CURSO : LITERARY THEORY I
TRADUCCION : TEORIA LITERARIA I
SIGLA : LET1343
CRÉDITOS : 10
MÓDULOS : 02
REQUISITOS : LET1311
CARÁCTER : MINIMUM
DISCIPLINA : LITERATURE
I. DESCRIPTION
The course reviews the different poetics and aesthetic currents in literature from Classicism to early twentieth
century. Different key texts will be analysed so the student will be able to incorporate an overview of the
main theoretical developments in literary analysis as well as handle critical concepts such as beauty, rhetoric,
mimesis, the sublime and verisimilitude in the different conceptions of art.
II. OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the concept of Literary Theory.
2. To become familiar with the key texts and concepts of literary theory (and their authors) from
Classicism to New Criticism.
3. To be able to place the main poetics and aesthetic currents in literature in the context of their socio-
historical situation.
4. To systematize the concepts acquired through their practical application to determined literary works.
III. CONTENTS
1. Classical Criticism.
1.1 Plato.
1.2 Aristotle.
1.3 Horace.
2. Renaissance Criticism.
2.1 Dante.
3. Neoclassical Criticism.
3.1 Dryden.
3.2 The Sublime.
3.2.1 Longinus.
3.2.2 Burke.
4. Romantic Criticism.
4.1 Kant.
4.2 Wordsworth.
4.3 Coleridge.
4.4 Poe.
4.5 Nietzsche.
5. The Twentieth Century.
5.1 James.
5.2 Eliot.
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE CHILE
FACULTAD DE LETRAS / Enero 2014
1
IV. METHODOLOGY
- Lectures.
- Class Discussion.
V. EVALUATION
- Reading controls.
- Midterm.
- Final Exam.
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Compulsory:
Aristotle (The) Poetics.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Biographia Literaria.
Dante The Letter to Can Grande della Scalla.
Dryden, John An Essay of Dramatic Poesy.
Eliot, T. S. Tradition and the Individual Talent.
Horace The Art of Poetry; Ars Poetica; On the Art of Poetry.
James, Henry The Art of Fiction.
Kant, Emmanuelle From Critique of Judgement.
Longinus On the Sublime ; On Sublimity.
Nietzsche, Friedrich The Birth of Tragedy.
Plato Republic. Book X.
___ Ion, Of Poetry.
Poe, Edgar Allan The Philosophy of Composition.
___ The Black Cat.
___ The Raven.
Sophocles Oedipus Rex.
Wordsworth, William Preface to Lyrical Ballads, with Pastoral and Other Poems. 1802.
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE CHILE
FACULTAD DE LETRAS / Enero 2014
2
