This course provides an accessible introduction to the theories and methods in literary studies and its four pillars: author, text, reader, and context. We will engage in critical investigations of five influential theoretical approaches in our field: Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Gender and Queer Theory, New Criticism and Formalism, and Postcolonial Studies. For each of these five areas, there will be a discussion of a seminal theoretical text in the first week, followed by a hands-on session in the second week, in which we will use the theoretical/methodological framework to analyse a given literary text (a poem or a short story).

In addition, the seminar will provide students with useful tools and methods to analyse literary text (literary semantics, semiotics, rhetoric, corpus analysis, narratology and many others).

N.B.: High reading load!

Semester: ST 2020