Literary Texts

A "Literary Texts" course (often titled Introduction to Literature) is designed to transition students from high school reading to university-level literary analysis, which focuses on how and why a text is constructed

Course Objectives

The primary goal is to teach you how to "close read." You will learn to look beyond the surface story to analyze the author's choices in language, structure, and style. You will also learn to connect these texts to broader historical, cultural, and social contexts.

Core Content & Genres

Most freshman courses are organized by genre. You will typically cover

Short Fiction & Novels: Focusing on elements like plot structure, characterization, point of view, and setting

Poetry: Analyzing form, meter, rhyme schemes, imagery, and metaph

Drama (Plays): Studying dialogue, staging, tragedy vs. comedy, and performance context (e.g., Shakespearean theater)

 Key Skills 

Critical Thinking: Moving from "I liked this story" to "This story uses irony to critique social classes

Literary Terminology: You will master terms like motif, allegory, syntax, diction, protagonist, and f

Thesis-Driven Writing: Learning to write essays that prove a specific argument using evidence (quotes) from the text, rather than just summarizing what happened