Department of English

This course will introduce graduate students to key concepts and debates in literary criticism and cultural theory. We will survey the methods and approaches of major fields including Structuralism, Psychoanalysis, Marxism, Feminism, Post-colonial Studies, Deconstruction, Queer Studies, New Historicism, and Cultural Studies, and will consider the relevance of such approaches to the study of literature. The aim of this course is to prepare new students for the advanced work in the field and to orient them in the profession. We will therefore focus on mastering central concepts and terms and will attempt, whenever possible, to draw links between theoretical debates and the methodological and practical challenges students face in graduate school.