Introduction to Contemporary Literary Theory Selected Chapters

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 main of these are Russian Formalism, New Criticism, Reader-Response, Psychoanlytical, Feminist, Marxist, Structuralist and Postrstructuralist Criticism and the theory of New Historicism.

Practical examples of individual approaches are illustrated on Shakespeare's King Lear and Toni Morrisob's The Bluest Eye.