L202 15848 LITERARY INTERPRETATION
Jerry Findley

11:15a-12:05p MWF (25 students) 3 cr., A&H, IW.

This course provides students with the skills and vocabulary to analyze, discuss, and write about literary texts, including basic formatting (presentation) of literary essays. We will use Sylvan Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing About Literature to distinguish between summarizing the text (plot summary) and using the text to support a thesis; the text also provides suggestions and model essays for the major literary genres covered in the course: poetry, prose fiction, and drama. Works include Shakespeare sonnets; plays by Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, and Shaw, Major Barbara; narrative fiction by Henry James, The Turn of the Screw, and Katherine Anne Porter, Collected Stories. Requirements: five short essays (4-to-5 pages) and many quizzes and in-class exercises to assure that students do all the reading and attend class.