我做了什麼?文學中的知識與錯誤(文類課:其他)

This course will examine the problematic interactions between experience, action, and knowledge. We will read (mostly narrative) literary works that address problems of action, knowledge, knowledge of the self, and error. To the casual observer, these works might be taken to be so many detective stories. Nothing is less certain. Thus, we will flirt mercilessly with that generic convention, as well as the not unrelated convention of the tragic, but we will refuse to allow ourselves to mistake either for truth, since it is the truth we will seek. The relationship between literature and other discourses presumably concerned with truth (e.g. philosophy and something like science) also will be at stake, but above all we will address the ways in which these texts thematize and formalize problems of the relationship between knowledge, self-knowledge, action, and error—how they are about these problems, and how they create these problems for us as we confront them. In other words, we will think critically about what literary texts mean, but also how they come to have the meanings they arguably have. We will consider their meaning(s) as a field of contestation: open to interpretive debate. Strengthening our interpretive and argumentative skills by engaging in such interpretive debates will be a primary aim. Along the way, we will accrue a broad sense of the history of literature in the western world as one of the modes whereby cultures represent themselves to themselves. The syllabus is subject to revision at the discretion of the instructor.

Course open to undergraduate DFLL students. Students should have advanced proficiency in reading, writing, and oral communication in English.

Seminar (dialogue, student presentations, lecture, discussion). Attendance is necessary but not sufficient for success in this class. Active participation is mandatory; otherwise, your grade will suffer. No cell phones or electronic devices are allowed during classroom discussions. The weekly reading notes will be a record of your reactions and responses to the weekly reading. They can be very informal; they are merely a way to ensure that you engage scrupulously with the reading, and as a way to help you produce notes that will assist you as you prepare both for class discussions and for your essays. The weekly notes will be due at the end of each class and will be returned immediately—I will not grade them for their content (unless it is evident that they have no real substance), but merely will confirm that you have been taking diligent notes and making a record of your thoughts about each reading. The weekly reading notes that you take on each text should be prepared as a separate .doc or .pdf file, and should include the following: – Questions that you want to raise about the text, concerning both the meaning of the text and ways in which the language of the text produces that meaning – New or unfamiliar vocabulary (and your interpretations of how this vocabulary is contributing to the meaning of the story) – Interpretive reactions, assessments, and associations Only in extremely extraordinary circumstances will late work be accepted. If something does arise make sure to contact me no less than 48 hours prior to the deadline. Although last minute computer problems do occur, they are not an acceptable excuse—please factor the possibility of such inadvertent glitches into your preparation for the assignment.

Grading 1. Attendance and Participation: 20% 2. Midterm Examination: 25% 3. Weekly Reading Responses: 20% 4. Final Examination: 35% Two points will be subtracted from final grade for every unexcused absence. Makeup work for excused absences may be required.

Required [Where possible, online copies of materials will be made available]: –Sophocles I: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, David Grene and Richard Lattimore, eds. (University of Chicago Press) –Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (Oxford World’s Classics) –Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, Sigmund Freud (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster) Other figures who may be included to supplement our discussions: Aeschylus, Ovid, Apuleius, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Heinrich von Kleist, Herman Melville, Emily Brontë, Franz Kafka, Can Xue

地點

HC410

時間

Wednesdays by appointment

聯絡方式

cfs.creasy@gmail.com