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 (jcarroll@umsl.edu) or to call me at home (432-5583).

 

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Texts ordered for the class:

 

Critical Theory since 1965, ed. Adams and Searle (hereafter referred to as CTs1965)     

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, Frederick Crews

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"

Wilson, "Symbolism"

 

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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, "Normal Science and its Dangers"

Lorenz, "Epistemological Prolegomena" to Behind the Mirror

Dworkin, "My Reply to Stanley Fish (and Walter Benn Michaels)"

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 Ashdown Forest,” a parody of             sociobiological criticism)

 

            Posted Essay:

 

Carroll, “Intentional Meaning in Hamlet: An Evolutionary Perspective”

 Deresiewicz, "Adaptation: On Literary Darwinism"

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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 Bristol’s essay)

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.