Syllabus in PDF

Objectives

This course aims to present the history of literary theory in a manner that bridges the concerns of students in literary studies and those of creative writers. Organized around key moments in the development of literary-critical discourse, the seminar will focus on efforts by writers and critics alike to elaborate compelling defenses of poiesis against various challenges to its philosophical validity and social value. Rather than simply examining literary production as an activity that is perennially on the defensive, however, we will explore the ambiguity of the expression "defenses of poetry." We will look at how theories of literary production have built up conceptual categories that have had a profound impact on cultural formations in general. We will also consider the ways these concepts can operate as defenses in the psychoanalytic sense--as unconscious, unexamined reactions to the challenges they face. The guiding premise of the course is that any defense of poetry must necessarily entail a theory of poetry, so that before we can understand what it means to defend literature we must understand what it means to theorize about it. The goal of the course is to develop a dialogue among critics and writers about critical issues that is grounded in intellectual history and guided by philosophical rigor. 

Assignments

Each of you will take responsibility for leading class discussion by giving an in-class presentation, which you will also submit to me in written form. Your writing during the semester will be aimed at developing either a personal manifesto on the nature and value of creative writing or a critical essay on any issues raised in the seminar. In either case, the product will include serious research (that is, your texts must explicitly engage other texts). These individual projects will feed a collective effort on the part of working groups to develop a set of theoretical positions on the value of writing. Working groups will turn in a written document representing their discussions, either as a jointly written working paper or a complete edited transcript of a forum discussion. All assignments must be completed to receive a passing grade. 

Policy

I will give incompletes only in cases of medical or family emergencies.

Class Web Site

(subject to change) 

August 22

Introduction to the course. 

August 29
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from Biographia Literaria Chapters 13-14 (321-325)
Karl Marx, from The German Ideology, "Consciousness Derived from Material Conditions" (388-391) 
Sigmund Freud, from An Outline of Psychoanalysis (handout) 
Raymond Williams, from Marxism and Literature, "Dominant, Residual, and Emergent," "Structures of Feeling" (1164-1172), and selections from Keywords (handout) 

Exercise
Identify four key concepts that guide your work as a writer and your thinking about literature. Write a paragraph about each of them explaining their significance to you. 

September 5

Plato, Republic, Book X (21-29) and Phaedrus

Exercise

Formulate two questions that guide your work as a writer and your thinking about literature. 

September 12

Augustine, from Confessions (handout);  
Christine de Pisan, from the Querelle de la Rose (125-130); 
Martin Heidegger, "Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry" (563-570) 

Exercise
Revise your paragraphs about your key concepts to include basic historical information about them. Where do we get our words for these concepts? From what disciplines are these concepts derived? 

September 19

Ovid, "Echo and Narcissus" from Metamorphoses (handout); 
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Echo" (handout)

Exercise
Choose two of your key concepts and draw a graphical diagram representing each of them. Make sure your diagrams are bold enough to be successfully digitized, as they will be included in the glossary on the class site.

September 26

Aristotle, Poetics (42-64)

Exercise
Find a short citation (or small set of citations) from a text (your own or another writer's) that connects in some way to one or more of your key concepts. Convey the connection in at least two pages of writing. 

October 3

Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music (419-433)

Exercise
Use the two pages of writing from last week to develop an introduction to an essay.Your introduction should both introduce the particular subject of your study and frame the theoretical concerns that guide it. It should be no more than two pages long. 

October 10

Judith Butler, "Imitation and Gender Subordination" (1514-1525)

October 17

Dante Alighieri, De Vulgari Eloquentia, Book 1 (handout);

Ngugi wa Thiong'o, "Literature and Society" (handout) 

Lee Tonouchi, "No Laugh, Brah, Serious: Pidgin's Association Wit Local Comedy" (Hybolics)

Michael J. Puleloa, "One Kula Moon" (Hybolics)

Ku`ualoha Meyer Ho`omanawanui, "Electric Lava," "Lei Wai`ale`ale" (`Oiwi)

October 24

Eric Chock, "The Neocolonization of Bamboo Ridge: Repositioning Bamboo Ridge and Local Literature in the 1990s" (handout)

Roque Dalton, "Poetry and Militancy in Latin America" (handout)

Darrell Lum, "The Weightroom" (Hybolics)

Haunani-Kay Trask, all poems (`Oiwi)

`Imaikalani Kalahele, all poems (`Oiwi)

Alani Apio, from Kamau (`Oiwi)

Assignment
Drafts of individual papers (maximum ten pages) must be posted on the class site by Friday, October 27. 

October 31

Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defense of Poetry (339-356);

Charles Bernstein, "A Defense of Poetry" (handout)

Manu Aluli Meyer, "The Very Act" and "Multiple Realities" (`Oiwi)

Francisco Acoba, "Hawaiian Music and Local Memories" (Hybolics) 

November 7 Election Day

November 14

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "Writing, 'Race,' and the Difference it Makes" (1576-1588)

Lisa Linn Kanae, "Island Girl" (Hybolics)

Rachel Naki, "Have no Fear of the Rich Man with the White Skin" (`Oiwi)

November 21

Presentations from working groups. 

Assignment

In collaboration with members of your working group, compose a text (maximum twelve pages) that engages the concepts and arguments presented in the individual papers.These texts should be critical but productive. They can take a variety of forms, but they must clearly intersect with both the writing of class members and the materials we have read during the semester. 

November 28

Michel Foucault, "What is an Author?" (890-900);

Roland Barthes, "From Work to Text" (901-905)

Moana Kaho`ohanohano, "Mana Wahine," Mana Kane," "Faces of Annexation" (`Oiwi)

Assignment
Review the class site and be ready to make suggestions for hyperlinks. 

December 5

Wrap-up; review and discussion of class site.

Syllabus in PDF Format

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