The Act of Interpretation - Spring 2012 - Dr. Steve Evans

Reading Syllabus | Current week here.

Subject to Change * Check Back Frequently

References to the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (aka "the brick") are preceded by an "N." Except where specifically indicated, the assignment covers the headnote and selected texts in their entirety.

Occasionally we will work from handouts, which are indicated by "H.O" in the syllabus.

Section I: What is Representation?

week 1

9 Jan - Class 1

Introduction to course
Blackboards A | B | C

11 Jan - Class 2

N: Gorgias (on-line)
Blackboards A | B | C | D

13 Jan | Class 3 | Last day to add a class without advisor and instructor approval

N: Plato, fr. Republic (books II, III)
Proust 3-9
Blackboards A | B | C

week 2

16 Jan | Martin Luther King Day

No Class

18 Jan

N: Plato, fr. Republic (books II, III, VII, X) + fr. Phaedrus
Proust 8-48

20 Jan

N: Plato, fr. Republic (books II, III, VII, X) + fr. Phaedrus
N: Aristotle, "Poetics"
Proust to 100
Due: Reading Notes on Plato

week 3

23 Jan

N: Plato, fr. Republic (book X) + fr. Phaedrus
N: Aristotle, Poetics + fr. Rhetoric

25 Jan

N: Aristotle, Poetics + fr. Rhetoric
Due: Reading Notes on Aristotle

27 Jan - No Class

Proust to 200

week 4

30 Jan

N: Aristotle, Poetics + fr. Rhetoric
N: Horace, Ars Poetica

1 Feb

N: Horace, Ars Poetica

3 Feb

Handout: WJT Mitchell, "Representation"
Proust to 300
Due: Reading Notes on Horace

week 5

6 Feb

N: Auerbach (white brick or handout)

8 Feb

Proust Discussion

10 Feb

Proust Discussion
Proust to end

Section II: What is Language?

week 6

13 Feb

N: Saussure

15 Feb

N: Saussure
N: Mallarmé
Aristotle Paper Abstract & Outline Due

17 Feb

N: Jakobson

week 7

20 Feb

N: Jakobson
Freud: Chapter 2

Aristotle Paper Due in electronic format (doc, docx, rtf, pdf) by 11:59pm on Tuesday, February 21.

22 Feb

N: Levi-Strauss
Freud: Chapter 2

24 Feb

N: Austin
Freud: Chapter 2

—SPRING BREAK—

week 8

12 March

N: Austin
Freud: Chapters 3-4

14 March

N: Heidegger
Freud: Chapters 3-4

16 Mar

N: Heidegger
Freud: Chapters 3-4

Section III: What is an Author?

week 9

19 March

N: Barthes, "The Death of the Author"
N: Barthes, "From Work to Text"
Freud: Chapter 5
Pease, "Author" (Critical Terms for Literary Study or handout)

21 March

N: Foucault, "What is an Author"
Freud: Chapter 5
Pease, "Author" (Critical Terms for Literary Study or handout)

23 Mar

N: Wimsatt & Beardsley, "The Intentional Fallacy"
Recommended: "Intentionality" (Critical Terms for Literary Study or handout)
Freud: Chapter 5

Section IV: What is Hermeneutics?

week 10

26 March

N: Schleiermacher
Freud: Chapter 6

28 March

N: Schleiermacher
Freud: Chapter 6

30 Mar

N: Nietzsche, "On Truth and Lying..."
N: Wilde
Recommended: "Interpretation" (Critical Terms for Literary Study or handout)
Freud: Chapter 6

week 11

2 April

N: Nietzsche, "On Truth and Lying..."
N: Wilde
Freud: Chapter 6

4 April

N: de Man, "Semiology and Rhetoric"
N: Poulet (blue brick or handout)
Freud: Chapter 6

6 April

N: Iser
Freud: Chapter 6

week 12

9 April

N: Iser
N: Jauss

11 April

Class cancelled

13 April

N: Jauss

Section V: What is Ideology?

week 13

16 April

N: Hegel, "The Master Slave Dialectic"
N: Marx & Engels

18 April

N: Hegel, "The Master Slave Dialectic"
N: Marx & Engels

20 Apri

N: Lacan, "The Mirror Stage"
N: Althusser

week 14

23 April

N: Jameson, from "The Political Unconscious"
Freud Paper Due Electronically by 10:59am

25 April — Maine Day

27 April

Review

finals week

Wednesday, May 2, 10:30am-12:30pm | Cumulative Final Exam