Foundations of Literary Analysis - Spring 2005 - Prof. Steve Evans

Reading Syllabus • Subject to change; check back frequently • click here for current week

finals week

Final Paper Due: Mystory Project

28 Apr

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

26 Apr

TB 276-313 Archive: Texts of Identification (cont'd)

21 Apr

TB 276-313 Archive: Texts of Identification
CT 288-305 Ethnicity by Werner Sollors
Screening of Agnes Varda's The Gleaners & I

19 Apr

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

14 Apr

TB 248-262 Sorrows of Young Werther

12 Apr > log

TB 240-247 The Mystory
CT 263-273 Gender by Myra Jehlen

7 Apr > log

TB 238-240 Text and Hypertext | link to hypertext of Briar Rose
LT 194-217 Conclusion: Political Criticism

SECOND PAPER DUE Using the methods and concepts modeled over the past month of analyzing songs and poems, develop your own sustained analysis of one of the following four poems: "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens (Text Book), "Diving into the Wreck" by Adrienne Rich (handout), "Ode to the West Wind" by P.B. Shelley" (handout), or "For Love" by Robert Creeley (handout of 31 March). Target length: 1000 words. Due at the start of class.

5 Apr > log

TB 210-238 Interpreting Texts
LT 194-217 Conclusion: Political Criticism

31 Mar > log

TB 207-210 On Interpretation
TB 210-238 Interpreting Texts
LT 127-150 Post-Structuralism

29 Mar > log

TB 190-207 Identifying with Texts
CT 306-320 Ideology by James H. Kavanagh
LT 127-150 Post-Structuralism

24 Mar > log

TB 176-190 Completing Texts: The Reader's Work
CT 163-176 Determinacy/Indeterminacy by Gerald Graff
LT 127-150 Post-Structuralism

22 Mar > log

TB 162-176 Transforming Texts (2): Sleeping Beauties
CT 250-262 Literary History by Lee Patterson
Handout - Shelley, Ode to the West Wind
Handout - Rich, Diving into the Wreck

17 Mar > log

TB 150-157 Intertextuality
TB 157-162 Transforming Texts
CT 187-202 Influence by Louis A. Renza

15 Mar > log

TB 94-103 Metaphor as a Basis for Thought
LT 151-193 Psychoanalysis
CT Review of Butler on Desire and Maillous on Unconscious
FIRST PAPER DUE (review prompt, first posted 13 February, here)

24 February

TB 87-94 Poetic Uses of Metaphor
TB 128-142 Hidden Meaning: Parables and Allegory; focus on "A Night-Sea Journey"
CT 135-46 Intention by Annabel Patterson

22 February

TB 128-142 Hidden Meaning: Parables and Allegory; focus on brief parables
CT 369-386 Desire by Judith Butler

17 February | log

TB 128-142 Hidden Meaning: Parables and Allegory
CT 121-134 Interpretation by Steven Mailloux
LT 91-127 Structuralism and Semiotics

15 February | log

TB 74-83 Metaphor and Dream
TB 83-87 Surrealist Metaphor
CT 147-62 Unconscious by Françoise Meltzer
LT 91-127 Structuralism and Semiotics
Link here for First Paper Prompt (due 24 February)

10 February | log

Discussion day

8 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
LT 54-91 Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory

Writing Assignment Make a journal entry about the social semiotics of the high school you attended: what groups or cliques were there? how did these group identities get signaled? what character contests did they incite? where were you in all this?

3 February | log

TB 57-61 Representation and Its Complications
CT 11-22 Representation by W.J.T. Mitchell
LT 54-91 Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory
In-class screening of excerpt from Rebel without a Cause

1 February | log

CT 233-249 Canon by John Guillory
LT 54-91 Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory

Writing Assignment Write a response to one of the four prompts (you choose) provided by the Text Book editors on pages 50-51. Bring a typed hardcopy of your response (target length 500 words) to class with you today.

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 Tuesday, 1 February. (Naturally, if you'd prefer to rent or borrow it and watch at home at your leisure, feel free to do so.) A detailed synopsis of the film is available here.

27 January | log

TB 29-57 Character and Confrontation
CT 177-186 Value/Evaluation by Barbara Herrnstein Smith

25 January | log

TB 29-57 Character and Confrontation
CT 105-120 Author by Donald E. Pease
Recommended: David Bordwell, "Classical Hollywood Cinema" (handout)
Recommended: Peter Schjeldahl, "That Eighties Show" (handout; link)

Writing Assignment In your on-line reading journal, write a brief response to prompt #2 on page 44 of Text Book ("For Discussing and Writing").

20 January — SNOW DAY (CLASS CANCELLED)

TB 19-29 The Short Story
CT 66-79 Narrative by J. Hillis Miller
LT 17-54 The Rise of English

18 January | log

TB 12-18 The Literary Anecdote
CT 429-446 In Place of an Afterword by Frank Lentricchia
LT 17-54 The Rise of English
Begin reading Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau

13 January | log

Text Book (TB) 02-12 Story and Storyteller
Critical Terms (CT) 225-232 Culture by Stephen Greenblatt
Literary Theory (LT) 1-17 Introduction: What Is Literature?

Begin keeping your on-line journal

11 January | log

Introduction