Instructions: Each student will write a one-page summary for ten of the twenty-odd essays we read (20%, 2% for each summary; You will write your summaries as you read the essays, and post them at the end of the quarter for me to check and grade. They are the things you can walk out of the classroom with at the end of the quarter, and they are yours to use for the rest of your college career and beyond.
From the syllabus below, choose 10 essays to write a one-page summary of. The first summary should be from “The Art of Poetry” by Horace, but you may choose which summaries of the essays to do for the other 9. (as there are around 20 to choose from)
Please label each summary with the essay title and author followed by the summary number in parentheses. ((An example is (summary four) as an example))
Here is a link to the class textbook: https://vdoc.pub/documents/the-critical-tradition-classic-texts-and-contemporary-trends-3rd-ed-2hkgfode9ae0
Syllabus below: (the essay titles to choose from are scattered throughout)
21 R (8) Discussion. Homework for the next meeting: Read Horace’s “The Art of Poetry”; Uggla-Gordon, question on lines 1-230; , Whetzel lines 231-444; Sikich, lines 445 to the end. Read Longinus “From On the Sublime. Taylor, sections 1 through 8; , Flint-Blanchard sections, 9-14, and 44. Everybody, please write a one-page summary of Poetics based on the multi-page, paragraph by paragraph summary that I post under the
“Announcement.” It’s hard but extremely important to learn how and what to cut. Now that you know how to summarize, feel free to work on the essays of your own choice. This is summary 1; you have 9 more to go.
26 T (9) Discussion. In-class writing project 1: Brain-storming for ideas that will help you write a critical essay on Heart of Darkness from the perspective of Plato’s idealistic approach to literature. In-class project 2: Brain-storming for ideas that will help you write a critical essay from Aristotle’s formalistic approach to literature. In-class writing project 3: Based on your brain-storming notes, write a working outline for that formalist essay on Heart of Darkness. Homework for the next meeting: read Shelley’s A Defence of Poetry, Check (round 3), Dietrich, Eckhardt questions; Read Keats’ two letters (I’ ll send them to you via email), Hall Letter 1; Hansen, Letter 2.
28 R (10) Discussion. In-class writing project: What Romantic theories can do to help us write a critical essay about Heart of Darkness?
Homework for the next meeting: read “Introduction to Formalism”; Hood, question on Russian Formalism; Mavers, New Criticism; Mayfield, Neo-Aristotelianism; and read Shklovsky’s “Art as Technique”; Oliver question; Read “Introduction” to T.S. Eliot and Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent“; Paine question. Instructor’s questions: 1 What’s the difference between New Criticism and Neo-Aristotelianism? 2 What is defamiliarization? How do we “defamiliarize”? 3 What, if anything, has Heart of Darkness “defamiliarized” for us? 4 what is the relationship between tradition and our individuality? 5 According to Eliot, how do we become truly creative and unique? 6 Use an example from Heart of Darkness and explain Eliot’s concept of an “objective correlative”; 7 Use an example from Heart of Darkness to explain Eliot’s concept of “dissociation of sensibility”. 8 How does a writer in English language bring his/her individual talent to its full strength?
May
3 T (11) Discussion. Homework for the next meeting: 1. Keep thinking of the questions we asked but didn’t get to discuss. 2. Read Cleanth Brooks’ “Irony as a Principle of Structure”; Prange, Rappaport, Rodriguez, Roszko, Seaholm questions (Make sure that you questions are somehow related to some aspects of Heart of Darkness). Instructor’s questions: 1. What exactly is irony? 2. What’s ironic in Heart of Darkness? 3. Who is the narrator of Heart of Darkness?
5 R (12) In-class viewing: Apocalypse Now. Please take notes while viewing. Sikich, Taylor, Uggla-Gordon, Whetzel, Flint-Blanchard prepare questions.
10 T (13) Discussions: 1 “Irony as a Principle of Structure.” 2 Apocalypse Now. Homework for the next meeting: 1. Read Wayne Booth’s “Control of Distance in Jane Austen’s Emma” (p. 570); Check (round 4) , Dietrich, Eckhardt questions; 2. Read Wimsatt and Beardsley “The Intentional Fallacy”; Hall, Hansen questions. Instructor’s questions: 1. Is there any mechanism of distance control in Heart of Darkness? 2. What is the overall structure of the novella? 3. What is “intentional fallacy”? 4. If Austen can control the reader’s sense of distancing, if Conrad can guide his readers through the core of the dark jungle, can’t we say that the intention of the author is important?
12 R (14) Discussion. Write an outline for a critical paper that uses the formalist approach to analyze Heart of Darkness. Homework for the next meeting: Write an introductory paragraph, using the formalist approach. This is a practical review of formalism.
17 T (15) Discussion of the final essay. Homework for the next meeting: 1. Read Fish’s “How to Recognize a Poem When You See One”; Hood, Mavers, Mayfield, Prange, Rappaport (round 4); Read Jauss, “The Three Horizons of Reading”, Oliver, Paine, Rodriguez, Roszko questions. Everybody else: brainstorming notes for the final paper. (Possible topics: 1 “The Tragic[Aristotle] Irony[formalism] in HofD; 2 “Framed Narrative [formalism] and Conrad’s Control of Distance [reader-response]; 3 “The Dark [ironic, formalism] Sublime [Longinus] in HofD. I strongly support you for coming up with your own subjects/titles/ideas).
19 R (16) Discussion. Work on the brainstorming notes towards a tentative outline. Homework for the next meeting: 1. Read Iser, “The Reading Process”, Seaholm, Sikich, Talor, Uggla-Gordon, Whetzel, Flint-Blanchard questions. Read Zunshine, “Theory of Mind” ,
Check (round 5) , Dietrich, Eckhardt, Hall, Hansen, Hood questions.
24 T (17) Discussion. Homework for the next meeting: 1. Read Freud, “Creative Writers and Daydreaming”, Mavers, Mayfield, Oliver, Paine, Prange; 2. Read “The ‘Uncanny’” (I’ll scan and email it to you); Rappaport, Rodriguez, Roszko, Seaholm questions.
26 R (18) Discussion. Homework for the next meeting: 1. Read Jung, “The Principal Archetypes”; Sikich, Taylor, . 2. Reead Lacan, “The Mirror State”; Uggla-Gordon, Whetzel questions. “The Meaning of the Phallus”; Flint-Blanchard question.
31 T (19) Discussion. Homework for the next meeting: Second brain-storming, possible topics: 1 “The Phallic Symbol[psychoanalytical] and the Framed Narrative [formalism]”; 2 “The Irony
[formalism] of the Alter Ego [psychoanalytical]” Write a full outline for your essay.