English 200 Critical Issues
Spring 1998
Phyllis Gorfain
Rice 107
x8577
Office hours: M & F 4:45-6 p.m.
Required Texts
English 200 Reader, $8 in English Dept. office (bring exact change
or check made out to OC)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (Feminist Press)
Charlotte Bronte, Wuthering Heights (Bedford Case Studies edition)
William Shakespeare, Henry V (Cambridge Univ. Press edition,
ed. Andrew Gurr)
Toni Morrison, Sula (NAL/Dutton)
Course Objectives
1. To introduce students to ways of inquiring into theoretical issues
central in the reading process:
- What is the critical reading process?
- What are different modes of interpretation?
- How is interpretation evaluated?
- What is the role of criticism in literary study?
- How does the expectation of realism affect reading processes?
- What alternative modes can we employ to resist the naturalizing of
realism?
- How does the notion of "the author" function in our reading
process?
- How does our positionality affect our reading process?
- How does history figure in the ways we read? account for changes in
interpretation?
- How do we read scripts differently than we read novels and poetry?
- How do we read novels and poetry differently?
- What is the role of originality in different genres and media?
- How do notions of authenticity figure in our evaluation of works of
art?
- How do works of literature comment on their own processes of realism,
history, interpretation, reliability, truthfulness, etc.?
2. To develop student writing about literature in ways that are self-conscious
about the critical process.
3. To develop student thinking and conceptualization about literary
study for future courses in literature, drama, cultural studies.
4. To help students feel comfortable with theoretical questions and
able to theorize about their own reading practices and those of others.
5. To denaturalize the reading process and make it an object of examination.
Schedule
Wed., Feb. 4: Intro; assign Prep #1 (over); distrib. Bohannon
essay, "Miching Mallecho"
Fri., Feb. 6: Discuss Prep Paper #1, "Miching Mallecho"
(xerox given out Wed); Prep Paper #1 on Reading
Process due
Mon., Feb. 9: Levine, "Realism Reconsidered" (Reader)
Wed., Feb. 11: Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher"
(Reader)
Fri., Feb. 13: Wordsworth "Intimations" Ode (xerox
distributed in advance)
Mon., Feb. 16: Brooke, "The Heresy of Paraphrase"
(Reader)
Wed., Feb. 18: Keats ode (xerox); Ashbery "These Lacustrine
Cities"; Prep Paper #2 on Interpreting Poetry
due
Fri., Feb. 20: The Yellow Wallpaper
Mon., Feb. 23: "What is criticism" discussion
Mon., Feb. 23: Evening class, 7 pm K306, Nick Jones on
Romantic Poetry
Wed., Feb. 25: The Yellow Wallpaper criticism; Prep
Paper #3 on What Do Critics Do? due
Fri., Feb. 27: Wuthering Heights, ch. 1-11 (to p. 117
in Bedford ed.)
Mon., Mar. 2: WHts, ch. 12-24 (to p. 221 in Bedford ed)
Wed., Mar. 4: Finish novel (to p. 285) plus biog/ed material
pp. 15-24
Fri., Mar. 6: WHts Crit: Taylor, "Holy Ghosts"
(Reader); Midterm paper proposal due
Mon., Mar. 9: Evening class only, 7 pm K306, Kathie Linehan
on Feminist Criticism of Wuthering Heights
Wed., Mar. 11: WHts crit: Deconstruction/Miller, pp.
359-384 in Bedford ed
Fri., Mar. 13: WHts crit: Cultural Crit/Armstrong, pp.
415-449 in Bedford; Drafts for all non-WHts
midterm papers due
Mon., Mar. 16: Midterm retrospective: written evaluations and
discussion groups; Drafts for WHts midterm
papers due;midterm evaluations due
Wed., Mar. 18: Discussion of midterm papers
Fri., Mar. 20: Discussion of midterm papers; Midterm
papers due by 6 pm
Mon., Mar. 30: Benjamin, "Work of Art in Age of Mech. Repro."
(Reader)
Wed., Apr. 1: Evening class (7 pm, K 306): showing of
Vertigo
Fri., Apr. 3: Discussion of Vertigo
Mon., Apr. 6: Brill "Up and Down"(Reader) West, "Concept
of the Fantastic in Vertigo" (Reader)
Mon., Apr. 6: Evening class (7 pm, K 306): Pat Day on
Vertigo
Wed., Apr. 8: Discussion of Vertigo prep papers; Prep
Paper #4 on Vertigodue
Thurs., Apr. 9: Special evening class, 7 pm K306 showing of
Branagh Henry V
Fri., Apr. 10: NO CLASS
Mon., Apr. 13: Henry V, Acts 1 & 2
Mon., Apr. 13: Evening class (7 pm, K 306): showing of
Olivier Henry V
Wed., Apr. 15: "Claiming from the Female" and "Branagh
& the Prince" (Reader)
Fri., Apr. 17: Henry V, Acts 3 & 4
Mon., Apr. 20: Henry, Act V; discuss "staging"
preps; Prep #5 on Staging Henry due
Mon., Apr. 20: Evening class (7 pm, K 306) Phyllis Gorfain
on Henry V
Wed., Apr. 22: Sula, first 1/3 of novel
Fri., Apr. 24: Sula, second 1/3 of novel
Mon., Apr. 27: Sula, finish novel; Proposals
for final papers due
Wed., Apr. 29: McDowell, "Sula and the Black Female
Text" (Reader)
Fri., May 1: Discussion groups on final papers; Drafts
non-Sula papers due
Mon., May 4: Conferences on non-Sula papers; Drafts
Sula papers due
Wed., May 6: Conferences on Sula papers
Fri., May 8: Wrap-up class, Course evaluations
Mon., May 11: Reading Period; Final
Papers due by 6 pm
Course requirements:
1. 15% Regular attendance and participation. Your course grade will
be affected by more than four absences.
2. 15% Five 2-4 page typed Cr (Cr/Cr+/Cr-)/NE prep papers brought
to class on due date.
3. 30% each: Two 8-page typed graded papers, due at the end of each
half of the semester
Assignment for Prep #1, due in class Friday, February 6 (2-4
typed pages)
What do we do when we read? What kind of reader are you?
Read the distributed short xerox ("To be born again") selection.
As you read, pay close attention to what you are actually doing as you
read. You may have to slow down your usual way of doing things a good deal
to do this. You may even want to take notes.
I'd like you to pay attention to how you go about making sense of the
selection. What kinds of assumptions do you make? What do you react to?
The style? the characters? the tone? the theme?
Think about what examining this process tells you about reading in general
as well as what it tells you about how you are making sense of this particular
selection.
Write up an account of exactly what you did when you were reading: what
you paid attention to, what kind of mental processes you went through (visualize,
anticipate, etc.)
In the final page or so, try to write about how reading works and what
you know about the things that focus your attention as a reader.
The English Department welcomes your Questions or Comments regarding
this site--
e-mail The English
Department Web Master
