Gordis

Each week, your assignment will include several components. First, you’ll generally be asked to read some introductory materials, either in the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms or in one of our other texts. These readings will present relevant background, defining terms and identifying important issues. They should help you to focus your reading and to make sense of some of the more difficult texts.

You’ll also be asked to read some theoretical material from various periods of literary history. As you read each piece, try to get a sense of the critic’s primary concerns. How does he or she define literature? How does he or she understand the role of the critic? What arguments does the critic make? What texts interest this critic most? (Often, if a critic writes about a particular text in his or her essay, I’ll ask you to read that text before reading the essay, so that you can follow the argument more easily.) You need not diagram every twist and turn of each theoretical position. Instead, try to get a broad understanding of what’s at stake in each text, and be prepared to present examples of particularly significant points. Also, consider your reaction to these essays. Do you find the approaches congenial? Can you see yourself writing about literature in this way?

You’ll also be asked to read essays by critics applying approaches to specific texts, often texts that we’ll be reading together as a class. As you read these essays, pay attention to the ways in which the assumptions of the more theoretical pieces work themselves out in relation to particular texts. Again, you need not concern yourself with every detail of each of these essays. Rather, try to get a sense of what it looks like when, for example, a postructuralist critic writes about Heart of Darkness. How do the issues of a particular theoretical approach affect a critic’s reading of a text? How much does the essay focus on the text itself, and to what extent does the critic extend his or her case to materials outside of the text? Is the critic interested in the author as a personality? How interested is the critic in gender, politics, and language? Do you find the essay interesting? Persuasive? Well written? Can you see yourself writing this kind of essay?

Finally, we’ll often read more strictly literary materials which we’ll then discuss using the frameworks provided by our theoretical and critical readings. By all means enjoy these texts as you read them; don’t reduce them to mere laboratories for the working out of our critical explorations. But as you read, do consider ways in which the texts might lend themselves to discussion in terms of the ideas raised in the theoretical and critical readings. Make notes of passages that seem particularly significant to you, as well as passages that you especially like.

1. If possible, read the assigned texts in the order in which they’re listed on the syllabus.

2. Take notes. You don’t need to outline each reading in great detail, but do note important points that are made, points that can be compared productively to other materials we’ve read or discussed, and points that you find particularly interesting . Note also points that you find confusing or difficult.

3. Don’t worry if you can’t follow every detail of an author’s argument, but don’t throw your hands up in despair and give up if you find a text especially challenging. Work at it for a while. Try to identify the particularly confusing points, and consider why they seem so difficult.

4. Do allow yourself time to complete these assignments. Though the assignments are often relatively brief in terms of numbers of pages, they’re often difficult and dense. Take your time over them.

5. Use each other as resources. Feel free to post questions and comments to the on-line discussion board, and work together to sort out the difficulties of this material.