Title: LITERARY STUDY: RESEARCH AND CRITICISM

PRQ:

This course introduces English majors and minors to critical methodologies of literary analysis, research, and citation of research.  You will explore poetry, drama, and fiction from various countries and periods as you develop your skills of close textual analysis.  You will consider concepts ranging from meter to metaphor as you expand your vocabulary of literary analysis.  You also will consider various critical approaches to texts and various tools to utilize in your analyses, such as electronic databases and academic journals.  As we explore a wide range of texts and authors, you will fine-tune your critical thinking and your ability to develop a persuasive argument about a text, thereby preparing you for presentations and writing assignments in upper-level courses. 

Two critical essays, occasional in-class and homework assignments, quizzes, a final exam, and class participation.

Works will include Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” Langston Hughes’s “Harlem,” John Donne’s “The Flea,” and Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” among others.