Topics in Literature and Culture (285-0-20)
Topic
Intro to Literary Theory
Instructors
Tristram Nash Wolff
Meeting Info
555 Clark 230: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
This course is about learning how to read closely, that is, how to "do" a deeply informed comparative close reading. Tailored to the time constraints of the quarter, it introduces students to a series of episodes in the recent history of the study of literature and culture: the influential heroes of these episodes are engaged intellectuals who have together helped to inform how we read today. Pairing a handful of shorter primary texts with field-defining theorists and readers of the past and present, students will not only build fluency in the vocabulary of "literary theory," they will emerge as more worldly, technically savvy, and theoretically sophisticated readers themselves. In this course, we are not interested in theory for its own sake, but in the ways the thing we call "theory" — like literature — is not only shaped by, but helps to shape the world around us.
Teaching Method
Brief lectures and engaged discussion.
Evaluation Method
Attendance & participation; short writing assignments; one presentation; and a final project.
Class Materials (Required)
Germaine de Staël, William Hazlitt, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Zora Neale Hurston, Octavio Paz, Franz Fanon, Simone de Beauvoir, Jacques Derrida, Paolo Freire, Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, Edward Said, Rey Chow, Barbara Johnson, and Lauren Berlant.
All texts for the course will be available on Canvas.
Class Attributes
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area