English 482: Studies in Literary Criticism

The Philosophy of Literary Criticism

I know this doesn’t look like an actual syllabus, but consider it our course plan. We are going to start the semester by reading two very large books—large in size, and large in ideas. We are going to read them relatively slowly, because I want you to focus on the quality of our engagement with the ideas, rather than simply racking up pages read.

The two books that we are going to read take as their subject the evolution of modern identity (Sources of the Self: The Making of Modern Identity, by Charles Taylor), and a challenge to that idea of identity through a theory of embodiment (Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson). The purpose for focusing on these two books is so that we may engage questions of literary criticism regarding subjectivity, history, and textuality through a broader context of thinking about what conditions our knowledge of what it means to be human in the first place.

For our calendar of assigned readings, we will follow the books’ patterns, and read one “Part” per week, starting with Taylor, Part I, to be read by the second class period on January 21.  (The first class period will serve for introductions of ourselves, our goals, our histories, and our subject.) That will take us through the first 10 weeks of class. As we approach the conclusion of the readings, we will decide together what direction we want to take from there.

You will, of course, be expected to develop and complete a culminating seminar paper. Additionally, I ask that you keep a “daybook.” Using a hardbound composition notebook, you are to keep a record of your reading and thinking as you move through the semester. The best way for a daybook to function is for you NOT to use it only for this class, but rather to carry it with you wherever you go and include all of your notes, thoughts, musings, associations, mementos, lists, questions, pictures, etc. in it. The reason for the jumble approach is that knowledge and learning work their way through the multiple facets of our lives, and by not attempting to compartmentalize everything into separate spheres, we maximize our chances for developing connections and fruitful juxtapositions among seemingly disparate ideas. Thus, the daybook at its best is an integrative space that can be organized and catalogued after the fact through the use of a table of contents and stickie notes. However, you may choose to use this as a dedicated space for your notes for this class if you wish.

For the purposes of our class, I want you to use your daybook to

• 1) understand Taylor’s argument on your own terms, which may entail making associations, paraphrasing, coming up with your own examples of what he is talking about,
• 2) question, which involves imagining contexts wherein Taylor’s arguments may be stretched to their limits, or rubbing Taylor’s ideas up against other theories that you know of
• 3) argue, which involves coming with counterexamples or alternate theories
• 4) extend, which involves taking Taylor’s arguments into your own concerns and issues, working out your understanding of a text or a phenomenon in accordance with what you are reading.

Mid-semester and again at the end of the semester, I will ask you to assemble and turn in a daybook portfolio as follows:

Throughout the semester, you have been asked to write both in class and out of class and to collect that writing in your daybook. You should now collect that work in this folder by selecting and photocopying entries from your daybook. You will copy two entries that demonstrate who you have been this semester as two of the following:

• A questioner
• A creative thinker
• An analytic thinker

In order to reflect on the entries you copy, on a sticky note explain how the entry demonstrates the qualities. For instance, you might choose two entries that demonstrate moments of writing when you were a questioner. Copy these entries, put them in your folder, and write a brief explanation on a sticky note of how this illustrates you as a questioner. Repeat the process for another quality. This equals four entries total with four sticky note explanations, one on each entry.

You will also:

• Look back through your daybook and copy two moments of learning that stand out for you. Describe each moment on a sticky note attached to a copy of the entry.
• Copy one entry where you have written something that you especially liked. Explain why you liked it on a sticky note.

Overall, your folder will have seven daybook entries with one sticky note explanation attached to each entry.