The class will enable the student to recognize and utilize critical methods, and to participate intelligently in the current conversation regarding literature, literary theory, and the place of either in society. The principal written requirements of the course are one term paper, a mid-term and a final exam. Numerous short summaries and commentaries will also be written during the course. Should the term paper be late, it will be graded down according to the time elapsed.
All page numbers refer to The Critical Tradition .
The Growth of English Studies. On the Sublime . Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism . William Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads . Friedrich Nietzsche, from The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music .