English 720-001
Modern Literary Theory
Instr: Amsler, Mark
Office: CRT 568; 229-5043
e-mail: mamsler@uwm.edu
Office hours:
Course Information: M; 3:30-6:30pm; CRT 468
Course Description
The proseminar on literary and cultural theory is designed as an intensive reading and overview of contemporary theories of literature and culture with some attention to historical contexts and backgrounds. We will read selections from an array of theorists and critics since 1900, including the Russian Formalists (Shkovsky, etc), New Critics and other formalists (Brooks, Riffaterre, Watten), myth and genre criticism (Frye, Sacks), structuralism and poststructuralism/ deconstruction (Saussure, Barthes, Eco, Said, Derrida, Fish, deMan, J. Butler), multicultural theories (Bhabha, B. Christian, b. hooks), visual culture (W.J.T. Mitchell, Baudrillard), marxism and new historicism (Jameson, Greenblatt, Frow), gender studies (Sedgewick, Edelman, Acker), and performance theory (Blau, Brecht, Phelan). Along the way, we will explore theory questions in relation to particular texts and performances by, among others, Acker, Harryman, Shakespeare, Brecht, medieval lyric poets, Kushner. Background texts will include: Spinoza, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Peirce.
Participants in the seminar will do a group presentation, write several brief essays, post email responses to the readings, and complete a semester project.
