Alan Liu, English 236 (Canon Revision: Syllabus) (Text-Only Version)

CANON REVISION:
HISTORY, THEORY, PRACTICE
(SYLLABUS, 1998)

Alan Liu
UC Santa Barbara
English 236

----------------------------- OVERVIEW ------------------------------
This graduate-level seminar examines the current canon debate in a way that gives students a grasp of the history and theory of canon formation as well as hands-on practice in canon revision (tailored to the particular field-specialties of students). The course proceeds simultaneously along two intellectual threads:

CANON FORMATION--
Readings in:

* Primary literature and criticism in the self-consciously canonical lineage that was formative of the English literary canon as we now know it. Authors include Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Johnson, Gray, W. Wordsworth, Coleridge, P. Shelley, Keats, Arnold, Hulme, Eliot.

* Primary literature that was excluded from, yet conscious of, the canon (and thus in its way equally constitutive of the canon). Authors include Lady Mary Wroth, William Collins, Robert Burns, John Clare, Felicia Hemans, Ann Radcliffe, Dorothy Wordsworth.

* Current academic criticism and theory of the canon as well as selections from the journalism of the "culture wars."

The questions this aspect of the course addresses: "how do authors know who are the Great Authors (as well as the "minor" and "marginal" authors)? how do they build that knowledge into their works?"

CANON INSTITUTION--
Readings on the following topics or "problems" designed to suggest that the evolution of the canon cannot be understood separately from that of the major institutions of the modern nation-state (political, economic, social, educational, and communicational):

* The classics problem
* The national literacy problem
* The genre problem
* The generation/period problem
* The schooling problem
* The minority/marginal cultures problem
* The information age problem

The question addressed by this aspect of the course: "why does society need a canon?" And an updated version of this question that will become increasingly important as the "team"-projects in the course proceed (see below): "why does the team-based, flat, downsized,

knowledge worker, continuous quality improvement, and just-in-time society of 'postindustrialism' need revisionary canons?"

The course concludes with a practicum in canon revision whose method of production and information medium enact the urgency of the last question above. Students break into teams (e.g., a Renaissance team, an 18th-C. team, a Romantics team, an Americanist team) and over the course of several weeks create a World Wide Web project that studies, reflects on, and/or innovates upon the idea of a literary canon.

------------------------- REQUIRED TEXTS --------------------------
Norton Anthology of English Literature, 6th ed., vols 1-2

John Guillory, Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation

E. D. Hirsch, Jr., Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know

Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style

English 236 Class Reader (available at Kinko's)

Required readings are from the Norton Anthology (unless otherwise indicated), the course reader (marked "reader" below), or the World Wide Web (where linked and marked as "

"). Other WWW links are to non-required online equivalents of print texts--which by comparison sometimes have less consistent or up-to-date textual/editorial integrity (caveat emptor). Links embedded in author names are to non-required online resources related to that author.

[Online]=Required online text.
[Info]=More information on a given topic.

------------------------------- HOURS --------------------------------
Fall Quarter 1998, T, Th 11:00-12:15
South Hall 2617, Office Hours: TBA

I. CANON HISTORY, THEORY

(Oct. 8) CLASS 4: (INTERLUDE)

This class will be devoted to planning and other practical matters relating to the team-projects in the second half of the course (see description below).

(Oct. 27) CLASS 9: (INTERLUDE)

This class will be devoted to planning and other practical matters relating to the team-projects in the second half of the course (see description below).

(Nov. 3) CLASS 11: THE "MINORITY" / "MARGINAL" CULTURES PROBLEM

Note: The readings assigned here represent just a small fraction of the current "culture wars." See also the selections from Bloom, Hirsch, Guillory, Beverley, and others earlier in the syllabus. You may also want to browse the Internet on the topic of the culture wars.

This class will be devoted to thinking about the influence of information culture and media (and the overall ethos of postindustrial "knowledge work") on canonicity. As preparation, please come to class prepared to discuss one work of your choice in each of the following three categories:

A historically or currently influential print anthology of literature (whether of general literature or in a field of your choice)
An aggressively revisionary print anthology of literature (see suggestions)
An Internet-based literature textbase or link page (see suggestions)

Suggested Revisionary Anthologies (general anthologies)

Roger Lonsdale, ed., Eighteenth Century Verse (Oxford UP, 1984)
Paul Lauter, ed., Heath Anthology of American Literature, 2 vols. (D.C. Heath, 1990)
Marian Arkin & Barbara Shollar, ed., Longman Anthology of World Literature by Women, 1875-1975 (Longman, 1989)
Denis Hollier, ed., A New History of French Literature (Harvard UP, 1989)

Suggested Internet Sites

Other Relevant Online Sites

VoS Cultural Studies Page: Canon/Culture Wars
The Anthologies and Miscellanies Page (tables of contents of 18th- and 19th-century British literary anthologies, miscellanies, and "beauties" of historical relevance to the canon debate)
Robert M. Fowler (Baldwin-Wallace C., Ohio), "The Fate of the Notion of Canon in the Electronic Age" (1994)
"The Canon and the Web: Reconfiguring Romanticism in the Information Age" (session organized at the 1996 MLA by Alan Liu and Laura Mandell)
Canon Dreaming (1996-97) (projects by students of Alan Liu's "Canon Revision" seminar in 1996-97)

II. CANON REVISION: A PRACTICUM
Nov. 12, 17, 19, 24,
Dec. 1, 3

------------------------ PROJECT DESCRIPTION -------------------------
At the beginning of the quarter, students will break into small teams (e.g., a Renaissance team, an 18th-C. team, a Romantics team, an Americanist team, a generalist team, a gender team) and during the first half of the course (concurrent with the above reading assignments) gather materials and make plans for a team Web project. The project, to which the last few weeks of class discussion are wholly devoted, should study, reflect on, and/or innovate upon the idea of a literary canon. One possibility would be to create the apparatus for an innovative literary anthology or course (you choose which). But other kinds of projects tailored specifically to the new information media (or, thinking against the grain, designed to critique such media) are also possible. Projects will be linked to a page associated with our course titled "Canon Dreaming."

----------------------- PROJECT REQUIREMENTS ------------------------
The following examples of projects indicate the expected scope of the assignment:

In the case of an anthology, the team will produce (a) a main Web page with a table of contents plus a set of supporting pages--specifically:

In the case of a course, the team will produce (a) a main Web page with a fully-elaborated syllabus complete with schedule of assigned readings and links to online resources, plus a set of supporting pages--specifically:

------------------------ PROJECT SCHEDULE -------------------------
By the beginning of the practicum on Nov. 12, teams should have accomplished preliminary research, planning, and materials-gathering. From this date on, teams will participate in class discussions and in-progress presentations of their projects--probably on a rotating basis (i.e., one team during one class, another the next, and so on).

------------------------- "TEAM-CONCEPT" --------------------------
One of the recurrent motifs of this course will be the historical relation between the canonical organization of literature and the organization of the great political, economic, social, educational, and other institutions of the nation-state era. This means that it is also appropriate to update the story by testing the relation between the current "post "-canonical movement in literary studies and the great institutions of the postindustrial, multinational era. The "team concept" governing the final project for the course will not only be a practical aid (since creating Web sites requires a variety of talents) but an intellectual experiment. It will allow us to think about how canon revision

squares with such cardinal postindustrial, corporate principles associated with "teams" as "knowledge work," "flat organization," "continuous quality improvement," "just-in-time," and "diversity management."

Distribution of responsibilities: Teams in this course are free to distribute research, writing, and presentation responsibilities among themselves as they see fit. For example, only one member of a team need be involved in actually putting the material online. Outsourcing work to another team in the course (but not outside the course) is allowed so long as it is "paid for" in course-related services (i.e., you can buy another team's research or online expertise in exchange for your own work on their project; but you cannot buy expertise with actual cash or with work for projects outside the course).

------------------------- GRADING POLICY --------------------------
The base grade for each student will be that assigned to his or her team as a whole, but this base will be raised for the individual (where there is still upward room in the grade scale) depending on the quality and quantity of class participation. Note: Knowing our graduate students, I doubt there will be any problems with this collaborative assignment scheme. But students who feel uncomfortable in the arrangement or desire to write something individually will have the option of turning in an independent version of item (e) in the above sample team assignments (or its equivalent).

---------------- HELP WITH WEB AUTHORING

-----------------
E-mail accounts and web space on the Humanitas server are available to all graduate students at UCSB who need to do Web work. To request an account, home directory, and web directory, contact Mark Whittemore at the Humanities and Social Sciences Computing Facility in the new Humanities Building (Rm 1203). Help with basic Unix commands, directory and file management, and other matters may be found in my Ultrabasic Guide to the Internet for Humanities Users at UCSB (master copy available on request).

The following are selected online resources for learning HTML. (Important note: this course does not require prior knowledge of HTML and Web authoring, and not all students on a project team need to be involved in the technical work. While the conceptual design and content of the course projects are important, "cool" Web design is not a necessity. I will be happy with any and all translations of the projects to the Web, though I hope that students will become interested in the possibilities of the medium. I will offer a how-to session for interested students early in the course.)

Beginner's Guide to HTML
Bare Bones Guide to HTML
Introduction to HTML
Introduction to HTML Course
Web Mastery

The following are currently the leading HTML authoring programs (some have free downloadable, 30-day trial versions). (The computer lab in the UCSB Humanities building has two serviceable but limited HTML editors: Netscape Composer and Microsoft Frontpage Express):

DreamWeaver (Macromedia) (Windows) (in my opinion, this is currently the most flexible, powerful, and advanced program, with automated creation of frames, dynamic HTML, style sheets, Javascript, and other sophisticated effects)
Frontpage (Microsoft) (Windows)
HoTMetaL (SoftQuad) (Windows and Mac)
Pagemill (Adobe) (Windows and Mac)

I. CANON HISTORY, THEORY

II. CANON REVISION: A PRACTICUM Nov. 12, 17, 19, 24, Dec. 1, 3

II. CANON REVISION: A PRACTICUM
Nov. 12, 17, 19, 24,
Dec. 1, 3