Syllabus / Class Material
Unit 1. Pre-critical response to the selected literary work(s). Critical approaches: overview and classifications.
Definitions of practical criticism: applied criticism as opposed to literary theory; as a form of 'close reading' or explication de texte
Precritical response: notes from Guerin, 1-15, in "Studying Literature" web page ("Approaching literature" section)
In-class practice on Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" [35334Mat011]: plot, theme, structure, setting, atmosphere
Critical approaches: definition in "A Glossary". Example of a mythological and archetypal approach applied to "Coy Mistress" in Guerin 199-201.
In-class practice: comparison of precritical approach and archetypal criticism of "Coy Mistress"
Importance of recognizing critical approaches: Hawthorn, Studying the Novel, 134-143 [35334Mat012]
Classification and chronology of critical approaches: Klarer, 73 [35334Mat012]
Classification problems: genre studies as both text-oriented, contextual and intertextual; Bakhtin's dialogic criticism as both text-oriented and contextual (Marxist).
Task: Write down your own precritical responses to Hamlet; discern one of the archetypal patterns described by Guerin, pages 184-191, in Hamlet and write a brief paragraph explaining your view
Unit 2. Text-oriented approaches: close reading as a critical tool in the study of language, form and structure in literary works in English.
Description: practising criticism as informed by formalist approaches (New Criticism, Bakhtin’s dialogic criticism), structuralist and semiotic literary criticism, and by poststructuralism (deconstruction)
Formalism and New Criticism: theory review in Guerin, chapter 5 "The Formalist Approach"; Pope, 83-85
Applied to Hamlet: C. Spurgeon's analysis of imagery in "An Anthology of criticism on Hamlet" at www.uv.es/tronch/stu/ham_anth_crit.html
Bakhtin's dialogic criticism: review in Guerin (362-3) and Pope 93
Structuralism and semiotic literary criticism: theory review in Guerin 368-374, and Hébert
Applied to Hamlet: TASK : draw a diagram of actants applied to Hamlet (consider Laertes also) and compare yours with that in Ubersfeld, Reading Theatre
Deconstruction: theory review in Guerin 377-80 and Pope 127-134
Applied to Hamlet: Calderwood in "An Anthology of criticism on Hamlet"
Unit 3. Contextual approaches: criticising a work as representing extrinsic realities (psychological, social, economic, political, cultural), and as reproducing ideological, moral, philosophical and religious world-views.
Description: moral and philosophical, psychological, feminist, Marxist and cultural (including neo-historicist and postcolonial) approaches applied to a literary work.
Moral and philosophical: review in Guerin 77-81 (including comments on "To His Coy Mistress" and Hamlet)
Applied to Hamlet: Goethe and Bradley in "An Anthology of criticism on Hamlet"
Psychological: review in Guerin 152-161; Pope 101-102
Applied to Hamlet: Freud in anthology of criticism "An Anthology of criticism on Hamlet". Lacan in Selden, Practising, 85-7
Feminist: theory review in Pope 114-124 (also in in Guerin 222-240)
Applied to Hamlet: Smith and Showalter in "An Anthology of criticism on Hamlet"
Marxist literary criticism: theory review in Pope 105-112
Applied to Hamlet: read Smirnov, Williams, Cohen and Bristol in Anthology at www.uv.es/tronch/stu/ham_anth_crit.html
Historicist and new historicist: theory review in Guerin 51-54 and 282-287
Applied to Hamlet: Winstanley (historical) and Greenblatt (new historicist) in "An Anthology of criticism on Hamlet"
Cultural: Guerin 275-280; Murphy and Ray, Bedford Glossary (For Postcolonial criticism, Pope 138-151)
Applied to Hamlet:
The notion of "Hamletism", see Foakes, Hamlet vs. Lear, 12-44.
Analysis of 3.3.11-23 in Guerin 305-311.
Kott in "An Anthology of criticism on Hamlet"
Unit 4. Intertextual approaches: source studies, genre criticism, relations to other literary works and media.
Description: source studies, genre, performance criticism, comparative approach with other literary works (adaptations) and media (theatre, film, TV)
Source studies: notes on the sources of Hamlet [35334Mat041]
Genre: notes on the genre of Hamlet [35334Mat042]
Performance: Gibson, Hamlet: Cambridge Student Guide, 99-102
Intermedial adaptation: for Olivier's 1948 film Hamlet, see Kliman, Hamlet: Film, 22-36; for Almereyda's 2000 film Hamlet, see Burnett "To Hear".
Unit 5. Reception-oriented approaches: criticising a work in relation to readers’ interpretive strategies, competence, codes, conventions and identity, and its reception in home and foreign cultures.
Reader-response criticism: theory in Guerin 350-362; Culler and Barthes, Iser, Jauss in Selden, Practising, 115-120, 121-125, and 126-132 respectively.
Applied to Hamlet: Booth and Litvin in Anthology; abstracts in "Audience Response" and "Reception Theory" sections in Hamlet Haven (see especially Holland, McGuire and Wagner; and Dawson, de Grazia, Hapgood, Wiggins)
Unit 6. ‘Practical criticism’ and stylistic explication of short literary works or fragments.
Description: explaining the interaction of meaning and linguistic and formal choices in a short text. ‘Practical criticism’ as an integrated approach.
See Guide to Stylistic Commentary
Applied to "To His Coy Mistress", see Guerin, 111-116
Applied to excerpts from Hamlet, see Gibson, Hamlet: Cambridge Student Guide, 107-118; and Kahn
Further practice : in Peck and Coyle Practical Criticism, and Miller Mastering Practical Criticism.
Unit 7. Access to primary and secondary sources.
Description: Questioning and ascertaining the text being read: theory and practice of textual criticism. Questioning and ascertaining the secondary sources: indexes for the quality and reliability of information sources.
A short introduction to Textual Criticism .
TASK: comparing a critical, modern-spelling edition of Hamlet with the early quartos and folio texts [35334Pract070]
Finding sources in the library: TASK [35334Pract072]
Accessing academic journals: read "Accessing journals" web page
Quality and reliability of information sources: read "Evaluating Sources" in Purdue Online Writing Lab; and for internet sources, "Research using the internet" Univ. Toronto
Unit 8. A guide to scholarly writing.
Description: Reading strategies. Planning and outlining an essay. Conventional words and phrases. Logic and argument. Documentation: referencing sources of information following standard styles in the Humanities. Avoiding plagiarism.
For reading strategies, see "Reading and Researching" Univ. Toronto. For planning and outlinging an essay, see "Organizing an Essay" Univ. Toronto.
Conventional words and phrases: consult "Academic Phrasebank" Univ. Manchester
Locig and argument: consult "Presenting Arguments Logically" Univ. Victoria
Documentation and referencing styles: see "Writing" section in "Studying Literature" (MLA style, Chicago style)
TASK : convert parenthetical citations into Chicago style [35334Pract082]
Read "Avoiding plagiarism"
Other sources: Oshima, and Hogue, Writing Academic English; McCormack, and Slaght English for Academic Study; and Young, Studying English Literature
Unit 9. New technologies of information and communication applied to English Studies.
Description: introduction to computational tools such as reference management, databases, concordances and audiovisual presentations.
Read "Technologies of Information and Communication Applied to English Studies" web page
TASK: open an account with RefWorks, insert several references (books, chapters, articles, web page, etc.), build a short bibliography
TASK: use an electronic text of "To His Coy Mistress" to experiment with a concordance programme
