In examining the far ranging perspectives that typically fall under the rubric of literary theory, this course will take as its focus the implicit and explicit assumptions that underlie much of such theoretical discourse. The first seven weeks of the course will examine four theoretical traditions in some detail, paying special attention to the interpretive priorities that these theories set in motion. The theoretical paradigms that we will examine are: new criticism/reader response theory, psychoanalysis—both Freudian and Lacanian, “new” (versus “old”) historicism. In each case, we will examine the ways in which a given theoretical discipline already posits a particular understanding of how literature is to be read and interpreted. In particular, we will be asking what each of these theories explicitly and implicitly articulates as the “important” work of literary criticism. By the same token, we will be also concerned to consider what each of these theories may be said to neglect, overlook, or merely take for granted. Finally, in the last three weeks of the course, we will turn our attention to the question of historical periodicity, that is, to the question of how historical labels like “classical antiquity,” “renaissance,” “romanticism,” etc. come to inform our understanding of the specific circumstances—both historical and theoretical—of literary production. In this segment of the course, we will focus on one particularly slippery historical label, namely, the Baroque, both as it refers to a particular historical period—of special importance in the Spanish context—and as it has been used to describe a particular understanding of aesthetic form, as in the notion of “baroque style.”

This course will be taught in English and is open to students from Romance Languages, English, and Comparative Literature.