What is Literature

Catalog description

ENGL 201H will familiarize students with theories and practices that are foundational for thinking about literature and for studying narrative fiction, poetry, and drama. The course will pose such questions as "what is narrative fiction?" "what is poetry?" and "what is drama?" It will introduce students to how conventions of literary genres operate, how they generate meaning, and how they require and manipulate readers responses. English 201H will also encourage students to explore whether or not literary discourse, as instanced in the genres that have been named, can be distinguished from other written or spoken discourses. While asking such questions, the course will acquaint students with technical vocabularies used by literary scholars and literary historians, and will provide students with sample scholarly rationales for hypothesizing the singularity of literary discourse, for constructing literary history, and for understanding literature's relation to life. It will teach students close analytic practices of reading, both those that have shaped the discipline of English studies and those emerging currently. As an honors course, ENGL 201H will introduce students to how conventions of literary genres operate, how they generate meaning, and how they require and manipulate readers' responses. English 201H will also encourage students to explore whether or not literary discourse, as instanced in particular genres, can be distinguished from other written or spoken discourses. While asking such questions, the course will acquaint students with technical vocabularies used by literary scholars and literary historians, and will provide students with sample scholarly rationales for hypothesizing the singularity of literary discourse, for constructing literary history, and for understanding literature's relation to life. It will teach students close analytic practices of reading, both those that have shaped the discipline of English studies and those emerging currently. Students can expect to take a highly engaged role in seminar-style discussion, including prepared presentations intended to provide a basis for that session's discussion, and which may both draw on, and emerge from, written work for the course.