College of Arts Al-Hussein Bin Talal University Dep. of English
English Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory (0202412) Sun/Tues/Thur. Arts 207
Second Semester 2009/2010 Instructor: Dr Zaydun Al-Shara
Course Description:
This course aims at developing the students’ ability to criticize literary works through reading, discussion, interpretation, and evaluation. Students are introduced to theories pertaining to literary criticism, namely the traditional and the modern schools. The course focuses on the critical knowledge found in literature, philosophy and culture. Also the course examines the criticism’s influence by the factor of people, their ethical, religious and intellectual variables.
Attendance:
I expect a significant level of class participation. It is important that you be present during class time for lectures, discussions and group work. If you are absent from class, you may miss some required in-class reading assignments as well as quizzes, which means failure of these tasks.
Class Blog: for this class you will maintain your own academic blog posting every week and reading and responding to the blog of other student in this course. Your blog be created at blogger.com, and all the blogs will be connected from my blog at:
http://literarycriticismahu10.blogspot.com/
Evaluation: Office Hours:
5% attendance and participation Sunday/Tuesday 11.30-12:30
5% responding to the blogs Mon/Wed 2-3
20% first exam (within week 6)
20% second exams (within week 12)
50% final exam (week 16)
Weekly Schedule:
Week 1 Introduction, syllabus, etc.
Week 2 Theory before theory-Liberal Humanism
Week 3 Structuralism
Week 4 Poststructuralism and Deconstruction
Week 5 Postmodernism
Week 6 Psychoanalytic Criticism
Week 7 Feminist Criticism
Week 8 Lesbian/Gay Criticism
Week 9 Marxist Criticism
Week 10 New Historicism and cultural materialism
Week 11 Postcolonial Criticism
Week 12 Stylistics
Week 13 Reader Response Theory
Week 14 Narrative Theory
Weeks 15-16 Revision an final examinations
References
Barry, Peter, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002) [the course's textbook]
Eagleton, Terry, Literary Theory: An Introduction (London: Blackwells, 1997)
Selden, Raman, Practicing Theory and Reading Literature (London: Longman, 1989)
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Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not literary criticism should be considered a separate field of inquiry from literary theory, or conversely from book reviewing, is a matter of some controversy. For example, the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary thinking and Criticism draws no distinction between literary theory and literary criticism, and almost always uses the terms together to describe the same concept. Some critics consider literary criticism a practical application of literary theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract.
Literary criticism is often published in essay or book form. Academic literary critics teach in literature departments and publish in academic journals, and more popular critics publish their criticism in broadly circulating periodicals such as the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, The Nation, and The New Yorker