Brandeis University
Spring semester, 2003
ENG 171A
Miles Rind
January 14, 2003
Revised February 18, 2003

      Description: The subject of this course is the history of the theory of literature—or, to use an older term, the history of poetics—in Western thought from ancient Greece to the early twentieth century. The chief themes and issues that will concern us are the following:

     (1) Art and inspiration: To what degree is the production of literature an exercise of skill and knowledge—of “art” in the classical sense of the term? To what extent is it a matter of “inspiration” or “genius”—and what are these?
      (2) Knowledge and value: Does literature offer any kind of knowledge? If so, what kind of knowledge does it provide? If not, what is it good for?
      (3) The representation of nature: To what extent is fidelity to nature a standard of merit for literary works? Is such fidelity primarily a matter of reflecting general truths or of capturing individual peculiarities?
      (4) Canonical status: What is a literary classic? Are works of ancient literature privileged over modern ones? On what basis can a literary work be taken as a model by which other works may be judged, or as a basis of literary culture?
      (5) Literary language and meaning: What distinguishes the poetic or literary use of words from other uses of words? How is such a use of words to be interpreted? What is its value?

      Name and position: Miles Rind, Lecturer and Post-doctoral Fellow in Philosophy and English and American Literature
      Office: Rabb Graduate Center 217
      Office hours: Tuesday and Friday, 2:30–3:30; and by appointment
      Office telephone: 781-736-2156
      E-mail: rind@brandeis.edu
      English and American Literature Department office: Rabb Graduate Center 144; telephone 781-736-2130

      Writing requirements for the course comprise the following:
      (1) Daily exercises: cumulatively 14% of course grade. With each day’s reading assignment I will assign a question, or give you a choice among questions, which you should be able to answer in a paragraph or two. These exercises will not be graded, but will simply receive credit, or fail to receive it. The corresponding component of your course grade will be determined by the number of exercises that you complete, from 0 = F to 22 = A+. Exercises will be due at class meetings: no late submissions will be accepted. E-mail submissions will be accepted only in cases of excused absence.
      (2) Three short papers: 22% of course grade each. Topics will be assigned. I reserve the right to assign a take-home examination in place of any of these.
      (3) A comprehensive final examination: 20% of course grade. This is scheduled for the final examination period on May 1, but will not require more than 90 minutes.

      Principal text: Hazard Adams, ed., Critical Theory Since Plato, revised edition (Henle and Henle, 1992).
      Optional texts: Because a fair number of the readings discuss ancient Greek epic and tragedy, and some discuss Shakespeare, I have ordered the Iliad, Oedipus the King, and Hamlet, all in Dover Thrift Editions. There is no need for you to use these particular editions, but I may introduce these works into the reading assignments at some points.

      The course has a web site at http://people.brandeis.edu/~rind/eng171. All assignments will be announced there, and all materials distributed in class will be made available there, as will some assigned texts. If at any time you miss a class session, you should always check on the course web site.

      The following schedule is rather a forecast than a fixed framework. Assignments will be made daily in class and on the course web site.  “CT” refers to Critical Theory Since Plato.
 

Date		Topic and Reading
T	Jan. 14	First meeting
F	Jan. 17	The Non-arts of Poetry and Criticism Plato, Ion (CT, 12–18)
T	Jan. 21	Plato, excerpt from The Republic (CT, 18–38)
F	Jan. 24	The Art of Poetry Aristotle, Poetics, chs. I–XIV (CT, 50–57)
T	Jan. 28	Aristotle, Poetics, chs. XV–XVIII and XXIII–XXVI (CT, 57–60 and 62–66) Horace, Art of Poetry (CT, 68–74)
F	Jan. 31	Poetry beyond Art Longinus, On the Sublime, chapters I–XV (CT, 75–86), XXII.1 (CT, 88), XXXIII (CT, 92–93), and XXXVI (CT, 94)
T	Feb. 4	Literal and Figurative Language; Sacred and Profane Texts Plotinus, “On the Intellectual Beauty,” paragraphs 1–3 (CT, 100–101) Saint Thomas Aquinas, from “The Nature and Domain of Sacred Doctrine” (CT, 117–119) Dante Alighieri, excerpts from The Banquet and Letter to Can Grande (CT, 120–122) Giovanni Boccaccio, excerpts from Life of Dante and Genealogy of the Gentile Gods (CT, 124–133)
F	Feb. 7	The Defense of Poetry Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry (CT, 143–162)
T	Feb. 11	Sophocles, Oedipus the King FIRST PAPER DUE
F	Feb. 14	Within Bounds of Reason Pierre Corneille, Of the Three Unities of Action, Time, and Place (CT, 206–212) Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (CT, 274–282)
T	Feb. 18	Matters of Taste Joseph Addison, essays from The Spectator (CT, 284–288) Edmund Burke, excerpts from An Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (CT, 299–306)
F	Feb. 21	David Hume, “Of the Standard of Taste” (CT, 308–315)
T	Feb. 25	Nature--General or Individual? Samuel Johnson, excerpts from The Rambler and Rasselas, and the Preface to Shakespeare (CT, 317–327) Alexander Pope, excerpt from “Preface to the Works of Shakespear” (photocopy)
F	Feb. 28	[Class canceled due to illness of instructor]
	Mar. 3–7	MID-TERM RECESS: NO CLASS
T	Mar. 11	Edward Young, excerpt from Conjectures on Original Composition (CT, 329–337) Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourses on Art, III (CT, 343–347) William Blake, Annotations to Reynolds’ “Discourses”, on Discourse III (CT, 403–407)
F	Mar. 14	From a Romantic Point of View William Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads (CT, 437–446) Friedrich Schlegel, Critical Fragments and Atheneum Fragments (CT, 429–434)
T	Mar. 18	Discussion of Shakespeare and the critics SECOND PAPER DUE
F	Mar. 21	Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Shakespeare’s Judgment Equal to His Genius” and Biographia Literaria, ch. XIV (CT, 469–471, 479–480) Thomas Love Peacock, “The Four Ages of Poetry” (CT, 509–514)
T	Mar. 25	Percy Bysshe Shelley, “A Defense of Poetry” (CT, 515–529)
F	Mar. 28	The Practices of Poetry and Criticism Matthew Arnold, “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time” and excerpt from “The Study of Poetry” (CT, 592–607)
T	Apr. 1	John Stuart Mill, “What Is Poetry?” (CT, 551–556) Matthew Arnold, “Preface to the 1853 Edition of Poems” (CT, 586–592)
F	Apr. 4	Literature as Knowledge Hippolyte Taine, excerpt from History of English Literature (CT, 609–620) Emile Zola, excerpts from The Experimental Novel (CT, 645–655)
T	Apr. 8	Literature as Aesthetic Object Walter Pater, from Studies in the History of the Renaissance (CT, 641–643) Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying (CT, 658–670)
F	Apr. 11	Benedetto Croce, from Aesthetic (CT, 692–699) A. C. Bradley, Poetry for Poetry’s Sake (CT, 701–710)
T	Apr. 15	Brandeis Thursday: no class
W	Apr. 16	Brandeis Friday (Passover Eve: this class to be rescheduled) Reading TBA THIRD PAPER DUE
	Apr. 17–24	PASSOVER AND SPRING RECESS: NO CLASS
F	Apr. 25	STUDY DAY: NO CLASS
T	Apr. 29	Final class session The Theory of Signs Friedrich Nietzsche, “On Truth and Falsity in an Ultramoral Sense” (CT, 634–639) Ferdinand de Saussure, from Course in General Linguistics (CT, 718–726)
Th	May 1, 1:30 p.m.	FINAL EXAMINATION