Critical Methodologies: Contemporary Literary Theory

A survey of theories of literature from the early 20th century to the present, with particular attention to relations between "literary theory" and the broader phenomena of cultural studies and Critical Theory writ large. We will examine the New Critics; structuralism, post-structuralism and new historicism; cultural theory, including psychoanalysis, marxism, and aesthetic theory. Topics will include literariness and textuality, the reader and subjectivity, narrative and mimesis, and the reemergence of form in contemporary literary studies. Enrollment limited to 20. Not open to first-year or graduate students.