This course is aimed at first-year students and intended to be taken in conjunction with the two-semester survey lecture of English and American literature. It is designed to provide students with the analytic tools that are necessary in the academic study of English and American literatures. Students will be introduced to key concepts of the study of literature and learn to apply them to literary texts in order to become more precise and effective readers, researchers, and writers.

In addition to developing students’ close reading skills, the seminar will give an overview of the major genres of literature – prose, poetry, and drama – and acquaint them with the literary conventions and terminology related to them.