AJ04001 Introduction to Literary Studies I

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2010
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Pavel Drábek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Lucie Seibertová, Ph.D. (assistant)
Guaranteed by
Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Timetable
Mon 8:20–9:55 zruseno D22
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This lecture series provides an introduction to some of the most significant approaches to the study of literature. Focusing especially on British and American authors, the lectures aim to broaden the students’ awareness of diverse ways of analyzing literary texts. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on developing critical thinking and academic writing skills and on gaining a deeper understanding of how literature affects us and enriches our perception of the world.
Syllabus
  • Case Studies:
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600)
  • Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener (1853)
  • Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1902)
  • General Reading:
  • René Wellek and Austin Warren, A Theory of Literature (1948)
  • Week 1 Sept 27
  • Introductory Lecture
  • The Purpose of Literature and the Purpose of Literary Studies
  • Additional reading: M. H. Abrams’s Introduction to his The Mirror and the Lamp (1953)
  • Block I: Close Encounters with the Text
  • Week 2 Oct 4
  • Reading Poetry I (texts of poems will be provided)
  • Additional Reading: Frances Stillman, “The Poet’s Manual” from The Poet’s Manual and Rhyming Dictionary (1966)
  • Week 3 Oct 11
  • Reading Poetry II (texts of poems will be provided)
  • Additional Reading: Critical Inquiry, special issue on metaphor (Vol. 5, No. 1, Autumn, 1978)
  • Week 4 Oct 18
  • Reading Character and Reading Plot in Prose Fiction
  • Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener
  • Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
  • Week 5 Oct 25
  • Reading Theme in Prose Fiction
  • Additional material: see Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979)
  • Week 6 Nov 1
  • Reading and Understanding Drama (Pavel Drábek)
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet
  • Additional reading: Ronald Hayman, How to Read a Play (1999)
  • Block II: The Literary Essay, and what it has to say about literature and thinking
  • Week 7 Nov 8
  • Writing about Poetry
  • Case study: Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover
  • a selected essay or two on the poem
  • Week 8 Nov 15
  • Writing about Literary Phenomena
  • Case study: a selection of poems
  • One of the articles on metaphor from Critical Inquiry (Vol. 5, No. 1, Autumn, 1978)
  • Week 9 Nov 22
  • Writing about Narratives
  • Case study: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
  • Terence Bowers, “Conrad’s Aeneid: Heart of Darkness and the Classical Epic” (2006)
  • Kimberly J. Devlin, “The Scopic Drive and Visual Projection in Heart of Darkness” (2006)
  • Week 10 Nov 29
  • Writing about Drama
  • Case study: William Shakespeare, Hamlet
  • Maynard Mack, “The World of Hamlet” (1952)
  • and another essay
  • Block III: Literary Criticism, Language, Aesthetics, Philosophy and Ideology: “interdisciplinary” links
  • Week 11 Dec 6
  • Literature and Language
  • Richard Bradford, Stylistics (1997)
  • Roman Jakobson, an essay on poetic function
  • Week 12 Dec 13
  • Literature and Culture
  • a chapter from Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978)
  • and a chapter from Raymond Williams’s The Country and the City (1975)
Literature
    required literature
  • Barnet, Sylvan, et al. A short Guide to Writing About Literature
    not specified
  • MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, ýth Edition
  • Case Study 1 (a book-length literary text)
  • Case Study 2 (a book-length literary text)
Teaching methods
This lecture series provides an introduction to some of the most significant approaches to the study of literature. Focusing especially on British and American authors, the lectures aim to broaden the students’ awareness of diverse ways of analyzing literary texts. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on developing critical thinking and academic writing skills and on gaining a deeper understanding of how literature affects us and enriches our perception of the world. The lectures are 90 minutes a week.
Assessment methods
Assessment: Students will write a final exam consisting of two comprehensive short-essay questions. To prepare for the exam, students are required to respond to one of the sample questions suggested at the end of each lecture (see the echo-assignment in elf) and to take a mid-term mock-quiz and an end-of-term mock-quiz.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Teacher's information
http://www.phil.muni.cz/elf/course/category.php?id=4
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 1999, Autumn 2000, Autumn 2001, Autumn 2002, Autumn 2003, Autumn 2004, Autumn 2005, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2007, Autumn 2008, Autumn 2009, Autumn 2011, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2016, Autumn 2017, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2010, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2010/AJ04001