CURSO : CONTEMPORARY LITERARY THEORY
TRADUCCION : TEORIA LITERARIA CONTEMPORANEA
SIGLA : LET1344
CRÉDITOS : 10
MÓDULOS : 02
REQUISITOS : NO REQUERIMENTS
CARÁCTER : MINIMUM
DISCIPLINA : LITERATURE
I. DESCRIPTION
The aim of this course is to introduce the most influential trends in contemporary literary theory through a
selection of writings that appeared mostly after 1960, and of some of the classic texts which paved the way
for them. In dealing with theory, a number of concepts will be discussed which we usually take for granted,
such as culture, literature, author, reader, text, discourse, narrative, power, and gender.
II. OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the most influential trends in contemporary literary theory through a selection of
writings that appeared mostly after 1960.
2. To have confidence in identifying elements in theoretical texts that will aid the student's critical
analysis of fictional texts.
3. To articulate how each theory, or elements of them, can deepen our critical interpretation and
challenge our understanding of literature and literary texts.
III. CONTENTS
1. Structuralism and Semiotics.
2. Reader Response.
3. Post-Structuralism.
4. Feminist Theory and Gender Studies.
5. Post-Colonialism and Post-Modernism.
6. Cultural Studies and Subaltern Studies.
IV. METHODOLOGY
- Class discussion.
- Lectures.
- In-class close reading and analysis.
V. EVALUATION
- Pop quizzes and participation.
- In-class workshops.
- Presentation in pairs.
- Final Paper.
- Midterm Exam.
- Final Exam.
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE CHILE
FACULTAD DE LETRAS / Enero 2014
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VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Compulsory:
Anzaldua, Gloria From Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Leitch, Vincent
& William Cain (eds.). The Norton Anthology: Theory and
Criticism. New York, Longman, 1998, pp. 2211-2223.
Barthes, Roland From Work to Text. Leitch, Vincent & William Cain (eds.). The
Norton Anthology: Theory and Criticism. New York, Longman,
1998, pp. 1470-1475.
___ Selection from Mythologies. Leitch, Vincent & William Cain
(eds.). The Norton Anthology: Theory and Criticism. New York,
Longman, 1998, pp. 1461-1465.
Bhabha, Homi Of Mimicry and Man. Bhabha, H. (ed.). The Location of Culture.
New York, Routledge, 2004, pp. 121-131.
Cixous, Helene The Laugh of Medusa. Leitch, Vincent & William Cain (eds.). The
Norton Anthology: Theory and Criticism. New York, Longman,
1998, pp. 2039-2056.
Clifford, James The Translation of Cultures. Con Davis, Roberto & Ronald
Schleifer (eds.). Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and
Cultural Studies. Oklahoma, Longman, 1998, pp. 679-694.
Foucault, Michel What is an Author? Con Davis, Roberto & Ronald Schleifer (eds.).
Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies.
Oklahoma, Longman, 1998, pp. 365-376.
___ Las Meninas. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human
Sciences.
Genette, Gerard Frontiers of Narrative. Figures of Literary Discourse. New York,
Columbia University Press, 1982.
Jameson, Fredric Postmodernism and Consumer Society. Leitch, Vincent & William
Cain (eds.). The Norton Anthology: Theory and Criticism. New
York, Longman, 1998, pp. 1960-1974.
Levi-Strauss, Claude The Structural Study of Myth. Structural Anthropology. New York,
Doubleday & Company, 1967, pp. 202-228.
Said, Edward From Orientalism. Leitch, Vincent & William Cain (eds.). The
Norton Anthology: Theory and Criticism. New York, Longman,
1998, pp. 1991-2012.
Saussure, Ferdinand From the Course in General Linguistics: The Object of Linguistics.
Con Davis, Roberto & Ronald Schleifer (eds.). Contemporary
Literary Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies. Oklahoma,
Longman, 1998, pp. 266-279.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty Can the Subaltern Speak? Nelson, Cary & Larry Grossberg (eds.).
Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Chicago, University of
Illinois Press, 1988, pp. 271-313.
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE CHILE
FACULTAD DE LETRAS / Enero 2014
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Woolf, Virginia A Room of One's Own. Vincent & William Cain (eds.). The
Norton Anthology: Theory and Criticism. New York, Longman,
1998, pp. 1021-1029.
Complementary:
Ashcroft, B., G. Griffiths & H. Tiffin The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial
Literatures. Routledge, 2002.
Atkins, C. Douglas Reading Deconstruction/Deconstructive Reading. Lexington, U of
Kentucky P, 1983.
Barthes, Roland S/Z. Trans. Richard Miller. New York, Hill and Wang, 1975.
Culler, Jonathan On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism.
___ Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics, and the Study of
Literature. New York, Cornell UP, 1973.
Derrida, Jacques Of Grammatology and Writing and Difference. Trans. Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins UP, 1976.
Elliott, Anthony Psychoanalytic Theory: An Introduction. Oxford, Blackwell, 1994.
Eagleton, Terry Literary Theory: An Introduction.
Foucault, Michel The Foucault Reader. New York, Pantheon, 1984.
Genette, Gerard Narrative Discourse. Trans. Jane Lewin. Ithaca, Cornell UP, 1980.
Hawkes, Terence Structuralism and Semiotics. Berkeley, U of California P, 1977.
Holland, Norman 5 Readers Reading. New Haven, Yale UP, 1975.
Iser, Wolfgang The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response. Baltimore,
John Hopkins UP, 1974.
___ The Implied Reader: Patterns of Communication in Prose Fiction
from Bunyan to Beckett. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins UP, 1974.
Jefferson, Anne & David Robey Modern Literary Theory: A Comparative Introduction.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics. London, Routledge,
1988.
___ The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues.
London, Routledge, 1990.
Tompkins, Jane (ed.) Reader-Response Criticism: From Formalism to Post-
Structuralism. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins UP, 1980.
PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE CHILE
FACULTAD DE LETRAS / Enero 2014
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