Topics in the History of the Production of Knowledge:  
The Nature of Narrative 

G41.3951 (English), G65.3950 (Draper)

Fall 2000
Tuesday  4:10-6:10   (Please note the change of day from Wednesday to Tuesday.)
IHPK Conference Room 
285 Mercer Street, 10th floor 

Instructor: 
Professor Mary Poovey 
Director, Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge 
Professor, Department of English 
212.998.8897 
email 

1.  Subject and Purpose of Course  

This seminar focuses on the theoretical accounts of narrative operative in several disciplines.  In the domain of literary studies, we will examine both the place of theoretical accounts of narrative in the history of literary criticism and theories of narrative associated with structuralism, narratology, Marxism, and psychoanalysis.  We will also examine theories about the problems and solutions narrative introduces in history, ethnography, the biological sciences, medicine, and statistics.  In addition to theoretical texts, the reading for the seminar will consist of nineteenth and twentieth-century texts drawn from literature, history, anthropology, psychoanalysis, medicine, and sociology. 

 

2.  Structure 

Seminar with weekly meetings 

 

3. Course requirements 

In addition to regular class attendance and participation, students will be expected to prepare several short, co-authored papers for class discussion and a 20-25 page seminar paper. 

 

4.  Required Book List 

Austen, Jane.  Mansfield Park 
Bal, Mieke.  Narratology:   Introduction to the Theory of Narrative 
Barnes, Julian.  A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
Conrad, Joseph.  Lord Jim 
Conrad, Joseph.  Nostromo 
Feldman, Shoshana and Dori Laub.  Testimony
Freud, Sigmund.  Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Freud, Sigmund.  The Interpretation of Dreams
Gaskell, Elizabeth.  Cranford
Inchbald, Elizabeth.  A Simple Story
Jameson, Fredric.  The Political Unconscious 
Sacks, Oliver.  A Leg to Stand On 
Woolf, Virginia.  The Waves 

Books will be available at Posman's Books. 

Please Note:  Students who expect to enroll in this seminar are strongly urged to read the assigned novels before the term begins. 

 

5. Syllabus 
 
September 12:  Introduction
 
PART I:  Literary Issues
 
September 19:  On Genre 

Readings:

  • Mary Poovey, “The Model System of Contemporary Literary Criticism”

  • Michael McKeon, “Genre Theory” from The Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach

  • Claudio Guillen, excerpt from Literature as System

 
September 26:  Disciplining the Novel 

Readings:

  • James Beattie, On Fable and Romance, sels. (1783), in Williams

  • Henry Mackenzie, The Lounger, June 18, 1785, in Williams

  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Critical Review, August 1794, in Williams

  • Edward Bulwar Lytton, “On Art in Fiction,” (1838), in Eigner and Worth

  • James Fitzjames Stephen, “The Relation of Novels to Life” (1855), in Eigner and Worth

  • George Eliot, “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists” (1856), in Eigner and Worth

  • Henry James, “The Art of Fiction” (1884), in Eigner and Worth

  • Percy Lubbock, The Craft of Fiction (1921), pp. 1-25, 110-23, 156-71, 251-74

  • Rene Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature (1942), pp. 20-28, 212-25

  • Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, Understanding Fiction (1943; 1947 ed.), “Letter to the Teacher,” “Appendix,” “Glossary”

 
October 3: Structuralism 

Readings:

  • D.A. Miller, Narrative and Its Discontents, pp. 3-41

  • Tzevan Todorov, “Typology of Detective Fiction,” The Grammar of Narratives,” from The Poetics of Prose

  • Optional: Peter Brooks, Reading for the Plot

           
October 10:  Narratology           

Readings: 

  • Mieke Bal, Narratology

  • Optional: Robin Warhol, Gendered Interventions, chapter 2

  • Optional Susan Lanser, “Toward a Feminist Narratology,” Style 20 (1986): 341-63

 
October 17:  Freud and Narrative

Readings:

  • Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, sels.

  • Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle

 
October 24:  Subjectivity and Point of View

Readings:

  • Michael McKeon, “Subjectivity, Character, Development,” from Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach

  • Dorrit Cohn, excerpt from Transparent Minds: Narrative Modes of Presenting Consciousness in Fiction

  • Ann Banfield, excerpt from Sentences, Narration, and Representation in Language

 
October 31:  Marxism and Narrative

Readings:

  • Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, chapter 1

 
November 7:  Marxism and Narrative

Readings:

  • Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious, chapter 5

 
November 14:  Psychoanalysis and Narrative

Readings:

  • Jacques Lacan, “Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter,’” Yale French Studies 48 (1972): 38-72

  • Jacques Derrida, “The Purveyor of Truth,” Yale French Studies (1975): 31-113

  • Barbara Johnson, “The Frame of Reference,” Yale French Studies 55/56 (1977)

 
PART II: Epistemological Issue s
 
November 21: Truth and Narrative

Readings:

  • Shoshana Felman, Testimony, chapters 1,  4, and (opt.) 7

  • Shoshana Felman, “Beyond Oedipus: The Specimen Story of Psychoanalysis,” Lacan and Narrative, ed. Robert Con Davis

  • Roy Schaffer, “Narration in Psychoanalytic Dialogue,” On Narrative, ed. WTJ Mitchell

 
November 28:  The Event

Readings:

  • Jacques Lezra, “Freud’s Sickle,” from Unspeakable Subjects

 
December 5:  Narratives of Embodiment

Readings:

  • Oliver Sacks, A Leg to Stand On

  • Peggy Phelan, “To Suffer a Sea Change,” Georgia Review (1991)

  • Julia Epstein, Altered Conditions, pp. 25-55