ENGL 299 - What is Literature: Introduction to the Advanced Study of Literature

FC ARHU WINT

4 credits
This course will introduce students to fundamental issues, approaches, and methods in the study of literature. We will do a lot of reading and writing, but above all we will ask a lot of questions: What makes a text “literary,” and how does it matter to our reading experience? What questions should we ask about literary texts, and why? Who gets to say what a text “means,” and how many meanings does a text have? What are the relationships between texts and the social world? How do literary scholars read a poem, a play, a film, a novel, or a cereal box, and why? This course is open to all students, but particularly intended to prepare students for the English major and advanced work in literary study. Students who are interested in majoring in English are strongly encouraged to take this course by the end of their sophomore year and before they declare the English major.

Prerequisites: one course with the WINT attribute.