LITERATURE AND KNOWLEDGE

AS.060.262.11

Roger Maioli

Gilman 17 – 12:30-3:00 MWF

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The relationship between literature and knowledge has been an object of critical debate since
the times of Plato and Aristotle, and it remains controversial to this day. Can poems, plays, and
imaginary narratives teach us something about the real world? Or does their fictional status
make them unreliable as sources of knowledge? In this course students will engage with these
questions by reading classical and contemporary discussions of the topic in conjunction with
major works of literature. The literary sources include Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare’s
Macbeth, Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, while the
criticism will be represented among others by Plato, Aristotle, Dr. Johnson, William Godwin,
Mitchell Green, and Martha Nussbaum.

COURSE STRUCTURE
The course will be organized around five weekly units. Week 1 will feature three introductory-
level essays and a sample of short texts that illustrate in different ways the cognitive potential
of literature. Weeks 2-5 constitute the core of the course and will be organized around a
literary source that represents well the issues addressed by the critical sources they are paired
with. Thus, for Week 2 we will discuss Plato’s and Aristotle’s views on the truth of poetry by
examining Oedipus Rex, and for Week 4 we will evaluate 18th- and 19th-century discussions of
the cognitive value of novels by treating Northanger Abbey as a test case.
Mondays will be dedicated to an initial discussion of the critical sources. Everyone is
expected to bring to class either an interpretive response to the sources or two critical
questions. In addition, students’ understanding of the critical sources will be tested through
weekly quizzes. We will discuss the main sources extensively on Wednesday and Friday. On
those dates one or more students will read a presentation paper for subsequent class
discussion. The exact number as well as the length of presentation papers will depend on
enrollment. On the last day of class students will take a final examination.
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COURSE SCHEDULE
WEEK 1
Reading load: 61 pages
Wed. Introduction. Voltaire, “The Story of a Good Brahmin” (3 p.); Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” (2
p.); Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” (12 p.)
Fri. Jukka Mikkonen (14 p.), “Introduction” to The Cognitive Value of Philosophical Fiction;
Dorothy Walsh, excerpts from Literature and Knowledge (20 p.), Jorge Luis Borges,
“The South” (10 p.)

WEEK 2
Reading load: 128 pages
Mon. Plato, excerpts from The Republic (12 p.); Aristotle, Poetics (40 p.)
Wed. Martha Nussbaum, “The Narrative Imagination” (22 p.), Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (54 p.)
Fri. Oedipus Rex (cont.)

WEEK 3
Reading load: 164 pages
Mon. Sir Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesy (30 p.), Dr. Samuel Johnson, Preface to
Shakespeare (14 p.)
Wed. Shakespeare, Macbeth (120 p.)
Fri. Macbeth (cont.)

WEEK 4
Reading load: 216 pages
Mon. David Hume, “Of the Study of History” (6); William Godwin, “Of History and Romance”
(15 p.); Dr. Johnson, Rambler 4 (5 p.), Jerome Stolnitz, “The Cognitive Triviality of Art”
(10 p.)
Wed. Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (180 p.)
Fri. Northanger Abbey (cont.)

WEEK 5
Reading load: 227 pages
Mon. Mitchell Green, “How and What We Can Learn from Fiction” (17 p.), William Golding,
Lord of the Flies (210 p.)
Wed. William Golding, Lord of the Flies (cont.).
Fri. Final exam.
 SYLLABUS
Students will be required to buy the following books:

ARISTOTLE, Poetics. Ed. Anthony Kenny (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2013).

SOPHOCLES, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra. Ed. Edith Hall (Oxford: Oxford World’s
Classics, 2009).

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth. Ed. Nicholas Brooke (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics,
2008).

JANE AUSTEN, Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon. Ed. James Kinsley and
John Davies (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2003).

WILLIAM GOLDING, Lord of the Flies (New York: Perigee Books, 1959).

All other texts will be made available as handouts or electronic files.

EVALUATION
Attendance and participation: 15%
Submission of responses/questions: 15%
Quizzes: 20%
Presentation paper: 25%
Final exam: 25%