{"id":1360,"date":"2012-10-26T19:10:09","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T23:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/?page_id=1360"},"modified":"2012-10-26T19:13:35","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T23:13:35","slug":"the-strange-meaning-of-things","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/course-outline\/the-strange-meaning-of-things\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strange Meaning of Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Barbara Benedict,\u00a0Charles A. Dana, Professor of English Literature<\/p>\n<p><strong>Description:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This course is designed for first- and second-year students as a close-reading introduction to basic literary techniques and categories, with a strong writing component. It is not directed solely at upcoming English majors but they will probably be the majority of the class.<\/p>\n<p>How important is your \u201cstuff\u201d to you? What does it mean? When is a thing just a thing, and when does it represent something else? In this course, students will examine the literary representations of material culture, including clothes, tools, collections of things, paintings, jewelry and books, in a range of works from the Renaissance to the present time. We will analyze what different kinds of things mean at different periods of history, and how writers invest them with magical, religious, satirical and sentimental significance. Readings will include drama, novels, poetry, and journalism, as well as some history, and anthropological and literary theory. This course fills a cultural context requirement for English majors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book List:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>John Locke, selections from An Essay on Human Understanding<\/li>\n<li>Susan Stewart, selections from On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the\u00a0Gigantic, the Souvenir, and the Collection<\/li>\n<li>William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice<\/li>\n<li>Daniel Defoe, The Apparition of Mrs. Veal<\/li>\n<li>Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop<\/li>\n<li>Virginia Woolf, Jacob\u2019s Room or To the Lighthouse<\/li>\n<li>John Fowles, The Collector<\/li>\n<li>Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland<\/li>\n<li>Edgar Allan Poe, Selected stories including \u201cThe Black Cat\u201d and \u201cThe Purloined Letter\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, selected stories including \u201cThe Case of the Orange Pips\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Other selected short stories\n<ol>\n<li>Selections from poltergeist and witch narratives (long 18th C mainly)<\/li>\n<li>Thorstein Veblen, selections from The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic\u00a0Study of Institutions Selected poems, mainly from The Norton Anthology of Poetry, shorter edition, including:<\/li>\n<li>William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18: \u201cShall I compare thee to a summer\u2019s day?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Andrew Marvell, \u201cOn a Dew Drop\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Robert Herrick, \u201cOn Julia\u2019s Clothes\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Jonathan Swift, selections including \u201cThe Dressing Room,\u201d \u201cOn a Nymph going\u00a0to Bed\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock John Gay, Book I from Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London<\/li>\n<li>John Keats, \u201cOde on a Grecian Urn\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Robert Browning, \u201cMy Last Duchess\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Robert Frost, \u201cThe Gift Outright\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Adrienne Rich, \u201cAunt Jennifer\u2019s Tigers\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Richard Wilbur, \u201cObjects\u201d; \u201cMuseum Piece\u201d<\/li>\n<li>William Carlos Williams, \u201cThe Red Wheelbarrow\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Elizabeth Bishop, \u201cOne Art\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Selected song lyrics TBA by the class.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>PART I: The Body and Things: where does the body stop and clothes begin? short introductory lectures on Renaissance, pre-industrial British society, sartorial laws, Catholic rituals, and literary traditions of dream-visions in which things mean something immaterial that reveals\/conceals a moral truth; the eighteenth-century influx of cloth goods; changing notions of cleanliness and the borders of bodies and things; and modern theory on clothes, bodies and identity.<\/p>\n<p>Readings for Weeks 1, 2 and 3:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>John Locke, from Essay on Human Understanding<\/li>\n<li>Shakespeare\n<ul>\n<li>Sonnet 18 \u201cShall I compare thee to a summer\u2019 day?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The Merchant of Venice<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Robert Herrick, \u201cOn Julia\u2019s Clothes\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Cantos I and II<\/li>\n<li>Madonna, \u201cMaterial Girl\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Jonathan Swift, \u201cThe Dressing-room,\u201d \u201cThe Ivory Table-Book,\u201d \u201cA Nymph Going to Bed,\u201d etc.<\/li>\n<li>Bob Dylan, \u201cLeopard-skin Pillbox Hat\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Students\u2019 selected song lyrics John Gay, Book I from Trivia; the Art of Walking the Streets of London<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>PART II: Things, Spirits and Sins: where does the material begin and end? how can thing embody evil? short introductory lectures on the repression of superstition in the 18thc, witches, devils, empiricism, the Royal Society and the rise of science.<\/p>\n<p>Readings for Weeks 4, 5 and 6:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Andrew Marvell, \u201cOn a Dew Drop\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Daniel Defoe, \u201cThe Apparition of Mrs. Veal\u201d<\/li>\n<li>John Keats, \u201cOde on a Grecian Urn\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto III-V.<\/li>\n<li>Poltergeist narrative, \u201cThe Lambs Inn Ghost\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland<\/li>\n<li>Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, \u201cThe Case of the Orange Pips\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Students\u2019 selected song lyrics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>PART III: Collecting Things: when does possessing something possess you? how can ownership change the owner\u2019s personality or identity? Short introductory lecture on Victorian culture and the history of auctions and collecting.<\/p>\n<p>Readings for Weeks 7, 8 and 9:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Veblen, selections from The Theory of the Leisure Class<\/li>\n<li>Robert Browning, \u201cMy Last Duchess\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Edgar Allen Poe, \u201cThe Black Cat\u201d and \u201cThe Purloined Letter\u2019<\/li>\n<li>Robert Frost, \u201cThe Gift Outright\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop<\/li>\n<li>John Fowles, The Collector<\/li>\n<li>Janis Joplin, \u201cLord Won\u2019t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Students\u2019 selected song lyrics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>PART IV: Remembered Things: are things what one remembers them to be? how do they furnish the mind and shape the idea of the past? short introductory lecture on WWI.<\/p>\n<p>Readings for Weeks 7, 8 and 9:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Susan Stewart, selections from On Longing<\/li>\n<li>Virginia Woolf, Jacob\u2019s Room or To the Lighthouse<\/li>\n<li>Adrienne Rich, \u201cAunt Jennifer\u2019s Tigers\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Richard Wilbur, \u201cObjects\u201d; \u201cMuseum Piece\u201d<\/li>\n<li>William Carlos Williams, \u201cThe Red Wheelbarrow\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Elizabeth Bishop, \u201cThe Art of Losing\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Students\u2019 selected song lyrics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Barbara Benedict,\u00a0Charles A. Dana, Professor of English Literature Description: This course is designed for first- and second-year students as a close-reading introduction to basic literary techniques and categories, with a strong writing component. It is not directed solely at &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/course-outline\/the-strange-meaning-of-things\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"parent":1312,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1360"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1360"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1364,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1360\/revisions\/1364"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/understandingsecularism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}