L371 9963 CRITICAL PRACTICES
Joshua Kates

1:00p-2:15p TR (30 students) 3 cr., A&H. Open to English majors only.

PREREQUISITE: L202 with grade of C- or better. NOTE: The English Department will strictly enforce this prerequisite. Students who have not completed L202 with a grade of C- or better will have their registration administratively cancelled.

This course will focus on two sorts of questions: 1) how can literature be evaluated, some works judged to be better than others (if this is possible at all)?; and 2) how is it to be interpreted? Both of these practices, especially the former, have come into significant doubt of late. Starting with one or two of the more “classic” earlier treatments of these themes (David Hume’s “Of the Standard of Taste,” Plato’s “Ion”), we will focus on the twentieth century and explore how these questions have been answered (including arguments made that they cannot be), written predominantly in the English language.

Thorough and timely preparation of the assigned readings is a must, as class participation is expected. (The assignments will be short, but not easy.) There will be a midterm, a final exam, and a final paper, as well as some other brief written assignments. Because of the demands and difficulties of the course, the instructor of this particular section strongly recommends that all students first contact him before signing up for this section (jkates@indiana.edu).