Instructor: John David Zuern
Wednesdays 3:15–5:45 pm
Sakamaki B211
Objectives
This class is designed to provide you with an understanding of fundamental concepts in the fields of cultural and literary studies, techniques of research in these fields, and genres of scholarly writing. With its broad representation of current approaches to literary scholarship and their historical antecedents, the course will give you opportunities to identify your own orientation within the domains of literary and cultural studies and to develop the research methods, interpretive procedures, and conceptual frameworks that are most conducive to the critical projects you want to undertake. In addition to developing your expertise as a professional researcher and writer, the course encourages you to become a confident, critical reader of scholarly publications in the field. The course will also reinforce your knowledge of literary devices, including figures of speech, narrative structures, and poetic forms. I have chosen primary texts that foreground these features.
The key questions we will pursue include: What counts as evidence in the fields of cultural and literary studies? How do we assess the validity of an argument in these fields? How do different theoretical frameworks direct us to particular kinds of evidence and argumentative strategies? How do critics engage their peers’ scholarship responsibly in support of their own ideas? What are some of the ethical and political ramifications of critical projects?
Assigned readings in theory and criticism will include selections ranging from twentieth-century literary theory to examples of more recent theoretical models of literary production and critical analysis. The reading schedule will juxtapose the earlier and primarily European and American material with selections from more current and more global theoretical conversations, including those located within the Pacific, to show how critics and theorists of today continue to respond to (and in some cases to resist) particular critical and philosophical traditions. The literary texts we will read will emphasize, in different ways, the intersection between literature and the natural environment, which will be a guiding theme for the class.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this class you should be able to
- Demonstrate your familiarity with current theories and methods of cultural and literary studies
- Mobilize key concepts in cultural and literary studies in your own scholarly writing
- Engage in critical dialogue with scholarship in cultural and literary studies and other disciplines in your own scholarly writing
- Articulate and support a critical argument in an oral presentation format and respond productively to commentary from peers
- Articulate a critical argument in a proposal for an article or conference presentation
- Articulate and support a critical argument in an article-length paper or in a conference presentation and a book review
- Document your sources accurately and consistently using a standard academic citation style
Required Texts (available at the UHM Bookstore)
Hayot, Eric. The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities. Columbia UP, 2014.
McDougall, Brandy Nālani. ʻĀina Hānau/Birth Land. U of Arizona P, 2023.
Morrison, Toni. A Mercy. Vintage, 2009.
Nelson, Maggie. The Argonauts. Graywolf Press, 2015.
Other reading materials will be provided.