Class Three

          September 18, 2014

Class Three:

English Studies Smorgasbord (Smörgåsbord!)

This week’s readings and Critical Exercise aimed to have us think broadly (via several chapters in the McComiskey collection) and specifically (via a scholarly journal of your choice) about the “state of the field” of English Studies.  Tonight’s conversation will necessarily range widely, but I hope we will get to cover most of the following points:

I. Linguistics and Discourse Analysis: What do these two terms mean? How would you characterize this field? What is its relationship to English Studies? What do you make of Barton’s account of the way in which she frames her research on medical discourse—why did she frame the “so what” of her argument the way she did, and for what reasons?  In other words, what meaning/questions did she feel she could get at with her research if she situated it in “English” rather than “Linguistics”?

 II. Rhetoric and Composition: Phew! This was quite a chapter.  Terms we needs to understand: multimodal, (vs.) interdisciplinary,  Why did Rhetoric become the field we know today: “Rhet/Comp”? What kinds of inquiry does this field encompass? What kinds of tensions are at work in the field? Have you ever experienced any of the approaches Lauer describes as a student? As a teacher? Where/how do cultural studies/critical theory intersect with Rhet/Comp?

III. The Big Kahuna(e): Literature and Literary Criticism/Critical Theory and Cultural Studies:  First, why are these two areas given different chapters in this volume? How is “Literature and Literary Criticism” as something different from “Critical Theory and Cultural Studies”? How does Elias make the distinction? How do you see the differences? With a partner or two, discuss the key characteristics of your assigned “school” of theory.  What are the big names associate with your “school”?  And finally, think about the article you read for CE2 today. What kind or kinds of approaches does it take to literature/the text? How might you label your article: as “literary criticism”? “Critical theory”? “Cultural studies”?

IV. Journal Outlines! We’ll read through your journal outlines to see what you found. Extra points for talking about how your journal aligns itself with the lit crit/theory/cultural studies labels.

Journal Choices for CE#2

Adam: James Joyce Quarterly

Andie: Victorian Studies

Ann-Kathrin: NOVEL: A Forum of Fiction

Danielle: English Literary Renaissance

Erica:Contemporary Literary Criticism

Erik: New Literary History

Kayli: Chicago Review

Leanne: Eighteenth-Century Fiction

Manal: Journal of Postcolonial Writing

Rachel: Hypatia

Theresa: Legacy

Tiril: Science Fiction Studies

Tyler: American Literary Realism

Discussion leaders have been added to the Schedule of Classes page.

Reflections on Class #2

We've had two class meetings so far; outlines of class discussions are below. Last night, we did not have a chance to generate a timeline for the development of the field, but as we finished class we were discussing the kinds of events that had shaped the way in which the field had developed.  Some events we mentioned included: anti-German sentiment during the WWI era ending the dominance of philology in literary study; the development of nuclear weapons leading to a renewed sense of the humanities' importance; the GI Bill leading to a huge increase in the college population and a corresponding rise of New Criticism, which, with its focus on the text itself, is well-suited to classrooms full of students who don't all share a background of cultural privilege and the knowledge base that comes with it.
What I notice here is the way in which our field is tied up in and responds to issues and events in the world outside of academe--what kinds of forces in action today will tend to shape the field as we move forward?  An increasingly digital landscape? Different global realities? New ideas about gender, bodies, and sexualities?  How do we see our field contributing to conversations and helping to shape the future? How does literature matter to and in the world?

                                   September 11, 2014

Class Two:

Shapes and Contours of English Studies

Where did English Studies come from, as a field? Where is it going? Where do we see ourselves fitting into this shifting terrain, and how can we navigate it most effectively—both intellectually as developing scholars and practically as graduate students in this department? These are the central questions for tonight’s discussion. 

I. McComiskey (Introduction) and Taylor (Ch 4) offer different but overlapping histories of English Studies.   What moments/events in the field seem especially important for literary studies?  With your neighbor, build a quick timeline of these moments/shifts.  We will compile these on the board.

II. How has literary studies organized itself (in different ways over time)? Have you taken courses that you now recognize as coming out of particular moments in the history of the field? 

III. Who counts as faculty, and how are faculty hired? Who does what jobs in English departments? How does the UMB English department reflect the field as described by McComiskey, Moore/Miller, and Taylor?

IV. Can we see evidence of these changes in the terms faculty use to describe themselves? Which terms seem especially to reflect different shifts in the field?

V. Take a look at the list of courses offered to undergraduates by our department.  How do the titles reflect different trends/moments/ideas described in our readings? With your neighbor, find courses that announce themselves as belonging to a particular historical view, belief system about English studies, and/or organizational philosophy of the field.

Class #1 Outline

ENGL 690                                                                                                                                  Klimasmith

September 4, 2014

Class One:

Introductions.  What to Expect from English 608.

I.             Syllabus

II.           Brief Introductions

III.         Graff, “Disliking Books at an Early Age”/Autobiography

In “Disliking Books at an Early Age,” Graff tells the story of his development as a reader (or non-reader), student, and finally teacher of literary texts. He confesses: “It was through exposure to such critical reading and discussion over a period of time that I came to catch the literary bug, eventually choosing the vocation of teaching.  This was not the way it is supposed to happen.”

How “did it happen” to you? What brings you to this class, to this program, to the field of English Studies?   In this light, which, if any, passages in Graff’s essay resonated with you?  We’ll write for ten minutes on these questions.

IV.            What is “the standard story of how we learn to read,” according to Graff? What des this standard story leave out or obscure? How does it impact the way we come to literary texts as readers? As teachers?

V.              Graff concludes: “The polite fiction that students will learn to make ‘intellectual moves’ by being in the presence of them for several hours a week is usually just that, a polite fiction. . . .  In short, reading books with comprehension, making arguments, writing papers, and making comments in a class discussion are social activities.  They involve entering into a cultural or disciplinary conversation, a process not unlike initiation into a social club.” What does Graff mean here? What are some the identifying characteristics of this “social club”? If reading, writing, arguing, and discussing are social activities, how should they be taught?

In class: Syllabus, Gerald Graff, “Disliking Books at an Early Age” (handouts)