L371 15882 CRITICAL PRACTICES

Heather G. S. Johnson



1:00p-2:15p  TR (30 students) 3 cr., A&H.  Open to English majors
only.



PREREQUISITE: L202 with grade of C- or better.  NOTE: The English
Department will strictly enforce this prerequisite.  Students who
have not completed L202 with a grade of C- or better will have their
registration administratively cancelled.



Texts can sometimes feel like winter ponds—a thick layer of ice
allows us to see the surface meaning, but hides other meanings that
may be lurking below the barrier.  In this course, we will be
studying and learning to use the literary critic's box of tools—
tools that make holes in the glassy surface of the text and allow
access to the abundance beneath.  At first, these tools,
collectively identified by the term literary theory, can seem
bewilderingly complex.  One of our goals this semester will be to
untangle the language of literary theories, and to mentally organize
the concepts and techniques that these literary theories
describe.



The course is designed as a general overview of the major literary
theories of the 20th century, but we will begin with some
foundational texts that point to the origins of current critical
practices.  In this first section of the course we will be looking
at excerpts from the works of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Sidney,
and Johnson, among others.  These will serve to give us a basic
critical vocabulary, but they also raise questions that remain
revelant throughout the 20th century and into the 21st:  What is
literature?  What is the role of the writer?  How does literature
work?  This introduction to the language and the basic
concerns of literary theory will prepare us to leap into an
investigation of current critical practices and the varied flavors
of literary theory that give those practices their intellectual
bite.



The question is one of the most effective tools in the critical
toolbox, and we will be asking them in numbers: What is a text?
What is an author?   How do we read texts?  How is the text
constructed?  What is language?  How does language work? How does
literature reflect the world that engendered it?  How does
literature create the world it lives in?  How does literature reveal
the life of the mind?  How does literature grapple with history?
How does the text engage in political, religious, or cultural
debates?



We will apply our sharpened critical skills to several literary
works, including William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice,
Emily Brontė's Wuthering Heights, and T.S. Eliot's The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.  We will be using Jonathan
Culler's Literary Theory as guide through the critical
jungle, and many essays will be available through e-reserve or the
course website.  Students will be required to write three formal
essays (4-5 pages), a series of very brief, informal microthemes due
on a weekly basis, and to give one short oral presentation in
class.