GRMN 534-401 (CLST 511/COML 501/ENGL 571/ROML 512/SLAV 500)
History of Literary Theory
Eric Jarosinski profile
ejar@sas.upenn.edu
W 4:00 - 7:00 pm
Basic Issues in the History of Literary Theory. This course pairs the reading of canonical theoretical texts with a critical awareness of the forces behind the rise and fall of various schools of criticism. Our work throughout the semester will focus on a cluster of key concepts: tradition, authority, textuality, interpretation, ideology, difference, etc. Though the course centers on theoretical texts, it will also include theoretically informed close readings of a small selection of literary texts by Kafka, Borges, Woolf, Melville, Dickinson, Nabokov, DeLillo, and others. The course is meant both as a broad introduction to literary theory and as preparation for the M.A. exam in Comparative Literature. Most readings will be drawn from the exam list (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/Complit/Eclat/Theory/index.htm), though with an
emphasis on those from the 20th century.
updated 09-2009