In this seminar, students will learn about how to read and interpret literary texts and then apply close reading techniques to write critically about works of literature. In the first semester, we will read various types of literature (poetry, drama and fiction) from a wide range of cultures. Students will be required to read and discuss texts in small groups and write a number of reaction papers. In the second semester, we will studying literary criticism examining its key theories and approaches. Included in this sill be semiotics, deconstruction, modernism and postmodernism, gender analysis, Marxism, and psychoanalysis. In doing so we will read the works of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Judith Butler among others. These theoretical texts will be supplemented by selected literary texts. Students will be required to write several precis to demonstrate their understanding of the texts and their application to the interpretation of literature. In the third semester, students will begin their research projects which will consist of a close reading of one or more works of literature and critically interpreting the selected literature. The final project for this seminar will be a written paper based upon this research and an oral presentation of their research.