Syllabus
1. Historical overview - from Plato to Victorianism
2. Russian Formalism
3. New Criticism
4. Structuralism
5. Reader-response theory
6. Psychoanalytical criticism
7. Marxist criticism
8. Post-Structuralism, Post-Modernism
9. Feminist criticism, Gender studies
10. New Historicism
Annotation
The aim of this course is to introduce a selection of contemporary literary trends, categories and notions. The lectures focus on theoretical points of departure of postmodern British literature, American literature, postcolonial literature, as well as some tendencies in children?s literature of the English-speaking countries (especially the controversial question of the canon).
Students will work with texts by theoreticians such as Brian McHale, Linda Hutcheon, Patricia Waugh, Michel Foucault,
Stephen Greenblatt and Edward Said.