116-452 Applied Literary Theory

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Content:

French critical theory will be examined in the context of major movements and approaches to the study of texts: Structuralism, Deconstruction, Post-Modernism, Psychoanalysis and Feminism. Authors selected to represent each approach are seen as dissidents critiquing a particular tradition, for example Luce Irigaray on feminism critiquing the Cartesian tradition. Discourse is seen as problematic and systems which impose order considered suspect; the disruption of such conventions and the ensuing challenge to the structures of power is a major focus. The course comprises analysis of the radical readings of texts proposed in a selection of critical works and practical application of theory to a corpus of French literary texts.

Assessment:

Prescribed Texts:

• Barthes, S/Z, Paris, Seuil, 1970.
• Deleuze et Guattari, L'Anti-Oedipe, 1972.
• Derrida, Positions, Minuit, 1972.
• Henri-Lévy, L'Idéologie française, Grasset, 1981.
• Luce Irigaray, Speculum de l'autre femme, Minuit,1974.
• Lyotard, La condition post-moderne, Minuit, 1979.
• Foucault, Histoire de la folie, 2nd ed. 1972.
• Todorov, Poétique ('Qu'est-ce que le structuralisme?'), Seuil, 1973.