Writing About Literature: Real and Unreal

English majors only. Please contact advisor Mary Moore for consent.

How did reality become a thing that literary works were supposed to represent back to us? How did the not-real become not "serious"? And when did all of this change? This course looks at literary representations of reality and fantasy across time to introduce students to a variety of critical methods of literary analysis, including (but not limited to) those focused on genre, on literary history, and on feminist, postcolonial or Indigenous studies perspectives. Working backward from the later nineteenth century to the seventeenth century then forward to present, we will be reading fiction, non-fiction, and poetry from Jane Austen to Stephen Graham Jones, from fairy tales at one end to horror fiction at the other. Assignments include quizzes, a presentation, brief critical analysis papers, and a final paper project.