English H195A

Other Readings and Media

Barry, P.: Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory; Morrison, T.: Beloved; course reader of selected essays on theory

Description

"The fall semester of this section of the honors course will be devoted to an examination of the theoretical paradigms that cast strong influences on contemporary critical practices. While the course will try to do justice to diverse theoretical approaches, my own theoretical preoccupation lies in the areas dealing with Minority Discourse, Postcoloniality, socio-political and psychoanalytic approaches to literature and culture. We will use Toni Morrison's Beloved as the single literary text on which to test various theoretical paradigms. During the fall semester each student will be expected to present a series of oral reports on the theoretical readings and to write three short papers designed to define his/her thesis topic with progressive clarity and precision. The fall semester will also include an introduction to research methods. In this course students are entirely free to devise and complete a thesis of their own choosing . The spring semester will be devoted to the research and writing of the ""honors thesis""; class meetings will turn into tutorials focused on writing the theses rather than on external readings and discussion.



Students who satisfactorily complete H195A-B (the Honors Course) may choose to waive the 150 (Senior Seminar) requirement. "