Literary theory refers to how literary works make meaning and to how literary critics approach these texts. This survey course is designed to introduce PhD students in Literary Studies to the many and various ways in which literary critics read. As we will see, our theoretical orientations to our objects of study are not arbitrarily chosen, and theory is not simply a lens through which to analyse a hapless text. One of the enduring sources of tension within the discipline of literary studies is how to read. How we read has deep personal, political, and indeed professional implications. This course will foreground the language of crisis and disagreement in order to present literary theory as a site of debate about the best way to approach literature, the differences between professional and lay readers, and where to draw the line between literary-critical praxis and broader political objectives. We will begin by examining recent calls to abandon the impulse to critique in literary studies. Then we will jump back in time and study some of the most influential developments in literary theory, developments that continue to shape scholarly work in the present.
- Teacher: dandufournaud, Dufournaud Daniel