Every act of reading implies a theory of what literature is and of how reading works. This course explores the major movements of modern literary theory — formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, postcolonialism, queer theory, and more. We’ll approach these not as doctrines to absorb but as potential frameworks for thinking about literature. In a collaborative workshop setting, we will test each of those frameworks against a recurring set of literary texts. The goal is to understand not only that different theoretical lenses open up different aspects of the same text, but also that no act of reading is truly neutral. Being aware of one’s theoretical approach — and of the assumptions, habits, and expectations it brings in tow — is perhaps the closest one can come to being free from theory at all.