UCLR 100 Interpreting Literature
Fall 2016
UCLR 100: Interpreting Literature
Fall 2016
Dr. Mena Mitrano
Schedule : Wed. 2:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
Office: 114
Office Hours: by appointment
Office phone: ext. 372
Email: mmitrano@luc.edu
Interpreting Literature
Course description and aim
The theme for our UCLR 100 core course in Interpreting Literature is T. S. Eliot.
The aim of the course will be to learn as much as possible about the basic features of literature and the questions attending literary practice through one of the most charismatic American-European innovators--T. S. Eliot.
This is a foundational course of literary studies. We will read closely and analyze carefully a variety of texts: prose, poetry, and drama. You will learn to master key literary and critical term, and approach the practice of encountering a text meaningfully.
Class format and requirements
Class will meet once a week. My lectures will alternate with discussion.
Regular attendance is a must, as is doing the readings assigned for each class. Active participation is also a must.
You will be responsible to do the assigned readings for each class thoughtfully and with care.
There will be a mid-term exam and in-class tests to verify the level of your work on class preparation (the assigned readings), a final research paper, oral presentations, and final symposium.
Grading: commitment (active participation): 30 %; mid-term and in-class tests: 30%; research paper: 40%.
Learning Outcomes: By the end of the course students are expected to
- Master a basic set of themes, concerns, conflicts, and desires central to modern American imagination which, however, extend their influence also beyond national boundaries and to world literature;
- Master close reading;
- Become familiar with and master key literary and critical terms useful to the analysis and interpretation of a literary text;
- Learn to discuss literature in meaningful ways, as a process of individual discovery and in relation to other forms of creativity;
- Perform an effective interpretation of a literary text.
Textbooks
- Nina Baym et al., The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th edition, vol. D (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011), ISBN: 978-0393934793
- The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical Edition. Apprentice Years, 1905–1918, Vol. 1. edited by Jewel Spears Brooker and Ronald Schuchard (The Johns Hopkins University Press and Faber & Faber Ltd., 2014). Online access at http://muse.jhu.edu.flagship.luc.edu/books/9781421412948
- The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical Edition. The Perfect Critic, 1919–1926, Vol. 2, edited by Anthony Cuda and Ronald Schuchard (The Johns Hopkins University Press and Faber & Faber Ltd., 2014). Online access at: http://muse.jhu.edu.flagship.luc.edu/books/9781421412948
- The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical Edition. Literature, Politics, Belief, 1927–1929, Vol. 3, edited by Frances Dickey, Jennifer Formichelli, and Ronald Schuchard (The Johns Hopkins University Press and Faber & Faber Ltd., 2015). Online access at: http://muse.jhu.edu.flagship.luc.edu/books/9781421412948
- Critical materials uploaded by the professor on Sakai
- Critical materials uploaded by the professor on reserve in our library
Schedule and Content (Part I)
Week 1 Jan. 20 Introduction
Introductory lecture
Week 2 Jan 27
Assigned readings:
Michel Foucault, "What is An Author" (Sakai)
T S Eliot: Dante (1920), Complete Prose of TSE, Vol. 2
Dante (1929), Complete Prose of TSE, Vol. 3,
"Preface to Dante" (1929), Complete Prose of TSE, Vol. 3
"Dante and the Trecento," in Complete Prose of TSE , Vol. 2.
Week 3 Papal audience -- no class
At-home reading:
Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproduction" (Sakai)
Walter Benjamin, "The Author as Producer" (on Reserve)
Week 4 Feb 10
Assigned readings:
TS Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," The Norton Anthology of American Literature (368)
TS Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent," Complete Prose of TSE , Vol. 2.
Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproduction" (Sakai)
Walter Benjamin, "The Author as Producer" (on Reserve)
Week 5 Feb 17
Assigned readings:
TS Eliot: "The Borderline of Prose," Complete Prose of TSE , Vol. 1
"A Note on Ezra Pound," Complete Prose of TSE , Vol. 1
"Hamlet," Complete Prose of TSE , Vol. 2
Week 6 Feb 24
MIDTERM
Assigned readings:
T. S. Eliot, "Preludes" and "Rhapsody on a Windy Night," "Morning at the Window," "Aunt Helen" and "Cousin Nancy", in Prufrock and Other Observations pp. 12-17.
Week 7
Fall Semester Break
Week 8
Movie Midnight in Paris and discussion: Modernism Now
Week 9
DUE: One-paragraph research paper proposal. It should contain: a) the idea you are going to pursue and develop in your final research paper; b) the two critical sources you are going to use (the two sources can be chosen from the ones on reserve)
Assigned readings:
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (Norton Anthology)
Week 10
Assigned Readings:
T. S. Eliot's modernist contemporaries: H.D. and Ezra Pound
Selected readings from H. D. and Pound in The Norton Anthology
Week 11
T. S. Eliot, "Hamlet and his Problems" and "Metaphysical Poets" (Complete Prose Vol. II)
Week 12
Students present the core of their research papers in progress
Week 13
Final research paper due
Week 14
Final Student Symposium