Winter 2007
English 790:  Foundations of Contemporary Critical Theory
Focal issue: Theories of consciousness and its representation
MW 11:30 - 1:18
Denney Hall 245
Instructor:  David Herman
Office: 409 Denney (office hours MW 2:15 - 3:30 and 5:30 - 6:00; also by appointment)
Phone: 292-6123; e-mail: herman.145[at]osu.edu

Web address for this syllabus: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/ENG790.html

Course Description:
Welcome! This course will use the issue of consciousness to explore foundations of contemporary critical theory. The course has four main goals. First, we will sample early work in psychology, phenomenology, and psychoanalysis that proved foundational for later theories of consciousness. Second, we will connect these early investigations with subsequent treatments of the problem of consciousness in a variety of critical frameworks, such as deconstruction, ideological critique, reader-response criticism, and narrative theory. Third, we will explore links among these critical theories and other contemporary discourses concerned with the nature of consciousness, including cognitive and social psychology, philosophy of mind, and other fields. And fourth, we will put ideas from this whole tradition of inquiry into dialogue with representations of consciousness in a number of "practice texts"--texts that will be used to explore the possibilities and limitations of the various theoretical traditions under discussion.

Required Texts (Available at SBX):
 + Items available online or else on electronic reserve via Carmen (http://carmen.osu.edu). All items on e-reserve are marked "ER" on the course schedule below; click here to see a list of these items along with complete bibliographic citations for each one.

Other Resources
Unfortunately, given our limited time-frame we can only scratch the surface of a large and growing body of work, published in many fields, related to the focal issue of our class: theories of consciousness and its representation. The following additional resources--some of them available online--may prove useful to you should you wish to explore in greater depth some of the topics that we will be touching on this quarter. Other relevant sources are included among the items for Further Reading listed in the back of S. Blackmore's Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction (see pp. 135 and following):
 Assignments:
1.  Active class participation. I conceive of this class as a collective endeavor, so your attendance and participation are crucial for the success of the course.

2. To enrich your reading and responses, you will be required to write five short (500-word) position papers on five different days of your choice. The papers are due in class on the day that we discuss the theoretical framework on which you are writing. In composing your position papers, you can follow one of several routes: (a) paraphrasing and explicating the argument of one of the readings assigned for the day you in turn in your paper, and indicating what in your view constitute the limitations as well as the possibilities of that argument; (b) engaging in the same exploration of an argument's possibilities and limitations by comparing and contrasting one of the assigned readings with a previous reading (one that you have not already written a position paper about); or (c) putting the assigned reading into dialogue with the assigned practice text, exploring aspects of the text that the theoretical approach to consciousness can help illuminate as well as aspects that the approach is less able to account for.
   Please use a "+/- 10%" rule for all your papers: they should be between 450 and 550 words. Use the word-count tool in your word-processing program and type in the number of words at the end of each paper. Save these papers, and at the end of the quarter you should turn in the papers arranged in chronological order in a folder so that I can review your work.

3.  Leading part of a class-discussion (a sign-up sheet will be distributed so that you can choose a particular class meeting). To fulfill this requirement, you will need to consider (and share with the class) strategies for putting one or more of the theoretical sources assigned that day into dialogue with the practice text also assigned for that part of the class. You should be prepared to speak for about 15-20 minutes on ways in which dialogue of this sort might be promoted; discussion leaders will also field questions and comments from the class during/after their presentation. The primary goal is to give you practice at orchestrating class-discussions--and to make you more comfortable with sharing your ideas publicly--for the portion of the session that you lead.
    While preparing your remarks, think about ways in which the theoretical framework(s) for studying consciousness can be used to generate productive interpretations of the practice text. Conversely, consider how the text can throw light on both the possibilities and the limitations of the theoretical model(s). Short handouts outlining the main points of your presentation and/or listing key quotations can be effective communicative tools. 

4.  An abstract (around 250-300 words and double-spaced) corresponding to items 5 and 6 below. Abstracts should (a) state and describe the research problem you are addressing; (b) situate that problem in the context of previous scholarship devoted to the issue you intend to explore; and (c) indicate how your own approach to this problem will advance or enrich or refine prior scholarship in this connection. Please include a title and a tentative bibliography. Abstracts are due Wednesday, February 21. For webpages containing abstracts written by OSU students for colloquia held in previous courses, use the following URLs:
5.  A 15-minute (= approximately 8-page) conference paper for oral delivery at the inaugural English 790 Graduate Colloquium (all submissions guaranteed acceptance). The Colloquium will be held in two "waves," one during the last day of class and a second during another, extra class-meeting that we will set up for sometime in the final week of classes (date and time TBA).

6.  A paper corresponding to items 4 and 5, about 15-20 pages. The paper is to be turned in (along with the folder containing your position papers) to my faculty mailbox in Denney 421 by noon on Monday, March 12. You need not hand in the shorter version of the paper that you present at the colloquium, if you use a written script for that purpose.
  
Grades:
Leading a class-discussion = 15%
Position papers = 30%
Abstract = 15%
Oral presentation at colloquium + final project = 30%
Overall class presentation throughout the term = 10%

Special Needs:
Anyone who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Anyone with such needs should also be aware of the the Office for Disability Services in room 150 Pomerene Hall (614-292-3307) which provides services for students with documented disabilities.

Course Schedule:
The following is tentative course schedule. Depending on the actual pace at which we proceed during the quarter, we may have to make adjustments to the syllabus as we go.

January

W 3  Introductions; also read chapter 1 of Anthony Freeman's Consciousness: A Guide to the Debates: "The 'Impossible' Science" [this is an e-book available via OSU's Library; log in required] and Blackmore, chapter 1

Contextualizing Consciousness: Psychological, Phenomenological, and Psychoanalytic Foundations
Practice text: Henry James, "The Jolly Corner" (1909)

M 8  William James, "What is an Emotion?" (1884); Chapters 9 and 10 of Principles of Psychology (1890): "The Stream of Thought" and "The Consciousness of Self"

W 10  Donn Welton, "The Development of Husserl's Phenomenology" [ER]; Edmund Husserl, "The Noetic and Noematic Structure of Consciousness" [ER] and "Lectures on Internal Time Consciousness" [ER]

M 15  Martin Luther King Day Holiday

W 17  Husserl, "Perception, Spatiality, and the Body" [ER], Freud, Outline

M 22  Freud, Outline (continued)

Recontextualizing Consciousness (I): Reader Response Theory, Poststructuralism, and Lacanian and Post-Lacanian Psychoanalytic Theory
Practice texts: Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1891); Katherine Anne Porter, "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" (1930)

W 24  Georges Poulet, "The Phenomenology of Reading" [ER]; Harold Bloom, excerpt from "The Anxiety of Reading"; Wolfgang Iser, "Interaction between Text and Reader" [ER]

M 29  Jacques Derrida, "Freud and the Scene of Writing" [ER]

W 31  Jacques Lacan, "The Mirror Stage" and "The Instance of the Letter" [ER]. Recommended: Leitch et al., "Jacques Lacan" [ER] and excerpts from Bruce Fink, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis [ER]

February

M 5  Fredric Jameson, "Imaginary and Symbolic in Lacan" (http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0044-0078%281977%290%3A55%2F56%3C338%3AIASILM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0); Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, chapter 4 of Anti-Oedipus: "A Materialist Psychiatry" [ER]

Recontextualizing Consciousness (II): Narrative Theory, Consciousness Representation, and Multimodal Narratives
Practice texts: Daniel Clowes, Ghost World (1997) + Terry Zwigoff's 2001 film version of the novel

W 7  Käte Hamburger, excerpt from The Logic of Literature [ER]; Alan Palmer, "Thought and Consciousness Representation" (Literature)" [ER]; Torben Grodal, "Thought and Consciousness Representation (Film)" [ER]. Also, there will be a screening of Zwigoff's Ghost World in our regular meeting room from 5:30 - 7:15

M 12  Alan Palmer, chapter 4 of Fictional Minds: "The Whole Mind" [ER]; Scott McCloud, chapter 5 of Understanding Comics: "Living in Line" [ER]; Torben Grodal, "Emotions, Cognitions, and Narrative Patterns in Film" [ER]

W 14  Manfred Jahn, "Cognitive Narratology" [ER]; D. Herman, "Directions in Cognitive Narratology" [ER]

M 19  No class: instructor away at conference (optional: second screening of Ghost World)

Recontextualizing Consciousness (III): Connecting with Other Disciplines
Practice texts: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892); Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants" (1927)

W 21  David Lodge, "Consciousness and the Novel" [hard copy available on reserve in DE 421 and at Sullivant Library]

M 26  Blackmore, chapters 2-8; Robert van Gulick, "Consciousness"

W 28  Susan James, "Feminism in Philosophy of Mind" [ER]; Hubert L. Dreyfus, What Computers Still Can't Do: "Introduction to the MIT Press Edition" [ER]

March

M 5  Andy Clark, "Embodied, Situated, and Distributed Cognition" [ER]; Michael Tomasello, "Cognitive Linguistics" [ER]; D. Herman, excerpt from "Cognitive Approaches to Narrative Analysis" [ER]

W 7  Colloquium presentations

Also, a second "wave" of colloquium presentations will be scheduled for sometime during the final week of classes. Time and place TBA.