ENGL1036: Meaning and Metaphor Literary Studies Fall 2022 Monday, 2:30-3:20pm; Thursday, 1:30-3:20 LOCATION:CPD-3.15 |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Webpage address: http://www.english.hku.hk |
Prof. Kendall A. JOHNSON Office Hours: Monday afternoons, 3:30-5pm and by appointment Office: 7.43 Run Run Shaw Tower |
"Put by the curtains; look within my Veil; Turn up my Metaphors, and do not fail; There, if thou seekest them such things to find, As will be helpful to an honest mind." -John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, 1678 |
Course Description and Primary Texts| Course Requirements | Learning Outcomes | Schedule | Electronic (PDF) Files | NOTE: Links jump to points further down on this page |
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The course reads literary texts in order to consider different definitions of metaphor and operations of figurative language. It presents the identification and analysis of metaphor as a tool in the study of texts of all kinds, and introduces approaches which see the study of metaphor as a key to understanding human cognition, the relationship of literature to history, and the importance of social context to the notion of "meaning." The course shows how questions about metaphor are at the heart of debates about methods of interpretation across the humanities and social sciences, and illustrates the role of metaphor in fundamental ideological discussions. The course equips students to analyse a range of texts in terms of metaphor and gives them a grounding in longstanding debates about meaning, interpretation and the relationship of language to reality. BOOKS: available on Amazon.com, or as PDF files:
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ELECTRONIC REFERENCE LIBRARY (.pdf FORMAT):
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COURSE ASSESSMENT and REQUIREMENTS:
COURSE OBJECTIVES and LEARNING OUTCOMES:
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CLASS SCHEDULE: |
PART I: Metaphors and Religious Faith | ||||
WEEK 1: Thurs Sept 1: |
Our Journey Begins
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WEEK 2: Mon Sept 5: Thur Sept 8: |
Reading Like a Puritan Key Terms: Literal, Figurative, Trope, Symbol, Metaphor, Allegory, Anagogy, Eschatology (Soteriology) Moodle Group posting #1: Moodle group for ENGL1036_1A_2022 |
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WEEK 3: Mon Sept 12 no class: Thurs Sept 15 |
John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678; 1684)
PDF
Please read the first part of Pilgrim's Progress (to page 165 in the Penguin edition)-- try to get as far as you can... Key terms (discussed in class): Catholic / Protestant, Calvinism, Puritan / Pilgrim, Transubstantiation / Consubstantiation, God, Original Sin, Regeneration, Grace, Providence, Predestination, concursus dei, Vocation, the Word, Covenant, Typology, Jeremiad I will refer to the following in lecture: Chapters 1-5, 7, 9, 10-14, 28; Here is an image of Bradford's manuscript; Online edition (from the Early Americas Digital Archive, Univeristy of Maryland) Moodle Group posting #2: Moodle group for ENGL1036_1A_2022 |
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WEEK 4: Mon Sept. 19: Thurs Sept. 22 |
Bunyan continued; Mary Rowlandson
Moodle Group posting #3: Moodle group for ENGL1036_1A_2022 |
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WEEK 5: Mon Sept 26: Thurs Sept 29 |
Rowlandson continued... Key terms: Divine Right of Kings, Empire, Imperialism, Colonialism, Nation, Republic, Citizen, Property, Romance
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PART II: Metaphors of National Enlightenment |
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WEEK 6: Mon Oct 3: Thurs Oct 6: |
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography
Presentation 1: Definition of the term Romance, from Bedford Handbook [Davina and Tina] |
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Mon Oct 10 Thur Oct 13 |
Reading Week: Please read selections from Emerson's essay "Nature" (1836) and get a head start on Douglass's The Narrative of the Life of an American Slave | |||
WEEK 7: Mon, Oct 17: Thurs Oct 20 |
Franklin & Emerson's "Nature" (1836)
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WEEK 8:
Mon, Oct 24 Thurs Oct 27 : |
Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life (1845)
Midterm Exam |
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PART III: Metaphors of Civil War and Reunion: |
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WEEK 9: Mon Oct 31: Thurs Nov 3 |
The US Civil War (1861-65) and Louisa May Alcott's
Little Women and Good Wives (1868-69)
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WEEK 10: Mon Nov. 7 Thur Nov 10 |
Continued: Louisa May Alcott,
Little Women and Good Wives (1868-69)
Presentation 6: Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860" (1966) [Ashley and Yoyo] |
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WEEK 11: Mon Nov 14 Thur Nov 17 |
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Presentation 10: Toril Moi, What is a Woman? Sex, Gender, and the Body in Feminist Theory (1999) [Diljot and Hebe] |
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WEEK 12: Mon Nov 21: Thurs Nov 24 |
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Walt Whitman, "When Lilacs last on my Dooryard Bloomed" (1865), in Leaves of Grass (1855, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871-72, 1876, 1881, 1888-89, and 1891-92) Emily Dickinson, "There's a Certain Slant of Light" (#258; 1890) Presentation 11b: Ferdinand de Saussure, selections from "Course in General Linguistics" (1972) |
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WEEK 13: Mon Nov 28: Thurs Dec 1: (optional) CPD 3.16 next door |
End of our journey(1946) Final Exam: Due Monday, December 19 by 5 pm by email. The final |
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