English 251 Fundamentals of Literary Interpretation
English 251 Fundamentals of Literary Interpretation introduces students to works of literature--specifically short stories, a short novel, poetry, drama, and an opera--by male and female, historic and contemporary, traditional and revisionist, European and multicultural authors, poets, and playwrights. Students not only read this wide variety of works, but they also examine and share different literary approaches that can expand conversations and insights about literature. These approaches will allow students to view and explain a text through multiple lenses such as a psychological lens, a multicultural lens, a gender lens, or an historical lens.
Fall 2010, the department charged me to rewrite the English 251 online course. Nearly ten years earlier, Elaine Hawker and I teamed up with BYU's Steven Walker to create an online introduction to literature course. That course evolved into an online fundamentals of literary interpretation which Kip Hartvigsen, Elaine, and I revised incorporating literary theory. After several more years, the course needed major reworking.
With direction from instructional designer Daren Olson, we created a whole new course. The three main objectives of English 251 include:
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Literary Theories. Students review basic literary theories and apply them to fiction, poetry, and drama. |
Literary Elements and Theories Applications. Students receive an overview of elements and theories through the film version of Alan Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country. Sample student essays written by Whit Laga on the film or novel demonstrate the different theories and focus on multiple elements.
Students apply elements and theories to short fiction, poetry, drama, a novel, and a novella-based opera. A unique feature of this course is all readings are online--no required textbook. Students choose to read Melville's Billy Budd or Chopin's The Awakening. The reasoning behind an opera is the integration of fiction, poetry, and drama into a single work. Students choose to view Bizet's Carmen or Puccini's Madame Butterfly. |
Sample English 251 Fundamentals of Literary Interpretation Lessons
These are some of the lessons I developed for this online course. |