Introduction to Literary Theory
Literary theory gets organized here around specific twentieth century paradigms, with special attention to poststructuralism and its aftermath. Working through assigned readings, the course asks what literary interpretation actually is under each approach, where that approach breaks down, and how the next theoretical school emerges as a response to those limits. Materials from MIT OpenCourseWare include the syllabus, reading list, and assignments used in the original MIT course, letting students trace the movement from structuralism through deconstruction and beyond by tracking the arguments theorists made against their predecessors. No lectures are recorded, but the reading schedule and assignment sequence lay out a full semester's progression. Free to access, with no certificate offered since this is a self-paced OpenCourseWare archive rather than an instructor-led session.