Reading Syllabus

finals week

Final Paper Due: Mystory Project

29 Apr

TB 337-376 Archive: The Play of The Text
CT 354-368 Imperialism/Nationalism by Seamus Deane

27 Apr

TB 276-313 Archive: Texts of Identification (cont'd)
BR 404-414 from The Pleasure of the Text

22 Apr

TB 276-313 Archive: Texts of Identification
CT 288-305 Ethnicity by Werner Sollors
BR 378-403 Writers, Intellectuals, Teachers

Meet at Fogler Library (mall entrance lobby, near the Oakes Room Café) for a screening of Agnes Varda's The Gleaners & I.

Revision of Paper Two Due

20 Apr > log

TB 262-274 Roland Barthes: The Fragment
TB 274-276 Fragments of Identification: A Guide
CT 274-287 Race by Kwame Anthony Appiah

Seventh Response Due: Select five sections (or "lexia") of Coover's text for close analysis and write a brief (maximum 100 words) comment on each lexia for possible submission to the hypertext website.

15 Apr > log

TB 248-262 Sorrows of Young Werther
BR 426-456 from A Lover's Discourse

13 Apr > log

TB 240-247 The Mystory
CT 263-273 Gender by Myra Jehlen
BR 426-456 from A Lover's Discourse

BR 251-295 Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives: focus on "action" and "narration" sections.

Fill-out chart of actions/actors in the different versions of "Sleeping Beauty": bring to class.

8 Apr > log

TB 238-240 Text and Hypertext | link to hypertext of Briar Rose
BR 251-295 Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives: focus on "function" section.

6 Apr > log

TB 210-238 Interpreting Texts
BR 251-295 Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives

1 April > log

TB 207-210 On Interpretation
TB 210-238 Interpreting Texts
BR 211-217 The Imagination of the Sign

30 Mar > log

TB 190-207 Identifying with Texts
CT 306-320 Ideology by James H. Kavanagh
BR 194-210 The Photographic Message

Second Paper On Metaphorical Language and Poetry Due in Class: Respond to the prompt found in Text Book, page 88. Support your claims with textual evidence drawn from the Text Book mini-anthology AND at least one of the longer poems we discussed in class (Rich, Shelley, Clover). Suggested length: 5-6 pages. First draft due in class, 30 March.

25 Mar > log

TB 176-190 Completing Texts: The Reader's Work
CT 163-176 Determinacy/Indeterminacy by Gerald Graff
BR 185-193 Authors and Writers

Response Assignment: Think through the questions about metaphorical language and poetry posed by the Text Book editors on page 88 and write a brief response based on your provisional answers. Due in class 25 March or 30 March.

23 Mar > log

TB 162-176 Transforming Texts (2): Sleeping Beauties
CT 250-262 Literary History by Lee Patterson
BR 169-184 from On Racine

Paper One Revision Due (staple clean revised version atop earlier draft and rubric)

18 Mar > log

TB 150-157 Intertextuality
TB 157-162 Transforming Texts
CT 187-202 Influence by Louis A. Renza
Handout - Shelley, Ode to the West Wind
Handout - Rich, Diving into the Wreck

Fifth Response Assignment: Read the fourth question in Text Book 102 ("For Discussion and Writing: Using Metaphorical Concepts") and adapt it so that the "editorial" you consult grows out of the political campaigns that are being debated in print and on the airwaves right now in Maine. Write a brief analysis of the role metaphorical language plays in a particular example of political speech/political struggle. FORMAT: 300-600 words. DUE: In class today or Tuesday, 23 March.

16 Mar > log

TB 94-103 Metaphor as a Basis for Thought
BR 150-158 The Last Happy Writer

26 February > log

BR 93-150 Myth Today

First Draft of Paper One Due: From Anecdote to Parable. Click here for prompt. FORMAT: 4-5 pages, 10-12 point font, double-spaced. DUE:In-class on Thursday, 26 February.

24 February > log

TB 87-94 Poetic Uses of Metaphor
CT 135-46 Intention by Annabel Patterson
BR 296-304 Flaubert and the Sentence
BR 93-150 Begin reading "Myth Today"

Fourth Response Assignment Due: Respond to the prompt found in Text Book p.142 #2 ("Write a short parable of your own"). FORMAT & WORD COUNT: 300-500 words, 10-12 point font, double spaced. DUE: In-class on Tuesday, 24 Feb.

19 February > log

TB 128-142 Hidden Meaning: Parables and Allegory; focus on "A Night-Sea Journey"
CT 369-386 Desire by Judith Butler

Third Response Assignment Due: Respond to the prompt found in Text Book p74, #2 ("Compose your own riddle poem...."). FORMAT: Poem of at least 10 lines. DUE: In-class on Thursday, 19 February.

17 February > log

TB 128-142 Hidden Meaning: Parables and Allegory; focus on brief parables
CT 121-134 Interpretation by Steven Mailloux

12 February > log

TB 74-83 Metaphor and Dream
TB 83-87 Surrealist Metaphor
CT 147-62 Unconscious by Françoise Meltzer
BR 82-92 The Face of Garbo, Striptease, The Lady of the Camellias

Second Response Assignment Due: Select a photograph or film still from any source and subject it to the kind of analysis Barthes proposes and performs in his "The Third Meaning." Be sure to account for each of the three "levels" Barthes defines: the informational, the symbolic, and the third or "obtuse." WORD COUNT: 500-700 words. FORMAT: 10-12 point font, double spaced. • DUE: In-class on Thursday, 13 February. NOTE: An excellent resource for film stills is the Internet Movie Database at http://us.imdb.com/. Type in a movie title, then scan the vertical bar along the left of your screen for "photo gallery."

10 February > log

TB 63-72 The Linguistic Basis of Metaphor
TB 72-74 Metaphor in Three Poems
CT 80-90 Figurative Language by Thomas McLaughlin
BR 74-81 Baudelaire's Theater
BR 236-50 The Eiffel Tower

5 February > log

TB 57-61 Representation and Its Complications
CT 11-22 Representation by W.J.T. Mitchell
BR 18-30 The World of Wrestling
BR 62-74 The World as Object

3 February > log

CT 233-249 Canon by John Guillory
BR 31-61 from Writing Degree Zero

First Response Due: Respond to any of the writing prompts following the Glaspell, Goffman, or Strindberg pieces in Text Book (40, 44-46, 50-51). The prompts to performance should be set aside, but do feel free to choose one of the more "creative" assignments if it appeals to you. WORD COUNT: 500 words. FORMAT: Use a legible 12-point font and double-spacing. DUE: bring hardcopy of your response to class on Tuesday.

On Monday afternoon a videotape of Rebel Without a Cause (dir. Nicholas Ray; 1955) will be placed on reserve at the Media Resource Center at the Fogler Library (2nd floor). I recommend that you view it prior to class on Thursday. (Naturally, if you'd prefer to rent or borrow it and watch at home at your leisure, feel free to do so.)

29 January > log

TB 29-57 Character and Confrontation
CT 177-186 Value/Evaluation by Barbara Herrnstein Smith
BR 317-333 The Third Meaning
Film In-class screening of excerpt from Rebel without a Cause

27 January > log

TB 29-57 Character and Confrontation
CT 105-120 Author by Donald E. Pease
BR 3-17 On Gide and His Journal

Recommended David Bordwell, "Classical Hollywood Cinema" (handout)

Journal Prompt (make entries prior to class meeting): Synopsize three plots—one from your personal experience, one from television or film, one from the news—in as condensed a form as you are able to achieve without sacrificing "essential" components. Be ready to answer the dreaded question "So what?"

22 January > log

TB 19-29 The Short Story
CT 66-79 Narrative by J. Hillis Miller
BR 426-456 from A Lover's Discourse

20 January > log

TB 12-18 The Literary Anecdote
CT 429-446 In Place of an Afterword by Frank Lentricchia
BR 415-425 from Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes

15 January > log

TB 02-12 Story and Storyteller
CT 225-232 Culture by Stephen Greenblatt
BR 457-478 Barthes, Inaugural Lecture to the College de France

Begin keeping your on-line journal

13 January > log

Introduction