No Author Raises His Voice in a World Devoid of Predecessors

AP/EN 1002 3.0 Intertextualities

Section P / Winter 2012 / Syllabus

“No author raises his voice in a world devoid of predecessors.”

--Tzvetan Todorov

Course Director: Professor Judith Deitch

Lecture: Tuesday 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Accolade West 206

Office Hours: Wednesday, 10:30-12:30

Office: Stong 301B

Tutorial 1: Thursday, 8:30-10 a.m., CB 120

Tutorial Leader: Dunja Baus

Tutorial 2: Thursday, 10-11:30 a.m., HNE 035

Tutorial Leader: Anna Veprinska

Tutorial 3: Tuesday, 4-5:30 p.m., CB 120

Tutorial Leader: TBA

Tutorial 4: Tuesday, 1-2:30 p.m., CB 122

Tutorial Leader: Judith Deitch

Tutorial 5: Thursday, 11:30-1 p.m., Bethune College 215

Tutorial Leader: TBA

Course Description

This course advances students’ training in comparative literary analysis, research, and writing. It introduces students to intertextual relationships—the complex, imaginative way literary authors engage in a creative dialogue with other authors and texts, past and present. These inter-relationships may exist within or across genres, historical periods, literary movements, nations and regions. Intertextuality raises issues of tradition (the body of works inherited in any age); the translatability of cultures (the problem of how to transfer ideas from the past to the present, or from one cultural identity to another); and the political and intellectual contexts which influence the creation of literary works of art. We will find out that writing is itself an act of interpretation and re-interpretation, where the author chooses his or her predecessors and asserts his or her originality by writing both with and against received tradition. Although we will not be proceeding in chronological order, students will learn about the different periods of literary history in order to place literary texts within an overall historical pattern.

Lectures deal with larger themes and ideas, interpretive cruxes, historical contexts, and terminology; they provide a deeper understanding of genres, periods, movements, and identities. Tutorials offer guidance and practice in close-reading exercises and instruction in techniques of effective essay writing, with a focus on how to conduct university level research and critically challenge other people’s interpretations of authors and literature. The on-line component of the course will help students gain control of the mechanics of writing to enhance success in upper-year courses.

Learning Outcomes

1) Develop skills for the comparative analysis of texts—both literary and non-literary

2) Expand knowledge of the literary tradition in English: texts, genres, authors, periods

3) Develop techniques for active, engaged reading and ability to extract ideas from texts

4) Learn strategies for higher-level interpretation and analysis of literature

5) Learn strategies for conducting university level research and composing a research paper

6) Learn how to explore, assess and successfully manage secondary sources

7) Become more aware of different approaches to literary studies and the kinds of questions scholars and critics ask of texts

8) Learn to be more confident in your own judgment and evaluations of literary texts

9) Develop and advance writing skills, with an emphasis on integrating ideas from different sources and comparative writing

10) Master basic writing techniques including grammar, punctuation, style and MLA referencing

11) Enjoy some of the greatest works of English literature

Required Texts

All books are available at the York University Bookstore.

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (Norton)

Romeo and Juliet before Shakespeare (Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies)

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (Arden)

*Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (Longman Cultural Edition)

*Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (Penguin)

The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Bantam)

Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot (Vintage)

Course kit: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”; Athol Fugard, The Island

*MyLiteratureLab (Pearson online access Course ID: Deitch508940L)

* these 3 items in a package from Pearson

Methods of Evaluation

In-class comparative analysis of “The Waste Land” (class 3) 5%

Précis of one secondary article on “The Waste Land” (due class 4) 5%

Shorter research essay on Eliot (due class 7) 15%

Annotated bibliography & outline (due class 9) 10%

Longer essay on Shakespeare or Austen (due class 11) 20%

Tutorial participation 10%

MyLiteratureLab 10%

Exam in exam period 25%

Students are advised not to make any travel plans until after the exam schedule has been posted.

Class preparation: Students are expected to have done the reading before each class meeting, and to bring the appropriate texts to class. Failure to bring the set text to class will disadvantage you with regard to essays and assignments. Keep track of the schedule of readings given below, and get in the habit of making notes while you are reading of ideas, questions or comments, and come to class ready to join the discussion.

Attendance: “Students cannot be required to attend class. However, they are responsible for course content and requirements that they miss during absence(s). Participation grades are perfectly legal, and instructors are not obliged to provide “catch-up” materials/assignments/deferments, etc. unless the student has made arrangements in advance of the absence, or if the student provides medical evidence of illness or of a designated religious holy day.”

Late penalty: Start assignments early and make every effort to submit them on time. A late penalty of 2% per day will be deducted for up to 10 calendar days, after that the assignment will not be accepted. If you are subject to any extreme circumstances please inform your tutorial leader immediately in order to arrange special accommodation, but please note that this refers to unusual, chronic or unexpected problems. Late assignments: For date verification please email the assignment to your tutorial leader as a Word attachment, then leave a hard copy in the drop-box for this course on the third floor of Stong College, near the south entrance (Pond side) or arrange to hand it in tutorial.

Academic honesty. You will be penalized if you submit course work that contains unattributed material; that is, ideas, words or text copied from any source without stating where you got it from; it is considered copying even if you change the wording. Keep track of where you get material from, especially when using websites or notes and articles in our text, and list all references in a Bibliography or List of Works Consulted attached to your assignment. Make every effort to identify the source of any ideas that do not come out of your own head. Start assignments early, think things through on your own in your own mind, and take time to plan an outline before you start writing to avoid issues of plagiarism. Students are advised to do York’s academic integrity tutorial before their first assignment: http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/academic_integrity/

POETRY

Jan 3 Introduction to Intertextualities

Week 1 Voyages, poetic voice, and the translatability of cultures

Anonymous/Old English, Seafarer (Anglo-Saxon 500-1066)

Ezra Pound, Seafarer (Modernism 1910-1939)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses (Victorian 1830-1900)

Jan 10 A Modernist approach to the past: Allusion and Fragmentation (early 20th century)

Week 2 T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (Modernism 1910-1939), poem and notes, pp. 5-26

Eliot on The Waste Land, pp. 112-13

Reviews and First Reactions: Woolf (p. 137), TLS (p. 137), Gilbert Seldes (p. 138-40), Time (p. 153), Charles Powell (p. 156), Ralph Ellison (p. 166)

Class preparation: try to identify the “thesis statement” of each review

Tutorial leaders assign text and passage for next week’s in-class analysis

Jan 17 A Modernist approach to the past: Allusion and Fragmentation (early 20th century)

Week 3 The Waste Land, poem and notes, pp. 5-26 (re-read)

Sources: Frazer (pp. 29-34), Weston (pp. 35-40), Ovid (pp. 46-50)

The New Criticism: I.A. Richards (pp. 170-73), F.R. Leavis (p. 173-85)

Writing: how to write a précis of an article

Comparative analysis of one poetic or prose intertext, (30 minutes, written in tutorial) (5%)

Tutorial leaders assign article for précis to hand in next week

Jan 23 New Romantic genres: Blending high and low (science, philosophy and armchair travel with the folk ballad) (early 19th century)

Week 4 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Romanticism 1790-1815), in course kit

STC, excerpt in Longman Northanger Abbey, pp. 220-21

Writing: essay outlines

Article précis due in tutorial (5%)

NARRATIVE AND DRAMA

Jan 31 Pre-history of the Novel: The genre of romance (16th century)

Week 5 Romeo and Juliet before Shakespeare, (Renaissance)

Luigi da Porto, “La Giulietta,” pp. 27-48

Matteo Bandello, “La sfortunata morte di dui infelicissimi amante,” pp. 49-84

Pierre Boaistuau, “De deux amans,” pp. 85-122

Feb 7 What did Shakespeare do with his sources for R&J? (16th century)

Week 6 Brooke, Romeus and Juliet (Arden R&J, Appendix II, pp. 239-80) (English Renaissance 1500-1642)

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (English Renaissance)

Note: many film versions of the play are available in SMIL (York’s Sound and Moving Image Library; the BBC video is available via York Library >eResources>Theatre in video)

Essay 1 due (15%)

Feb 14 The Novel: Parody and Intertextuality (late 18th-early 19th century)

Week 7 Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Volume I, pp. 8-102

Biographical Notice of the Author, pp. 2-6

Gothic Romance, pp. 211-20

The Sublime, pp. 223-29

Bath, pp. 242-48

Reading week February 18th -24th

Feb 28 The Novel: Parody and Intertextuality (late 18th-early 19th century)

Week 8 Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, Volume II, pp. 102-98

The Romance Plot, pp. 201-210

Gothic Parody, pp. 232-241

The Picturesque, pp. 259-65

Reviews of Northanger Abbey, pp. 269-72

Mar 6 Feminist Literary History: Revising the Canon (early 20th century)

Week 9 Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (Modernism 1910-1939)

annotated bibliography & outline due (10%)

Mar 13 Postmodern Drama: Politics as Text (20th century)

Week 10 Athol Fugard, The Island (Post-colonialism 1945-), in course kit

Sophicles, Antigone (video) MyLitLab

Guest lecture by Gabriel Levine

Mar 20 African American Life Writing: Life as Text (20th century)

Week 11 The Autobiography of Malcolm X, (Black Power/Black Arts Movement, 1960s),

pp. 1-214; and pp. 325-348

Essay 2 due (20%)

Mar 27 Postmodern games you can play with texts (20th century)

Week 12 Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot (Post-modernism 1960-)

Exam preparation

Exam in exam period April 4th-20th

Students are advised not to make any travel plans until after the exam schedule has been posted.