ENGL 301

Fall 2021 Part of Term 1

Part of Term 1
Aug 23-Dec 8

Introduction to Critical Theory

SHOW FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE

Credit: 3 hours.

Introduction to the critical frameworks and methods that have had the greatest impact on the field of literary studies. Students will read, discuss, and write about numerous theoretical approaches, including (but not limited to) critical race studies, ecocriticism, feminism, Marxism, postcolonialism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and structuralism. No previous background with theory is required.

Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement; one year of college literature or consent of instructor. For majors only.

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ENGL 301 class schedule data for fall 2021
CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
50625	Lecture-Discussion	C	10:00AM -10:50AM	MWF	Gregory Hall	Parker, R	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/23/21-12/08/21 Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).
50626	Lecture-Discussion	M	9:30AM -10:50AM	TR	Speech & Hearing Science Bldg	Basu, A	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/23/21-12/08/21 Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).
54838	Online	P	11:00AM -11:50AM	MWF	n.a.	Prendergast, C	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/23/21-12/08/21 Section Info: ENGL 301 - This course will introduce you to all the lenses you can put on to use to read texts in different ways. We call these lenses critical theory. We will take a very historical approach to each lens, examining why it developed and the debates surrounding it. On the menu: critical race theory, postcolonialism, queer theory, feminism, disability studies, dialogism, formalism, and quantitative. We’ll practice these readings on all forms of texts, not just literature, so students can see they work everywhere. I want students to know that I read Foucault for Dummies in graduate school when I didn’t understand the reading. We will do WHATEVER IT TAKES to learn this stuff, which is actually super fun once it clicks. Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).
54605	Lecture-Discussion	Q	2:00PM -3:20PM	TR	Speech & Hearing Science Bldg	Loughran, T	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/23/21-12/08/21 Section Info: ENGLISH 301: Intro to Critical Theory - In this course, we will survey major developments in the history of thinking hard from the eighteenth century to today. Along the way, we will ask a series of interrelated questions about the rise of critical reason that this thing we call “theory” both performs and critiques. For example: was the Enlightenment (and its radically new emphasis on reason) emancipatory or repressive? How did such patterns of thinking emerge alongside material developments like the rise of capitalism, colonialism, and decolonization? Are aesthetics essentially a-political or does art participate (for good or bad) in the world of politics and power? Can historical consciousness serve as a corrective to the gross inequities of the world we have inherited from the past, or is History (with a capital H) a Trojan horse left behind amongst the wreckage of the Enlightenment? And what does any of this have to do with language and with the reading “texts” like poems and films? Because this is a survey, we will cover a lot of Big Schools of Thought along the way (including Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, poststructuralism, feminism, queer theory, and postcolonialism). But rest assured (newcomers), we will do our best to work through these unwieldy abstractions in a way that: a) makes sense, b) challenges you, and c) does not put any of us to sleep (or drive us crazy). This is, in short, an introduction to the history of such ideas, and any lively, alert, thinking reader should be able to keep up. A large part of this class is about what theory says. But an even bigger part is simply about learning how to read theory. And we will do that by doing what we do in every English class: close reading the text itself. Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).