CL 306.01 Literary Theory and Criticism II / Syllabus / Spring 2016
Tu 13:00-15:00 YD201, R 13:00-14:00 TB 240
Instructor: Matthew Gumpert
Introduction. The second part of our introduction to literary theory and criticism: a survey of distinct approaches to
understanding what and how texts mean. We examine these approaches as historically and culturally determined
methodologies. Our journey this semester begins with some of the major critical statements of the first half of the twentieth
century—all committed, in different ways (with the notable exception of new criticism) to the dethroning of the author and the
decentering of the old Cartesian self (formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, post-structuralism). The second half of the
semester focuses on the return of identity, history, and culture informing the most influential criticism of the late 20th and early
21st centuries (including Marxist criticism, black criticism, feminist criticism, queer theory, post-colonial studies, cultural
studies, and postmodern criticism).
Course Materials. The reader for Literary Theory and Criticism II, which includes all required readings for the course, is
available at Doğa Kırtasiye. Supplementary and/or optional readings may be distributed as handouts during the course of the
semester.
Grading. Midterm 30%; Class Performance and Short Papers 30%; Final 40%
---Class performance is a large part of your grade, and includes preparation, participation, attendance, and a number of short
response papers assigned during the semester. It is your responsibility to have the text we are covering in class with you.
---There is an in-class midterm and final exam for this course. To be admitted to the final, the student must fulfill the
attendance requirement. The midterm, class performance, and the final exam together make up the grade for the course.
Reading Schedule. Note: NA = Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism; LTRG = Literary Theory: A Reader and a Guide;
LTA = Literary Theory: An Anthology
Week 1 (9-11 Feb)
Structuralism
Culler, "The Linguistic Foundation" (LTA 56-58); Propp, “Morphology of the Folk-tale” (LTA 72-75); Saussure, Course on
General Linguistics (NA 960-77)
Week 2 (16-18 Feb)
Structuralism
Saussure, Course on General Linguistics (NA 960-77); Jakobson, “Linguistics and Poetics” (NA 1258-65)
Week 3 (23-25 Feb)
Deconstruction
Derrida, “Semiology and Grammatology” (LTA 332-39); “Letter to a Japanese Friend” (LTRG 282-87)
Week 4 (1-3 March)
Deconstruction
Derrida, Of Grammatology (NA 1822-30)
Week 5 (8-10 March)
Post-Structuralism
Barthes, “The Death of the Author” (NA 1466-70); “From Work to Text” (NA 1470-75); selections from S/Z (LTRG 30-41)
Week 6 (15-17 March)
New Criticism
Brooks, "The Heresy of Paraphrase" (NA 1353-65); "The Formalist Critics" (NA 1366-71); Wimsatt and Beardsley, "The
Intentional Fallacy" (NA 1374-87)
Week 7 (22-24 March)
Marxist Criticism
Williams, "Marxism and Literature" (NA 1567-75); Jameson, "The Political Unconscious" (NA 1937-60)
Week 8 (29-31 March)
Gender Studies: Feminist Criticism
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (NA 1406-14); Cixous, "The Laugh of the Medusa" (NA 2039-56)
Week 9 (5-7 April)
Gender Studies: Queer Theory
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Sedgwick, “Queer and Now” (LTRG 537-52); Wittig, "One Is Not Born a Woman" (NA 2014-21); Butler, Gender Trouble
(NA 2488-2501); "Critically Queer" (LTRG 570-86)
Week 10 (12-14 April)
Black Criticism
Du Bois, Criteria of Negro Art (NA 980-87); Zora Neale Hurston, "Characteristics of Negro Expression" (NA 1146-58);
Gates, “The Blackness of Blackness: A Critique on the Sign and the Signifying Monkey” (LTA 987-1004)
18-22 April: Spring Break
Week 11 (26-28 April)
Postcolonial Studies
Said, Orientalism (NA 1991-2012); Bhaba, "Of Mimicry and Man" (LTRG 474-80); "Spivak, “Can The Subaltern Speak?”
(NA 2197-2208)
Week 12 (3-5 May)
From the Frankfurt School to Cultural Studies
Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (NA 1166-86); Horkheimer and Adorno, “The Culture
Industry as Mass Deception” (NA 1223-40); Barthes, Mythologies (NA 1461-65); Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth
of the Prison (NA 1636-47)
Week 13 (10-12 May)
Postmodernism/Post-Marxism
Lyotard, "Defining the Postmodern" (NA 1612-15); Baudrillard, “Simulacra and Simulations” (LTRG 381-94); Jameson,
“Nostalgia for the Present” (LTRG 395-409)
F 13 May: Last Day of Classes
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