Interpreting Literature - English
This foundational class will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama. It will be a prerequisite for all second tier literature courses, as designated by each department.
Only one section of UCLR 100, UCLR 100C, UCLR 100E, or UCLR 100M may be taken for credit as an undergraduate.
Outcomes: Students will master key literary and critical terms, and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature.
This foundational class will require students to read closely and analyze carefully a representative variety of prose, poetry, and drama. It will be a prerequisite for all second tier literature courses, as designated by each department.
Only one section of UCLR 100, UCLR 100C, UCLR 100E, or UCLR 100M may be taken for credit as an undergraduate.
Outcomes: Students will master key literary and critical terms, and explore a variety of core critical approaches to the analysis and interpretation of literature.
Foundational Literary Knowledge
Form and Transformation: What Makes Us Human?
What makes us human? And what makes someone¿or something¿inhuman? In this course, students will investigate these questions through compelling works of literature. Drawing from a diverse body of writers from across time periods, this class will explore three genres of literature: poetry, drama, and fiction. We will read fantastical transformation stories about werewolves, vampires, and humans mysteriously turning into animals, as well as works about other types of bodily, emotional, and spiritual transformations we experience throughout our lifetimes.
This class will also explore the ways in which our understanding of humanity is complicated by race, gender, disability, and animality. We will ask questions such as: What does language and our identities as readers, writers, and speakers have to do with being human? How does transformation complicate what we understand to be the human form? Students will be assessed on a midterm and a final exam, weekly reading quizzes, and be responsible for presenting at an in-class symposium.
Class Details
Class Availability