Introduction to Literature (2026/2027: Semester 2 – Spring)

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Course aim

After completing this course students are able to:
  1. Identify significant formal features of literary prose, poetry, and drama.
  2. Combine observations about formal features and themes of literary works into interpretive claims.
  3. Write argument-driven, well-evidenced interpretive essays about literary works.
  4. Relate literary works to their historical, cultural, and political contexts.
  5. Understand and deploy a few theoretical frameworks common in literary studies.

Relationship between assessment and learning goals:

In this course, the final course grade is based on three elements: a midterm written assignment, a final written assignment and class participation (including logbooks and chairing a discussion)
  1. The midterm develops and tests the skills required to achieve learning goals 1-4.
  2. The final tests the skills required to achieve learning goals 1-5.
  3. Class participation (including logbooks and chairing discussion) tests your knowledge and insight on learning objectives 1-5.

Course content

What is literature and how do we study it?

In this course, students develop fundamental skills in literary analysis by learning to interpret poems, plays, and literary prose from different cultures and historical periods. By completing this course, you will improve your knowledge of literary history and develop your ability to ask—and answer—interesting questions about the works you read. We will consider how texts are written, what their possible effects on readers are, in what ways they reflect or envision the society in which they were composed, why societies cherish some literary works and censure others, how certain writers acquire or lose value over the course of time, and how literature helps to shape the sense of who we are as individuals and as members of society. The emphasis of the first half of the course is on developing skills in literary analysis / close reading; in the second half, the emphasis is on combining close reading with historical contextualization and theoretical framing.


Format
The course format combines short lectures by the instructors, introducing relevant skills, works, and concepts, with discussions. Students will take turns in leading group discussions. Occasionally, classes will run as writing workshops.

Instructional formats

UCU hum 1 course

Examination

Class participation, including logbook

Required | Weight 30% | ECTS 2.25

Mid term written assignment

Required | Weight 30% | ECTS 2.25

Final written assignment

Required | Weight 40% | ECTS 3

*midterm FEEDBACK*

Not required

Entry requirements and preknowledge

Entry Requirements

No data about mandatory entry requirements is available.

Preknowledge

No data about preknowledge is available.

Languages

  • English

Competences

  • Academic writing
  • International and intercultural orientation
  • Critical reading
  • Research skills
  • Presenting

Course Iterations

Related studies

Exams

There is no timetable available of the exams

Required Materials

  • BOEK
    Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818 version)
  • BOEK
    Naguib Mahfouz, Midaq Alley
  • BOEK
    Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
  • BOEK
    Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera (Student Editions)
  • BOEK
    Toni Morrison, Beloved
  • BOEK
    Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
  • BOEK
    James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room

Recommended Materials

No information available on the recommended literature

Coördinator

dr. S.P. van Bommel S.P.vanBommel@uu.nl

Lecturers

dr. M. Borzaga m.borzaga@uu.nl

Enrolment

Attention: this course is not open to students from other faculties, so subsidiary students can't enroll for this course.

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