Poetry Reading

This course is an introduction to the major texts of Western culture. Ranging from antiquity to the present, it places special emphasis on several of literature's most important aspects: The uniqueness of literary language, The formal and generic conventions of literary production, The position that literature occupies as a site for historical and ideological forces and conflicts, The continuing human significance of the great works of the past and the present. All too often, people fail to give the great books the attention they deserve. They might feel locked out of these masterpieces because they believe themselves unequipped to savor their richness. Or they might feel that great literature has only some antiquarian or museum value.