Instructor: C. Fee

Meeting Time: MW 2:10-3:25

Meeting Place: G-311

Office: G-313A

Office Hours: MWF TBA and by appointment

Office Phone: x6762

Home Phone: 528-4799 (Call before 10:00 pm)

E-mail: cfee@gettysburg.edu
 
 

Required Texts:

Baldick, Chris, ed. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford Paperbacks, New edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 019280118X

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. Norton Critical Edition. William L. Andrews and William S. McFeely, eds. NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. ISBN: 0393969665

Heany, Seamus, ed. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. ISBN: 0393320979

Morrison, Toni. Tar Baby. Reissue edition. New American Library Trade, 1987. ISBN: 0452264790

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Oxford World's Classics, Reprint edition. Stephen Orgel, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, May 1998. ISBN: 0192834142

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. Norton Critical Edition. Albert J. Rivero, ed. NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. ISBN: 0393957241

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. Garland Publishing, 1998. ISBN: 0815328796
 
 
 

Course Objectives and Structure:

A primary benefit of literary studies in general is the intellectual flexibility that comes from long practice at shifting perspectives and critically evaluating modes of thought and expression. In other words, learning to take an imaginative leap into another reality is valuable in its own right, as is studying from a critical distance the workings of another time, place, or mind. In this course we will take apart our literary telescopes and look at the lenses under a microscope, as it were. In pursuit of this objective we will examine several primary literary texts from a number of different time periods and cultural and narrative perspectives, while concurrently coming to grips with various critical perspectives through secondary readings.

One of the primary goals of this course is to introduce you to a range of ways of approaching and understanding literature, as well as to give you the critical perspective necessary to begin to judge what lenses work well with what texts in what contexts, and why. We thus will study the theories and practices of a number of schools of literary criticism, including (but not necessarily limited to:) philology; historicism (old and new;) the (old) New Criticism; feminist, psychoanalytical, and Marxist approaches; post-colonial and African-American theories; and structuralist and post-structuralist perspectives. You are free to love 'em or (and?) to hate 'em, and to draw your own conclusions about what is valuable to you. It is my hope, in any case, that you will leave this course a more sensitive and sophisticated reader.

Another fundamental goal of this course is to provide you with a number of practical tools that will serve you well in upper-level literature courses, in writing assignments in general, and in aspects of your academic, professional, or personal life that require pragmatic research and writing skills. We therefore will review basic critical terminology and research standards and practices. Moreover, I will introduce you to a mode of concept production that, since my last year in college, has helped me to sift through ideas, to create research agendae, to develop writing projects in stages, and to publish finished versions of these projects. Whatever your goals for your English major, college career, or professional life, disciplined research and writing practices will prove invaluable, and thus we will strive to develop these tools.

To this end, we will employ a trajectory process model of writing literary criticism. That is, we will talk about texts and critical approaches in class, and you will be given several opportunities throughout the course of the term to develop your own ideas regarding what critical lens might best suit your personal interaction with a given text. You will begin with free-form ideas, structure some of these ideas along informed theoretical lines into four short abstracts, more fully articulate two of these abstracts into a pair working papers, and then choose that working paper you deem to hold the most promise. This working paper will be the basis of your final research project, which you will share with the class in the context of a fifteen-minute orally-presented seminar paper. Taking the comments and criticisms of your colleagues into account, you will complete the course by developing your presentation paper into a final research project in a professional article format. Thus in this course we will combine an introduction to basic theoretical approaches and to necessary research tools of literary criticism with a pragmatic approach to research and professional critical writing that I have used to shepherd many free-form ideas into short abstracts, from thence into conference papers, and finally into published articles and book chapters.
 

Course Evaluation:

Attendance, Participation, and Quizzes (as needed):      10%
4 Short Idea Abstracts (2.5% each):      10%
2 Working Papers (10% each):      20%
Seminar Project Oral Presentation:    15%
Final Seminar Project:     25%
Small Group Theoretical Approach Presentation:    10%
Final Exam:      10%

Attendance, Participation, and Quizzes:

You are expected to be present, prepared, and ready to participate in each and every class period. Some find participating in class discussions to be fun and easy, while others find it threatening and uncomfortable. You need not be a big talker to do well in this class (although it usually doesn't hurt!), but you do need to be prepared to answer an occasional question, articulate intelligent confusion, or voice the odd query (about the subject matter at hand rather than, say, grading procedures!). This class also requires a great deal of group work; full participation in all required activities is presupposed.
 

Requirements:

Short Idea Abstracts:

• You are required to write four (4) short reaction papers (250-500 words/1-2 pages each)
• Each reaction paper should deal with a different primary text from the syllabus (4 of the 5); each reaction paper should employ a different theoretical approach
• In each reaction paper you should sketch out ideas for theoretical engagement of a specific critical approach to the primary text at hand, possible theses, lines of reasoning, etc.
• Due on Wednesdays of weeks 3, 5, 8, and 10
• Returned in 7-10 days with a few critical and suggestive comments; these comments are meant to be directional, and will only be substantive and lengthy if the reaction paper is problematic
• These reaction papers are intended to be opportunities for you to take risks and try out new approaches, utilizing me as a guide and a mentor; do what interests you, not what you think I want
• To this end, reaction papers are graded pass/fail; that said, ensure that each is well-written and properly formatted

• You are required to write two (2) mid-length working papers (1000-1500 words/3-6 pages each)
• Each working paper should extend the ideas and critical engagement of one of your reaction papers (2 of the 4)
• In each working paper you should deal with a specific, clearly-defined theoretical approach focused upon some major aspect of a primary text
• Utilize ample illustrative passages from the primary text; at this point you may make your critical points with reference to Tyson
• Due on Wednesdays of weeks 7 and 11
• Returned within 14 days with substantive (although not overlong) comments
• Graded A-C; D or F returned for revision

• You are required to extend and polish one of your two working papers into a 15-minute conference paper (1500-2000 words/5-8 pages)
• You will deliver this paper orally during one of the final four class periods
• You must practice and time your delivery; you will be cut off at 15 minutes, and questions and discussion will end at the 20 minute mark
• You are expected to have practiced and to speak confidently; you are strongly encouraged to form study and practice groups: give mock presentations to perfect timing, inflection, emphasis, etc., and to get feedback on logic, flow, and intelligibility
• You are required to provide (at the start of your talk) the instructor and each member of the class with a polished, professional-looking handout including a bullet-point outline, some of the most relevant textual passages, and any helpful graphics
• Include with your handout an annotated bibliography of 10-15 current, relevant items garnered from the MLA Bibliography
• Powerpoint, etc., is encouraged if relevant and helpful, but be prepared to go without it if the technology fails; also think about time for set up, etc. We won't have time for mistakes: be prepared to think on your feet and push on
• A little humor to hook your audience is fine, but stay close to the meat of your argument; avoid being cutesy or showcasing technology or graphics rather than fine-tuning content
• Delivered in weeks 13 and 14; 4 class periods = 300 minutes/15 slots = 20 minutes each (15 for your talk, 5 for questions)
• Your slot is your slot; don't miss it because you can't make it up unless you convince soemone to swap. When your 20 minutes of fame are over, we move on immediately. I do this for a living; this is the way that it is.
• Graded A-F on the basis of content, delivery, and materials, roughly equally weighted, as the most important aspect--content--will be evaluated in your final research project

• Your final research project will be based upon your presentation paper and must be 10-16 pages in length (3000-4000 words)
• This paper places the ideas germinated in one of your reaction papers and developed through one of your workshop papers in the context of the most relevant current criticism available on your topic
• Your voice and your ideas should come through clearly and powerfully, but you should be explicit concerning how your ideas derive from, resonate with, or depart from those of other literary critics
• Due at the start of the final exam period
• MLA format, including proper works cited page
• Graded A-F (see "Grading Guidelines"); this paper is the culmination of a process and the maturation of a set of ideas upon which you will have been working for many weeks and through three separate iterations (and perhaps many more drafts). You therefore should have received enough feedback from the instructor and from the audience of your presentation to have a sense of where you stand. Think of this as the final draft of an article to be published.

• Small groups will lead class discussion of theoretical approaches described in your critical reader
• There will be four small groups, and each will lead the class once
• The small group led discussions will take place on Wednesdays during weeks 4, 6, 9, and 12
• Each group will provide a clear, concise, and helpful handout (typed, double-spaced, and well edited and formatted) to the instructor and to each member of the class at the start of the discussion
• This handout should cover the salient points of the given approach as outlined in that week's chapter; each handout should also include a glossary (with helpful definitions) of a dozen or so of the most useful and crucial terms related to the critical approach at hand
• The group should use the critical reading and related handout as a springboard to discussion of one or more of the primary texts that lend themselves to the methodology under examination
• Graded A-F on the basis of content, delivery, and materials, roughly equally weighted

There will be a final exam which will combine short-answer identification of key terms and concepts with essay questions. The purpose of the exam is to give you an opportunity to display how well you have absorbed the reading and discussion material. Specifically, the exam will be based upon the material from the critical reader, introductory lectures by the instructor, and the handouts and discussions generated by the small groups. We will review for the exam well in advance, and you will be provided with a review guide on the last day of class.