Paper IX (Option b): Literary Theory

This course in Literary Theory introduces students to seminal texts by literary theorists and philosophers that have shaped the study of literature in recent times. Classified under broad rubrics such as Marxism, Feminism, Postcolonialism, Postmodernism and Culture Studies, the course aims to instruct students in analysing theoretical texts, in addition to the pragmatic use of understanding literary texts by means of contemporary critical thought. Through this process, students learn how the body of criticism around literary texts is constituted. A diachronic/historically consequent dimension to the course is provided by the background texts that cover critical frameworks such as Formalism, Structuralism and Psychoanalysis which are antecedent to the debates in the main texts and influence their bearing. The readings also challenge the category of literature, philosophy, psychology, history and art as exclusive and separate from theory. Thus, the course is a broad but, at the same time, focused threshold to literary theory for those who wish to continue literary studies at the postgraduate level as also a platform for students who wish to move on to disciplines outside literature such as sociology and culture studies.