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This course introduces students to a wide range of critical theories that English majors need to know. We’ll begin with some basic questions about literary texts: How can we understand documents from the past? What is the critic’s role? How do words become literature? Classical and formalist approaches will help us with key concepts. We’ll also consider “theory” as a body of thought that has broadened our sense of what texts can tell us and what influences their production. We’ll pay particular attention to the movement known as structuralism. Our readings show how literary studies can overlap other disciplines and change our thinking; we’ll emphasize practical exercises and putting ideas in our own words. 

Taught by Paul Neimann.

Some 2,400 years ago Plato worried the great tragedies he loved would need to be banned for his ideal Republic to function properly. The question of the role of poetry, broadly understood, has been debated ever since. Indeed, the COVID-19 era has once again highlighted the importance of literature and the arts. In this course, we shall enter into this conversation by studying modern and contemporary works from a wide range of fields in order to debate why literature matters to us individually and collectively and what studying it involves.

Works by such authors as Plato, Kant, Marx, Arnold, Saussure, Freud, Benjamin, Althusser, JFK, Derrida, Foucault, Sontag, hooks, Said, Lowe, and Piketty

Taught by Catherine Labio.

Taught by Jason Gladstone.

This course will examine the major literary theory paradigms of the post-World War II era, including Marxism, structuralism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, feminism, queer theory, race theory, body theory, and reader-response. We shall do readings of particular texts based on these theoretical paradigms. Class grade will be determined through exams, papers, presentations, and attendance. There will be two or three mandatory evening film screenings.

Taught by Mark Winokur.