Critical Reading and Critical Writing (SE2146)

Lectures:
Tuesdays 12:10 – 13:00 (Great Hall, SU)
Wednesdays 10:00 – 10:50 (-1.64, Main)
Seminars:
Group 1 – Room 2.46 – Mondays 10:10 – 11:00

Tutor: Rodolfo
Email: PiskorskiR@cardiff.ac.uk
 Seminars

• Friendly, cooperative, informal atmosphere

• Students come prepared with their own ideas about the texts
• Seminars are interactive, not passive
• Seminars complement the lectures
• Different focus: discussion and student reflection and analysis
• Seminar tutor vs. personal tutor
• Interests and expertise of the tutor naturally influence the seminars
 You

• Any pre-existing opinions about literature in general? Specific areas?

• What do you expect of the module? And the seminars?
• Why does literature matter? Why do people write? Why do we study it?
• What do you like about literature or the study of literature? What don’t
you like?
 The module

• Critical reading, intellectual independence, critical and scholarly

writing
• Close reading and textual evidence, persuasion
• What constitutes literature and assumptions that go into definitions of
literature
• The canon
• Generic differences
 Formative writing

• For fun and practice!

• Due week 3
• 750-word essay
• Answer one of the questions on the module guide
• E-mail it to me by Monday of Week 3 (16 Oct)
 Suggested reading

• The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Fifth Edition (for the technical terminology)
• Course of General Linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure
• Literary Theory: An Introduction, Terry Eagleton
• An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory,
Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle
• Critical Practice, Catherine Belsey
• Literature, Theory, and Common Sense, Antoine Compagnon