1) critical reading of both primary and secondary texts of modern and contemporary theories to understand the questions they ask and how they answer them,
2) engagement in some theoretical issues (such as meaning and interpretation, text and textuality, ethics and ideology, discourse, politics and power relations, etc.) as they arise from our reading of the primary texts, and
3) analyzing literary texts from different theoretical perspectives with an awareness of the limitations of each.

"Theory," as Myers points out, "is not a methodology or paradigm or 'strategy' that one puts on, in order to dress for academic success. It is an argument. It is an implacable reflective struggle to work out a vexing tangle in literary experience. Nor can a theoretical argument be easily applied, as if it were an ointment; it must be thought through, point by point and in detail; it must be interlocked with, in a reflective struggle. [. . .] To accept a theorist's argument in toto because it is daring or stylish, or because others have hailed it as unanswerable, is to be neither a theorist nor a student of theory." (D. G. Myers <http://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/myers/teaching_theory.html >)

In other words, theories are not to be read, comprehended and then applied neatly to some literary texts. Rather, we struggle through their language and textuality to tease out their issues and the broader issues behind them. To use Stuart Hall's term, reading theories is to "wrestle with the angels," and there are actually two types of angels to deal with: the theoretical texts and our chosen literary/cultural texts. Negotiating the differences between theories and our texts in order to make a dialogue between them possible, then, is a major task in this course.

Our Focus:
The course will focus on three theoretical schools: Psychoanalysis, Marxism and Postmodern Theories of Space in order to deal with issues such as
-- how subjectivity is conditioned by desires, power and ideology;
-- how subjectivity is formed and narrated over time and in space, through family relations and spatial practices in various social milieus;
-- how mind and power get spatialized; how space gets virtualized in postmodern society.

Requirements:
In this course, you will be responsible for:
1) active participation in class and on the internet,
2) a 30-minute report on a theoretical text with an outline ready for online publication,
3) a 30-minute report on how a certain theory can be "critiqued" by, "used" on, or articulated with another literary or theoretical text.
4) a term paper of both theoretical discussion and literary application.

Textbook: Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Eds. Vincent B. Leitch, et al. NY: Norton, 2001. Also selections from some other anthologies. Or A Reader.