This course serves as an introduction to the discipline of English. We will examine how we read and interpret cultural and literary texts, the politics of interpretation and representation, and what it means to place texts in their cultural, social, political, and historical context. Through this you will learn a variety of methods and theoretical approaches for studying a wide range of texts, including plays, novels, poetry, and film. We will read and discuss historical and theoretical essays on interpretation and the role of literature, examining theoretical frameworks and major areas of critical interest such as structuralism, post-structuralism, cultural studies, post-colonialism, race, cultural imperialism, gender, and sexuality. We will also spend time discussing how to write well in the discipline of English. Assignments include a take-home midterm, close readings, reading responses, a final essay, and in-class writings.
Required Texts (available at Revolution Books):
Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Sia Figiel, Where We Once Belong
Films (to be screened in class):
Pariah, dir. Dee Rees (2011)
A course pack including readings by: Plato, Aristotle, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, Ferdinand Saussure, Jacques Derrida, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Stuart Hall, Edward Said, Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, George Lamming, Aimé Cesaire, Albert Wendt, Hunani-Kay Trask, Wayne Kaumaulii Westlake, and Epeli Jau’ofa.