Fall 2000 | E602:LITERARY THEORY and CRITICAL PRACTICE primarysecondarytertiary WILLIAM A. NERICCIO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ENGLISH AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 619.594.1524 MEMO@SDSU.EDU NEW LINK TO ROBERT FRANK ESSAY Theory. Yikes! Your graduate catalogue copy opens innocently enough with a none-too-ominous bureaucratic admonition: "Prerequisite: credit or concurrent registration in English 600." But then it begins to get scary, adding that the course addresses "major issues in the history of literary criticism as well as contemporary approaches." The panic sets in when you read that our "study of criticism and theory" will be "accompanied by [a] writing practicum" where the trapped denizens of the seminar "will write in several critical modes and build graduate level proficiency in analyzing literary issues." Damn! It’s enough to make you run to the relative sanctuary of a dog-eared Cliff’s Notes. But have no fear. We will conquer that lumbering beast named Theory! By the end of the semester we will be swimming with Derrida, lunching with Foucault, and dreaming of Virginia Woolf; we’ll know our New Historicism from our Deconstruction and our French Feminists from our Post Colonials. The course is subtitled "Primary, Secondary, Tertiary" as, each week, our readings will consist of three parts: a primary piece of "literature," a secondary piece of literary criticism, and a tertiary wild-card (theoretical, of course) to augment our primary and secondary bodies of ink--think of it as a textual ménage à trois, a festival of textual triangles. For example, one week we are going to read the short stories of that peculiar Russian madman/scribe Nikolai Gogol; that same week we will also read from the equally mad scribblings of Vladimir Nabokov on Gogol. We will then mess up our "tidy" duet with a taste of Freud writing on narcissism and the neuroses. Freud’s theoretical intervention so nicely fuses with Gogol and Nabokov that without even realizing it, we will have grown as readers of World Literature (Gogol), literary criticism and biography (Nabokov is one of the 20th century’s most incisive critics and novelists) and psychoanalytic theory (Freud, of course). Other weeks will include other unlikely trios including: Junichiro Tanizaki, Peter Greenaway, and Susan Sontag; "Tarzan," Edward Said and Homi Bhabha, Speedy Gonzales, Henry Louis Gates, & yours truly; and many more. What to Expect? An exegetic adventure where the intrigues of hermeneutics are our companions for a semester-length encounter with narratives and meta-narratives. All too often, Critical Theory constitutes an archive of works which leave uninitiated graduate students intimidated and annoyed. One reason for this is quite basic. Critical Theory has more to do with the history of continental philosophy than the history of literature. Theory is not essentially a story--or rather, it is a story, but a specific kind of story which speaks to the nature of stories. That is why Criticism or Critical Theory, or just plain theory is often thought of as meta-commentary. The premise is simple enough: one does not just interpret. One interprets or "reads" a story in the way one has learned to read it--and this "learning" comes to us in many shapes and forms. This gets to be pretty complex at times because of the various vocabularies which have been developed by theorists to somehow describe where, how, why and when literature functions. I feel for those of you who enter this class somewhat intimidated even as I share the excitement of those of you who just can’t wait to find out what theory has to offer. I also feel for those of you who find yourself in this room because the course is mandatory for those who hope to exit SDSU with a Masters Degree. But I want to reassure you that you do have choices. This course is taught each semester and if you find after a day or two, or week or two that we are doing too much, or that you just don’t like the style of the class or of its instructor, you are free to drop the class. Don’t worry, I won’t be hurt. If anything, I’ll remember the first theory course I endured in Graduate School and how I realized too late I was not ready for it. Some might wish that the graduate study of literature might be confined to just that: literature. But here we must be practical. It would be a rare thing for a graduate student to prosper and advance in the Humanities today without some intimate introduction to Critical Theory. And because the graduate program in English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University continues to develop one of the more successful doctoral preparation Masters Degree regimens on the West Coast, it can be expected that our particular survey of Critical Theory will present a bit of a workout. The "flavors" of theory we will encounter are varied and numerous and include "Deconstruction," "Marxism," "French Feminism" and "Psychoanalytic Crit" . So we will move slowly and carefully through a provocative, delicious set of divergent texts. From the start, you will notice that the materials are arranged in a manner which forces a certain degree of eclecticism. While many would no doubt welcome some degree of comforting order given our range of materials, it will not always be evident. The reasons for this are intellectual as much as they are logistical: one of the realities of contemporary critical theory is that it is quite suspicious of order. I share that suspicion. Let me close here by reassuring you that no real experience with the materials is expected. I will ask that graduate students with some experience with the material help their colleagues who are having a rough go of it. Again, let me add that if you did not have a decent philosophy survey class as an undergraduate, you can expect it to be slow going at first. I look forward to working with any of you who elect to join us on our odd, challenging and (it is to be hoped) rewarding intellectual journey. Writing Requirements You will complete one short writing assignment (five pages tops) in the first 10 weeks of the semester. Additionally, you will be asked to compose a 10-15 page essay which incorporates materials scrutinized during the semester as well as three to five outside critical resources. NOTE: If you are a new graduate student, you should subscribe to Lingua franca ASAP--it is one of the best popular press exposé/insider rags on academe on the market. Also useful in this vein are the PMLA,The Village Voice,The Times Literary Supplement, Critical Inquiry, and Representation. note: there will also be a 123/PST Reader for this seminar; it will be available in class next week and should come in around $15 or so. My office is located in Adams Humanities 4117 and my regular office hours are from 11 to 1 on Tuesdays, though I will also try to make myself available from 3 to 3:30 before class on Thursday afternoons. My phone number is 619.594.1524 and my email address is: memo@sdsu.edu.   -->FIRST WRITING ASSIGNMENT<-- -->Final ESSAY writing assignment<-- -->YOUR CLASS IS NOW FAMOUS<-- Oliver Mayer Interview by your colleague, Ray Salcedo beware, there are a few transcription glitches--all my, WN's. fault...   MENU  day to day in 2000 THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2000 Introduction: Borges on Allegory; Baudrillard on Clones; Tykwer on Lola... THURSDAY, SEPT. 7, 2000 Literary History/Feminist Archeology/Textual Artifacts with Gilman's Yellow Wallpaper; Hedges revision of Gilman and Bates Dock's revision of all in the PMLA. THURSDAY, SEPT. 14, 2000 The Politics of Eros/The Eros of Politics/the Aesthetics of Both Today we will begin screening Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book. As you watch the film, allow your memory of Tanizaki to coat your neural synapses: after class read both Foucault and Sarduy in your THEORY reader. THURSDAY, SEPT. 21, 2000 No class seminar; catch up on your sleep. THURSDAY, SEPT. 28, 2000 Cultural Studies/Ethnic American Discourse/ New Historicism Oliver Mayer is in the house today as we get the chance to grill a real-life, breathing writer. In your reader carefully peruse the pieces by Greenblatt and Barthes. What is the status of graffiti? Art? Blight? Both? And what of the Agents responsible for this truly Urban text? THURSDAY, OCT. 5, 2000 Semiotics NO CLASS TODAY as this is our NIGHT ON THE TOWN EVENING; your professor is giving an invited lecture at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park---you are highly encouraged to attend! Details to follow. Read the Harold children's book, as well as Barthes on Photography and Dubrow on Evidence in your THEORY reader. THURSDAY, OCT. 12, 2000 Literary Biography and Comparative Literature Gogol and Nabokov--what piece have you read thus far provides the perfect tertiary complement to these two pieces? Read Taussig's Nervous System out-take in your THEORY reader. THURSDAY, OCT. 19, 2000 Psychoanalysis Read Freud's Dora case history as well as Appignanesi and Zarate's Freud for Beginners. Let Zarate's images play the tertiary role this week but you may want to peek forward in this reader at Luce Irigiray's "This Sex Which is Not One." THURSDAY, OCT. 26, 2000 Post-Colonial Discourse Conrad week; all readings are in the Broadview Press edition. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2000 Cultural Studies/ Chicano Narrative/ Film and Literature Read the Tino Villanueva book Scene from the Movie Giant, the Derrida essay "White Mythology," the Fanon excerpt from Black Skin, White Masks as well as the Anzaldúa  essay in your THEORY reader--the W. Nericcio essay is optional. THURSDAY, NOV. 9, 2000 Cultural Studies/ Chicano Narrative/ Film and Literature/ Performance Art Read Michelle Serros's How to be a Chicana Role Model; no additional readings necessary THURSDAY, NOV. 16, 2000 Children's Literature/ Psychoanalysis Read Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, Stoffel's Carroll/Dodgson exposé and Irigaray's "This Sex..." in your THEORY reader.   TUESDAY, NOV. 21 & THURSDAY, NOV. 23, 2000            THANKSGIVING, NO CLASS   THURSDAY, NOV. 30, 2000 Marxist Feminist Discourse/ Transnational Critique Read Rosario Castellanos, Gayatri Spivak and Alexander Cockburn in your THEORY reader.   THURSDAY, DEC. 7, 2000 The Politics of Deconstruction/The Deconstruction of Politics Read Virilio's volume along with the Derrida micro-piece in THEORY reader--in class, we will close by screening Hal Hartley's Flirt.     ciao!