Introduction to critical and literary theory
T Threadgold
8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton
Objectives On the successful completion of this subject students should have learned how to read and critique the major texts of structuralism and early poststructuralism, how to use the terminology of contemporary critical theory with confidence, and how to use theoretical understandings of social power, language, and difference in the reading of theory and literature.
Synopsis This subject is designed to introduce students to many of the major theories and issues arising in contemporary literary critical theory, from the pioneering work of the founders of structuralism - Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Sanders Pierce and Claude Levi-Strauss - to recent critiques of structuralism developed by post-structuralists like Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Julia Kristeva. It aims to present an overview of leading figures within twentieth-century critical theory, and also a discussion of the major issues raised in this work. The subject itself will be divided into three parts: in the first, basic concepts and pioneering theories will be introduced. Here we will examine the work of Saussure, Pierce, formalism and structuralism (Levi-Strauss, Jakobson, Benveniste). In the second part, we will look at developments and refinements of their work, particularly in various analyses of social power: among the figures analysed here are Roland Barthes and his analyses of bourgeois cultural life, Michel Foucault's understanding of writing and the trace. In the third part of the course, we will discuss critiques of structuralism, concentrating particularly on the work of the Derrideans, including a session on Kristeva.
Assessment second year Class test (2 hours): 30%
* Seminar paper (15
minutes, 1000 words): 25%
* Essay (3000 words): 40%
* Seminar
participation: 5%
Assessment third year Class test (2 hours): 30%
* Seminar paper (15
minutes, 1000 words): 25%
* Essay (3000 words): 40%
* Seminar
participation: 5%
* Third-year students will be expected to read more
widely and to present written work that is more analytic and self-reflective
than second year students.
Prescribed texts
A reader containing theoretical texts and some poems and short stories for theoretical analysis will be available at the beginning of the course.
Recommended texts
Barthes R Image-Music-Text
Barthes R Mythologies
Bennett T Formalism and Marxism
Cameron D Feminism and linguistic theory
de Saussure F Course in general linguistics
Derrida J Positions
Foucault M Language, counter-memory, practice
Hawkes T Structuralism and semiotics
Moi T Sexual/textual/politics
Moi T (ed.)The Kristeva reader
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