Lectures on MW; discussion on F

Focusing on mystery novels and short stories, this course is designed to
deepen your understanding of literature. We will begin with classic mystery
writers like Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, then move onto some
of today’s most respected and popular practitioners of the genre, including
local writers Gillian Flynn and Laura McHugh as well as writers of color like Walter Mosley and Isabella Moldanado. Although this is a lecture
course where you will learn a great deal of literary and cultural history, we
will spend a good portion of our time talking with each other about these books

and the issues they raise. We will also spend a lot of time talking
about how to read literature and develop your skills in analyzing voice,
tone, structure, style, and other components of written texts. Key to this
course is the question of why mysteries are so popular: What pleasures do
they give us? Why are so many mystery writers women? What do mysteries
reveal about the enjoyments and challenges of reading itself? And what do
they tell us about the tensions and anxieties of different historical
moments, including our own?