106-269/369 Contemporary Literary Theory

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Subject Description:

This subject provides an introductory account of some of the major theories that have transformed the study of literature in the twentieth century. It will foreground several crucial and ongoing problems in literary theory (e.g. What is a text? What is an author? How do issues of race, class, gender, sexuality play themselves out in texts?) by way of a detailed and critical examination of a variety of theoretical texts. Students who complete this subject successfully will be able to understand historical developments and contemporary debates in semiotics, formalism, marxism, feminism, post-structuralism, queer theory, post colonialism and postmodernism. They will be able to apply their understanding of these developments and debates analytically to a range of critical texts.

Assessment:

Prescribed Texts:

Course reader available from the department.

• L Carroll (ed) Gardner, The Annotated Alice, Penguin.
• D Tallack ed, Critical Theory: A Reader, Prentice Hall.