Spring 2023  |  ENGL 4003 Section 001: History of Literary Theory (64571)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
A-F or Audit
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/17/2023 - 05/01/2023
Tue, Thu 11:15AM - 12:30PM
UMTC, East Bank
Ford Hall 151
Enrollment Status:
Open (12 of 20 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
How thinkers from classical to modern times posed/answered questions about language (how words mean), audience (to whom they mean), and the literary (how literary writing differs from other forms of writing). Works by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Christine de Pizan, Dante, Sidney, Behn, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Woolf.
Class Description:
This course explores some of the major questions about literary theory that preoccupied important thinkers from antiquity through modernism by looking at how they posed and answered questions about language (how words mean), audience (to whom they mean) and the literary (how literary writing differs from other forms of writing). We will begin by examining how theorists thought that words bear meaning: when, for example, can words carry more than their literal meaning? Must they always carry more than their literal meaning? If and when they do carry "extra" meaning, how do we know what to understand? Next, we will look to questions of audience: who is the implied audience for literature? Is the implied audience necessarily male? Is the audience's understanding of a work of literature the same as the author's? how can the author manipulate understanding? What is the relationship between literature and rhetoric? Finally, we will explore these theorists' understanding of what literature is and how it differs from other kinds of writing. Readings will include works by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Christine de Pizan, Dante, Sidney, Behn, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Woolf.
Class Format:
25% Lecture
75% Discussion
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/64571/1233
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
4 September 2007

ClassInfo Links - Spring 2023 English Classes

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