Because ENG 500 is the only course required of all graduate students, I developped our course curriculum in consultation with other faculty. Mark Mossman, Penny Kelsey, David Banash, and Shazia Rahman all made recommendations about course content, reviewing books and syllabus drafts as well. Hopefully, the result both coheres as well as an individually designed course and meets the larger needs of the new curriculum. I built the reading list with several goals in mind:
We begin by approaching our first course objective (“awareness of the major theoretical movements and disciplinary structures in English studies”) with the introduction to Bruce McComiskey’s English Studies, an edited collection which maps the core disciplines of English and provides a historical perspective about the evolution of departments of English. Though we focus on the first part of this essay, reading all of it is worth your while, and if you are interested, other texts like Robert Scholes’s The Rise and Fall of English can provide even more detail.
From McComiskey we turn to Lois Tyson’s Critical Theory Today, an introduction to the different schools of critical theory used by English scholars, especially literary studies, but no less important in other areas of English studies. You should become familiar with all of Tyson’s book, but you can use it as a reference as well: refer to it when you encounter material in other books which calls for contextualization. For me, two things separated Critical Theory Today from similar texts: (1) Tyson doesn’t seem to play favorites, but champions each of the schools of theory she introduces, in turn; (2) her readings of The Great Gatsby allow an inductive approach: if you know Gatsby (and I imagine all of us do), you can figure out how a particular approach functions by seeing it at work. For some, that works better than the usual deductive presentation (and that’s why Fitzgerald’s book is on the recommended texts list).
With our second text, Gerald Graff’s Clueless in Academe, we turn to the second course objective (“understanding the position of English studies in culture and society”). I found Graff’s book well-suited to the course because though it focuses on the university, the problems Graff raise apply to all levels of education. Furthermore, Graff approaches a diverse cross-section of English studies: first-year composition, literary theory, and English education. You may note that Graff mentions a textbook which accompanies Clueless and uses templates to teach argument; that book, They Say/I Say, has had a mixed reception in writing studies. Those interested in the issues Graff raises should certainly have a look.
Sidney Dobrin’s Constructing Knowledges, our third text, completes the framework for the course by directly addressing our third course objective (“articulation of theory and practice”). Notably, Dobrin also draws extensively on critical theories introduced by Tyson, showing their relevance for writing studies by making inventories of notable works in the field. I embrace Dobrin’s approach, shared by many of the scholars he cites (such as Raúl Sánchez, Gary Olson, and Patricia Bizzell). Like many of the texts I have selected, Constructing Knowledges passes the exemplar test: I find that Dobrin practices what he preaches, and his book is an example of the approach to theory he advocates.
From week six forward, readings will flush out the issues raised by these first texts, addressing more specific questions, adding depth, and presenting opportunities for application and comparative analysis. Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s The Anxiety of Obsolescence takes up many of the questions asked by Graff, though for different reasons and with a different emphasis (what might be called the “television wars”). Everything Bad Is Good For You by Steven Johnson covers much of the ground Fitzpatrick treads, though from a very different perspective. Johnson’s work, including his other books such as Emergence, raises questions about the boundaries of English studies: while Everything Bad Is Good For You is not an academic book, it’s not light reading, and there’s an intensely academic quality about Johnson’s writing. Mythologies, by Roland Barthes, is arguably a classic of cultural studies, a series of short essays which investigate elements of popular culture, close-reading a wide range of forms and associated discourses, with a concluding essay which confronts many of the methodological questions raised by the vignettes. Finally, N. Katherine Hayles’s Writing Machines investigates the bounds of literary studies, the effects of materiality on literature—our most concentrated dose of new media theory.
Two literary texts finish the roster. Given the large role Don DeLillo’s work plays in Fitzpatrick’s book, we’ll read White Noise—which also takes up many of Graff’s questions about English studies and popular culture, given its portrayal of academic culture—a Department of Hitler Studies? Notably, DeLillo’s book addresses on many of the issues raised by our non-fiction texts, and I am looking forward to comparing the literary and non-literary approaches to anti-intellectualism, the role of television, etc. The Norton Critical Edition of Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl puts me back in touch with the time period of American literature I studied intensively while an undergraduate, and provides a change of pace from the issues raised by our other course texts.
These nine books won’t provide a road map to English studies, or answer all questions you have about your graduate work, or make you a master of literary theory and critical methodology. However, I am certain they will help you understand what fluency in English studies might look like. They will provide a situatedness, a context for finding your own particular approach to practicing English. The core assignment of the course, picking up on one or more of the issues raised in the course texts and flushing it out in detail, will be the way you understand how things should be done right now. Similarly, the professional portfolio will be a self-portait with an English frame. Doubtless you'll think differently, and paint yourself differently, one or five years on. But that ability to reflect is essential to that all-important third course objective, the articulation of theory and practice. Carrying through the research and writing necessary to complete this project, and talking about it in class and on the weblog, will be a case study in methodology. Doubtless many more cases will follow.
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Bradley Dilger,
Associate Professor of English,
Western Illinois U
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