Ways of Reading: Literature About Literature
ENGL 201T
Fall 2026
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01
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"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, and only one of the ENGL201 series may be taken for credit. "Ways of Reading" courses develop strategies for careful and close reading, and techniques for the analysis of literary forms such as poetry, drama, and prose narratives like novels and short stories. They familiarize students with some of the protocols of the literary-critical essay, examine the idea of literature as a social institution, and explore ways of connecting textual details and the world beyond the text. The ways of reading learned in the course are powerful tools for critically assessing discourses that expand far beyond the realm of literature. So while students will become adept literary critics, they also will learn quickly that to be a literary critic is to read critically and carefully all the time: in poems, novels, and plays; but also in political speech, in popular culture, and in the discourses that shape everyday life. This "Ways of Reading" course will ask: What is literature? We will read literature written by authors in their most playfully self-aware, self-interrogating moods: William Shakespeare raising questions about the nature and limits of imagination, Jane Austen dramatizing the perils of novel reading, and Tyehimba Jess celebrating the history of Black expression. Throughout, we will reckon with literary texts on their own terms but also with the ways they have been read at different moments in history. What is literature and what was it? How do we read it? What methods and theories have been ascendant at different moments? And *why* do we read it? What are its pleasures, problems, and possibilities? How did we end up with an English Department organized like this anyway? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
William Shakespeare, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
Jane Austen, NORTHANGER ABBEY
Tyehimba Jess, OLIO
Course pack with poems, short stories, and essays, as well as a rich range of theoretical and critical arguments.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Five essay assignments and a close reading presentation |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Gateway course for English major. Priority enrollment will be given to prospective English majors during Drop/Add. |
| Instructor(s): Smith,Courtney Weiss Times: ..T.R.. 10:20AM-11:40AM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 0 | JR major: 0 | | |
| Seats Available: 15 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | 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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