Junior Seminar (ENG 301): The Art(s) of Reading
Fall 2024
Schedule of Readings and Assignments
W Sept. 4: Introductions Fri Sept. 6: Read Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, pp. 1-55. Paper due (3 pages): Who are you as a reader? (See prompt here.) M Sept. 9: Read Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, pp. 56-133, and skim appendix. Paper due (2 pages): response to Culler’s Literary Theory. (See prompt here.) W Sept. 11: Preliminary list of project topics due. Re-read Literary Theory: A Short Introduction, pp. 70-82; “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas will be distributed and discussed in class. F Sept. 13: John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1; and read “General Criticism” in the Norton edition, pp. 534-548 (excerpted pieces by Tillyard, Waldock, Fish, and Teskey) M Sept. 16: Library Session #1: We will meet in the Libary, room TBA W Sept. 18: Paradise Lost, Book 1 (reprise) and Book 2 F Sept. 20: Paradise Lost, Book 3 M Sept. 23: Paradise Lost, Book 4 W Sept. 25: Library Session #2: We will meet in the Library, room TBA F Sept. 27: Paradise Lost, Book 5 M Sept. 30: Paradise Lost, Book 8 T Oct. 1: Five bibliographical annotations due. W Oct. 2: Paradise Lost, Book 9 F Oct. 4: Paradise Lost, Paradise Lost, Book 10 and the end of Book 12 (last three pages) M Oct. 7: In-class Junior Qual practice: await further instructions. W Oct. 9: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, pp. 63-121 F Oct. 11: Jane Eyre, pp. 122-176 M Oct. 14: Jane Eyre, pp. 177-238 W Oct. 16: Jane Eyr,e pp. 239-302 F Oct. 18: Jane Eyre, pp. 303-361 **Fall Break (October 19-27)** M Oct. 28: Jane Eyre, pp. 362-443 W Oct. 30: Jane Eyre, pp. 444-509 F Nov. 1: Jane Eyre, pp. 510-556 M Nov. 4: Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire, pp. 11-99; and skim index, pp. 303-315 W Nov. 6: Pale Fire, pp. 100-174 F Nov. 8: Pale Fire, pp. 175-250 S Nov. 9: Ten further bibliographical annotations due M Nov. 11: Pale Fire, pp. 251-301 W Nov. 13: Penelope Fitzgerald, The Bookshop, all F Nov. 15: The Bookshop, cont. M Nov. 18: Toni Morrison, Beloved, pp. 3-51 W Nov. 20: Beloved, pp. 52-124 F Nov. 22: Beloved, pp. 125-180 S Nov. 23: Take-Home Practice Qual Response on The Bookshop due M Nov. 25: Beloved, pp. 181-235 W Nov. 27: Beloved, pp. 236-277 **Thanksgiving Break (Nov. 28-Dec. 1)** M Dec. 2: Beloved, pp. 278-324 W Dec. 4: Susanna Clarke, Piranesi, pp. 3-82 F Dec. 6: Piranesi, pp. 83-170 S Dec. 7: Annotated Bibliography due. M Dec. 9: Piranesi, pp. 171-245 W Dec. 11: Critical History due. Course Policies
Attendance Your presence, both physical and mental, at each and every class meeting is a serious and significant component of this course. The only excuses I will allow for absences are serious illness and family emergency; please let me know immediately if Covid (or Bird Flu, Monkey Pox, or Bubonic Plague) should be an issue: accommodations will be made. Two unexcused absence could affect your grade in the course; more than three will be regarded as grounds for failure. Class Participation This is a small-ish section and it designed to be run as a conference, not as a lecture. Student input on regular basis – that is, each and every class meeting – is an important component of this course. I sincerely want to hear your ideas, and I believe that it is only by working – and working hard – at these texts together that we will arrive at the most fruitful sorts of understanding. Papers and Other Written Work All written work should be passed in a hard copy, double-spaced and in a reasonable font, either to my hands or to the slot next to my office door (Vollum 233). Late work will receive the standard deduction of a half grade per day late. Further, I will not write comments on late work. Artificial Intelligence Policy Artificial intelligence is an oxymoron. The use of generative artificial intelligence as a means of composing, correcting, or enhancing one’s own writing — whether by ChatGBT, Grammarly, Ginger, ProWriting Aid, or similar technologies — is prohibited in this course and will be treated as a violation of Reed’s Academic Dishonesty Policy and as a violation of the honor principle. Indeed, the use of generative artificial intelligence in this course, or in almost any course, is a betrayal and an undermining of human thought, human creativity, and human dignity. If you have further questions about this A.I. policy, do contact me and we'll talk. Please know that my determined opinions on this matter are, strictly speaking, humanist and non-nominalist. For further clarification, please consult Parmenides' Fragment #3, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Plotinus' Enneads, Gertrude Anscombe's Intention, and Bernard Lonergan's Insight, especially chapter nineteen. As a parting thought, I would ask you to meditate on the words of Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: "Never trust something that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." (I would add scare quotes around Weasley's "think," however, as A.I. cannot really think; again, it — meretriciously — presents only the appearance of thinking.) |
Course Objectives
John Milton (1608-1674)
Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), right, with sisters Anne and Emily, painted by brother Bramwell
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)
Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000)
Toni Morrison (1931-2019)
Susanna Clarke (born 1959)
Grading
Your final grade for the course will consist of the following:
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