Download syllabus - University of Southern California

SYLLABUS
English 262:32628R -- The Literary Technologies of Memory, 1800-1950
Prof. Devin Griffiths
Office: THH 402K
Office Hours: Mon 1-3
Email: [email protected]
Course Description:
Can books think? Can they remember? Our memory and our sense of the past is
mediated by complicated neurological circuits, dispersed over millions of cells
throughout the brain, generated through complex circuits of neurological impulse.
And yet, when we are asked to describe our past, we tell simple stories and describe
vivid scenes. This class will explore how English literature has shaped the stories
we use to describe our selves, our past, and our environments. We will read a range
of authors, from George Eliot and Charles Dickens, to Virginia Woolf and James
Joyce, who explore how the mind works through imaginative fiction. A key focus of
this course will be to examine how insights drawn from cognitive science,
psychology and sociology can help us to understand the British novel as a
technology of memory – a tool that teaches how to make sense of what happåened
and how to remember it.
Books:
George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (Norton, ISBN-13: 978-0393963328)
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Harvest, ISBN-13: 978-0156907392)
Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way (Penguin Classics, ISBN-13: 978-0142437964)
Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano (Penguin Modern, ISBN-13: 978-0141182254)
All other course materials, including lecture podcasts: Available on the
Blackboard Site
Evaluation:
35% Midterm, 35% Final project/paper, 10% short reading assignments, 10%
quizzes, 10% in-class discussion and participation.
Schedule:
I.
Romantic Memories: Wordsworth and Coleridge, Preface to Lyrical
Ballads, “Tintern Abbey”; Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Adonais”
8/28: Class introduction, spot reading of Preface to Lyrical Ballads.
8/30: Lyrical Ballads, cont., “Tintern Abbey”
9/4: Reading Response 1 Due, Shelley, “Adonais”
II.
Revisionist History: Selections Hazlitt’s Spirit of the Age, Carlyle’s
Signs of the Times; Tennyson, In Memoriam, A. H. H.
9/6: Selections from Hazlitt’s Spirit of the Age, intro to Signs of the
Times
9/11: Signs of the Times, Intro to In Memoriam, A. H. H.
9/13: Reading Response 2 Due, Finish In Memoriam (Intro to George
Eliot).
III.
Memory and technology: The Mill on the Floss; Marx and Engels, The
Communist Manifesto.
9/18: The Mill on the Floss, Book 1.
9/20: TMOTF, Books 2 & 3.
9/25: TMOTF, Book 4&5, Communist Manifesto
9/27: Response 3 Due, TMOTF, Book 6&7
IV.
Urban memory: James Joyce, “Araby,” “Ivy Day,” “The Dead”;
selections from Georg Simmel and Benjamin
10/2: “Araby,” Benjamin.
10/4: “Ivy Day”, Georg Simmel
10/9: “The Dead”
10/11 MIDTERM EXAM
V.
Formal innovation and recall: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, T. S.
Eliot, Four Quartets. Yeats “When we are old and grey.”
10/16 & 18: To the Lighthouse, Part 1.
10/23: TTL Part 2, Four Quartets
10/25, 10/30: TTL Part 3, “When we are old and grey”
VI.
Neuroscience: Proust, Swann’s Way; Essays on physiology of memory
– selections from I. A. Richards, Practical Criticism, Freud – Mourning
and Melancholia.
11/1: Swann’s Way, “Overture”
11/6: SW, “Combray,” Richards
11/8: (Off – Make Up TBA)
11/13: SW, “Swann in Love,” Freud
11/15: SW, “Place-Names”
11/20: SW, wrap-up, Final Paper Topics & Thesis Due
VI.
Memory and Family Romance: Under the Volcano, Hitchcock, Suspicion
11/22: Under the Volcano, chaps. 1-2
11/27: UTV, chaps. 3-5
11/29: UTV, chaps 6-8
12/4: Suspicion
12/6: UTV, chaps 9-11
12/11: (Makeup date?) UTV, chap 12, Wrap-up
12/18: Final Paper Due, 10:00 am
Plagiarism: As students at USC you are bound by the University honor code and
required to respect intellectual property rights. Please review the
University of Southern California policies respecting plagiarism,
which prohibits reproducing the work of others without attribution as
well as "self-plagiarism" (reproducing your own previous work
without aacknowledgement). The policies can be read online at
http://scampus.usc.edu/1100-behavior-violating-universitystandards-and-appropriate-sanctions/. Another helpful guide can be
found at http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/studentconduct/ug_plag.htm. Please ask me if there are any aspects of the
University's policies which are unclear, or if you have any questions
about what constitutes plagiarism in our course.
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory for the class. If you know that you are going
to be absent on a specific day for a valid reason (school trips, etc.),
please discuss it with me in advance. For each absence beyond two
your grade will be reduced by 1/2 letter.
Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability that requires special
arrangements (test-taking, note taking, etc.), you need to register with
USC's Office of Disabilities Services and Programs. Please also contact
me within the first two weeks. We will do everything possible to
accommodate you.
Electronics Policy: Please turn off all electronic devices before class. You may take
notes on a laptop or tablet PC, but please be respectful of other
students by refraining from browsing, shopping, Facebooking, etc.
during class. If I find you using your device for any activity not directly
related to class, you will be marked absent for that day.
In event of a natural disaster, we will follow USC guidelines. If we have to conduct
class remotely, we will probably use the course Blackboard site.