Preliminary Class Business

• Enrollment
  • Roll Call
  • New class member sign-up
• Brief review of course concept and assignments
• Course resources
  • The course site (kept in PbWiki)
  • Resources on the course site
    • Schedule
      • Online and print readings
      • Course notes pages
    • Assignments
    • Toy Chest
    • Guidelines & Support
    • Student Work pages
• Attendance and Grading Policy
• Questions?

1. The Concept of Close Reading

• The History of Literary Interpretation
• The Context of Close Reading
• The New Critics
• The Official Harvard Definition
• de Man, from The Resistance to Theory

2. The Paradigm of Close Reading

• Sir Thomas Wyatt, "They Flee From Me" (1557) [commentary by Ian Lancashire]
• John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819) [commentary by Cleanth Brooks]
• Archibald MacLeish, "Ars Poetica" (1926) [commentary by various critics]

3. Rules and Exceptions

• Wallace Stevens, "The Snow Man" (1921) [commentary by various critics]
• Wallace Stevens, "Anecdote of the Jar" (1919) [commentary by various critics] A Picture of The Jar

4. Literature in the Age of Information?

• Commentary on Wyatt's "They Flee From Me" by Ian Lancashire
• N. Katherine Hayles on "media-specific analysis"

5. Working on the Course Wiki

• Joining the course wiki as a member with "writer" permissions
  • Once the instructors submit your email address to the PbWiki system, you will receive an email with instructions on how to set up a PBwiki Account (if you don't have one already) and how to gain access.
  • Or, You can go to the wiki, click on "Log in," and then click on "Request Access."  The PbWiki system will then email the instructors and ask them to approve you for membership in the wiki.
• Creating your bio on the wiki (due by Class 4):
  • Go to Class Bios page for instructions