Spring, 2001 Kate Liu
 
 
Date
Theoretic Topics and  Texts
Assignments
1. Structuralism and Semiotics  (databank)
 
1. 2/19 Introduction:  Textbook: chap 1: Syntax; 
"The Lesson"
2. 2/26 Textbook: chap 2: Structuralism
"The Purloined Letter"
3. 3/5
Textbook: chap 3-1: Roland Barthes (websites: English trans. by R. Barthes; other links)
4. 3/12
Please read the group's texts: "One Art"; "Sestina"
back
2. Marxism (databank)
 
5. 3/19
  • group report (1)
  • Marxism introduction: Marx's Ideas of Capitalism and Social Structure
1st journal due
1. S/S: Conclusion
2. Marxism: Introduction
"The Rocking Horse Winner"
Textbook: chap 4: pp. 200-214; Assumptions (218-220); Bicycle Thief
6. 3/26 
  • Althusser & Eagleton--state formations & ideology
  • examples: Bicycle Thief
1. Marxism: Introduction
2. Bicycle Thief
"The Chinago"; finish chap 4.

7. 4/2
Holiday Yeat's poems & "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
8. 4/9
  • Class/Race Relations & Ideology (cont'd); 
  • examples: "The Chinago" and some poems
1. Marxism 2
2."The Chinago"
The group's text: "The Blind Man"
9. 4/16
(mid-term)
group report (2)
2nd journal due
1. Marxism 3
2."The Blind Man"

The group's text  Icicle Thief
Textbook: chap 5: Text-Play

back
3. Poststructuralism (databank)
 
10. 4/23 group report (3)
  • Challeging the boundaries between fiction and reality: Metafiction and Postmodern Parody; e.g.  "Las Meninas" Icicle Thief , The French Lieutenant's Woman and "Losing My Religion."
1. love songs; 2. post-structuralism1
"Lost in the Funhouse"

Ref.
1. Adrian Henri; 2. Wilfred Owen
Breughel's painting (remote); ASTERIX IN BELGIUM (see page 43)

12. 4/30
  • Deconstruction
1. post-structuralism1 2. post-structuralism2
Textbook: chap 6: Deconstruction

13. 5/7
  • Another poststructuralist theorist: Michel Foucault
  • e.g. "The Purloined Letter"

Textbook:chap 3-2: Discourse, Power and the Subject; Example: Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson

Barthes and Foucault
14. 5/14
  • example: Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson
group report (3)

"Advice is Rarer than Ruby" Salman Rushdie
"My Man Bovanne"  Toni Cade Bambara
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4. Postcolonialism  (databank)
 
15. 5/21
  • Colonialism and possibilities of de-colonization
  • example: Rushdie's novel
3rd journal due
1. Deconstructing Harry
2. Postcolonialism 1
Textbook:chap 7: postcolonialism
16. 5/28
  • Language and Cultural Identity
Postcolonialism 1;   2
平路(台灣奇蹟)and the group's text
16.6/4
  • Taiwan: a colonial, postcolonial and/or postmodern society?
group report (4) : 悲情城市
: City of Sadness; Postcolonialism 3
17. 6/11
  • Final Exam & Conclusion