English 5000: Introduction to Graduate Study, Spring
2011
Joseph
Carroll, 456 Lucas, 516-5541; home phone 432-5583; jcarroll@umsl.edu
Office
hours: Th 3:30-4:00 and by appointment
The
easiest way to contact me and discuss paper topics or whatnot is to use e-mail
(
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Texts
ordered for the class:
Critical
Theory since 1965,
ed.
Evolution, Literature, and Film: A Reader, ed. Boyd,
Carroll, and Gottschall (hereafter referred to as ELF)
Literary Theory:
A Very Short Introduction, Jonathan Culler
Hamlet, William
Shakespeare, ed. Susanne L. Wofford (hereafter referred to as Hamlet casebook)
Heart
of Darkness,
Joseph Conrad, ed. Ross C. Murfin (hereafter referred to as Heart of Darkness casebook)
Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne
Postmodern
Pooh,
MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Gibaldi and Achtert
Posted essays must
be downloaded and printed from the course site on My Gateway, from the folders
in “Course Documents.”
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January
20
(Introduction): syllabus, sign-up for reports
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January
27
(Overviews of Literary Theory: perspectives from humanism and from biology)
Winnie the Pooh, first two
chapters
Postmodern
Pooh,
Preface (a parody of Gerald Graff and “Teaching the Conflicts”)
Postmodern
Pooh,
chapter 9 (“Virtual Bear” (a parody of cyberpunk)
Postmodern
Pooh,
chapter 10 (“Twilight of the Dogs,” a parody of Roger Kimball and reactionary traditionalism in general)
Posted Essays:
Abrams,
“Poetry, Theories of”
Abrams,
“The Transformation of English Studies: 1930-1995"
Carroll,
response to an email questionnaire on the professional study of English (2 pp.)
Carroll,
“Three Scenarios for Literary Darwinism”
Carroll
et al., from Introduction and conclusion to Graphing
Jane Austen (excerpts, typescript)
Delbanco,
“The Decline and Fall of English Studies”
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February
3 (Overviews of Literary Theory: the perspective from postmodernism)
Culler, Literary Theory: A
Very Short Introduction
Winnie
the Pooh, chapters 3 & 4
Postmodern
Pooh, chapter 1 (“Why? Wherefore? Inasmuch as Which?” a parody of
deconstruction)
Postmodern
Pooh, chapter 2 (“A Bellyful of Pooh,” a parody of Stephen Greenblatt
and New Historicism generally)
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February 10 (Period and Genre: Romanticism, Realism,
Symbolism):
Posted
Poems and Essays:
Sheaf of poems by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, and Shelley
Wellek, "The Concept of Romanticism in Literary History"
(pp. 128-29, 158-98)
Abrams, "Structure and Style in the Greater Romantic
Lyric"
Eichner, "The Rise of Modern Science and the Genesis of
Romanticism"
Fowler, "Systems of Genre"
Wellek, "The Concept of Realism in Literary Scholarship"
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February 17 (Realism and Symbolism as theoretical
concepts):
Bakhtin in CTs1965
Frye in CTs1965
Posted
Essays:
Watt, "Realism and the Novel Form"
Jung, "On the Relations of Analytical Psychology to
Poetry"
Frye, "The Archetypes of Literature"
Carroll, “Biology and Poststructuralism”
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February
24: First short paper due: Send me the essay attached to an email; the paper should be between 1,200
and 1,600 words (between 2 and 3 pages, single-spaced). The list of topics for
this paper is posted on the course website in My Blackboard, under “Assignments.”
There will be no class
meeting this night.
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March 3 (Primary texts and the contextual material):
Heart of Darkness (also read the contextual
material pp. 3-13, 97-112)
Hamlet (also read the contextual material pp.
3-26, 181-207)
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March
10 (Constructivism and Epistemic Realism):
Kuhn in CTs1965
Fish in CTs1965
Kermode in CTs1965
Bordwell
(ch. 23, pp. 270-85) in ELF (“What Snakes, Eagles, and
Rhesus Macaques Can Teach Us”)
Gottschall (36, pp. 457-68) in ELF (“Literature,
Science, and a New Humanities”)
Reader-response criticism section in Heart of Darkness
casebook (including Rabinowitz’ essay)
Winnie
the Pooh, chapter 5
Postmodern Pooh, chapter 11 (“You Don’t Know
What Pooh Studies Are About, Do You?” a parody
of Stanley Fish)
Posted
Essays:
Popper, "
Lorenz, "Epistemological Prolegomena" to Behind the
Mirror
Dworkin, "My Reply to
Bono, "Science, Discourse, Literature: The Role/Rule of
Metaphor in Science" (read only through
page 67)
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March 17 (Literary Darwinism):
In ELF, read the following selections:
Introduction
(1-17)
Darwin, ch. 2
(pp. 41-54)
Darwin, ch. 4
(pp. 75-78)
Brown, ch. 6 (pp.
83-95)
Wilson, ch. 7
(pp. 96-104)
Pinker, ch. 8
(pp. 104-10)
Pinker, ch. 10
(pp. 125-34)
Wilson, ch. 11
(pp. 135-43)
Boyd, ch. 16 (pp.
197-210)
Carroll et al.,
ch. 17 (pp. 211-18)
Slingerland, ch.
18 (pp. 219-23)
Headlam Wells,
ch. 20 (pp. 231-45)
Smith, ch. 22
(pp. 258-69)
Scalise Sugiyama,
ch. 38 (pp. 483-90)
Winnie
the Pooh, chapter 6
Postmodern Pooh, chapter 7 (“Gene/Meme Covariation in
Posted
Essay:
Carroll, “Intentional Meaning in Hamlet: An Evolutionary Perspective”
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March
24 (Freudian psychology):
Bloom in CTs1965
Lacan in CTs1965 (pp. 734-39 only)
Scalise Sugiyama in ELF (ch. 25, pp. 306-16, “New
Science, Old Myth”)
Easterlin
in ELF
(ch. 28, pp. 348-59, “Wordsworth, Psychoanalysis, and the ‘Discipline of
Love’”)
Psychoanalytic criticism section in Hamlet casebook
(including Adelman’s essay)
Winnie
the Pooh, chapter 7
Postmodern Pooh, chapter 5 (“The Importance
of Being Portly,” a parody of Harold Bloom),
Postmodern Pooh, chapter 8 (“The Courage to
Squeal,” a parody of recovered memory syndrome)
Posted
Essays:
Freud, "Creative Writers and Daydreaming"
Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”
Fruman, excerpt on “Kubla Khan” from Coleridge: The Damaged
Archangel
Daly and Wilson, excerpts on Freud from
Homicide
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March
31 Spring Break
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April
7: Second short paper due: Send me an attached essay, between 1,200 and 1,600 words (between 2 and 3
pages, single-spaced). The list of topics for this paper is posted on the
course website in My Blackboard, under Assignments.
There will be no class
meeting this night.
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April 14 (Marxism):
Lukacs in CTs1965
Althusser in CTs1965
Marxist criticism section in Hamlet casebook (including
Cultural Criticism section in Heart of Darkness casebook
(including Brantlinger’s essay)
Winnie
the Pooh, chapter 8
Postmodern Pooh, chapter 3 (“The Fissured
Subtext,” a parody of Marxism)
Posted
Essays:
McGann,
excerpts from Romantic Ideology
Eysenck and Glenn D. Wilson, Conclusion to The Psychological
Basis of Ideology
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April 21 (Deconstruction):
Derrida in CTs1965 (pp. 83-94 And 120-36
only)
De Man in CTs1965 ("Semiology and
Rhetoric" only)
Miller in CTs1965
Abrams in CTs1965
Deconstructive criticism section in Heart of Darkness
casebook (including Miller’s essay)
Deconstructive criticism section in Hamlet casebook
(including Garber’s essay)
(You might want to look back at chapter one in Postmodern Pooh)
Posted
Essays:
Carroll, “Derrida among the Archetypes”
Carroll et al., “Determinate Meanings”
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April 28 (Foucault and New Historicism):
Foucault in CTs1965
Said (pronounced Sah-eed) in CTs1965
Carroll et al. in ELF (ch. 39, pp. 490-506,
“Paleolithic Politics in British Novels of the Longer Nineteenth Century”)
New Historicist criticism section in Heart of Darkness
casebook (including Thomas’ essay)
New
Historicist criticism section in Hamlet casebook (including Coddon’s essay)
(continued
on next page à)
Winnie the Pooh,
chapter 9
Postmodern
Pooh, chapter 6 (“Resident Aliens,” parody of postcolonial criticism)
(You
might want to look back at chapter two in Postmodern Pooh)
Posted
Essays:
Carroll, “Foucault and Verbal Ballet”
Said, “Two Visions in Heart
of Darkness”
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May
5 (Feminism):
Robinson in CTs1965
Gottschall
in ELF
(ch. 24, pp. 289-305, “Homeric Women: Re-imagining the Fitness Landscape”)
Salmon
and Symons in ELF (ch. 37, pp. 469-82, “Slash Fiction and Human Mating
Psychology”)
Feminist criticism section in Heart of Darkness casebook
(including Smith’s essay)
Feminist criticism section in Hamlet casebook (including
Showalter’s essay)
Winnie
the Pooh, chapter 10
Postmodern Pooh, chapter 4 (”Just Lack a
Woman,” a parody of feminist criticism)
Posted
Essays:
Mellor, “On Romanticism and Feminism”
Ellis, “Feminist Theory’s Wrong Turn”
Wells, excerpt from Joan and Peter (pp. 400-403)
Sommers, “Men-It’s in Their Nature”
Sullivan, “The He Hormone”
Cahill, “His Brain, Her Brain”
Sexton, “The Great Gender Gap”
Vandermassen, “Introduction” to Who’s Afraid of Charles Darwin?
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The Term Paper
The term paper is due by Thursday, May 12. Please send it to me attached to an email. It
should be between 2,400 and 3,200 words (between 4 to 6 pages, single-spaced). The list of topics for this paper is posted
on the course website in My Blackboard, under Assignments.
Mechanics of quotation and notation should conform to the
specifications in the MLA Handbook—that
is, parenthetical citation keyed in to a Works Cited list.
You should not write on the same subject you wrote on for either
of your two shorter papers.
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Discussion Topics
Each student will be required to lead discussion
several times in the course of the semester. I’ll hand out a sign-up sheet on
the first day. You should have several subsidiary points for your
topic—questions, aspects, problems, issues, contexts. These assignments are
designed merely to involve everyone actively in class discussion. They will not
be graded. Often, though, students find that preparing a discussion topic
provides the inspiration for a paper topic.
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Grades
Your grade for the course will consist of the average of four grade units. Each short paper constitutes two grade units. The term paper constitutes two grade unit. That is, the grade on the term paper will be counted twice.