Literary Theory


30 credits, 15 ECTS credits: Spring term

Convenor: Sarah Wood

This module approaches literary theory in the context of philosophy, theories of the sign and a variety of recent thinking about art, subjectivity, politics, history, and writing. We will read texts carefully and creatively, trying to identify the intentions of their authors and asking how they might contribute to the future development of literary study. Our intention is to create a broad picture of theoretical practices, in order to foreground questions regarding the modalities and functions of literary texts and the political and institutional shaping of practices of reading. We hope to leave students more aware of the value of theory and more confident about making it part of their thinking.

Preliminary Reading
Benjamin, Walter, ‘The Storyteller’ in Selected Writings III.
Derrida, Jacques, ‘Interview: This Strange Institution Called Literature,’ in Acts of Literature ed. Attridge.
Foucault, Michel, ‘Las Meninas,’ in The Order of Things.
Heidegger, Martin, ‘Building, Dwelling, Thinking,’ in Poetry, Language, Thought.
Kant, Immanuel, ‘What is Enlightenment?’ in From Modernism to Postmodernism ed Cahoone.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, ‘Eye and Mind’, in The Primacy of Perception.

Seminar Outline
Teachers: Sarah Wood, Ariane Mildenberg, Brian Dillon

1. Immanuel Kant ‘What is Enlightenment?’ in From Modernism to Postmodernism (2nd edition) ed. Lawrence Cahoone 45-49.*
Introduction to the course by Sarah Wood (Convenor) and Ariane Mildenberg.
2. Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Phenomenology AM
Husserl, extract from Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology.**
Mark Kingwell, ‘Husserl’s Sense of Wonder’, The Philosophical Forum 31, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 85-107.**
Merleau-Ponty, ‘Preface’ to Phenomenology of Perception and ‘Eye and Mind’, in The Primacy of Perception.**
3. Ferdinand de Saussure and Samuel Weber: Sign and Text SW
Saussure, ‘The Object of Study’ in the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.*
Samuel Weber, ‘The Unconscious Chess Player’ in Return to Freud, 20-37.**
4. Mieke Bal and Michel Foucault: Word and Image AM
Bal, ‘Dispersing the Image: Vermeer Story’, in Looking In: The Art of Viewing.**
Foucault, ‘Las Meninas’, in The Order of Things.**
5. Giorgio Agamben: Infancy & History. Taught by Brian Dillon.
‘Infancy and History,’ ‘Time and History’ and ‘Notes on Gesture’ all in Infancy and History.
6. Break
7. Sigmund Freud and Leo Bersani: Psychoanalysis and Sexuality SW
Freud, ‘Summary’ from Three Essays on Sexuality and ‘The Sexual Enlightenment of Children’ in either Penguin Freud Volume 7 On Sexuality 155-69 and172-181or the Standard Edition Vol 7 231-43, Vol 9 131-9 .*
Bersani, ‘Sexuality and Aesthetics,’ in October 28 (1984).***
8. Walter Benjamin and Jacques Rancière: History and Politics SW
Benjamin, ‘The Storyteller’ in Collected Works III.**
Rancière, ‘Interview: Politics and Aesthetics’ in Angelaki 8.2 (2003).***
9. Martin Heidegger: ‘Building, Dwelling, Thinking’ AM
in Poetry, Language, Thought
10. Jacques Derrida and Samuel Weber: Deconstruction, Literature and Institution SW
Derrida, ‘The University without Condition’ in Without Alibi.**
---, ‘Interview: This Strange Institution Called Literature’ in Acts of Literature ed. Attridge 33-75.**
Samuel Weber, ‘The Future of the University’ in Institution and Interpretation 220-235.*
11. Hélène Cixous: Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis and Writing SW
Cixous, ‘Philippines: Sweet Prison,’ in Oxford Literary Review 30.2 (2008) ‘Telepathies’ ed. Nicholas Royle, 259-81.***
‘The School of the Dead’ in Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing (excerpt).**