Timothy L Pagaard: Introduction to literature, English 122
Using course pages
English 098
English fundamentals
English 120
College compositiion
and reading
English 122
Introduction to literature
English 124
Advanced composition
English 135-138
Newspaper production
English 221 & 222
British literature I & II
English 231 & 232
American literature I & II
Class policies
"Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash."
--Leonard Cohen
Fall 2009
Course overview
 |
In English 122 you'll experience and analyze a wide variety of literature. Why study literature? Matthew Arnold said that literature is "the best that has been thought and said" by humans. Studying it is inherently valuable. Because the writing we'll read is the very best thinking our species has produced, we'll grow by experiencing it and by working to understand it.
But if studying literature is valuable in itself (and for some of us downright fun), it's also practical. Learning to search texts deeply in order to uncover their meaning--that is, to analyze them--cultivates the intellectual skills that are most prized by... yes... employers. For example, did you know that law schools prefer literature students even to pre-law students? Literary study will prepare you better than any other discipline will for the kind of thinking that will be required of you in professional life. So don't feel that you are being impractical in taking a course focussing on imaginative rather than factual reading. Or that the college is being frivolous or dustily "academic" in requiring you to do so. What you'll gain here is highly marketable stuff!
It's my hope that this course will open your eyes to literature in an entirely new way. I want you to leave knowing a whole lot more about humans, things that only literature can teach. I hope, too, that you'll leave able to appreciate just how well humans over the centuries have been able to talk about the experiences we share.
go to Top | Overview | Materials
Syllabus
Syllabus
Schedule
Submission of assignments
go to Top | Overview | Syllabus
Materials
What is literature?
Literary analyses go to sample student essays
Poetry analysis and presentation
Anatomy of an essay about literature
Specialized critical approaches to literature
MLA format
Literary analysis evaluation slips
Unveiling
Copyright Pat Oliphant 2006. All rights reserved.
