Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur

Syllabus – Winter Semester

1. (7.10.) Introduction

– current concepts of literature

– literary canon

2. (14.10.) Figurative Language I – Metaphor, Metonymy, Synecdoche

– introduction to figurative language

– definitions

– implicit and explicit metaphor

– set metaphors, metaphor and cliché

– subtypes of metonymy

3. (21.10.) Figurative Language II – Irony

– verbal and dramatic irony

– Socratic and Romantic irony

– the intertextual nature of irony

– irony & authorial/interpretative strategies

(28.10.) no class (bank holiday)

4. (4.11.) Metre and Rhythm

– metre vs. rhythm

– metric feet, measure

– metrical systems

– free verse

– uses of metre

5. (11.11.) Sound Patterning and Rhyme

– alliteration, assonance, consonance

– end rhyme, internal rhyme, near rhyme, eye-rhyme

– masculine and feminine rhyme

– basic rhyme patterns

– uses and functions of sound patterning

6. (18.11.) Verse Form I

– terza rima

– four-line stanzas (in heroic poetry, hymns, ballads)

– sonnet

7. (25.11.) Verse Form II

– villanelle

– rhyme royal, ottava rima, Spenserian stanza

8. (2.12.) Drama and Theatre I

– literary vs. dramatic text

– drama in performance

– theatrical styles and modes

9. (9.12.) Drama and Theatre II

– history of staging conventions: Greek theatre, Elizabethan theatre, Restoration era theatre, Victorian melodrama, naturalism, symbolism, expressionism, epic theatre, theatre of the absurd, contemporary Western theatre

Mid-term essay due.

10. (16.12.) Genre

– criteria of classification

– classification on the basis of formal arrangement

– classification on the basis of theme

– function and use of genre, genre expectations

11. (6.1.) Intertextuality, Allusion, Metatextuality

– allusions and meaning

– the intertextual nature of meaning

Recommended Reading:

Montgomery, M., et al., Ways of Reading (London: Routledge, 1992).

Green, K. and LeBihan, J., Critical Theory and Practice (London: Routledge, 1996).

Aristotle, Poetics.

Fludernik, M., An Introduction to Narratology (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009)

Hobsbaum, P., Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form (Abingdon: Routledge, 1996).

Pavis, P., Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998).

Cuddon, A.J., The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (London: Penguin, 1992).

Preminger, A. and Brogan, T.V.F., The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

Assessment:

WS (zápočet): Attendance (max. 2 unexplained absences) and active participation in class, mid-term essay: interpretation of poetry (1 500 words), final test on poetics and genre definitions.

SS (zápočet, zkouška): Attendance (max. 2 unexplained absences) and active participation in class, mid-term essay: narrative analysis (1 500 words), final test on narrative strategies and approaches to text (literary theories).

Criteria of Assessment: All assignments will be awarded a letter grade. Credit (zápočet) for each semester will be given on the basis of receiving a pass grade (i.e., A to C-) for the essay, testand participationeach. The final exam grade will be calculated from the results in the individual assignments in the following manner:

Composition of Final Exam Grade

Value of Individual Letter Grades Awarded for Assignments

Conversion of Grades to a Final FFUK Exam Grade

Example:

A student’s performance has been graded as follows:

Participation winter semester                              A-           = 9

Participation summer semester                           B             = 8.5

Essay winter semester                                          A-           = 22.5

Essay summer semester                                       C             = 18.75

Test winter semester                                            C             = 11.25

Test summer semester                                         B             = 12.75

The final exam grade is                      2 (B-)    = 82.75%