ENG 5079 - Spring 2026 - Kilgore

This course will introduce you to the issue of literary and cultural studies—its institutional politics and contemporary situation, its changing historical protocols and problems in a professional discipline called English, its effort to ground (and unground) its methodologies and purpose. As such, this will be less an “introduction to theory” and more an “introduction to the theory of theory”—a critique of critical practice. We’ll read and discuss a selection of texts attempting to answer the question: what is the social function of literary and cultural studies? Why and how do we do our work? However, to make this course as useful as possible for your own work and to encourage collaborative learning, we’ll also break the class up into theory cells based on a field or topic of critical inquiry that matters to you, and you’ll be tasked with completing short assignments that will help you gain an understanding of that field or topic’s scholarship in practice.

Requirements: This course satisfies the requirement for Gateway Theory course.