature of the Linguistic Sign," "Subjectivity in Language," II: 724-732

TH:

• J.L. Austin, "How to Do Things with Words," II: 832-838
• Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Philosophical Investigations," II: 766-788
• John R. Searle, "What Is a Speech Act?," II: 59-69

  **TEST ONE PASSED OUT

WEEK 7: 5, 7 October

5. Structuralism/Semiotics

TU:

• Ferdinand de Saussure, "Course in General Linguistics," II: 645-656; IR, 717-726
• Charles Sanders Peirce, "Letters to Lady Welby," II: 637-644
• Roland Barthes, "The Structuralist Activity," I: 1195-1199; IR: 1127-1130; "Death of the Author," IR: 1130-1133
• Claude Lévi-Strauss, "The Structural Study of Myth," II: 808-822
• Jonathan Culler, "Beyond Interpretation," II: 321-329
  • **Background: J.G. Merquior, From Prague to Paris, Chaps. 3 & 4
  • Robert Scholes. Semiotics and Interpretation
  • Kaja Silverman, The Subject of Semiotics

    **Critical Precis Due: Linguistics, Speech Acts, or Structuralism

TH:

• Yurij Lotman & B.A. Uspensky, "On the Semiotic Mechanism of Culture," II: 408- 422
• Umberto Eco, The Limits of Interpretation, "Semiotics, Pragmatics, and Text Semiotics," 203-221
• Clifford Geertz, "Blurred Genres: The Refiguration of Social Thought," II: 513- 523

6A. Marxist Criticisms: First Generation

WEEK 8: 12,14 October

TU:

• Karl Marx, "The German Ideology," "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy," I: 631-634; IR: 624-627
• Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History," II: 679-685; "On Language as Such," IR: 742-749
• Georg Lukács, "Art and Objective Truth," II: 789-807; "The Ideal of the Harmonious Man," IR: 902-908
• Leon Trotsky, "The Formalist School of Poetry and Marxism," I: 819-827; IR: 792-799
  • **Background: Michael Ryan, Marxism and Deconstruction
  • **Background: Raymond Williams, Marxism andLiterature
  • **Background: R. Wellek, History, Vol. 7, Chap.7

  **TEST ONE DUE BACK

6B. Marxist Criticisms: Postwar

TH:

• Louis Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," II: 238-250
• Raymond Williams, "The Country and the City," IR: 1155-1161
• John Clarke, et al., ""Subcultures, Cultures, and Class: A Theoretical Overview," IN Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson, eds., Resistance through Literature, 9-74
• Theodor Adorno, "Aesthetic Theory," II: 231-237; "Cultural Criticism," IR: 1032-1040
• Max Horkheimer, "The Social Function of Philosophy," II: 686-696
• Nancy Fraser, "What's Critical about Critical Theory?," Feminism as Critique, 31-56

7. Reception Theory

WEEK 9: 19. 21 October

TU:

• Hans Robert Jauss, "Literary History as a Challenge to L. Theory," II: 163-183
• Wolfgang Iser, "The Repertoire," II: 359-380
• Thomas S. Kuhn, "Objectivity, Value Judgment, and Theory Choice," II: 381-393
  • **Background: Robert C. Holub, Reception Theory
  • Robert Scholes, Protocols of Reading

    **Critical Precis Due: Marxist approaches or Reception Theory

8. From Post-Structuralism to Deconstructionism/Yale Critics

TH:

• Friedrich Nietzsche, "Truth and Falsity," IR: 634-639
• Martin Heidegger, "The Nature of Language," IR: 1090-1098
• Michel Foucault, "What is an Author?," "Discourse on Language," II: 137-162; "Truth and Power," IR: 1134-1145
• Jacques Derrida, "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences," "Of Grammatology," "Difference," II: 79-136
• Georges Bataille, "The Notion of Expenditure," IR: 856-864
  • **Background: Deborah Esch, "Deconstruction," in Greenblatt and Gunn, eds., Redrawing the Boundaries, 374-391
  • J.G. Merquior, From Prague to Paris, Chap. 5
  • Richard Harland, Superstructuralism
  • Gregory L. Ulmer, Applied Grammatology

WEEK 10: 26, 28 October

TU:

• Geoffrey H. Hartman, "Literary Commentary as Literature," II: 344-358
• J. Hillis Miller, "The Critic as Host," II: 450-468
• Paul De Man, "Rhetoric of Temporality," "Semiology and Rhetoric," II: 198-230; "Semiology and Rhetoric," IR: 1174-1182
• Harold Bloom, "Poetry, Revisionism, Repression," II: 330-343; "The Dialectics of Poetic Tradition," IR: 1183-1189
  • **Background: Jonathan Culler, The Pursuit of Signs, Chaps. 1 & 2
  • Christopher Norris, Deconstruction
  • **Background: Jonathan Culler, On Deconstruction

    **Critical Precis Due: Poststructuralism or Deconstruction/Yale Critics

9. The Emergence of Ideology: First-Generation Feminist Criticism

TH: Note: Read at least one essay beyond de Beauvoir

• Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own," IR: 817-825
• Simone de Beauvoir, "The Second Sex," IR: 993-1000
• Sandra M. Gilbert, "Literary Paternity," II: 485-496
• Lillian S. Robinson, "Treason Our Text: Feminist Challenges to the Literary Canon," II: 571-582
• bell hooks, Feminist Theory, "Black Women: Shaping Feminist Theory," and "Feminism: A Movement to End Oppression," 1-32
• Linda Nochlin, Women, Art, and Power, 1-36, 145-178
• Annette Kolodny, "Dancing Through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice, and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism," II: 497-512
• Alice A. Jardine, "Gynesis," II: 559-570
  • **Background: Catharine R. Stimpson, "Feminist Criticism," in Greenblatt and Gunn, eds., Redrawing the Boundaries, 251-270
  • Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Gender Criticism," in Greenblatt and Gunn, eds., Redrawing the Boundaries, 271-302
  • Hester Eisenstein and Alice Jardine, eds. The Future of Difference.
  • Other Readings: S. M. Gilbert & Susan Gubar, "Infection in the Sentence," IR: 1234-1244
  • Elaine Showalter, "Towards a Feminist Poetics," IR: 1223-1233

WEEK 11: 2, 4 November

10. Psychoanalytic/Freudian Criticism: From Political Criticism to Identity Politics

TU:

• Sigmund Freud, "Creative Writers and Daydreaming," I: 748-753; IR: 711- 711-716
• Jacques Lacan, "The Mirror Stage," "The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason Since Freud," II: 733-756
• Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari, "Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Psychoanalysis," II: 283-307
  • Background: Meredith Skura, "Psychoanalytic Criticism," in Greenblatt and Gunn, eds., LRedrawing the Boundaries, 349-373
  • R. Wellek, History, Vol. 7, Chap. 4
  • Elizabeth Grosz. Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction
  • Catherine Clément, The Weary Sons of Freud
  • Other Readings: Dorothy Leland, "Lacanian Psychoanalysis," Fraser & Bartky, eds., Revaluing French Feminism, 113-135
  • Anika Lemaire. Jacques Lacan
  • **Background: Samuel Weber. Return to Freud: Jacques Lacan's Dislocation of Psychoanalysis
  • Jean-Luc Nancy & Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, The Title of the Letter: A Reading of Lacan
  • Carl G. Jung, "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry," I: 809-818; IR, 783-791

    **Critical Precis Due: Feminist or Freudian Theory

12a. Identity Construction/Agency

TH:

• Hélène Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa," II: 308-320
• Julia Kristeva, "The True-Real," The Kristeva Reader, 187-237
• Luce Irigaray, "This Sex Which Is Not One," "Women on the Market," "Commodities among Themselves," This Sex Which Is Not One, 23-33, 170-197
• Julia Kristeva, "Women's Time," II: 469-484; "From One Identity to Another," IR, 1162-1173
  • **Background: Toril Moi, Sexual/Textual Politics
  • John Lechte. Julia Kristeva
  • Margaret Whitford. Luce Irigaray: Philosophy in the Feminine
  • Elizabeth Grosz. Sexual Subversions

WEEK 12: 9, 11 November

12b. Identity Politics and the Gaze

TU:

• Toril Moi, "Appropriating Bourdieu"
• Nancy Fraser, "The Uses and Abuses of French Discourse Theories for Feminist Politics," Fraser & Bartky, eds., Revaluing French Feminism, 177-194
• Judith Butler, Gender Trouble, 1-34
• Kaja Silverman, The Acoustic Mirror, 1-71, 187-234
• Donna Haraway, Primate Visions, "Teddy Bear Patriarchy," 26-58; "Woman's Place is in the Jungle," 279-303
  • Other Readings: Teresa de Lauretis, Alice Doesn't
  • Laura Mulvey, Visual and Other Pleasures
  • Diana Meyers, "The Subversion of Women's Agency," Fraser & Bartky, eds., Revaluing French Feminism, 136-161
  • Diana Fuss, "Essentially Speaking," Fraser & Bartky, eds.,Revaluing French Feminism, 94-112
  • Paul Smith, Discerning the Subject, "Ideology," 3-23; "Feminism" and "Responsibilities," 133-160

    **Critical Precis Due: identity construction, agency or the gaze

13. Marginalization and Post-Colonial Criticism

TH:

• Edward Said, "From Orientalism," Williams & Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, 132-149
• Chinua Achebe, "Colonialist Criticism," IR: 1190-1198
• >Ranajit Guha, "Preface" and "On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India," R. Guha & Gayatri Spivak, eds., Selected Subaltern Studies, 35- 44; Spivak, "Subaltern Studies," 2-34
• Frantz Fanon, "On National Culture," Williams & Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, 36-52
• Homi Bhabha, "Remembering Fanon: Self, Psyche and the Colonial Condition," Williams & Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, 112-123
  • **Background: Homi K. Bhabha, "Postcolonial Criticism," in Greenblatt and Gunn, eds., Redrawing the Boundaries, 437-465
  • Gerald Graff and Bruce Robbins, "Cultural Criticism," in Greenblatt and Gunn, eds., Redrawing the Boundaries, 419-436
  • L. Grossberg & C. Nelson,"Introduction: The Territory of Marxism," Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, 1-13
  • Other Readings:Gayatri Spivak, In Other Worlds, "A Literary Representation of the Subaltern," 241-268
  • Edward W. Said, "Secular Criticism," II: 604-622;
    "The World, The Text, and the Critic," IR: 1210-1222

WEEK 13: 16, 18 November

TU:

• Anne McClintock, "The Angel of Progress: Pitfalls of the Term 'Post-Colonialism,'" Williams & Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, 291-304
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes," Williams & Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, 196-220
• Seyla Benhabib, "The Generalized and the Concrete Other," Feminism as Critique, 77-95
• Gayatri Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?," Williams & Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, 66-111

TH:

• David Theo Goldberg, ed. Anatomy of Racism
  -Frantz Fanon, "The Fact of Blackness," 108-126
  -Homi Bhabha, "Interrogating Identity: Post-Colonial Prerogative," 183-209
  -Edward W. Said, "Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims," 210-246
• bell hooks, Feminist Theory: from margin to center, "Changing Perspectives on Power," and "Rethinking the Nature of Work," 83-105
• bell hooks, "Postmodern Blackness," Williams & Chrisman, eds. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, 421-427
• Cornel West, "Marxist Theory and the Specificity of Afro-American Oppression," Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, 17-29
  • **Background: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "African-American Criticism," in Greenblatt and Gunn, eds., Redrawing the Boundaries, 303-319
  • Other Readings: Catharine MacKinnon, "Desire and Power: A Feminist Perspective," Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, 105-121

    **Critical Precis Due: marginalization theory

WEEK 14: 23 November(+ Thanksgiving)

14a. New Historicism, 1: History of the Book

TU:

• Lynn Hunt, "Introduction: History, Culture, and Text," in Hunt, ed., The New Cultural History, 1-22
• Robert Darnton, "What is the History of Books?," Finkelstein &: McCleery, eds., Book History Reader, 9-26
• Jerome McGann, "The Socialization of Texts," Finkelstein &: McCleery, eds., Book History Reader, 27-46
• Roger Chartier, "Labourers and Voyagers: From the Text to the Reader," Finkelstein &: McCleery, eds., Book History Reader, 47-58
• Pierre Bourdieu, "The Field of Cultural Production," Finkelstein &: McCleery, eds., Book History Reader, 77-99
• Roland Barthes, "The Death of the Author," Finkelstein &: McCleery, eds., Book History Reader, 221-224
• Michel Foucault, "What is an Author?," Finkelstein &: McCleery, eds., Book History Reader, 225-230
  • **Background: Louis Montrose, "New Historicisms," in Greenblatt and Gunn, eds., Redrawing the Boundaries, 349-391

TH: Thanksgiving

WEEK 15: 30 November, 2 December

14b. New Historicism, 2: Translation Theory

TU:

• Edwin Gentzler and Maria Tymoczko. "Introduction." In: Maria Tymoczko and Edwin Gentzler, eds., Translation and Power, xi-xxvii
• Camino Gutiérrez Lanza. "Spanish Film Translation and Cultural Patronage: The Filtering and Manipulation of Imported Material during Franco's Dictatorship." In: Maria Tymoczko and Edwin Gentzler, eds., Translation and Power, 141-59
• Edwin Gentzler. "Translation, Poststructuralism, and Power." In: Maria Tymoczko and Edwin Gentzler, eds., Translation and Power, 195-218
• **Background: André Lefevere, Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame (case studies, passim)
• Susan Bassnett, Translation Studies (passim)

  **Critical Precis Due: New Historicism (any variety)

TH: Closing Discussion: The End of Theory

• David Lodge. "Goodby to All That" (Review of Terry Eagleton, After Theory).

FINAL EXAMINATION: Wednesday, 8 December, 9-12AM (in-class)