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.