The aim of this course is to introduce students to the various schools that set the grounds for modern literary and cultural criticism. Class discussions will concentrate on the understanding of theoretical texts, as well as, on the reading and analysis of literature and cultural products. We will engage with the main theoretical currents of our time such as structuralism, postructuralism, feminism, and cultural studies. (1 unit)

Required text: Sardar, Ziauddin, Boris Van Loon, Estudios culturales para todos (Barcelona: Paidos, 2005) (ISBN: 84-493-1748-7) (available on Amazon); also electronic material provided at Middlebury.