LIKOT02 Literary Theories and Methodologies

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 15 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. PhDr. Josef Dohnal, CSc. (lecturer)
prof. PhDr. Ivo Pospíšil, DrSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Ivo Pospíšil, DrSc.
Department of Slavonic Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: prof. PhDr. Ivo Pospíšil, DrSc.
Supplier department: Department of Slavonic Studies – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites (in Czech)
! NOWANY ( LIKOT01 Comparative Literature & Genre , SLOLT01 Theory of Slavonic Literatures )
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The subject covers the problems of theory of literature and methodology of literature as a follow-up to “Introduction to Literary Studies” including a detailed structure of literary criticism and its disciplines and subdisciplines with regards to Russian and Slavonic specific features, putting emphasis on theory of literary history, narratology, genre studies and comparative literature.
Students will have the use of two sets of supporting e-learning with the system of texts and tests that explain theoretical knowledge and make possible their particular application to the analysis and interpretation of literary theoretical and methodological texts.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, the student will be able to understand the development of the methods of literary criticism and the elementary categories of the theory of literature as well as the structure of literary criticism and its contemporary state with regard to the Russian and Slavonic specific features of the methodology and theory of literary criticism. He will be able to read with understanding the selected theoretical texts and comment upon them, to master the basic terminology and to complete his/her own work analyzing some aspects of the methodology and theory of literary criticism with regard to Slavonic literary studies.
Syllabus
  • 1. General problems. Literature and its social functions. Literary criticism, its structure, close and auxiliary disciplines. The methods of literary criticism, among others philological, impressionistic, biographical, sociological-positivist, psychological methods (A. Potebnya, W. Dilthey, S. Freud, C. G. Jung and other), immanent methods (Russian Formalist School, New Criticism, various forms of structuralism). Interwar Czechoslovakia as crossroads of the methodology of literary criticism. Russian Formalist School, structuralism, phenomenology, contrastive personalities of Roman Jakobson and René Wellek. Poststructuralist methods – hermeneutics, deconstructivism, cognitive criticism and others. Postmodern context. Russian and other Slavonic 19th-century literary criticism and scholarship. 20th-century Russian and other Slavonic literary criticism/scholarship: formalism, freudism, structuralism, poststructuralist methods and schools, medieval studies and their methodological transcendences. New trends in contemporary Russian literary criticism.
  • 2. Theory of literature. Theory of literature and poetics. Verse theory. Prose theory. Drama theory.
  • 3. Conceptions, disciplines, genres, and currents. Comparative literary studies. Outline of the development of comparative studies. Bi-literariness, poly-literariness and more extensive literary complexes. Contactology—typology. World literature. Various conceptions of comparative literary studies. General comparative literary studies. Area conception of comparative literary studies. Genre studies. Genre systematics. Theory of literary genres/kinds. Theory of the novel. Literary currents. Terms/notions, definitions, authors, texts. Contemporary state of literary criticism. Area approach and integration of philology and social sciences as an aspect of literary criticism. Narratology. Theory of Plot.
Literature
    required literature
  • Hrabák, J.: Poetika. Praha 1973, 1977.
  • Průvodce po světové literární teorii 20. století. Edited by Vladimír Macura - Alice Jedličková. Vydání první. Brno: Host, 2012, 839 stran. ISBN 9788072948482. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Základní okruhy filologické a literárněvědné metodologie a teorie (elementy, materiály, úvahy, pojetí, texty) (The Basic Spheres of Philological and Literary Methodology and Theory (Elements, Materials, Reflections, Conceptions, Texts)). Trnava: Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda v Trnave, Filozofická fakulta, 2010, 275 pp. ISBN 978-80-8105-191-3. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Areál - sociální vědy - filologie. In Areál - sociální vědy - filologie. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2002, p. 3-25, 22 pp. Areál - sociální vědy - filologie. info
  • PAVELKA, Jiří and Ivo POSPÍŠIL. Slovník epoch, směrů, skupin a manifestů. Brno: Georgetown, 1993, 290 s. ISBN 8090160409. info
    recommended literature
  • Valček, P.: Slovník literárnej teórie. Literárne informačné centrum, Bratislava 2006.
  • Žilka, Tibor: Vademecum poetiky. Nitra 2006.
  • Harpáň. M.: Teória literatúry. Bratislava 1994.
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Kdo je a kdo není komparatista, co je komparatistika a čím už nezvládá být (Who Is And Who Is Not a Comparatist, What Are Comparative Literary Studies And What It Does Not Cope With). Slavica Litteraria. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2015, vol. 18, No 1, p. 19-28. ISSN 1212-1509. Digitální knihovna FF MU info
  • FOŘT, Bohumil. Fikční světy české realistické prózy. Vydání první. Praha: Akropolis, 2014, 203 stran. ISBN 9788074700781. info
  • DOLEŽEL, Lubomír. Heterocosmica II : fikční světy postmoderní české prózy. Vyd. 1. V Praze: Karolinum, 2014, 190 s. ISBN 9788024626611. URL info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Literární genologie (Theory of Literary Genres). 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2014, 118 pp. ISBN 978-80-210-6894-0. Digitální knihovna FF MU info
  • DOLEŽEL, Lubomír. Narativní způsoby v české literatuře. Vydání druhé. Příbram: Pistorius & Olšanská, 2014, 142 stran. ISBN 9788087855133. URL info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Areál a filologická studia. 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2013, 154 s. ISBN 9788021064713. URL info
  • KUBÍČEK, Tomáš, Jiří HRABAL and Petr A. BÍLEK. Naratologie : strukturální analýza vyprávění. V Praze: Dauphin, 2013, 247 s. ISBN 9788072725922. info
  • PAVEL, Thomas G. Fikční světy. Translated by Hynek Zykmund. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 2012, 226 s. ISBN 9788020021205. info
  • FOŘT, Bohumil. Lingvistické zdroje naratologie Pražské školy (The Linguistic sources of the Prague School Narratology). In Kovář, Jaroslav. Příspěvky k mezinárodní teorii literatury. 1. vyd. Brno: Barrister & Principal, 2012, p. 49-60. ISBN 978-80-87474-63-1. info
  • FOŘT, Bohumil. Four studies of narrative. 1st pub. Prague: Institut of Czech Literature AS CR, 2010, 87 s. ISBN 9788085778786. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo. Teorie literárních dějin, literární komparatistika a identita národních literatur (problém východoslovanského areálu) (Theory of literary history, comparative literary studies and the identity of national literatures). In Ukrajinistika: minulost, přítomnost, budoucnost. Sborník vědeckých prací. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Filozofická fakulta, Ústav slavistiky, 2009, p. 463-474. ISBN 978-80-210-4964-2. info
  • MOCNÁ, Dagmar and Josef PETERKA. Encyklopedie literárních žánrů. 1. vyd. Litomyšl: Paseka, 2004, 699 s. ISBN 807185669X. info
  • ČERVENKA, Miroslav. Fikční světy lyriky. Vyd. 1. Praha: Paseka, 2003, 83 s. ISBN 8071855928. info
  • PAVERA, Libor and František VŠETIČKA. Lexikon literárních pojmů. 1. vyd. Olomouc: Nakladatelství Olomouc, 2002, 422 s. ISBN 80-7182-124-1. info
  • SVATOŇ, Vladimír. Z druhého břehu :(studie a eseje o ruské literatuře). Vyd. 1. Praha: Torst, 2002, 603 s. ISBN 80-7215-179-7. info
  • PETRŮ, Eduard. Úvod do studia literární vědy. 1. vyd. Olomouc: Rubico, 2000, 187 s. ISBN 80-85839-44-X. info
  • POSPÍŠIL, Ivo and Jiří GAZDA. Integrovaná žánrová typologie : (komparativní genologie) : projekt, metodologie, terminologie, struktura oboru, studie. 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 1999, 182 s. ISBN 8021021926. info
  • INGARDEN, Roman. Umělecké dílo literární. 1. vyd. Praha: Odeon, 1989, 419 s. info
  • ŽILKA, Tibor. Poetický slovník. Bratislava: Tatran, 1984, 370 stran. info
  • KRAUSOVÁ, Nora. Príspevky k literárnej teórii : poetika románu. V Bratislave: Slovenský spisovateľ, 1967. info
  • HRABÁK, Josef. Úvod do teorie verše. Vyd. 1. V Praze: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1956, 183 s. URL info
    not specified
  • Komparatistika a genológia : zborník venovany VII. medzinárodnému slavistickému kongresu vo Varšave. Edited by Pavol Petrus. 1. vyd. Bratislava: Slovenské pedagogické nakladateľstvo, 1973, 189 s. info
Teaching methods
Lectures, discussion with supporting e-learning and presentation of individual coursework and following discussion.
Assessment methods
To complete the coursework on theory of literature containing 18 000 characters including spaces and all formal necessities.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught: in blocks.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/LIKOT02