ENGL 200

Spring 2026 All Classes

All Classes

Introduction to the Study of Literature and Culture

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Credit: 3 hours.

Introduction to the study of literature in the twenty-first century. This course will expand your sense of what literature is and where it happens, including discussion of old and new literary forms (from novels, poems, and plays to comic books, video games, and films). Along the way, students will explore some of the literary and cultural opportunities (such as author readings, scholarly talks, and performances) available to them on a large public university campus, with two goals in mind: to develop your critical interpretive skills and to acquaint you with the discipline of literary studies as it is being practiced all around us today, both inside and outside the conventional classroom.

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 2026
CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
60132	Lecture-Discussion	E	11:00AM -11:50AM	MWF	1057 Lincoln Hall	Kempf, C	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/26-05/06/26 Degree Notes: Humanities - Lit & Arts course. Section Info: SP26 ENGL 200 - Intro to Literature and Culture - Chris Kempf - Known informally as “How To Be an English Major,” this course asks what it means to commit oneself to the study of literature in the twenty-first century, at a moment when much of American culture discounts and de-legitimizes those practices at the heart of literary study: curiosity; close, focused attention; the skill of interpreting written information; reverence for the past; care for and precision with language; and more. Reading literary texts—particularly, in this course, texts focused on issues of place, space, and geography—alongside literary criticism and works of literary theory, we examine how scholars make meaning out of literature and how those meanings bear on, intervene in, and challenge other forms of meaning in American culture. Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
39032	Lecture-Discussion	F	11:00AM -12:15PM	TR	115 English Building	Pollock, A	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/26-05/06/26 Degree Notes: Humanities - Lit & Arts course. Section Info: SP26 ENGL 200 - Introduction to Literature and Culture - Anthony Pollock - This course is designed to help students develop interpretive skills and a knowledge base that will prepare them for more advanced courses in literary and cultural studies. We will engage with powerful works of literature from a range of different genres; we will practice making persuasive, detailed and evidence-based arguments about the readings; and we will think about interpretation itself as a form of action with ethical and social consequences. Possible authors include Richard Blanco, Ray Bradbury, Julio Cortázar, Edwidge Danticat, James Joyce, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sandra Tsing Loh, Katherine Mansfield, Marianne Moore, Suzan-Lori Parks, Craig Santos Perez, Mary Shelley, Adrienne Su, Natasha Trethewey, Helena María Viramontes, and Alice Walker. Requirements: three essay projects, informal journals, and regular class participation. Restriction(s): Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
34521	Lecture-Discussion	L	9:30AM -10:45AM	TR	36 English Building	Loughran, T	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/20/26-05/06/26 Degree Notes: Humanities - Lit & Arts course. Section Info: SP26 ENGL 200 - Intro to Literature and Culture - Trish Loughran - This is a course about what it means to read literature and practice literary criticism in the twenty-first century. In this particular section of ENGL 200, we typically work with a wide range of different texts and genres, some of which come to us from the deep past and some of which are very contemporary (with forms usually including poems, photographs, films, perhaps a short videogame, essays, and at least one very weird novel). Along the way, we will focus on the question of how literary critics tend to approach these diverse objects of study—in short, on modes of reading and styles of interpretation, from “formalism” to “historicism” to “cultural theory.” By the end of the course, you should be able to describe these different approaches…and know a bit about how to practice them.