Plato (c. 427–347 BC)

Michael K. Johnson English 355: Literary Theory, Spring 2005 Course description Meets 11:00–12:15 MW/Roberts 205 Syllabus Required texts Vincent Leitch (ed.), The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism Alice Walker, The Color Purple Steven Lynn, Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature and Critical Theory Donald Hall, Queer Theories Online reading assignments Gilman, "The Yellow Wall-Paper," in New England Magazine Doyle, The Adventure of Black Peter Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Course description

Literary Theory explores a range of theoretical approaches to the study of literature, with the major emphasis placed on contemporary developments in literary criticism and theory. Like English 181 (Literary Analysis and Interpretation), Literary Theory is a course that emphasizes method (how-to-interpret literary texts) over the examination of a particular body of literature (e.g., American Autobiography). English 355 differs from English 181 by exploring more sophisticated methodologies and by focusing on reading theory and criticism rather than literature (as traditionally defined). Although our purpose in reading theory is to develop an awareness and understanding of different methodologies that can be applied to interpreting texts, we also will be developing the ability to read abstract (even obtuse!) non-narrative prose, and we will be working to become critical readers of that prose. The material is often dry, difficult, and extremely challenging. At times, you will find the reading frustrating (at least, I do), but by the end of the semester you'll be able to read sentences like "The Present of the For-itself is presence to being, and as such it is not" and say, "but, of course, Jean-Paul Sartre, how right you are!"

Our primary readings will fall into roughly two categories, criticism and theory, and we might pause to define those terms. Criticism focuses on the analysis and interpretation of a literary work (or other text, e.g., a television show) or a select group of works. Theory takes a broader, and often more abstract and philosophical, approach. We might borrow the following definition from the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms: "Theory is a set of principles and assumptions used in certain situations to explain or make predictions about a particular phenomenon.…In literary criticism, theory has traditionally referred to a set of general principles that can be used to classify or otherwise analyze literary works." We might classify Sigmund Freud's account of the Oedipal complex as a theory of psychological development, and we might classify an analysis of the character Hamlet and his conflicted relationship with his mother and stepfather (and, honestly, isn't Hamlet just a bit too concerned with his mother's sex life?) as a work of literary criticism that employs a psychoanalytical method.

We might also consider criticism as "talking about literature" and theory as "talking about talking about literature," as a kind of metacriticism in which the critic reflects on his or her practices. Thus, theory involves not only developing new methods of interpreting texts, but it also may entail, as the editors of our anthology note, "a mode of questioning and analysis" that often involves "skepticism toward systems, institutions, and norms.…and a habit of linking local and personal practices to the larger economic, political, historical, and ethical forces of culture" (xxxiii). We might divide "talking about talking about literature" into two categories, theory as methodology (how-to-interpret) and theory as critique. Theory as critique, for example, may analyze literary study itself as a social practice whose practitioners are themselves embedded in the larger forces of culture. How we read and what we read may be particularly revelatory of "our" values, ethics, and beliefs, or we might regard (as have feminist critiques of the "canon") the how and what of literary practice as revelatory of the class and gender privilege of a particular elite social group (e.g., male literary critics). From the perspective of theory, "talking about literature" is not a disinterested, scientific, or objective activity, but it is rather a social practice that should be subject to the same critique as any other cultural activity. That critique of "talking about literature" as a social practice, especially as it involves analysis of canon-formation and notions of literary tradition, will be the focus of the first section of the course.

Although our anthology arranges selections chronologically (from classic theorists and philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle to contemporary theorists such as Said and Butler), we will structure the course as a sampler of contemporary methods (e.g., psychoanalysis, feminism, cultural studies). As a means of applying the theoretical perspectives we discuss, we will also read Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple as well as a few critical essays written about that book. That choice of novel will influence our selection of theoretical readings, as we will emphasize those methodologies (such as feminism, ethnic studies, theories of gender and sexuality) that will best guide our interpretations. As a concrete example often makes an abstract idea easier to grasp, my hope is that reading a work of, say, feminist criticism of Walker's novel will make our reading of feminist theory easier to understand. Our discussion of The Color Purple, criticism about the novel, and related theory will constitute the central section of the course.

In addition to our anthology and novel, I've ordered two other texts for the class, Steven Lynn's Texts and Contexts: Writing About Literature and Critical Theory and Donald Hall's Queer Theories. Lynn's Texts and Contexts provides accessible and readable introductions to various theoretical approaches. I have scheduled readings in Lynn's book in conjunction with individual articles in the anthology, as Lynn provides the sort of broad overview that our theorists will assume their readers already know. As in any survey class, our overview of literary theory emphasizes experiencing a range of topics over exploring any one particular theory in depth. Hall's Queer Theories provides us with the opportunity to explore "queer theory" in some detail. Queer theory emphasizes the importance of considering sexuality and sexual orientation as an element of literary and cultural studies. You might think of queer theory as a kind of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" approach applied to literature. Well, we won't have the "fab five" as guides, but I think we'll find Hall to be an entertaining as well as an informative and enlightening commentator on literature and culture.

In the introduction to our anthology, the editors highlight two key questions that theory addresses: what is interpretation? and what is literature? The first question involves how, and the second question asks what is the appropriate object of study in a "literature" course. We will base our exploration of contemporary theory on the grounds of earlier theorists such as formalists and "new critics," for whom the object of study is excellent writing (usually poetry) and for whom the purpose of criticism is to examine the "literariness" of the great work. We will follow the path of contemporary theory as the course progresses by shifting the object of critical analysis from the literary text to the examination of cultural practices and to the study of the productions of popular culture. What happens when we examine literature not as a separate entity but as part of a continuum of cultural texts that includes movies, television shows, advertisements, etc.? We might argue that the traditional approach of reading literature as distinct and isolated from other social practices is an arbitrary one that ignores the reality of a contemporary existence in which we are inundated with texts of all sorts, so that on any given day we might experience both the highest (say, Hamlet) and the lowest (say, The Jerry Springer Show) that culture has to offer. Nowhere is this intermingling of elite and popular forms more apparent than at the movies, where (with the help of a prosthetic nose) Nicole Kidman and Virginia Woolf become one, where Shakespeare falls in love, and where Othello plays basketball.

Increasingly, theorists advocate the importance of teaching students to become critical consumers of popular as well as literary texts, and the last section of the class introduces us to the methods of contemporary cultural studies. To facilitate the transition from the literary to the popular text, we will view and discuss a recent movie adaptation of The Color Purple (1985). We will not only explore formal strategies and methods for interpreting a film, but we also will look at The Color Purple movie as a cultural phenomenon, as a controversial adaptation of a beloved novel that will enable us to address a number of issues about interpretation, representation, reception, race, gender, sexuality, and about the too often unexamined relationship between literature and popular culture. We will also use references to popular culture texts throughout the semester as a means of illustrating theoretical concepts.

Grades

Grades will be determined primarily by your performance on two short papers (3–4 pages) and one longer paper (8–10 pages). The two short papers will each count as 20% of your course grade. The long paper will count as 40%. Your attendance, participation, and preparedness will account for the final 20% of the grade. As a way of encouraging participation and improving preparedness, I recommend that you keep a reading journal. For each piece of literary theory/criticism that we read, I recommend that you write a summary or outline that focuses on the main ideas of that piece. As part of your participation grade, I will ask that you hand in during the course of the semester three 1-page typed summaries of critical and theoretical articles. The first two summaries should be handed in before March 14, the final two by April 18. Throughout the semester, I will also assign small groups of students to be responsible for leading the discussion over particular readings, and those discussions will likewise contribute to your participation grade. Each student should expect to lead two discussions.

Essays

Essays: The essays for this class should be completed in a professional and timely manner. Late papers will lose one-half a letter grade per class period (unless you provide me with evidence of a legitimate and verifiable excuse). A more detailed discussion of requirements for essays will be included on individual assignments. As this is an English course, your grade on the essays will be determined primarily by the quality of your writing. Each essay should have an original, specific, and significant thesis—an arguable assertion that you are making about the work being discussed. Each essay should provide textual evidence (quotations) in support of that thesis, and each essay should provide a well-developed analysis, discussion, and interpretation of that evidence. The papers that receive the highest grades will be well argued and well supported. The best papers also will be well written and relatively free of grammatical errors.

For papers, I assign letter grades that can be translated in terms of the following numerical values: C− (72), C (75), C+ (78). There are some exceptions to this pattern. An F corresponds to the numerical grade of 50. An assignment that is not completed will receive a grade of zero. Because the grade D− does not exist for me, a D grade will be assigned the value of 62. An A will be assigned the numerical value 100, an A− 95.

Please note that any student who needs accommodations in this course because of a disability should notify me at the beginning of the semester so that arrangements can be made.

Plagiarism

As the publicity surrounding historian Stephen Ambrose's failure to use quotation marks to indicate direct quotations from the work of other historians indicates, borrowing someone else's words without appropriate acknowledgement is still frowned upon—despite the fact that the internet has made such intellectual theft easier than ever before. I expect students to act "in good faith" in doing original written work for the class. If a student violates that trust (even if it only involves a sentence or two lifted from an internet source without properly acknowledging the original), the punishment for plagiarism will be at minimum a grade of zero on a particular assignment and at maximum failure of the course.