Philosophy of Literature

Catalog description

Introduces students to models of literary theory from the mid-twentieth century to the present and familiarizes them with the key works of literature to be analyzed. Prepares students to practice questioning and critiquing texts using the philosophical, aesthetic, economic and psychoanalytic methods of analysis which have come to form the foundation of contemporary literary theory. Among the topics considered are culture and imperialism, performativity, the encounter of modern literature and modern technology, structuralism and semiotics, the role of psychoanalysis, the role of the academy, and the relative autonomy of art.