Seminar 13:
"“When all is said and Donne": the sonnets of Shakespeare, Spenser and Donne as works of love, conflict and memory; how language expresses and resolves conflict.
Richard Chapman (Università degli Studi di Ferrara)
TOPIC DESCRIPTION
The seminar will focus on how language is used and exploited by poets in order to express tension and achieve its resolution. Initially students will work on developing an understanding of the linguistic and pragmatic basis of poetic creativity and refine their modern critical awareness. As the seminar develops they will aim for exemplification through close readings of sonnets by all three authors and explore the limits of linguistic/poetic expression, reflecting on the creation of narratives, and so memory, and the effects of linguistic behaviour. The conceptual apparatus made available will include approaches from Systemic Functional Grammar, Pragmatics (including Austin and Grice), Sociolinguistics and Socio-cultural linguistics, Postmodern criticism (Derrida and Foucault) and Discourse Analysis. By the end of the seminar, students will be able to present sonnets in an informed way, linking traditional literary criticism to knowledge of linguistics and an anthropological awareness of how European society makes and preserves meaning, or claims so to do. Inherent in this will be appreciation of the presence of these poems in today’s language and social interaction.
Discussion during the week of seminars will concentrate mainly on the following issues:
1. Poetic vs. ‘normal’ language. What is normal linguistic behaviour?
2. Levels of linguistic analysis
3. How to approach an ‘old’ poem.
4. What is meaning in language? (How does language create and preserve meaning?)
5. Critical analyses and placing worth on poetic activity.
6. The relationship of language and narrative
LITERATURE
(suggested bibliography for pre-reading):
Blommaert, J. Discourse, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Chandler, D. Semiotics for Beginners (Semiotics for Beginners [WWW document] URL
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html, 1994)
Empson, W. Seven types of Ambiguity, (London, Penguin Books, 1995)
Fairclough, N. Critical Discourse Analysis, 2nd Edition, (Harlow, Longman/Pearson Education, 2010)
Foucault, M. The Archaeology of Knowledge, trans. A.M. Sheridan Smith, (New York, Vintage Books, Random House, 1972)
Maxwell, G. On Poetry, (London, Oberon Masters, 2012)
Donne, J. John Donne. Poems selected by Paul Muldoon, (London, Faber and Faber, 2012)
Simpson, P. Stylistics, (London, Routledge, 2004)
Spolsky, B. Sociolinguistics, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998)
Stubbs, J. Donne. The Reformed Soul, (London, Viking, 2006)
SCHEDULE
Session 1 – features of linguistic behaviour, poetic texts and various levels of linguistic analysis
Session 2 – exploration of meaning, pragmatics and discourse. Students’ examples from sonnets
Session 3 – narratives in poems, pragmatics and memory. Further worked examples from sonnets
ASSESSMENT
The first seminar grade expresses the activity in the seminar discussion. It can range from 0 to 10, the pass limit is 5. The second seminar grade assesses the quality of paper proposals (300 words minimum), the share of the student in the preparation of the final presentation, its contents and standard. It can range from 0 to 15, the pass limit is 8. The final essay grade is expressed in points from 0 to 30, the pass limit is 15. Deadline for the submission of the essay: 15 July 2013. Length of the essay: 3000-4000 words. The maximum number of points acquired for the 2 seminars and an essay is 80 (25+25+30).
For the participation in a workshop 5 points are acquired (10 points for two workshops). For the the submission of an internship application 5 points are acquired and 10 points fort the shortlisting for the internship.
