ENGL 399 - Intro to Contemporary Literary Theory

3 Hour(s)

How is literature related to the world around us? What do literary critics do? How do literary texts mean? Is there a difference between feminine and masculine imagination? How do gender, race, ethnicity and class play out in textual interpretation? An exploration of seminal texts by critics representing different literary theories ranging from structuralism, deconstruction, semiotics, cultural materialism to feminism, gender and postcolonial criticism. Major concepts shaping the study of literature since early 20th-century, examined when applied to interpretation of texts by Poe, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Faulkner, Dickinson, O’Connor, Morrison and Kingston. Conducted in a seminar discussion format, the class will engage in-depth critical reading, thinking and writing.

General Education Requirements: Writing Intensive