Course Description:​ This course offers an introduction for beginning English majors to the practices and concepts in the study of literature. We will think carefully about literature as a form of representation – about what literary texts mean as well as how they mean. The course will help students to develop a critical vocabulary and method for reading and writing about literature, as well as introduce them to the cultural contexts and backgrounds of various literary traditions. Our readings will explore a variety of genres and styles – short fiction, the novel, narrative and lyric poetry, and drama. Above all, this is a class in reading and (frequent) writing which will emphasize close reading techniques, interpretive approaches, the making of arguments, and the development of individual critical voices in order to prepare you to succeed in advanced English elective courses.

Course Theme: ​We will read texts from a variety of time periods to consider the history of ideas about nature in order to better understand our own historical moment in the wake of climate change. Readings and class discussions will focus on literary representations of the environment in literature with an emphasis on racialized and gendered depictions of nature, as well as on human and non-human characters who are associated with nature in various ways. We will consider in what ways “nature” is a conceptual construction designed to other the nonhuman and to valorize or demonize those associated with its perceived purity or “savagery.” We will examine this fundamental paradox of the idea of nature as both savior and enemy for humanity.

Learning Outcomes:

Students successfully completing this course will
1) acquire a basic understanding of tools and concepts in the study of literature;
2) sharpen critical and rhetorical skills through close textual analysis;
3) attain familiarity with a range of poetry, drama, and fiction from various periods in literary history; 4) communicate and defend claims orally and in writing; and
5) develop introductory skills in academic research and literary analysis.