English R1B

Book List

Doolittle, Hilda: Trilogy; Jones, David: In Parenthesis; Riley, John: Selected Poems; Vonnegut, Kurt: Slaughterhouse Five; Woolf, Virginia: To the Lighthouse

Description

The work of the critic is often thought of as constructing a “yes” out of a “no”: of making meaning out of textual problems.  In order to better align the critic with the writer, this class will work with 20^th century texts that do the same.  How can the work of interpretation be done in the wake of the multiple instantiations of its failure—such as the World Wars—while convincingly avoiding nihilism?

Like these authors, we will work towards integrating your own original thinking with the critical discourse around your interests through a series of writing exercises and peer-review.