Fall 2008
COLT 100 Contemporary Literary Criticism and Theory
What is Theory?
Professor Michelle Warren – 12 hour (subject to change)
Since the beginnings of the 20th Century, critical theory has slowly transformed the study of literature. This course examines some of the major texts in the field, including the roots of contemporary critical practices in philosophy, linguistics, and semiotics, as well as some of the latest, “cutting edge” applications of theory to all kinds of cultural “objects”: texts, films, clothes, bodies, genders, identities, buildings, cities, nations, etc. Works by Saussure, Jakobson, Foucault, Lacan, Benjamin, Derrida, Hegel, Butler, and others. Open to MA candidates only.
CL 102 Tutorial
Intensive work with a faculty tutor on a Comparative Literature subject
Arrange with Advisor
The tutorial offers students an opportunity to read in a focused way the texts most relevant to their winter presentation and spring essay. It is designed as an extended independent study. By the midpoint of the fall term, students will have been assigned a tutor in their area of interest. During the remainder of fall term, the tutor and student will meet informally to discuss the student’s reading, and to design an independent course of study for winter term. By the end of fall term, the student should have found a topic on which to concentrate during the remainder of the year.
During the winter term, the student and tutor are expected to meet regularly (at least once a week). In the ideal situation, the tutor would continue to serve as an advisor and primary reader for the rest of the year.
While there is no specific writing component to the tutorial, the more students write, the better. Writing might include reading notes for all the readings, short position papers for a couple of readings/issues and the like. The student will also use this opportunity to start building up a bibliography for the essay to be written in CL 103 in the spring.
The grade for CL 102, to be awarded by the tutor, will be “ongoing” in the fall term, and recorded at the end of winter term.
Winter 2009
CL 101 Topics in Literary and Cultural Theory
Modernity and Postmodernity in a Transatlantic Perspective
Klaus J. Milich – 2A
Why did postmodernity become a cultural dominant in the United States but not in Europe, and why did poststructuralism become more prominent in the American academy than in the French? Exploring the meanings of modernity, postmodernity, or the avant-garde in the works of Arnold, Huxley, Adorno, Marcuse, Trilling, Howe, Sontag, Fiedler, Derrida, Foucault, Barthes, Lyotard, Jameson, and others, we shall discuss how these and other ostensibly universal terms inflect concepts of culture on both sides of the Atlantic, and accrue specific meanings in the society in which they appear.
CL 105, Graduate Seminar in Research and Methodology
Professor Michelle Warren - Arrange
A graduate seminar led by the graduate advisor of the M.A. program designed to bring together the students work in theory [CL 72, CL 71, CL 101 add titles) with their independent research projects. The seminar will meet every two weeks over fall and winter terms to discuss the application of critical theory to the student's work-in-progress. Through oral presentations, a reading journal, and class discussion students will prepare both their Major Text Presentation and complete the outline of their work for their Publishable Paper in preparation for their spring Workshop in Critical Writing. Taken over two terms with one grade at the end of winter term.
Spring 2009
CL 103 Workshop in Critical Writing
Professor Lynn Higgins - Arrange
Critical thinking and concise, persuasive writing are prerequisites for any professional career. In fact, both go hand in hand. The Workshop in Critical Writing introduces graduate students to advanced research techniques, to the conventions of scholarly discourse, and to the various kinds of writing practiced in literary studies. We will analyze scholarly articles as examples of research methods, argument development, rhetorical technique, and stylistic presentation; we will test a variety of practical approaches to the interpretation of literary texts; and we will explore how we might use theory in critical argument. Students will be asked to prepare and submit a scholarly article using previous written work of their own (senior thesis, independent study project) as a basis. The workshop format of the course will permit students to read and critique each other’s work and to sharpen their editorial skills. This course is open to M.A. candidates only.
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