Dr. Deborah Wyrick

Tompkins 276, office hours: T-Th 10:15-11:15, 1:30-2:30 and by appointment

e-mail: wyrick@social.chass.ncsu.edu Tel: 515-4172

Class Main Page: http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/debclass/cov541.htm

ENG 541 is designed to give English graduate students a working knowledge of major trends in contemporary literary theory. As such, it is both a 'content' and a 'methods' course. Our theoretical readings comprise the content, and you will be responsible for this content during class discussions, on occasional quizes (if needed) and on the final exam. From our readings, we will extrapolate theoretical methods, and you'll have informal as well as formal venues for experimenting with critical approaches. Another way to suggest the hybrid nature of this course is by drawing on the somewhat tired distinction between theory and practice (or between theory per se and applied theory). You will be putting theory into practice in your own writing; we'll also read a variety of applied theoretical articles about specific texts -- in particular, about Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Conducted as a seminar, this course emphasizes thoughtful, engaged class participation, including leading class discussion of theoretical texts (twice during the semester, once on your own and once as part of a small group). Class discussion will be facilitated (I hope) by your regular electronic contributions to the Net Forum (see below). You will be asked to write four short, informal response papers (1 -2 pp.) as well as two longer (e.g. 7-10 pp.) papers in which you'll use one theoretical approach to analyze an issue or problematic in Wilson Harris's Palace of the Peacock (paper #1, due at the completion of Unit Three) and in V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River (or perhaps an alternate text, such as Nalo Hopkinson's Midnight Robber (paper #2, due at the end of the semester). These two novels, among other things, are re-writings of Heart of Darkness, so our applied theoretical articles about Conrad's text can work as models for your papers. [Note: Auditors will be responsible for all classwork, including discussion-leading, plus at least two response papers; auditors do not have to write the seminar papers or take the final exam.]

As many of you know, the Department is under a copying/xeroxing embargo. Therefore, our class mainpage is crucial: it contains the syllabus, electronic reserve readings, web resources, etc. etc. You must be able to access this site (see the URL above). Web sites are always 'in progress,' so keep checking out our site (for instance, our site now has the necessary materials for Unit One, soon will have everything for Unit Two, etc.).

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--Ross C. Murfin, ed., Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, Bedford/St. Martin's ppb.) 2nd edition (1996)

--Wilson Harris, Palace of the Peacock (1960)
This book goes in and out of print. Thus it is available electronically, here on our website (see Electronic Reserve Section 8). You can try to order it if you prefer a 'real book' . . . it is part of an interrelated series of short novels by Harris called The Guyana Quartet. You can also try the library.

--V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River (or alternate text: we'll talk about this later)

--Supplementary Readings will be posted in the Electronic Reserve Room. As I have not found a 'theory anthology' worth its price, our theoretical readings will be accessible here. [Note, as of 8/18/03, there's a lot of material in the Electronic Reserve Room; a lot of it we'll use; some of it we won't; more will be added.]

--Suggestion: If you don't have something like Baldick's Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms or Harmon et al.'s A Handbook to Literature (very expensive), you might want to dig one up. The Murfin edition of Heart of Darkness has a fairly good glossary at the back; you might also be interested in Jeremy Hawthorn's A Concise Glossary of Literary Theory. Always useful as a general overview is Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory: An Introduction, although its scope is limited. .

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Informed class participation (and thus attendance) is important. Your in-class discussion (Net Forum participation, and performance on quizzes, if we have them) will count for 15% of your final grade.

Twice during the semester, you will be asked to lead class discussion (for about half an hour during the class session, once solo, once in a small group). You'll want to think about isolating key points from the assigned text, commenting about them (and relating them to other writings and theorists), and generating comments from your peers. Each discussion-leading event will count for 5% of your final grade.

You will be asked to write four short (1-2 page) response papers. These ask not for formal argument but for direct, thoughtful engagement with the texts and issues in question. (I'll try to give you options, both on the response-paper assignments and concerning which response papers you choose to write). These papers will be evaluated on the basis of this engagement and assigned a number grade ranging from 10 (excellent) on down. I would like them typed or word-processed for easy legibility (if you hand write, make sure I can read it), but they don't need the apparatus that goes with a formal paper (e.g. no MLA-style documentation). They need to be turned in on the day they're due (actually, at the beginning of the class period they're due); late work will not be accepted. These response papers will count for 20% [5% each] of your final course grade.

Around mid-term, and before the end of the semester, you will write seminar papers (around 7-10 pages each) in which you apply one of the theoretical/critical approaches we've studied to a new text (see overview, above). The two seminar papers will have to follow formal protocols, including MLA style (parenthetical documentation, end notes, and Works Cited sheet). These papers will be evaluated according to clarity, force, organization, and appropriateness of argument . . . demonstrated understanding of the theory you've chosen to work with . . . employment of textual as well as theoretical/critical evidence . . .and 'technical merit' (stylistic effectiveness, mechanical correctness, adequacy and accuracy of documentation, etc.). These papers will count for 50% of your final course grade (25% each). At the end of the semester, we will organize a mini-conference during which each of you will present one of your papers as part of a panel (this will provide professional paper-giving experience). This panel presentation will count for 5% of your grade and will serve as our final exam.

The seminar papers will receive a numerical grade, based on a 100-point scale [100-97=A+, 96-93=A, 92-90=A-; 89-87=B+, 86-83=B, 82-80=B-; 79-77=C+ and so on]. Response papers will receive 10, 9, 8 etc., as will your oral presentations. Your final course grade will also be determined via this numerical scale.

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Thanks to the friendly folks at the library, we have a Net Forum/Web Conference Site for ENG 541. It can be found at:

http://courses.forum.ncsu.edu/cgi-bin/netforum/eng541/a/1

[Note: these things are still in process as of 8/18/03 . . . I'll need to purge the netforum of responses from my last graduate class, and I'll need to get your 'real' e-mails from you.] I'd like you all to try it as soon as possible -- first just to see how it works (it doesn't seem to matter what format you send in your messages). What you might do first is use it to introduce yourself (your interests [in theory and otherwise], your background, your plans for the future) to your classmates and to me. After the first week of class, we'll have more specific things to do on the Net Forum.

I've set up an E-mail page for our class, from which you can contact people individually or as a group. You can access it by pressing its site address:

mail02

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My posted office hours are 10:15 to 11:15, 1:30 to 2:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ll also be happy to schedule appointments at other, mutually convenient times. I’m often in my office outside of office hours; please knock and see if I’m there (I keep the door closed most of the time to avoid hall noise). If you need to get in touch with me otherwise, the most reliable way is through e-mail (I heartily dislike playing phone tag); my e-mail address is: wyrick@social.chass.ncsu.edu. I have e-mail access at home, so I try to check it once a day.

It should go without saying that faithful attendance, keeping-up-with-the-reading, and informed participation are crucial to success in a graduate course. Unavoidable absences (of the university-approved kind: sickness, death of immediate family member, court appearances, NCSU-related travel) do occur; if you know about something in advance (such as a court date or professional conference attendance), tell me about it early so we can make arrangements for the work due during that time. In the case of unplanned absences (e.g. illness), let me hear from you as soon as possible.

If you need to bring something to drink or to snack on in order to insure alertness, please do so. Please do not bring activated cell phones or pagers to class; they are rude and disruptive (I guess the machines aren’t rude; people who use them or allow them to make noise in class are rude).

Faculty members expect all students to be acquainted with the University policy on academic integrity. Plagiarism entails using another person's ideas without providing the proper documentation for them and can result in failing the paper, failing the course, and/or being put on Academic Integrity Probation for the remainder of your academic career at NCSU; cheating includes put is not limited to copying from another student's test, receiving unauthorized help on take-home work, and re-submitting a paper previously submitted for credit in another class. If you have any questions about plagiarism or cheating, please read the university's Code of Conduct, sections 7 through 13, and feel free to consult with me as well.

It is university policy to provide, on a flexible and individualized basis, accommodations for students who have disabilities that may affect their capacity to participate in course activities or meet course requirements. For more on such services, go to the Policies and Rules page, Disabilities Services for Students. It is students' responsibility to register with DSS; after having done so, students with disabilities should contact me as soon as possible to discuss their individual needs for accommodations so that those needs can be met in a timely manner.

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Illustration: "Malembo, God of the Crossroads"
Wifredo Lam, Cuba, 1943, Oil on Canvas