English 285 - INTRO TO CONTEMP LIT THEORY

What do we do when we read literature? Does the meaning of a text depend on the author's intention? Or on how readers read? What counts as a valid interpretation? Who decides? How do some texts get canonized and others forgotten? How does literature function in culture and society? How do changing understandings of language, the unconscious, class, gender, race, history or sexuality affect how we read? "Theory" is "thinking about thinking," questioning common sense, critically examining the categories we use to approach literature or any discursive text. This course introduces some of the most influential questions that have shaped contemporary literary studies. We start with New Criticism but focus on interdisciplinary approaches such as structuralism, poststructuralism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, New Historicism, postcolonialism, feminism, queer and cultural studies. Some attention to film and film theory. Strongly recommended for students considering graduate work.