2012 AM The Role of the Critic

    PLEASE NOTE: THIS PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. NOT ALL INFORMATION IS VERIFIED AND RELIABLE YET.

• Time: Wed, 8:00 - 10:00
• Venue:
• Lecturer: Anna Auguscik
• Combination: as literary/cultural studies course in AM 2b, 5, 10, 11

• Course Description: In our age of Amazon consumer reviews and a free digital blogosphere, the role of the critic has come under criticism itself. Is there a plaidoyer to be made in favor of criticism? And what is it that a critic does? In this course, we will take a look at the role of the critic in literary discourse and its changed conceptions. By looking at a number of internal and external statements, historical and contemporary, we will try to understand which function a critical statement has both in reference to a book and the profession of the critic. We will especially look at criticism in reference to the two following books: Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003), and DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little (2003). Please, make sure to purchase and read these novels in advance. Your reading of them is prerequisite to the course.

• Students should purchase and read in advance (both available at the CVO-bookshops):

• Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003)
• DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little (2003)

• Additional materials for preparation, as well as the detailed syllabus, will be made available here.

• Course Requirements

• for 3 KP: regular attendance and an oral contribution in the form of a presentation
• Requirements for 6 KP: as above, with a term paper of ca. 10 pp. based on the topic of the presentation.
• Requirements for 9 KP: as above, with a term paper of ca. 15-20 pp. based on the topic of the presentation.
• As part of the "Aktive Teilnahme" regulation:

    Die aktive Teilnahme besteht aus folgenden Komponenten
    - regelmäßige Anwesenheit: max. 3 Abwesenheiten und gegebenenfalls Nacharbeit
    - Vor- und Nachbereitung des Seminarstoffs (z. B. Protokolle, Aufgaben, Vorbereitung/Lektüre von Texten) 
    - Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Fragestellung aus dem Problembereich des Seminars, z.B. durch:
      *Übernahme von Impulsreferaten und 
      *(nur falls Seminararbeit angestrebt, verschriftlicht, ansonsten als Teil der Präsentation) 
       Entwicklung einer Research Paper Outline im Laufe des Semesters (die Zeitangaben verstehen sich als Empfehlungen): 
       Wahl eines Themenbereichs (3.-5.Woche), Eingrenzung (ca. 8.-10.Woche), 
       Abstract mit Fragestellung inkl. Forschungsbibliographie (RPO) (ca. 12.Woche), 
       Vorstellung der Fragestellung in der letzten Semestersitzung.

18.04.12: Introduction - Criticism & the Arts

critic, n.1

    1. One who pronounces judgement on any thing or person; esp. one who passes severe or unfavourable judgement; a censurer, fault-
       finder, caviller.
    
    1598    Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iii. i. 171,   I that haue been loues whip‥A Crietick, nay, a night-watch Constable.
    1598    J. Florio Worlde of Wordes,   Those notable Pirates in this our paper-sea, those sea-dogs, or lande-Critikes, monsters of men.
    1606    T. Dekker Newes from Hell To Rdr. sig. A4v,   Take heed of Criticks. they bite (like fish) at any thing, especially at bookes.
    1692    E. Walker tr. Epictetus Enchiridion xlix,   Nor play the Critick, nor be apt to jeer.
    1702    Eng. Theophrastus 5   How strangely some words lose their primitive sense! By a Critick, was originally understood a good 
            judge; with us nowadays it signifies no more than a Fault finder.
    1766    J. Fordyce Serm. Young Women (1777) I. iv. 192   We are never safe in the company of a critic.

    2. One skilful in judging of the qualities and merits of literary or artistic works; one who writes upon the qualities of such works; 
       a professional reviewer of books, pictures, plays, and the like; also one skilled in textual or biblical criticism.
    
    1605    Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning i. sig. K3v,   Certaine Critiques are vsed to say‥That if all Sciences were lost, 
            they might bee found in Virgill.
    1697    R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris Introd. 7   To pass a Censure on all kinds of Writings, to shew their Excellencies and 
            Defects, and especially to assign each‥to their proper Authors, was the chief Province‥of the Ancient Critics.
    1780    Johnson Lett. to Mrs. Thrale 27 July,   Mrs. Cholmondely‥told me I was the best critick in the world; and I told her, that 
            nobody in the world could judge like her of the merit of a critick.
    1825    Macaulay Milton in Edinb. Rev. Aug. 306   The poet, we believe, understood the nature of his art better than the critic [sc. 
            Johnson].
    1870    B. Disraeli Lothair (new ed.) xxxv,   You know who the Critics are? The men who have failed in Literature and Art.

    3. Comb. (freq. in appositive use).
    
    1680    Earl of Rochester et al. Poems 16   A great Inhabiter of the Pit; Where Critick-like, he sits and squints.
    1754    W. Cowper in W. Hayley Life W.C. (1803) I. 16   This simile were apt enough, But I've another, critic-proof!
    1906    Westm. Gaz. 29 Sept. 14/2   There have been murmurs‥against the critic-dramatist.
    1938    H. Read Coll. Ess. Lit. Crit. i. i. 17   When such a critic-poet attempts to probe down into such a fundamental question as 
            the form and structure of poetry.
    1965    Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 11 40   Critic-centred comments on the text.

(Second edition, 1989; online version December 2011. <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/44587>; accessed 23 February 2012. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1893.)

09.05.12: Contemporary Criticism:

   [Specify research interest until 10 May]

27.06.12: Criticism & the Digital Age

• Criticism & the Digital Age I: Critics vs. Bloggers?
• Criticism & the Digial Age II: Amazon and the Amateur Critic

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/apr/02/criticsvbloggerswhollwin
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2006/nov/20/theblogospheretakesonthep

    [Hand in RPOs until 01 July]

Bibliography

Reading Material

• Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) incl. reviews/articles
• DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little (2003) incl. reviews/articles

and

Tools

• Handout: Traditions in our discourse about literature

Further Reading

• Huet: A Treatise of Romances and their Original (1672)
• John Dryden:"Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy" (1679)
• Nicholas Boileau: The Art of Poetry (1683)
• Alexander Pope: "An Essay on Criticism" (1711)
• Arnold, Matthew. "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time". (1864)
• Wilde, Oscar. The Critic as Artist. (1889)
• Woolf, Virginia. Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown (1924)
• I.A. Richards: Principles of Literary Criticism (1924)
• Barbara Smith: "Towards a Black Feminist Criticism" (1977)
• Elaine Showalter: "Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness" (1980)
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism (1989)
• Wayne Koestenbaum: Engendering Men: The Question of Male Feminist Criticism (1990)
• Tobias Döring, Uwe Schäfer, Mark Stein (eds.). Can “The Subaltern” Be Read? The Role of the Critic in Postcolonial Studies. ACOLIT Special Issue No. 2. Frankfurt a.M.: Institut für England- und Amerikastudien, 1996.