Introduction to Cultural and Literary Studies

Abstract:

This course introduces the history and practice of English as a scholarly discipline. After outlining basic approaches to the text, the course embarks upon a genre-study, devoting each of the four remaining units to a different genre of writing: poetry, the novel, drama, and rhetoric and the critical essay. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: demonstrate mastery and/or awareness of the major skills, techniques, and approaches necessary for college-level literary and cultural studies; explain and employ in close readings of texts (i.e., poems, novels, plays, etc.) a variety of approaches to textual and discourse analysis; define and identify a number of theoretical approaches to literary and cultural studies (such as Marxist, feminist, and New Historicist approaches); employ poetic scansion and analysis techniques in the analysis of poetry; explain basic concepts in narrativity and be able to identify various forms of the novel; define a number of dramatic techniques and forms of theater and drama; recognize, compare, and contrast a variety of rhetorical forms and terms as well as concepts involving the essay form. (English Literature 101)

Subject:

Humanities

Grade Level:

Post-secondary

Collection:

Saylor Foundation