Literary Theory 446
Department of European Languages & Literature
Dr. Laila Al-Sharqi
Office: Al-Jawhara Bldg, Rm. 117
Office Hours: Sundays 12:30 – 1:30, and by appointment
Tel: 69520000 ext: 63064
E-mail: lzayan@kau.edu.sa
Textbooks:

Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, Peter Barry.
 A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 3d ed. ed, Wilfred L. Guerin.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1992
Critical Theory Since Plato. Hazard Adams, ed, revised edition (Henle & Henle,
1992). Or,
Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by Vincent B. (Ed.) B. Leitch, Vincent Leitch
Web resources:
-Voice of the Shuttle
http://www.vos.com
-The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
http://www.litguide.press.jhu.edu
Course Description:
LT 446 offers a broad-based introduction to the discipline of literary theory. The course
surveys the historical development of literary theory and criticism as it applies to
literature. Beginning with antiquity and ending with our own postmodern moment. The
course will provide a study of classical Greek origins of issues concerning the nature of
literature and criticism. The course will also provide a study of major twentieth-century
theories and applications: historical, structuralist, formalist, psychoanalytic, archetypal,
feminist, postcolonial, reader-response, multicultural and postmodern perspectives.
Learning Objectives:
Throughout this course, students will question typical assumptions about literature,
including its relationship to readers, writers, and critics, as well as to more abstract
concepts such as "society," "the canon," and "tradition." Ultimately, LT 446 will
challenge students to (re)consider both the phenomenon of literature and its
accompanying activities of reading and analysis as social, cultural, political and
psychological practices that operate within mutable and interdisciplinary intellectual
frameworks.
By reading and analyzing a variety of selected texts of literary theory from a range of
cultures, historical periods and intellectual perspectives, students will become familiar
with the traditional and contemporary critical and theoretical practices in the field of
literary study, and learn new ways of examining (and even defining) literary texts and
the very concept of textuality itself. The reading will often be dense and difficult: be
prepared to read essays more than once!
Course Policy:
Attendance is extremely important. Irregular attendance is detrimental to
comprehending the theoretical concepts; grades will therefore reflect attendance.
Active participation in class discussions is essential to the building of confidence and
competence in critical thinking. Students are required to read and connect the
essential ideas, arguments, and perspectives of texts by using their analytical skills.
Grading Policy:
Class Participation
10%
Four
Quizzes
50 %
Final Examination
40%
Course Calendar:
Topics
Why study literary theory?
Week one
Introduction.
Defining Criticism, Theory and Literature.
Basic literary terms and overview.
A historical Survey of Literary Theory.
Week two
Antiquity
Aristotle, Poetics
Plato, The Republic
Week three
Medieval Age
Longinus, On the Sublime
Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry
Quiz I
Week four
Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
Coleridge, Biographia Literaria
Critical Applications of Romantic Theory
Main Tenets of Structuralist Theory
Week Five
Week six
Gerard Genette,
Critical Applications of Structuralist Theory
Quiz II
Sigmund Freud, Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming
Week seven
Carl Gustav Jung, On the Relation of Analytical
Psychology to Literature
Critical Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory
Week eight
Main Tenets of Feminist Theory
Week nine
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar, Mad Women in the Attic
Critical Applications of Feminist Theory
Main Tenets in Postcolonial Theory
Week ten
Week eleven
Gayatri Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak?
Edward Said, Orientalism Reconsidered
Critical Applications of Postcolonial Theory
Quiz III
Main Tenets of Reader-Response Theory
Week twelve
Walfgang Iser, The Reading Process: A Phenomenological
Approach
Critical Applications of Reader-Response Theory
Week thirteen
Main Tenets in Postmodern Theory
Week fourteen
Ihab Hassan, Toward a Concept of Postmodernism
Critical Applications of postmodern Theory
Quiz IV
Week fifteen