AJ34120 Literary Value and Canonicity

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2016
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 10 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Tomáš Kačer, Ph.D. (lecturer)
doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, PhD. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Jana Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
each odd Friday 12:30–14:05 G34
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 15 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 1/15, only registered: 0/15
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
As its title suggests, this course will provide an occasion for students to engage issues of literary value – historical, contemporary, and personal. This engagement will be facilitated by a running comparison between works of established literary value and inferior items such as comic opera, and popular and pulp fiction (Both types will be treated as "case studies"). The questions that will be considered include: What intrinsic qualities establish literary value over time? Beyond extrinsic issues and the demands of the literary marketplace, what establishes a work as canonical? From Aristotle to Harold Bloom, from Horace to Jack Stillinger, this course and its readings will challenge accepted notions as well as foster an appreciation for scholarly traditions.
Syllabus
  • Session 1: Introduction: Case Studies to work with during this seminar and those following: John Keats, The Eve of St Agnes (1819). Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898). William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600). Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1759–1768). Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851). Bram Stoker, The Lair of the White Worm (1911). All-time Classics of literary taxonomy: Aristotle, Poetics. Horace, Ars Poetica. Longinus, On the Sublime. These Case Studies and All-timers should be considered and/or referred to in all seminars.
    Discussion about seminar aims and relevance of the canon to your material.
  • Session 2: Anthologies of Canons: Read Prefaces to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Norton Anthology of American Literature, The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Consider anthologies where your material belongs. Consider canons where your material belongs or that it construes.
  • Session 3: Vaues: Read Harold Bloom, The Western Canon (1995). Harold Bloom, Anxiety of Influence (1973).
  • Session 4: Canonicity: Read Philip Davis, Why Victorian Literature Still Matters (2008). Rita Felski, Uses of Literature (2008).
  • Session 5: Research Methods: Read Jack Stillinger, Multiple Authorship and the Myth of the Solitary Genius. Gary Taylor, from Moment by Moment by Shakespeare
  • Session 6: Literary Approaches: Read Brian Vickers, Appropriating Shakespeare.
  • Session 7: Credit Conference: During this conference students will give 15-minute papers related to both the issues dealt with in the seminar and the topic of their thesis.
Literature
    required literature
  • Brian Vickers, Appropriating Shakespeare: Contemporary Critical Quarrels (New Haven: Yale UP, 1993)
  • Longinus, On the Sublime
  • Gary Taylor, from Moment by Moment by Shakespeare (London: Macmillan, 1985) (extracts)
  • Horace, Ars Poetica
  • Philip Davis, Why Victorian Literature Still Matters (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008)
  • Aristotle, Poetics
  • Benjamin Britten, The Turn of the Screw (opera; 1954)
  • Harold Bloom, Tanner Lectures on Human Values (1997)
  • Linda and Michael Hutcheon, Opera: The Art of Dying (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 2004) (extracts)
  • Gary Taylor, "C:/wp/file.txt 05:41 10-07-98" (in Andrew Murphy, ed. The Renaissance Text. Manchester UP, 2000: 44–54)
  • Rita Felski, Uses of Literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008)
  • Jack Stillinger, Multiple Authorship and the Myth of the Solitary Genius (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991)
  • Harold Bloom, Anxiety of Influence (1973)
  • Valentine Cunningham, Reading after Theory (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002)
  • F. R. Leavis, The Great Tradition (1948) (extracts)
  • Tomáš Kulka, Umění a kýč (Kitsch and Art; 1994 and 2002)
  • Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and Schools of the Ages (New York: Riverhead Books, 1995)
Teaching methods
Seminar of 90 minutes (or more, if possible) conducted every other week.
Assessment methods
Marks will be based on the student's preparation for and participation in the seminars, as well as for composing and delivering a conference paper on an approved topic. As is consistent with Doctoral level studies, in terms of the final mark, emphasis will be placed on precision, knowledge base, and originality of thought.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2010, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2018, Autumn 2020, Autumn 2022, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2016, recent)
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