BTAN22002BA; BTAN22030MA

Introduction to Literature and Visual Culture

Autumn semester, 2017

Seminar, 2hrs, graded Instructor: Gula Marianna

2nd year BA; Office: 108

MA in English Teacher Training Office hours:

Wed 10.00-11.40, Rm 109 Mon 9.00-10.00

Wed 13.30-14.30

E-mail address:

mariannagula@gmail.com

Course Description

The aim of the coure is to help students acquire the basic skills and terms needed for

analysing literary texts and visual images as well as to introduce students into some crucial

critical approaches to texts and images. Seminars will discuss key literary terms (narrative,

plot, point-of-view, character, setting, figures of speech), particular cultural phenomena

(literature, film, advertising, music video), and critical directions always on the basis of

analysing concrete texts or images.

Requirements:

1. In-class participation: the class format will be discussion, so students are expected to read

the assignment(s) for each class and contribute to the discussion.

2. Minor plot/terminology tests: short (written/oral) tests at the beginning of the class to check

whether students are familiar with the assigned texts and basic terminology.

NB! If a student does not show familiarity with the texts and basic terms assigned for a

particular class, despite the fact that (s)he is present, it will count as an absence.

3. In-class essay: an essay of 300-400 words written in class based on the material covered in

the first half of the semester.

4. End-term test: short essay questions to be answered in 5-6 sentences, based on all the

literary texts, advertisments, films, music videos discussed in class. The test must be written

at the time scheduled in the syllabus. Failing to do so or not achieving 50% of the total score

will count as course failure, and only one re-sit test will be scheduled to make up for the

failure.

NB! Out of all the course components, only one re-sit will be granted; in case you fail

in more than one component, the course is a failure. 5. Class attendance: more than three absences will result in failing the entire course.

Grading:

The final grade for the course will consist in the following:

1. In-class participation 10%

2. Plot/terminology tests: 10%

3. In-class essay: 40%

4. End-term test: 40%

Schedule

1 13 Sept Orientation: Viewing at class: Monty Python: “The Working Class

Playwright”

2 20 Sept Literature and Culture

Read Judy Giles and Tim Middleton: “What is Culture?”

3 27 Sept Reading fiction/Plot and Story & Introduction to gender criticism:

Read John Updike, A&P* (plot test)

Janice Galloway, “Blood” (plot test) &

Fiona Tolan, “Feminisms”

Terminology test: Elements of plot structure (Bényei Tamás lecture notes)

4 4 Oct Reading fiction/Point of view and Irony & Introduction to psychoanalytical

criticism:

Read E. A. Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart”* (plot test)

Flann O’Brien, “Two in One” * (plot test)

Gleanings from Sigmund Freud’s “The Uncanny”

Terminology test: Kinds of narrators and focalisers & Irony (Bényei Tamás

lecture notes)

5 11 Oct Reading fiction/Setting and Characterisation & Introduction to postcolonial

criticism:

Read James Joyce, “Araby” * (plot test)

Kathrine Mansfield, “The Garden Party” *(plot test) &

Gleanings from the “Introduction” of Edward Said’s Orientalism

Terminology test: Setting & Character and Characterisation (Bényei Tamás

lecture notes)

6 18 Oct Reading poetry/Figures of Speech & Introduction to the idea of the

rhetorical nature of being and knowledge:

Read Shakespeare sonnets (handout)

Watch The Art of Metaphor by Jane Hirshfield (available at

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/jane-hirshfield-the-art-of-the-metaphor) at home

Terminology test: Rhetoric, Tropes, Figures of Speech, except allegory and

symbol (Bényei Tamás lecture notes)

7 25 Oct In-class essay 8 30 Oct CONSULTATION WEEK (no class)

9 6 Nov Reading films I: Symbolism in film: Analysing a short film from Ten Minutes

Older: The Trumpet (2002)

Watch Victor Erice: “Lifeline” at home &

Read “Glossary of Film Terms” from Karen Gocsik’s Writing about Film

Terminology test: Allegory and symbol (Bényei Tamás lecture notes)

10 13 Nov Reading advertisements: Read excerpts from Raymond Williams, “Advertising: The Magic System” &

from Judith Williamson, “Decoding Advertisements” &

Watch the following advertisements on YouTube at home: “Heist” (coca-cola

ad); “Surfer” (Guinness ad); “Chanel no 5” ads with Catherine Deneuve, Nicole

Kidman and Audrey Taotou; Sony Bravia ad “Bouncing Balls” & Tango’s

Sony Bravia spoof ad.

11 20 Nov Reading music videos & Introduction to Postmodernism:

Anne Kaplan, “MTV: Advertising and Production”

Peter Wollen, “Ways of Thinking about Music Video (and Post-modernism)”

Watch on YouTube at home: Direstraits, “Money for Nothing”; Radiohead,

“Fake Plastic Trees” & “Street Spirit”; Eminem “Without Me”; Foo Fighters,

“Everlong”; Celine Dion, “A New Day has Come”; Gotye, “Somebody that I

Used to Know”

12 27 Nov Reading films II:

Watch The Truman Show (Dir. Peter Weir 1998) at home

13 4 Dec End term-test

14 11 Dec Evaluation

The assigned readings marked with a * will be available in the collection “Kennedy, Fiction”

(ask Teri). The items not accompanied by an * will be uploaded on the institute homepage

(under the instructor’s name, current courses, “Introduction to Literature and Visual

Culture”). Victor Erice’s “Lifeline” and The Truman Show will be available from Rm101.