Introduction to Literary Theory
English 892 (Contexts and Methods for the Study of Literaure)
Meegan Kennedy
This course was last taught at Trinity College, Spring 2002
Required texts
David Richter, The Critical Tradition (Bedford Books)
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (Bedford Books)
Supplementary course reader (available through the English
department; see Jane Decatur)
Recommended text
Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (U Minnesota P)
The readings for this course include “applied theory”
in the form of literary criticism of a nineteenth-century novel,
Wuthering Heights. You are probably already familiar with the
novel itself, but we will focus our discussions on the critical
responses to it. Because the Bedford edition of Wuthering Heights prefaces each critical essay with a brief discussion of the kind
of literary theory it typifies, we will include these discussions
and essays as we encounter each kind of theory in class.
Eagleton’s survey of literary theory may be useful as a
supplement to the explanatory headnotes in Richter’s
collection. We will not be able to discuss (nor read) every essay
in depth. I will let you know the week before which readings to
focus on, depending on how the class is developing.
Class schedule
(CT = Critical Tradition; WH = Wuthering Heights; S =
supplementary reader)
January
15 Introduction:
Formalism and New Criticism
22 Overview:
Barbara Herrnstein Smith, “Contingencies of Value” (CT)
Marx and materialist theory:
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction” (CT)
Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State
Apparatuses” (S)
Raymond Williams, from Marxism and Literature (CT)
Frederic Jameson, from Political Unconscious (CT)
Terry Eagleton on Marxist Criticism (WH)
29 Freud and psychoanalytic theory:
Sigmund Freud, “Creative Writers and Daydreaming” (CT)
Jacques Lacan, “The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious,
or Reason since Freud” (CT)
Peter Brooks, “Freud’s Masterplot” (CT)
Jane Gallop, “Keys to Dora” (S)
Philip K. Wion on psychoanalytic criticism (WH)
February
5 Structuralism/poststructuralism:
Ferdinand de Saussure, “Nature of the Linguistic Sign” (CT)
Claude Lévi-Strauss, “The Structural Study of Myth” (CT)
Roland Barthes, “From Work to Text” (CT)
Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author” (S)
Michel Foucault, “What is an Author?” (CT)
12 Poststructuralism/deconstruction:
Jacques Derrida, “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse
of the Human Sciences” (CT)
Jacques Derrida, “Différance” (S)
Paul de Man, “The Rhetoric of Blindness” (S)
Paul de Man, “The Resistance to Theory” (S)
J. Hillis Miller on deconstruction (WH)
19 NO CLASS – TRINITY DAYS
26 Feminist theory:
Woolf, “Shakespeare’s Sister” and “Austen
– Brontë – Eliot” (CT)
Luce Irigaray, “This Sex Which Is Not One” (CT)
Nina Baym, “Melodramas of Beset Manhood” (CT)
Annette Kolodny, “Dancing Through the Minefield” (CT)
Margaret Homans on feminist criticism (WH)
March
5 Gender theory and queer theory: (Mid-term)
Thomas Laqueur, “Of Language and the Flesh” (S)
Michel Foucault, from History of Sexuality (CT)
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, “Introduction: Axiomatic” from
Epistemology of the Closet (CT)
Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination” (CT)
12 Film theory:
Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (CT)
Mary Ann Doane, “Film and the Masquerade: Theorizing the
Female Spectator” and “Masquerade Reconsidered: Further
Thoughts on the Female Spectator” (S)
Slavoj Zizek, “Looking Awry” (S)
Valerie Smith, “The Documentary Impulse in Contemporary
African-American Film” (S)
Colin MacCabe, “Realism and the Cinema” (S)
(Vertigo on reserve)
19 NO CLASS – SPRING BREAK
26 Theories of Race and Ethnicity I:
Henry Louis Gates, “Writing, ‘Race,’ and the
Difference it Makes” (CT)
Barbara Smith, “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism” (CT)
Deborah E. McDowell, “New Directions for Black Feminist
Criticism” (CT)
Stuart Hall, “What is This ‘Black’ in Black
Popular Culture?” (S)
April
2 PAPER PROPOSAL DUE
Theories of Race and Ethnicity II:
Hazel Carby, “The Multicultural Wars” (S)
David Palumbo-Liu, “Theory and the Subject of Asian America
Studies” (S)
Gloria Anzaldua, from Borderlands (S)
Toni Morrison, “Black Matters” (S)
9 New Historicism/Cultural studies:
Pierre Bourdieu, “The Market of Symbolic Goods” (CT)
Stephen Greenblatt, from The Power of Forms in the English
Renaissance (CT)
Hayden White, “The Politics of Historical
Interpretation” (CT)
Marjorie Levinson, “Insight and Oversight” (S)
16 Cultural studies:
John Guillory, “Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary
Canon Formation” (CT)
Stuart Hall, “Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical
Legacies” (S)
Bruno Latour, “Literature” (S)
Nancy Armstrong, “Some Call it Fiction: On the Politics of
Domesticity” (CT)
Nancy Armstrong on Cultural Criticism (WH)
23 LAST CLASS
Nationalism and Postcolonialism:
Edward Said, from Orientalism (CT) and “Mansfield Park” (S)
Homi K. Bhabha, “Locations of Culture” (CT)
Benedict Anderson, “Cultural Roots” (S)
Kwame Anthony Appiah, “Is the Post- in Postmodernism the
Post- in Postcolonial?” (S)
Rey Chow, “Where Have All the Natives Gone?” (S)
Gayatri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (S)
April 30 (Tues), FINAL PAPER DUE
Course Requirements
Participation is crucial to the success of this seminar, even if
(especially if!) you do not feel that you “get” the
material. You have a responsibility to yourself and to your peers
to help construct a thoughtful discussion at an advanced
discursive level. This means arriving in class having prepared
thoroughly: Read and respond to the assignments carefully. Arrive
with a few questions in mind. And work toward building
comparisons between theories and theorists in order to understand
the dialogic structure that underlies “theory” as well
as “criticism.”
On the other hand, we need to build a learning community based on
trust and respect for each other’s opinions and abilities.
This means we must make room for everyone to contribute to
discussion. All should take part in, but none should dominate,
our conversations.
Attendance in class is mandatory.
Weekly reading responses: 2-pp double-spaced responses to the
reading (stapled, please). These do not need to be a
fully-formulated argument but should focus on a specific question
or problem and refer specifically to textual evidence in
developing a perspective on the issue. No reading response due
the weeks you are presenting: thus, 10 total weekly responses.
Reading responses will be graded on a 10-point scale. A response
receiving a grade of 5 or 6 can be rewritten and handed in again
the following week. Missing responses cannot be made up except in
case of severe illness.
10 superb, couldn’t be better
9 fine work, incisive questions, could be clarified here or there
8 good job, understands theory well, could improve questions
7 getting there, shows basic understanding of the theory
6 betrays confusion on some important issues
5 completes assignment but fundamentally misunderstands theory
0 does not complete assignment
Post your reading response to the course website by 5 p.m.
Tuesday, bring a hard copy for me, and
post at least one informal response (can be short) to someone
else’s reading response by 6 p.m. Wednesday. This should
jump-start discussion and allow us to focus on the issues that we
most need to sort out. As in class discussion, strive for a
collegial, respectful, and tolerant, but also rigorous, debate
over the merits of various interpretations of and approaches to a
text.
Research paper: One 20-pp paper, on a topic to be approved. It
should apply your understanding of a particular critical theory
or theories to a specific literary text. You are required to
discuss your paper topic with me in person after I have responded
to your proposal. Your paper will be prefaced by a 1-2 pp
explanation of the theoretical methodology/ies you have chosen
and why you believe them to be appropriate for this text.
Presentations: Each class will include a short (20-minute)
presentation by a pair of students, until each of you has had the
opportunity to present twice. Each member of the pair receives
the same grade, so construct your partnership accordingly.
There is no final exam in this course.
Final grades will be weighted as follows:
30% final paper
30% presentations (15% for each)
20% weekly response total
20% participation