We tend to imagine "wonder" as a naive, wide-eyed response, something quite distinct from the cold and sophisticated act of critical analysis. In this discussion course, we will consider wonder as an analyzable concept, but one that raises provocative questions about the nature and limits of our own, distinctly modern forms of critical engagement. The course examines three historical incarnations of "wonder," each involving complex relations among the aesthetic, philosophical, and literary domains: the Renaissance tradition on wonder and the marvelous; the eighteenth-century analysis of the sublime; and the mid-twentieth-century critique of Enlightenment thought. We will consider writers such as Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Borges, and Nicholson Baker (all wonderful); painters such as Leonardo, Vermeer, and Courbet; some recent films, including Titanic; and critical or philosophical writers, including Aristotle, Edmund Burke, and Walter Benjamin. Requirements: four or five short essays, including at least one revision, and active participation in discussion. Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 19). (Criticism)