CLS4000

Literary theory

Philip Thomson

12 points
* 3 hours per week
* Full-year subject
* Clayton

Objectives On successful completion of this subject, students should have become aware of a number of classical and modern theories of literature and literary criticism, and should have learnt to relate them to basic principles of underestanding in the humanities and apply them to select texts of modern writing.

Synopsis The subject will examine the theory and practice of a number of the major schools in contemporary literary criticism: hermeneutics and reception theory; semiotics and structuralism; Marxism and critical theory; psychoanalytic criticism; poststructuralism, postmodernism and feminist literary theory.

Assessment Two essays (3000 words each): 30% each
* One essay (3000 words): 40%

Prescribed texts

Eagleton T Literary theory: An introduction Blackwell
Rice P and Waugh P (eds) Modern literary theory: A reader 2nd edn, Edward Arnold
Selden R A reader's guide to contemporary literary theory Harvester

Recommended texts

Bloch E and others Aesthetics and politics Verso
Eagleton T Criticism and ideology Verso
Freud S The interpretation of dreams Penguin
Gadamer H.-G Truth and method Seabury
Habermas J Knowledge and human interest Heinemann
Innis R (ed.)Semiotics: An introductory anthology Indiana U P
Irigaray L This sex which is not one Cornell U P
Kamuf P (ed.)A Derrida reader Columbia U P
Lacan J Écrits Tavistock
Lodge D (ed.) Modern criticism and theory Longman
Moi T (ed.) The Kristeva reader Blackwell