ENGL 195 - Introduction to Literature

3 Credit: (3 lecture, 0 lab, 0 clinical) 3 Contact Hours:

This course introduces students to text-based, reader-based and context-based interpretive strategies for the study of poetry, fiction, and drama. Through lecture, discussion, writing, and project work, students learn the characteristics the various genres of literature and the foundations of analysis.
Semesters Offered: fall semesters

Course Goals/ Objectives/ Competencies:
Goal 1: Analyze literary texts.

Demonstrate comprehension of literary texts.
Explain generic characteristics of poetry, fiction, and drama.
Apply the technical vocabulary of literary interpretation.
Use a variety of interpretive strategies for reading literature, including text-based (formalist, psychoanalytic), reader-based (reader response), and context-based interpretations (feminist, political-economic, cultural, historical).

Goal 2: Write academic literary analysis.

Analyze secondary literary texts.
Integrate insights from secondary texts with their own analysis of primary texts.
Use MLA documentation techniques.

Goal 3: Synthesize their understanding of primary and secondary literary texts through small and large group discussions.

Participate in class discussions by articulating their interpretations of primary texts and integrating insights from secondary sources.
Engage in collaborative analysis by comparing different critical perspectives and formulating responses that demonstrate a synthesis of ideas.

Goal 4: Explore connections between works of literature and the universal human experience.

Analyze themes such as identity, conflict, and morality in literary texts and relate them to contemporary and historical human experiences.
Construct written reflections and essays that draw parallels between literary works and personal, cultural, or global issues.