UNIVERSITY OF ZADAR

UNIVERSITAS STUDIORUM IADERTINA

Form 1.3.2. Syllabus

CULTURAL THEORY AND LITERATURE

PROFESSOR DR.SC MARIO VRBANČIĆ [email protected]
CONSULTATIONS: by appointment

As Jonathan Culler argues in literary studies these days there is a lot of talk about theory, not
just theory of literature, but theory in a much broader context, theory of culture. This course is
an introduction to literary and cultural theory. It captures what has happened in literary and
cultural theory since the 1960s. It pays particular attention to the questions such as: what
literature is, what is the relationship between literary and cultural theory, what is an author. It
covers the major theory paradigms such as structuralism, semiotics, psychoanalysis,
deconstruction, feminism, queer theory, postcolonial theory.

SEMINARS
Weekly assignment (20%).
• For seminars students will be divided in groups (or teams) of 2-4
• Each week one team will present its seminar.
• Each team must present their topic clearly.
• Each student in the team should present the part of the topic (give a speech, or a visual
presentation) (all presentations together 15-20 min), please work together as a team
• Every team should prepare discussion with all class students. (10 - 15 min). (we will discuss
how theory push us to see from new angles, to contextualize, to ask new questions and offer
new interpretation)

• Each team MUST WORK TOGETHER in order to prepare their seminar presentation (at the
end I will mark the team - 20% of the final grade)

ALL STUDENTS MUST come every week ready to discuss the readings (+ bring in at
least ONE written question for discussion – 10% of the final grade)
FINAL EXAM: 70% of the final grade

No. Date Title Literature

1. Introduction to the course

Hall, Stuart (ed) Representation:

Cultural Representations and
Signifying Practices. London:
SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012 (pp.
15- 26)

Student Presentation:
2. 16.3. Culture and Representation
YouTube An Introduction to Erich
Auerbach's Mimesis, by Professor
Andrew White
Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The
representation of reality in western
literature, Odysseus’s Scar (pp. 3-
24)
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UNIVERSITAS STUDIORUM IADERTINA
Form 1.3.2. Syllabus

Presenters:
1. Maja Mikeloti
2. Lea Jerončić
3. Marija Rezo

Hall, Stuart (ed) Representation:

Cultural Representations and
Signifying Practices. London:
SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012
(pp.26- 35)

Student Presentation:
Thomas Schatz. Hollywood
3. 23.3. Structuralism
Genres. Formulas, filmmaking and
studio system. Random House New
York. 1981. (pp. 14-41)
Presenters:
1. Lana Begonja
2. Livia Drašković
3. Lea Jerončić

Hall, Stuart (ed) Representation:

Cultural Representations and
Signifying Practices. London:
SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012 (pp.
36-41)

Student Presentation:
Barthes, Roland Mythologies. The
Noonday Press. New York

The world of wrestling (pp. 15-26)

Linguistics to Semiotics: Myth
4. 30.3. Romans in Film (pp. 26- 29)
Today
The face of Greta Garbo (pp.55-57)

Striptease (pp. 84-88)

Presenters:
1. Anita Borovina Vranješ
2. Stela Dužević
3. Una Menićanin
4. Filip Matijević

5. 6.4. HOLIDAY
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UNIVERSITAS STUDIORUM IADERTINA
Form 1.3.2. Syllabus

Hall, Stuart (ed) Representation:

Cultural Representations and
Signifying Practices. London:
SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012
(pp.41-51)

Student Presentation:
Greenblatt, Stephen. The Rise and
Discourse, power and the subject
6. 13.4. Fall of Adam and Eve. London.
Bodley Head. 2018 (pp. Bare
Bones. 20-63; Eve's Murder; 279-
319; Darwin's Doubts 603-637)
Presenters:
1. Lorena Brtan
2. Katarina Filipović
3. Jana Kanjka

Dentith, Simon. Bakhtinian

thought. An introductory reader.
Routledge. New York. 2006. (pp.
65-87)
Student Presentation:
From ‘The grotesque image of the
7. 20.4. Carnival and the Grotesque body
body and its sources’ (225-252)
Presenters:
1. Ervina Flegar
2. Marta Korade
3. Marija Rezo

Dentith, Simon. Bakhtinian

thought. An introductory reader.
Routledge. New York. 2006. (pp.
41-64)
Student Presentation:
M.M.Bakhtin ‘The hero’s
monologic discourse and
Discourse and the dialogic
8. 27.4. narrational discourse in
imagination
Dostoevsky’s short novels’ (pp.
155-193)

Presenters:
1. Iva Burić
2. Sara Golem
3. Iva Kostelac

9. 4.5. Psychoanalysis and literature Barry Peter. Beginning Theory: An

Introduction to Literally and
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UNIVERSITAS STUDIORUM IADERTINA
Form 1.3.2. Syllabus

Cultural Theory. Chapter 5.

Psychoanalytic criticism. 2010.

Presentation: Brooks, Peter.

Reading for the Plot. Harvard
University Press. 1992. (pp. 1-13;
37-44, 54-61) Chapter 10: Fictions
of the Wolf Man (264-286)
Presenters:
1. Sunčana Cambj
2. Elizabeta Grubišić
3. Iva Kramer

Žižek, Slavoj. The Pervert’s Guide

to Ideology (FILM, choose parts
from you tube which you want to
present and discuss)

Presentation: Introducing Slavoj

Žižek. Icon Books. London. 2012.
10. 11.5. Žižek and ideology
(comic book)
Presenters:
1. Luka Čagalj
2. Franka Gulan
3. Ira Kuserbanj
4. Wiktoria Sliwowska

11. 18.5 Feminist Literary Theories Sturken, M & Cartwright, Lisa.

Practices of Looking An
Introduction to Visual Culture.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2018. (pp. 120-132)

Selden Peter,R & Widdowson, &

Brooker,P. A Reader’s Guide to
Contemporary Literary Theory.
Logman. London. 2005. (pp. 115-
144)

Student Presentation:
Kate Millett: Sexual politics. The
University of Illinois Press.
Chapter: Instances of sexual
politics (pp. 3-23); Theory of
sexual politics: Adam and Eve (pp.
52-54) 'the narrative how humanity
invented sexual intercourse. pp.25-
59)
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UNIVERSITAS STUDIORUM IADERTINA
Form 1.3.2. Syllabus

Presenters:
1. Leonarda Ćelić
2. Ana Jelić
3. Lucija Ljubić

Feminist and queer studies: Judith

Butler’s conceptualization of gender (on
Internet)
Student Presentation.
Jagger. G. Judith Butler. Sexual
politics, social change, and the
power of performative. Routledge.
12. 25.5. Queer Theory.
London. 2008.
Presenters:
1. Mija Marija Ćurin
2. Marija Jelić
3. Andi Marković
4. Alperen Deligoz

Introduction to Visual Culture.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2018. (pp 113-120)
Aschroft, Bill. Edward Said. New
York: Routledge. (Selected parts)

Student Presentation:
Postcolonial theories
13. 1.6. Said, Edward. Culture and
Imperialism. New York. Random
House. 1994. (pp. 3-43)
Presenters:
1. Margita Delač
2. Sara Jerković
3. Kardelen

Closing Lecture
14. 8.6 Preparation for exam

FACEBOOK PAGE (you should join to this group):

CULTURAL THEORY AND LITERATURE (group 1)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/872355477157553
UNIVERSITY OF ZADAR
UNIVERSITAS STUDIORUM IADERTINA
Form 1.3.2. Syllabus