3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Two great arguments structure literary criticism and theory: what makes something literature, and what makes something good literature? These arguments will surely never end; but to participate in them can be a great pleasure, and it can sharpen your appreciation of literary writing across the ages. This course will introduce you to the long conversation that has come to be called “literary theory,” with the aim of helping you learn to love not only reading literature, but describing it. Our readings will range from Plato and Aristotle to Kant, Hegel, and Scheiermacher, on to Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche, and finally to a range of recent thinkers.