J. Stephen Pearson, Lecturer: U of Tennessee, Fall 2009
In this project, you will focus on the literary history of a world culture in order to understand better the issues that arise in literary scholarship. You will be asked to examine your culture’s literature in terms of its historical context, its international connections, its historical development and its key figures and texts, since 1600. You will be responsible for making decisions about the historical and geographical limits of your area. You will also think about the way academic knowledge is constructed through the work of groups of scholars. I hope that as you become more familiar with the specific history of your literary culture, you will begin to think about how your culture might respond to the texts we read in class.
You will be assigned to a group, and your group will create an encyclopedia-style article on your literary culture, with citations and bibliographies. However, your group is free to work together or separately; I can check the wiki to see how much each person has contributed. The project will be graded in three stages, although I expect that you will continue to develop all three stages throughout the term; I have already set these up for you on the wiki:
1. Historical Background (due 17 September): Begin your wiki article by providing a brief overview of the major historical circumstances that might affect your culture’s literary development.
2. Literary Periods and Movements (due 20 October): After you have a sense of the general history of your culture, explore the main trends of the literature itself. Where possible, relate those trends to the historical circumstances. (I expect that as you do this, you will find new ways to refine your Historical Background section.)
3. Key Authors and Texts (due 01 December): Once you have a grounding in the periods and movements of your literary culture, examine the major and/or representative authors and texts. Again, situate these in terms of their historical and literary contexts—and continue to refine the other sections in the article.
· Group pages on Blackboard: each group has its own discussion board, e-mail, file exchange and chatroom available through the “Groups” link on our course site.
· UTK Historical Resources: http://www.lib.utk.edu/refs/history/guide_067.pdf This list contains several useful encyclopedias and dictionaries as well as information on important databases. These would be great places to start the project.
· UTK Subject Librarians: Many of the assigned cultures have subject specialists at the Library. See http://www.lib.utk.edu/refs/reference/services.html for a list. Also look through the Subject Guides: http://www.lib.utk.edu/refs/ . These can help you find more specific information as your project develops.
· MLA Database: http://www.lib.utk.edu/cgi-bin/auth/connect.cgi?primary=483 or use the library’s Database page. This is the major database for literary scholarship.
· Area Studies links at Columbia U: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/area/index.html
· Google: narrow your search by specifying site:edu or site:org in your searches; also, try searching Google Books.
My main requirement is that all your information be cited and that you use the most academically viable sources you can find. You should be aiming for reference books, journal articles and .edu websites; these should be general enough to help you process a lot of information in a short time. For reasons you will discover as you do this project, Wikipedia is not a viable source; nor are Yahoo! Answers or Answers.com or similar websites. The quality of your sources will affect your grade!
For each stage, I will award you (individually) up to 10 points, with 7.5 points signifying “acceptable but average work” and 10.0 points signifying “outstanding, superior work.”