Literary Criticism (From Plato to Leavis)

The course is designed as an advanced level course in Literary Criticism focusing on the texts that laid the foundations of Western literary critical thought. The course intends to situate the relevance of the texts historically, within the literary traditions in which it was originally written and thereby contextually examine its relevance and significance in shaping contemporary literary criticism. Throughout the course, the learners will be encouraged to closely read the texts prescribed and understand specific concepts, frameworks and literary traditions.INTENDED AUDIENCE : Students of English LiteraturePRE- REQUISITES : NilSUPPORT INDUSTRY : Only academics

Week 1 : Classical Criticism,Aristotle’s PoeticsWeek 2 : Longinus’ On the Sublime,Criticism in the Middle AgesWeek 3 : Sir Philip Sidney’s Apology for PoetryWeek 4 : John Dryden’s Preface to The Fables Samuel Johnson’s Preface to ShakespeareWeek 5 : William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads,Samuel Taylor Coleridge Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria (Chapter 13-14),Keats’ Letters,Shelley’s Defence of PoetryWeek 6 : Matthew Arnold’s Preface to the Poems,Henry James’ Art of Fiction,Edgar Allan Poe’s The Poetic PrincipleWeek 7 : Eliot’s Tradition and Individual Talent,Eliot’s Metaphysical PoetsWeek 8 : Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own,Practical Criticism and IA RichardsWeek 9 : Leavis’ The Great Tradition,Wellek’s The New Criticism: Pro and ContraWeek 10 : Shklovsky’s Art as Technique,Walter Benjamin’s Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical ReproductionWeek 11 : Barthes’s Death of the Author,Foucault’s What is an AuthorWeek 12 : Showalter’s Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness,Kolodny’s Dancing through the Minefield