Course Description

Literature as Aesthesis

Aesthesis is the human practice of building forms to represent fundamental, but abstract, truths. In this introductory-level comparative literature course, we use the concept of aesthesis as a gateway into the kinds of reading, analysis, criticism, and writing that serve as the cornerstone of the discipline. In this course, you can count on focused training in close reading, analysis, and creative engagement with literature. Along the way, we read, think about, and talk about some evocative and provocative poetry and narrative, including Gabriel García Márquez’s 1969 novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad), a piece of literature that illustrates aesthesis at work. Note that as One Hundred Years of Solitude engages in a a good deal of political and social critique, we will be discussing sensitive and relevant topics in this class, including settler colonialism, sexucal and gender-based violence, and child abuse. This course is taught in English, but students are invited to work in Spanish or in Spanglish, as well as in any language that at least one member of your COLT 102 instruction team speaks and reads. An introductory, core ed course, COLT 102 uses a labor-based grading contract whose terms are laid out in the Canvas site and presented for discussion in Week 1. This course satisfies the university Global Perspectives requirement.

Please contact Prof. Leah Middlebrook, middlebr@uoregon.edu, for more information.

Satisfies Core Education Requirements:

• Areas of Inquiry: Arts & Letters (A&L)
• Cultural Literacy: Global Perspectives (GP)

Satisfies Gen- Education Requirements (students enrolled prior to Fall 2019):

• • Group Satisfying: Arts & Letters (A&L)
  • Multicultural: International Cultures (IC)