Upcoming Exam
Hi all you 700.1 people. Daniela, Katherine and I were talking about getting some study group thing going, to prepare for the Comprehensive Exam on Nov. 11. If you are interested leave a comment here. There was some talk of Sunday evenings, but maybe we should see who's interested....
Robert Damon

Identifications

You can use this space to ask questions or work collaboratively on identifications for the comps.

Literary Works to Prepare for the Comps

Here is a space to suggest and discuss works you might want to prepare for the comps. My advice is to prepare five or six short works from different periods that lend themselves to a wide variety of critical approaches. Obviously, you've already got Heart of Darkness, "The Yellow Wallpaper", and The Second Shepherds' Pagenat of Wakefield. Some of the things that were mentioned at the end of class today appear below.

If I'm missing anything here and you want to make suggestions, please use the comment space to add things.

- Hamlet by Shakespeare (Renaissance) - Marxism, Psychoanalysis, New Historicism, Cultural Materialism, Liberal Humanism, Deconstruction

- "The Body Electric" and "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman (19th C American) - Psychoanalysis, Liberal Humanism, Queer Theory

- Poems by Emily Dickinson (19th C American) - Psychoanalysis, Feminism

- Frankenstein (early 19th C British [Romantic/Gothic]) - Queer Theory, Psychoanalysis, Deconstruction

- Virginia Woolf, James Joyce (Ulysses or the short stories in Dubliners), Gertrude Stein, Joseph Conrad (basically, any early 20th C modernist fiction writer) - Narratology, Psychoanalysis, Marxism, Postcolonialism, Deconstruction, Structuralism, Liberal Humanism

- A Small Place (1988) by Jamaica Kincaid - Postcolonialism, Marxism, Narratology

- Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) by Stephen Crane - Realism/Naturalism, Narratology, Deconstruction, Marxism, New Historicism

- "A Room of One's Own" (1929) by Virginia Woolf - Feminism, Marxism

- The Lover (1984) by Marguerite Duras - Narratology, Psychoanalysis, Feminism

Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, Deconstruction

Optional blog assignment:

Did reading about postmodernism, poststructuralism, and deconstruction later in the game help to clarify some of the other theories that incorporate them, such as postcolonial or feminist criticism, or Lacanian psychoanalysis? Did it make them more confusing?

Structuralism and Narratology

These two fields are closely related. In fact, narratology is generally considered to be a branch—a highly developed branch—of structuralism.

Optional Blog Question:

What parallels or patterns in the plot, characterization, or other aspects of Heart of Darkness would seem most important to a structuralist or narratologist? How would you integrate a structural/narratological analysis with another school of criticism such as postcolonialism, feminism, or queer theory (or others) in order to make a critique of the novel?

Final Take-Home Exam

I. PART ONE tests your knowledge of literary terms, critical and theoretical approaches, and historical concepts. Choose three of the following fifteen terms, and write a single, well-developed paragraph on each one.

NOTE: The list of terms will be chosen from the current edition of A Glossary of Literary Terms by M. H. Abrams (Harcourt, Brace College Publishers).

Allegory
Poststructuralism
Queer Theory
Prosody
Transcendentalism
Restoration
Sonnet
Tragedy
Feminist Criticism
Neoclassic
Modernism
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Irony
New Historicism
Romantic

II. PART TWO asks you to write two well-developed essays. The first essay focuses on issues of theory and criticism discussed in our class. The second essay should reflect as much as possible what you have learned about various periods, topics, terms, and critical methods. Within your answers, DO NOT write two separate mini-essays on two separate periods or works. Each of your answers should be a unified essay.


Essay 1 (2-3 pages) – Answer one question below.

A. Discuss the role of deconstruction in at least two different schools of criticism.

B. Discuss the ways in which changing the canon is important to at least two different schools of criticism.

C. Discuss political commitment in relation to critical method in at least two different schools of literary criticism.

D. What is the importance of exposing the unconscious of the text in at least two different schools of literary criticism?


Essay 2 (5-6 pages) – Answer one question below, using quotations as evidence.

A. In a chapter on Conrad, F.R. Leavis says the following: “Borrowing a phrase from Mr. Eliot’s critical writings, one might say that Heart of Darkness achieves its overpowering evocation of atmosphere by means of ‘objective correlatives’. The details and circumstances of the voyage to and up the Congo are present to us as if we were making the journey ourselves and (chosen for the record as they are by a controlling imaginative purpose) they carry specificities of emotion and suggestion with them.”

Discuss the role of objective correlatives and controlling imaginative purpose in three literary works from different periods.

B. Chinua Achebe asks in his famous lecture on Heart of Darkness “whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art.” Edward Said, on the other hand, states that “Conrad’s self-consciously circular narrative forms draw attention to themselves as artificial constructions, encouraging us to sense the potential of a reality that seemed inaccessible to imperialism, just beyond its control, and that only well after Conrad’s death in 1924 acquired a substantial presence.”

Discuss the role of formal techniques that seem to belie “ugly” or controversial content in at least two literary works from different periods.

C. It has been suggested that there is such a thing as a feminine writing style endemic to women, characterized as a subversive interruption of the predominantly male tradition seen as “rational,” systematic, orderly, balanced. Where in literary history do you see this feminine style being practiced, and what are the ramifications of labeling it “feminine”? Discuss at least two works from different periods. They can be literary or critical, and from male or female authors.

D. An assumption may be made that the narrator of a work of fiction differs from the actual living author who wrote the work. The narrator may be an "implied author," interested in and knowledgeable about the characters and events he or she reports on but not directly involved with them; or, at the other extreme, the narrator may be a character in the story with a definite purpose in telling the story as he or she wants to tell it. The narrator may, in short, express a wide range of relationships to the narrative.

Discuss the effect of narrative point of view on overall style, characterization, and theme, using as examples three works of fiction that differ from one another in their narrative point of view, indicating the kind(s) of narrator(s) used in each work.

E. In his "deconstruction" of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, J. Hillis Miller discusses the "denial of the possibility of making the reader see by means of literature...Heart of Darkness," Miller asserts, "is posited on the impossibility of achieving its goal of revelation...."
Can this notion of a "revelation of the impossibility of revelation" be applied to any other major work you have read? Good examples to explore might be key scenes which, at least on the surface, appear to be "revelations" or "epiphanies" in, say, Hamlet, Wuthering Heights, or Joyce’s "The Dead."

Gender Studies, Feminism, Queer Theory

This group of readings, though diverse, centers on issues of gender as a social construct. As in new historicism and postcolonial criticism, gender studies tend to focus on the ways ideology and discourse have oppressed the Other, in this case the gendered Other, whatever form that might take. In class on Monday we'll discuss the assigned articles about Heart of Darkness. But it's important, too, that we at least read and discuss a text written by a woman. "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, can be found in numerous literary anthologies, including the Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. 2 (PS507 .N65 1989), and the Norton Anthology of Literature by Women (PS508.W7 G54 1985), both availabe in the Brooklyn College Library. You may also read it online or download a printable version by clicking here.

Fifth Blog Assignment:

Which brand of feminism, or which feminist critical techniques, seem most appropriate to you for constructing an interpretation of "The Yellow Wallpaper"? Also, do any aspects of queer theory lend themselves as well? Why or why not?

Postcolonial Criticism

As Barry explains, postcolonial criticism concerns itself with exposing the ways in which Western culture has (mis-)represented non-European cultures in the name of universal human values. To do this, it makes abundant use of poststructuralist notions of a non-essential, contingent self and the inability—or at least near inability—of subjectivity to break free of the "official" discourse of the dominent ideology.

Fourth Blog Assignment:

The articles by Chinua Achebe and Edward Said present two (actually, three) very different readings of Heart of Darkness. In "An Image of Africa," Achebe accuses Conrad of representing Africa and Africans in such a way that shows the desire and need "in Western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe's own state of spiritual grace will be manifest" (Armstrong 337). One major point of his argument is that Conrad, though recognizing Europeans' kinship with Africans, ultimately falls into complicity with the prevailing notion of their inhumanity by not presenting an alternative framework for understanding them. This has the effect of purveying prejudices that enable the infliction of great suffering from one "section of humanity" on another.

Said, in "Two Visions in Heart of Darkness," actually seems to celebrate the manner in which the self-conscious and circular narrative form of the novella keeps "drawing attention to how ideas and values are constructed (and deconstructed) through dislocations in the narrator's language" (Armstrong 427). He sees Conrad as being somewhat ahead of his time, and writing in such a way that increased the possibility of awareness of alternative, and therefore resistent, thought.

With whom do you most agree, and why? What faults (if any) do you find in the arguments of either side? Is the Armstrong article any help in mitigating between Achebe and Said?

Marxism

The reading for Thursday is in many ways fundamentally opposed to the psychoanalysis we discussed yesterday. Whereas psyschoanalysis believes that the particular attributes of human individuals and cultural practices (including literature) are ultimately determined by the unconscious, Marxism holds that subjectivity and the nature of literary works are ultimately determined by the economic conditions of a particular time and place. One of the main concerns of Marxism is ideology — a broad term that describes the outlook, values, ideas, tacit assumptions, religious beliefs and myths of a particular time and place. Ideology is what seems 'natural' and 'the way things are' but is ultimately a system of representations generated by economic competition. Literature is just one material component that participates in ideology, and can be more or less complicit with it. In short, Marxist criticism ties economic issues to the belief structure of the literary work.

Third blog assignment: Let's start to put together a Marxist critique of The Second Shepherds' Pageant. Given the background you learn from reading the introduction to the Pageant and the chapter on the Corpus Christi Cycle (download from the links to the right), identify (a) one or two passages in the play that seem to be about economic conditions and (b) one or two that seem to be about ideology. What is the play's lesson? Are there any dramatic devices that seem significant?

All you need to do is identify some of these things, and we'll follow up in class to start piecing together a critique. Of course, any comments beyond these requirements are welcome.

Since the play and its language are difficult, it might help to begin your post with a one or two sentence summary. In addition to the chapter on the Corpus Christi Cycle, a helpful summary on the history and genre of the Second Shepherds' Pageant can be found in the Abrams entry on "Miracle Plays, Morality Plays, and Interludes".

If you prefer to work or photocopy from the book, it is Medieval Drama, edited by David Bevington, and the Brooklyn College library call number is PR1260 .M4.

Paper 1 Assignment

For Monday 31 July please write a 4-7 page paper that applies one of the critical methods we've already studied to a short literary work of your choosing, preferably a poem. The work may be from any anglophone author, period, or culture, and a photocopy (please, no more than 10 or 15 pages) should be submitted with the paper. Alternately, if the work you have chosen is available online you may include the web address. Source citation and bibliography should follow MLA format, including the appropriate conventions for digital texts if you use any.

When writing your paper, you should consider the basic practices of the method you've chosen, such as whether it uses external or only internal evidence, whether it tends to build toward one or two main issues (i.e. complicity with ideology or the demonstration of the protagonist's unconscious desires), and so on. The "What ________ critics do" sections of Barry are useful for this. It is also advisable to summarize briefly the method you are applying so that the principles of your analysis are clear (you should do that in the exam). Be sure to avail yourself of the definitions provided in Abrams and feel free to look at the Further or Optional readings for primary theoretical material. I can make further suggestions for you if you'd like some.

You can, if you wish, use more than one theory to critique your chosen work, but you are only required to use one. Research, too, is not necessary, so if there's a particular issue you want to address in detail and would like to bring in scholarly articles, please use only one or two.

In the spirit of community I invite you to post questions or ideas for the paper as you are working on it. Of course, you can email me privately or go to my office hours to ask any questions, request reading recommendations, or discuss drafts.

Psychoanalysis

Thanks everyone for the enjoyable discussion yesterday. For anyone interested in exploring liberal humanism a little further, I've posted to the right a link to T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men," which was inspired in part by Heart of Darkness, and a couple of other essays.

For Monday we're reading about psychoanalytic criticism and finishing Heart of Darkness. If you have time, please read the two selections from Freud I've posted in the Links section, as they will help to clarify some of his thinking about creative writing that influenced literary critics.

Here is your second blog assignment:
From the chapter in Barry, what do you make of the uses of evidence and internal argument structure in psychoanalytic criticism (both Freudian and Lacanian)? Do you find Guerard's reading of Heart of Darkness convincing? How does it match with your own experience of the novella?

Feel free to invoke any of the optional readings or to bring in other literary works if you like.