Course Requirements
Below are listed the courses required for all students enrolled in the Program in Poetics & Theory; other classes may count towards the Certificate, at the discretion of the Program Director. For more information, please see the GSAS Bulletin. If you intend to count these classes toward the Certificate, make sure to register for them under their Poetics and Theory course numbers (POET-GA).
To view specific Poetics & Theory course offerings in a given semester, please visit our Graduate Courses page. Upcoming course offerings are also listed below.
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Proseminar in Poetics and the Origins of Literary Theory (POET-GA 2001)
Introduces students to the most important developments in the Western history of theorizing literature, its production, and its interpretation. Since many courses at NYU survey twentieth-century literary theory, this course offers some historical background: it brings into conjunction pre- and post-eighteenth-century traditions that rarely come into contact in the curriculum and are unlikely to be taught in one course. Issues include the definition of literary genres, differences in registers of style, the relation of pleasure to morality, of the practical to the aesthetic, and the transformation of these issues in post-Kantian theories of interpretation. This course is offered every fall. (4 points)
Poetics and Theory Seminar (POET-GA 2002)
One course every spring is identified as the Poetics and Theory Seminar, which is meant for students who are already at an advanced stage in their research. (4 points)