ENG (0122) 206 - Constructing Canons

Credits: 3.00

Students will critically examine how Western literary value is constructed and disseminated. By exploring topics like universality, disciplinarity, and the role identity and difference play in how we read, students will investigate canonical practices and consider how new and active canon construction can create more equitable and diverse literary cultures.

Course Learning Goals: Students will:

Examine the foundational texts in the study of canon formation.
Apply the fundamental concepts of canonicity and methods of canon critique to literary works, literary subdisciplines, literary institutions, and literature courses and syllabi.
Examine the role of literary, legal, ethical, cultural, and political discourses in shaping and reshaping literary cultures in English across the globe.
Analyze how race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, belief, and other forms of social differentiation influence the contemporary institution of English literature and literary cultures in English.
Produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support conclusions and implement the key elements and terms of literary and polemical analysis, such as tone, point of view, summarizing, and paraphrasing arguments.