Narrative Theory
ENGL 303
Fall 2020
| Section:
01
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| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
Narrative, one great critic suggests, may be the central function of the human mind. It is, as another once wrote, "simply there, like life itself." As these claims indicate, narrative gives form to our collective experience: from the shadow of history and the shape of the future to the very texture and meaning of time itself. This course provides an introduction to the tradition of narrative theory--the theory of how stories work and of how we make them work--through a sustained engagement with three core narrative-theoretical concepts: structure, text, and time. A single book will anchor and orient each of the course's units: for structure, Vladimir Propp's MORPHOLOGY OF THE FOLKTALE; for text, Roland Barthes's S/Z; for time, Gérard Genette's NARRATIVE DISCOURSE. Herman Melville's novella BENITO CERENO will supply our "control text," a narrative to which we will return as we study the theory and through which we will test the powers and the limits, both analytical and historical, of our theorists. In each of our units, we will begin with a careful reading of our main theorist, move on to consider work that elaborates on the theory, and then turn to robust approaches--Marxist, historicist, queer, psychoanalytic, sociological--that challenge or modify the theoretical terms with which we started. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
"Vladimir Propp, MORPHOLOGY OF THE FOLKTALE (U of Texas P)
Aristotle, POETICS (Penguin)
M.M. Bakhtin, THE DIALOGIC IMAGINATION (U of Texas P)
Roland Barthes, S/Z (Hill and Wang)
D.A. Miller, BRINGING OUT ROLAND BARTHES (U of California P)
Gérard Genette, NARRATIVE DISCOURSE (Cornell UP)
Herman Melville, BILLY BUDD AND OTHER STORIES (Penguin)
Kent Puckett, NARRATIVE THEORY: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION (Cambridge UP) Optional: Matthew Garrett, ed., THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO NARRATIVE THEORY (Cambridge UP)
Shorter pieces by a number of critics and theorists, including Greg Grandin, E.M. Forster, Hannah Freed-Thall, Viktor Shklovsky, Tzvetan Todorov, Bertolt Brecht, John Frow, David Kurnick, Georg Lukács, Alex Woloch, Margaret Cohen, Peter Brooks, Susan Lanser, Yoon Sun Lee, Valerie Rohy, Judith Roof, Amy Tang, and David Wittenberg."
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Examinations and Assignments:
Two essays (5-7pp. and 12-15pp.), four reading-response exercises (3pp.), and weekly reading memos. One in-class presentation on a concept from the reading. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course fulfills the Theory requirement and contributes to the Theory & Literary Forms concentration of the English major. |
| Instructor(s): Garrett,Matthew Carl Times: .M..... 01:00PM-03:50PM; Location: ONLINE; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 6 | JR major: 6 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 1 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 0 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 2 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 2 |
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