In this course, the students will be introduced to important philosophical and methodological premises in contemporary literary theories. In addition, the students will be given practice in analysing literary and cultural texts in the light of multiple theoretical frameworks.
This module focuses on the evolution of Literary Theory as a collection of ideas and methods used for the interpretation of literature in conjunction with philosophical trends of postmodernism. Its emphasis is on highlighting how literary theories developed as a ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’ and a mode of critical resistance against Enlightenment rationality and liberal humanist ideals of essential and universal truths and the sovereign subject. It focuses on how this anti-essentialist attack on foundational truths and autonomous human consciousness inspires theory to offer critiques of Manichean power structures and to recover the voices of those who are marginalized within dominant ideologies.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this module, the students will be able to
Develop a critique of the complicity of humanist ideals of rationality, universality and autonomy with ideological power structures
Comprehend the limitations of the apolitical and ahistorical methods of literary interpretation shaped by liberal humanism
Formulate an anti-essentialist mode of interpretation that seeks to give a voice to perspectives that are marginalized within dominant discourses
MODULE CONTENTS
The topics to be covered in this module include
Critique of essentialism underpinning liberal humanism and Enlightenment rationality
Determining the limitations of traditional methods of apolitical and ahistorical literary criticism
Learning how to read the text from an anti-essentialist perspective
This module focuses on the class-based, materialist critiques of literature informed by Marxist political and economic thought. It focuses on basic concepts from the Marxist tradition with a view of familiarising students with a mode of interpretation that focuses on the politics of class and the role of ideology in literary texts. It introduces some critiques of Marxist theory given by post-colonial and critical race theorists with a view of providing an overview of its critical reception and appropriation within the global South. It illustrates the principles of Marxist literary interpretation through an analysis of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this module, the students will be able to
Study literature as a site for the perpetuation or subversion of class division and class struggle
Understand literature as an important component of the ideological superstructure and its production of subjects of ideology
Comprehend the potential of literary texts to develop a critique of hegemonic ideologies of capitalism, racism and imperialism
Analyse literary forms/genres as a mode of political critique
MODULE CONTENTS
The topics to be covered in this module include
An overview of Marxist concepts such as economic determinism, base/superstructure, ideology, hegemony, reification, alienation and commodity fetishism
Critiques of Marxism by Postcolonial and Critical Race Theorists
An overview of key theoretical frames in Marxist Aesthetics
Marxist literary analysis of Kafka’s Metamorphosis
.png){kind=logo}
