Brief Course Synopsis:
ENGL 2080 Finding a Critical Voice builds on the skills developed in ENGL 1080 Reading the Past, and is designed to give students the tools to analyze and engage with primary and secondary materials in an increasingly persuasive and sophisticated manner. Through a series of case studies in which we examine primary texts and related secondary readings, this course emphasizes the importance of the central skill worked on in ENGL 1080, close reading. To that skill, we add two others: historicization and theorization, both of which work with close reading to help build complex arguments about literary materials.