English: Literary Theory

Survey of literary and cultural theory introducing a variety of major approaches to the interpretation of literature. Required for all English majors and minors. Pre/Co-requisite: ENGL 1500.

Junior and senior ENGL, SEE majors and ENGL minors only until Thursday, November 14; then ENGL SEE majors and ENGL minors only during the first week of registration PACE students with permission and override

What do we mean when we say that a literary work is “about” something? How do we arrive at our assessments of and conclusions about the texts we encounter? Literary critics draw on a range of theoretical perspectives and methodologies when reading texts, and part of the work of literary scholarship is the construction, revision, and refinement of critical approaches. This course will explore the practice of literary criticism by introducing you to a set of important approaches and terms. Our goal in this course will not only be to gain familiarity with key movements in literary criticism but also to give more serious thought to questions about what it means to read a text and how it is that we frame our readings. We will read a variety of secondary materials, surveying some of the major schools of twentieth-century literary critical thought, but our primary texts will all be versions of King Lear. We will not only use the primary materials as case studies, but we will also interrogate the theoretical perspectives and approaches that shape these tellings and retellings of Shakespeare’s play.

Reading preparation and in-class participation, short writing assignments, longer writing assignments, final project design and execution

Attendance and Participation, 15%; Soundtrack, 5%; Annotated Article, 10%; Choose One Paper 15%; “Find Two” Paper, 25%; DIY Final Project, 30%