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Syllabus Writer's Block: From the Romantics to the Digital Age - 44847
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Last update 18-10-2015
HU Credits: 4

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: english

Semester: Yearly

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Yael Levin

Coordinator Email: yael.levin@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: By Appointment

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Yael Levin

Course/Module description:
The course explores the significant connection between the evolution of subject as philosophical concept and the creative act and the manner in which the two inform and are informed by each other's various shifts and transformations. It aims to do so by attending to a number of fictionalised scenes of interrupted writing in literature from Romanticism to the present.

Course/Module aims:
The students will acquire a working knowledge of the concept of subjectivity and the manner in which it evolves through the ages - from Romanticism to Modernism to Post-Modernism.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
The students will develop their own research project based on the materials covered in the course of the year.

Attendance requirements(%):
100%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Seminar discussions

Course/Module Content:
Poetry
Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”
Stevie Smith, “Thoughts about the Person from Porlock”

Short Story
Henry James, “The Lesson of the Master”

Novels
Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes
Samuel Beckett, Molloy
J.M. Coetzee, Slow Man
Stephen King, The Shining
Villa-Matas, Bartleby & Co.

Films
Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
The Coen Brothers, Barton Fink

Other:
Von Hofmannshtal, Hugo. “Letter [from Lord Chandos.]” Selected Prose. Trans. Mary Hottinger and Tania and James Stern. New York: Pantheon Books, 1952, pp 129-41.

Theory
Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author,” Image/text/music. Trans. Stephen Heath (NY: Hill and Wang) 1977.
Maurice Blanchot, The Space of Literature. Trans. Ann Smock, Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 1982.
Michel Foucault, “What is an Author.” Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. Ed. Donald F. Bouchard. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1977. 113-138.


Required Reading:
Poetry
Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”
Stevie Smith, “Thoughts about the Person from Porlock”

Short Story
Henry James, “The Lesson of the Master”

Novels
Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes
Samuel Beckett, Molloy
J.M. Coetzee, Slow Man
Stephen King, The Shining
Villa-Matas, Bartleby & Co.

Films
Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
The Coen Brothers, Barton Fink

Other:
Von Hofmannshtal, Hugo. “Letter [from Lord Chandos.]” Selected Prose. Trans. Mary Hottinger and Tania and James Stern. New York: Pantheon Books, 1952, pp 129-41.

Theory
Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author,” Image/text/music. Trans. Stephen Heath (NY: Hill and Wang) 1977.
Maurice Blanchot, The Space of Literature. Trans. Ann Smock, Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 1982.
Michel Foucault, “What is an Author.” Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. Ed. Donald F. Bouchard. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1977. 113-138.



Additional Reading Material:
Additional Reading:
Andrew Bennett. Romantic Poets and the Culture of Posterity. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999.
Seán Burke. Authorship: From Plato to the Postmodern A Reader. Edinburg: Edinburgh UP, 1995.
---. The Death and Return of the Author: Criticism and Subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault and Derrida. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1998.
Lucy Newlyn, “Reading After”: The Anxiety of the Writing Subject Studies in Romanticism 35.4 (1996 Winter): 609-628.
Timothy Clark, The Theory of Inspiration: Composition as a Crisis of Subjectivity in Romantic and Post-Romantic Writing. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2000.

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 20 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 80 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
 
Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for Diagnosis and Support of Students with Learning Disabilities, or the Office for Students with Disabilities, as early as possible, to discuss and coordinate accommodations, based on relevant documentation.
For further information, please visit the site of the Dean of Students Office.
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