Literary theory informs and changes the way we understand literature as well as how we interpret cultural, historical, and political movements. This course offers a survey of the major theories that shaped the twentieth century and of those that are in the process of giving meaning to the aesthetic and social transformations of the present. Students will learn the particularities of formalism, new criticism, structuralism, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, new historicism, Marxist literary theory, postcolonial and critical race theory, feminism and queer theories, and ecocriticism. Students will also learn how literary theory enriches our understanding of aesthetic objects and how it enables us to gain insight into the relationship between literary, social, political, and historical forms and structures. Students should note that this is not an introduction to literary theory. They should also be prepared to do independent reading and research.
This course will enable students to:
- Understand the historical and recent development of literary theory;
- Understand different theories and critical schools;
- Read extracts from selected works by theorists and critics;
- Gain the ability to create theoretical framework for reading literary texts;
- Write coherent and argumentative essays.
We will meet once a week for two hours. The course consists of short lectures, group work, and discussions. Students will be expected to lead the class discussion. This is an advanced course, so students should be prepared to discuss the readings with clarity and sophistication.
1. Class Participation/Attendance– 20% (10% Active Class Participation, 10% Attendance)
2. Two Essay exams—80% (40% Exam 1, 40% Exam 2)
Readings will be drawn from the work of Terry Eagleton, Jonathan Culler, Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Karl Marx, Louis Althusser, Frederic Jameson, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Stuart Hall, Donna Haraway, and others.