SLL40130 Introduction to Theory

Academic Year 2022/2023

*** Not available in the academic year indicated above ***

The aim of this course is to introduce students to a range of theoretical perspectives on literature and culture, with a view to exploring both their significance in their own right and their potential to stimulate and inform research in literature and the humanities. Beginning with Russian Formalism, it will cover the main theoretical approaches to the text and/or cultural artefact developed since the beginning of the twentieth century, dealing with the principal theoretical schools in chronological sequence but also identifying a number of shared or recurring conceptual moves, such as the critique of authorial intention or the emphasis on reception. Movements covered will range from the historical to the contemporary. A key central concern is how theory problematizes common-sense or received ideas about literature and culture and so enables researchers to pose worthwhile questions about matters that are routinely and misleadingly taken for granted. Please note that this is a level-four/Masters/MA/postgraduate level module designed for students who have already successfully completed an undergraduate programme of study (typically BA).

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students should be able to - demonstrate an understanding of a variety of theoretical approaches and their evolution - demonstrate an understanding of the methodologies these theories entail - discuss theoretical texts with reference to their historical and cultural contexts - discuss a theoretical text with reference to a literary work - produce an extended essay informed by theory.

Indicative Module Content:

Topics may vary but in last cycle included:

Russian Formalism
Structuralism
Marxism
Psychoanalysis
Feminism
Reader-Response Theory
Poststructuralism
Performance Theory
Postcolonialism
Ecocriticism

Indicative Reading:

Some General Works on Literary Theory:
Barry, Peter, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002).
Culler, Jonathan: Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Eagleton, Terry, Literary Theory: An Introduction, new edn (1983; Oxford: Blackwell, 2008).
Iser, Wolfgang, How to do Theory (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
Jefferson. Ann and Tobey, David (eds), Modern Literary Theory: A Comparative Introduction, 2nd edn (1982; London: Batsford, 1986).

Sources for Specific Readings:
Austin, J. L., ‘Performative Utterances’, in Philosophical Papers, ed. J, Urmson and G. J. Warnock, 3rd edn (1961; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), pp. 229–52.
Bakhtin, Mikhail, ‘Discourse in the Novel’, in The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, ed. Michael Holquist, ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), pp. 259–422.
Barthes, Roland, ‘The Death of the Author’, in Image-Music-Text, trans. Stephen Heath (London: Fontana, 1977), pp.142–48.
_____________, ‘From Work to Text’, in Image-Music-Text, trans. Stephen Heath (London: Fontana, 1977), pp.155–64.
Bate, Jonathan, The Song of the Earth (London: Picador, 2000).
Belsey, Catherine and Moore, Jane (eds), The Feminist Reader: Essays in Gender and The Politics of Literary Criticism, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997).
Butler, Judith, ‘Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions’, in Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (London: Routledge, 1990), pp. 128–41.
Cixous, Hélène, ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’, in Elaine Marks and Isabelle Courtivron (eds), New French Feminisms (Brighton: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1981), pp. 245–64.
Coupe, Laurence (ed.), The Green Studies Reader: From Romanticism to Ecocriticism (London: Routledge, 2000).
Derrida, Jacques, ‘Signature, Event , Context’, in Glyph, 1 (1977), 172–97.
_____________, ‘Limited Inc a b c …’, in Glyph, 2 (1977), 162–254.
_____________, Limited Inc., ed. Gerald Graff, trans. Samuel Weber and Jeffrey Mehlman (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977).
Felman, Shoshana, ‘Turning the Screw of Interpretation’, in Yale French Studies, 55–56 (1977), 94–207.
Fish, Stanley, ‘Is There a Text in this Class?’, in Is There a Text in this Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1980), pp. 303–21.
Freud, Sigmund, ‘On Dreams’, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, ed. and trans. James Strachey et al. (London: Hogarth Press, 1953), vol. 5, pp. 629–81.
Iser, Wolfgang, ‘Interaction between Text and Reader’, in Susan R. Suleiman and Inge Crosman (eds), The Reader in the Text: Essays on Audience and Interpretation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980), pp. 106–19.
Jakobson, Roman ‘Linguistics and Poetics’, in Language in Literature, ed. Krystyna Pomorska and Stephen Rudy (Cambridge, MA,: Belknap Press, 1987), pp. 62–94.
Lemon, Lee T. and Reis, Marion J. (eds), Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965).
Lodge, David, ‘Analysis and Interpretation of the Realist Text: Hemingway’s “Cat in the Rain”’, in Working with Structuralism: Essays and Reviews on Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981), pp. 17–36.
Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert C. Tucker, 2nd edn (New York: W. W. Norton, 1978).
Miller, J. Hillis, ‘Interpretation in Dickens’ Bleak House’, in Victorian Subjects (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990), pp. 179–99.
Muraro, Luisa ‘The Passion of Feminine Difference beyond Equality’, in Graziella Parati and Rebecca West (eds), Italian Feminist Theory and Practice (London: Associated University Press, 2002), pp. 77–87.
Prendergast, Christopher (ed.), Debating World Literature (London: Verso, 2004).
Said, Edward W., Culture and Imperialism (New York: Vintage, 1994 [1993]).
Searle, John, ‘Reiterating the Differences: A Reply to Derrida’, in Glyph, 1 (1977), 198–208.
Shklovsky, Viktor, ‘The Resurrection of the Word’, in Stephen Bann and John Bowlt (eds), Russian Formalism: A Collection of Articles and Texts in Translation (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1973), 41–47.
_______________,‘Art as Technique’, in Lee T. Lemon and Marion J. Reis (eds), Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965), pp. 3–24.
______________ ,‘Sterne’s Tristram Shandy: Stylistic Commentary’, in Lee T. Lemon and Marion J. Reis (eds), Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965), pp. 25–57.
Suleiman, Susan R., ‘Varieties of Audience-Oriented Criticism’, in Susan R. Suleiman and Inge Crosman (eds), The Reader in the Text: Essays on Audience and Interpretation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980), pp. 3–45.
Williams, Raymond, ‘People of the City’, in The Country and the City (1973; London: Hogarth Press, 1983), pp. 153–64.
Young, Robert, Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Seminar (or Webinar)

24

Specified Learning Activities

88

Autonomous Student Learning

108

Total

220

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Lecture-seminars based on weekly readings and brief student presentations. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations
Learning Requirements:

Please note that this is a level-four/Masters/MA/postgraduate module designed for students who have already successfully completed an undergraduate programme of study (typically BA).


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Essay: Analytic essay on topic covered in first half of semester. Week 7 n/a Graded No

50

Essay: Analytic essay on topic covered in second half of semester. Coursework (End of Trimester) n/a Graded No

50


Carry forward of passed components
Yes
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Summer No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Individual oral advice offered on first essay topic in advance of submission in Week 7, individual written feedback following submission. Individual oral advice offered on second essay topic in advance of end of semester, individual written feedback available after conclusion of Exam Session.

Set text:

Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)