Dr. Paula R.
Backscheider
9082 Haley Center
pkrb@auburn.edu
(334) 844-9091
Description:
This seminar will explore the uses of several groundbreaking, recent
methods of analyzing literature and its place in society. The time will be almost equally divided
among performance theory, reception theory, and representation theory. Each method contributes to the practice of
the others and, although the seminar is organized in three parts, there will be
obvious cross-fertilizations. Briefly,
performance theory provides the tools to reconstruct a theatrical production,
the conditions that shaped it (such as members of a theatrical company and
degrees of censorship), and the work that the production performed in the
culture.
Reception theory allows the tracing of a writer's, a text's, or a
production's reception and reputation over time. In studying how these things changed, developing attitudes
toward, for instance, women writers, war, and sexuality can be mapped. Representation theory, which benefits from
an understanding of the first two, is the study of images, who has the power to
create and control them, how they have been resisted, and concerns itself with
existing and developing categories through which human beings understand the
world and make judgments. Although the
writers, authors, and performances we will use as case studies come from the
long eighteenth century (1640-1830), the methods are transferable to any period
of literature. No special knowledge of
the literary period is necessary for success in this seminar.
This is a collaborative, heavily discussion-driven seminar. Among the theorists that we will read are Rudolf Arnheim, Richard Helgerson, E.H. Gombrich, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Naomi Schor, and Joseph Roach, and we will work with drama, the novel, and poetry. Several short reports, a final paper (18-25 pages) with presentation of results will be required.
Required
Texts: