2:30p-3:45p MWF (25) 3 cr.
COAS INTENSIVE WRITING SECTION. OPEN TO MAJORS ONLY. MINORS OBTAIN
AUTHORIZATION FROM BH442.
This course will be devoted to close reading of texts. We will
begin (and end) with a
Harry Potter book--a best seller among college students, and even more
generally--to see
what we can say about the book at first, and then how we can interpret
it at the end of the
course. In between we will spend a good deal of time on poetry,
especially sonnets, because
they are relatively short and can thus be reread frequently. We will
read Hamlet and
perhaps Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to see how texts
play with each other,
and then The Great Gatsby before ending with a reconsideration
of Harry Potter and
the Chamber of Secrets. There will be five papers, and class will
be a combination of
group work and open discussion.