Literary Criticism and Critical Theory

Paper Code: 
25ENG321
Credits: 
04
Periods/week: 
04
Max. Marks: 
100
Objective: 

The Course will enable the students to recognise the principles of critical theory in the shaping of literature, trace the historical development of literary theory and its role in English studies and develop an enhanced ability to read, contextualize, and compare primary material by different literary theorists.

 

 

Course Outcomes: 

The students will:

CO73. Examine the history of criticism and literary theories

CO74. Identify the textual application of critical theories

CO75. Illustrate application-based knowledge of key ideas and debates in modern literary theory

CO76. Compare and contrast diverse literary criticisms, theories in application

CO77. Produce an enhanced understanding towards critical appreciation, critical thinking and analytical skills

CO78.  Contribute effectively in course-specific interaction.
 

 

11.00
Unit I: 

Aristotle

Poetics

 

9.00
Unit II: 

T. S. Eliot

Tradition and the Individual Talent

 

14.00
Unit III: 

Poststructuralism

Roland Barthes

(pp. 72-76 from M.A.R. Habib)

 

Deconstruction

Jacques Derrida

Extract from

“Derrida, Deconstruction and Literary Interpretation” (from lib.kshs.kh.edu.tw/lib/journals/journals-94/P145.pdf)

 

13.00
Unit IV: 

Western Feminism

Feminisms         

(pp. 82-90 & 94-108 from Pramod K. Nayar)

 

Indian Feminism:

A People Without a History? 

(pp. 1-10 & 23 from Jasbir Jain)

 

13.00
Unit V: 

Psychoanalytic Criticism

 (pp. 63-73 from Pramod K. Nayar)

 

Postcolonial Theory

(pp. 153-72 & 175-78 from Pramod K. Nayar)

Source Books: 

Source Books:

Enright and Chickera eds. English Critical Texts.OUP, 1997.

Jain, Jasbir. Indigenous Roots of Feminism: Culture, Subjectivity and Agency. Sage, 2011.

Nayar, Pramod K. Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: From Structuralism to Ecocriticism. Pearson, 2010.

 

 

SUGGESTED READINGS: 

Suggested Readings:

Das, Bijoy and J.M. Mohanty. Literary Criticism: A Reading. OUP, 1989.

Olsen, Flemming. Eliot’s Objective Correlative: Tradition or Individual Talent: Contributions to the History of a Topos.Susan Academic Press, 2014.

Wilfred L. Guerin, et al: A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. OUP, 1999.

                               

e-resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXcr4DDEw8Q (Aristotle)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHB77gPhVyg (Eliot)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQx-FYPQDus (Barthes)

 

Journals:

Critical Times: Interventions in Global Critical Theory

Literary Theory and Criticism

 

 

 

Academic Year: 
2025-2026