ENGL 240: Introduction to Literary Study and Critical Methods
John Casey, PhD
E-mail: jcasey3@uic.edu (preferred method of contact)
CRN: 27474/27475
Phone: 312-413-2214 (no voicemail)
Days: T/TH 12:30-1:45 pm
Office: 1833 UH (M) and 2003 UH (T)
Location: 116 SH
Office Hours: M 12-2 and T 10-12 or by Appointment.
In this course we will examine the foundations of literary study—how to read a text, interpret it, and
then provide a clear evaluation. We will also explore a few of the methodologies or “theories” that
allow us to engage in those activities. A wide variety of theories will be discussed that focus on the
reader, the text, and the social conditions surrounding the reading and writing of literature. These will
include Reader-Response, Digital Humanities, Queer Studies, Marxism, and Post-Colonialism.
Assignments for the class consist of short weekly response papers and two essays in addition to the
required readings. The first of these essays will be a “critical etymology,” an analysis of a term
associated with a specific methodology for reading literature. The second paper will provide a reading
of a literary text of your choice using one of the theoretical approaches discussed in class. This text
much be pre-approved by the instructor.
Required Texts:
David Richter. The Critical Tradition. (CT) 3rd Edition. New York: Bedford-St. Martins, 2007.
[ISBN-13: 978-0-312-41520-4]
(The text listed above is available at the UIC Bookstore located in the basement of the Student Center East.)
Other texts will be made available via web link or PDF on the course Blackboard Site (BB)
<https://uic.blackboard.com/webapps/login/>.
Grading:
Critical Etymology:
25%
Response Papers:
20%
Literary Analysis:
25%
Attendance:
15%
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Class Participation:
15%
(Please note that while individual assignments will be evaluated using a +/- letter grade score, UIC does not
calculate final grades using pluses and minuses. Final grades are solid letter grades: A, B, C, D, F).
Attendance policy:
Students are allowed four absences without penalty. Two points will be deducted from the final grade
for each absence over the number allowed.
Late work
Work turned in within 3 days of the due date will be read and commented on but will receive a reduced
grade. Any assignment more than four days late will be read and commented on but not graded.
Exceptions to this rule will be considered on a case by case basis with official documentation of a
medical or personal emergency.
Electronic communication
If you need to contact me outside of class, please stop by during my office hours or telephone me during
my office hours. Outside of those hours, e-mail is the best way to reach me. I will reply to all e-mails
within 24 hours. I will not accept final drafts via e-mail. If you have a documented emergency, bring the
official documentation to class along with a printed copy of your late assignment.
Academic Integrity Policy
A student who submits work, at any stage of the writing process, which in whole or part has been
written by someone else or which contains passages quoted or paraphrased from another’s work
without acknowledgment (quotation marks, citation, etc.) has plagiarized. Maintain your integrity when
completing assignments and be overzealous to give credit where it is due. If you are ever unsure about
what constitutes plagiarism, ask me. Students who are found to have plagiarized work may be subject to
various disciplinary actions, including a failing grade on a particular assignment, failure of the entire
course, and possible expulsion from the university. In cases of academic dishonesty, my policy is to file a
complaint with the Office of the Dean of Students. For more information about violating academic
integrity and its consequences, consult the website of the UIC Office of the Dean of Students at
http://www.uic.edu/depts/dos/studentconduct.html.
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Disability accommodation
Students with disabilities who require accommodations for access to and/or participation in this course
must be registered with the Disability Resource Center (DRC). You may contact DRC at 312-413-2183 (v)
or 312-413-0123 (TTY).
OTHER POLICIES:
Cell phones and electronic devices: Cell phones and other electronic devices must be turned off or
silenced during class time. Use of laptops and tablet devices is only permitted for note taking, accessing
course readings online, or to look up information related to class discussions. If I see you accessing
internet sites not related to class activities, I will ask you to turn off your electronic device.
Food and beverages: You are welcome to bring food and snacks with you to class, but please remember
to pick up any trash and dispose of it properly at the end of the class period.
STUDENT RESOURCES:
As UIC students, there are many resources available to you. Among them are the Writing Center,
located in 105 Grant Hall, which offers one-on-one consultation with student writers who need help
developing ideas, or need advice, guidance or additional instruction on any aspects of writing. For an
appointment, call the Writing Center at (312) 413-2206) or visit their website at
(http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl/writing/) to schedule an appointment online. Public Computer Labs
are available throughout campus where you may write and/or print out your work. For a list of labs and
the hours they’re open, go to (www.accc.uic.edu/pclabs). The Academic Center for Excellence can help
if you feel you need more individualized instruction in reading and/or writing; phone (312) 413-0031.
Counseling Services are available for all UIC students. You may seek free and confidential services from
the Counseling Center <www.counseling.uic.edu>. The Counseling Center is located in the Student
Services Building; you may contact them at (312) 996-3490. In addition to offering counseling services,
the Counseling Center also operates the InTouch Crisis Hotline from 6:00 p.m.-10:30 p.m. They offer
support and referrals to callers, as well as telephone crisis interventions; please call (312) 996-5535.
Other sources of support include: LARES (Latin American Recruitment and Educational Services
Program), SSB 2640, 312.996.3356; African American Academic Network, SSB 2800, 312.996.5040;
Native American Support Program, 2700 SSB, 312.996.4515.
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DESCRIPTION OF COURSE ASSIGNMENTS:
Critical Etymology—
Most terminology used in literary criticism and critical theory has an extensive history. This can
sometimes cause problems as readers will misunderstand the intended meaning an author attaches to a
particular term. For this assignment you will choose a term commonly used by critics and conduct
research into its usage history. When was the term first used? How has its usage changed over time? Is
the term still in common usage among literary scholars or is it considered historic? Please format your
critical etymology like an encyclopedia entry. Start with the term at the top and its current meaning.
Then explain the origins of the term and its usage over time. Your name and course information should
appear on the final page after a list of any sources you have consulted to obtain information on the
term. Page length will vary depending on the complexity of the term you select, but all assignments
should be between 3-5 pages long (double-spaced). Numerous glossaries of literary terminology exist.
Feel free to use these resources to get you started.
Draft Due: 2/5
Final Draft Due: 3/5
Literary Analysis—
One of the goals of this class is to train you in the skill of literary criticism. This final paper is thus the
culminating assignment for the course. For the literary analysis project I want you to select a work of
literature to analyze using one of the “schools” of criticism that we have examined to unlock the
meaning of that text. Please note that I must first approve the text you plan to examine before you can
move forward with the analysis. Your literary analysis should be between 12-15 pages in length (doublespaced) and should include a list of works cited in MLA format. Although your main focus in this paper is
to develop your ability to summarize, analyze, and evaluate a work of literature, you should also
consider the existing interpretations of the text you are examining and place your “reading” of the text
in relation to these pre-existing studies. How and why is your approach to understanding your chosen
text different from those already published? What does it help us see or understand about the text that
other approaches do not?
Draft Due: 3/19, 4/16
Final Draft Due: 4/4
Response Papers—
Each week you will be asked to write a short (1-2 pages: typed, double-spaced) response paper that is
related to one or more of the course readings. These papers must be turned in on Friday of each week.
I will select at random 2-3 students to read their response papers to the class each week so make sure
you give the assignment full attention. What you include in each response is up to you, but the paper
should engage with the reading assignments for that week. You might use your response as an
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opportunity to explore questions left unanswered by a particular author or to challenge assertions made
by a specific text. A response might also explore why you agree with a particular approach to
understanding literature and literary analysis. Regardless of the approach you take, make sure to move
beyond a summary of what you have read and provide your analysis of what you’ve read along with an
evaluation of its value.
DAILY SCHEDULE:
Unit 1: Reader
Week One: The Fundamentals
1/13: Introduction to the Class. What is Literature in the 21st Century?
1/15: Reading Literature Like a Critic.
Reading: CT “Why Write?” (pgs. 659-672) and “Against Interpretation” (pgs. 738-745).
Week Two: Reception Theory
1/20: Horizons of Expectation and the Implied Reader.
Reading: CT “The Elevation of the Historicality of Understanding” (pgs. 721-737) and “The Three
Horizons of Reading” (pgs. 981-988).
1/22: The Role of Genre in the Reading Process.
Reading: CT “The Question: Who Reads What How?” (pgs. 1014-1022) and “How to Recognize a Poem
When You See One” (pgs. 1022-1030).
[Add/Drop Period Ends Friday 1/23.]
Unit 2: Text
Week Three: Structuralism
1/27: Sign Systems in Literature.
Reading: CT “Nature of the Linguistic Sign” (pgs. 841-844) and “From Linguistics and Poetics” (pgs. 852859).
1/29: Literature and Mythology. Discuss Critical Etymology Assignment.
Reading: CT “Fairy Tale Transformations” (pgs. 785-797) and “The Structural Study of Myth” (pgs. 860868).
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Week Four: Post-Structuralism
2/3: Deconstruction.
Reading: CT “Differance” (pgs. 932-949).
2/5: Rhetoric and Deconstruction.
Reading: CT “Semiology and Rhetoric” (pgs. 882-893).
Writing: Draft of Critical Etymology Due.
Week Five: Digital Humanities
2/10: Text/Hypertext.
Reading: BB “Visible and Invisible Books.”
2/12: Publishing Digital Texts.
Reading: BB “Electronic Errata: Digital Publishing, Open Review, and the Futures of Correction” and
“Looking for Whitman: A Grand, Aggregated Experiment.” Also please visit the site “Looking for
Whitman” at < http://lookingforwhitman.org/>.
Week Six: Digital Humanities (Cont.)
2/17: Distant Reading.
Reading: BB “Conjectures on World Literature” and “The Remaking of Reading: Data Mining and the
Digital Humanities.”
2/19: Methodology and Theory.
Reading: BB “The Slaughterhouse of Literature.”
Unit 3: Context
Week Seven: Marxist Criticism
2/24: Culture as Industry.
Reading: CT “Consciousness Derived From Material Conditions” (pgs. 406-409) and “From The Culture
Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (pgs. 1254-1263).
2/26: Political Unconscious.
Reading: CT “From The Political Unconscious” (pgs. 1290-1306).
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Week Eight: Cultural Studies
3/3: Cultural Capital.
Reading: CT “From Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste” (pgs. 1398-1403). Also please
visit the “Breaking Bad Wiki” at < http://breakingbad.wikia.com/wiki/Walt_Whitman>.
3/5: History and Literature.
Reading: CT “The Historical Text as Literary Artifact” (pgs. 1383-1397).
Writing: Final Draft Critical Etymology Due.
Unit 4: Author
Week Nine: Psychoanalysis
3/10: Latent and Manifest Content.
Reading: CT “The Dream-Work” (pgs. 500-509) and “Creative Writers and Daydreaming” (pgs. 509-514).
3/12: Narrative and the Search for Order. Discuss Literary Analysis Assignment.
Reading: CT “Freud’s Masterplot” (pgs. 1161-1171).
Week Ten: Feminist Literary Criticism
3/17: The Concept of the Phallus and the Male “Gaze.”
Reading: CT “The Meaning of the Phallus” (pgs. 1149-1155) and “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
(pgs. 1172-1180).
3/19: Female Authorship.
Reading: CT “From Infection in the Sentence” (pgs. 1531-1544) and “From Sexual/Textual Politics” (pgs.
1545-1549).
Writing: Draft of Literary Analysis Due.
[Last Day for Late Drop 3/20. W Recorded on Transcript.]
SPRING BREAK NO CLASS (3/23-3/27).
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Week Eleven: Gender Studies and Queer Theory
3/31: Gender, Sex, and Sexuality.
Reading: CT “From The History of Sexuality” (pgs. 1627-1636) and “One Is Not Born a Woman” (pgs.
1637-1642.
4/2: Homosociality and Homosexuality.
Reading: CT “From Between Men” (pgs. 1683-1687) and “From Homosexual Desire” (pgs. 1656-1663).
Week Twelve: Gender Studies and Queer Theory (Cont.)
4/7: Gender Performance.
Reading: CT “Imitation and Gender Insubordination” (pgs. 1707-1718).
4/9: Female Masculinity.
Reading: CT “From the Introduction to Female Masculinity” (pgs. 1734-1752).
Week Thirteen: Disability Studies
4/14: What is Disability Studies?
Reading: BB “Crips Strike Back: The Rise of Disability Studies” and “What is Disability Studies?”
Representing Disability.
4/16: Representing Disability.
Reading: BB “Shape Structures Story: Fresh Feisty Stories about Disability” and “Disability and
Narrative.”
Writing: Second Draft of Literary Analysis Due
Week Fourteen: Post-Colonialism
4/21: Narratives of Colonization.
Reading: CT “Signs Taken for Wonders” (pgs. 1875-1890).
4/23: Cultural Colonialism.
Reading: CT “What is a Minor Literature?” (pgs. 1777-1782) and “Europhonism” (pgs. 1821-1828).
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Week Fifteen: Post-Colonialism (Cont.)
4/28: Creole Consciousness.
Reading: CT “From Playing in the Dark” (pgs. 1791-1801) and “La conciencia de la mestiza” (pgs. 18501858).
4/30: Literary Theory as the New Colonialism.
Reading: CT “The Race for Theory” (pgs. 1858-1865), “Appropriative Gestures” (pgs. 1866-1870), and
“Recycling” (pgs. 1870-1874).
Writing: Final Draft of Literary Analysis due Monday, May 4, by 4 pm.
NO FINAL EXAM.
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