LIT 402(S) Issues in Literary Theory: Philosophy and Literature
Recent trends in literary theory have provoked intense interest in the relations, current as well as historical, between philosophy and literature. We will consider both philosophical views of literature and literary representations of philosophy. Readings on the philosophical side will include texts by Plato, Kant, Nietzsche, Ayer, Heidegger, Carnap, Langer, and Derrida. Literary texts will include Shakespeare's Hamlet, Goethe's Faust I, Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love, Sartre's Nausea, and poems by Ingeborg Bachmann. Depending on student interest, other texts may be substituted or added. Requirements: class participation, two class presentations, one 15- to 20-page paper.