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E 791A: THEORIZING THE DISCIPLINE
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| This syllabus is subject to change. The latest version on this website is the binding syllabus. |
Office:
Bartlett 259 |
W 1:00pm - 3:30pm
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WEEK 2:
Amherst College Library Meet at Archives & Special Collections, Frost Library, Amherst College. |
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In this class, we will be introduced to the principles of textual criticism. The aim is to observe how the material aspects of literary culture reflect larger cultural ideas, designs, and habits. Topics for discussion might include the assessment of cultural information from bindings and texts, the structure of libraries, libraries as institutions, patterns of knowledge, the architecture of research, and so forth.
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READ 1) Beowulf, trans. Heaney. Pay close attention to the Introduction. Consider the political purposes to which the 1000 year-old text is being put. We will discuss how texts are renewed within contemporary contexts, reread, revalued, and reshaped. Consider also how closely Heaney's thematic readings depend upon particular translations. 2) Handout: Jonathan Myerov, "Lines 3074-3075...," Anglia 118 (2000): 531-555. 3) Handout: Robert Darnton, "The Heresies of Bibliography," New York Review of Books (29 May 2003): 43-45. |
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