Literary Criticism

The approaches we take will be: Marxism, structuralism/semiotics,
poststructuralism/postmodernism, and, depending on your interest, cultural studies
or postcolonialism. Like Literary Criticism (I), we will learn to

analyze literary work as well as other cultural products from different critical perspectives.

One major difference from Literary Criticism (I) is that

we will focus more on placing the text in its (broader) context. To put it simply,

for Marxism, it is society as a class structure;

for structuralism/semiotics, the context is linguistic (narrative or semiotic) system;

for poststructuralism, it is society as a textual field;

for postmodernism, it is contemporary high-tech society and all kinds of de-centering tendencies;

for postcolonialism, it is the histories of colonialism and anti-colonialism, and

for cultural studies, "culture" as a whole way of life which includes both high art and popular culture, top-down control and bottom-up resistance.

Wow, so much and so -- abstract. To make the theories more concrete and closer to us, we will read literary texts, as well as other cultural products as examples. To have a sense of focus, we will have as our central themes Capitalism and Society and examine literary texts about them. Examining the
texts from different perspectives, we will ask:

-- How do the texts present different cultures and societies? How do different
cultures and societies influence the production of a certain text? Can literary work transcend its time and society?
-- How do the texts as cultural products embody different ideas or use different
codes?
-- How do we read cities, their signs and their spatial arrangements?

More and more interesting questions will be asked as we start our discussion in
class.

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Textbook: A Reader

Reference books:

* Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Peter Barry. NY: Manchester UP, 1995.
* Critical Theory & Practice: A Coursebook (Keith Green & Jill Lebihan. Routledge, 96)
* Reader's Guide to Contemporary Theory (Raman Seldon. Harvester, 93)
Practicing Theory and Reading Literature (Raman Seldon. Kentucky, 89)
A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature (W. Guerin, et al. 3^rd ed. Oxford, 92)
Literary Theory : A Practical Introduction. Michael Ryan. MA: Blackwell, 1999.
Theory into Practice: A Reader in Modern Literary Criticism. K. M. Newton. London: Macmillan P, 1992.
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Requirements & Grading Policy -- tentative: to be modified according to your performances.

Attendance and Participation -- essentail. 3 absences means failing the course.
Class participation 10%
2 online discussions 10%
3 journals 30 %
1 group report 20%
a final exam (format to be decided) 30%