English 486: History of Criticism

Professor Tobin Siebers

Course Description

Special emphasis: past thiry years
Major moments:

• Romanticism
• Modernism
• New criticism
• Deconstruction
• Feminism
• Multiculturalism

Questions:

How has the nature of the literary text changed over time?

What types of reading are permissible, when, why, and by whom?

Is literature capable of providing insights into life?

Or is literature the product of blinding ideologies that seek to control us?

Can a text be gendered, and what happens when a reading is cross-gendered?

Is a multicultural reading possible, if a reader is monocultural?

Course Methodology

• Lecture and discussion
• Student participation, with one class per week turned over entirely to students. Heavy Emphasis
• Written discourse:
• weekly, short think-sheets,
• choice of two mid-size papers or project
• Attitude: ardor!

January 2000

1.5 Introduction to history of criticism

William Wordsworth, "Preface to the Lyrical Ballads" (1802)

Resources

Ferguson, Frances. WORDSWORD: LANGUAGE AS COUNTER-SPIRIT. New Haven, 1977.

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Romantic/lbprose.html#preface

1.10 Samuel Coleridge

Selections from BIOGRAPHIA
LITERARIA (1817)

Resources

Calleo, David P. COLERIDGE AND
THE IDEA OF THE MODERN
STATE. New Haven, 1966.

Fruman, Norman. COLERIDGE:
THE DAMAGED ARCHANGEL.
New York, 1971.

Lockridge, Laurence S.
COLERIDGE THE MORALIST.
Ithaca, 1977.

1.17 Matthew Arnold

• "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" (1864)
• "Sweetness and Light," from CULTURE

AND ANARCHY (1869)

Resources

Neiman, Fraser. MATTHEW
ARNOLD. New York: Twayne,
1968.

Robbins, William. THE ETHICAL
IDEALISM OF MATTHEW
ARNOLD. London: William
Heinemann, 1959.

Trilling, Lionel. MATTHEW
ARNOLD. New York: Columbia,
1949.

1.24 Marxism: Karl Marx

• Selections (c.1844)
• Terry Eagleton, "Literature and History" (1976)

Resources

Eagleton, Terry. MARXISM AND
LITERARY CRITICISM. Berkeley:
California, 1976.

Jameson, Fredric. MARXISM AND
FORM. Princeton: Princeton, 1972.

http://english-server.hss.cmu.edu/marx/

1.31 New Criticism

• W. K. Wimsatt, "The Intentional Fallacy" (1946)
• Cleanth Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase" (1947)

Resources

Graff, Gerald. "What Was New Criticism?" LITERATURE AGAINST ITSELF. Chicago: Chicago,
1979.

_____. POETIC STATEMENT AND CRITICAL DOGMA. Evanston: Northwestern, 1970.

Krieger, Murray. THE NEW APOLOGISTS FOR POETRY. Bloomington: Indiana, 1969.

Lentricchia, Frank. "The Place of Frye's Anatomy." AFTER THE NEW CRITICISM. Chicago: Chicago, 1980.

Siebers, Tobin. "The Ethics of Autonomy." THE ETHICS OF CRITICISM. Ithaca: Cornell, 1988.
 

home /  Bibliography /486

February 2000

2.7 Structuralism

• Roland Barthes, "From Work to Text"
• Michel Foucault, "What is an Author?" (1969)

Resources

Culler, Jonathan. STRUCTURALIST POETICS. Ithaca: Cornell, 1975.

Descombes, Vincent. "Structuralism." MODERN FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. Cambridge:
Cambridge, 1979.

Lentricchia, Frank. "Structuralism." AFTER THE NEW CRITICISM. Chicago: Chicago, 1980.

2.14 American Deconstruction

• J. Hillis Miller, "What is Deconstruction?" (1986)
• Paul de Man, "Semiology and Rhetoric" (1979)

Resources

Arac, Jonathan, Wlad Godzich, and Wallace Martin, eds. THE YALE CRITICS:
DECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA. Minneapolis: Minnesota, 1983.

Brooks, Peter, Shoshana Felman, and J. Hillis Miller. 'THE LESSON OF PAUL DE MAN.' YALE
FRENCH STUDIES 69 (1985).

Gasché, Rodolphe. "Deconstruction as Criticism." GLYPH 6 (1979): 177-215.

Hamacher, Werner, Neil Hertz, and Thomas Keenan, eds. RESPONSES: ON PAUL DE MAN'S
WARTIME JOURNALISM. Lincoln: Nebraska, 1989.

Leitch, Vincent. DECONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM: AN ADVANCED INTRODUCTION. New York: Columbia, 1983.

Norris, Christopher. DECONSTRUCTION: THEORY AND PRACTICE. New York: Methuen, 1982.

Said, Edward. "Roads Taken and Not Taken in Contemporary Criticism." THE WORLD, THE
TEXT, AND THE CRITIC. Cambridge: Harvard, 1983.

Siebers, Tobin. THE ETHICS OF CRITICISM. Ithaca: Cornell, 1988.

_____. "Language, Violence, and the Sacred: A Polemical Survey of Critical Theories." STANFORD FRENCH REVIEW 10.1-3 (1986): 203-220.

_____. "Paul de Man and the Rhetoric of Selfhood." NEW ORLEANS REVIEW 13.1 (1986): 5-9.

Waters, Lindsay and Wlad Godzich, eds. READING DE MAN READING. Minneapolis:
Minnesota,1989.

2.21 French Feminisms

• Hélène Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa" (1976)
• Luce Irigaray, "This Sex Which is Not One" (1977)

Resources

Jardine, Alice. GYNESIS. Ithaca: Cornell, 1985.

Moi, Tori. SEXUAL/TEXTUAL POLITICS. New York: Methuen, 1985.

Showalter, Elaine, ed. THE NEW FEMINIST CRITICISM. New York: Pantheon, 1985.

Smith, Paul and Alice Jardine, ed. MEN IN FEMINISM. New York: Methuen, 1987.

Feminist Theory & Criticism: http://twine.stg.brown.edu/projects/hypertext/landow/SSPCluster/FemTheory.html
 

VACATION February 26 to March 5

home / Bibliography /486

March 2000

3.6 Anglo-American Feminisms

• Elaine Showalter, "Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness" (1981)
• Peggy Kamuf, "Replacing Feminist Criticism" (1981)
• Nancy K. Miller, "The Text's Heroine: A Feminist Critic and Her Fictions" (1981)
• Peggy Kamuf and Nancy K. Miller, "Parisian Letters: Between Feminism and Deconstruction" (1989)

3.13 Discourse and Gender Theory

Samuel Delaney, "The Rhetoric of Sex, the Discourse of Desire" (1994)

3.20 Multiculturalism

• Rey Chow, "Where Have All the Natives Gone?" from WRITING DIASPORA

(1993)
• Ted Gordon and Wahneema Lubiano, "The Statement of the Black Faculty Caucus"

(1990)
• Catharine R. Stimpson, "On Differences" (1990)

Resources

Bernheimer, Charles, ed. COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE AGE OF MULTICULTURALISM. Baltimore: JHU Press, 1995.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakrovorty. THE POST-COLONIAL CRITIC. Ed. Sarah Harasym. New York:
Routledge, 1990.

3.27 Multiculturalism Continued

• Katha Pollitt, "Why Do We Read?" (1991)
• Tobin Siebers, "Sincerely Yours" (1996)

April 2000

4.3 The Limits of Literary Criticism Continued

Paisley Livingston, "Literary
Explanations," from LITERARY
KNOWLEDGE (1988).

Resources

Graff, Gerald. "English in America." LITERATURE AGAINST ITSELF Chicago: Chicago, 1979.

Ohmann, Richard. ENGLISH IN AMERICA. New York: Oxford, 1976.

Siebers, Tobin. COLD WAR CRITICISM AND THE POLITICS OF SKEPTICISM. New York:
Oxford, 1993.

4.10 The Limits of Literary Criticism Continued

René Girard, "Theory and its Terrors" (1989) home / Bibliography /486

INTRODUCTORY BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR E486

HISTORY OF CRITICISM

PROFESSOR TOBIN SIEBERS

General Online Resources:

http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/

http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/indiv/scctr/online.html

WORDSWORTH

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits

COLERIDGE

Fruman, Norman. COLERIDGE: THE DAMAGED ARCHANGEL. New York, 1971.

Lockridge, Laurence S. COLERIDGE THE MORALIST. Ithaca, 1977.

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits

MATTHEW ARNOLD

Robbins, William. THE ETHICAL IDEALISM OF MATTHEW ARNOLD. London: William
Heinemann, 1959.

Trilling, Lionel. MATTHEW ARNOLD. New York: Columbia, 1949.

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits

MARX

Jameson, Fredric. MARXISM AND FORM. Princeton: Princeton, 1972.

http://english-server.hss.cmu.edu/marx/

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits

THE NEW CRITICISM

_____. POETIC STATEMENT AND CRITICAL DOGMA. Evanston: Northwestern, 1970.

Krieger, Murray. THE NEW APOLOGISTS FOR POETRY. Bloomington: Indiana, 1969.

Lentricchia, Frank. "The Place of Frye's Anatomy." AFTER THE NEW CRITICISM. Chicago: Chicago, 1980.

Siebers, Tobin. "The Ethics of Autonomy." THE ETHICS OF CRITICISM. Ithaca: Cornell, 1988.

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits

STRUCTURALISM

Descombes, Vincent. "Structuralism." MODERN FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. Cambridge:
Cambridge, 1979.

Lentricchia, Frank. "Structuralism." AFTER THE NEW CRITICISM. Chicago: Chicago, 1980.

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits

DECONSTRUCTION

Brooks, Peter, Shoshana Felman, and J. Hillis Miller. 'THE LESSON OF PAUL DE MAN.' YALE
FRENCH STUDIES 69 (1985).

Gasché, Rodolphe. "Deconstruction as Criticism." GLYPH 6 (1979): 177-215.

Hamacher, Werner, Neil Hertz, and Thomas Keenan, eds. RESPONSES: ON PAUL DE MAN'S
WARTIME JOURNALISM. Lincoln: Nebraska, 1989.

Leitch, Vincent. DECONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM: AN ADVANCED INTRODUCTION. New York: Columbia, 1983.

Norris, Christopher. DECONSTRUCTION: THEORY AND PRACTICE. New York: Methuen, 1982.

Said, Edward. "Roads Taken and Not Taken in Contemporary Criticism." THE WORLD, THE
TEXT, AND THE CRITIC. Cambridge: Harvard, 1983.

Siebers, Tobin. THE ETHICS OF CRITICISM. Ithaca: Cornell, 1988.

_____. "Language, Violence, and the Sacred: A Polemical Survey of Critical Theories." STANFORD FRENCH REVIEW 10.1-3 (1986): 203-220.

_____. "Paul de Man and the Rhetoric of Selfhood." NEW ORLEANS REVIEW 13.1 (1986): 5-9.

Waters, Lindsay and Wlad Godzich, eds. READING DE MAN READING. Minneapolis:
Minnesota,1989.

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits

FEMINISM

Moi, Tori. SEXUAL/TEXTUAL POLITICS. New York: Methuen, 1985.

Showalter, Elaine, ed. THE NEW FEMINIST CRITICISM. New York: Pantheon, 1985.

Smith, Paul and Alice Jardine, ed. MEN IN FEMINISM. New York: Methuen, 1987.

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits

MULTICULTURALISM

Spivak, Gayatri Chakrovorty. THE POST-COLONIAL CRITIC. Ed. Sarah Harasym. New York:
Routledge, 1990.

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits

LIMITS OF LITERARY CRITICISM

Ohmann, Richard. ENGLISH IN AMERICA. New York: Oxford, 1976.

Siebers, Tobin. COLD WAR CRITICISM AND THE POLITICS OF SKEPTICISM. New York:
Oxford, 1993.

General / Wordsworth / Coleridge / Arnold / Marx / New Criticism / Structuralism / Deconstruction / Feminism / Multiculturalism / Limits