ENG 539: Theories of Literary Criticism

A graduate survey of literary theory from Formalism and New Criticism through structuralism, Marxist, psychoanalytic, and archetypal criticism, and on to post-structuralism, New Historicism, feminism, cultural studies, and postcolonial theory. Each approach is studied through a primary excerpt and a guide chapter (Tyson, Critical Theory Today), then tested on a single anchor novel, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which we reread through every lens in turn. Students keep a weekly theory log, lead seminar sessions, and build a research paper in stages.