ENGL 301

Fall 2023 All Classes

All Classes

Introduction to Critical Theory

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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 2023
CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
50625	Lecture-Discussion	C	10:00AM -10:50AM	MWF	223 David Kinley Hall	Barnard, J	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/21/23-12/06/23 Section Info: FA23 ENGL 301 Intro to Critical Theory - John Barnard: This course will survey a wide range of theoretical writings in the humanities and social sciences that are relevant to the study of literature and culture. We will cover, among other things, Marx and various forms of Marxian criticism and analysis; feminist theory and intersectionality; gender, sexuality, and queer theory; critical race theory; postcolonial theory; and ecocriticism and environmental cultural studies. Taken altogether, these readings should provide not merely a series of “lenses” through which to interpret works of literature and other cultural artifacts, but a deeper understanding of the social, economic, and political structures and power relations that shape the world that literature describes and in which it is produced. Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Creative Writing or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).
54605	Lecture-Discussion	M	9:30AM -10:50AM	TR	44 English Building	Parker, R	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/21/23-12/06/23 Section Info: FA23 ENGL 301, Critical Approaches to Literature - Robert Dale Parker: How to Interpret Literature: An Introduction to Contemporary Critical Theory. This course is required for English majors and minors and best not delayed for long. Seniors in the course regret not taking it sooner. Literature students write, think, and speak literary criticism, and this course sets out to make that process more interesting and eventually more fun. Literary critics have repeatedly reinvented literary and cultural criticism in ways that change how we interpret what we read and how we understand our daily lives. We will study such critical movements as new criticism, structuralism and narratology, deconstruction and poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, feminism, queer studies, Marxism, new historicism, cultural studies, race studies (including critical race theory), postcolonial studies, disability studies, and environmental criticism. This course prepares students for future literature classes, and it helps us understand and question the world around us and the entire project of critical thinking and reading. Attendance will be crucial, because we learn these concepts both by reading and by working with the concepts together. If you like to stay silent in class, or if you do not expect to attend class regularly, then do not take this section. Class time will focus on discussion, not on lecture, so you will need to do the reading and join your classmates in discussion. Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Creative Writing or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).
50626	Lecture-Discussion	S	2:00PM -3:20PM	TR	108 English Building	Loughran, T	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/21/23-12/06/23 Section Info: FA23 ENGL 301 Intro to Critical Theory - Trish Loughran: 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, literature, and/or culture more broadly? Like any survey, we will cover a lot of big -ISMs along the way (like Marxism, structuralism, poststructuralism, feminism, 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: by reading the text itself closely. Restriction(s): Restricted to English or Creative Writing or Creative Writing major(s) or minor(s).