Tuesday

10 - 12
D3107
Seminar

1 - 3
D1105
Full Program
Lecture

Download week one pre-readings: pdf (these are the Fish & White essays)

Readings:
For Tuesday

(Seminar) 10-12
Stanley Fish's "Consequences"
(available to download here soon)
Fish is responding to an Essay published in Critical Inquiry, "Against Theory." We read this as a dip into a mini-crisis of American LIterary Criticism and Theory.
also
Curtis White's essays: "What's Next or Italo Calvino and the Literature of Monstrous Possibility" and "The War Against Theory." (available to download soon here) Further somewhat contemporary context for our explorations of theory.

Finally, our central text for this week is Beckett's Stories and Texts for Nothing. This book really demands a couple readings. In our discussions, we'll do the closest reading of some of the Texts, while theStories provide a significant structural backdrop. Those of you who have read/studied Beckett already might especially want to contribute your knowledge of his other works to the Wiki.

Lecture (1-3)
We'll conduct the week's business on Tuesday afternoon but also try to stick to the basics. Steven will talk about about Theory, non-Theory, and the pursuit of Nothing.

Assignment: Toward the Zero Point —description.... completed by Saturday evening.

Thursday

3-5
C2107/09
Full Program
Seminar

5 - 7
Full Program
E1105
Lecture

Additional Reading for Thursday: Eagleton's "Afterword" from Intro to Lit Theory.

Seminar (3-5) on Thursday will be focused on the Beckett. You should also have read Eagleton's Afterword from Intro. to Literary Theory.

We'll start seminar separated into our respective sections, then blend them for part of our discussion.

There will be some set of breaks in this 3-7 block, but not a meal-length break.

Lecture (5-7)
The afternoon lecture is a great chance to follow up and refocus after seminar, to dig deeper into the text, ask lingering questions and also expand our collective inquiry.

Friday

11 - 4
LIB 0406
Study - Studio

Studio
16-credit students will meet in the Library.

We'll have a brief seminar on the theory texts (Fish, White, Eagleton) then set to work on the task of expanding our knowledge of the field by wiki-jigsaw, with each student responsible for some immediate research and writing on a chosen topic.

Go to Theory Wiki.

This task will be done before we leave.

Your work time will be my "office hours" --so, I'll be planted somewhere in the library hoping to talk with whomever wants to sit for a minute or wants help with the task.

Saturday

4 - 6
Full Program
A1107
Workshop

Workshop (4-6)

Bring your Rituals assignment.

Some of our time this evening will likely be on program business, answering questions, setting up next week, etc,

We'll also be trying to get you to know each other more, to think about ways you might form small work groups.

about
class
times