文學研究概論

Instructor: Kien Ket Lim The latest theories and approaches to literary studies as they are adopted today in the West will be introduced in this class. These approaches find their origins in Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, three great masters of suspicion of a century ago, and converge as present-day structuralism and post-structuralism. These will be studied via the works of theorists such as Althusser (Marxist), Foucault (historian), and Lacan (psychoanalyst), as well as Lévi-Strauss (anthropologist), Barthes (literary critic), and Derrida (philosopher). Heidegger and Ricoeur are two other philosophers to read, whereas theorists who veer off from philosophy like Bakhtin, Lukács, Benjamin, Jauss, and Baudrillard will be included. Together all the critics above are placed under the umbrella of modernity and postmodernity, a platform for the postcolonial debates to define Europe’s Other.

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GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Class attendance is mandatory. For any absences, an official leave of absence from the University Administration must be obtained at http://stuoffcourse.nycu.edu.tw/ (via https://portal.nycu.edu.tw/). 2. Classroom decorum: a. No food or beverage (except drinking water) is allowed in class. b. Unless a special permission is granted, electronic devices (laptops, tablets, iPads, etc.) are discouraged from use in class. c. Cellular phones must be switched to the flight mode. No browsing, texting, or call answering is allowed in the classroom during the class sessions or the breaks. d. No internet connection is allowed through any devices except in a presentation. e. No recording, taping, broadcasting, or photographing is allowed in class without permission. f. All precautionary protocols against the covid pandemic apply. 2. Correspondence: a. You can write your e-mail in either English or Chinese. b. Always specify your Chinese or English name in full, as well as your student’s ID, in all your correspondence. c. All course-related announcements will be sent to your e-mail address on file at the website of the NYCU Online Course Registration System (OCRS, https://course.nycu.edu.tw/) and e-Campus or E3 (http://e3.nycu.edu.tw). Keep good maintenance of your mailbox and check your mails regularly. d. Internet activities and course grades will be posted at our site at our E3 page. e. Whom to write to: write to the T.A. only if an error in your grades is suspected. Otherwise, direct all your queries to the instructor. 3. Rights. The instructor reserves the final and exclusive rights to amend any portion of the course syllabus, including the grading scale, course schedule, regulations, and instructions on assignments and term papers. Class Discussion and Participation 1. Students are expected to finish the assigned works and readings before they attend the class. They should also take part in class discussions and make the required presentations. In all cases, English shall be the only language used. 2. Students will be graded in principle by the frequency of their participation in class, as well as the quality of their inputs. 3. A student will earn 1 credit point for his or her input in class each week. The aggregate of all credit points earned will be factored into his or her “Class Participation” grade for the semester. Presentations 1. Each student is expected to do at two (2) presentations in class, one on the assigned readings, the other on an academic journal related to our course. 2. Presentations on the assigned readings: a. Pick one essay (if it is long) or a group of essays (if they are short) from any week to present in class. b. The essays that are taken by one student cannot be chosen by another. c. Your presentation should be in English, and should not exceed 15 minutes. d. Presentation aids: a 1-2 A4 page outline of the presented materials is required, though a PowerPoint file or the like visual is optional. 3. Presentation on an academic journal: a. Pick an academic journal that is related to our course and present it to the class. b. Once you have decided on your presented journal, you should send an e-mail to the instructor informing him of your choice. Type your student’s ID as your e-mail subject. For example, you type “111450088 Presented Journal.” The journal that is taken by one student cannot be chosen by another. c. Your presentation should be in English, and should not exceed 5 minutes. d. Sample journals, most of which are subscribed by our library, include (but not limited to) Camera Obscura, Critical Inquiry, Cultural Critique, Diacritics, Differences, New German Critique, etc. e. Our library’s full-text databases where we can locate them include Academic Search Elite (EBSCOhost) and JSTOR. f. Presentation aids: it is recommended that you use a laptop or tablet to make a presentation, so that the journal site can be linked up and presented. g. In your presentation, explain the merits and relevance of your presented journal. Weekly Responses 1. This assignment, to start in week 2, intends to help you prepare what you can bring up as your input to our weekly discussion in class. 2. You write each week a response to the materials designated in the “READINGS” entry. 3. Length & contents. What you write can either be a paragraph or two of 5 to 25 sentences in total, or some 5 to 25 questions and/or remarks (commands, criticisms, etc.). Remember, do not write beyond 25 sentences, and you are not writing a description, a summary, or a free association. And all internet protocols apply. 4. Make sure that you cover most, if not all, of the reading assignments in your response, but avoid writing about just one of them. 5. How to proceed. The responses must be submitted online by following these steps: a. On our page at E3, click on “Discussion” on the left. b. Click on the “Online Responses” forum of the corresponding week, such as “Week 2 Plato and Aristotle.” c. Click on the “Reply” button in the instructor’s posting to begin. d. Always type your student’s ID, to be followed by a title of your choice, in the subject slot, such as “311451088 Aristotle Is Still Relevant.” Avoid such general headings as “Afterthoughts,” “My View,” etc. e. If there should be an error in posting, post your response again and delete your earlier message(s). 6. Grading. Your response will each be graded with the scale of 1.0 to 5.0. Expect it to fall between 4.0 and 4.9 on average. If no response is posted, the grade is 0. 7. Deadline. The deadline to post your response is Sunday by 11:59 p.m. before the class. There is a grace period between 12:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. Monday. Any work posted after 12:00 p.m. Wednesday shall receive 3.5 as the highest possible grade. Midterm and Final Examinations 1. There will be no term paper to write. Instead, students will need to write take-home midterm and final papers according to the questions handed out by the instructor. 2. Midterm examination: a. Essay questions will be handed out on Monday, 10/31, in week 8. b. Students’ papers will be due on Wednesday, 11/16, by noon in week 10. 3. Final examination: a. Essay questions will be handed out on Monday, 12/12, in week 14. b. Students’ papers will be due on Monday, 12/26, by noon in week 16. 4. In each examination, students will be given not more than 5 questions, from which they choose 2 to 3 questions to answer. The length of each response essay should run between 21⁄2 and 4 pages in double spacing, footnotes inclusive. A separate page of works cited must be enclosed. 5. The latest MLA documenting style will be adopted. Other formats will be accepted upon the instructor’s approval. 6. No more than one third of your cited materials should be the materials from the internet. However, essays from the print materials available in the PDF format are not counted as electronic resources. 7. Make honesty your priority. Plagiarism of any form will not be tolerated.

Grading Scale: Class discussion and participation 15 points Presentations (5pts x 2) 10 points Weekly responses 25 points Midterm examination 25 points Final examination 25 points Total 100 points

Required texts: The Course Reader: Introduction to Literary Studies The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed., edited by Vincent B. Leitch, W. W. Norton, 2010. Recommended texts: Adams, Hazard, and Leroy Searle, editors. Critical Theory since Plato. Thomson Wadsworth, 2005. MLA Handbook. 9th ed., MLA, 2021.

地點

HC414

時間

10:30 - 12:00 PM, Thursday (by appointment)

聯絡方式

E-mail: limk@nycu.edu.tw Tel: 03-5731792, or campus extension 31792