ENGL 200

Spring 2017 All Classes

All Classes

Intro to the Study of Lit

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Credit: 3 hours.

Introduction to the study of literature, with an emphasis on interpretive theories and methods as well as the formal distinctions between the major literary genres. For majors only.

Enrollment in all sections of ENGL 200 is open only to English and Teaching of English Majors.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for:

Humanities – Lit & Arts

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ENGL 200 class schedule data for spring 2017
CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
34519	Lecture-Discussion	B	9:30AM -10:45AM	MW	119 English Building	Murison, J	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/17/17-05/03/17 Degree Notes: Literature and the Arts course. Section Info: Why are we drawn to read and write about literature? What can literature reflect back to us about ourselves and our worlds? In short, what do we do as English majors, and why? In this gateway course to the major we will tackle just such questions, from foundational ones about how to write and talk about different genres to larger questions about the purposes and uses of literature today. To narrow our scope just a little, we will look at a variety of forms (drama, poetry, novels, and films) about love and romance, marriage and divorce, seduction and betrayal. By holding steady this theme, we can see how questions about romance (What is the relation of romance to the institution of marriage? How is sexual desire mediated by literature and culture? What are the elements of a compelling love story?) have long been central to imaginative writing as well as how the social and cultural urgencies of romance change over time and in different cultural settings. We will read a little in theories that will help us gain a purchase on this topic (in form/genre and in sexuality studies), but mainly we will read some dazzling literature from different eras, including (but not limited to) Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Alcott’s Little Women, Butler’s Kindred, Kushner’s Angels in America, Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, and poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Walt Whitman, and Natasha Trethewey.
39032	Lecture-Discussion	Q	12:30PM -1:45PM	TR	115 English Building	Spires, D	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/17/17-05/03/17 Degree Notes: Literature and the Arts course. Section Info: This course has been aptly called, “How to Be an English Major.” It’s your introduction to literary studies—what we do, how we do it, and why—and will help you develop the core reading habits and analytical skills needed for upper-level coursework. We’ll think about how literary texts produce meaning, how that meaning production affects the world literature inhabits, and how definitions and ideas about literature’s “work” have changed over time. We will read a variety of texts—prose fiction, poetry, drama, comics, film, and some that defy easy categorization—from a variety of literary traditions and eras. In each instance, we’ll use primary texts in conjunction with criticism to think about genre and form as historically contingent and fluid categories shaping and shaped by our experiences with literature. Our goal will be to cultivate a vocabulary, theoretical toolbox, and set of reading and writing practices for constructing persuasive, evidence-based arguments about and through literature. Assignments will include regular reading journals and three short essays. Writers up for consideration: Phillis Wheatley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Octavia Butler, Kate Chopin, Franz Kafka, August Wilson, James Baldwin, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and others.
50047	Lecture-Discussion	S	2:00PM -3:15PM	TR	119 English Building	Pollock, A	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/17/17-05/03/17 Degree Notes: Literature and the Arts course. Section Info: This course is designed to help students develop analytical skills that will be crucial to their success in 300- and 400-level courses in literary and cultural studies. We will spend several weeks on each of the three primary literary genres taught in the English Department—poetry, prose fiction, and drama—paying close attention both to the defining characteristics that distinguish the genres from one another and to the structural elements they have in common. Throughout the semester, we will build up a critical vocabulary for articulating persuasive, detailed, and evidence-based arguments about literary texts, and we will think about interpretation itself as a form of action with political, ethical, and social-historical implications. Requirements: regular attendance and participation, informal responses, three essays.