Open Yale Courses
ENGL 300: Introduction to Theory of Literature
Mirrored from oyc.yale.edu · CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 · Paul H. Fry William Lampson Professor Emeritus of English
Mirrored from: oyc.yale.edu · Yale University · English
Instructor: Paul H. Fry William Lampson Professor Emeritus of English · License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0
About this course
This is a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose?
Course details
Course Structure
This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring, 2009. The Open Yale Courses Series. For more information about Professor Fry’s book Theory of Literature, http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300180831.
Texts
Richter, David, ed. The Critical Tradition , 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford-St. Martin's, 2006.
Requirements
Two short papers (5-7 pp.) will be required (each counting for 30% of the grade), and there will be a final exam (25% of the grade). Graduate students may either do these assignments or opt to write a 20-25 pp. term paper and be excused from the exam. Attendance at sections is crucial, as discussion is needed to ensure understanding of the material, and participation in this discussion will count for 15% of the final grade.
Grading
Paper 1: 30% Paper 2: 30% Final paper: 25% Discussion section attendance and participation: 15%
Syllabus
1 section · 26 lectures · links open at oyc.yale.edu.
Course sessions
- Introduction
- Introduction (cont.)
- Ways In and Out of the Hermeneutic Circle
- Configurative Reading
- The Idea of the Autonomous Artwork
- The New Criticism and Other Western Formalisms
- Russian Formalism
- Semiotics and Structuralism
- Linguistics and Literature
- Deconstruction I
- Deconstruction II
- Freud and Fiction
- Jacques Lacan in Theory
- Influence
- The Postmodern Psyche
- The Social Permeability of Reader and Text
- The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory
- The Political Unconscious
- The New Historicism
- The Classical Feminist Tradition
- African-American Criticism
- Post-Colonial Criticism
- Queer Theory and Gender Performativity
- The Institutional Construction of Literary Study
- The End of Theory?; Neo-Pragmatism
- Reflections; Who Doesn't Hate Theory Now?