7 one-page precis or oral reports x 5% = 35 %
1 abstract = 10 %
1 short paper (7 pp) = 25%
1 longer paper (expanding on abstract and short paper) = 40 %
All required texts are on reserve in PCL, in the Calhoun Hall Grad Student Lounge, and in the Germanic Studies Reading Gallery. They were ordered, but only buy what interests you. If the reserve copies disappear, one of you did it. I'm not replacing them.
1. READING ASSIGNMENTS AND COMMENTS ON BOOKS
Be ready to summarize the main approach (do a precis, if at all in doubt -- we'll do them on the board in class), and then to interrelate strands of Marxisms as part of the implications. In other words, what new spins on the common core approaches emerge in this text?
2. PRECIS
**WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS:
These are one-page assignments, designed to get you used to working with theory texts (that is, learning to distill the philosophical premises of each school in a clear fashion).
Grading of Precis is indicated on the attached sheet.
3. PAPER
The paper will be done in three steps: the abstract, the 7-page version with bibliography (FIRST DRAFT), and then the finished paper. Due dates as indicated on syllabus.
THE FIRST DRAFT consists of an ABSTRACT (see attached description), a BIBLIOGRAPHY, and a 1-paragraph statement of HOW YOU GOT THE BIBLIOGRAPHY, which includes your decision-making on what bibliographical sources will be appropriate. Use something we read in class as an anchor text (and note that most of the world does abstracts on things not read, or not well-read, until after the abstract is accepted).
The FULL PAPER is 15 pages, in MLA style with full bibliography and page cites. Turn the abstract and preliminary bibliography in with the finished product, so that I can check for consistency and evolution. If you don't know the MLA (or, in the case of philosophers, the APA) has a style manual, this is your moment to learn. Some of the main examples are posted by the UT library (link off the Germanic Studies Department's home page).
Grading as for precis.
PAPER TOPIC:
One of three options:
1) There are problems with the translations of all the texts involved. The English-language scholarly discussions of the Frankfurt School and French post-structuralists have poor credibility vis-à-vis the respective texts' original horizon of expectation, a state of affairs that has to be factored into work on the areas. Pick one of these translation problems and explore it. Good background on the method: André Lefevere, Translation, Adaptation, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame (ordered for GER 389K).
2) Compare two generations of any of the readings systematically, with the goal of explaining the derivations and shifts between them. What did the changes/adaptations gain them as explanatory/interpretive tool?
3) Apply one of these Marxisms to interpret a literary text or other cultural artifact of your choice.