This course provides a general introduction to graduate study in English. Together we will review the making and unmaking of “English” as a discipline, focusing in particular on the rise of professional literary criticism and its relationship to continental philosophy, cultural studies, and critical theory. Course materials will include a range of theoretical and critical writing about the following key topics: language, literature, culture, aesthetics, political economy, racial formation, gender, sexuality, nation, empire, and the university.

Required texts will be available on-line.