Fall 2006 Advance Course Information

This information effective for Fall 2006. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Literature

[LIT-200]

200. Proseminar.

Instructor: Dick Terdiman
E-mail: dick@ucsc.edu

Course Description

The Literature Proseminar in Fall 2006 will have four related goals. First, it will introduce students to issues in literary theory and criticism and develop their ability to analyze and explicate critical and theoretical argument. Second, it will help them to learn the fundamentals of scholarly writing in the discipline, and give them the opportunity to practice the writing process through the stages that lead to a finished essay. Third, the seminar will give them experience with essential practices of the profession (research tools and strategies; documentation styles, etc.).  Fourth, the seminar will provide a common experience and a set of common readings for first-year graduate students. 
 
In Fall 2006, the proseminar will focus on the emergence since the 1960s of important strands of "theory" in the human sciences disciplines, and on the conflicts that such emergence generated. "Theory" has transformed the discipline of literary study—but not without argument. We will examine how the clashes that have occurred over these matters help to define the stakes, commitments, and objectives of our discipline's methodologies and goals.

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