What determines a text's "meaning"? Is it something fundamental to the text itself? Is it the circumstances in which we encounter it? Or is it the preoccupations and interests we ourselves bring to it-in other words the "way" we read it? And what makes a text "literary"? This course will focus on key skills and issues involved in reading literature. It will be organized around a series of fundamental questions such as: What characterizes "interpretation"? What do literary texts expect of us? What pleasures and parameters are established by the way(s) we read? Where does meaning come from: author, reader, text? How does the form or genre of a work influence our interpretation of it? How is our understanding of a text shaped by the contexts in which we encounter it, or by the literary traditions in which it was written? We will address these questions by reading and interpreting literary texts (mainly short fiction and poetry) and pertinent critical and theoretical essays. Our readings will invite increased self-consciousness about literary form, the functions of criticism, and the process of reading and interpreting. In the last weeks of the course, we will bring this self-consciousness to bear on some longer texts: a play (Brian Friel's Translations), a movie (Thelma and Louise), and a novel (A. S. Byatt's Possession). The course is intended both to develop your skills in reading, writing about and discussing literary texts, and to complicate your understanding of the potential pleasures and profits of critical interpretation. Requirements: four papers ranging from 3-7 pages, several short journal-style writing assignments, and active participation in discussion. No prerequisites. Enrollment limited to 19. Two sections.