Lit and Arts A

Hardly anyone denies it: any Core area can come around to bite you in the ass if you aren’t careful. Some take a lot of planning to make them manageable (Lit and Arts C is full of landmines that’ll have you tackling the genesis of the archetypical peasant in Russian literature for a semester), but a few Core areas aren’t so bad.

For most of us, Lit and Arts A—primary literary texts and literary analysis—falls into the second category. While you’re sure to find some Lit and Arts A classes that don’t appeal to you, a large selection of relatively straightforward courses takes a lot of the sting out of this Core area.

Most Lit and Arts A classes will require you to write a few papers that display some level of proficiency with literary criticism, close reading, and textual analysis. But don’t worry: you probably won’t be up against English or Hist and Lit concentrators who do this kind of thing all the time, and the professors and TFs will (or at least should) provide plenty of guidance for every assignment.

While some of the courses offered are rather general (like Lit and Arts A-22, “Poems, Poets, Poetry”), most selections appeal to a specific group of people. A-63, “Women Writers in Imperial China” certainly won’t interest everyone, but it might be just the right fit for a niche audience. Remember to plan ahead, because the easiest way to get bitched around by the Core is to leave it until the last minute and take a course you hate because it fulfills a need and a timeslot.

If you’re really into drama (you chose Economics over English to go into i-banking, didn’t you?), you might want to look into A-35, “Tragic Drama and Human Conflict.” Professor Bennett Simon guides you through nine good (and short!) plays, and tops it off with easy grading on the papers and final.

If you’re up for a bit of a challenge, you might want to look at A-72, “The Enlightenment Invention of the Modern Self,” taught by superstar crowd-pleaser Leo Damrosch. As the name implies, the material is rather abstract: you’ll look at different ways Enlightenment writers conceived of and depicted the “self.” Damrosch is dynamite as always—you’ll learn a lot in this course—but the grading is pretty harsh and the concepts tackled are difficult to write about. If you’re trying to get out of the Core area without any serious work, you would do better choosing a class with more straightforward texts.

A-16, “Lives Ruined by Literature” has an interesting reading list (everything from Dante to Cervantes to Nabokov) and a great professor (Judith Ryan). But you’ll have to plan ahead if this is the course you’re after: it isn’t being offered again until the spring of 2009.

Finally, English 10a and 10b both fulfill this Core area. There are pros and cons to taking either to fulfill this Core requirement. On the one hand, you’d be up against those English concentrators who break down sonnets like it’s their job, and the reading list won’t be very focused (unless you consider “excerpts from the Western Canon” focused). On the other hand, you’ll be dealing with classic texts that are either (a) a joy to read or (b) great to say that you’ve read (“ I can’t tell you how much I was taken by Shelley’s metaphors!”). If Peter Savaal is still TF’ing either class, try to get into his section. Each meeting will be the most dramatic hour of your life.

Of course, almost all of the classes in this area will require a good amount of reading. If you really hate to read novels or poetry, if you’re the type that would rather curl up with the latest issue of Nature than with a good novel, then this experience will probably suck for you. Or, you’ll end up broadening your horizons through academic exploration! But it will probably suck; just remember to plan ahead and take the class that you’re most interested in. And if you actually like to read and write, this Core area should be a cinch; it might offer you the opportunity to branch out and expand your literary horizons.

We are convinced that you don’t have to let the Core have its evil way with you, and Lit and Arts A should be easier to tame than most.