Close Reading

Course goals

Students

• learn to work with theories and method of close reading and literary analysis, learning to read literary and theoretical texts with care and to apply important tools of literary theory and criticism to specific literary case studies; 
• learn to present the result of literary analysis orally and in writing; 
• gain knowledge of online catalogues and databases of sources, learn to work with search systems and digital databases and justify their choices in their research process and gain knowledge of digital reporting of research results.

Content

This course builds on the theories and methods presented in the Introduction to Literary Studies, delving further into the major modern theoretical and methodological approaches to close textual analysis, focusing specifically on questions of interpretation, textuality, authorship, and form. Together, we will explore the variety of ways writers and critics have sought to answer fundamental questions such as “what is a text?”, “what is an author?”, and “where does meaning reside?” The weekly lectures examine classic texts from influential schools of thought such as hermeneutics, new criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, structuralism and post-structuralism, poetics and narratology, and reader-response criticism. In the seminars, students practice close reading, applying the theoretical perspectives to a variety of poems and short stories from different periods and linguistic spheres.

Additional information

This course has priority rules and a waiting list. Your enrolment is guaranteed if you are:

• a student in the BA Literary Studies.
• enrolled in the minor Literary Studies.

In all other situations, you will be placed on a waiting list if you enrol in this course. For any remaining slots in the course, lots are drawn among the students on the waiting list.