Introductory Topics in Literature
Topic: Ways of Reading: Critical Methods for Literary Interpretation
Class Information
Instructor: Wallis, Wally
CRN: 23076
Time: TR 4:40-6:00
Location: Remote Instruction
GE Areas: Writing Experience
Description
Ways of Reading: Critical Methods for Literary Interpretation
This course aims to augment students' analytical toolkits by exposing them to methods for literary interpretation. Underscoring the protocols of textual analysis, the course emphasizes the questions we ask when marshaling these critical perspectives to enhance and broaden our interpretive experiences. Over the quarter, we will conduct a focused examination of three literary works--a poem, a short novel, and a play--and negotiate five approaches for reading literature: reader-response techniques, formal analysis (including genre studies), psychoanalytic criticism, historical and material analyses, and gender-, race-, and sexuality-based criticism. In addition to considering how these interpretive practices can lead us down multivalent, unforeseen, and sometimes conflicting paths, we will also entertain opportunities to merge techniques. Students will be tasked not only with identifying the five critical approaches and working through their respective questions, but also with developing ways to place these methods into conversation with one another. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our class will be conducted entirely online; we will meet synchronously at the regularly scheduled time through Zoom.
Grading
Annotations (via Perusall)
Short Exercises
Final Paper
Final Exam
Texts
The Turn of the Screw (ISBN: 9780486266848), Henry James
Company: A Musical Comedy (ISBN: 9781559361088), Sondheim and Furth