Introduction to the English Major: The Theory and Practice of Literary Studies
Matthew P. Brown
Course Description
This course is intended to teach majors in the English department four central
aspects of literary study: 1) techniques of literary criticism, based on the use of critical
vocabulary and on attention to form and genre; 2) insight into theories of reading
literature, and into debates about the role of English as a field of study; 3) familiarity with
periods of literary history, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century; and, 4) knowledge
of research methods essential to the practice of literary criticism. Through reading of
poetry, fiction, and drama, students will learn “intrinsic,” formalist approaches and
“extrinsic,” contextual approaches to the study of literature. We will explore major
schools of literary criticism, and use their methods to analyze literary works. The course
will also present the writing conventions and analytical expectations for college-level
literary appreciation.
Texts
Primary texts
Selection of poems, short fiction, and readings from historical survey in
online course reader (CR)
James Joyce, The Dead (Bedford edition)
William Shakespeare, The Tempest (Bedford edition)
Mary Rowlandson, Captivity narrative
Secondary texts
Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Ross Murfin and Supryia Ray, eds. Bedford Glossary of Critical and
Literary Terms
David Richter, ed., Falling into Theory
Selection of secondary articles in online course reader (CR)
Assignments
3-4 pp. close reading – DUE BEG. OF WEEK 4
5 pp. engagement with secondary criticism – DUE MIDDLE OF WEEK 7
Annotated bibliography – DUE END OF WEEK 10
3-4 pp. role-playing dialogue about The Tempest – DUE END OF WEEK 12
Final exam: testing knowledge of literary history
Daily Schedule
The Institution of Literary Studies (week 1)
1. Introduction to the course: defining literary studies.
What is a “critic”? a “scholar”? a “teacher”? a “professor”? a “student”?
Introduce informal “intellectual autobiography” assignment, due Friday.
2. Professing English: histories of the discipline.
Secondary texts: Gerald Graff, “Disliking Books at an Early Age,” in Richter, Falling
into Theory; Terry Eagleton, “The Rise of English,” in Richter, Falling into Theory.
Gauri Viswanathan, from Masks of Conquest, in Richter, Falling into Theory.
Discussion section.
CLASSWORK: Ice-breaking. Discuss short poems circulated in class. Compose written
analysis or response to one of the poems (diagnostic). Discuss Graff, Eagleton, and
Viswanathan.
WRITING DUE: 600-word “intellectual autobiography.” Assignment: the student is to
write a short, informal, 2 pp. reflection on his or her growth as a reader of literature. A
model is Graff’s “Disliking Books.”
TA DUTIES: Lead discussion of poems. Model differences between appreciation and
analysis. After session: assess (but not evaluate) “intellectual autobiography” and in-class
writing.
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: LITERARY THEORY.
The Text: Intrinsic Approaches to Literary Meaning (weeks 2 and 3)
3. A history of the English language.
Secondary texts: Thomas McLaughlin, “Figurative Language,” from Critical Terms for
Literary Study (CR); [another essay on philological approaches to literary meaning].
4. Formalism: what is “literature”?
Secondary texts: Victor Shklovsky, from “Art as Technique” (CR); Cleanth Brooks, “My
Credo--The Formalist Critics” (CR). Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory, chapter 2 (18-41).
Discussion section
READING ASSIGNMENT: primary and secondary texts.
CLASSWORK: Applying philological and formalist approaches. Using the OED online
to practice philological criticism. Model close reading and textual analysis. Discuss close
reading paper due following week.
TA DUTIES: Prepare discussion section. Prepare explanation of hand-out on essay
expectations and close reading paper.
5. Reading poetry.
Primary texts: sonnets (e.g., William Shakespeare, Sonnet #29; John Donne, [Batter My
Heart, Three-Personed God]; Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Love is Not All”); Roethke, “My
Papa’s Waltz”; Keats, “To Autumn”; Rich, “Diving into the Wreck” and other poems.
Secondary texts: Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory , chapter 5 (69-81). From Murfin
handbook: Prosody. Meter. Rhythm. Rhyme. Rhyme Scheme. Scansion. Assonance.
Consonance. Alliteration. Parallelism. Stanza. End-stopped Lines. Enjambment.
6. Reading prose.
Primary texts: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart”; James Baldwin, “Going to Meet
the Man”; William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” in CR.
Secondary texts: Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory, chapter 6 (82-93). From Murfin
handbook: Narrator; Plot; Conflict; Motivation. Protagonist; Antagonist; Character; Flat
and Round Characters. Setting. Narrator. Unreliable Narrator. Point of View.
Discussion section:
READING ASSIGNMENT: Poetry, short fiction, and handbook terms.
CLASSWORK: Activity to test knowledge of terms. Workshop thesis statements for
close reading paper.
TA DUTIES: Prepare presentation on developing an analytical essay and an
appropriately focused thesis statement.
RUBRICS: CRITICAL VOCABULARY; RESEARCH SKILLS; LITERARY THEORY.
The Contexts I.: Extrinsic Approaches to Literary Meaning (week 4)
7. Beyond the text: authors and readers.
No assigned reading.
>>DUE: CLOSE READING PAPER (3-4 PP.)
8. What is “literary theory”?: Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory, chapter 1 (1-17), chapter 3 (4254)
Discussion section:
READING ASSIGNMENT: Culler, chapters 1 and 3
CLASSWORK: Model ways to research an author’s biography and ways to research
readership. Based on chapter three of Culler, consider debate over popular culture and
literary culture as objects of study.
TA DUTIES: During week: grade close reading paper.
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: LITERARY THEORY; RESEARCH SKILLS (in discussion section).
Extrinsic Approaches, Intrinsic Approaches, and Joyce’s The Dead (weeks 5 and 6)
9. Applying theory.
Primary text: James Joyce, The Dead.
10. Feminism, gender studies, and queer theory.
Secondary texts: “What is Feminist Criticism?” in Bedford edition of The Dead. Annette
Kolodny, “Dancing through the Minefield” in Richter, Falling into Theory; Eve
Kosofsky Sedgwick, from An Epistemology of the Closet, in Richter, Falling into Theory.
Discussion section:
READING ASSIGNMENT: The Dead and gender-based extrinsic approaches.
CLASSWORK: Debating intrinsic and extrinsic approaches.
TA DUTIES: Build from lecturer’s “extrinsic approach” themes to generate discussion
points (representation of women). Work on individual passages to model intrinsic, close
reading.
11. Marxism, new historicism, and post-colonial theory.
Secondary texts: “What is Marxist Criticism?” (CR); “What is New Historicism?” in
Bedford. Deleuze and Guattari, “What is a Minor Literature?” in Richter, Falling Into
Theory.
12. Psychoanalysis and book history.
Secondary texts: “What is Psychoanalytic Criticism?” (CR); Robert Darnton, “What is
the History of Books?” (CR).
Discussion section:
READING ASSIGNMENT: two critical essays from Bedford edition.
CLASSWORK: Small groups to discuss arguments of each critical essay. Discuss
engaging criticism paper due the following week.
TA DUTIES:
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: RESEARCH SKILLS; LITERARY THEORY; CRITICAL VOCABULARY
The Contexts II.: Literary History (week 7)
13. Researching literature: presentation by Kathy Magarrell.
14. An Overview of Literary History (based on modules within the UI English major).
>>DUE: ENGAGING WITH CRITICISM PAPER (5 PP.)
Discussion section:
CLASSWORK: Library visit in preparation for annotated bibliography.
Introduce Annotated Bibliography assignment.
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: RESEARCH SKILLS; LITERARY HISTORY.
Medieval Literary Culture (week 8)
15. Medieval history and culture.
Primary texts: “The Wife’s Lament”; “The Seafarer”; Chaucer tale
Secondary text: Paul Strohm, “The Social and Literary Scene in England” (CR)
16. Medieval literary forms
Discussion section
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: LITERARY HISTORY
Early Modern Literary Culture and The Tempest (weeks 9-10)
17. Reading drama.
Acts 1-3, Bedford edition of The Tempest.
18. The Renaissance.
Acts 4-5, Bedford edition of The Tempest.
Discussion section
Students cast and stage The Tempest; close reading of speeches.
19. The “New World.”
Documents and sources in Bedford edition.
20. Intrinsic and extrinsic approaches: revisiting the debates, teaching the conflicts.
Secondary articles in Bedford edition; Stephen Greenblatt, “Learning to Curse” (CR).
Discussion section
The role of allusion and influence as a category of literary meaning, via discussion of
works inspired by The Tempest (belles lettres reactions—Browning on Caliban, Donald
Justice; post-colonial reactions; pop culture reactions—Forbidden Planet)
>>DUE: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: LITERARY HISTORY; CRITICAL VOCABULARY
Eighteenth-Century Literary Culture (week 11)
21. Eighteenth-century history and culture.
Primary texts: Swift, “A Modest Proposal”; Gray’s Elegy; others to be selected.
22. Eighteenth-century literary forms.
Discussion section
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: LITERARY HISTORY
Nineteenth-Century Literary Culture (week 12)
23. Romanticism
Primary texts: selections from Wollstonecraft, “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”;
selections from Blake, Wordsworth, Keats.
24. Victorian literature
Primary texts: Tennyson, “Ulysses”; Christina Rosetti, “In an Artist’s Studio”; Robert
Browning, “Love Among the Ruins”
Discussion section
>>DUE: ROLE-PLAYING DEBATE ABOUT THE TEMPEST (3-4 PP.): in
dialogue form, present a discussion about the Shakespeare text, roleplaying as a member of each of two different theoretical or critical schools
(e.g., a formalist debates a book historian about the play).
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: LITERARY HISTORY
American Literary Culture to 1900 (week 13)
25. Pre-1800 American Literature.
Primary texts: Rowlandson’s captivity narrative; Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth.”
26. Nineteenth-century American Literature.
Primary texts: William Apess, “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man”;
Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown,” Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby.”
Discussion section
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: LITERARY HISTORY
Modernisms and Postmodernisms (week 14)
27. English and American Modernisms.
Primary texts: Virginia Woolf, “Solid Objects,” “The Mark on the Wall”; poetry by
Langston Hughes and William Carlos Williams.
28. Postmodernisms.
Primary texts:
Discussion section
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: LITERARY HISTORY
Postcolonial and Transnational Literature (week 15)
29.
30.
Discussion section
RUBRICS FOR UNIT: LITERARY HISTORY
FINAL EXAM: testing knowledge of literary history, weeks 8-15