An open thread on Arcadia. What do you make of its representations of the relationships between writers and literary critics? Of its representations of reading? What else interests you here?
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There’s no official poster for White Noise, so I thought I’d simply open the floor for discussion. The novel’s very conscious (not to mention critical) of many of the movements in literary theory we’ve studied this semester, and I’m curious what kinds of interesting connections you’re finding as you read…
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Hi, all. A quick note: today’s class is going to meet in the classroom in the ITS building. Enter the building, take a left at the help desk, and head all the way down the hall to the last door on the left. See you there.
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In case you missed it, or lose yours, I’ve posted the paper 3 assignment on the syllabus, and will also link it here. Do come see me if you have any questions — and don’t forget your research question for Wednesday.
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A reminder that you should be reading and commenting on The Golden Notebook this weekend. Many thanks to mercurylanes for leaving some great comments on one of the sites; I’ll look forward to seeing what the rest of you have to say. Please let me know sooner rather than later if you’re having any problems with the commenting function…
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As you’ll have noticed, I forgot when I was talking about tomorrow’s class that I’d made the (very, very wise) decision at the beginning of the semester to cut the Lukacs essay from the syllabus. So it’s just Eagleton.
This, however, constitutes the opening of your on-blog discussion of Eagleton. What’s unexpected in the essay? What catches your attention? What gets under your skin?
Posted in course info, discussion
I hope that your session in the library yesterday was productive. I’ve been enjoying reading your first essays thus far, and look forward to hearing about your second papers.
I do, however, have one request for all of you: as you send me documents, or as you upload them to Sakai, please be sure to save them as “.doc” files — that is, as files that are compatible with versions of MS Word prior to 2007/2008. “.docx” files are incompatible with my system, and require me to jump through several conversion hoops, the sum of which wind up breaking all of your formatting.
So: yes on “.doc”; no on “.docx”. Many thanks, and have a great weekend!
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Yes, it’s that time. I’ll be handing this out in class this morning, but I’m also posting it here for your convenience. Let me know if you have questions!
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We’re going to be spending tomorrow’s class with Henry James’s “In the Cage.” What I’d like to ask you to consider here is the extent to which this narrative serves as an allegory of reading. Which of the essays we’ve read to this point in the semester does “In the Cage” intersect with? How does the novella represent the act of reading?
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Time for a little compare/contrast: what objections do Fish and Jauss raise against the formalist/new critical approach to literary analysis? How do they similarly and differently attempt to account for the reader in their view of criticism?
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