English 4950: Senior Seminar

This discussion seminar is an exploration of current theories about the importance of literature and literary study. Among the key issues we will discuss are:

~Why read? Why do you read?
~Why are English majors and minors important? Why are you an English major?
~What difference does literature make?
~How does literature participate in discussions of social problems?
~What happens when you treat popular culture as literature?
~Are movies the "opium of the people" and a waste of time?
~What do literary critics do today and why do they do it?

Among the readings for discussion are essays and selections from books such as Symptoms of Culture ("The Meaning of Jello," for instance), Margins and Centers, and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.

• The Norton Introduction to Poetry, 7th edition, by J. Paul Hunter (Norton, 1999). ISBN 0-393-97357-3
• Falling into Theory, 2nd edition, by David H. Richter (Bedford St. Martin's, 2000). ISBN 0-312-20156-7
• The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton (Norton, 1990). ISBN 0-393-95901-5
• The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath (Harper Collins, 1983). ISBN 0-553-27835-5
• Course Pack

Jan. 11:  Introduction

 16:  Readings from The Long Revolution, "Cultural Transformation of John Philip Sousa," and "Introduction" and "What We Have Loved, Others Will Love" in Falling into Theory. Click to listen to selections from Jimi Hendrix's recording of "The Star Spangled Banner" and Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

 18:  "A History of Changing Definitions of the Popular," and from Falling into Theory: "Introduction to Masks of Conquest," and "Dancing through the Minefield"

 23:  Readings by students from The Norton Introduction to Poetry

 25:  Visit by film makers

 30:  Venice Preserved debate

Feb.  1:      "     "        "

  6:  From Falling into Theory:  "Disliking Books at an Early Age" and "Black Matter(s)," and "The Female at Music"

  8:  Jameson, "Metacommentary" and Bakhtin, "Epic and Novel"

 13:  Foucault, from The History of Sexuality.  Reports on Projects

 15:  Reading Day

 20:  The House of Mirth

 22:  The House of Mirth

 27:  Reports on The House of Mirth

Mar.  1:  "Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle" and "A Map for Rereading"

  6:  Poems on Love and Gender in The Norton Anthology

  8:  From Madwoman in the Attic and from Falling into Theory, "From Sexual/ Textual Politics"

 15:  "The Laugh of the Medusa" and "Readers and Reading"

 20:  The Bell Jar

 22:  The Bell Jar

Apr. 3:   Discussion: The Intersections of Popular and High Art

  5:  "Literary Competence" and poems that demonstrate it

 10:  From Falling into Theory:  "Masterpiece Theatre," "Contingencies of Value," and "Canon-Formation, Literary History" and the Afro-American Tradition"

 12:  From Falling into Theory:  "The Rise of English," "Reclaiming the Aesthetic," and "Aesthetics and the Literal Imagination"

 17:  Poems and cultural capital

 19:  Study day

 24:  Presentations of Projects

 26:  Presentations

May 1:  Presentations

 Final Exam

Summary of Assignments

January 23: read a powerful poem

January 30: Venice Preserved debate

February 13: Report on project: what you are doing, your "attack strategy," and problems you are having

February 27: Report on House of Mirth "interpretation problem"

*March 6: Poems on love and gender

*April 5: Poems that require literary competence

*April 17: Poems with cultural capital

*You will be responsible for 2 of these 3
 

Papers and other assignments are due at the beginning of class.  No late papers or work will be accepted without prior arrangements. Because this is a seminar, your attendance and active participation are crucial and taken for granted.