Course Description

INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDIES SEMINAR

SUMMER SEMESTER 2023/2024

Consultation hours: in person or online, by email appointment

Email: daniela.theinova@ff.cuni.cz

NB: Scroll below to access reading materials and questions/assignments for each upcoming class.

Link to the Moodle site of prof. Pilný’s Introduction to Literary Studies lecture: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=12354

OBJECTIVES
The general aim of the seminar is to improve students’ reading and interpreting skills. Students are provided with an opportunity to test out in practice some of the knowledge gained in the lecture and to discuss the critical terms with which they were acquainted. The seminar also includes several sessions focused on the use of some basic terms of poetics in an analysis of specific poems. Formal properties of the academic essay are applied in the students’ final written projects.

SYLLABUS – SUMMER SEMESTER 2023/24

THE SCHEDULE AND THE SELECTION OF READING MATERIALS IN THE SYLLABUS IS TENTATIVE; please scroll below to find an updated reading list and questions for each week.

Week 1 – 20. & 21. 2. 2024
Intertextuality & a discussion on AI in research and academic writing
(leftovers from the winter semester)

Week 2 – 27. & 28. 2. 2024
Introduction Summer Semester: course requirements, assignments, prose and approaches to interpretation

Week 3 – 5. & 6. 3. 2024
Narrative: Plot, Story and Discourse I
Texts:
Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”
Clarice Lispector, “The Smallest Woman in the World”

Week 4 – 12. & 13. 3. 2024
Narrative: Plot, Story and Discourse II
Texts:
Guy de Maupassant, “The Necklace”
Katherine Mansfield, “A Dill Pickle”

Week 5 – 19. & 20. 3. 2024
Narrative: Character
Texts:
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations Chapter 8
James Joyce, “Clay” from Dubliners

Week 6 – 26. & 27. 3. 2024 – NO CLASS

Week 7 – 2. & 3. 4. 2024
Narrative: Space, Time and Meaning
Texts:
E.M. Forster, A Passage to India, Chapter 1
Kate Atkinson, Life After Life (excerpt)

Week 8 – 9. & 10. 4. 2024
Narrators and Narrative Situation I
Texts:
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible (extracts)
Sinead Morrissey, “My Life According to You”

Week 9 – 16. & 17. 4. 2024
Narrators and Narrative Situation II (Focalization)
Texts:
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 1
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, Chapter 1

Week 10 – 23. & 24. 4. 2024
Narrators and Narrative Situation III
Texts:
Rivka Galchen, “The Lost Order”
Tessa Hadley, “Surrogate”

Week 11 – 30. 4. & 1. 5. 2024 – NO CLASS
Representation of Consciousness
Texts:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Prologue

Week 12 – 7. & 8. 5. 2024
NB: ESSAYS must be uploaded on the course site by 10 May. Essays must be typed (as a WORD DOC not a PDF) and uploaded on the course Moodle site. For further instructions see below.

Week 13 – 14. & 15. 5. 2024
Approaches to Text & Conclusions
Text: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” + critical essays posted on Moodle

MATERIAL
Recommended Reading:

Aristotle. Poetics. 

Cuddon, A.J. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (London: Penguin, 1992).

Fludernik, M. An Introduction to Narratology (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009).

Green, K. and J. LeBihan. Critical Theory and Practice (London: Routledge, 1996).

Hobsbaum, P. Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form (Abingdon: Routledge, 1996).

Montgomery, M. et al. Ways of Reading (London: Routledge, 1992).

Pavis, P. Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998).

Preminger, A. and T.V.F. Brogan. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

ATTENDANCE
Students are expected to attend classes. YOU ARE PERMITTED A MAXIMUM OF TWO ABSENCES.

PARTICIPATION
Participation extends beyond mere attendance. Expect your instructor to keep track of how often you contribute, particularly during the class discussions of assigned readings and/or minor written assignments.

MID-TERM ESSAY

(see the PDF below for Essay Guidelines)

Select ONE of the following texts:
Jennifer Egan, “Sacred Heart”
Flannery O’Connor, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”
Alice Walker, “Everyday Use”
Neil Jordan, “Night in Tunisia”

AND address ONE of the following topics in relation to the text you have chosen:

1. Identify narrative structures in the text. Discuss narrative structures in relation to the central elements of the text (e.g., how are narrative structures – as, for instance, narrative voice, point of view – used to develop the central concerns of the text?).

2. What is the role of literary allusions in the text? To what extent are allusions central to the structural semantics of the text?

3. Comment on the relationship between historical context and the formal/thematic features of the text.

4. To what extent can the text be considered ‘political’ and in what sense could the language of the text be seen to function politically?

NB: The minimum length for the essay is 1 500 words, the maximum length is 1550 words (the word limit includes the MAIN TEXT OF THE ESSAY AND FOOTNOTES; it excludes the BIBLIOGRAPHY). Essays must include full footnotes and bibliographical references for all works cited or paraphrased (in accordance with the UALK Chicago Guidelines). Emphasis will be placed on depth and sophistication of argument, and upon the component of original research (3 to 5 secondary sources). Students are advised not to use Internet sources in place of adequately researching texts available in print or via the Charles University eResources Portal. Essays must be presented with attention to correct spelling and stylistics. Plagiarism (including essays produced or partly produced by AI) will not be tolerated and may result in a fail grade.

The DEADLINE for the submission of essays is 10 May 2024 (11:59 p.m.).

Essays must be typed in WORD format (or an equivalent; NO PDFs) and uploaded on the course Moodle site. Contact me by e-mail (prior to the deadline) if you encounter difficulties uploading your paper.

Extensions will only be granted on the basis of a consultation or written request accompanied by a doctor’s certificate. Students are advised that they may, at the lecturer’s discretion, be given the option of re-submission where essays have failed to achieve a satisfactory standard of argumentation. However, any rewrites must be submitted (by email to daniela.theinova@ff.cuni.cz) by 5 September 2024.

FINAL TEST
(Only for single-subject students; see below for details.)

ASSESSMENT

Double-subject Students
WS (zápočet): Attendance (max. 2 unexplained absences) and active participation in class, mid-term essay: interpretation of poetry (1 500 words).
SS (zápočet): Attendance (max. 2 unexplained absences) and active participation in class, mid-term essay: narrative analysis (1 500 words).
Criteria of Assessment: All assignments will be awarded a letter grade. Credit (zápočet) for each semester will be given on the basis of receiving a pass grade (i.e., A to C-) for both essay and participation.

Single-subject Students:
WS (zápočet): Attendance (max. 2 unexplained absences) and active participation in class, mid-term essay: interpretation of poetry (1 500 words), final test on poetics and genre definitions.
SS (zápočet, zkouška): Attendance (max. 2 unexplained absences) and active participation in class, mid-term essay: narrative analysis (1 500 words), final test on narrative strategies and approaches to text (literary theories).
Criteria of Assessment: All assignments will be awarded a letter grade. Credit (zápočet) for each semester will be given on the basis of receiving a pass grade (i.e., A to C-) for essay, test and participation each. The final exam grade (after the summer semester) will be calculated from the results in the individual assignments.

Composition of Final Exam Grade for Single Subject Students

Value of Individual Letter Grades Awarded for Assignments

Conversion of Grades to a Final FFUK Exam Grade

Example:
A student’s performance has been graded as follows:
Participation winter semester                      A-      = 9
Participation summer semester                   B       = 8.5
Essay winter semester                                A-      = 22.5
Essay summer semester                             C       = 18.75
Test winter semester                                   C      = 11.25
Test summer semester                                B      = 12.75
The final exam grade is                            2 (B-) = 82.75%