Course details
Tutors
Aims
This course aims to:
- enable you to think differently and more clearly about punctuation as an element of literary composition
- examine closely and productively the punctuation of extracts from the set texts
- read with a sharper eye for punctuational strength and weakness
Course content
I know punctuation is a hard sell, but it is essential – without marks, spaces, cases, and faces writing would be very confusing, and it is an extremely potent resource. After a first session in which we’ll look at the wider meaning of punctuation proper literary analysis demands, and a brief overview of punctuation’s historical development in English, we will come down to brass tacks, session by session, looking closely at selected passages from our four set texts.
You will get most out of the course if you have read through the set texts in preparation. Neither Marvell’s ‘Upon Appleton House’ nor Eliot’s The Waste Land exceed a few hundred lines, and Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life is also a swift read ; Melville’s Moby-Dick is much longer, but richly rewards attention. And as you read try to notice not only marks – which ones ? how are they deployed and how do they affect rhythm as well as meaning ? – but layouts and spaces, any uses of italics or bold, large and small capitals, and any recurring patterns.
With two poems, one in closed form and one in free verse, a long nineteenth-century novel, and an experimental modern play we also have a basis to think about punctuation in different modes of writing. In poetry units of form (lines, stanzas, verse-paragraphs) are always in play with units of grammar (clauses, sentences), which is also the play of marks against line-ending spaces. In prose attention and clarity must be maintained while narrative, description, and dialogue proceed, but there is also the rhythm of sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and perhaps larger units. And in drama there are strong, received conventions about displaying speech-prefixes, stage-directions, and dialogue – meaning many readerly expectations that a playwright may meet or calculatedly refuse to meet.
Better knowledge and understanding of punctuation will enrich both your reading and your writing. andifyourestillnotconvincedjusttrythinkingabouthwhatwritingwouldlooklikeifwedidn’thavenotonlymarksbutalsolackedspacescasesandfacesveryhardonyoureyesforstarters !
What to expect on this course
The first introductory session will start with a mini-lecture and PowerPoint slides to set things up. Thereafter I will provide both slides and handouts with the chosen passages from each set text, and the class will be primarily focused on close reading. Questions will be welcome throughout.
Course sessions
- The Stops (and other punctuations) Buck Here.
What is punctuation and how did it evolve in English ? - Andrew Marvell and closed form.
‘Upon Appleton House’ is many things, including an end-of-term report, a resignation letter, and a state-of-the-nation analysis, all working within the numbered, couplet-rhymed, eight-line stanzas that are its most consistent punctuation. - T. S. Eliot and open form.
The Waste Land is also many things, not least an epitome of Modernism notorious for its layout and free verse – punctuation very much to the fore. - Herman Melville and the structures of prose.
Melville was, as much as Henry James, a master of the semi-colon, controlling both accumulation and the passage of time in his extraordinary tale of Ahab’s obsession with a white whale – but there is also the punctuation of the tale as a framed whole. - Martin Crimp and a play-reader’s expectations.
Attempts on Her Life is widely regarded as one of the most potent and unsettling recent tragedies, and to be so it defies many expectations of how drama should look on stage and page alike.
Learning outcomes
As a result of the course, you will gain a greater understanding of the subject and you should be able to:
- think more flexibly and knowledgeably about punctuation
- read more rewardingly, seeing how punctuation has been used
- write with greater confidence in deploying punctuation of all kinds
Required reading
Students are urged to read all four set texts before starting the course. There is only one text of Attempts on Her Life, given below in two editions. Any edition of The Waste Land is acceptable, though reference will also be made to the digital facsimiles given below. For ‘Upon Appleton House’ and Moby-Dick, the digital facsimiles of the first editions given below are strongly recommended.
Marvell, Andrew, Miscellaneous Poems (1681) downloadable at:
https://archive.org/details/case_6a_158_no_97/mode/2up
Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick ; or, The Whale (1851, NYC), downloadable at:
https://archive.org/details/mobydickorwhale01melv/mode/2up
Eliot, T S, The Waste Land (1922), downloadable at:
https://archive.org/details/wasteland01elio/mode/2up
and The Waste Land : A Facsimile and Transcript (ed. V. Eliot, 1994), borrowable at:
https://archive.org/details/wastelandfacsimi0000elio_t8k9
Crimp, Martin, Attempts on Her Life (1996) (London: Faber, 2007) ISBN 9780571236695
The play is included in Crimp’s Plays 2 (London: Faber, 2005) ISBN 9780571225521