An introduction to Literary Theory in the 20th and 21st centuries including New Criticism, Psychoanalysis, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Feminism, Marxist, New Historicism and Postcolonial Theory. We will read Charlotte Bronte’s canonical novel Jane Eyre and consider this versatile text through the lenses of the various theories we’ll study. This class is entirely online. Students should be prepared to read a rigorous textbook on their own and to take responsibility for their own learning. This class is best suited for students who are self-motivated, disciplined, and organized. Narrated power point videos will deliver brief summaries of the theories and weekly writing will apply them to the novel. Assignments include reading quizzes; Yellowdig; research essay; midterm; peer-editing; final exam.

This partly online, partly in-person class will cover literature written in England between 1798 and 1914. We will read poetry, drama and fiction by a diverse selection of writers, reading the texts with a historical approach. We will consider the Romantic movement in poetry; the Victorian age; and The Age of Decadence. Writers include Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Shaw, Wilde and Forster.

We will cover literature written in various languages and translated into English, including fiction, poetry and plays from a variety of cultures from the 17th century until the present. Authors include Moliere, Ibsen, Kafka, and contemporary writers such as Borges, Hasanat, and Nwakanma. Assignments include weekly online quizzes, short essays, Yellowdig discussions, final exam. Fulfills the Cultural and Historical foundations of the GEP curriculum and counts as a Diversity class for the modern language requirement.