Welcome to our class blog for Intro to Literary Study, a course that is designed to challenge what you read, how you read, and the different ways you can read a single text. Ideally, by reading some very common and 'canonical' works, we can come to a better understanding of how a single book can exist for decades, centuries--or even longer--constantly finding new readers and interpretations.
In Culler’s book, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (which you’ll be reading soon!) he writes that “Literature is a paradoxical institution because to create literature is to write something according to existing formulas…but it is also to flout those conventions, to go beyond them” (40). In other words, literature has to follow everything that came before it, while also making us forget what came before by breaking the very rules it tries to follow. The best literature (and art) is thus a process of making and re-making, teaching us to forget and reminding us where we came from. Along the way, we’ll learn some key ideas of literary theory to help us ‘see’ the seemingly invisible connections that link each work to its author, its society, and its moment in history. Ideally, you’ll come away with new ways to read your favorite books, and a deeper appreciation for the so-called classics that you found boring in high school.
Make sure to buy the following books for the class...we'll start reading from Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction for Friday! If you have any questions, please e-mail me at jgrasso@ecok.edu.
NOTE: The posts below this one are from the last time I taught this class in 2016, so don't worry about them (or get scared by them). It's not the work you'll do for this class so you're not responsible for any of it.
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