This course introduces students to twentieth-century controversies about method in the humanities. How should we interpret a cultural artifact such as painting or a poem? Students consider the relative merits of formalism, historicism, and psychoanalysis, as well as arguments for and against “critique,” in light of movements such as Formalism, New Criticism, psychoanalysis, Deconstruction, and New Historicism.
Prerequisite:  ALT 1160, ALT 1180