Fall 2006 Courses

English 138-01: Literature in Theoretical Perspectives (Wilkens)

TH 10:10–11:40am, Olin-Rice 243 (Syllabus)

"Theory" is the generic name for a collection of non- or anti-aesthetic approaches to literature and culture. This means that theory asks of a text not "is it beautiful?" but "what does it do and how does it do it?" The kinds of answers to this question that have been offered over the last century vary widely; it is the purpose of this course to introduce you to several of the most important and productive ones, including those grouped broadly under headings like Marxist, deconstructive, psychoanalytic, feminist, queer, and postcolonial.

Theoretical considerations have become central to literary scholarship and to the humanities in general over the last several decades. Our goal will be to understand how these approaches work: how they decode and interpret specific texts, what kinds of assumptions they make about the cultural and philosophical roles of literature, and what strategies they offer for making sense of new works we might encounter in the future. Along the way, we will trace the connections and disagreements among different approaches so as to understand better the state of theory today and the stakes of its numerous quarrels.

We will read extensively in the primary theoretical literature, including books by Nietzsche, Foucault, Lacan, Fanon, Jameson, Butler, and Latour, along with several shorter articles and excerpts. We will also read a handful of literary texts--by Sophocles, Defoe, and Coetzee--with which these writers engage, so that we may better evaluate the details of their arguments and begin to prepare our own critical responses.

Fall 2006 Course Listings