(ENGL 15616) English 2131: Introduction to Literary
Studies
The College of Liberal Arts and
Social Sciences of
Note to students:� �as of
Nov. 29, there will be no more revisions to this syllabus.� Go here for info on our
last two classes and the final
M, W 2-3:15.
An
examination of the fundamental principles of literary study, with special
attention to critical approaches to language and literature, bibliography and
research, and writing in the discipline. Required of all English B.A. majors.�
As a special, organizing focus for our study of critical approaches and
the genres of literature, we will concentrate this Fall
term on the idea of Beauty (see some guiding questions on
the subject).
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� Syllabus (schedule of daily readings) � Guiding Questions on the subject of Beauty � Links of interest to the subject of Beauty |
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Thomas Mann, Death in
As you will see, virtually all of our readings are on-line.� Put those technology fees to work by printing the texts and developing your own class reader.
Syllabi� (paper due dates and tests indicated in bold green)
Note:� links in regular text are required reading; links in italic text are useful sites and recommended.
August 18�������� Introduction to the course
23, 25 ������������ Literary history:� an overview of the literary periods (see
evolution of beauty timeline).�
The Greeks:� Aphrodite, the Judgment of Paris,
the Sirens, a few other
myths.� ee. cummings on the
Olympian love triangle. vs.� Plato:� beautiful things vs. Absolute Beauty; Symposium (be
sure to visit this
site for helpful background information on the Symposium).�� Also see Greek
attitude toward beauty. Early Christian views on beauty;� Chaucer�s Wife of
Bath�s Tale
30, Sept 1������� the Renaissance celebration of
beauty:� slide show on Madonnas enthroned and Spenser�s �Hymn of
Heavenly Beauty (just to line 112);��
Neoclassical views on beauty:�
from Alexander Pope�s� �Rape of the Lock;� Romanticism and� the beauty of nature:� Why We Think Nature is Beautiful
and Wordsworth:� �The Tables
Turned,� �I
Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.��
Victorian views:� Tennyson:� �The Lotos Eaters.�� Art for Art�s sake and Oscar Wilde�s �Preface� to
The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
8
Modernism and the turn against
beauty:� �The
Rejection of Beauty in 20th C. Art;� Eliot:� love in �The Wasteland�
(read the passage at the bottom of the page); Make Your Own Modernist Image.�
Postmodernism and beauty:� a new
renaissance for beauty or its ultimate cheapening??� Multiculturalism embraces new views of
beauty:� see Niki
de Saint Phalle�s Black
Venus; Robert Mapplethorpe�s Lisa Lyon;� Barbara Kruger�s Your Body
Is a Battleground.� Read Read Sonia Sanchez�s �Woman� and Sandra Cisnero�s
�Bien Pretty.�
13, 15������������� Finish literary history.�
Critical approaches to literature and the issue of beauty.� First read �Wearying of
Cultural Studies, Some Scholars Rediscover Beauty;� then go to this page
for critical
approaches.� Go here
for the take-home test on literary history and critical approaches to beauty
From this stage on, we turn to a study of the literary genres, with special attention to writing about each genre and the
formal terms of analysis associated with each genre (the tests that follow each genre will be on these terms).� Yes, all of the
works deal with the idea of beauty in one form or another.�
Reading and Writing About Poetry
Sept. 20, 22���� The sonnet, a well worn vehicle for ideas
of love and beauty:� Wyatt, �Divers Doth Use;�Shakespeare sonnets18, 30, 55, 116, 130;
Spenser, Amoretti LXXV; Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 15Milton, Sonnet XIX;
Donne, Holy
Sonnet;� Donne, Rossetti,
�The
Sonnet;� ; Keats, �If By Dull
Rhymes . . .�; Browning:� �How
Do I Love Thee;� Wordsworth:� �Composed upon
Westminster Bridge,� �The World is
Too Much with Us,� �Mutability.�
Shelley: �Ozymandias;� �England in
1819.� Take
home exam due Sept. 20
27, 29������������� Pope:� �Rape of the Lock.�� Description of paper topic due Sept 27
Oct. 4, 6��������� some Romantic versions of beauty:� WW:� �Tintern Abbey� (visit the place); STC:� �The Ǽolian Harp;� Byron: �She walks in beauty,�� Shelley:� �The Cloud;� Keats, �Ode on a Grecian Urn,� La Belle Dame.� Emily Dickinson on beauty. Rossetti:� �In an Artist�s Studio.�
11, 13������������� Tennyson �Lady of Shalott.�� Keats, Lamia I and II.�
18������������������� Test on poetic terms
Oct. 20����������� The Basics of Documentation:� see this site for all your questions about works cited.� Introduction to drama
Oct. 25, 28� ���
Nov.`1 ����������� Test on dramatic terms due
Nov. 3
Reading and Writing About Fiction
Nov. 3������������
Nov. 8������������ Poe�s �Ligeia;�
also the �Raven�
Nov. 10������� Joyce Carol Oates:� �Where Are You
Going, Where Have You Been?� Oates on her own
story and its movie adaptation:� Smooth Talk
15, 17, 22������� Mann,
Death in Venice.� Final draft of paper due Nov. 22.
Nov. 29, Dec. 1� �������� papers handed back; we�ll spend some time discussing some of your topics
Final exam distributed in class on Nov. 29 (I have decided not to post it to the web); optional class on Dec. 1 to discuss papers and exam.
Dec. 9
1.� What makes someone or something
beautiful?� Select something or someone
you consider beautiful and explain why.
2.� How do images of beauty change across
cultures and time periods?� What do these
differing images reveal about the cultures and time periods?
3.� Do you agree, along with Plato and Kant, that
there must be some enduring, absolute feature of what makes something truly
beautiful?� And, oh yes, what is the
relation of beauty to truth?
4. �Do women and men have different standards for
or ideas about beauty?� Or, to put it
another way, does society construct different expectations for men and women of
what it means to be attractive? What might account for these differences?� What are some of the consequences of them?
5.� Compare and contrast healthy, therapeutic,
recreational examples of beauty with examples of its darker, more negative or
destructive side.� What are some of the
distinguishing features that set each apart?
6. What makes a literary
work beautiful or aesthetically pleasing?�
Why do some literary works endure as classics and others fade into
oblivion?
Your grade will consist of the average of three equal factors:
- the first take-home exam and various quizzes and short writing assignments; there will be extra-credit opportunities in this section of your grade
- the three exams on literary terms (poetic, dramatic, fictive)
- the critical paper
Attendance and participation are simply crucial for success in this class.
Each student will develop his or her own topic related to the subject of beauty and write a critical paper of a minimum of six pages.� Each paper must cite at least two secondary sources.� I encourage (and might require) you to have conferences with me as you develop your paper, and I�ll be giving you written feedback on your first drafts.�� These papers must be in meticulously correct MLA form with Works Cited page; please use the following cite to help make sure you get things right on this score:� Hacker�s Research and Documentation Online.� We�ll also spend time in class on how to write about literature.
Your paper may be on a literary topic (e.g. �Why Plato Mistrusts Beauty� or �The Deceptive Allure of Beauty in Keats� �Lamia��) or a good, critical investigation of a cultural topic (e.g. �Whatever Happened to the �Black Is Beautiful� Movement?� or �Destructive Beauty:� Unhealthy Images of Women in the Fashion Industry�).� It can be on a topic or literary work that we cover in class or on one of your own choosing.� Consider carefully the subjects we cover in our overview of literary history (August 23-Sept. 8) and critical approaches (Sept 23-25):� these investigations should provide guiding direction s for your paper topics.
Links of
Interest to the Subject of Beauty
�
Beauty matters
�
Beauty Worlds:� The Culture of Beauty
�
Evolution
of Beauty Timeline
�
Beauty
and Evolutionary Biology
�
Wearying
of Cultural Studies, Some Scholars Rediscover Beauty
�
Beauty and the Beast
�
Sleeping
Beauty
For definitions,
you can consult Glossary of Literary
Terms and A
Glossary of Poetic Terms
poetic:� rime royale; heroic
couplet; ballad stanza; internal rhyme; caesura; enjambment; alliteration;
assonance; Italian sonnet; Shakespearean or English sonnet; sonnet �turn;�
quatrain; octave; sestet; conceit; interlocking rhyme; terza
rima; ottava rima; hudibrastic rhyme;
Spenserian stanza; blank verse; internal rhyme; mock-epic; zeugma; feminine vs.
masculine or strong rhyme.� Finished on October 6.
drama: origins in
ritual; tragedy; comedy:� old comedy vs.
new comedy; imitation (mimesis);
verisimilitude; Aristotle�s six parts of drama (in order):� plot, character, theme, diction, spectacle,
music; tragic flaw or hamartia;
simple vs. complex plot:� reversal (peripeteia) and recognition (anagnorisis); catharsis; pathos. For
William�s drama:� �poetic realism;�the
fourth wall. . .� For help with these
terms you can consult the above glossaries or Tragedy:� the Basics
fiction:� allegory; didactic literature. Points of
view:� objective; omniscient; first
person; limited omniscient (go to this site
for a lively demonstration of the various points of view). Reliability
of narrator; persona. Context (historical, religious, and/or
philosophical background established by work).�
Intertext and allusions to other texts. Setting.
Go here to learn about characterization. Foreshadowing. Theme; Moral. Symbol.� Doppelganger. K�nstlerroman; Bildungsroman.�
Characterization: the way an author presents characters. In direct presentation, a character is described by the author, the narrator or the other characters. In indirect presentation, a character's traits are revealed by action and speech.
Characters can be discussed in a number of ways.
- The protagonist is the main character, who is not necessarily a hero or a heroine. The antagonist is the opponent; the antagonist may be society, nature, a person, or an aspect of the protagonist. The antihero, a recent type, lacks or seems to lack heroic traits.
- A persona is a fictional character. Sometimes the term means the mask or alter-ego of the author; it is often used for first person works and lyric poems, to distinguish the writer of the work from the character in the work.
- Characters may be classified as round (three-dimensional, fully developed) or as flat (having only a few traits or only enough traits to fulfill their function in the work); as developing (dynamic) characters or as static characters.
- A foil is a secondary character who contrasts with a major character; in Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras, whose fathers have been killed, are foils for Hamlet.