Department of English

This course aims at providing an exposure to the main discourses of literary theory. We will start with an introduction to Formalism, Structuralism and Post-structuralism, will then survey the major schools in the fields of psychoanalysis, Marxism, Feminism and Deconstruction. This will lead us to engage with Post-colonial studies, Cultural Studies and Queer Theory.

The anthology we will use is the very comprehensive Literary Theory / An Anthology (Blackwell, 1998) edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Further readings will be suggested in class.

Requirements: Oral reports on the essays we read, a few in-class quizzes, four short papers and one research paper of ten pages. No final exam.