Senior Seminar


English 497 - 05
Term: Spring 2001
Time: 12:30-1:50 p.m. MR
Room: Business 104  Business 231
Prof. G. Steinberg
Office: Bliss 216
Office Phone: 771-2106
Office Hours: 3:30-5:00 p.m. TF
E-mail: gsteinbe@tcnj.edu

TEXTBOOKS:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (ISBN 0312112238)
David Richter, The Critical Tradition (ISBN 0312101066)
William Shakespeare, Hamlet (ISBN 0312055447)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (ISBN 031219126X)

COURSE DESCRIPTION.  An overview of the major theories of literature, with the aim of learning how to apply these “legitimating frameworks” to the understanding of literature and its cultural context.

GOALS.  As my goals for this course, I want you

    1. to become more aware of your basic assumptions about literature,
    2. to question and enrich your basic assumptions about literature,
    3. to look at literature and literary texts with new eyes,
    4. to learn in very basic outline the history of thinking on the nature and interpretation of literature,
    5. to position your own thinking on the nature and interpretation of literature in relation to the current schools of thought on that subject,
    6. to expand your critical vocabulary to include the terminology currently in use among professional scholars engaged in the discussion and study of literature, and
    7. to become more comfortable reading literary theory on your own.
REQUIREMENTS.  This course consists of the following graded assignments:
    1. a mid-term exam,
    2. one short paper (4-5 pages),
    3. a seminar paper (8-12 pages), and
    4. 20 postings on the electronic message board for class.
The short paper will be worth 200 points; the mid-term will be worth 300 points; the seminar paper will be worth 460 points; and the postings to the message board will be worth 2 points each.  Your final grade will therefore be based on a 1000-point scale (200 +300 + 460 + 40 = 1000):  A = 930-1000 points, A- = 900-929, B+ = 870-899, B = 830-869, B- = 800-829, C+ = 770-799, C = 730-769, C- = 700-729, D+ = 670-699, D = 600-669, and F = below 600.

ATTENDANCE.  Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of the exam and papers in this class.  Class discussion constitutes important, useful preparation for the course’s graded assignments.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of discussion for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).  If you positively must miss a class, however, I will expect you to find out what you missed and to come fully prepared -- without excuses -- to the next class meeting.

OFFICE HOURS.  My office is Bliss 216.  My office hours this semester will be 3:30-5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays.  If you cannot see me at this time, please, feel free as needed to call my office (771-2106) or talk to me before or after class to arrange an appointment at another time.  You may also contact me by e-mail (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu), or you may leave a message for me in my box at the English department offices in Bliss 124.  E-mail is generally the fastest way to contact me in an emergency.

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES.  An electronic message board has been specially created for this course.  To reach the message board, simply go to http://gsteinbe.instrasun.tcnj.edu/tcnj/litmessageboard/index.html.  You may want to check it out as soon as possible, because one of the course’s requirements is to post to the message board at least 20 times during the course of the semester with your thoughts on the readings for class.  As often as you like, up to a total of 60 points (40 required points + another 20 extra-credit points), you will receive 2 points for each relevant message you post to the board.  The following kinds of messages will qualify for these points:

  1. a message that consists of at least one question about a particular day’s reading assignment (if the question is a good and thought-provoking discussion starter),
  2. a message that consists of several questions about a particular day’s reading assignment (if the questions are about more basic, factual information, such as questions about the meaning of particular words or phrases in the reading),
  3. a message that consists of a thought-provoking, insightful, or interesting observation about a particular day’s reading assignment, or
  4. a message that responds substantially to what someone else has already posted to the board.
To get the points for your message,
  1. your message must be sent before class meets to discuss the reading assignment that you are addressing;
  2. your message must actually be posted to the message board (not sent to me privately by e-mail);
  3. your message must be original (that is, not repeat what somebody else has already posted to the board); and
  4. your message must not repeat material that you submit for any other graded assignment for class (e.g., you may not submit a message that is made up of material from a paper or vice versa).
For anyone who does not have easy access to the Internet, see me about alternative methods of meeting this requirement for the course.

COURSE SCHEDULE.  (The page numbers below are from The Critical Tradition unless otherwise indicated.  This schedule is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor.)
Date Assignment Question(s) to consider
M Jan 15 Introductions What is your name, your hometown, your major, etc.?
R Jan 18 all of Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner What is literature?  What is the value or purpose of literature?  How is literature created?  What makes good or bad literature?  What happens when we experience literature?
M Jan 22 Plato and Aristotle (pp. 17-64) What is literature?  What is the value or purpose of literature?
R Jan 25 Horace and Longinus (pp. 65-107) What is the value or purpose of literature?  How is literature created?  What makes good or bad literature?
M Jan 29 Johnson and Hume (pp. 218-252) What is the value or purpose of literature?  What makes good or bad literature?
R Feb 1 Wordsworth (pp. 300-314) and Emerson (pp. 372-384) What is literature?  What is the value or purpose of literature?  How is literature created?
M Feb 5 Kant (pp. 253-280) and Nietzsche (pp. 417-433) What happens when we experience literature?  How is literature created?  What makes good or bad literature?
R Feb 8 Arnold (pp. 394-416) and Wilde (pp. 448-468) What is the value or purpose of literature?  How is literature created?  What makes good or bad literature?
M Feb 12 Marx (pp. 385-393) and Saussure (pp. 832-835) What is literature?  How is literature created?  What happens when we experience literature?
R Feb 15 Eliot (pp. 495-503) and Woolf (pp. 548-559) How is literature created?  What makes good or bad literature?
F Feb 16 SHORT PAPER DUE
M Feb 19 Freud (pp. 481-488) and Jung (pp. 504-526) What is literature?  What is the value or purpose of literature?  How is literature created?
R Feb 22 Bakhtin (pp. 527-547) and Heidegger (pp. 560-570) What is literature?  What is the value or purpose of literature?  How is literature created?
M Feb 26 Sartre (pp. 621-634) and Barthes (pp. 900-905) What is literature?  How is literature created?
R Mar 1 Gadamer (pp. 668-688) and Iser (pp. 955-968) What happens when we experience literature?
M Mar 5 Leavis (pp. 599-607) and Geertz (pp. 1253-1278) What is literature?  What makes good and bad literature?
R Mar 8 Bloom (pp. 1027-1033) and Bourdieu (pp. 1231-1253) How is literature created?
M Mar 12 Gilbert and Gubar (pp. 1360-1374) and Irigaray (pp. 1453-1471) How is literature created?
R Mar 15 MID-TERM EXAM What have you learned so far this semester?
M Mar 19 NO CLASS Spring Break
R Mar 22 NO CLASS Spring Break
M Mar 26 all of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein How should we make sense of literature?
R Mar 29 Wimsatt and Beardsley (pp. 749-757) and Foucault (pp. 889-900) How should we make sense of literature?
M Apr 2 Freud (pp. 488-494) and Frye (pp. 641-651) How should we make sense of literature?
R Apr 5 Lévi-Strauss (pp. 835-844) and Derrida (pp. 877-889) How should we make sense of literature?
M Apr 9 Eagleton (pp. 1141-1153) and Jameson (pp. 1172-1188) How should we make sense of literature?
R Apr 12 Jauss (pp. 934-955) and Holland (pp. 968-976) How should we make sense of literature?
M Apr 16 Showalter (pp. 1374-1386) and Sedgwick (pp. 1481-1486) How should we make sense of literature?
R Apr 19 Fish (pp. 976-990) and Herrnstein Smith (pp. 1551-1575) How should we make sense of literature?
M Apr 23 Said (pp. 1278-1292) and Gates (pp. 1575-1588) How should we make sense of literature?
R Apr 26 Booth (pp. 786-796) and Sontag (pp. 689-696) How should we make sense of literature?
Finals Week SEMINAR PAPER DUE What have you learned this semester?
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