We will study some of the most influential critical theories of the last fifty years (cultural and gender studies, deconstruction), and also some of the foundational ideas of traditional literary criticism which exemplify what it is that recent theory was reacting against and “deconstructing"? (mimesis, Romanticism, realism, “New Criticism"?).

Readings:

Backgrounds: Aristotle, selections from Poetics Wordsworth, selections from Henry James, “The Art of Fiction." Cleanth Brooks, “The Heresy of Paraphrase"