Summer C 2008
SummerB08 ENG3014
Critical Issues in Literary Study
Amit Rai 645 1459, WMS 226, asrai@fsu.edu
This course introduces students to various methods of contemporary cultural, media, and literary analysis. By situating different theories all within the purview of a methodological project, the emphasis will be on building a viable and pragmatic box of tools with which a practice can proceed and become?What? That ?what? is the open-ended basis of this syllabus because it depends on the particular domain of intervention that each of you negotiates and creates within and beyond this course. Those domains?all of which have durations, histories, evolutions, processes?will sometimes overlap, sometimes diverge, and always after a time dissolve. Through viewing a variety of short films and web-based media, we explore what theory can do. We begin with two early traditions of aesthetics: Brahmanic (Bharat Muni,
Natyashastra) and Aristotelian (
Poetics and
Rhetoric). We begin with one overarching question: what is the relation between representation and the body? Throughout the course, we develop concept-tools from these traditions such as representation-mimesis, plot-thought-order vs. character-surface-sensation, desire, subalternity, resonance, subjugated knowledge, pragmatism, juice-mood, stillness, becoming-being, context, subjectivity, sensory-motor circuits, and form. Through these concepts we situate contemporary Western criticism within an international and transdisciplinary frame. We will also take seriously the lessons the physical sciences offer humanistic hermeneutics (breaking down the binary of science=causality vs. humanities=interpretation) by considering the methodological implications of the non-linear, non-equilibrium dynamical theory of Ilya Prigogine, Manuel Delanda, Stuart Kauffman, and David Bohm, among others.
SummerC08 ENL3210 02
Medieval Lit in Translation
Nancy Warren 644 5077, WMS 216, nwarren@fsu.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this course, we will examine constructions of heroes and villains in a variety of medieval literary works of different genres (epic, dramatic, romance, religious, comic). We will explore how the categories of "hero" and villain" are shaped by generic expectations, by gender, and by other ideological forces. We will consider how heroes and villains make meaning in different medieval cultures, interrogating the social desires and anxieties that they manifest. Our study of literature will attend closely to historical, political, and cultural environments.
The format of this course will consist of lectures and discussion. Students should come to class prepared to engage in collaborative learning activities. Students will write a series of brief, informal response papers (1.5-2 double-spaced, word-processed pages each). Students will also take a mid-term exam and a cumulative final exam. There will also be a series of reading comprehension exercises (questions distributed for completion prior to class).
