H35 - Retòrica i Poètica Angleses II

Darrera actualització: 01/06/2010*

Descripció

This course is conceived as a follow-up to English Rethoric and Poetics I and is meant to complement it. Whereas the emphasis in the first-year course was laid on the study of poetic, narrative and dramatic texts, this second-year course will concentrate on fictional prose, i.e. on the devices that serve to establish the rethoric of fiction.

Objectius

The aims of this course are to provide students with a theoretical basis for the analysis of fictional texts and to furnish them with a series of practical strategies for the writing of critical papers.
Fiction is a complex phenomenon, and, therefore, the study of fictional texts requires a theoretical framework, a set of well-defined categories which enable us to refer individual texts to the framework and to compare different texts. Theory and practice, that is, the theoretical model and its application to the analysis of fiction, are regarded as complementary aspects of the process of interpretation.
Students will consequently be expected to be able to apply the categories of analysis to the study of particular texts and to write a critical paper about one of the short stories included in the syllabus.

Metodologia

Sessions will conform to the seminar pattern. Consequently, students are expected to read weekly assignments and contribute with their own ideas to class discussions. The short-stories in the syllabus will be available for the students to photocopy.

Avaluació

Students are expected to hand in a critical paper on a short story included in the syllabus. First drafts of papers will be submitted after the Christmas holidays. Students will be given feedback individually (during office hours) and asked to produce a second (hopefully definitive) version of the paper, before the end of the semester. Papers will be graded on both form and content. They represent 90% of the final mark.
Individually or in small groups, students will be asked to prepare a list of useful works of reference on a chosen author from the programme, following the teacher’s instructions. This list will have to be presented orally in class. The presentation is compulsory and will give students up to 1 point (10% of the final mark).
Although not an aspect to be formally assessed, class attendance and participation will be taken into consideration.

Temari de teoria

1. Plot: Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings.”
2. Story-time and discourse time. Narrative order and duration: Margaret Atwood’s “The Sin Eater” and Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”
3. Point of view: Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, Nadine Gordimer’s “Town and Country Lovers”, Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat”, Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.”
4. Narrative irony and unreliable narration: Ring Lardner’s “Haircut” and Eudora Welty’s “Why I Live at the P.O.”
5. Authors and readers, real and implied: Jack London’s “The Unparalleled Invasion” and/or “The Apostate”
6. Ideology: Ernest Hemingway’s “Indian Camp” and Ama Ata Aidoo’s “Certain Winds from the South”
7. Imagery and Symbolism: Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Oscar Wilde’s “The Selfish Giant.”
8. How to Write about Fiction

Bibliografia

On Narratology:

Abbott, H. P. 2002. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: CUP.
Bal, M. 1992 (1985). Narratology. Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. Translated by Christine van Boheemen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
______. 1991. On Story-Telling. Essays in Narratology. Sonoma: Polebridge.
Booth, W. 1983 (1961). The Rethoric of Fiction. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Chatman, S. 1989 (1978). Story and Discourse. Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
_________. 1990. Coming to Terms. The Rhetoric of Narrative and Film. New York: Cornell University Press.
_________. 1993. Reading Narrative Fiction. New York: Macmillan.
Genette, G. 1980 (1972). Narrative Discourse. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
_________ 1990 (1983). Narrative Discourse Revisited. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hoffman, M. J. & P. D. Murphy (eds.). 1999 (1996). Essentials of the Theory of Fiction. Durham: Duke University Press.
Kearns, M. 1999. Rhetorical Narratology. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Lanser, S. S. 1981. The Narrative Act. Point of View in Prose Fiction. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
__________. 1986. “Toward a Feminist Narratology”. Style 20, 3: 342-6.
__________. 1992. Fictions of Authority: Women Writers and the Narrative Voice. Cornell: Cornell University Press.
McQuillan, M. (ed.) 2000. The Narrative Reader. London: Routledge.
Onega, S. y J. Á. García Landa. 1999 (1996). Narratology. London: Longman.
Peer, W. van & S. Chatman (eds.). 2001. New Perspectives on Narrative Perspectives. New York: State University of New York.
Phelan, J. 1996. Narrative as Rhetoric: Technique, Audiences, Ethics, Ideology. Columbus: Ohio State University.
Pickering, J. H. (ed.) 2004 (1995). Reader’s Guide to the Short Story to Accompany Fiction 100. An Anthology of Short Fiction. New Jersey: Pearson.
Rimmon-Kenan, S. 2002 (1983). Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics. London: Methuen.
Simpson, P. 2004. Stylistics. A Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge.
Toolan, M. 2001 (1988). Narrative. A Critical Linguistic Introduction. London: Routledge.

On Writing Critical Papers:

Baker, S. 1998. The Practical Stylist with Readings and Handbook. New York: Longman.
Barnet, S., M. Berman & W. Burto. 1993. “Writing Essays about Literature”. An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, Drama. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.
Berry, R. 2000. The Research Project. How to Write it. London: Routledge.
Charters, Ann (ed) 2003. The Story and its Writer. An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford-St. Martins.
Miller, L. 2001. Mastering Practical Criticism. Hampshire: Palgrave.
Profitt, E. (ed.) 1988. Reading and Writing about Short Fiction. Boston: Heinle.
Spack, R. 1999. “Writing an Essay”. The International Story. An Anthology with Guidelines for Reading and Writing about Fiction. Cambridge: CUP.
Woods, P. 1999. Successful Writing for Qualitative Researchers. London: Routledge.

Short Story Collections:

Charters, Ann (ed) 2003. The Story and its Writer. An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford-St. Martins.
Craig, V. (ed.). 1995 (1994). The Oxford Book of Modern Women’s Stories. Oxford: OUP.
Gwynn, R. S. (ed.) 2002. Fiction: A Pocket Anthology. London: Penguin.
Oates, J. (ed.). 1992. The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Oxford: OUP.
Pickering, J. H. (ed.) 2004 (1995). Fiction 100. An Anthology of Short Fiction. New Jersey: Pearson.
Profitt, E. (ed.) 1988. Reading and Writing about Short Fiction. Boston: Heinle.
Updike, J. & K. Kenison (eds.). 2000. The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Wagner-Martin, L. & C. N. Davidson (eds.). 1999 (1995). The Oxford Book of Women’s Writing in the United States. Oxford: OUP.