This course is an introduction to a number of the theoretical approaches used in studies of print culture. It will be structured around 3 modules, each taught by a different faculty member an focused on a different theoretical issue: the making of the author (and of literature), nationalism and colonialism, and the production of culture. Readings for each module will include both theoretical and primary texts. In addition, a series of guest lectures (some with short accompanying readings) will broaden the historical and theoretical base of the course. Assignments will arise out of the 3 modules, and will include one research project based on our library's Special Collections or another primary source. Thus, while introducing students to the history of print culture 1700-1900, the course will also serve as an orientation to debates about the implications of the various critical approaches that can be adopted to this period. We will be pursuing questions about what it means to study literature in terms of history, how specific texts can be situated within a particular field of cultural production, and the ways that specific cultural fields are themselves shaped by wider struggles over different forms of cultural and civic authority.

Sept. 10: Introduction of students, faculty, and course

Sept. 17: Michel Foucault, "What is an Author?"

Heather-Ann Tingley LB 4009

Sept. 24: 11:30-13:00 Website program workshop –

1:30-3:30 AQ 6093

Oct. 8: John Guillory, Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation, ch. 1&2

Oct. 15: At UBC: UBC library Special Collections, microfilm, online

Oct. 22: Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities

Oct. 29: Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race Gender and

Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (excerpts)

Literature of Irish Nationalism"

Nov. 5: Guest seminar: Jerome McGann

(readings: "Radiant Textuality," "The Rationale of Hypertext")

Nov. 12: Srinivas Aravamuden, Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and

Agency, 1688-1804 (excerpt)

Modernity"

Nov. 19: 9:30-11:30 - Follow-up website workshop

Instructor Marie Krbavac AQ 3145.2

Literature to the Turn of the Twentieth Century"

Nov. 26: Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late 1980s"

Dec. 3: Friedrich A. Kittler, Discourse Networks (excerpts)

Evaluation

Preparation and participation 15%

Seminar Presentations

(one presentation per module, 10% each) 30%

Final essay (12 pages) 35%

(Note students may select to have the additional 25% distributed evenly between their seminars; added to the final seminar which will involve a webpage; or added to the final paper)

Assignments

1. Participation and Preparation - 15%

- includes attendance, reading preparation, class participation,

2. Seminar Presentations - 30%

- The seminar presentations are intended to focus on the case study readings, relating them to the theoretical readings for the week. Individual module instructors will provide students with further guidance regarding selection of readings and topics. Students will sign up for all of their seminar presentations in the first course meeting. The final seminar will involve the construction and presentation of a website to the class.

3. Final Essay - 30% - due December 17

-The final assignment will be based on a primary text which the student has selected from special collections, microfilm, or an on-line source

- this 12-page paper must meet the criteria for a coherent, well-argued critical research essay. The argument should focus theoretical and historical concerns of the course on the primary text the student has selected. Papers may be submitted in either print or hypertext formats.

- students are strongly encouraged to submit paper proposals to the course coordinator by the last day of classes. Essay topics must be approved by the course coordinator by the last day of classes.

-Essays are to be submitted to the course coordinator; each essay will be read by 2 of the course instructors.