English 682: Contemporary Literary Theory

Fall, 2002

Instructor: Dennis Allen

Office: 439 Stansbury

Office Hours: 3:00-4:00 T/TH and by appointment

Phone: Office: 293-3107 Ext. 440

Home: 292-0081

E-mail: dallen@.wvu.edu

Course Purpose: This course is intended to acquaint you with a variety of contemporary critical methodologies.

Course Requirements:

Course grades will be based on a final exam (30%), a 10-12 page typed paper (40%), and your choice of either a reading journal OR a take-home midterm (30%).

The Paper: You may write on any literary or cultural text (e.g. film). Your paper must employ one of the methodologies analyzed in the course and should demonstrate a firm grasp of that critical approach. Your paper should also reflect a mastery of the current secondary materials on the text you have chosen to analyze.

The Reading Responses (Optional): Reading responses should consist of a two- page typed analysis of one of the essays from each week's reading assignments. Your responses should not summarize the reading but should engage it intellectually. In other words, your response on a particular essay should do one or more of the following: critique the essay, apply it to a literary or cultural text, or relate it to previous reading in the course. Also, if an essay proves exceptionally difficult, your response on that essay could present some focused, specific questions on points that you did not understand. Responses will be collected during the 2nd through the 9th weeks of the semester.

Text (available at the bookstore):

Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan, eds. Literary Theory: An Anthology? (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998)

Assignments:

Aug. 22: lntroduction--Background Lecture: Overview of Current Theories

Aug. 29: Poststructuralism and Deconstruction:

First Response Paper Due

Jacques Derrida, "Differance," pp. 385-407

Michel Foucault, "Discipline and Punish," pp. 464-487

Sept. 5: Psychoanalysis:

Jacques Lacan, "The Mirror Stage...," pp. 178-183

Lacan, "The Symbolic Order...," pp. 184-189

Web resources:

Lacan.com (It had to happen.)

Sept. 12: Psychoanalysis:

Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," pp. 585-595

Julia Kristeva, "Revolution in Poetic Language," pp. 451-463

Luce Irigaray, "Commodities amongst Themselves," pp. 574-577

Web Resources:

For a highly amusing application of the latter essay, see:

Freya Johnson's "Frat Boy Fetishism: When The Goods Get Together"

Sept. 19: Marxism:

Louis Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," pp. 294-304

John Fiske, "Culture, ldeology, lnterpellation," pp. 305-311

Slavoj Zizek, "The Sublime Object of Ideology," pp. 312-325

Sept. 26: New Historicism:

Louis Montrose, "Professing the Renaissance," pp. 777-785

Alan Sinfield, "Cultural Materialism…" pp. 804-826

Oct. 3: Feminism/Gender Studies:

Judith Butler, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination," 722-730

Teresa de Lauretis, "The Technology of Gender," 713-721

Oct. 10: Feminism/Gender Studies:

Audre Lorde, "Age, Race, Class..." pp. 630-636

Hortense Spillers, "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe..." pp. 656-672

Gloria Anzaldua, "Borderlands/La Frontera," pp. 887-902

Take Home Midterm Due

Oct. 17: Queer Theory:

Final Reading Response Due

Foucault, "The History of Sexuality," pp. 683-691

Lee Edelman, "Homographesis," pp. 731-744

Oct. 24: Queer Theory:

Judith Halberstam. "F2M...." pp. 759-768

Handout (to be determined)

Web Resources:

Oct. 31: Ethnic Studies/Postcolonial Theory:

Edward Said, "Orientalism," pp. 873-886

Patrick Brantlinger, "The Rule of Darkness," pp. 856-867

Jamaica Kincaid, "A Small Place," pp. 1016-1022

Nov. 7: Ethnic Studies/Postcolonial Theory:

Homi Bhabha, "The Location of Culture," pp. 936-944

Paul Gilroy, "The Black Atlantic," pp. 970-977

Nov. 14: Day Off

Nov. 21: Cultural Studies: Paper Due

Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, "The Culture Industry as Mass Deception," pp. 1037-104 1

Dick Hebdige, "Subculture: The Meaning of Style," pp. 1065-1075

Susan Bordo, "Material Girl...," pp. 1099-1115

Nov. 28: Break

Dec. 5: Final

Last Updated: August 13, 2002