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Lecturer(s)
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Marková Michaela, Mgr. Ph.D.
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Vernyik Zénó, Mgr. Ph.D.
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Klapcsik Sándor, Ph.D.
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Palatinus Dávid Levente, Ph.D.
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Světlíková Anna, Mgr. Ph.D.
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Course content
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LECTURES 1) Introduction to the Course. What Is Culture? What Is Literature? What Is a Work of Art? Low Culture, High Culture, Mass Culture, Popular Culture 2) The Three Genres (Aristotle), Tragedy vs Comedy, Basic Elements of Dramatic Plots 3) Basic Elements of Narrative Plots (Propp, Campbell, Freytag), Syuzhet/Plot vs Fabula/Story, Types of Narration 4) Basic Elements of Poetry (Rhythm, Rhyme, Tropes and Figures) 5) The Problem of the Author (classical conception, the death of the author, author function, auteur, implied author, narrator, focalizer) 6) Adaptation and Media 7) The Basics of Marxist Criticism (Ideology, Captation, ISAs/RSAs, commodity fetishism) 8) Power, Surveillance and Simulacra 9) The Basics of Structuralist Criticism (de Saussure's sign, Jakobson's model of communication and language functions) 10) Postcolonialism, Posthumanism and Eco-Criticism 11) The Basics of Psychoanalytic Criticism (unconscious, conscious, preconscious, displacement, condensation, analyzing the author, analyzing characters, analyzing the textual unconscious) 12) Introduction to Deconstruction 13) The Basics of Feminist and Gender Criticism SEMINARS will serve as supplementary sessions to the Lectures. Students will be introduced to topics and areas such as the relationship of popular and high culture, a historical overview of specific theories of literature and culture (from formalist theories, to structuralism, the basics of narratology, psychoanalysis, postcolonial theories, feminist theories and gender studies, intertextuality and adaptation, theories of the Postmodern including deconstruction, Anthropocene studies, and the impacts of visual and digital media). The seminars will be based on presentations and discussions. Specific topics and reading lists will be distirbuted at the beginning of the semester.
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Lecture, Seminár, E-learning, Students' self-study
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Learning outcomes
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The aim of this course is to provide students with the necessary theoretical background for the analysis of literary texts and cultural artifacts. Throughout the semester, they familiarize themselves with basic features of literary works of art and learn to identify works of art in general. They are also introduced to the study of genres and to the most important critical and theoretical schools of the 20th and early 21st centuries. At the same time, by making them able to identify problems of power and identity (e.g. sexual and ethnic), and to realize the socially constructed nature of values and categories, the course both prepares the ground for further studies in the field of literary and cultural analysis, and helps in building an awareness of how value judgments and stereotypes operate, thereby also providing a way to achieve a more self-conscious and less biased attitude necessary for becoming an open-minded teacher.
Theoretical background and practical skills for the analysis of literary texts and cultural artifacts.
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Prerequisites
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B2 level of English
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Oral exam, Student's linguistic performance analysis, Test
LECTURES Attendance is not compulsory but strongly encouraged; in addition to face to face lectures students have access to recordings of lectures from previous years. SEMINARS: The seminars require mandatory presence. For full-time students, 2 absences are allowed; for part-time students, 1 absence is allowed. ASSESSMENT / COURSE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE LECTURE (zápočet): Students take one written test at the end of the semester to receive the credit (zápočet). The test covers the content of the lectures. ASSESSMENT / COURSE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SEMINAR SECTION (zkouška): Attendance and active participation is compulsory as described above; active participation includes the students' knowledge of compulsory readings, as specified by the seminar teachers, and the students' active participation in classroom discussion. Students are further required to give an oral presentation and to submit one written assignment, as specified by the seminar teacher. Students who fail to fulfill these requirements will not be able to take the exam. The seminar concludes with an exam: the first attempt is a written exam, second and third attempts are oral. Set readings: For a detailed list of set readings, please see the e-learning courses of the lecture and your seminar group.
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Recommended literature
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Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. 2003.
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Bauman, Zygmunt. Globalization: The Human Consequences. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
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De Man, Paul. Blindness and Insight: Essays in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Criticism. London: Routledge, 2013.
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Derrida, Jacques and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Of Grammatology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016.
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Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2015.
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Fludernik, Monika. An Introduction to Narratology. London: Routledge, 2009.
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Giles, Judy and Tim Middleton. Studying Culture. A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 2010.
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Hall, Stuart, and Paul Du Gay. Questions of Cultural Identity. London: SAGE Publications, 2012.
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Hawkes, Terence. Structuralism and Semiotics. New York: Routledge, 2005.
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Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.
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Klages, M. Literary Theory. A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Continuum, 2006.
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McHale, Brian. Constructing Postmodernism. London: Routledge, 2006.
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Montgomery, Martin, et al. Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English Literature.. London: Routledge, 2013.
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Silverman, Kaja. The Subject of Semiotics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
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