ENGLISH 495.01 Literary Criticism: "Subject to Desire" Spring 1998
MWF 1:30-2:20 UCC 302
Office: Brink 125--MW 2:30-3:30 and by appt.
Required texts:
Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko, The Rover, and Other Works (Penguin, 1992)
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (Routledge,1990)
___. The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection (Stanford, 1997)
Lee, Nathaniel. Lucius Junius Brutus (Nebraska, 1967)
Otway, Thomas. Venice Preserved (in coursepack at UI bookstore, Nebraska, 1969)
Sarup, Madan. An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism, Second edition (Georgia, 1993)
Wycherley, William. Love in a Wood/The Gentleman Dancing-Master/The Country Wife/The Plain Dealer (Oxford, 1996)
See also books and articles on reserve.
Course Description:
This course focuses on recent critical discussion of desire, power, and history, beginning with quick expositions of figurative language and the problem of determining or stabilizing meaning (deconstruction) to more extended analyses of pscyhoanalytic accounts of identity and desire, to historicized conceptions of the self, texts, and power (especially in the wake of Foucault via Judith Butler's analyses of gender, feminism, and desire). Our literary points of reference and departure shall be late 17th-century drama, specifically Restoration comedy and political tragedy in the work of William Wycherley, Aphra Behn, Nathaniel Lee, and Thomas Otway (we'll try to accomodate discussion of five plays). No midterm or final exam, but substantial reading and much emphasis on thoughtful writing in succinct summaries and critical responses plus a couple of papers. As always, I hope that we engage in frank and productive discussion, and you'll select the topics of your essays or critical projects.
Requirements:
1. One critical summary (single-spaced, about 450 words) of a critical essay, probably on one of the plays though another topic or text may be suitable. We'll divvy up the criticism to cover a range of plays and topics, and this is due on the second day of our discussion of the play in question; please put a copy of your summary in my mailbox in Brink 200 by noon of the day it is due. I would also like you to email the summary to me.
2. Four critical responses (see syllabus, each response 400 words, single-spaced, titled, on one page) that prompt you to identify and to address interpretive and critical issues that these texts present. Your observations and analyses should be succinct and sharply focused, with potential for substantial further development.
3. Two focused journal entries (400 words each, single-spaced) due at different times over the semester on selected readings. You will be responsible for offering in this entry a brief summary of some part of the day's text and some written comments or responses to it to help initiate our class discussion. Please put a hard copy of your entry in my mailbox by noon on the day we plan to discuss the work, and also send an email copy of your entry to me.
4. Participation in class and group discussion (including informal writing). Please take advantage of the opportunity small groups may provide to discuss your reactions, share your insights and research, and to listen and reply to others' ideas. I may call from time to time upon groups to facilitate class discussion. I hope group work will enable you to move the class in directions you find most helpful, give you opportunities to develop critical skills through collaboration, and prevent me from dominating class discussion while still providing occasions for sharing my perspectives with you.
5. Two graded, double-spaced essays (Essay 1, 7 pp.; Essay 2, 10 pp.). More on these later, but in general these essays enable you to explore an interpretive/contextual problem, try out a critical approach/hypothesis, and help to express ideas prompted by your reading, by recent scholarship, and by our discussion. I am interested in seeing the ways that you select, define, and engage questions and contradictions, and I attend to the clarity, imagination, and grace that you demonstrate in presenting your topic, thesis, and argument. I do not always expect essays to conclude by "solving" such problems or by "proving" your thesis; I do hope that you address interesting topics in thoughtful and useful ways. Please feel invited to confer with me during the writing process.
6. Due dates: All required work is due at the beginning of class on the due date--work turned in later will be marked late and graded accordingly. All required graded written work will be downgraded one notch (for example, B+ to B, converted to points for each assignment) for each weekday late (not just days classes meet but counting just one day for a weekend). Work more than a week late will not be accepted. I will grant short extensions for medical and family emergencies--but talk with me as soon as possible to request an extension. ALWAYS KEEP EXTRA COPIES OF YOUR WORK.
7. Attendance is required. Excellent attendance is rewarded; poor attendance is penalized. If you have no absences by the semester's end (excused or not), you will receive five bonus points; with only one absence you will receive three bonus points. Four absences will not affect your semester grade. But five absences will lower your semester total by twelve points with eight point reductions for each additional absence (for example, six absences=minus 20 points and so on). Almost all absences will be counted--excused or not--if something extraordinary occurs, talk to me.
8. Grades: One Critical Summary of a critical essay (10pts); Two Journal Entries (20 pts each); Four Critical Responses (25 points each); Essay 1 (125 points); Essay 2 (150 points). These required assignments add up to a maximum of 425 points. Thus 382-425 points equals an A, 340-381 equals a B, 297-339 equals a C, 255-296 equals a D, and anything below 255 merits an F. I shall also reserve a potential five bonus points based on my perceptions of the strength of your participation and efforts over the semester.
9. Office hours. I encourage you to confer with me--especially before assignments are due--to talk about your interests, intentions, and writing strategies. I also expect you to meet with me in early April to review your progress. My office is not accessible to the handicapped, so please let me know if you need to meet me elsewhere. If you cannot make my regular hours, we can usually arrange another time. I also welcome communicating with you by E-mail (sflores@uidaho.edu, or just sflores if you are on a Raven, Goshawk, Harrier, etc.).
Syllabus
Week 1--1/12-1/16
Barbara Johnson, "Writing" (Critical Terms for Literary Study, on reserve)
Gerald Graff, "Determinacy/Indeterminacy" (CTLS, on reserve)
Week 2--1/21-1/23
Bennett and Royle, "Figures and Tropes" (handout)
Stephen Greenblatt, "Culture" (CTLS, on reserve)
Wycherley, The Country Wife
Week 3--1/26-1/30
The Country Wife
The Country Wife
The Country Wife
Week 4--2/2-2/6
Jane Tompkins, "A Short Course in Post-Structuralism" (College English, on reserve)
Francoise Meltzer, "Unconscious" (CTLS, on reserve)
Wycherley, The Plain Dealer
Week 5--2/9-2/13
CRITICAL RESPONSE #1 DUE 2/9 on The Country Wife today, or later on The Plain Dealer; Madan Sarup, Ch. 1 "Lacan and psychoanalysis"
Bruce Fink, Ch. 4 "The Lacanian Subject" from The Lacanian Subject (on reserve)
Fink, Ch. 5 "The Subject and the Other's Desire" (on reserve)
Week 6--2/18-2/20
CRITICAL RESPONSE #1 DUE 2/18 on The Plain Dealer if you didn't turn one in on The Country Wife
The Plain Dealer
Week 7--2/23-2/27
Slavoj Zizek, "From Reality to the Real" from Looking Awry (on reserve)
CRITICAL RESPONSE #2 DUE 2/25 on pscyhoanalytic criticism/theory; Zizek, "The Real and Its Vicissitudes"
Zizek, "Two Ways to Avoid the Real of Desire"
Week 8--3/2-3/6
Peer-edit Essay 1, bring two copies of substantial draft to share
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Gender Criticism" (Redrawing the Boundaries, on reserve)
ESSAY 1 DUE on 3/6; Behn, "The Fair Jilt"
Week 9--3/9-3/13
Behn, The Rover
The Rover
The Rover
Week 10--3/23-3/27
Sarup, Ch. 2 "Derrida and deconstruction"
Jacques Derrida, "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences" (on reserve); recommended: Derrida, "The Principal of Reason: The University in the Eyes of Its Pupils" (diacritics 13.3 (1983): 3-20; and "Differance"
Sarup, Ch. 3 "Foucault and the social sciences"
Week 11--3/30-4/3
Bove, "Discourse" (CTLS, on reserve)
Sarup, Ch. 3 cont'd. and Ch. 4 "Some currents within post-structuralism"
Sarup, Ch. 5 "Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva: French feminist theories"
Week 12--4/6-4/10
Judith Butler, Ch. 1 "Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire" (Gender Trouble)
Butler, Ch. 2 "Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix" (Gender Trouble)
CRITICAL RESPONSE #3 DUE 4/10 on Behn, Butler, or Lee; Lee, Lucius Junius Brutus
Week 13--4/13-4/15 (class cancelled on 4/17)
Lee, Lucius Junius Brutus
Butler, "Introduction" (The Psychic Life of Power)
Week 14--4/20-4/24
Butler, Ch. 1 "Stubborn Attachment, Bodily Subjection: Rereading Hegel on the Unhappy Consciousness" (The Psychic Life of Power)
Otway, Venice Preserved
Butler, Ch. 2 "Circuits of Bad Conscience" (The Psychic Life of Power)
Week 15--4/27-5/1
CRITICAL RESPONSE DUE 4/27 on Butler or Otway; Butler, Ch. 3 "Subjection, Resistance, Resignification" (The Psychic Life of Power)
Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (on reserve)
Butler, Ch. 4 "'Conscience Doth Make Subjects of Us All'" (The Psychic Life of Power)
Week 16--5/4-5/8
Peer-edit ESSAY 2 on 5/4, bring two copies of substantial draft to share
Venice Preserved or other catch-up/wrap-up TBA
Week 17
Final meeting, Thursday May 14, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
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