Education

Literary Theory

by Paul H. Fry

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Latest episodes

12 – Freud and Fiction

February 19, 2009 · 51 min

In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry turns his attention to the relationship between authorship and the psyche. Freud’s meditations on the fundamental drives governing human behavior are read through the lens of literary critic Peter…
11 – Deconstruction II

February 17, 2009 · 53 min

In this second lecture on deconstruction, Professor Paul Fry concludes his consideration of Derrida and begins to explore the work of Paul de Man. Derrida’s affinity for and departure from Levi-Strauss’s distinction between nature and…
10 – Deconstruction I

February 12, 2009 · 52 min

In this lecture on Derrida and the origins of deconstruction, Professor Paul Fry explores two central Derridian works: “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences” and “Différance.” Derrida’s critique of structuralism and…
9 – Linguistics and Literature

February 10, 2009 · 50 min

In this lecture on the work of Roman Jakobson, Professor Paul Fry continues his discussion of synchrony and diachrony. The relationships among formalism, semiotics, and linguistics are explored. Claude Levi-Strauss’s structural…
8 – Semiotics and Structuralism

February 5, 2009 · 52 min

In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry explores the semiotics movement through the work of its founding theorist, Ferdinand de Saussure. The relationship of semiotics to hermeneutics, New Criticism, and Russian formalism is considered. Key…

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7 – Russian Formalism

February 3, 2009 · 49 min

In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry explores the works of major Russian formalists reviewed in an essay by Boris Eikhenbaum. He begins by distinguishing Russian formalism from hermeneutics. Eikhenbaum’s dependency on core ideas of Marxist…
6 – The New Criticism and Other Western Formalisms

January 29, 2009 · 50 min

In this second lecture on formalism, Professor Paul Fry begins by exploring the implications of Wimsatt and Beardsley’s theory of literary interpretation by applying them to Yeats’s “Lapis Lazuli.” He then maps the development of…
5 – The Idea of the Autonomous Artwork

January 27, 2009 · 46 min

In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry explores the origins of formalist literary criticism. Considerable attention is paid to the rise and subsequent popularity of the New Critics and their preferred site of literary exploration, the “poem.”…
4 – Configurative Reading

January 25, 2009 · 52 min

The discussion of Gadamer and Hirsch continues in this lecture, which further examines the relationship between reading and interpretation. Through a comparative analysis of these theorists, Professor Paul Fry explores the difference…
3 – Ways In and Out of the Hermeneutic Circle

January 22, 2009 · 47 min

In this lecture, Professor Paul Fry examines acts of reading and interpretation by way of the theory of hermeneutics. The origins of hermeneutic thought are traced through Western literature. The mechanics of hermeneutics, including the…
2 – Introduction (cont.)

January 15, 2009 · 47 min

In this second introductory lecture, Professor Paul Fry explores the interrelation of skepticism and determinism. The nature of discourse and the related issue of discursivity is read through two modern works, Anton Chekov’s Cherry Orchard…
1 – Introduction

January 13, 2009 · 39 min

In this first lecture, Professor Paul Fry explores the course’s title in three parts. The relationship between theory and philosophy, the question of what literature is and does, and what constitutes an introduction are interrogated. The…

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About the show

This is a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose? This course was recorded in Spring 2009.