6 Credits| Prof. Nicole Huang
This foundation course introduces basic strategies to approach literature, film, and other cultural texts critically. Basic theories of literary criticism, film criticism, visual and material culture studies will be introduced. Students are encouraged to explore different approaches and reading strategies and learn how to apply critical tools to a diverse range of texts and mediums. Topics covered include the following: Basic and extended definitions of text, author, and reader; cinema, modernity, and the apparatus theory; the advent of urban fiction; gendered readings; race and ethnicity; how to analyze a popular culture icon; visuality and materiality; cities as photographed; ecocriticism and narratives of travel and migration. Writing assignments are designed to help students secure their knowledge of the vocabulary and tools of analysis necessary for more complex work in the field of comparative literary and cultural studies.
Note: Students who intend to major or minor in Comparative Literature are required to take CLIT1001 or CLIT1008 or CLIT1009 or CLIT1010.
Assessment: 100% coursework.