E 791A: THEORIZING THE DISCIPLINE


Schedule

 

This syllabus is subject to change. The latest version on this website is the binding syllabus.

Office: Bartlett 259
Office Hours: Wed and by appointment.
545-6598 | sharris@english.umass.edu

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

W 1:00pm - 3:30pm

WEEK 7: No class
15 October

 

We follow a Monday schedule today.

In the interim, consider the major changes in Socialist theory outlined by Wilson. What is he suggesting ought to be the basis of civil society, and how does literature contribute to that aim? Should literature or criticism contribute to that aim; if so, how? and by whose authority do we judge?

Consider the portrait of Lenin reading Chekhov, "Ward No. 6." Consider, too, Wilson's racializing of Lenin and Marx (pp. 372-73, p. 428)? Is there anything of Marxist theory left in Wilson's 1940 summation?

 

How was Wilson's book received by readers in the 1940's, 50's, and 60's? Who was reading it?

READ

1) To the Finland Station , Edmund Wilson (NYRB, 2003), pp. 199-484.

2) Marxism and Literary Criticism, Terry Eagleton (Univ. California, 1976).