BARRY, Peter. Beginning Theory. An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2009
Critical texts
Brief extracts from the following literary and critical theorists: Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Hayden White, Stephen Greenblatt, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Adrienne Rich, Barbara Smith, Chinua Achebe, Edward Said. They will be included in the Units.
Literary texts
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Penguin edition.
Dylan Thomas, “A refusal to mourn the death, by fire, of a child in London” (In Barry,Beginning Theory, Appendix 2, 275-276).
Elizabeth Bishop poems: “Twelve O’Clock News”, “In the Waiting Room” (Included in virtual course)
CONRAD, Joseph. Heart of Darkness (1899, 1902). This is widely available free on the internet.
The Study Guides for UNITS 1-4, included in the virtual course are essential: they provide you with all the material you need to successfully complete the course: critical texts, study materials, self-assessment-exercises and answers.
The book by PETER BARRY provides reasonably accessible introductions to literary and critical theory together with practical examples of close critical readings of literary texts. It will be used in conjunction with the rest of the study material.
