2008 BM1-B Introduction to the Critical and Scholarly Discussion of Literature, Part 2

From Angl-Am
Revision as of 08:16, 20 May 2008 by Olaf Simons (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Template:BM1 Assignments

To view comments on your excerpts, click here.
To view and edit an excerpt of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, click here.
  • Wednesday 12-2pm, in A01 0-009
  • Lecturer: Anna Auguscik
  • Office Hours: Wed 16-17; A06 2-210b
  • Phone.: 789-4541
  • E-Mail: anna.auguscik@uni-oldenburg.de

The second part of the Basismodul focuses on techniques of textual analysis in the context of discussing literature. We are offering five parallel courses (supported by tutorials). Please make sure that you are registered under one of these in Stud.IP and open a wiki account which will enable you to participate in online discussions.

All parallel courses have a common structure. The texts for our courses will come from a common pool, though each course may have a different choice. You will find information relating to your course under the individual course number and lecturer.

The "analytical tools" will be presented by the lecturers (on a handout) in each meeting. The additional reading from which these 'tools' are taken is not obligatory, and it can be done either before or after each session.

Both the texts and the other materials will be made accessible to you electronically (cf. the links below) and as a master copy at Wersig. In addition you will need to purchase two books:

William Shakespeare. Antony and Cleopatra [1623]. Ed. John Wilders. Arden Shakespeare. Third edition, [1995] 2002.

  • ISBN 10-190-427101-4 ISBN 13-978-190427101-7
  • ca. 14 EUR at the CvO bookshop

Robert Louis Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde [1886]. Ed. Katherine B. Linehan. New York: Norton, 2003.

  • ISBN 10-039-397465-0 ISBN 13-978-039397465-2
  • ca. 10 EUR at the CvO bookshop

Course work: You will be asked to hand in three assignments (in week 4, 7 and 11 respectively) and produce a Research Paper Outline (due August 15 2008). The assignments are limited to a max. of 2-3 pages of text, formatted according to the style sheet, and will require you to analyse poetry, drama and fiction respectively. For the Research Paper Outline you will need to find your own topic to work on and document the preliminary work (this includes finding an appropriate title, writing a paragraph that describes your problem and your goal, and presenting a tentative table of contents as well as a short bibliography).

Tutorials will help you to practise your analysis skills and support you in doing your assignments and Research Paper Outline.


Session 09-Apr: A Poem

Texts

Blake, Jerusalem (1804)

Skills and Activities

Group work with presentations:

  1. What is poetic about this poem?
  2. What are the themes of the poem?
  3. What historical contexts?
  4. What is its cultural significance (then and later/now)?

Seminar discussion: What discourses did you employ? What traditions do they belong to? How does this relate back to the lecture of the winter term? Survey of the coming term.

Session 16-Apr: Poetry and Poetics

Analytical Tools

Texts

and

Skills and Activities

Structural approach to poetry: communicative situation, themes, metrics and language. Acquire a basic checklist of what to look (first) for in a poem. Recapitulate the basics of metrics and rhyme patterns. Recognise the features of a particular genre and genre conventions: the sonnet.

Session 23-Apr: Poetry and Poetics: Speaking about Beautiful/Artful Language

Analytical Tools

Texts

Skills and Activities

Figurative language, interplay. Spot metaphors, similes, etc. the metric pattern and valorise the points where it is broken. Reinforce basic checklist of previous week. Analyse particular features of poetic language (figures of speech, metrical effects).

     Assignment I: Poetry (Due: 30-Apr)

Session 30-Apr: Rhetoric

Analytical Tools

Texts

  • Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1623) EEBO

Skills and Activities

A speech from the Shakespeare play [assignment 1 due]

Session 07-May: Drama: Dramatic Structures

Analytical Tools

Pfister 49 - 57, 86 - 94, 126 - 147 Excerpt from Pfister

Handout: Analysing Dramatic Communication

Texts

  • Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1623) EEBO

Skills and Activities

Exposition [assignment 1 returned]

Session 14-May: Drama: Dramatic Communication

Analytical Tools

Pfister 49 - 57, 86 - 94, 126 - 147 Excerpt from Pfister

Handout: Analysing Dramatic Communication

Texts

  • Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1623) EEBO

Skills and Activities

Session 21-May: Drama: Characters and Genre Aspects

Analytical Tools

Pfister 183 - 195

Texts

  • Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1623) EEBO

Skills and Activities

     Assignment II: Drama (Due: May 28)

Session 28-May: Drama and Fiction

Analytical Tools

Texts

  • Stevenson, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)

Skills and Activities

An understanding of genres in the context of traditional poetics, and of the transition from poetic genres to literary genres. [assignment 2 due]

Session 04-June: Fiction 1

Analytical Tools

Rimmon-Kenan 72-86

Excerpt from Rimmon-Kenan

Handout: Narratology

Texts

  • Stevenson, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)

Skills and Activities

Narration, Focalisation. [assignment 2 returned]

Session 11-June: Fiction 2

Analytical Tools

Rimmon-Kenan 59-71

Handout: Narratology

Texts

  • Stevenson, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)

Film showing: June 10, 2008

Watch Fight Club with your peers and teachers

  • Venue: HS 2
  • Time: 19.45-22.15

Session 18-June: Fiction 3

Close Reading

Texts

  • Stevenson, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and/or passages from other narrative texts
     Assignment III: Fiction (Due: 25-June) 

Session 25-June: Film

Analytical Tools

  • Handout: Film Analysis
  • David Bordwell et al.; Korte, Einführung in die Systematische Filmanalyse (2000)

Texts

  • David Fincher, Fight Club (1999)

Skills and Activities

Spectacle, Narratives and Fiction. Film Analysis. [assignment 3 due]

Session 02-July: Beyond the Literary Text

Analytical Tools

Texts

Editions and Materials relating to Anthony and Cleopatra

Skills and Activities

Literary Analysis and non-literary materials, [assignment 3 returned]

Session 09-July: Term Paper Projects

Skills and Activities

Brief Report on 'Work in Progress': Your Term Paper Projects

     Term Paper Projects (Due: Aug 15)

General Advice