Ways of Reading: An Introduction to the Methods of Literary Study (2250)
MW 12:30 - 1:45, CHM ENG 204
Scott Black, SAC 427, 610-519-4642
office hours: MW 2:00-3:30, and by appointment
scott.black@villanova.edu
http://www.homepage.villanova.edu/scott.black
How do we read? From impossibly complex modernist novels, to deceptively simple pop songs, annoyingly obscure old poems, hip commercials, torrid love letters, familiar cereal boxes, and even cereal itself—our lives are organized by many acts, and many kinds, of reading. This course is designed to introduce new and prospective English majors to the tools of our trade, the tools of reading. It will offer students an opportunity to explore the methods that literary critics use to read and explain texts: poems, novels, films, songs, objects, and so on. Organized as a workshop, with ample opportunity for hands-on practice and independent exploration, the course will foreground questions of how we read. By looking at how critics and literary historians discuss particular texts, as well as the ways they explain the familiar yet mysterious activity of reading, we’ll have a chance both to see “how it’s done” and to practice doing it ourselves. Our texts will be clustered around a few central works that have elicited a variety of kinds of responses, rewritings, translations into other forms, as well as critical analyses of all sorts. This course is one step in a life-long process of reading—learning how to engage, understand, explicate, and enjoy books and texts of all sorts. It will prepare you for a career as an English major by giving you a box of tools, and a set of skills, that you’ll be able to use and develop in other classes.
Texts (available in bookstore):
Peter Barry, Beginning Theory (2nd edition)
David Richter, ed. Falling into Theory (2nd edition)
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (Norton Critical Edition, 2nd edition)
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Norton Critical Edition, 3rd edition)
Graham Greene, The Quiet American (Viking Critical Edition)
Further readings on
e-reserve
Requirements: response papers (15%), 3 short
projects (15%, 15%, 15%), mid-term (10%), final (15%), participation (15%) (You
must pass each part to pass the class.)
Participation: This is a discussion class. Come to
class prepared to discuss the readings. (To do this, of course, you must
come to class: attendance is required).
Exams (including surprise quizzes) will include both
identifications and essays.
Plagiarism: Do your work, and do your own work. If
you cheat, you fail. Period.
Writing: Because writing well is an integral component of reading well, there will be regular writing assignments in this class. These will be divided into three levels or stages:
First, for each class please bring in your reading notes. These should consist of brief responses, comments, or questions about the day’s reading. Sometimes I’ll suggest ahead of time a passage, dynamic, or theme to look for and sometimes you’ll be on your own. Reading with pen in hand will help you prepare for discussion.
Second, each week an informal response paper will be due. These are on topics of your own choosing, responses to the week’s readings or class discussions. They may further elaborate on your reading notes or be on something completely different.
Third, there will be 3 short written projects (3-5 pages) that will allow you to practice the various kinds of reading we’ll be studying.
All papers must be word-processed, double spaced, with usual margins and font.
reading
8/25 table of contents and preface
8/27 Woolf, “How Should One Read a Book?” (e-reserve)
Blanchot, “Reading” (e-reserve)
9/1 Labor Day: no class
9/3 Eco, “Narrative Structures in Fleming” (e-reserve)
9/8 Poe, “The Oval Portrait” (in Barry, 272-75)
Barry, “Liberal Humanism,” “Structuralism,” “Narratology”
9/10 Fish, “How to Recognize a Poem When You See One” (Richter)
Dasenbrock, “Do We Write the Text We Read?” (Richter)
operating the text
9/15 James, Turn of the Screw
9/17 James, Turn of the Screw
James, “Preface NY Edition,”
Wilson, Heilman, Blanchot (all in Norton Turn)
project 1 assignment
9/22 James, Turn of the Screw
Felman, “Madness and the Risks of Practice” (in Norton Turn)
Barry, “Psychoanalytic Criticism”
9/24 Clayton, “The Innocents” (film)
project 1 due
9/29 Derrida, “Structure, Sign, and Play” and “The Exorbitant” (both e-reserve)
Barry, “Post-structuralism and Deconstruction”
10/1 Barthes, “The Death of the Author” (Richter)
Foucault, “What is an Author?” (e-reserve)
10/6 Yom Kippur: no class
10/8 Certeau, “Reading as Poaching” (e-reserve)
Deleuze, “What is a Minor Literature?” (Richter)
10/13 Fall Break: no class
situating the text
10/20 Conrad, Heart of Darkness
10/22 Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Guerard, “The Journey Within” (in Norton Heart)
Eliot, “The Hollow Men” (available on-line and at my webpage)
10/27 Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Barry, “Marxist Criticism,” “New Historicism,” “Post-Colonial Criticism”
10/29 Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Achebe, “An Image of Africa,” Sarvan, “Racism in Heart” (both in Norton Heart)
11/3 “The Congo” archive (in Norton Heart)
11/5 O’Brien, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” (e-reserve)
Coppola Apocalypse Now
project 2 due
the work of reading
11/10 Booth, “Who is Responsible in Ethical Criticism, and for What?” (Richter) Nussbaum, “The Literary Imagination” (Richter)
Said, “The Politics of Knowledge” (Richter)
11/12 Levine, “Reclaiming the Aesthetic” (Richter)
Bérubé, “Aesthetics and the Literal Imagination” (Richter)
11/17 Greene, Quiet American, parts 1-2 (--p. 134)
11/19 Greene, Quiet American, parts 3-4 (--p. 189)
11/24 Greene, Quiet American, archive / criticism
project 3 draft due
11/26 Thanksgiving: no class
12/1 Vendler, “What We Have Loved, Others Will Love” (Richter)
Graff, “Disliking Books at an Early Age” (Richter)
Eagleton, “The Rise of English” (Richter)
12/3 Scholes, “A Fortunate Fall?” (Richter)
project 3 due
rereading
12/8 Woolf, “How Should One Read a Book?” (e-reserve)
Blanchot, “Reading” (e-reserve)
Certeau, “Reading as Poaching” (e-reserve)
12/10 wrap-up