Ithaca College

This fall, the English Department will be offering two sections of ENGL 20100: The Agony and Ecstasy of Theory:  Approaches to Literary Study, taught by Professor Chris Holmes.  The course still has seats available in it, and we want to bring it to the attention of students outside of the English major, as we believe its subject is likely to have broad appeal. It will also be a requirement in our new Comparative Literature minor.

Why does literature matter? What about our intellect and our imagination makes literature a form for our thinking? What can literature contribute to the debates about a life worth living? Literary theory claims to answer these very questions, and to engage the novels, poems, plays, and stories that compel us as readers and thinkers. Theory frightens, challenges, and inspires us while locating our ideas within a history of thinking and feeling about literature. Rambling across the genres of contemporary literature, this class will confront the utility, mystery, and ecstasy of literary theory. Beginning with the question of why literature matters, the class will investigate the historical schools of thought that have sprung up to debate the purpose of writing with form. Using the novels Waiting for the Barbarians (Coetzee) and Beloved (Morrison), the short stories of Jorge Borges, the play Copenhagen (Frayn), and the groundbreaking graphic novel The Watchmen (Moore), as our artistic sounding boards, we will take theory head-on—to use it, question it, and ultimately forge our theoretical models in the pursuit of new kinds of reading.

If you wish to register for this course, you will find it on Homer.  The course has as a prerequisite one course in English, but Professor Holmes is willing to waive that prerequisite for interested students with appropriate backgrounds.  Email him with questions or permission for overrides at cholmes@ithaca.edu.