Discussions

Beginning next week, your classmates will lead part of the class discussion.  During the weeks when we discuss the novels, you will lead discussion on the week's Eagleton chapter. Please send your discussion questions to me by Wednesday evening so  I can give them to your classmates in advance.

The novels we'll discuss are short and can be read in a week; please read the whole novel for the first week of class. For the second week of class, I will ask you to read at least one critical article about the novel in question; I will present a selection of possible choices or you may choose your own. I hope in this way to focus the first week's discussion on issues within the text and in the second week, broaden the discussion to think about a variety of critical approaches to the text.

Please note that I changed the readings for November 3 and 17.

Sep 29             Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Eagleton, Literary Theory, Chapter 2

Discussion Leaders:  Brian, Nate

Oct 6               Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Eagleton, Literary Theory, Chapter 3

Discussion Leaders:  Emma, Darisse

Oct 13             Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

                        Eagleton, Literary Theory, Chapter 4  

Discussion Leaders:  Erin, Kassidy

Oct 20             Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Eagleton, Literary Theory, Chapter 5

Discussion Leaders:  Emily, Tricia

Oct 27             Gold, Debates in the Digital Humanities (selections TBA; see blog)

Discussion Leaders:  Effie, Sheelan

Nov 3              Moore and Miller, 1, 2, 4, 6.

Harner, “On Compiling an Annotated Bibliography” (link on blog)

Discussion Leaders: Rita,

Nov 10            Felski, Uses of Literature

Discussion Leaders: Justin, Bill

Nov 17            McComiskey, Chapter 3; Eagleton, Chapter 6

                        Discussion Leaders: Rob,

Class Three: English Studies Smörgåsbord

This week’s readings and Critical Exercise 2 aimed to have us think broadly (via several chapters in the McComiskey collection) and specifically (via a scholarly journal of your choice) about the “state of the field” of English Studies.  Tonight’s conversation will necessarily range widely, but I hope we will get to cover most of the following points:

I. Linguistics and Discourse Analysis: What do these two terms mean? How would you characterize Barton’s field of study? How does she define English Studies? What do you make of Barton’s account of the way in which she frames her research on medical discourse—why did she frame the “so what” of her argument the way she did, and for what reasons?  In other words, what meaning/questions did she feel she could get at with her research if she situated it in “English” rather than “Linguistics”?

 II. Rhetoric and Composition: Whew! This was quite a chapter.  Terms we need to understand: multimodal, (vs.) interdisciplinary, rhetoric.  Why did Rhetoric become the field we know today: “Rhet/Comp”? What kinds of inquiry does this field encompass? What kinds of tensions are at work in the field? Have you ever experienced any of the approaches Lauer describes as a student? As a teacher? Where/how do cultural studies/critical theory intersect with Rhet/Comp?

III. The Big Kahuna(e): Literature and Literary Criticism/Critical Theory and Cultural Studies:  First, why are these two areas given different chapters in this volume? What makes “Literature and Literary Criticism” something different from “Critical Theory and Cultural Studies”? How does Elias make the distinction? How do you see the differences? Why do you think she starts by saying, “Critical theory is not one discipline”? With a partner or two, discuss the key characteristics of your assigned “school” of theory.  What are the big names associated with your “school”?  Finally, think about the article you read for CE2 today. What approach(es) does it take to literature/the text? How might you label your article: “literary criticism”? “Critical theory”? “Cultural studies”? Something else?

IV. Connections: The term utopian comes up in several of these chapters. Why? What is utopian about English studies—and how does this sense resonate in the fields varied disciplines?

V. Journal Outlines! We’ll read through your journal outlines to see what you found. Extra points for talking about how your journal aligns itself with the lit crit/theory/cultural studies labels.

Class Two: Shapes and Contours of English Studies

Where did English Studies come from, as a field? Where is it going? Where do we see ourselves fitting into this shifting terrain, and how can we navigate it most effectively—both intellectually as developing scholars and practically as graduate students in this department? These are the central questions for tonight’s discussion. 

I. McComiskey (Introduction) and Eagleton (Chapter 1) offer different but overlapping histories of English Studies.  What moments/events in the field seem especially important for literary studies?  What outside forces have worked to shape the field? Did anything surprise you about these origin stories?  With your neighbor, build a quick timeline of these moments/shifts.  We will compile these on the board.

II. How has literary studies organized itself (in different ways over time)? Why do we (in English) care about genres? Periods? Class? Gender? Ethnicity? Race? Sexuality? National boundaries? Have you taken courses that you now recognize as coming out of particular moments in the history of the field? 

III. Moore and Miller write, “The field is still in the process of rethinking itself, even as it is working to reconceive its place in the evolving academy” (xi). What evidence do you see of this rethinking at UMB? Who counts as faculty, and how are faculty hired? Who does what jobs in English departments? How does the UMB English department reflect the field as described by McComiskey, Moore/Miller, and Eagleton?

IV. Can we see evidence of these changes in the terms faculty use to describe themselves? Which terms seem especially to reflect different shifts in the field?

V. Take a look at the list of courses offered to undergraduates by our department.  How do the titles reflect different trends/moments/ideas described in our readings? With your neighbor, find courses that announce themselves as belonging to a particular historical view, belief system about English studies, and/or organizational philosophy of the field.

Class One: Introductions. What to Expect from English 608.

September 8, 2016

I.                         Syllabus

II.                     Brief Introductions

III.                 Graff, “Disliking Books at an Early Age”/Autobiography

In “Disliking Books at an Early Age,” Gerald Graff tells the story of his development as a reader (or non-reader), student, and finally teacher of literary texts. He confesses: “It was through exposure to such critical reading and discussion over a period of time that I came to catch the literary bug, eventually choosing the vocation of teaching.  This was not the way it is supposed to happen.”

How did it “happen” to you? What brings you to this class, to this program, to the field of English Studies? In this light, which, if any, passages in Graff’s essay resonated with you? We’ll write for ten minutes on these questions.

IV.                                       What is “the standard story of how we learn to read,” according to Graff? What des this standard story leave out or obscure? How does it impact the way we come to literary texts as readers? As teachers?

V.                                           Graff concludes: “The polite fiction that students will learn to make ‘intellectual moves’ by being in the presence of them for several hours a week is usually just that, a polite fiction. . . .  In short, reading books with comprehension, making arguments, writing papers, and making comments in a class discussion are social activities.  They involve entering into a cultural or disciplinary conversation, a process not unlike initiation into a social club.” What does Graff mean here? What are some the identifying characteristics of this “social club”? If reading, writing, arguing, and discussing are social activities, how should they be taught?

Assignments:

Critical Exercise #1 due by Tuesday, September 13 via email; bring a paper copy to class.

For Sep 15: Read Eagleton, Literary Theory, Intro and Chapter 1; McComiskey Introduction, Chapter 4; Moore and Miller, Introduction.