Rationale for Textbook Selection and Availability: The full version of most of the required readings listed below, especially in language and critical theory, may be found in Adams’s classic anthology Critical Theory Since Plato (the price of which is rather expensive in UWI Bookshop but more reasonable if purchased from Amazon). I have placed three copies of Adams’s anthology on reserve. A useful source for many of the required readings in philosophy and cultural theory is James Gould’s Classic Philosophical Questions (one copy is on reserve) which is not in the bookshop but available from Amazon. In terms of the recommended readings, both Abrams’s The Mirror and the Lamp and Russell’s History of Western Philosophy are available for purchase in the bookshop and from Amazon. Harris’s Landmarks in Linguistic Thought and Taylor’s Sources of the Self (one copy of each is on reserve) are not in the bookshop but can be purchased from Amazon. It is, of course, very much in your interest to purchase as many of these texts as you can.

Required Readings: the required readings listed below are primary readings that must be read (and preferably in the suggested order). The sources of particular essays are listed in brackets after each entry. If you do not own a copy of the required texts, you may wish to photocopy the relevant selections. At the very least, however, read them carefully and ahead of time. Wherever possible, students are encouraged to make use of the other sources found in the library (some of which are on reserve) listed at the end of this document. Any required readings not found in one of the sources listed there may be found in the E23F folder.

Recommended Readings: the recommended readings listed below are secondary readings and are designed to provide necessary background and clarification on the material covered each week. It is entirely up to you whether you choose to read them or not. You may find them especially useful, however, when it comes to assimilating the material covered in the lectures, writing term papers and/or preparing for the exam.

Praxis: the readings listed under this heading are practical illustrations of theories applied to literary and other forms of text. It is entirely up to you whether you choose to read them or not but you would be well advised to do so as there is no better way to assimilate a theory than to view it applied.

Lectures: the two lectures each week are devoted to carefully explicating, most often by means of detailled lecture handouts, the often difficult cultural and critical theories and reading methodologies advanced in the required readings. Perhaps the best way to grasp difficult readings is to make a detailled précis thereof for oneself. Another good way to prepare for the lectures each week is to try to grasp the crucial points made in the required readings by attempting the relevant tutorial questions ahead of time. As you get more experience drawing the key points from the assigned readings for yourself and in an effort to avoid merely spoon-feeding you with the requisite information by means of lecture handouts, I may use the lecture hours to explore the tutorial questions by calling upon individuals to answer specific questions. In this case, careful preparation ahead of time will be indispensable and the result will be active rather than merely passive forms of learning.

Tutorials: the one tutorial hour each week is designed to allow you to assimilate the material covered in the lectures of the previous week. Tutorials offer you the opportunity to engage actively with the material delivered in the lectures. Sometimes they will take the form of answering the tutorial questions listed for that week. At other times, they will be devoted to applying to a particular literary work a specific reading methodology discussed in the lectures. When the lectures are used to discuss the tutorial questions (see above), the tutorials may be devoted to ironing out any difficulties that may arise as well as discussing and applying reading methodologies arising from the theories in question.

Final Exam: given that the term paper (to be found near the end of this course outline) tests material covered in modules one (Representation) and two (The Reader), you should note that the final exam will test only the material covered in modules three (The Author) and four (Literary Form). For a sense of the type of questions which you may be asked in the exam, please consult the copies of past exam papers to be found in the library (especially those dating from 2000-2001). You should also note that whatever may be the final mark, departmental regulations decree that students must pass at least one question in the final exam in order to pass any course in Literatures in English.