Course Syllabus

ENGL 2700 Introduction to Critical Theory

Course Description

This course offers an introduction to literary genres, literary criticism, critical interpretation, and research.

Justification

ENGL 2700 is an introduction to the study of literature from critical perspectives. The course will acquaint students with ways to think about and respond to literature from a variety of theoretical approaches. An important component of the course is the use of critical theory in writing about literature. This course provides a solid foundation in the study of literature and is a required English major course at every institution in the state. It also meets the Humanities GE outcomes.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to examine the relationships between human cultures and the natural world. Students engage with readings in terms of their framing of human cultures within specific literary and historical movements and will be able to interpret literature from varying literary perspectives.
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to read a variety of primary and theoretical texts, and will be able to research surrounding historical context through secondary sources.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to draw from history, psychology, geography, ecology, fine arts, linguistics, sociology, gender studies, and/or other relevant fields and areas in order to better contextualize, understand, and interpret works of literature.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to analytically, critically, and aesthetically evaluate rhetorical and stylistic choices authors make, and to apply theoretical principles to literary texts in order to understand and interpret literature.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to closely read various modes and genres of texts and use this reading as the basis for examining how these texts reflect the human condition. Students will be able to articulate the ways in which various authors have asked and answered relevant philosophical questions and join their voices to the larger academic conversation. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to closely read various modes and genres of texts and use this reading as the basis for examining how these texts reflect the human condition. Students will be able to articulate the ways in which various authors have asked and answered relevant philosophical questions and join their voices to the larger academic conversation.
2. EXPLAIN: Explain how humanities artifacts take on meaning within networks or systems (such as languages, cultures, values, and worldviews) that account for the complexities and uncertainties of the human condition. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to carefully examine texts in order to clearly articulate how these texts and other artifacts generate meaning through critical lenses, both on their own and dialectically in relation to other texts and literary approaches.
3. ANALYZE: Analyze humanities artifacts according to humanities methodologies, such as a close analysis, questioning, reasoning, interpretation, and critical thinking. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to utilize a variety of theoretical approaches to interpret and understand literature. Students will demonstrate their understanding of appropriate terms and concepts, and apply certain critical lenses and frameworks for critical analysis.
4. COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Compare and contrast diverse humanistic perspectives across cultures, communities, and/or time periods to explain how people make meaning of their lives. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to compare and contrast various cultural, theoretical, and intellectual traditions evident and/or exemplified in literature. Students will be able to reflect upon their own particular experience, positionality, and/or worldview in relation to literature.
5. APPLY: Using humanities perspectives, reflect on big questions related to aesthetics, values, meaning, and ethics and how those apply to their own lives.  Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to question, analyze, evaluate, and apply representative texts within the contexts of their individual and larger community experiences in order to engage in meaningful ways.

Course Content

With a heavy emphasis on close reading, this course will focus on several of the following theories: Formalism, Moral Criticism, Historical Criticism, Mythic and Archetypal Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Poststructuralism, Psychoanalytic Criticism, Reader Response Criticism, Rhetorical Criticism, Marxism, Feminism, New Historicism, Cultural Poetics, Multiculturalism, Queer Theory, and Pluralism. In using theory to interpret literature, the course will also focus on literary conventions, historical influences, textual and contextual analysis, interpretation, synthesis, critical thinking, and writing.