University of Southern California



COLT 391

22047R

TTh 2-3:20

Literary Criticism from Plato to Postmodernism:

Survey of major texts in the literary criticism of the West from the Greeks to postmodern theories.

Spring 2009

WPH 207

Michael du Plessis

duplessi@usc.edu

Course Description:

This course will read key texts of classical antiquity and key texts of modernity. While we will be tracing a chronology of thinking and writing about literature, we will also be reading intensively as we go along. We will ask about the shapes and forms of literary criticism—their rhetorical structures, genres, modes and forms. We will examine forms such as the essay. We will follow the persistence of concerns such as mimesis. We will take literary criticism as a primary text and read it, in some cases, with the texts that it describes, criticizes attempts to capture.

We will begin with the Greeks and read Plato’s Ion, Republic and Phaedrus, Aristotle’s Poetics, and Longinus’s On Sublimity.

Then we will turn to modernity and read some of the texts from the Romantics as the Romantics respond to antiquity: Friedrich Schiller’s essays, “On the Sublime” and “On the Naïve and Sentimental in Poetry” and excerpts from Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Laocoon. We will read Edgar Allen Poe’s “Philosophy of Composition,” turning to the modern, read Charles Baudelaire’s essays, “The Painter of Modern Life,” as well as his short piece on toys. We will follow the Greeks as they are understood on the threshold of the modern and read Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. We will also consider aestheticism with Oscar Wilde’s versions of Platonic dialogues in his text, Intentions. We will then read Walter Benjamin’s vastly influential analyses of Baudelaire and the modern, along with Baudelaire’s poems in The Flowers of Evil.

Following Benjamin’s closeness to Baudelaire, we will read a contemporary American poet thinking through her relation to a predecessor in Susan Howe’s My Emily Dickinson. We will follow Dickinson and Howe with a reading of the essays of Hélène Cixous in Stigmata: Escaping Texts. We will read Frantz Fanon’s important work of postcolonial cultural and social criticism in Black Skin, White Masks. We will conclude with a detailed reading of two longer texts by Jacques Derrida, “Plato’s Pharmacy” and “The Double Session” both in Dissemination, to trace both the shadows of aestheticism and the insistence of Plato in the “postmodern.”

Required Texts:

Baudelaire, Charles. The Flowers of Evil. Trans. James McGowan. Ed. By Jonathan Culler. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN-10: 0199535582.

---. “The Painter of Modern Life.”*

---. “Toys.”*

Benjamin, Walter. The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire. Trans. Howard Eiland et al. Harvard: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006. ISBN-10: 0674022874.

Cixous, Hélène. Stigmata: Escaping Texts. Trans. Catherine MacGilivray et al. New York: Routledge, 2005. ISBN-10: 0415345456.

Derrida, Jacques. Dissemination. Trans. Barbara Johnson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. ISBN-10: 0226143341.

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skins, White Masks. Trans. Richard Philcox. New York: Grove, 2008. ISBN-10: 0802143008.

Howe, Susan. My Emily Dickinson. New York: New Directions, 2007. ISBN-10: 0811216837.

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim. Laocoon. (Selections).*

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. Trans. Shaun Whiteside. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1994. ISBN-10: 0140433392.

Nietzsche on rhetoric.*

Plato. Phaedrus. Trans. Christopher Rowe. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005. ISBN-10: 0140449744.

Poe, Edgar Allen. “Philosophy of Composition.”*

Schiller, Friedrich. “On the Sublime.”*

---. “On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry.”*

Russell, D.A. and Michael Winterbottom, eds. Classical Literary Criticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN-10: 0199549818.

Wilde, Oscar. Intentions. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2004. ISBN-10: 1591021952.

*Available as PDF on Blackboard.

Grades:

Students will write 3 essays of 3-4 pages in the course of the semester and one final paper of 10 pages. Students will present class material at least twice in the semester.

First short paper: 15%

Second short paper: 15%

Third short paper: 15%

First class presentation: 15%

Second class presentation: 15%

Final paper: 20%

Class participation: 5%

Students are expected to read all assigned readings and participate in and contribute to class discussion. Student writing will be an essential part of developing a framework for learning in the class. 

I will provide you with sets of guiding questions for each set of texts studied and you may develop one of these questions as a topic for a paper. You are also welcome to develop your own topics about our readings in consultation with me. You must complete all the assignments in order to pass the course.

The first 3 papers should be 3-4 pages long or approximately 1,000 words and should be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, and a 12 pt. font.

The last paper should be 10 pages long or approximately 2,500 words and should be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and a 12 pt. font.

All assignments must be handed in on their due dates (see below). Late papers will be penalized except in the case of illness or family emergency (in which case you must contact me as soon as possible and be prepared to document the emergency). No papers will be accepted more than one week after the due date.

Include your name and the title of your paper on the first page. Paginate and staple the pages before submitting your work.

There will also be unannounced in-class writing exercises (which will form part of your participation grade) in the course of the semester, so be prepared.

You may choose to revise and resubmit a paper for a different grade.

Goals of the course:

❖ To read intensively and become familiar with selected key works in the history of Western literary criticism or writing about literature

❖ To think critically about and around the key concepts from our reading

❖ To identify and describe various ways thinkers at different historical periods have conceived of “literature” and representation

❖ To articulate the workings of individual texts with persuasive reference to textual detail (such as imagery, syntax, rhetorical figures and devices)

❖ To account for the how a work of criticism connects to a literary work

❖ To become familiar with some questions about the notion of a literary and critical “canon”

❖ To deepen, refine, and sharpen skills of reading analysis

❖ To demonstrate your understanding in clear, well-organized, persuasively supported writing, whether in one of the essays, exams or exercises

About the papers:

❖ Write your name and the title of your paper at the top of the first page.

❖ All papers must have titles.

❖ You should number pages.

❖ Spell check and proofread adequately.

❖ Be sure that you present all cited and consulted material, including the set texts for class, as bibliographical information according to either the guidelines of either the Modern Language Association or Chicago.

❖ The first 3 papers should both be 3-4 pages long or approximately 1,000 words and should be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and a 12 pt. font.

❖ You have the option to revise and resubmit the first 3 papers once, after consultation with me.

❖ The last paper should be 10 pages long or approximately 2,000 words and should be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and a 12 pt. font.

Some basic do’s and don’ts:

❖ Keep up with the reading schedule and plan ahead. Please be sure that you use the relatively light load of the first weeks to read that book in advance.

❖ Come to class prepared to discuss the day’s text.

❖ Bring to class the text we’re discussing.

❖ Keep up with handouts and other class notes.

❖ Avail yourself of my consultation times and schedule at least one consultation this semester!

❖ Turn in a hard copy of the three papers, in class, on the dates due.

❖ Be punctual; class will always begin on time.

❖ Consult the reading schedule often and make note of any changes as announced.

❖ Do not miss class; unexcused absences will lower your final grade.

❖ Do not leave class before the end.

❖ Do not request extensions for papers or alternate dates for exams.

❖ And never turn in written work that is not strictly your own.

Note: we will have unannounced, in-class writing exercises from time to time—these will count towards your preparation and participation grade. Should you miss one of these, it is imperative that you speak to me as soon as possible and arrange to make up the missing work.

Missing work will have a significant impact on your ability to pass this course.

Students with disabilities and academic accommodations:

Students requesting accommodations based on a disability are required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP when adequate documentation is filed. DSP is open Monday-Friday, 8:30-5:00. The office is in Student Union 301 and their phone number is 213.740.0776.

Plagiarism Note:

All your work must be original, with proper citation for use of outside sources; there are high penalties for plagiarism, including reporting the infraction to the Dean.

Schedule of Weekly Assignments, Topics, and Readings:

(Any changes to the schedule will be announced in class.)

Week 1:

Plato, Ion.

Week 2:

Plato, Republic.

Week 3:

Plato, Phaedrus.

Week 4:

Aristotle, Poetics.

Week 5:

FIRST PAPER DUE.

Longinus, On Sublimity.

Schiller and Lessing.

Week 6:

Poe and Baudelaire, “Painter of Modern Life” and “Toys.”

Week 7:

Nietzsche.

Week 8:

Wilde.

Week 9:

SECOND PAPER DUE.

Benjamin and Baudelaire.

Week 10:

Benjamin and Baudelaire.

Week 11:

Howe.

Week 12:

Cixous.

Week 13:

Fanon.

Week 14:

Derrida, “Plato’s Pharmacy.”

Week 15:

THIRD PAPER DUE.

Derrida, “The Double Session.”

THE FINAL PAPER WILL BE DUE IN MY OFFICE (THH 155A) DURING THE TIME SET ASIDE FOR OUR EXAM, THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2-4 (no exceptions).

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