Lit Controversy

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This class looks at controversial works of art and literature, weighing the various arguments surrounding the texts and considering the motivations of different participants. We will focus on 3 cultural “case studies”: the rise of the public sphere in Romantic-era Britain, race the American South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and sex and violence in contemporary literature and film. In doing so we will think about the relationship between art and society, the way that texts both participate in and transform social dialogue. How have race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality historically factored in critical reception? Why is art a continual site of cultural contestation? How do aesthetic controversies reflect fundamental beliefs that structure society?