Section 7, Fall 2005
Reading Literature: Interpretation
"Everybody's a critic," goes the saying; but it's not so. Most people either know what they think before they encounter a new poem or a new painting, so that the actual experience of reading or seeing it changes nothing, or they don't know what they think before they encounter a new work of art and they don't know afterward either. A good critic is someone who doesn't know what he or she thinks before the experience but who has an idea about it afterward, and is able to explain that idea to someone else. Going in with an open mind is as difficult as coming out with a formed opinion; neither is as difficult as expressing the whole experience in clear and compelling language. People who can do this successfully, over and over, occasion after occasion, are as rare as people who can create poems or paintings worth explaining in the first place.
--Louis Menand
To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any other exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object.
--Henry David Thoreau
Required texts:
Schedule
Week 1
Tuesday, 8/30: course introduction, discussion of syllabus; what is interpretation?
Thursday, 9/1: "Reading a Poem" and "Listening to a Voice" (chapters 1 & 2 in Kennedy); attention to "My Last Duchess," "The Red Wheelbarrow" (read note on page 52), "Rites of Passage, and "The Chimney Sweeper" in class discussion.
Week 2
Tuesday, 9/6: "Words," "Imagery," "Figures of Speech," and "Sound" (chapters 3, 5, 6, & 8 in Kennedy); attention to "Batter my heart," "Root Cellar," "The Fish," "Leda and the Swan," and "Mock Orange" in class discussion
Wednesday, 9/7: last day to sign up for presentation group
Thursday, 9/8: "Rhythm" and "Closed Form" (chapters 9 & 10 in Kennedy); attention to "We Real Cool," "Do not go gentle into that good night," and "Sestina" in class discussion
Week 3
Tuesday, 9/13: "Open Form," "Symbol," and "Recognizing Excellence" (chapters 11,12 & 17 in Kennedy); attention to "Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird," "The Colonel," "The Road not Taken," "Most Like an Arch This Marriage," "Thoughts on Capital Punishment," and "Traveling through the dark" in class. Also discussion of first paper assignment (explication of a poem chosen from a list distributed in class; I recommend that you take some time to read over the section entitled "Writing" in Kennedy, particularly "Writing about literature" [pp. 605-15] and "Writing about a poem" [pp. 616-35, especially "Explicating," pp. 617-22]).
Thursday, 9/15: in-class quiz on scansion and poetic terminology
Week 4
Tuesday, 9/20: Housekeeping, chapters 1-4
Thursday 9/22: Housekeeping, chapters 5-7
Friday, 9/23: first paper due
Week 5
Tuesday, 9/27: Housekeeping, chapter 8-conclusion
Thursday, 9/29: The Taming of the Shrew (entire play): first group presentation and discussion
Week 6
Thursday, 10/4: The Taming of the Shrew (discussion continues); second paper topics distributed
Thursday, 10/6: As I Lay Dying, pp. 3-67 (group one presentation summaries due)
Week 7
Tuesday, 10/11: As I Lay Dying, pp. 68-261
Thursday, 10/13: Douglass, Narrative, pp. 33-87 (preface to end of chapter VII)
Week 8
Tuesday, 10/18: no class
Thursday, 10/20: Douglass, Narrative, pp. 89-159 (chapter VIII to end of Appendix)
Friday, 10/21: second paper due
Week 9
Tuesday, 10/25: Angels in America, part one: Millenium Approaches: second group presentation and discussion
Thursday, 10/27: Angels in America (discussion continues); third paper topics distributed
Week 10
Tuesday, 11/1: Angels in America, part two: Perestroika (group two presentation summaries due)
Thursday, 11/3: Angels in America (discussion continues)
Week 11
Tuesday, 11/8: Frankenstein: third group presentation and discussion
Thursday, 11/10: Frankenstein (discussion continues)
Week 12
Tuesday, 11/15: introduction to "Critical Approaches to Literature" in Kennedy (pp. 658-59); "Formalist criticism" (pp. 659-63) and "Sociological criticism" (pp. 675-78); re-read "My Last Duchess" for discussion of the use of these theories in analyzing the poem; final paper topics distributed (group three presentation summaries due)
Thursday, 11/17: "Biographical criticism" (pp. 663-66); "Gender criticism" (pp. 678-80); re-read "Sestina" for discussion of these theories in analyzing the poem
Friday 11/18: third paper due
Week 13
Tuesday, 11/22: "Historical criticism" (pp. 666-70); "Cultural studies" (pp. 687-92); re-read "The Chimney Sweeper" for discussion of these theories in analyzing the poem
Week 14
Tuesday, 11/29: screening: Modern Times
Thursday, 12/1: Modern Times: fourth group presentation and discussion
Week 15
Tuesday, 12/6: Modern Times (discussion continues)
Thursday, 12/8: last thoughts (group four presentation summaries due)
Friday, 12/9: final paper due
How your final grade is determined:
- Paper 1: 10% of final grade
- Paper 2: 10% of final grade
- Paper 3: 15% of final grade
- Paper 4: 20% of final grade
- Group presentation: 20% of final grade
- In-class quiz: 10% of final grade
- Class participation: 15% of final grade
