ENGL 300 - Lecture 5 - The Idea of the Autonomous Artwork

In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry explores the origins of formalist literary criticism. Considerable attention is paid to the rise and subsequent popularity of the New Critics and their preferred site of literary exploration, the “poem.” The idea of autonomous art is explored in the writings of, among others, Kant, Coleridge, and Wilde. Using the work of Wimsatt and Beardsley, the lecture concludes with an examination of acceptable categories of evidence in New Criticism.

ENGL 300 - Lecture 4 - Configurative Reading

The discussion of Gadamer and Hirsch continues in this lecture, which further examines the relationship between reading and interpretation. Through a comparative analysis of these theorists, Professor Paul Fry explores the difference between meaning and significance, the relationship between understanding and paraphrasing, and the nature of the gap between the reader and the text. Through Wolfgang Iser’s essay, “The Reading Process,” the nature of textual expectation and surprise, and the theory of their universal importance in narrative, is explained.

ENGL 300 - Lecture 3 - Ways In and Out of the Hermeneutic Circle

In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry examines acts of reading and interpretation by way of the theory of hermeneutics. The origins of hermeneutic thought are traced through Western literature. The mechanics of hermeneutics, including the idea of a hermeneutic circle, are explored in detail with reference to the works of Hans-George Gadamer, Martin Heidegger, and E. D. Hirsch. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of concepts of “historicism” and “historicality” and their relation to hermeneutic theory.

ENGL 300 - Lecture 2 - Introduction (cont.)

In this second introductory lecture, Professor Paul Fry explores the interrelation of skepticism and determinism. The nature of discourse and the related issue of discursivity is read through two modern works, Anton Chekov’s Cherry Orchard and Henry James’ The Ambassadors. Exemplary critical focus on literary authority is located in Michel Foucault’s “What Is an Author” and Roland Barthes’ “The Death of the Author,” both of which are read with an emphasis on their historical contexts.

ENGL 300 - Lecture 1 - Introduction

In this first lecture, Professor Paul Fry explores the course’s title in three parts. The relationship between theory and philosophy, the question of what literature is and does, and what constitutes an introduction are interrogated. The professor then situates the emergence of literary theory in the history of modern criticism and, through an analysis of major thinkers such as Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, provides antecedents for twentieth-century theoretical developments.

CHEM 125a - Lecture 37 - Potential Energy Surfaces, Transition State Theory and Reaction Mechanism

After discussing the statistical basis of the law of mass action, the lecture turns to developing a framework for understanding reaction rates. A potential energy surface that associates energy with polyatomic geometry can be realized physically for a linear, triatomic system, but it is more practical to use collective energies for starting material, transition state, and product, together with Eyring theory, to predict rates. Free-radical chain halogenation provides examples of predicting reaction equilibria and rates from bond dissociation energies.

CHEM 125a - Lecture 36 - Bond Energies, the Boltzmann Factor and Entropy

After discussing the classic determination of the heat of atomization of graphite by Chupka and Inghram, the values of bond dissociation energies, and the utility of average bond energies, the lecture focuses on understanding equilibrium and rate processes through statistical mechanics. The Boltzmann factor favors minimal energy in order to provide the largest number of different arrangements of “bits” of energy. The slippery concept of disorder is illustrated using Couette flow.

CHEM 125a - Lecture 35 - Understanding Molecular Structure and Energy through Standard Bonds

Although molecular mechanics is imperfect, it is useful for discussing molecular structure and energy in terms of standard covalent bonds. Analysis of the Cambridge Structural Database shows that predicting bond distances to within 1% required detailed categorization of bond types. Early attempts to predict heats of combustion in terms of composition proved adequate for physiology, but not for chemistry. Group- or bond-additivity schemes are useful for understanding heats of formation, especially when corrected for strain.

CHEM 125a - Lecture 34 - Sharpless Oxidation Catalysts and the Conformation of Cycloalkanes

Professor Barry Sharpless of Scripps describes the Nobel-prizewinning development of titanium-based catalysts for stereoselective oxidation, the mechanism of their reactions, and their use in preparing esomeprazole. Conformational energy of cyclic alkanes illustrates the use of molecular mechanics.

Subscribe to Open Yale Courses RSS