English 753 .2X(Thurs. 4:30-6:00) P.Laurence
Twentieth Century Literature: The Reading Eye Spring 2010
Reading is the subject of this course. The writings of Proust, Joyce and Woolf, among others, present a challenge to many readers schooled in the social and psychological realism of the nineteenth-century novel, more firmly anchored in a social and factual world. We will focus on ways of reading sometimes less accessible and resistant texts through an apprenticeship in learning to read signs. Through analysis of scenes of reading (and more) in twentieth-century literature (that includes modernism), we will discover new ground for reading and illuminating interconnections.
We focus on this topic not only because acts of reading preoccupy twentieth-century authors and theorists, but because of the evolving nature of reading and writing in the new millenium. Reading takes time, and we have devised many ways of avoiding it or reading and writing quickly: see the film, read it on Kindle or your i-phone, read the quick notes, scan a review, browse the comic book, make the story short.
What’s to be discovered then in focusing, for example, on scenes of childhood reading or women reading? Elizabeth Bowen’s childhood reading prepared her, she said “to handle any book like a bomb,” and led, eventually, to the “inventive pen.” How do we become inventive readers? What do Proust, Woolf or Freud say about reading? What do the theorists contribute—for example, Barthes, Levi-Strauss, deMan, Derrida—to our interpretation of literary scenes of reading and conceptions of writing?
Course requirements: one short paper, one longer paper, class presentation, attention to the class blog.
Course Expectations:
Papers: Two papers (3pp., 10 pp.): the Shorter Paper to be written early in the semester should examine a theoretical aspect or suggest research directions on the topic, reading, in relation to texts read this semester. This will then be developed into the Longer Paper.
Oral Presentations: One short presentation on a critical view of “reading” (reader-response, scenes and postures of reading, psychology of, resistance to interpretation etc.)—your choice from books placed on Reserve in the library. This critical view might be integrated into your longer paper.
Final Exam: May 19-25
Absences: Two absences allowed. Upon the third absence, you will be dropped from the course unless there is a special situation.
Office Hours: Thursday, 2:00-3:30 or by appt. You will be expected to have a conference with me on the subject of your longer paper between Feb.-April. Final paper due, .
Office: Boylan, 2/157
E-mail: plaurence@rcn.com
Blog: www.http:bclit.blogspot.com (BC Readers-title)
Class blog: check this for a bi-weekly question that you are invited to respond to on-line, usually in preparation for class discussion; events in the city relevant to the course; other literary and cultural items of interest; class info.
Reserve Books in the Library: list to be distributed for consultation for oral report and papers
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Comment from John dePiper
ReplyDeletefeel that "Alice in Wonderland" resists interpretation because the story itself is about constant re-interpretation, or more specifically about a young child trying to find her way within the strict conventions of society. The book concerns a prepubescent girl, too young for coming of age, who is dealing with the lack of reason in her "real" world through the narrative of a dream. It is no coincidence that all of the characters are either animals or caricatures of real people (i.e. The Duchess) and that they speak, often through pun, in absurdities. To a child who is used to viewing the world through fantasy and make believe, the conventions of society and adulthood are absurd. Thus the lessons that she constantly tries to repeat have less and less meaning because they are in fact meaningless (this is yet a different pun on the word lesson than the one used by the Mock Turtle). This idea is in fact best summed up in her conversation with the Mock Turtle and the Griffon. The concepts of Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision make about as much sense to a young child as their real life counterparts. Although they do have valuable applications for some, to a child they are only significant because society had deemed them so. How many times as youngsters did we all say, "why are we leaning this? We'll never use it in the real world." In this manner, Carroll is chiding the conventions and abstractions of "modern" society through the eyes of a young girl to which they have no "real" meaning. He formalizes this sentiment in the last paragraph where Alice's sister imagines her in the future maintaining the "simple loving heart of her childhood," as if this is commonly lost through the constant re-interpretaions of young adulthood.
And yet, by saying that the story resists interpretation, as mentioned in previous comments, I am in fact interpreting...
-jd