Department of English

This course is an introduction to the history of literary theory and to some of the key problems or questions that animate theoretical discussion among literary scholars today.  These include the questions of race and ethnicity, of gender and sexuality, of text and materiality, of nation and (post)colonality, of cultural value and canonicity, and of the status of "theory" itself.  Written work for the course will include two or three very short (600-word) essays which will be presented to the class, as well as a longer essay of 12-20 pages.