ENGL 302: (Critical Practice),
Reading Dracula
T/ Th. 12:30 – 2:20
MEB 250
Prof. Jesse Oak Taylor
PDL A-408
Office Hours T/ Th. 2:30 – 3:30 (& by appointment)
Overview
This course will offer an introduction to critical practice in the study of literature and culture. Our primary text will be Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), an iconic novel that has become part of the mythos of modernity. Throughout the term, we will examine the novel through a variety of critical approaches to the novel, including perspectives drawn from feminism, the history of science & medicine, postcolonial studies, ecocriticism, and more. We will also watch several film adaptations, and think about the novel’s enduring influence in the present. Writing assignments will ask you to read the novel via Jeffery Jerome Cohen’s “Monster Theory,” respond to a published interpretation of Dracula, and develop an original research project of your own design.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Develop an understanding of theoretical discourse sufficient to being able to read and utilize at least one relatively challenging piece of critical theory with intellectual comfort and understanding.
- Engage in critical writing and argumentation built upon theoretical discourse.
- Evaluate and respond to other critics’ interpretations.
- Engage in original research utilizing the libraries and other university resources.
- Utilize a range of sources in interpretive practice.
Readings & Materials:
The Penguin edition of Dracula (ISBN 978-0-141-43984-6) has been ordered to the UW Bookstore. I would prefer that you have this edition because it will put us all on the same page. If you already own a different edition of the novel that is fine, as long as it isn’t abridged. You will need a hard copy of Dracula in class every day.
Additional readings will be posted on the course Canvas site, often linked to annotation assignments in Hypothesis (about which more below).
You will also need a notebook (or paper) and writing implements for in-class writing activities.
Grade Breakdown:
Participation & In-Class Writing: 15%
Canvas Discussions/ Reading Annotations: 15%
Essay 1 (Dracula + Monster Theory): 15%
Essay 2 (Critical Essay Assessment & Response): 15%
Final Project Research Question: 5%
Final Project Proposal/Bibliography: 5%
Final Project Presentation: 5%
Final Project: 25%
Participation
A seminar is a collaborative enterprise. Please come to class prepared not merely to pose and answer questions from me, but to engage in frank, thoughtful, and respectful conversations with your fellow students. I expect you to do the reading and have something tangible and specific to say. We will also do in-class writing, which means that you will need to have a notebook and writing implement.
This is a discussion-based course. You will need to speak up in class, join group activities, share your writing, and engage in generous peer review with your classmates. You will also need to listen to others, and not dominate the discussion. I am committed to fostering a classroom environment in which any idea or perspective can be discussed, and in which all participants are respected. To that end, we will adhere to the English Department’s statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (posted below). If you feel excluded or marginalized by class discussions, please come talk with me about it.
Nothing generates discussion better than questions. If you are confused by something in the reading, aren’t sure what a word means (or who a theorist is), please ask! This is doubly important given that we are reading literary criticism, which can be pretty brain-bending stuff. I guarantee you that no one in the room (me included) fully understands everything in all these readings. We will rely on one another for guidance. To that end, a final stipulation: no name dropping. If you want to bring up a critic, theorist, or work of literature that isn’t on the syllabus please be prepared to explain it, such that the idea is available to the whole group.
Writing Assignments
This is a writing intensive course, in which we will take the practice part of critical practice literally. You will have several different kinds of writing assignments: in-class writings, short responses and/or annotations of readings on Canvas, two short (3-5 page) essays, and a research project of your own design, culminating in a 7-10 page essay (or creative project of equivalent scope) supported with outside research.
In-Class Writing will generally be short pieces in response to a particular question or topic. Sometimes they will involve group writing. These will be graded only on a complete/incomplete basis. There will be on larger in-class writing project toward the end of the term on which we will all collaborate.
Canvas Responses will take of two forms. They will either annotation assignments using Hypothesis, in which you will add at least two comments, questions, or responses to each of the assigned readings for that day. These can be responses to other students’ posts (be respectful!), or begin new threads. However, they should be substantive. Also, please try not to cluster your responses within a particular couple of pages, but distribute them throughout the article. In some weeks, the Canvas response will be a discussion thread instead, which will either ask you to post an idea/question or respond to one posted by another student (be respectful!). More details will appear on the Canvas page. Canvas responses will be graded on a “complete/incomplete” basis.
Short Essays: You will write two short (3-5 page) essays, each of which asks you to think about different ways of reading Dracula. The first will focus on Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “Monster Theory: Seven Theses,” asking you to choose one thesis and think about how it plays out in Dracula, how reading the novel through it helps you understand features of it that you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, and how Dracula helps you understand something about Cohen’s argument. The second will be a response to one of the critical articles that we are reading as a class, in which you evaluate the critic’s argument and its evidence base, point to something it does well (i.e., that it helps you understand) and to aspects of the novel that it doesn’t account for, or that seem to test the limits of its interpretation. More details about each will be provided.
Final Project: The term will culminate in an original research project of your own design, in which you bring Dracula together with a theoretical framework of some kind and engage with existing criticism in some way. While you are welcome to use material from the syllabus, you will also need to do external research. There will be a good deal of latitude within these parameters, including the potential for “creative” projects (i.e., an illustrated edition; fanfiction; musical composition; costumes, etc.) accompanied by a methodology essay in which you detail your research process and the choices you made in completing it. In advance of the final due date, you will submit a research question and project proposal and give a short in-class presentation about your research to the class during the last week. More details will be provided.
Due Dates and Extensions:
Most written work (except in-class writing) will be submitted on Canvas. If your final project takes a form that is difficult to upload, you can always submit photos or video documenting it – and, as with everything, you can come talk to me if you have challenges. For graded essays, I will always grant extensions requested at least the day in advance. You do not need to give a reason. However, when you request an extension, please propose a new due date. I will hold you to the deadline you propose, deducting points if you miss it. Thus, make sure you think about the amount of time you actually need and plan accordingly. Please note: I will not give credit for Canvas responses or Hypothesis annotations submitted after the class to which they correspond unless there are significant extenuating circumstances.
Academic Integrity
When quoting, paraphrasing, or referring to another writer’s words or ideas (including any you might find on the Internet), you must cite the source properly using MLA citation guidelines, which I will explain before the first essay assignment is due. Don’t hesitate to ask me if you have questions about proper attribution. I will hand over any plagiarized work to the Dean’s Committee on Academic Conduct, and plagiarism may result in a failing grade on the assignment or the course. For further information on what constitutes plagiarism, see http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm#misconduct.
AI Addendum: Critical practice is inherently subjective. It depends on the relationship between reader and text. Thus, I expect you to do your own writing in this course. I will admit that I am skeptical about AI, especially in terms of its use in writing and education, in part for reasons that are articulated here (https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/more-than-calculators-why-large-language-models-threaten-public-education-480dd5300939). The work of the humanities relies on forming your own judgements and interpretations and crafting your own sentences, no matter how painful the process. If you offload it onto the computer, there is no point in doing it. That includes the difficult work of writing: it’s hard because it’s hard. And yet finding the words and organizing your thoughts is the work. Thus, use of Chat GPT or other AI tools to produce writing for this class is prohibited. Use of AI for *research* (i.e., gathering data) is discouraged for a different reason: it makes stuff up and its hallucinations will likely be difficult for you to spot. Thus, you may find yourself relying on a source that doesn’t actually exist, or analyzing a quote that isn’t in the actual novel. That said, I also recognize the irony of prohibiting AI in a course centered on Dracula, a novel that troubles the category of the human on which my own skepticism relies, and which is deeply invested in the potential of new media technologies. Thus, we will be engaging with AI in at least one class-discussion, and I am open to the prospect of projects that use AI in generative ways as long as that use is both disclosed and theorized – that is, you need to tell me not only how you used AI but also reflect on what you learned in the process.
Computers & Electronics
I strongly prefer that you print all course readings and bring them to class in hard copy. That said, tablets, e-readers, and laptops will be permitted in class, provided they are used only to consult course readings. Cellphones will not. This policy is based on my experience of a meaningful difference between these devices. If you are on your phone, it gives the impression that you are not paying attention. If your device becomes a distraction (to yourself or others), you will lose participation credit for that day. If it becomes a recurrent issue, I will ask that you put it away and bring all readings to class on paper. If this policy creates a hardship for you, please come talk to me.
Disability Accommodations
I want this class to be inclusive for everyone. If you have a disability or any other issue that needs to be accommodated, please ask. The UW Office of Disability Resources (https://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/) offers a number of services for students, and I will be happy to work with them. If you have a DRS accommodation, please let me know at the beginning of the term. If other circumstances arise that press upon your ability to participate in the course (whether or not they rise to the level of an official accommodation), please tell me. I am happy to work with you, but can only do so if you get in touch.
Religious Accommodations
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form.
Departmental Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The UW English Department aims to help students become more incisive thinkers, effective communicators, and imaginative writers by acknowledging that language and its use are powerful and hold the potential to empower individuals and communities; to provide the means to engage in meaningful conversation and collaboration across differences and with those with whom we disagree; and to offer methods for exploring, understanding, problem solving, and responding to the many pressing collective issues we face in our world--skills that align with and support the University of Washington’s mission to educate “a diverse student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship.”
As a department, we begin with the conviction that language and texts play crucial roles in the constitution of cultures and communities, past, present, and future. Our disciplinary commitments to the study of language, literature, and culture require of us a willingness to engage openly and critically with questions of power and difference. As such, in our teaching, service, and scholarship we frequently initiate and encourage conversations about topics such as race, immigration, gender, sexuality, class, indigeneity, and colonialisms. These topics are fundamental to the inquiry we pursue. We are proud of this fact, and we are committed to creating an environment in which our faculty and students can do so confidently and securely, knowing that they have the backing of the department.
Towards that aim, we value the inherent dignity and uniqueness of individuals and communities. We acknowledge that our university is located on the shared lands and waters of the Coast Salish peoples. We aspire to be a place where human rights are respected and where any of us can seek support. This includes people of all ethnicities, faiths, gender identities, national and indigenous origins, political views, and citizenship status; nontheists; LGBQTIA+; those with disabilities; veterans; and anyone who has been targeted, abused, or disenfranchised.
Schedule:
Week 1
9.25: NO CLASS – Watch Video Introduction on Canvas & Start Reading!!!
Week 2
- 9.30: Cohen, “Monster Culture: Seven Theses”; Stoker, Dracula Ch. 1-4 (pp. 7-61)
Th. 10.2: Stoker, Dracula Ch. 5-14 – keep bringing Cohen to class!
Week 3
- 10.7: Stoker, Dracula, Ch. 15-22
Th. 10.9: Stoker, Dracula, FINISH Ch. 22-27; Brainstorming/ free-write for first essay in class – make sure you have your Cohen!
Week 4
- 10.14: Moretti, “Dialectic of Fear”; Arata, “The Occidental Tourist”
- 10.15: First Essay Due on Canvas
Th. 10.16: Craft, “Kiss Me With Those Red Lips”; Schaffer, "A Wilde Desire Took Me: A Homoerotic History of Dracula"
Week 5
- 10.21: Willis, “Invisible Giant: Dracula and Disease”; Forman, “A Parasite for Sore Eyes”
Th. 10.23: Wicke, “Vampiric Typewriting”; Martin, “Some Trick of the Moonlight”
Week 6
- 10.28: JOT, from Sky of Our Manufacture; Eastlake, “The Volcano and the Vampire”
Th. 10.30: Dracula (1931 version – watch in class)
Week 7
- 11.4: Dracula and Textual Studies / Book History (Class Visit from Nikita Kastrinos, UW Textual Studies Program)
- 11.5: Essay 2 (Article Response) Due on Canvas
Th. 11.6: Remediating Dracula / Dracula and AI (in-class activities)
Week 8
- 11.11: Veteran's Day -- No Class
- 11.12. Final Project Research Questions Due on Canvas
Th. 11.13 – Library Day with Elliot Stevens – Meet in Allen North (Green) Commons – Bring your laptops
Week 9
- 11.18: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992 version) – watch in advance, bring Cohen’s “Monster Theses” & Dracula (novel) with you to class
Th. 11.20: Nosferatu (2024 version) – watch in advance, bring Cohen’s “Monster Theses” & Dracula (novel) with you to class
Week 10
- 11.25: Monster Culture, Dracula Edition: Seven (More) Theses – collaborative writing project
- 11.26: Final Project Proposal / Bibliography Due on Canvas
Th. 11.27: THANKSGIVING NO CLASS
Week 11
- 12.2: Final Project Presentations
Th. 12.4: Final Project Presentations