English 301:  Criticism

Professor Joseph Conte

Spring 2007

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bulletJan 16:       Introduction:  Critical Opinion; Critical Position; and Validation.
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Jan 18:       Critical Theory and Postmodern Fiction.  “Introduction,” A Postmodern Reader (vii-8).

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Jan 23:       Hans Bertens, “The Postmodern Weltanschauung and its Relation to Modernism,” A Postmodern Reader (25-70).

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Jan 25:       Jean-François Lyotard, excerpt from The Postmodern Condition, A Postmodern Reader (71-90).

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Jan 30:       Paul Auster, City of Glass.

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Feb 1:        Paul Auster, City of Glass.

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Feb 6:        Paul Auster, City of Glass.

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Feb 8:        Paul Auster, City of Glass.  Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, “Paul Auster’s City of Glass,” (UB Learns).

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Feb 13:      Jacques Derrida, “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences,” A Postmodern Reader (223-42).

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Feb 15:      Linda Hutcheon, “Beginning to Theorize Postmodernism,” A Postmodern Reader (243-72).  MLA Citation Style and Works Cited.

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Feb 20:      Fredric Jameson, excerpt from “Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,” A Postmodern Reader (312-32).

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First essay due in class, 5-7 pages.

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Feb 22:      Jean Baudrillard, “The Precession of Simulacra,” A Postmodern Reader (342-75).

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Feb 27:      In the ruins of the future.  Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis.

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Mar 1:       Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis.

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Mar 6:       Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis.

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Mar 8:       Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis.

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Mar 13:     Spring Recess

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Mar 15:     Spring Recess

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Mar 20:     Michel Foucault, excerpts from The History of Sexuality, A Postmodern Reader (333-41).

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Mar 22:     Barbara Creed, “From Here to Modernity:  Feminism and Postmodernism,” A Postmodern Reader (398-418).

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Mar 27:     One woman’s tale.  Kathy Acker, Don Quixote.

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Second essay due in class, 5-7 pages.

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Mar 29:     Kathy Acker, Don Quixote.

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Apr 3:        Kathy Acker, Don Quixote.

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Apr 5:        Kathy Acker, Don Quixote.

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Apr 10:      Cornel West, “Black Culture and Postmodernism,” A Postmodern Reader (390-97).  bell hooks, “Postmodern Blackness,” A Postmodern Reader (510-18).

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Apr 12:      Houston A. Baker, Jr., “Hybridity, the Rap Race, and Pedagogy for the 1990s,” A Postmodern Reader (538-50).

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Apr 17:      Thomas Kuhn, “The Resolution of Revolutions,” A Postmodern Reader (376-89).

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Apr 19:      Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto:  Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century” (UB Learns).

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 Apr 24:     Donna Haraway, “Cyborg Manifesto.”

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 Final research paper, 8-10 pages.

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Apr 26:      Conclusions and evaluations.

Required Texts:

Acker, Kathy.  Don Quixote.  New York:  Grove Atlantic, 1989.
Auster, Paul.  City of Glass.  New York:  Penguin, 1987.
DeLillo, Don.  Cosmopolis.  New York:  Scribner, 2004.
Natoli, Joseph, and Linda Hutcheon, eds.  A Postmodern Reader.  Albany:  SUNY Press, 1993.

All texts for the course can be found at Talking Leaves Bookstore, 3158 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214; (716) 837-8554. 

Course Requirements:

Attendance in class and participation in discussion for English 301 is mandatory; two 5-7 page papers and a research paper of 8-10 pages.

Papers:   Neatly printed copies must be presented in class on the day indicated on the syllabus.  These copies should adhere to the following format:  a cover page with a title for your essay, your name, the course number and title, the date; typed, double-spaced with one-inch margins; all pages numbered; stapled.  The paper should be proofread for grammatical and typographical errors. 

Late policy:  Late assignments will be accepted only by prior arrangement with me.  Failure to seek approval before the due date will result in a penalty of one grade increment per class meeting. 

Plagiarism:  All secondary materials, either from print or online sources, must be properly attributed.  Plagiarism of a paper—either in whole or in part, especially including sources downloaded from the Internet—will result in an immediate failure for the assignment, or the course, at the instructor’s discretion.

Attendance:  Noted on a daily basis.  Absence from more than four classes during the course of the semester will result in a final grade deduction, up to and including failure for the course, at the instructor’s discretion.

Grading:  50% for the two papers; 40% for the critical essay; and 10% for attendance and participation in the class discussion list.


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Last revised on Thursday, November 30, 2006
Copyright © 2006 Joseph M. Conte.  All Rights Reserved.