Syllabus

Jan 17  W        Introduction: What is literature?  What is criticism?  How about theory?

Why bother?  (i.e., "Why me?")

I: Why We Read

Jan 24  W        Richter, "Preface" (FT ix-xi) and "Introduction: Falling into Theory" (FT 1-12)

                        Vendler, “What We Have Loved, Others Will Love” (FT 31-40)

                        Graff, "Disliking Books at an Early Age" (FT 41-48)

                        ***

                        Viswanathan, “Introduction to Masks of Conquest” (FT 60-68)

                        Himmelfarb, “The New Advocacy and the Old” (FT 85-89)

Optional: Eagleton, "Introduction: What is Literature?" (LT 1-14)

II: What We Read

Jan  31 W        Richter, “What We Read” (FT 121-27 and 131-35)

                        Tompkins, “Masterpiece Theater” (FT 137-45)

                        Deleuze and Guattari, “What Is a Minor Literature?” (FT 166-73)                    

                        ***

                        Radway, “Introduction to A Feeling for Books” (FT199-211)

                        Guillory, “The Canon as Cultural Capital” (FT 218-24)

III: How We Read

Feb 7   W        Richter, “How We Read” (FT 235-240, 242-47)

Morrison, “Black Matter(s)” (FT 310-322)

***

Levine, “Reclaiming the Aesthetic” (FT 378-91)

                        Berube, “Aesthetics and the Literal Imagination” (FT 391-98)

IV:  Literary Theories: Contemporary Trends and Founding Discourses

Feminism

Feb 14 W        Robbins, “Introduction”(LT 49-58)

            Gilbert & Gubar, “The Female Swerve”  (FT 289-95)

                        Moi, From Sexual/Textual Politics (FT 295-301)

                        ***

                        Castle, “Sylvia Townsend Warner” (LT 72-83)

Marxist Literary Theories

Feb 21 W        Haslett, “Introduction” (LT 99-108) Papers Due!

                        Eagleton, “The Rise of English” (FT 48-59)

                        ***     

                        Eagleton, “From Towards a Revolutionary Criticism” (LT 109-15)

Optional: Eagleton, “Conclusion: Political Criticism” (LT 169-189)

Structuralism

Feb 28 W        Newton, “Introduction” (LT 15-23)

                        Jakobson, “The Linguistic Problems of Aphasia” (xerox)

                        ***

                        Barthes, “The Death of the Author” (FT 253-57)

                        Barthes, “From Science to Literature” (LT 24-29)

Optional: Eagleton, "Structuralism and Semiotics" (LT 79-109)

Mar 7   W        BREAK

Psychoanalysis

Mar 14 W        Barker, “Introduction” (LT 201-205 only to very top)

                        Freud, Dora: An Analysis (1-124)

Optional: Eagleton, "Psychoanalysis" (LT 131-145, 155-162, 166-168)

Reader-Response Theories

Mar 21 W        McQuillan, “Introduction” (139-48)

                        Iser, “The Imaginary” (LT 179-94)

                        ***

                        Fish, “How to Recognize a Poem When You See One” (FT 267-78)

                        Dasenbrook, “Do We Write the Text We Read?” (FT 278-89)

Optional: Eagleton, “Phenomenology, Hermeneutics, Reception Theory” (LT 47-78)

Deconstruction

Mar 28 W        Wolfries, “Introduction” (LT 267-81)

                        Derrida, “Letter to a Japanese Friend” (LT 282-87)

                        ***

                        Miller, “Thomas Hardy” (LT 288-97)

                        Royle, “On Not Reading: Derrida and Beckett” (LT 298-307)

Optional: Eagleton, "Post-Structuralism" (LT 110-130)

New Historicism

Apr 4   W        Branningan, “Introduction” (LT 417-27)

                        Gallagher, “Marxism and the New Historicism” (LT 428-38)

                        ***

                        Montrose, “Shaping Fantasies” (LT 439-56)

Postcolonial Theory

Apr 11 W        Low, “Introduction” (LT 463-73)

                        Low, “Loafers and Story-Tellers” (481-98)

                        ***

                        Achebe, “An Image of Africa” (FT 323-33)

                        Harris, “The Frontier on Which Heart of Darkness Stands” (FT 333-39)

                        Spivak, “Imperialism and Sexual Difference” (FT 339-48)

Gay Studies/Queer Theory

Apr 18 W        Goldman, “Introduction” (LT 525-36)

                        Sedgewick, “Queer and Now” (LT 537-52)

                        ***

                        Dollimore, “Post/modern: On the Gay Sensibility” (LT 553-69)

Cultural Studies

Apr 25 W        Womack, “Introduction” (LT 593-603)

                        Chambers, “Cities without Maps” (LT 611-25)

                        ***

                        Sinfield, “Art as Cultural Production” (LT 626-41)

May ?  W        FINAL EXAM