Welcome to the Introduction to Literature. The lecture will discuss four topic areas:
1.) English verse and prosody
2.) Rhetorics: figures of speech, figurative language, topics (in the rhetorical sense) and tropes. Rhetoric of fiction: formulas, stock characters, settings, typical plots, types of narrative voice. This section will take up the bulk of the lecture.
3.) Genres: beginning with classic genres in Greek and Roman antiquity, the life of those genres in English literature, then modern genres, particularly types of fiction (tale, sketch, novel, romance, short story).
4.) Interpretative techniques and theory of literature; this, in its English/American variety. American formalism, Marxist criticism, psychoanalytical criticism, deconstruction, feminist and identity-based theories of literature.
- Nauczyciel: Paweł Stachura