Ron Strickland English 401: Introduction to GraduateStudies Fall 1999 Office: Stevenson 404Phone: 438-7907 E-mail: [email protected] Hours: 9:00-10:00 T-TH Web Page: http://www.cas.ilstu.edu/English/Strickland/ Required Texts:Joseph Gibaldi, ed. Introduction to Scholarship in Modern Languages and LiteraturesMLA Handbook of Style and DocumentationCourse DescriptionThis course seeks to introduce graduate students to conventions, traditions and methodologies of research in the field of English Studies, broadly conceived, with special attention to the ways in which the different disciplines that constitute the field (composition and rhetoric, linguistics, and literary studies) interact with and impact each other. English studies is a diversified field; developing an understanding of it means not only understanding the different disciplines it encompasses but also recognizing and using the interplay among these disciplines in advancing your knowledge and skills. Assignments in this course are intended to sustain a dialectical relationship among these disciplines as they respond individually and collectively to current issues in the field. The course is designed with two alternating focuses. First there is a theoretical focus--a survey of the current state of theory in each of several main subfields of English studies and an overview of the developments in critical theorythat have contributed to the transformation of literary study in recent decades. These developments, along with various social, demographic and institutional changes, have provoked a crisis in traditional literary study such that, increasingly, the study of canonical literature is being displaced from its central position in English curricula.. Our department’s curriculum, and this course, by the shift from modernism to postmodernism in the cultural sphere, and by the shifts from industrialism and nationalism to post-industrialism and post-nationalism in the economic and political spheres. The second focus will be methodological; intermittently throughout the semester students will be assigned tasks related to bibliographical research and methods designed to introduce students to some of the standard resources used in research in English studies. Students will be introduced to the standard databases and computer-based search engines most widely used in the field, to the standard MLA formatting style for research papers and documentation, and to a representative range of the leading scholarly journals in the various subfields of English studies. Assignments and Grading Formula: First paper: Critical Review of Journals (8-10 pages) .................... 40%Final paper: Theoretical Issues (8-10English 100: Introduction to English Studies/2pages) ..... .........................40%Class participation, research exercises & micro-essays....................20% Reading and Discussion Schedule:8/23Introduction: Overview of course, texts, internet forum, etc. 8/30 Historical and Theoretical LinguisticsEdward Finnegan, "Linguistics" (Gibaldi 3-27)9/6 Labor Day: No Class9/13 Cultural and Applied LinguisticDennis Baron, "Language, Culture and Society" (Gibaldi, 28-52)Claire Kramsch, "Language Acquisition and Language Learning" (Gibaldi, 53-76)9/20 Rhetoric and Composition Andrea Lunsford, "Rhetoric and Composition" (Gibaldi, 77-1009/27 Literary Texts and CanonsD. C. Greenwood, "Textual Scholarship" (Gibaldi, 103-37)Robert Scholes, "Canonicity and Textuality" (Gibaldi, 138-58)10/4 Textual InterpretationDonald G. Marshall, "Literary Interpretation" (Gibaldi, 159-82)10/11 Literary HistoryAnnabel Patterson, "Historical Scholarship" (Gibaldi, 183-200) 10/18 Literary TheoryJonathan Culler, "Literary Theory" (Gibaldi, 201-37)10/25Interdisciplinary and Cultural StudiesGiles Gunn, "Interdisciplinary Studies" (Gibaldi, 239-61)11/1Naomi Schor, "Feminism and Gender Studies" (Gibaldi, 262-87) 11/8Henry Louis Gates, "Ethnic and Minority Studies" (Gibaldi, 288-302)11/15 Paula Gunn Allen, "Border Studies: The Intersection of Genderand Color" (Gibaldi, 303-19)11/22David Bathrick, "Cultural Studies" (Gibaldi, 320-42)English 100: Introduction to English Studies/311/29 Gerald Graff, "The Scholar in Society" (Gibaldi, 343-62) 12/6 Conclusion: Seminar presentations on Final