Literary Theory

LITERARY THEORY

6 ECTS

4 hrs/ wk

2015-16Fall

Miguel Tamen

Learning goals:

Literary theory is not a field. The phrase ‘literary theory’ describes instead a collection of opinions, by philosophers, critics and practicing writers, about literature as an art form. Rather than presenting the history of a nonexistent field, or a number of different contemporary approaches to its putative topics, thus, the course will discuss a small number of problems relevant to the study of literature. Descriptions of their various difficulties will be offered. Students are expected to acquire a sense of the complexity involved in thinking about literature as an art form.

Curriculum content:

The course will focus on four main problems: (i) What do we mean by ‘reading’? (ii) What do we mean by ‘interpretation’? (iii) Is reading fiction a special kind of reading? (iv) Is poetry a special kind of language? (i) will be approached by way of a distinction between the two main senses of ‘reading’; (ii) will include a discussion of the various practices that are referred to as interpretation; and negative answers to (iii) and (iv) will also be provided. In-class discussions will typically focus on different kinds of texts, namely criticism, fiction, philosophy and poetry.

Bibliography:

A complete reading list will be made available in the first class. Poems to be read in class will be provided in a separate course-packet. Students will also be required to read a selection of Tolstoy’s short stories.

Philosophy and criticism to be read will include excerpts of:

Aristotle, Poetics.

Wayne Booth, A Rhetoric of Fiction.

Cleanth Brooks, The Well-Wrought Urn

Stanley Cavell, Must We Mean What We Say?

Gregory Currie, The Nature of Fiction

Donald Davidson, “A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs”

Cora Diamond, The Realistic Spirit

Nelson Goodman, Ways of Worldmaking

Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method

Allen Grossman, True Love.

John Hollander, The Work of Poetry.

Peter Lamarque & S.H. Olson, Truth and Fiction in Literature

Joshua Landy, How to Do Things With Fictions.

Colin McGinn, Ethics , Evil and Fiction

Martha Nussbaum, Love’s Knowledge

Richard Poirier, Poetry and Pragmatism

Christopher Ricks, The Force of Poetry

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations.

James Wood, How Fiction Works.

Assessment criteria:

Four in-class tests.

Office hours

TBA

Admission requirements to the C. U.:

Reading, speaking, and writing knowledge of English.

Observations:

Course to be taught in English. A complete syllabus will be provided in the first class.

1

ALAMEDA DA UNIVERSIDADE – 1600-214 LISBOA – PORTUGAL  TELEF.: 21 792 00 00  TELEFAX: 21 796 00 63  E-MAIL: