The University of Tasmania: School of English, Journalism & European Languages

Abstract

Fictocriticism 2008 English Honours Unit Description Postmodern critical and creative work is moving rapidly away from the traditional academic genres of essay, chapter and journal article, on the one hand, and, on the other, the traditional creative genres of fiction and poetry.

Fictocriticism 2008

English Honours Unit

Description

Postmodern critical and creative work is moving rapidly away from the traditional academic genres of essay, chapter and journal article, on the one hand, and, on the other, the traditional creative genres of fiction and poetry. A hybrid writing, part critical, part theoretical, part creative, is proving influential in the reformulation of literary and cultural studies. Cross- and trans-disciplinary work has brought into existence new forms of academic writing. This unit studies some current, influential work of cultural analysis and commentary by writers working outside and against previously normative disciplinary genres, in what might be termed intellectual avant-gardes. The unit is loosely framed by a psychoanalytic theoretical paradigm and focuses on the pragmatics of writing practice as well as crucial theoretical questions of subjectivity, objectivity, value and cultural politics. There is the opportunity for students to do fictocritical work for their assessment.

Aims and Objectives:

The aim of this unit is to introduce students to recent and contemporary developments within the discipline 'English', under the heading Fictocriticism. It focuses on recent, innovative academic writing practices in the field of literary and cultural studies, and in the humanities more broadly. The unit aims to increase students' awareness of the field of English and literary studies and of the academic writing practices it currently encompasses. Objectives of the unit are to provide a re-introduction to Freudian and post-Freudian psychoanalytic theory, to increase students' self-consciousness about their own writing practices, to provide opportunities for innovation and experiment in their own advanced, Honours work.

Learning Outcomes:

Students taking this unit will have an increased knowledge of cross- and trans-disciplinary advanced work in the field of literary and cultural studies, will have thought about the genres of academic writing, be aware of aspects of the production of academic work and, in some cases, have experimented with innovation in their own work for assessment in the unit. Students will also have been reintroduced to some aspects of psychoanalytic theory as it pertains to the fictocritical field.

Required Texts:

HEA435 Fictocriticism Unit Reader (contents marked*)

Ross Gibson, Seven Versions of an Australian Badland

Katherine Hayles, Writing Machines

Alice Kaplan, French Lessons: a memoir

Heather Kerr and Amanda Nettelbeck, The Space Between

Stephen Muecke, No Road (Bitumen all the Way)

Assessment:

1 x 5,000-word essay due Monday 26 May 4.30pm.

The essay will assess all of the learning outcomes for this unit.

Sidebar

LECTURE/SEMINAR SCHEDULE

introductory: genres/theory/disciplines/writing practice/knowledge

Borges, 'Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote'*

Greenblatt, 'Introduction' and 'Epilogue' (from Renaissance Self-Fashioning)*

Magee, 'Kierkegaard II: The Sequel'*

Ruthven, 'The Future of Disciplines: A Report on Ignorance'*

Didion, 'Sentimental Journeys'*

Castro, 'Auto/biography'*

Psychoanalysis/the fragmentary self/incompleteness

Freud, Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria ('Dora')*

Berheimer and Kahane, In Dora's Case: Freud, Hysteria, Feminism[dagger]

Wright, 'What is a clinical "case"?'*

autocritography/psychoanalysis/memory

Kaplan, French Lessons: a Memoir[dagger]

Shumway, 'The Star System in Literary Studies'*

Sutherland, 'The Peons and the Program'*

Veeser, 'The Case for Confessional Criticism'*

Gender/practising fictocriticism

Kerr and Nettelbeck, The Space Between: Australian Women Writing Fictocriticism[dagger]

Brook, '"Does Anybody Know What Happened to 'Fictocriticism'?"'*

Dawson, 'A Place for the Space Between: Fictocriticism and the University'*

Gibbs, 'Bodies of Words: Feminism and Fictocriticism'*

critical institutions/literature/the 'fully sick' self

Ellman, The Hunger Artists: Starving, Writing & Imprisonment[dagger]

Berube, 'Life as We Know It'*

Sacks, [from] The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat*

Sedgewick, 'White Glasses'*

Michaels, Unbecoming: an AIDS Diary[dagger]

writing practice/place/history/creative non-fiction

Gibson, Seven Versions of an Australian Badland[dagger]

Schlunke, 'Time, Nature and the Queered Kangaroo'

Curthoys and Docker, Is History Fiction?[dagger]

essay proposals due

writing practice/the nomadic text/history

Muecke, No Road (Bitumen All the Way)[dagger]

Curthoys and Docker, Is History Fiction?[dagger]

Falconer, 'Columbus' Blindness'*

Muecke, 'The Fall: Fictocritical Writing'*

autocriticalcyberfictions

Hayles, Writing Machines[dagger]

Haraway, 'A Manifesto for Cyborgs'*

Sofoulis, 'Cyberquake: Haraway's Manifesto'*

Robyn Ferrell, 'The Danger of Technology'*

Unit summary and discussion of essay proposals

References

Bibliography and Related Reading

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Berube, Michael. 'Truth is estranger of fiction.' Australian Higher Education Supplement. (Wednesday May 24, 2000): 44-5.

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Brook, Scott. '"Does Anybody Know What Happened to 'Fictocriticism'?": Toward a Fractal Genealogy of Australian Fictocriticism.' Cultural Studies Review 8.2 (November 2002): 104-17.

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_____. Material Thinking: Collaborative Realisation and the Art of Self Becoming. Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 2005.

Castro, Brian. Looking for Estrellita. St Lucia: UQP, 1999.

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Kaplan, Alice and Kristin Ross, eds Yale French Studies 73 (1987). 'Everyday Life' issue.

_____. French Lessons: A Memoir. Chicago and London: U of Chicago P, 1993.

_____. The Collaborator: the Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach. Chicago: Chicago UP, 2000.

Kerr, Heather. 'Fictocriticism, the "Doubtful Category" and "The Space Between".' Caroline Guerin, Philip Butters and Amanda Nettlebeck, eds Crossing Lines: Formations of Australian Culture. Adelaide: Proceedings of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature Conference, 1995. 93-96.

_____ and Amanda Nettelbeck, eds The Space Between: Australian Women Writing Fictocriticism. Nedlands: U of Western Australia P, 1998.

King, Noel. 'My Life Without Steve: Postmodernism, Ficto-criticism and the Paraliterary.' Southern Review 27.3 (September 1994): 261-73.

_____, 'Eh?' [about Kathy Acker] HQ (Nov/Dec 1995): 47-50.

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_____, 'Captain Cook's Shoes.' Island 60/61 (Spring/Summer 1994): 126-29.

_____. No Road (Bitumen All the Way). Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre, 1997.

_____, 'The Fall: Fictocritical Writing.' Brenda Walker, ed. The Writer's Reader. Sydney: Halstead, 2002: 125-31.

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Philip Mead