Course Contents

Historical Background of Russian formalism, Basic concepts of Victor Shklovsky, Roland Barth, Roman Jokobson etc Historical Background of Anglo American Criticism , and New Criticism Intentional Fallacy, affective Fallacy, paraphrase heresay, Ontological status of poem objectivity, wholeness, objectivity etc Discussion on major new critics Introduction of structuralism , and Ferdinend de Saussure’s linguistic structuralism C S pierce theory of signs Discussion on Anthropology structuralism, Prop’s structure of fairy tales naratology of A.J Gremias Structure of grammar of narration Tzveton Todorov etc Structure of interpretation Introduction of Jacques Derrida, his concepts of decen ring, Metaphysics of presence, logo-centrism , Privileged binary opposition, Speech vs writings. Deconstruction of culture and world Deconstruction of concepts of identity and self Introduction to Feminist Literary Theory 19th Century movement: Historical background of the theory, Introduction to major feminist theorists and critics. Discussion on developmental stages of feminist Literary theory and Suffrage movement. First, second and third waves of the theory Discussion on notable works of feminist critics Simon de Beauvoir and Kate Millet with reference to The Second Sex and Sexual Politics. A talk on Elain Showalter’s Gynocriticism and A literature of their own as well as four models presented by her. Discussion on Julia Kristeva’s feminist perspective. Discussion on positive representation femininity with reference to her book Laugh of Medusa Practical criticism. Feminist analysis of A Doll’s House by Ibsen, Mrs Dalloway by Woolf. Feminist analysis of stereotypical image of woman in The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot. Introduction to theory Psychoanalysis. Context and Historical background of psychoanalytical criticism. Introduction of major literary figures of this theory emphasizing their particular works. Introduction to Freudian psychology with reference to reality principle, pleasure principle and impulse control. Emphasis on repression, neurosis and psychosis Talk on Freud’s iceberg model of id, ego, superego with its emphasis on analogy between id and ego. Familiarization with the psychosexual model and analysis of its different stages including Electra and Oedipus Complex. Discussion on Dream and death Intro to Frederich Scheiling’s term ‘Unconscious’ with specific reference to Freud’s unconscious phenomena of human mind and its relationship to Conscious. Jacques Lacan’s imaginary stage, mirror stage and the symbolic stage as well as dreams and dream symbols. Discussion on psychoanalytical thinker Julia Kristeva emphasizing Semiotic Stage. Carl Gustav Jung’s theory of character and psychic energies. .Introduction to theory Marxism, its historical background and development in 19th century by Karl Marx. Introduction to the key terms of the theory Bourgeois, Proletariat, capitalism, and communism. Further discussion and analysis of German Ideology and Hegelian Marxism. Historical materialism with its elaboration of four stages according to Marx and Engels. Critical view of capitalist society and class consciousness. Discusion on 6 models of Marxist criticism in literature. Louis Althusser’s views on Ideology and Politics. Analysis of Ideological State Apparatusses and Repressive State Appartusses. Antonio Gramsci’s view of Hegemony

Course Learning Outcomes

The student will be able to: • To understand the historical background of modern criticism. • To estimate New Criticism and developmental stages of critical approaches. • To interpret 19th and 20th Century literary theories. • To apply these literary concepts successfully in a close reading of a literary text.