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Introduction to Interpretation
260-222 Introduction to Interpretation
Time: TTh 9-10:30 Instructor: Dr. Hollis Robbins
Place: B28 Office: Centre Street, #33
hrobbins@jhu.edu
I. Course Objectives:
This course will help you to develop reading and writing skills, to expand your understanding of aesthetic and rhetorical principles, and to introduce you to the discipline of literary study. You will learn how to read and interpret literary texts from poetry, short fiction, and novels to drama and film. You will be introduced to traditional interpretive approaches and theories and learn to be active (as opposed to the passive) readers. You will develop a critical vocabulary to help you read and interpret literary texts, to articulate your own points of view, and locate your own positions within current theoretical debates. This course will help you to improve your paper-writing skills for all future classes at Peabody.
II. Course Requirements:
Attendance
Weekly writing exercises (1-2 pages)
Two analytical papers (4-6 pages, 6-8 pages)
Occasional quizzes
Final exam
Grade: Your grade will be calculated as follows:
Class Participation: includes attendance, paper-reading, possible quizzes, contributions to class discussion, individual and group conferences: 25%
Weekly papers: 7 papers; top 5 will count for a grade: 30%.
Two papers: Midterm paper on single-text analysis and interpretation (15%), final paper on text/author, text/text, or text/context analysis (30%) Total: 45%.
Writing Policy:
All papers should be double-spaced, numbered, with your name on every page. Neatness and excellence in punctuation, spelling, and grammar should always be a goal. You will frequently be asked to read your weekly papers aloud to the class on Friday and you should be prepared to discuss your work, defend your work, and accept both criticism and praise from your fellow students.
All written work should be your own. This means that either: A) you are telling me what you think, or B) you are telling me what you think about what someone else thinks—which means you will tell me where you found this person’s opinion, when and where he/she expressed it, and how it is related to your own opinion. You may embrace someone else’s opinion, but you cannot pass it off as your own. This is called plagiarism and it is wrong.
The specific requirements of your weekly papers and your two analytical papers will be included in the Elements of Argument handout you will receive on the first day of class.
III. Required Texts:
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night.
Nabokov, Vladamir. Lolita.
Reader
Recommended Works/Websites:
Lanham, Richard A. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1991.
http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory
http://rhetoric.byu.edu/
Schedule and Reading
Week 1 Intro & terms
T Jan 16 Intro to Concepts: Text, Domain of Analysis, Thesis, Evidence
Assignment: short paper on a figure of speech, due 1/18
Th Jan 18 Art of Poetry: genres, poetic forms, stanzas, rhyme schemes
First Weekly Paper Reading
Week 2 Philosophy of Rhetoric and Terms
T Jan 23 Reading poetry: Yeats’ “Second Coming”
Th Jan 25 Weekly paper reading “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop”
Week 3 Working with a Single Text: The Sonnet
T Jan 30 Reading a poem: William Wordsworth, “Nuns Fret Not” (Reader)
Short reading on Siegfried Sassoon “Glory of Women” (Reader)
Th Feb 1 Reading a poem: Robert Frost, “Design”
Week 4 Single Text: The Poem
T Feb 6 W.H. Auden “Musee des Beaux Arts” (Reader)
Th Feb 8 Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach” (Reader). Weekly papers
Week 5 Single Text: The Play
T Feb 13 Reading a play: Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night
Th Feb 15 More TN; Weekly Papers
Assignment: short paper on TN due next March 1
Week 6 No Classes – Auditions – but finish “Twelfth Night”
Week 7 Single Text: The Novel
T Feb 28 Reading Nabokov: Lolita
Th Mar 1 Continue Lolita; Weekly papers
1st Paper Due Twelfth Night
Week 8 Single Text: The Novel
T Mar 6 Reading Nabokov:
Th Mar 8 Reading Nabokov:
Week 9 No Class: Spring Break!
Week 10 Working with Two Texts
T Mar 20 Weekly Paper Reading: Lolita
Th Mar 22 Reading Three Texts by Langston Hughes
Week 11 Working with Two Texts
T Mar 27 Wilfred Owen “Dulce et Decorum Est”
Th Mar 29 Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
Week 12 Relationship between Text and Context
T Apr 3 See “The Big Lebowski” (1998) (Showings TBA)
Th Apr 5 Discussion: “The Big Lebowski”
Discuss 2nd Paper (Due April 30)
Week 13 Text and Context
M Apr 10 Discuss film as text.
W Apr 12 Auden, “September 1, 1939”
Week 14 Relationship between Text and Author
T Apr 17 Flannery O’Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (Handout)
Th Apr 19 Discuss O’Connor
Week 15 Text and Tradition
T Apr 24 Phillis Wheatley “On Being Brought from Africa to America”
Th Apr 26 Paul Dunbar “The Poet”
2nd Paper Due
Wrap-up and exam
Time: TTh 9-10:30 Instructor: Dr. Hollis Robbins
Place: B28 Office: Centre Street, #33
hrobbins@jhu.edu
I. Course Objectives:
This course will help you to develop reading and writing skills, to expand your understanding of aesthetic and rhetorical principles, and to introduce you to the discipline of literary study. You will learn how to read and interpret literary texts from poetry, short fiction, and novels to drama and film. You will be introduced to traditional interpretive approaches and theories and learn to be active (as opposed to the passive) readers. You will develop a critical vocabulary to help you read and interpret literary texts, to articulate your own points of view, and locate your own positions within current theoretical debates. This course will help you to improve your paper-writing skills for all future classes at Peabody.
II. Course Requirements:
Attendance
Weekly writing exercises (1-2 pages)
Two analytical papers (4-6 pages, 6-8 pages)
Occasional quizzes
Final exam
Grade: Your grade will be calculated as follows:
Class Participation: includes attendance, paper-reading, possible quizzes, contributions to class discussion, individual and group conferences: 25%
Weekly papers: 7 papers; top 5 will count for a grade: 30%.
Two papers: Midterm paper on single-text analysis and interpretation (15%), final paper on text/author, text/text, or text/context analysis (30%) Total: 45%.
Writing Policy:
All papers should be double-spaced, numbered, with your name on every page. Neatness and excellence in punctuation, spelling, and grammar should always be a goal. You will frequently be asked to read your weekly papers aloud to the class on Friday and you should be prepared to discuss your work, defend your work, and accept both criticism and praise from your fellow students.
All written work should be your own. This means that either: A) you are telling me what you think, or B) you are telling me what you think about what someone else thinks—which means you will tell me where you found this person’s opinion, when and where he/she expressed it, and how it is related to your own opinion. You may embrace someone else’s opinion, but you cannot pass it off as your own. This is called plagiarism and it is wrong.
The specific requirements of your weekly papers and your two analytical papers will be included in the Elements of Argument handout you will receive on the first day of class.
III. Required Texts:
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night.
Nabokov, Vladamir. Lolita.
Reader
Recommended Works/Websites:
Lanham, Richard A. A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1991.
http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory
http://rhetoric.byu.edu/
Schedule and Reading
Week 1 Intro & terms
T Jan 16 Intro to Concepts: Text, Domain of Analysis, Thesis, Evidence
Assignment: short paper on a figure of speech, due 1/18
Th Jan 18 Art of Poetry: genres, poetic forms, stanzas, rhyme schemes
First Weekly Paper Reading
Week 2 Philosophy of Rhetoric and Terms
T Jan 23 Reading poetry: Yeats’ “Second Coming”
Th Jan 25 Weekly paper reading “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop”
Week 3 Working with a Single Text: The Sonnet
T Jan 30 Reading a poem: William Wordsworth, “Nuns Fret Not” (Reader)
Short reading on Siegfried Sassoon “Glory of Women” (Reader)
Th Feb 1 Reading a poem: Robert Frost, “Design”
Week 4 Single Text: The Poem
T Feb 6 W.H. Auden “Musee des Beaux Arts” (Reader)
Th Feb 8 Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach” (Reader). Weekly papers
Week 5 Single Text: The Play
T Feb 13 Reading a play: Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night
Th Feb 15 More TN; Weekly Papers
Assignment: short paper on TN due next March 1
Week 6 No Classes – Auditions – but finish “Twelfth Night”
Week 7 Single Text: The Novel
T Feb 28 Reading Nabokov: Lolita
Th Mar 1 Continue Lolita; Weekly papers
1st Paper Due Twelfth Night
Week 8 Single Text: The Novel
T Mar 6 Reading Nabokov:
Th Mar 8 Reading Nabokov:
Week 9 No Class: Spring Break!
Week 10 Working with Two Texts
T Mar 20 Weekly Paper Reading: Lolita
Th Mar 22 Reading Three Texts by Langston Hughes
Week 11 Working with Two Texts
T Mar 27 Wilfred Owen “Dulce et Decorum Est”
Th Mar 29 Randall Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
Week 12 Relationship between Text and Context
T Apr 3 See “The Big Lebowski” (1998) (Showings TBA)
Th Apr 5 Discussion: “The Big Lebowski”
Discuss 2nd Paper (Due April 30)
Week 13 Text and Context
M Apr 10 Discuss film as text.
W Apr 12 Auden, “September 1, 1939”
Week 14 Relationship between Text and Author
T Apr 17 Flannery O’Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (Handout)
Th Apr 19 Discuss O’Connor
Week 15 Text and Tradition
T Apr 24 Phillis Wheatley “On Being Brought from Africa to America”
Th Apr 26 Paul Dunbar “The Poet”
2nd Paper Due
Wrap-up and exam
