Students have repeatedly peered through the window to humanity that literature has opened for them.
Through it, they have gained valuable perspective on their world, past and present. Close-textual interaction with literature should have heightened appreciation for those texts, improved critical and analytical skills in reading and writing, enhanced speaking and listening abilities, and enriched students' academic and personal vocabulary. This course is organized chronologically, so students can see the influences on and evolution of the ideas and forms. Writing, research, and speaking assignments will continue to focus on formulating and expressing ideas and arguments about the readings. Particular emphasis is placed on gaining critical perspective on the relationship between content and form and on synthesizing ideas into clear and concise prose and presentations.
Goals for this course include:
Refining reading skills: summary, annotation, analysis, evaluation, and interpretation
Identifying explicit and implicit meaning in European literature and philosophy
Analyzing a text from multiple perspectives (historical, literary, psychological, religious, philosophical)
Comparing and contrasting the treatment of a similar theme or topic in two or more works
Analyzing literary elements: narrative/poetic/dramatic structure, point of view, theme, allegory, satire, character
