EN 2133W The Invention of the Word

3 Credits

This course explores not the subject of “innovation” in literature, but the fact of it. Students read a range of literary texts that invented utterly new ways of writing: new forms and new approaches to consciousness and language itself. The course focuses on two clusters of literary and linguistic innovation: (1) writing in the ancient world, where narrative, drama and lyric—and indeed, the technology of writing itself—were first invented, and (2) works by pioneering literary modernists who radically reinvented the forms forged by their earliest predecessors.

Prerequisite(s): Completion of first year writing requirements
Note: Satisfies a humanities and social sciences elective.