English 304—Contemporary Literary Criticism and Theory
In the 1970s and 1980s there was a revolution in literary criticism that overturned traditional ideas about what literature is, and about how literary criticism should be done. This course will first introduce you to how literary criticism, which focused on reading literary texts “as literature,” used to be done; this earlier kind of criticism focused either on “the intention of the author” or else on “close reading” of the text itself. Then we will study the new approaches that followed, approaches focused on the historical, political, and “ideological” forces that determine the making of texts.
We will pay special attention to the nature of the creative process by which poets make poems. Do poems come from the heart, from “inspired” feeling—as in a traditional "Romantic" view that remains very common today—or are they a product of artisanal labor and know-know (as in techne theory), or are they produced by a “context” that uses the poet as a vehicle of impersonal social-historical forces (as in "structuralism" and various forms of "contextual" criticism)?
In the final portion of the course, we will turn from strictly literary questions to the larger questions of the “cultural (or social) constitution of the subject” (that is, the way in which we as individuals, and our individual perceptions, are shaped by cultural influences—a shaping that is then reflected in the way we think about literature).
Your grade will be determined by two 2-3 page papers (each counting 15 % of your grade) and a 4-5 page final (30%), frequent unannounced reading quizzes (20%) , and attendance/participation (20%). As you can see from the percentage of your grade that comes from quizzes and participation, regular class attendance will be required for you to make a good grade. There is one required text: Critical Practice by Catherine Belsey. You can order it from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Practice-Accents-Catherine-Belsey/dp/0415280060. The rest of our readings will be available in PDF, which is either available online, or which I will send you.
Reading schedule
English 304A—Professor Staten
Autumn 2023
Romanticism: Sept 28, Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads,
Oct 5, Heaney, “Feeling into Words”
New Criticism: Oct 10, 12. Brooks, “The Heresy of Paraphrase”
Post-structuralism: Oct 17, 19. Belsey, “Critical Practice,” Ch. 1, “Criticism and Common Sense,” selected additional pages to be announced.
The Death of the Author: Oct 24, Barthes, “The Death of the Author”
Oct 26, Foucault, “What is an Author?”
Reader response theory: Oct 31, Nov 2, Fish, “How to Recognize a Poem When You See One”
Techne theory: Nov. 7, 9, Staten, “Is the Author Still Dead?”
Social constructionism: Nov 14, 16, 21, Volosinov, “Verbal Interaction”
Feminist theory: Nov 21, 23, Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
Post-colonial theory: Nov 28, 30, Babha, “Locations of Culture”
Week 11: Dec 5, 7: open