Midlands State University

Department of Humanities, Business Development

and Arts Education
AEEN 131 Literary Theory

LECTURER: Dr Hungwe

Module synopsis

The module traces developments in literary theory while examining how

different theories interact as they inform and explain our understanding of
the world of literature today. Theories will be subjected to testing, with
specific attention being paid to their strengths and limitations in addressing
the historical, social, political and ideological nature of literary works and the
contexts in which theory and text emerge.

It is hoped that the areas covered in the module outline will not only enable
a rich understanding of theories of literature but will also stimulate a desire
among students to read further.

Objectives
By the end of the course students should be able to:

i) analyze major literary theories in terms of their critical foci and

tenets;
 ii) relate literary theories to one another;
iii) assess the relevance of theories to texts, writing and reading
practices;
iv) apply theories to the analysis of literature;
v) apply theories to other cultural practices

Module Teaching Outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to;

- appreciate literary theory and apply it in the reading, interpretation, and

enjoyment of literary texts.

-use literary theory to explain phenomena in real life circumstances.

-use literary theory as a methodological tool to with which to access and

explain different types of literary/artistic texts.

Assessment

Assessment will be in the form of:

Individual assignments

In-class test

Group assignments/presentations

End-of semester examination

Mode of delivery

Lecture

Readings

Group discussion/Presentation
WEIGHTING

Coursework- 40%

Examination- 60%

COURSEWORK

Students will be expected to submit at least two coursework items, one

focusing on critical/background texts and another on prescribed texts.

NB: Assignments and exams will be graded for:

1) evidence that you have closely analysed the text,

2) evidence of your familiarity with secondary sources,

3) originality and creativity in applying relevant concepts to textual

analysis,

4) clarity, 5) organisation and style.

NB:Students without a course work mark will automatically

have their exam mark ‘nullified’.

Rules

 Assignments are to be typed- Times New Roman, font size 12, double
spaced and justified. The cover page should display the following
information in the order given: surname, first names, registration
number, programme, module title, lecturer, topic question and due
date.

 The American Psychological Association (APA) is the recommended

referencing house style for the Department.

 Plagiarism will be considered as non-submission. The following

constitute plagiarism:
  Turning in as your own work a paper or part of a paper written by
another. This would include but is not limited to work taken from
another student, from a published author or from the internet.
 Turning in a paper that includes unquoted and / or undocumented
passages someone else wrote.
 Including in a paper someone else’s original ideas, opinions, or
research results without attribution.
 Paraphrasing without attribution.
 Turning the same paper in for credit in more than one class.

Topics of study

WEEK 1: DEFINING LITERARY THEORY

a) What is literary theory?

b) Components of theory.

WEEK 2

c) Types of theory
d) Debates and insights on Literary theory.

WEEK 3: AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT/REASON/MODERNITY

What is enlightenment?
Hallmarks of the Age of Reason/ Modernity
o Progress
o Optimism
o Rationality
o search for absolute knowledge in science, technology, society, and
politics
 o knowledge of the true self as the foundation for all other knowledges

WEEK 4: MAJOR INVENTIONS/INNOVATIONS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

ERA

o The Industrial Revolution

o Social and economic implications of Enlightenment

o Enlightenment Perceptions of other Civilizations/Meaning of Progress in

the context of Enlightenment

WEEK 5: ROMANTICISM

Key Tenets of Romanticism

o The place of Nature in Romanticism Literary thinking

o role Imagination in Romantic thinking

o Emotion and Lyricism in Poetry

o Symbolism and Myth

o Individualism

WEEK 6: MARXIST LITERARY CRITICISM

Principles of Marxist thought

o critique of capitalist society
o dialectic materialism
o Base structure- (the economic means of production)
o Superstructure- (coercive state apparatuses (military, courts, police)
and ideological state apparatuses (religion, schools, art, literature)

Marxist literary criticism asks questions such as:

 a. Does the text reflect or resist a dominant ideology? Does it do
both?
b. How are social classes represented? What is the author’s
analysis of class relations? Does the text paint a positive picture
of the working class?
c. Do the dominant class’ values and beliefs take precedence in a
narrative? Are the values celebrated or rejected?
d. In what ways does the work serve as propaganda for the status
quo; or does it try to undermine it? What values does it
reinforce? Which does it subvert?
e. What does the work say about oppression? Are social conflicts
ignored or blamed elsewhere?
f. How do characters from different classes interact?
g. How do characters deal with oppression?
h. How are conflicts resolved? In a utopian way/ progressively? In a
conservative manner?
i. In what social/economic environment does the text emerge?
j. Which class does the work claim to represent?
k. What were the economic conditions for publication of a work?

WEEK 7: FORMALIST LITERARY CRITICISM

Key principles of formalist criticism

o Focus is on literary/artistic properties of a text

o Centrality of language to the definition of literature

o Subordination of content to form

o The autonomy of literature

o Concept of defamiliarization
WEEK 8: FEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM

o Ideological grounding of Feminist literary criticism

o The ideas of Simone de Beauvoir

o The contributions of Elaine Showalter

o Western feminism
o Womanism

Key aims of feminist criticism

o defending women against misrepresentation and stereotyping

o raising women’s political consciousness

o radically changing power relations
o exposing male dominance as “the most pervasive ideology of our
culture.”

WEEK 9: NEGRITUDIST LITERARY CRITICISM

Defining Negritude

The idealist school

The realist school

Major tenets

The major aims of negritude are:

o to affirm the African cultural heritage

o to counter racial stereotypes about Africa by the Europeans
o to evoke an African heroic past
 o to denounce the ills of colonialism, slavery, western elitism and
capitalism, among others.
WEEK 10: POSTCOLONIAL LITERARY CRITICISM

Key principles

o Critique of hegemonic Western thought systems

o Celebration of heterogeneous cultures as opposed to homogeneity.
o Highlighting the cultural and political expression of the formerly
colonized societies.

LITERARY TEXTS FOR THEORY APPLICATION

- Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions
- Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter
- Thomas More’s Utopia
- Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
- William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Lyrical Ballads
- William Black’s Songs of Innocence and Experience
- Ngugi Wa Thiongo’s Matigari
- D.H. Laurence’s Sons and Lovers
- Negritudist Poetry for Leopold Senghor, Aime Cesaire and David Diop
- George Orwell’s Animal Farm
- PSYCHOANALYSIS THEORY
Historical background
Clues to Accessing the Unconscious Mind
Aspects of the Unconscious
Stages of Development/Personality Stages
Psychoanalysis Point of view – Application

READING LIST
Anderson, B. (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and
Spread of Nat Ani, M. (1994) Yurugu: An African–centred Critique of
European Cultural Thought and Behaviour. Asmara: Africa World Press
Appiah, K. A. (1993) In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Appiah, K. A. (2001) “African Identities” in Castle, G. (ed), Postcolonial
Discourses- An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, p221-231
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths G., Tiffin H., (eds), 1995. The Postcolonial Studies
Reader. London: Routledge
Arnfred, S. (ed), (2004) Rethinking Sexualities in Africa. Uppsala: The Nordic
Africa Institute ionalism. London :Verso
Bahri, D. (2004) “Feminism in/ and Postcolonialism” in Lazarus, N. (ed), The
Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, p199-220

Barry P, 2002, Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural

Theory, Manchester University Press, Manchester. PN 81 BAR

Bhabha, H.K. (1990) Nation and Narration. London and New York: Routledge

Bennett, A and Royle, N. An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory.

PN 45 BEN.

Booker P, 1992, Modernism/Postmodernism, Pearson Education Publishers,

Edinburgh. PN771 MOD
Castle, G. (ed), (2001) Postcolonial Discourses – An Anthology. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers
Chrisman, L. (2004) “Nationalism and Postcolonial Studies.” In Lazarus, N.
(ed), The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
De Beauvoir S. 1953, The Second Sex, London, Jonathan Cape
Du Gay, P. et al, (2000) Identity: A Reader. London: Sage Publications
Fanon, F. (1952) Black Skin White Masks. New York: Grove Press
Fanon, F. (1968) The Wretched of the Earth. London: Penguin
Gaidzanwa, R. (1985) Images of Women in Zimbabwean Literature. Harare:
College Press
Gale, T. Feminism in Literature Vol 1-6. PN 471 FEM.
Gale Critical Companion- Feminism in Literature Volumes 1-6 PN 471 FEM
Goring, P. et al. Studying Literature. PN 59 GOR
Gregson I, 2004, Postmodern Literature, Arnold Publishers, Great Britain. PN
771 GRE
Habib, M. A History of Literary Criticism. PN 86 HAB.
Hall, S. (Ed) Cultural representation and signifying practices.
Hall S. (2000) “Who Needs Identity”, in du Gay P, et al, (eds.), Identity: A
Reader. London: Sage Publications, p15-30
Hall S. (1992) Formations of Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press
Jackson, S. and Scott, S. (Eds), Feminism and sexuality: a reader.
Kennedy, G. The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism Vol I. PN 86 CAM.
Kettle A. 1960. An Introduction to the English Novel, London, Harper
Kolmar, W. and Bartkowski, F. (Eds) Feminist Theory: A Reader 2nd ed.
Knellwolf, C and Norris, C. The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism Vol IX.
PN 86 C27 CAM.
Lazarus, N. Postcolonial Literary Studies. PN 56 CAM.
Levenson M. 1999 (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Modernity, CUP,
Cambridge. PN 56. M54 CAM
Lewis P. 2007, The Cambridge Introduction to Modernism, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge. PN 56.M54 LEW
Litz a.w, Menand L, Rainey L. (eds), 2000, The Cambridge History of Literary
Criticism Volume 7: Modernism and New Criticism, CUP, Cambridge.
PN86.C27 CAM
Lodge, D. 20th Century Literary Criticism. PN 94 CEN.
Lukacs G. 1967. History and Class Consciousness- Studies in Marxist
Dialctics, Merlin Publishers
Madsen, D.L. (ed), (1999) Postcolonial Literatures- Expanding the Canon.
London: Pluto Press
Marshall B. (ed) 2000, The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism Volume V:
Romanticism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. PN86 CAM
Marx K, Engels F, The Communist Manifesto
Mbembe, A. (2001) On the Postcolony. Berkeley: University of California
Press
Meena, R. (ed.), (1992) Gender in Southern Africa: Conceptual and
Theoretical Issues. Harare: Sapes
Mongia, P. (ed), (1996) Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader.
London: Arnold Press
Nicholls P, 2009, Modernism, Palgrave, New York. PN 56 NIC
Ouzgane L, Morell R, (eds) 2005, African Masculinities, Palgrave, New York.
HQ1090 AFR
Rice P, Waugh P, (eds) 2001, Modern Literary Theory (4th ed), Hodder Arnold,
London. PN81MOD
Selden R, 2005, The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism Volume VIII:
From Formalism to Poststructuralism, Cambridge University Press, New York.
PN86 CAM
Spencer, P. and Wollman, H. (eds). (2005) Nations and Nationalism.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Spivak, G.C. (1988) “Can the Subaltern Speak? in Nelson C. and Grossberg,
L.,( eds), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, University of Illinois
Press, Chicago
Spivak, G.C. (2001) “The Burden of English” in Castle G.(ed), Postcolonial
Discourses: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, p53-72
Selden, R. et al. 2005, A Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory, Prentice
Hall, Great Britain. PN 94 SEL.
Stevenson R, 1998, Modernist Fiction: An Introduction, Prentice Hall,
England. PR888.M63 STE
Sofola, Z. (1998) “Feminism and African Womanhood”, in Nnaemeka O. (ed.),
Sisterhood- Feminisms and Power: From Africa to Diaspora. Asmara: Africa
World Press
Sontag, S. (1991) Illness as Metaphor and Aids and its Metaphors. London:
Penguin
Waugh P, 2006, Literary Theory and Criticism, Oxford University Press,
Oxford. PN86 LIT
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge- The Lyrical Ballads
William Blake- Songs of Innocence and Experience
Woodward, K. Understanding identity.
Wu D. (ed), Romanticism: An Anthology, Blackwell. PR1139 ROM.
Zis A. Foundations of Marxist Aesthetics, Moscow, Progress Publishers