LITS2306 2008 - 2009

MODULE TWO

I am holding a revision session from 10 am to noon on Saturday December 6 in the ALT.  Please try to make it and please spread the word to your colleagues.
 

WEEK EIGHT: ANCIENT / CLASSICAL THOUGHT II: PLATO, THE SOPHISTS AND THE RHETORICAL TRADITION¹
(Week of October 20)
 

REQUIRED READINGS

• Plato The Republic [c.370 BCE]: see extracts entitled
  • "Knowledge versus Opinion" (pp. 12-19 in Cottingham)
  • "The Allegory of the Cave" (pp. 63-70 in Cottingham)

• 08 Plato Overview
• 08A Plato The Republic

• Plato:
  • The Republic [c.370BCE]: Book X (pp. 31-35 in Adams; pp. 67-80 in Leitch)
  • Phaedrus [c.370 BCE] (pp. 81-85 in Leitch)

• 08B Plato Phaedrus [TBA]

• 'Longinus' On the Sublime [1st century CE?] (pp. 76-98 in Adams; pp. 138-154 in Leitch) [please focus on chapters I, II, VII, VIII, IX (1-4), XVI, XXX, XXXIX, XL]

• 08C 'Longinus' On the Sublime

RECOMMENDED READINGS

• Janaway, Christopher.  "Ancient Greek Philosophy I: the Pre-Socratics and Plato."  Philosophy: a Guide Through the Subject.  Ed. A. C. Grayling.  Oxford: OUP, 1995.  336-397.

PHILWEB RESOURCES

• Ancient (Classical) Thought:
  • Sophists
  • Plato
  • 'Longinus'

WEEK NINE: EARLY MODERN THOUGHT II: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A 'COUNTER-MODERNITY'²
(Week of October 27)
 

REQUIRED READINGS

• Michel de Montaigne An Apology for Raymond Sebond [1575-1580]: see in particular pp. 169-190 of M. A. Screech translation

• 09A Montaigne Apology for Raymond Sebond

• Giambattista Vico The New Science [1744] (pp. 290-297 in Adams; pp. 401-415 in Leitch) [or read the following paragraphs from the original text: 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 51, 331, 342, 349, 361, 362, 363, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 374, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 383, 384, 400, 401, 402, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 431, 779]

• 09B Vico The New Science

• Johann Gottfried von Herder Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Man [1784-1891]: see selection, pp. 35-49 in Theories of History, ed. Patrick Gardiner

• 09C Herder Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Man

RECOMMENDED READINGS

PHILWEB RESOURCES

• Renaissance Thought:
  • Montaigne
• Early Modern Thought:
  • Vico
  • Herder

WEEK TEN: THE READER/CRITIC II: THE SUBJECTIVE NATURE OF CRITICISM³
(Week of November 3)
 

REQUIRED READINGS

• Walter Pater Studies in the History of the Renaissance [1873]: Preface and Conclusion (pp. 641-643 in Adams; pp. 835-840 in Leitch)
• Anatole France "The Adventures of the Soul" [1888-1893] (p. 656 in Adams)

• 10A Pater Preface and Conclusion to Studies in the History of the Renaissance
• 10B France "The Adventures of a Soul"

• Louise Rosenblatt Literature as Exploration [1938]:
  • Chapter 2 "The Literary Experience" (pp. 25-53)
  • Chapter 5 "Broadening the Framework" (pp. 110-124)

• 10C Rosenblatt Literature as Exploration [TBA]

• Kamau Brathwaite "Caribbean Critics" [1969] (pp. 111-126 in his Roots)

• 10D Brathwaite "Caribbean Critics"

RECOMMENDED READINGS

• Harris, Wendell V.  "Reader."  Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory.  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1992.  313-323.

PHILWEB RESOURCES

• Mid- to Late Nineteenth Century ('Victorian') Literature:
  • France
  • Pater
• Pragmatism:
  • Rosenblatt
• Postcolonial Theory: Caribbean Thought:
  • Brathwaite

WEEK ELEVEN: THE AUTHOR II: LITERATURE AS A FORM OF SELF-EXPRESSION⁴
(Week of November 10)
 

REQUIRED READINGS

• Friedrich Schleiermacher "Outlines of the 1819 Lectures" [sometimes called "Compendium of 1819"] [1819] (pp. 613-625 in Leitch)

• 11A Schleiermacher "Compendium of 1819"

• Walter Ong "A Dialectic of Aural and Objective Correlatives" [1958] (pp. 498-508 in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, ed. David Lodge)

• 11B Ong "A Dialectic of Aural and Objective Correlatives"

• Kamau Brathwaite "The African Presence in Caribbean Literature" [1970] (pp. 190-258 in Roots)

• 11C Brathwaite "The African Presence in Caribbean Literature"

RECOMMENDED READINGS

• Harris, Wendell V.  "Author."  Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory.  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1992.  15-20.

PHILWEB RESOURCES

• Romanticism:
  • Schleiermacher
• 20th Century Hermeneutics:
  • Ong
• Postcolonial Theory: Caribbean Thought:
  • Brathwaite

WEEK TWELVE: LITERARY HISTORY II: THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL SPECIFICITY OF LITERATURE⁵
(Week of November 17)
 

REQUIRED READINGS

• Hippolyte Taine "From History of English Literature" [1863] (pp. 609-620 in Adams)

• 12A Taine Introduction to History of English Literature

• Leo Spitzer "Linguistics and Literary History" [1948] (pp. 207-238 in Twentieth Century Literary Theory: an Introductory Anthology, ed. Vassilis Lambropoulos and David Neal Miller)⁶

• 12B Spitzer "Linguistics and Literary History"

• Kamau Brathwaite "History of the Voice" [1979] (pp. 259-304 in his Roots; or see extract entitled "Nation Language," pp. 309-313 in Ashcroft, et al.)

• 12C Brathwaite "History of the Voice"

RECOMMENDED READINGS

• Harris, Wendell V.  "Historicism."  Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory.  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1992.  143-152.
• Harris, Wendell V.  "Literary History."  Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory.  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1992.  185-193.

PHILWEB RESOURCES

• Mid- to Late Nineteenth Century ('Victorian') Literature:
  • Taine
• Twentieth Century Hermeneutics and Historicism:
  • Spitzer
• Postcolonial Theory: Caribbean Thought:
  • Brathwaite

WEEK THIRTEEN: REPRESENTATION II: LITERATURE AND THE 'DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION' OF REALITY⁷
(Week of November 24)
 

REQUIRED READINGS

• Henry James "The Art of Fiction" [1884] (pp. 855-869 in Leitch)

• 13A James "The Art of Fiction"

• Wayne Booth The Rhetoric of Fiction [1961]:
  • "General Rules I: 'True Novels Must Be Realistic'" (pp. 23-64)
  • "General Rules II: ‘All Authors Should be Objective’" (pp. 67-86)
  • "Types of Narration" (pp. 149-165)

• 13B Booth The Rhetoric of Fiction [TBA]

• Chinua Achebe "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart Of Darkness" [1975] (pp. 1783-1794 in Leitch)

• 13C Achebe "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"

RECOMMENDED READINGS

• Harris, Wendell V.  "Mimesis."  Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory.  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1992.  233-237.
• Harris, Wendell V.  "Realism."  Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory.  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1992.  323-330.

PHILWEB RESOURCES

• Mid- to Late Nineteenth Century ('Victorian') Literature:
  • James
• Pragmatism:
  • Booth
• African Literary Theory:
  • Achebe

FOOTNOTES
 

1. Please browse lecture handouts 08A and 08B however you don't need to print and bring them to class.  I will bring a summary of Plato to the lectures.  Please bring 08C to your tutorial this week, though.

2. I would like you to merely browse the required readings for the lectures this week.  It's a lot to take in but our goal is not to understand the precise arguments of any/all these thinkers in any great detail.  Rather, the objective is to use these thinkers to gather a sense of some key terms of importance to the readings of the weeks that follow: Hermeneutics, Historicism, Philology, Poeticism, Relativism, Rhetoric, and Skepticism.

3. Our focus this week is on the Reader: criticism for these theorists is a necessarily subjective exercise in the course of which the reader imposes his subjective point of view on the text.  For this reason, try as we might, objectivity is not possible.  (You should compare the views expressed by these theorists here with those of Arnold, Richards and Ramchand in Module One.)

4. Our focus this week is on the Author: literature for these theorists is a form of self-expression and the goal of criticism is to grasp the thinking of the man or woman responsible for the text.  (You should compare the views expressed by these theorists here with those of Eliot, Frye and Walcott in Module One.)

5. Our focus this week is on Literary History: literature for these theorists is dynamic, rather than static (i.e. it is subject to historical change), and socially and culturally variable (i.e. it differs from place to place, society to society, culture to culture, etc.), and the goal criticism is to identify those factors which make literature historically and culturally specific (i.e. peculiar to a particular place and time).  (You should compare the views expressed by these theorists here with those of Eliot, Frye and Walcott in Module One.)

6. Please note that I have had to substitute the reading by Spitzer for the one by Vossler originally on the schedule because the latter is not easily available. 

7. Our focus this week is on Representation: literature (especially prose fiction) for these theorists does not merely and passively reflect reality; rather, the author uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to verbally construct a necessarily subjective interpretation of reality (this is sometimes called the 'discursive construction' of reality).  (You should compare the views expressed by these theorists here with those of Zola, Watt and Ramchand in Module One).

Also, note that I have added links to PDFs of the remaining Required Readings.  All these should now be accessible online.