Text Box: Criticism Professor Roy Roussel MWF 9:00 - 9:50 Reg. No. 450935 Text Box: 301 Text Box: This course will address two topics: Why and how “criticizing” literature--and teaching others to criticize literature--became a profession supported by the state. The various (semi) scientific critical methodologies that developed within this professional context--from New Criticism to the present. This is both a course in the history of ideas and a course in practical criticism. By this I mean that I will ask you (you will be required) not only to learn the theoretical outlines of various critical approaches but also to apply them. You can choose the texts you want to read, however. I’ll supply the methodologies. Text Box: Criticism Professor David Schmid MWF 10:00 - 10:50 Reg. No. 096311 Text Box: 301 Text Box: My goal in this class is to help you become more accomplished critics of literature. We will reach this goal by focusing on several examples of crime fiction, a genre amenable to a wide range of critical approaches. Our reading list will be as follows: Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of Terror and Detection Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories Agatha Christie, The ABC Murders Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon Chester Himes, Cotton Comes to Harlem Barbara Wilson, Murder in the Collective We will also watch two great crime movies, Double Indemnity and Memento. In addition to these primary texts, we will also be reading some histories of the genre, theoretical essays about popular fiction in general and crime fiction in particular, and critical essays about the texts themselves. Simultaneously, we will have ongoing conversations about how to read texts, how to interpret and use literary theory, how to do original research, and what constitutes “good” literary criticism. Requirements: Class attendance, participation in discussion, a series of short written responses to the texts, and a 15-page research paper (due at the end of the semester, but worked on, in one form or another, throughout the semester).