MATX 601 (Section 001, Schedule #17827)
Virginia Commonwealth University
Fall 2017
Th 4:00pm - 6:40pm :: 330 Hibbs
Prof. David Golumbia
Office: 324D Hibbs Hall
Fall 2017 Office Hours: Thurs 12:30-3:30pm
Texts and Textuality
This course, a core requirement for the Media, Art, and Text (MATX) PhD program, explores current theories of texts and textuality, with some emphasis on the ways they relate to the study of other media and the arts. The course surveys several disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to texts, drawing on writings by major figures from literary theory, cultural studies, visual studies, and media studies. The course is taught by discussion. Evaluation is via course participation and one long seminar paper.
Texts
Texts for purchase (no specific editions are required)
- Caroline Levine, Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (Princeton UP, 2017)
- Lisa Lowe, Intimacies of Four Continents (Duke UP, 2015)
- Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (Vintage, 1993)
- Sianne Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting (Harvard UP, 2015)
All other texts will be available electronically on the web, in Blackboard, or via the library.
Assignments and
Evaluation
Evaluation will be based on written exercises and course participation as
follows:
- Paper (60%): students will write a single, publishable-quality, seminar paper, of at least 5000 words, due at the end of the term. Halfway through the term, students will write a draft of about half that length to get feedback. Students may write on any topic appropriate to the class. Specific topics will be developed in consultation with the instructor; for PhD students, students are encouraged to work on material that lies within their area of interest with an eye toward their dissertation
- Course Participation (40%): the instructor will assign a letter grade to each student reflecting their engaged participation in class during the term.
Course-Specific Policies
- Attendance. This course is taught primarily via discussion. Your
attendance and participation are vital to its success. A significant
portion of your grade (20%) depends on your class participation. "Class participation" does not necessarily mean that you have said what everyone thinks is the smartest thing in the world, but has much more to do with whether other students know your name by mid-semester because you contribute to discussion regularly. More than 4 unexcused absences will
count against your final course grade. 6 unexcused absences results in
automatic failure of the course. An "excused" absence is one where you have a verifiable illness, or important commitment of which you notify the instructor beforehand, and does not count against the unexcused absence policy. An "unexcused" absence is when you do not show up for class, without verifiable explanation or approval beforehand.
- No Late Work. No late work is accepted in this class. Work handed in
late is automatically marked down one-third grade (e.g., a B becomes a B-)
for each day it is late, and after one week becomes a failing grade for
the assignment.
- Class Preparation. You are expected to have done the primary reading and
any other primary course assignments before the beginning of course each
week.
- Honor System. All work in this course is subject to the University's
Honor System. You may work in teams for some assignments, but all
written work must be solely your own, and any reliance on published
work must be properly cited.
- Evaluations. Final grades for the course will not be released until
the entire class has submitted online course evaluations.
Official VCU Policy Statements
Please consult the Provost's official page on topics such as classroom conduct, email, the Honor System, and other important policy issues.
Week-by-Week Syllabus
Week One. Text (I)
- Thurs Aug 24.
- Roland Barthes, "From Work to Text" (1971), in The Rustle of Language (Blackboard)
- Michael Sprinker, "Textual Politics: Foucault and Derrida." boundary 2 8:3 (Spring 1980). http://www.jstor.org/stable/302962.
- Edward Said, "The Problem of Textuality: Two Exemplary Positions." Critical Inquiry 4:4 (Summer 1978). http://www.jstor.org/stable/1342951.
Week Two. Text (II)
- Thurs Aug 31.
- Jacques Derrida, "...That Dangerous Supplement...," from Of Grammatology, pp 141-164 (on Blackboard)
- Jacques Derrida, "Signature Event Context" (Blackboard)
- Henry Staten, "Writing: Empirical, Transcendental, Ultratranscendental." CR: The New Centennial Review 9:1 (Spring 2009). http://muse.jhu.edu/article/270304/pdf.
Week Three. Authorship
- Thurs Sep 7.
- Roland Barthes, "The Death of the Author" (Blackboard)
- Michel Foucault, "What Is an Author?" (Blackboard)
- Adrian Wilson, “Foucault on the ‘Question of the Author’: A Critical Exegesis.” The Modern Language Review (2004). http://www.jstor.org/stable/3738750.
Week Four. Interpretation
- Thurs Sep 14
- Edward Said, "The Return to Philology." In Said, Humanism and Democratic Criticism (Columbia UP, 2004). 57-84. (Blackboard)
- Paul de Man, "The Return to Philology." In de Man, The Resistance to Theory (Minneapolis, 1986). 3–26. (Blackboard)
- Geoffrey Galt Harpham, "Roots, Races, and the Return to Philology," Representations (Spring 2009). http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rep.2009.106.1.34.
- Jeffrey Nealon, “The Swerve Around P: Literary Theory After Interpretation.” Postmodern Culture (2007). (web)
Week Five. No class
- Thurs Sep 21. No class: instructor away
Week Six. Marxism and Materialist Interpretation
- Thurs Sep 28
- Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. required: Preface; Chapter 1, Part I; Chapter 1, Part III; Chapter 3; Conclusion; optional: remainder of book (Blackboard)
- Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature. required: "1. Base and Superstructure," "2. Determination," "4. From Reflection to Mediation," "6. Hegemony," "8. Dominant, Residual, and Emergent," "9. Structures of Feeling," "10. The Sociology of Culture" optional: chapters 3, 5, 7 (Blackboard)
Week Seven. Gender and Sexuality
- Thurs Oct 5
- required: Judith Butler, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination." In Diana Fuss, ed., Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories (Routledge 1991). 13-31. (Blackboard)
- required: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet. "Introduction: Axiomatic" (selections on Blackboard)
- required: "What Is Gender Criticism?" (333-343) and Priscilla L. Walton, "'He Took No Notice of Her; He Looked at Me': Subjectivities and Sexualities in The Turn of the Screw" (348-359) in Beidler, ed., The Turn of the Screw
- optional: read parts of Butler, Gender Trouble, that interest you
- optional: read more of Sedgwick
Week Eight. Race
Week Nine. Reading period; no class
Week Ten. Postcolonial Theory
- Thurs Oct 26.
- required: Edward Said, Orientalism, "Introduction," "Chapter 1, The Scope of Orientalism, Part I: Knowing the Oriental," and "Afterword" (complete text on Blackboard)
- required: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, Chapter 3, "History," and Appendix, "The Setting to Work of Deconstruction" (complete text on Blackboard)
- optional: Said, Orientalism, remainder of Chapter 1, "The Scope of Orientalism"
- optional: Said, Orientalism, Chapter 3, "Orientalism Now"
- optional: Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, Chapter 2, "Literature"
- optional: Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason, Chapter 4, "History"
- optional: original text of Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (very similar but not identical to version in A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (Blackboard)
- optional: do some web and library searches for responses to "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (there are many) and bring back some findings to class for discussion
Week Eleven. Forms
- Thurs Nov 2.
- Caroline Levine, Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network
Week Twelve. Visual Culture and Media
- Thurs Nov 9.
- Nicholas Mirzoeff, "The Subject of Visual Culture" (in Mirzoeff, ed., The Visual Culture Reader; complete text on Blackboard)
- WJT Mitchell, "Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture" (in Mirzoeff, ed., The Visual Culture Reader; complete text on Blackboard)
- James Elkins, "The Concept of Visual Literacy, and Its Limitations" (in Elkins, ed., Visual Literacy; complete text on Blackboard)
- John Guillory, "Genesis of the Media Concept," Critical Inquiry (2010), http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/648528
Week Thirteen. Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories
- Thurs Nov 16.
- Sianne Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting
Week Fourteen. Thanksgiving, no class
Week Fifteen. Digital Humanities
- Thurs Nov 30.
- Stephen Best and Sharon Marcus, “Surface Reading: An Introduction,” Representations (2009), http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1
- Daniel Allington, Sarah Brouillette and David Golumbia, “Neoliberal Tools (and Archives): A Political History of Digital Humanities," LA Review of Books (2016)
- Anne Burdick, Johanna Drucker, Peter Lunenfeld, Todd Presner and Jeffrey Schnapp, Digital_Humanities (2012), Chapter 1, "Humanities to Digital Humanities" (Blackboard)
- Matthew Jockers and David Mimno, "Significant Themes in 19th-Century Literature," Poetics (2013) (Blackboard)
Week Sixteen. Lowe, Intimacies of Four Continents
- Thurs Nov 30.
- Lisa Lowe, Intimacies of Four Continents
Final paper is due by the end of the final exam period, 6:40pm, Thursday, Dec 14, 2017, per the registrar's exam schedule. The paper should be submitted on Blackboard. No late papers can be accepted for the final paper assignment. There is no other final
exam for the course.
Last updated November 22, 2017.