BA, School of English, Year 1
Critical Approaches 1 Q3120 (Autumn 2015)
Critical Approaches 2 Q3123 (Spring 2016)
Convenor: Dr Rachel O’Connell
MODULE DESCRIPTION
How do we go about reading and interpreting a literary text? What are we trying to do when
we analyse a work of literature: are we trying to establish one correct interpretation? How do
we decide that some interpretations are more valuable than others? Do we need to understand
the original intentions of the author to understand what something means? Is it necessary to
understand the historical or political situation from which a work emerged? Do readers
interpret texts differently at different historical moments? Could our interpretations of texts
be affected by forces beyond our control, forces such as the workings of language,
unconscious desires, class, race, gender, sexuality or nationality? How is it that some texts,
Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, are highly valued by our culture, while others have been
lost or devalued? Who or what decides which literature will survive to be read and studied on
English courses?
Critical Approaches I and 2 will suggest some ways of answering these large and difficult
questions about interpretation. These modules will help you think in new ways about the
work you do for your English degree at Sussex.
MODULE READING
You only need to purchase one text for Critical Approaches 1 and 2; please be sure you have
the second edition:
Leitch, Vincent and others (eds). The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (2nd
ed).New York: W. W. Norton, 2010
You must have a copy of this book with you in class at all times. It is a somewhat expensive
book; however, Critical Approaches 1 and 2 lasts a full academic year and in addition
students find that they refer to The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism again and again
throughout their degree.
Other required and recommended readings will be available online on the module’s Study
Direct site. Week by week, you must download and print out any required reading that is
provided online via Study Direct and bring it to class.
ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS
Critical Approaches 1 and 2 involve one one-hour lecture and one two-hour seminar each
week. You will be notified of times and venues via Sussex Direct. Attendance is compulsory.
If you miss a seminar because of illness or for other good cause, you should email your tutor,
if possible in advance of the class. If your attendance across all your courses falls below
80% you will be in contravention of School policy and may face permanent withdrawal from
your studies.
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of Critical Approaches 1 and Critical Approaches 2 you will be able to:
• Understand central issues in modern literary theory and criticism and put them into a
wider theoretical and historical context.
• Close read and analyse critical essays and arguments.
• Understand the ways in which these different theoretical perspectives can contribute to a
reader's interpretation of fiction, poetry, plays, and culture.
• Research, design and write a well-structured essay.
COURSEWORK AND ASSESSMENT
Definitive assessment information, including exact submission deadlines, will be published
on Sussex Direct.
Critical Approaches 1 and Critical Approaches 2 are assessed separately. For Critical
Approaches 1 you will submit a portfolio of written work; likewise, for Critical Approaches 2
you will submit a portfolio of written work. In each case, the portfolio will include three
items:
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500 word reader response
2000-word final essay
Hand-out and questions from your group presentation
You will take part in an assessed group presentation in Critical Approaches 1 and again in
Critical Approaches 2.
You may not duplicate material from your reader response or presentation in your final essay;
in other words, your reader response, presentation, and essay must all be on different topics.
Critical Approaches 1 is assessed by Module Report. This is a report completed by your
seminar tutor. The Module Report grades your work, including your preparation for, and
contribution to, seminar discussion and other in-class work. To pass the module, you must be
awarded a grade 4 or better (1 being the highest mark, 6 the lowest). Once your tutor has
completed your Module Report it will be accessible via Sussex Direct. You will receive a
single mark that encompasses the entirety of your assessed work.
In Critical Approaches 2 you receive a mark out of 100 for your portfolio and a mark out of
100 for your presentation. You final grade on the module is a weighted aggregate of these
marks. Your presentation is worth 20% of your final grade and your portfolio is worth 80%.
Your final grade is expressed as a mark out of 100.
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PRESENTATIONS AND READER RESPONSES: FURTHER INFORMATION
In group presentations, you work with a partner or in a group of three to develop a 10-20
minute presentation on the week’s reading. Each term, presentation groups will be assigned
in the first class and presentations will take place between weeks 2 and 12 of the term.
In order to prepare for your group presentation, you must familiarise yourself with the week’s
reading, meet up in person with your partner or group of three, plan your presentation, and
write up a shared hand-out. It is imperative that everyone in your pair/group takes an active
role in developing and presenting the presentation and it is imperative that one person not do
all the talking in class. You must bring enough copies of your shared hand-out to class for
everyone in the seminar group to have a copy. The hand-out must include any important
information, quotes, and key points that will help the class better understand your
presentation. You must also include a set of between three and five questions designed to
prompt class discussion (although you are NOT expected to facilitate discussion).
A copy of the hand-out and question sheet should be included in the portfolio that you hand
in at the end of each term. As indicated above in the section on Coursework and Assessment,
you may not duplicate material from your presentation as part of your final essay.
Reader responses are short arguments about one, focused aspect of a reading. A reader
response can include close readings of a theme, idea, or line from a text, the interrogation of a
particular term in the reading, or a bid to untangle a particularly perplexing concept. You
need to spend some time putting together a considered response of 500 words to the assigned
material.
Your reader response is handed in and marked halfway through each term. The reader
response is designed to help you develop your writing skills through getting feedback on your
writing from your tutor before you write your final essay. When writing your final essay, you
should pay close attention to the feedback you received on your reader response. As indicated
above in the section on Coursework and Assessment, you may not duplicate material from
your reader response as part of your final essay. A copy of your reader response should be
included in the portfolio that you hand in at the end of each term.
FURTHER READING SUGGESTIONS
The best preparation for the module is reading widely in the Norton Anthology of Theory and
Criticism, but you may also want to make yourself familiar with a few of these useful
overviews before the module begins. The books by Eagleton, and Bennett and Royle are
especially informative and entertaining theoretical overviews. (Please note that these are all
suggested readings, not required.)
Bennett, Andrew and Royle, Nicholas (eds). An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and
Theory. (4th ed.) Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2009.
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Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. 3d edition. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 2008.
Bennett, Andrew. The Author. New Critical Idiom, London: Routledge, 2005.
Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1997.
Lodge, David (ed). Twentieth Century Literary Criticism: A Reader. London: Longman,
1972.
Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan (eds) Literary Theory: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell,
1998.
MODULE OUTLINES
Below you will find a week-by-week schedule of the readings on Critical Approaches 1 and
Critical Approaches 2. Please take note of the following important points:
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You should complete the readings for each week before you attend the lecture and
seminar. The readings will be discussed in the seminar.
It is your responsibility to review the module outlines carefully and make sure you read
the right texts.
You are REQUIRED to read items that are identified as “Primary reading.” The module
outline also includes some items that are described as “Recommended readings”; these
are recommended but not required.
When particular items or essays are not specified in the list below, you are required to
read the entirety of that author’s entry in the Norton Anthology. But if a particular item or
essay is specified, you only need to read that.
Where the readings are not in the Norton Anthology but on Study Direct, you will find
them in a section on the Study Direct site entitled “Primary Readings that are not in the
Norton.”
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CRITICAL APPROACHES 1: MODULE OUTLINE
Weeks 1-3: Introduction – What is Literature? Why does it matter?
What makes some pieces of writing “literary” and others not? What kind of attention do we
pay to literary language? Do we look to it for beauty, or the ability to communicate an idea?
Do certain kinds of language demand particular kinds of attention? How has the creative
writer been valued and devalued at different historical moments?
Week 1 (21 September). Introductory Lecture
Lecturer: Pam Thurschwell
Primary reading: Eagleton, “Introduction: What is Literature?” (Study Direct); Culler, “What
is Literature and Does it Matter?” (Study Direct)
Week 2 (28 September). Renaissance Authorship
Lecturer: Andrew Hadfield
Primary reading: Sidney, “An Apology for Poetry” (Norton)
Week 3 (5 October). Romantic Authorship
Lecturer: Richard Adelman
Primary reading: Wordsworth, “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” (Norton); Andrew Bennett, "The
Romantic Author" (Study Direct); Wordsworth, “We are Seven” (Study Direct)
Recommended reading: Scott McEathron, “Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads, and the Problem of
Peasant Poetry” (Study Direct)
Weeks 4-8: Theories of Language and Meaning – Structuralism and Poststructuralism
What kind of tool is language? Does it always help us to communicate or can it hinder us as
well? How do we imagine the origin of language? What relations can we find between saying
and doing, the written world and the “real” world? What kinds of “truth” might we find in
language? Do we speak language, or does language speak us?
Week 4 (12 October): New Criticism and the Author’s Intentions
Lecturer: Pam Thurschwell
Primary reading: Wimsatt and Beardsley “The Intentional Fallacy” (Norton), Foucault “What
is an author?” (Norton), Bennet and Royle on “The Author” (Study Direct)
Recommended reading: Barthes, “The Death of the Author” (Norton)
Week 5 (19 October): Structuralism and Saussure, with some Nietzsche
Lecturer: Pam Thurschwell
Primary reading: Nietzsche “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense” (Norton), Saussure,
from Course in General Linguistics (Norton), and Jonathan Culler on Saussure (Study Direct)
Recommended reading: Eagleton: Literary Theory, Chapter 3
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Week 6 (26 October): Derrida and Deconstruction
Lecturer: Nicholas Royle
Primary reading: Derrida “Signature Event Context” (Study Direct) and J.L. Austin
“Performative Utterances” (Norton)
Recommended reading: Bennett and Royle, “The Performative” (Study Direct) and Jonathan
Culler, from On Deconstruction (Study Direct)
Week 7 (2 November): Reading and assessment week (No lecture or seminar)
Weeks 8-10: Ideology and Discourse
How do questions about economics, class, and the material base of our society affect the way
we read literature and interpret the world? Can literature illuminate power relations in the
society from which it emerges? Or does literature obscure the real conditions of our lives and
offer only escapist fantasies? Can literature and criticism change the contemporary economic
and political world or must it simply reflect it?
Week 8 (9 November): Marxist Theory
Lecturer: Sam Solomon
Primary reading: Karl Marx, extracts from The Communist Manifesto and Capital Vol 1
(Norton)
Week 9 (16 November): Theories of Ideology
Lecturer: Sam Solomon
Primary reading: Althusser (Norton)
Week 10 (23 November): Foucault and Discourse
Lecturer: Rachel O’Connell
Primary reading: Foucault from Discipline and Punish (on Study Direct – NOT the extract
in the Norton)
Weeks 11-12: Writing Skills and Module Review
This section of the module addresses writing and study skills and gives you a chance to
consolidate your knowledge of the challenging material covered in this module. Now is the
time for asking questions about your final essay; working on your writing; and reviewing any
readings that you didn’t fully get to grips with first time around.
Week 11 (30 November): Writing Skills
Lecturer: Rachel O’Connell
In class: Writing workshops and discussion of final essay
Week 12 (7 December): Module Review
No lecture
In Class: Module review
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MODULE OUTLINE: CRITICAL APPROACHES 2
Week 1: Introduction
Lecturer: Rachel O’Connell
Lecture and Film Screening: The Examined Life: Philosophy is in the Streets (Director, Astra
Taylor, 2008)
Weeks 2-5 Theories of Subjectivity, Identity, and Desire
How do we come to take on particular gender and sexual identities? How do we understand
our selves and our identities? Does sexuality have a history, or many histories? How might
desire, love or sexuality be related to how we read and interpret literature and the world
around us? What makes someone or something seem “other” to us? Is “otherness” attractive
or frightening; can it be both?
Week 2: Psychoanalysis and interpretation
Lecturer: Pam Thurschwell
Primary reading: Sigmund Freud, “The Interpretation of Dreams” (Norton); selections from
Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (Study Direct); Pam Thurschwell, chapters on
Sexuality and Interpretation from her book Sigmund Freud (Study Direct)
Week 3: Laura Mulvey and Jacques Lacan
Lecturer: Rachel O’Connell
Primary reading: Mulvey (Norton); Lacan “The Mirror Stage” (Norton)
You must also view a film this week, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. There will be no
screening; you must get hold of the film yourself. Vertigo is a well-known film that is
available in the Library and from a range of other sources.
Week 4: Constructing Gender – De Beauvoir to Butler
Lecturer: Pam Thurschwell
Primary reading: Simone de Beauvoir (Norton); Judith Butler (Norton)
Week 5: Queer Theory
Lecturer: Rachel O’Connell
Primary reading: Foucault, “The History of Sexuality” (Norton); Berlant and Warner “Sex in
Public” (Norton)
Week 6-8 Postcolonial Studies
How might the experience of being subject to imperialism and colonisation affect the way
one reads or interprets the world? Are texts “feminist,” “queer,” and/or “postcolonial”? Or is
it how we read them that is definitive? Does Barthes’s argument that “The author is dead”
need to be modified in relation to texts by women, gay, black and/or postcolonial writers?
How is it possible to ever know or understand another’s unique experience?
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Week 6: Colonial Discourse
Lecturer: John Masterson
Primary reading: Edward Said, “Orientalism” (Norton)
Week 7: Reading and assessment week (No lecture or seminar)
Week 8: Postcolonialism and Feminism
Lecturer: Denise DeCaires Narain
Primary reading: Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (Norton)
Weeks 9-12 The Contemporary Moment
What defines the way we read and think about language now? Has globalisation or social
networking affected the way we read literature? Are there universal human values that do not
change over time, or do our values shift in relation to our histories? If literature is a concept
that is shifting in relation to new forms of mediation, what does it mean to do an English
degree now? What does it mean to be part of a university now?
Week 9: Rhizomatic Thought – Networks, Mediation and Control
Lecturer: Michael Jonik
Primary reading: Deleuze and Guattari, “A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and
Schizophrenia” (Norton); Deleuze, “Societies of Control” (Study Direct); Alexander R.
Galloway and Eugene Thacker, from The Exploit: A Theory of Networks (Study Direct)
Week 10: Empire without Borders
Lecturer: John Masterson
Primary Reading: Gloria Anzaldúa (Norton); Hardt and Negri (Norton)
Week 11: Neoliberalism and Feminism
Lecturer: Natalia Cecire
Primary reading: Silvia Federici, "Reproduction and Feminist Struggle in the New
International Division of Labor" (Study Direct); Hardt and Negri, “Multitude” (Study Direct)
Week 12: Module Review – Reading in Today’s World
Lecture: roundtable with lecturers and tutors from the module
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