The “richness of great literature merits correspondingly rich responses—responses that may be reasoned as well as felt” (Guerin, et al. xi). This course explores this premise embarking on an achronological and inter-school survey of critical methodologies—from so-called “pre-critical” approaches to contemporary historicist and textualist methods of textual analysis—through reference to touchstone concepts, problems, and themes in the field of critical theory and the philosophy of literature. To test and exemplify the theory covered in the course, students engage with a novel – The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born (Armah)– and selected short stories, drama, and poetry. The course aims to develop “critical appreciation” by requiring students to write formal interpretations that draw both on “felt” and “reasoned” responses to literature in a cogent and interesting way.