MODULE THREE: MODERN PERIOD
(c. 1850 - c. 1945)
WEEK 9: ANGLO-AMERICAN MODERNISM
Lec. 1: Representation I: Neo-Platonic Symbolism /
Authorship:
the 'Death' of the Author
- Yeats, W. B. "The Symbolism of Poetry" [1900] (pp. 28-34 in David
Lodge, ed. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism; also in folder)
- Eliot, T. S.:
- "Tradition and the Individual Talent"
[1917]: Part II (pp. 761-764 in Adams)
- "Hamlet" [1919] (pp. 764-766 in Adams)
Recommended Readings:
- Abrams, M. H. The Mirror and the Lamp:
- "Imitation and the Mirror"
- "Varieties of Romantic Theory: Shelly, Hazlitt, Keble and
Others"
- Chadwick, Charles Symbolism: ch. 1
Praxis:
- Bowra, C. M. The Heritage of Symbolism
- Symons, Arthur The Symbolist Movement in Literature
Lec. 2: Literary History (the 'Tradition')
- Arnold, Matthew "From The Study of Poetry" [1880] (pp. 603-607
in Adams)
- Eliot, T. S. "Tradition and the Individual Talent"
[1917]: Part I (pp. 761-764 in Adams)
Recommended Readings:
- Perkins, David Is Literary History Possible?
- Harris, Wendell "Canonicity" PMLA
106.1 (1991): 110-121
Praxis:
- Leavis, F. R. The Great Tradition
WEEK 10: ANGLO-AMERICAN MODERNISM AND ITS HEIRS: NEW CRITICISM
Lec. 1: The Reader
- Arnold, Matthew "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time"
[1864] (pp. 592-602 in Adams)
- Richards, I. A. Practical Criticism: ch. I and ch. VII
[1929] (pp.
827-837 in Adams)
Recommended Reading:
- Tompkins, Jane "The Reader in History: the
Changing Shape of Literary Response" (in her Reader-Response Criticism)
- Eagleton, Terry Literary Theory: an Introduction: "Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory"
- Maclean, Ian "Reading and Interpretation"
(in Ann Jefferson, et al., eds. Modern Literary Theory: a Comparative
Introduction)
- Freund, Elizabeth The Return of the Reader
Lec. 2: Literary
Form I: Lyric Poetry: 'New
Criticism'
- Ransom, John Crowe "Criticism as Pure Speculation"
[1941] (pp.
874-883 in Adams)
- Wimsatt and Beardsley
- "The Intentional Fallacy"
[1946]
-
"The Affective Fallacy" [1949] (pp. 945-959 in Adams)
- Brooks, Cleanth
- The Well-Wrought Urn [1947]:
- "The Language of Paradox"
(in folder)
- "The Heresy of
Paraphrase" (also pp. 961-968 in Adams)
- "Irony as a Principle of Structure"
[1949] (pp.
968-974 in Adams)
Recommended Reading:
- Robey, David "Anglo-American New Criticism"
(in Ann Jefferson, et al., eds. Modern Literary Theory: a Comparative
Introduction)
WEEK 11: ANGLO-AMERICAN MODERNISM'S HEIRS: NEO-ARISTOTELIANISM / FEMINIST
AND POST-COLONIAL PERSPECTIVES
Lec. 1: Representation II: Neo-Aristotelian
Realism / Literary Form II: Epic Poetry & Prose Fiction: Narratology
- Watt, Ian The Rise of the Novel [1957]:
"Realism and the Novel Form" (also in E23F folder)
- Crane, R. S. The Language of Criticism and the
Structure of Poetry: "Toward a More Adequate
Criticism of Poetic Structure" (also pp. 1002-1021 in Adams)
Recommended Readings:
- Crane, R. S.
- Critics and Criticism [1952]:
- "Introduction"
- "The Concept of Plot and the Plot
of Tom Jones"
- The Language of Criticism and the
Structure of Poetry [1953]: "Poetic Structure in the Language
of Aristotle"
- Booth, Wayne The Rhetoric of Fiction [1961]:
"Types of Narration"
Praxis:
- Auerbach, Erich Mimesis: the Representation of Reality in Western
Literature
Lec. 2: Feminist and Post-colonial Perspectives on
Representation and Form
[please note that many of the feminist and post-colonial
readings are not found in the anthologies but are in the E23F folder]
[selections in grey below will not be discussed per se in the lectures: you
should study them on your own]
Feminist:
- Rich, Adrienne On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: "When We Dead
Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision" [1971] (also in E23F folder)
- Ferguson, Mary Anne Images of Women in Literature
[1973]: "Introduction" (also in E23F folder)
Post-colonial:
- Aime Cesaire "What is Negritude to Me" (in folder)
- Ramchand, Ken The West Indian Novel and its
Background [1970]:
- "Introduction" (pp.3-15; also in E23F folder)
- "The Contemporary Linguistic Situation" (pp.
90-96; also in E23F folder)
- "Dialect and West Indian Fiction" (pp.
96-107; also in E23F folder)
- Achebe, Chinua
- Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays:
-
"An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart Of Darkness"
[1975] (also in E23F folder)
- "The Truth of Fiction" [1978] (also in
E23F folder)
WEEK 12: FEMINIST AND POST-COLONIAL PERSPECTIVES CONTINUED
Lec. 1: Feminist and Post-colonial Perspectives on
Authorship and Literary History
Feminist:
- Woolf, Virginia "Women and Fiction" [1929] (pp.
33-40 in Deborah Cameron, ed. The Feminist Critique of Language;
also in E23F folder)
- Showalter, Elaine "Toward a Feminist Poetics"
[1979]
(pp.1224-1233 in Adams)
Post-colonial:
- Brathwaite, Kamau
- "Timehri" [1970] (also in E23F folder)
- Roots:
- "Roots" [1963] (also in E23F folder)
- "Caribbean Critics" [1969] (also in
E23F folder)
- Irele, Abiola "The African Imagination" Research
in African Literatures 21 (1990): 49-67 (also in E23F folder)
Lec. 2: Feminist and Post-colonial Perspectives on the
Reader
Feminist:
- Wollstonecraft, Mary A Vindication of the Rights of Women
[1792] (pp. 395-399 in Adams)
- Fetterley, Judith The Resisting Reader [1978]: "Introduction: on the Politics of
Literature" (also pp. 564-573 in Warhol and Herndl,
eds. Feminisms; also in E23F folder)
Post-colonial:
- Ramchand, Ken "Concern for Criticism" Caribbean Quarterly
16 (1970): 51-60 (also in E23F folder)
- Achebe, Chinua
- Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays
"The Novelist as Teacher" [1965]
- "The Duty and Involvement of the African
Writer" [1968]
Recommended Readings:
- Tong, Rosemary Feminist Thought: a Comprehensive
Introduction: "Liberal Feminism"
- Moi, Toril "Feminist Literary Criticism"
(in Ann Jefferson and David Robey, eds. Modern Literary Theory: a Comparative
Introduction)
- Moi, Toril Sexual/Textual Politics:
- "Introduction: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Feminist Readings of
Woolf"
- "Women Writing and Writing About Women"
- Humm, Maggie Feminist Criticism: Women as
Contemporary Critics: "Virginia Woolf"
- Spaull, Sue "Gynocriticism" (in Sarah
Mills, et al., eds. Feminist Readings, Feminists Reading)
- Osterhammel, Jurgen Colonialism: a Theoretical
Overview
- Ashcroft, Bill, et al. The Empire Writes Back
- Torres-Saillant, Silvio Caribbean Poetics: Toward an Aesthetics of West
Indian Literature
Praxis:
- Moers, Ellen Literary Women
- Cornillon, Susan Koppelman, ed. Images of Women in
Fiction: Feminist Perspectives
- Fetterley, Judith The Resisting Reader