ENGL453 Literary Theory

A theory is an idea about how something works. This course studies modern and contemporary theories of foundational structures like culture, language, matter, and identity.

We will consider how different theories of these structures imagine the workings of basic forms of relationality like subjectivity, power, representation, and interpretation. Our focus will be not only to learn the ideas and vocabularies of these theories and to assess their accuracy, but also to think about their usefulness for our work in English studies. Theory can be a toolkit, or method, for approaching any kind of text, whether a novel, speech, film, song, or performance. We will practice marshalling theoretical terms and concepts to help us say what we want to say about a text—about the forms it uses; about the ideas it records, challenges, or reinvents; and about how it makes us think or feel about ourselves and the world we live in.

Section(s):
0101 - Christina Walter

Schedule of Classes
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