Materialities of Literature I

Recommended Prerequisites

Proficiency in English.

Teaching Methods

Seminar sessions will combine lectures and discussion of texts and other materials proposed for each session, as well as oral presentations by students and three written assignments.

 This methodology may be subject to minor changes depending on the instructor and number of students registered.

Learning Outcomes

Students should be able to

a) Describe and interrogate the notion of ‘materiality’.
b) Describe non-digital materialities of literature, based on a corpus of defining works and events of the 20^th and 21^st centuries.
c) Extend the field of reference of the word ‘literature’, opening it up to experimental, intermedia, and performative practices.
d) Reread texts, practices, and events of the past in the light of this paradigm.
e) Discuss the contribution of the Materialities Literature for the new Humanities and for Theory of Literature.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

This seminar begins with a reflection on the concept of ‘materiality’ and its implications for the study of literature. It establishes a genealogy for the materialities of literature, with particular emphasis on media theory, materialities of communication, new philology and post-structuralism. The corpus of study focuses on the phenomena of Voice, especially when mediated by technology, and writing produced by technologies of inscription prior to the invention of the digital computer, with emphasis on the Typewriter. Through an intermedia perspective, we examine the relationship between writing and film (writing and the technical image), and the materiality of the book, with special attention to children’s books.
1. What is materiality?
2. Theoretical genealogies of the Materialities Literature.
3. Non-digital materialities of literature: the Voice, writing as inscription (the typewriter and modern literature as typography).
4. Writing and Film.
5. Materiality of the children’s book.

Head Lecturer(s)

Professor a Definir - Faculdade de Letras

Assessment Methods

Assessment
d) oral presentation (10%); (e) in-class participation, including discussion of final essays (10%).: 20.0%
Written assignments: (a) review (20%); short essay (20%); long essay (40%): 80.0%

Bibliography

CHION, Michel (2013). L’écrit au cinema. Paris. Armand Colin.
DOLAR, Mladen (2006). A Voice and Nothing More. Cambridge. Massachusetts. MIT Press.
GROYS, Boris (2008). Bajo sospecha. Una fenomenologia de los médios. Valencia, Pre-textos.
GUMBRECHT, Hans Ulrich e PFEIFFER, K. Ludwig (1994). Materialities of Communication. Stanford. Stanford University Press.
GUMBRECHT, Hans Ulrich (2003). The Powers of Philology. Dynamics of Textual Scholarship. Urbana and Chicago. University of Illinois Press.
KITTLER, Friedrich A. (1999). Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. Stanford. Stanford University Press.
MITCHELL, W. J. T. and HANSEN, Mark B.N. (2010). Critical Terms for Media Studies. Chicago and London. The University of Chicago Press.
SÜSSEKIND, Flora e DIAS, Tânia (2004). A Historiografia Literária e as Técnicas da Escrita. Do Manuscrito ao Hipertexto. Rio de Janeiro. Edições Casa de Rui Barbosa.
ZUMTHOR, Paul (2005). Escritura e Nomadismo. São Paulo. Ateliê Editorial.