E491: History of Literary Criticism

"Spotlight" Response Instructions and Schedule

Al Drake | 520 Hum. M/W 12:00-1:00 | ajdrake@ajdrake.com

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Each class, several students will offer informal responses to a different study question about the text/s we are discussing that day. Early in the semester, students will sign up in advance for three different study questions, each on a different author, and will discuss those questions on the appropriate day. Responses need not take more than about 2-3 minutes, not including time for others' remarks. There is no need to turn in anything, but it might be useful to write an outline or make notes.Your assessment of the author's claims is always a valid addition to the question. If you come to an office hour or email me beforehand, I can offer suggestions.

This component will be worth 10 % of the course grade. I am not going to judge responses finely, provided that you have put some effort into them. It's important that you attend class on the days for which you sign up. Logistics make it impractical to do a makeup with the original response, though you can do another response later. Below is a list containing three things for each session: the authors we will discuss, the particular study questions I've chosen for discussion (with short description), and the names of the responders. The author hyperlinks below send you to the study question pages for the respective authors--they contain the full version of questions.

Week 1

W. 08/25. Plato. Ion. (Click on author hyperlinks for the full questions)

Plato Q.1 (Socrates' Analogy) Bridget Nolan.
Plato Q.4 (Interpreters of Interpreters) Laura Karels.
Plato Q.5 (Defending Ion) _____________.

Week 2

M. 08/30. Plato. Republic, Books II, III, VII, X.

Plato Q.13 (Cultural education) Christina Lang.
Plato Q.18 (Cave allegory's implications) Kevin Acevedo.
Plato Q.19 (Socrates a poet?) _____________.

W. 09/01. Plato's Phaedrus; Aristotle's Poetics.

Plato Q.27 (Is art dangerous?) Jesse La Tour.
Aristotle Q.3 (Pleasure in painful sights--why?) Vesna Barrett.
Aristotle Q.8 (Tragic "action") _____________.

Week 3

M. 09/06. Labor Day Holiday.

W. 09/08. Aristotle. Poetics.

Aristotle Q.10 (Poetry versus history) _____________.
Aristotle Q.12 (Recognition/reversal--why important?) William Reynolds.
Aristotle Q.15 (Improbability and art) Erika Martinez.

Week 4

M. 09/13. Horace. Ars Poetica.

Horace Q.0 (Your rules on a cultural practice) Marc Trujillo.
Horace Q.2 (Language/art's durability) Chris Black.
Horace Q.10 (Source of poetry) Bridget Nolan.
Horace Q.18 (What can a million artists do?) Laura Karels.

W. 09/15. Plotinus. "On the Intellectual Beauty" (Fifth Ennead)

Plotinus Q.2 (Artist's power or function) Laura Karels.
Plotinus Q.5 (Defending the material world) Kevin Acevedo.
Plotinus Q.10 (What does art do for us?) Jesse LaTour.

Week 5

M. 09/20. Augustine / Aquinas / Dante. Norton selections.

Augustine Q.4 (Figurative language--why acceptable?) Collin Hill.
Aquinas Q.5 (God and figurative language) Ray Marquez.
Dante Q.3 (Interpret a Divine Comedy passage) Alex Tolj.

W. 09/22.

Sidney. "An Apology for Poetry" (326-40, 348-50).

Sidney Q.1 (Poetry as distinctive craft) Josh Brannon.
Sidney Q.4 (Poetry and pleasure--what connection?) Angel Cruz.
Sidney Q.11 (Plato's authority--used or abused?) Chris Black.

Week 6

M. 09/27. Du Bellay and Corneille. Norton selections.

Du Bellay Q.2 (Reinterpreting Roman imperialism) Jack Phillips.
Corneille Q.1 (Corneille's ideal spectator) _____________.
Corneille Q.6 (On the unity of time) _____________.

W. 09/29. Pope. "An Essay on Criticism."

Pope Q.3 (Art and nature) Collin Hill.
Pope Q.6 (Imitating the ancients) Ray Marquez.
Pope Q.10 (Critical tolerance/ancients & moderns) Olga Garcia.
Pope Q. 14-15. (Critics and audience, etc.) Vesna Barrett.

Week 7

M. 10/04. Johnson. Norton selections.

Johnson Q.5 (Dr. J's model audience/yours) _____________.
Johnson Q.7 (Streaking the tulip--detail in art) Collin Hill.
Johnson Q.11 (Defending Shakespeare's genre-benders) Olga Garcia.

W. 10/06. Hume. "Of the Standard of Taste."

Hume Q.3 (Refuting opponents of universal taste) Jack Phillips.
Hume Q.5 (Delicacy of taste--Quixote example) Christina Lang.
Hume Q.12 (Finding fault with other cultures) Marc Trujillo.

Week 8

M. 10/11. Kant. Critique..., Bk I: "Analytic of the Beautiful."

Kant Beautiful Q.6 (Demand for agreement about beauty) Krystal Ruvalcaba.
Kant Beautiful Q.9 ("Sensation" in aesthetic judgments) Alex Tolj.
Kant Beautiful Q.11 ("Common sense"/purposiveness) Benjamin Brueseke.

W. 10/13. Kant. Critique..., Bk II: "Analytic of the Sublime."

Kant Sublime Q.14 (Why is beauty more important than sublimity?) David Banuelos.
Kant Sublime Q.23 (Art and nature's workings) Angel Cruz.
Kant Sublime Q.24 (Genius--how defined?) Kevin Acevedo.

Week 9

M. 10/18. Lessing. Laocoon.

Lessing Q.2 (Against Winckelmann's view of Greeks) Josh Brannon.
Lessing Q.4 (Comparison with Aristotle) _____________.
Lessing Q.7-8 (Poetry and painting) Krystal Ruvalcaba.

W. 10/20. Schiller. Aesthetic Education of Man, Letters 2, 6, 9.

Schiller Q.3 (Reason and civilization) _____________.
Schiller Q.6 (Schiller on Kant) David Banuelos.
Schiller Q.11 (What is art's burden and potential?) Krystal Ruvalcaba.

Week 10

M. 10/25. Hegel. "Master-Slave Dialectic."

Hegel Master-Slave Q.1 (Why is struggle necessary?) William Reynolds.
Hegel Master-Slave Q.4 (Lord's problem following struggle) Chris Black.
Hegel Master-Slave Q.5/6 (Bondsman's consciousness, work) David Banuelos.

W. 10/27. Hegel. Lectures on Fine Art, "Intro."

Hegel Fine Art Q.9 (Why is art superior to nature?) Angel Cruz.
Hegel Fine Art Q.12 (Classical art-form's limitations) _____________.
Hegel Fine Art Q.14 (Romantic art's point of failure) John Davies.

Week 11

M. 11/01. Wordsworth. "Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802)."

Wordsworth Q.2 (Proper incidents and situtations) Bridget Nolan .
Wordsworth Q.5 (Meditative/poetic process) John Davies.
Wordsworth Q.8 ("Savage torpor's" causes) _____________.

W. 11/03. Wordsworth. "Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802)."

Wordsworth Q.13 (Poet's relation to society) Alex Tolj .
Wordsworth Q.14 (Poetry versus science) Jesse LaTour .
Wordsworth Q.15/16 (Poet's mind, other minds) Erika Martinez.

Week 12

M. 11/08. Coleridge. Statesman's Manual; Biographia Literaria.

Coleridge Q.6/7 (Fancy, imagination, imitation) Christina Lang.
Coleridge Q.8/9 (Primary and secondary imagination) John Davies.
Coleridge Q.12 (Poem's parts and whole) _____________.

W. 11/10. Shelley. "A Defense of Poetry."

Shelley Q.1 (Poets' awareness of their importance) Ray Marquez.
Shelley Q.13 (Analysis of modernity) _____________.
Shelley Q.15 (Inspiration theory) . Jack Phillips.

Week 13

M. 11/15. Marx-Engels. German Ideology; Grundrisse; Preface....

Marx-Engels Q.3 (Hegel's influence on Marx) _____________.
Marx-Engels Q.9/10 (Bourgeoisie's development and distinctiveness) Alex Engebretson.
Marx-Engels Q.14 (Manufacturing new desires) _____________.
Marx-Engels Q15. (Modern globalism and Marx) Erika Martinez.

W. 11/17. Arnold. "Function of Criticism...."

Arnold Q.3 (Criticism and creativity) _____________.
Arnold Q.6 (Criticism's goals, why English don't appreciate criticism) William Reynolds.
Arnold Q.8 (Refutation of opponents, Arnold's social vision) _____________.

Week 14

M. 11/22. Holiday Recess.
W. 11/24. Holiday Recess.

Week 15

M. 11/29. Baudelaire. The Painter of Modern Life.

Baudelaire Q.3 (The artist as flâneur) _____________.
Baudelaire Q.6 ( Definition of modernity) Benjamin Brueseke.
Baudelaire Q.9 (Artifice versus nature) _____________.

W. 12/01. Nietzsche. "On Truth and Lying...."

Nietzsche Q.3 (Social contract theory) Marc Trujillo.
Nietzsche Q.4 (Language falsifies the world--how so?) Alex Engebretson.
Nietzsche Q.7 (The "artistically creative subject," consciousness, art) Benjamin Brueseke.

Week 16

M. 12/06. James. "The Art of Fiction."

James Q.3 (Novel and "real life") Olga Garcia.
James Q.5 (Novel and morality) Alex Engebretson.
James Q.7 (Post-modern novels versus C19 realism) _____________.

W. 12/08. Mallarmé. "Crisis in Poetry."

Mallarmé Q.2 (How does ordinary language disappoint us?) _____________.
Mallarmé Q.3 (How does the poetic liberate us from disappointment?) _____________.
Mallarmé Q.4 (Music as the ideal for poetic language--why?) _____________.