Approaches To Literature

AY2014/2015 Semester 1

What do literary scholars and critics do? How do they approach literature within specific contexts? How do they communicate with each other and with wider audiences? What are the differences between Area Studies, Ethnic and National Studies, Cultural Studies, and Comparative Studies of literature? What is the role of theory in literary study? These are some of the questions addressed in this module. Students will be exposed to various ways of reading and writing about literature, including New Criticism, literature and the other arts, structuralism and post-structuralism, new historicism, psychoanalytic and feminist theories, and ethical criticism in order to gain an understanding of the methodologies of literary analysis. Readings and screenings will include Kiss of the Spider Woman and Dirty Pretty Things.