An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into the designated section(s).

Major Requirement | BFA

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into the designated section(s).

Major Requirement | BFA

The contradiction and excess, the blurring of the real and the imaginary of magical realism have been associated with particular geographical and cultural environments. We will examine this territorialization of magical realism by comparing the ways in which novels from the South -- South America, the Caribbean, Southern U.S. -- formulate the relation of land to individual, familial, and cultural identity. We will also examine how these "counterrealist" regions reflect on the supposed "rationalism" of the North. Works to be considered include novels and essays by: Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz, Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison, Ana Castillo, William Goyen.

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

The contradiction and excess, the blurring of the real and the imaginary of magical realism have been associated with particular geographical and cultural environments. We will examine this territorialization of magical realism by comparing the ways in which novels from the South -- South America, the Caribbean, Southern U.S. -- formulate the relation of land to individual, familial, and cultural identity. We will also examine how these "counterrealist" regions reflect on the supposed "rationalism" of the North. Works to be considered include novels and essays by: Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz, Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison, Ana Castillo, William Goyen.

Open to Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Graduate Students.

Elective

Chester Himes (1909-1984) was the author of seventeen novels – among them a number of important protest novels and a popular series of Harlem detective novels – several volumes of short stories, and a two-volume autobiography.  Spanning three decades, from the mid-1940s to the mid 1970s, the evolution of his work, and the enduring controversy it stirred, is representative of the debates and tensions relating to the role of the African-American writer and a developing African-American aesthetic during this period.  His work will therefore serve as a platform from which to examine the racial and literary politics of the era, including the politics of protest (and the bringing together of “art” and “propaganda”); the political resonances of the intersection of race and gender; and the politics of genre and style, including the distinction between “high art” versus “escapist pulp.”  Even though Himes’s work often defies easy categorization in terms of genre and politics, in this course we will focus on three distinct periods of Himes’s work (and in so doing will critique the very basis for these categorizations):  his protest novels, which often hinge on disastrous sexual relationships between black men and white women; his autobiographies; and his popular detective novels, two of which were made into films in the 70s that can be directly linked to the popularity of the blaxploitation films of that era.  For each period we will examine the relation Himes’s work to its broader political and literary contexts.  Students will be expected to conduct research on a particular aspect of Himes’s work and use it to develop a written project throughout the course of the semester.   
Elective