Leroy F Searle
C LIT 500
An investigation into the nature of literature in contrast to other forms of writing and into essential features of literature such as genres, imagery, modes of communication, and structure.
This seminar will examine the dynamic relation between the literary text and questions that have been treated, in multiple ways, as questions of theory. The materials for the course are drawn from literature originally written in several languages, from literary theory and criticism, from philosophy, with selected sequences of photographs. The central concern is the function of literary and imaginative work, in examples where the literary text raises in its own terms problems of theory that are frequently treated very differently when addressed as part of a theoretical method or approach. Graduate Students only.
Texts: Concerning the "object" of contemporary literary study: Gayatri Spivak: The Death of a Discipline and "Teaching for the Times" Haun Saussy: Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization Concerning the social and intellectual function of the literary: Immanuel Kant: Critique of the Power of Judgment Selections from Hippolyte Taine, History of English Literature Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas Concerning Imaginative thinking: William Blake: The Visions of the Daughters of Albion Henry James: Portrait of a Lady Robert Musil: The Man without Qualities (part I). Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart Selected Chinese poetry, from the Tang and Sung dynasties, Rainer Maria Rilke, and William Carlos Williams. There will also be an on-line reserve list of critical and scholarly materials.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Class assignments and grading