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English 340: Literary
Theory and Criticism (How To Do Things With Meaning)
Course Description:
We analyze literary works for their meaning, and such meaning really
informs all our reading. But how exactly does meaning mean? What produces
it? Does it, for example, come from inside or outside the text? What
role(s) does the reader play? For that matter, what is the role of the
author in defining meaning in a text? And just what IS a “text”?
What are its borders and limits? Why do we care about finding and establishing
such meaning, anyway? These and many other meaningful questions inform
structuralist and poststructuralist literary theories: deconstruction,
new historicism, Marxism, Lacanian and Foucauldian theory, and cultural
studies. It follows that if we’re to understand such questions,
as well as their answers—and if we’re to become aware of
our (and our teachers’) ideas and assumptions about literary meaning--we
need to know about the long and influential lineage of “theory,”
from early structural linguistics to contemporary cultural studies.
Doing so will prompt us to consider vital issues concerning the production
of literary and other meaning, including the relationship of such meaning
to power, ethics, and pleasure.
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