L202 13781 LITERARY INTERPRETATION
Maurice Manning

2:30p-3:45p TR (25 students) 3 cr., A&H, IW.

Let’s think of this course as having the subtitle “Under 21,” because we’ll be looking at a range of literature featuring young protagonists. Literature teaches us how to think and how to feel, regarding our own lives as well as the larger human experience. The focus of this course is to introduce students to a variety of literary genres (drama, poetry, and fiction), and to develop the basic skills of literary analysis and appreciation. We will learn to read with care and precision. We will thoroughly discuss our reading in order to understand the complexities of a writer’s subject matter and the craft with which it is presented. Finally, because this is a “writing intensive” section, you will write several papers in which you advance your own ideas and analysis of the readings. We’ll read: Hamlet, William Blake’s Songs of Innocence, a packet of poetry by 20th century American poets, a couple of short stories by Flannery O’Connor, James Still’s River of Earth, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, among others.