Learning outcomes

The course aims to offer to the students a selection and an analysis of the essays published in the Western world during the 19th and the 20th century that were crucial in the construction of important critical methodologies.

Program

This course aims to provide students with a complete overview of the modern theoretical reflection on literature, with a particular focus on the most important critical orientations emerged in the 20th Century. The schools of literary criticism that will be analyzed are listed right below; in addition, the most important and famous literary critics will also be studied (very well-known critics who worked in the country where the schools developed, without being necessarily affiliated with them).

In addition to these important schools of literary criticism, the course will briefly introduce several important trends of contemporary literary criticism, such as feminist criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, and ecocriticism.

Examination Methods

Oral exam, in order to verify the competence of the students and their ability to make connections and to orient themselves in the vast horizon of the history of literary criticism. Their intelligent and active involvement in the class will be also evaluated.