This bookplate from Sigmund Freud's library features a quote from Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, which reads, "… who knew the famed riddle, and was a man most mighty." Freud and Psychoanalysis are topics of discussion in this course. (Image courtesy of The Jewish Theological Society on flickr. License CC BY.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Shankar Raman
MIT Course Number
21L.451
As Taught In
Fall 2014
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
This subject examines the ways in which we read. It introduces some important strategies for engaging with literary texts developed in the twentieth century, paying special attention to poststructuralist theories and their legacy. The course is organized around specific theoretical paradigms. In general, we will: (1) work through the selected readings in order to see how they construe what literary interpretation is; (2) locate the limits of each particular approach; and (3) trace the emergence of subsequent theoretical paradigms as responses to what came before.
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