09:30A-10:45A TR (20) 3 cr.
COAS INTENSIVE WRITING SECTION. OPEN TO HONORS STUDENTS ONLY. OBTAIN AUTHORIZATION FROM HONORS DIVISION, 324 N. JORDAN AVENUE.
As the title suggests, the primary aim of this course is to develop students’ skills in literary interpretation. The course will be organized by genre, beginning with poetry, and by the end of each unit I hope you will feel more confident in your ability to ask significant questions of poems, plays, or stories; to recognize specific forms, modes, and techniques of literary expression; and to appreciate the distinctness of literary effects and strategies—including effects and strategies of reading itself. Texts will be drawn from several periods of literature in English, weighted somewhat toward American literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This is a discussion class in which each person’s regular attendance and thoughtful participation are essential. Students will be asked to write papers of varying lengths, formal and informal, over the course of the semester, and to give one oral presentation as part of a group project on a particular text.