Ways of Reading: Unreliability
ENGL 201B
Spring 2025
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01
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| Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
Ways of Reading courses introduce students to the characteristics thought of as literary and the methods for studying them. This is a gateway course into the English major. Only one of the ENGL201 series may be taken for credit. In this "Ways of Reading" course we will examine how notions of unreliability and indeterminacy shape literary writing and interpretation alike. We see this most obviously in the figure of the unreliable narrator in fiction, but we also grapple with the (un)reliability of poetic speakers in lyric poems. In fact, unreliability might as well be another way of naming and representing subjectivity. Learning to recognize and parse signs of subjective and/or unreliable accounts is a keystone of literary analysis because it helps us make sense of--and take pleasure in--how the story is told in addition to the content of story. Conversely, some literary texts turn the mirror on us (the readers); that is, they prompt us to reevaluate how our own assumptions, biases, and blind spots figure in our interpretations of texts and dynamics. In this course, students will read and write about a wide range of literary genres including novellas, short stories, lyric poems, and plays that thematize unreliability, confusion, and misprision. In so doing, they will learn to develop their own interpretations of literary texts and craft compelling and nuanced arguments. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (CSCT)(ENGL) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Less than 50% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Nella Larsen, PASSING
Tony Morrison, RECITATIF
Herman Melville, BENITO CERENO
William Shakespeare, HAMLET
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Examinations and Assignments:
6 short papers |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Gateway course for English major. Priority enrollment will be given to prospective English majors during Drop/Add.
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| Instructor(s): Bilbija,Marina Times: ..T.R.. 02:50PM-04:10PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: X | JR major: X | | |
| Seats Available: 15 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 13 | FR: 1 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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