C501/0970: INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY AND CULTURAL THEORY FOR
CLASSICISTS (3cr.) meets from 4:00-5:15P MW in SY 006.

The course promotes familiarity with some of the theories and
methodologies influential in contemporary literary and cultural
studies, with a specific eye to their relevance to the interpretive
practices of Classical Studies. As background it is important to
understand the rationale of classical philology itself, and why
Classicists  define their professional discipline as they do. To this
end, we will devote the first three weeks to a survey of formative
periods and important texts in the history of classical scholarship.
Following this we will proceed chronologically to examine essays and
books representing major trends in twentieth century interpretive
scholarship with particular emphasis on how these have interacted with
the study of Classics. Each weekly reading assignment will include a
"classic text" and an essay by a classicist that applies the theory to
classical texts and problems. Coverage of the following topics is
provisionally foreseen: New Criticism;  Structuralism; French School:;
Semiotics; Reception Aesthetics and Reader Response Criticism;
Narratology; Dialogism; Marxism and New Historicism; Psychology;
Sociological Theory; Feminist and Gender Theory:

Student Work: The class will be conducted by discussion. The substance
of the written work will consist in weekly response papers which will
provide opportunity to critique the selections read through
application to a literary text. Because these will figure also in
class discussion, deadlines will be strict.

Books Ordered:

Reynolds and Wilson, Scribes and Scholars, 3rd ed. Oxford 1991
Terry Eagleton Literary Theory, 2nd ed. Minneapolis, Minnesota 1996.