Type of Credit: Required
Credit(s)
Number of Students
With the irrevocable “re-territorialization” of literary studies, literary theory is plunged into a grave crisis in the 21st century. At this juncture, literary theory is either dismissed as irrelevant to literary studies, or refunctioned as a simple tool for interpreting literary texts. All in all, theory has lost much of its weight in problematizing the way we engage with the text and the world as it used to do in the past. Despite the adversity it is confronted with, it is the last thing for literary theory to content itself with being an “odd one out” in the field of literary studies. In a bid to appreciate how literary theory goes into the current crisis, and how it evolves to weather the inroads of backlash, this seminar will start by fully discussing Joseph North’s Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History. Then, the focus of this semester’s reading will be placed specifically on “New Materialism” and the “planet-turn” of ecocriticism and their critics. By engaging extensively with these two trail-blazing theoretical predilections in the 21st century, we hope to see more clearly how they wrestle with the dubious theoretical assumptions and outline a vision for the future of literary theory.
能力項目說明
With the irrevocable “re-territorialization” of literary studies, literary theory is plunged into a grave crisis in the 21st century. At this juncture, literary theory is either dismissed as irrelevant to literary studies, or refunctioned as a simple tool for interpreting literary texts. All in all, theory has lost much of its weight in problematizing the way we engage with the text and the world as it used to do in the past. Despite the adversity it is confronted with, it is the last thing for literary theory to content itself with being an “odd one out” in the field of literary studies. In a bid to appreciate how literary theory goes into the current crisis, and how it evolves to weather the inroads of backlash, this seminar will start by fully discussing Joseph North’s Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History. Then, the focus of this semester’s reading will be placed specifically on “New Materialism” and the “planet-turn” of ecocriticism and their critics. By engaging extensively with these two trail-blazing theoretical predilections in the 21st century, we hope to see more clearly how they wrestle with the dubious theoretical assumptions and outline a vision for the future of literary theory.
| 教學週次Course Week | 彈性補充教學週次Flexible Supplemental Instruction Week | 彈性補充教學類別Flexible Supplemental Instruction Type |
|---|---|---|
Introduction: Whiter literary theory?
9/12-10/03
Joseph North, Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History
Keywords for the Future of Theory
1. Rethinking Change
10/17
Patricia Waugh, “Paradigm,” in Future Theory
Enzo Traverso, “Memory” in Future Theory
10/24
Jean-Michel Rebaté, “Catastrophe,” in Future Theory
10/31
Mark Currie, “Event,” in Future Theory
Ales Erjavec, “Revolutions,” in Future Theory
2. Relations and Assemblages
11/07
Paulina Aroch Fugellie, “Periphery,” in Future Theory
Justin Clemens, “Exception,” in Future Theory
11/14
Roger Luckhurst, “Hybrid,” in Future Theory
11/21
Derek Attridge, “Hospitality,” in Future Theory
11/28
Graham Harman, “Network,” in Future Theory
12/05
Mick Smith, “Community,” in Future Theory
3. Anthropocene
12/12
Timothy Clark, “Climate,” in Future Theory
12/19
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, “Decolonization,” in Future Theory
12/26
Marc Botha, “Risk,” in Future Theory
Caroline Edwards, “Hope,” in Future Theory
Attendance 10%
Discussion 40%
Final paper 50%
1. North, Joseph. Literary Criticism: A Concise Political History. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2017.
2. Waugh, Patricia and Marc Botha. Future Theory: A Handbook to Critical Conceopts. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
TBA