Department of English

At the crossroads of literature, literary criticism, critical practice and critical theory, this class will approach literary theory as a discourse on method. Theories and theorists; with different voices and from different places, this seminar will investigate creativity, intuition, representation, illusion and meaning, and provide models of understanding the act of literature as the sublime expression of a society.  Of especial interest are; Marxist Theory, Structuralism, Post-structuralism/Deconstruction, Feminist Theory, Psychoanalytic Theory, and all the other movements which have shaped thought in this century.  The various theorists will provide methods of interpretation through economics, ideology, psychoanalysis, sociology, anthropology and epistemology.  Marx, Freud and Saussure, the class struggle, the unconscious and the sign, together with Levi Strauss's cultural anthropology will act as references to the work of Lacan, Derrida, Barthes, Foucault, Kristeva, Lukacs, Goldman, Adorno, Benjamin, Irigaray, Williams and Eagleton in case studies of Literary Theory. This class is about theory and the students are required to provide the literature.  BYO. There will be no exams, but there will be  requent, short seminar papers.