Ways of Reading: Early Modern Literature and the History of Selfhood
ENGL 201J
Spring 2012
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01
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"Ways of Reading" introduces students to the characteristics thought of as literary and the methods for studying them. This is a gateway course into the English major, and only one of the ENGL201 series may be taken for credit.
"Ways of Reading" courses develop strategies for careful and close reading, and techniques for the analysis of literary forms such as poetry, drama, and prose narratives such as novels and short stories. They familiarize students with some of the protocols of the literary-critical essay, examine the idea of literature as a social institution, and explore ways of connecting textual details and the world beyond the text. The ways of reading learned in the course are powerful tools for critically assessing discourses that expand far beyond the realm of literature. So while students will become adept literary critics, they also will learn quickly that to be a literary critic is to read critically and carefully all the time: in poems, novels, and plays; but also in political speech, in popular culture, and in the discourses that shape everyday life.
This "Ways of Reading" course will explore representations of existential interiority of Renaissance literary characters, with a particular focus on representations of gender. Much of the romantic poetry of this time expresses traditional constructions of gender behavior and discourse, often substituting a narrator's desired responses for the actual words of a silenced beloved. Francis Barker argues that Hamlet's interiority is anachronistic, predating the formation of a bourgeois subjectivity that does not come into its own until the late-17th century. Catherine Belsey asserts that the interiority identified in Shakespeare's works is imagined by modern readers attempting to forge a connection with the text. Jonathan Goldberg's position is that these gestures of interiority were essentially public. We will consider a range of Renaissance texts within the context of these thinkers as well as other modern theorists such as Foucault, Butler, Sedgwick, and Rich. Language and intention play such important roles that we will consider both Renaissance and modern theorists on language. This course will include sonnet cycles such as Sidney's Astrophil and Stella and Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus as well as plays such as The Roaring Girl and The Duchess of Malfi. We will then trace the development of these themes into the 18th century, considering the growth of the novel. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Interpretation, Writing |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENGL) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
| Instructor(s): Eggers,Will Times: .M...F. 11:00AM-12:20PM; Location: SQU113; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 0 | JR major: 2 | | |
| Seats Available: 8 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 0 | SO: 15 | FR: 2 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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