ENGL 318
Literary Taste and After Taste Spring 2024
Division I

Class Details

Why are some literary works acclaimed or neglected when they first appear, and why do their critical assessments change–sometimes drastically–over time? What does it mean to think of a work as ‘before its time? What is the relation between critical trends and their affinity for particular literary styles? In thinking about these issues, we will consider a few crucial instances: modernist poets and New Critics’ celebration of Donne and Marvell over Milton in the early 20th century; 18th and 19th century writers’ fascination with medievalism and the Gothic; deconstructionist critics’ absorption with Romantic poetry; Marxist and neo-Marxist critics’ qualified embrace of realism and critique of postmodernism; and recent and contemporary debates about the relation of aesthetic forms to representations of race, ethnicity, and gender.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 20
Expected: 15-20
Class#: 3793
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: class participation and two essays, approximately 20 pages of writing
Prerequisites: a 100-level ENGL course, or a score of 5 on the AP English Literature exam, or a score of 6 or 7 on the Higher Level IB English exam
Enrollment Preferences: English and Comparative Literature majors
Distributions: Division I
Attributes: ENGL Criticism Courses
ENGL Literary Histories A
ENGL Literary Histories B
ENGL Literary Histories C

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