What determines a text's "meaning"? What makes a text "literary"? 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? This course will focus on key skills and issues involved in critical reading of literary texts. It will be organized around a series of such fundamental questions 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, and our written work, will invite increased self-consciousness about literary form, the functions of criticism, and the process of reading and interpreting. The course is intended both to develop students' skills in reading, writing about, and discussing literary texts, and to complicate their understanding of potential pleasures and profits of critical interpretation. Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: four formal papers ranging from 3-7 pages, several short informal writing assignments, participation in two tutorial meetings and active contribution to discussion. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 19 per section (expected: 19 per section). Preference given to first-year students. Four sections. This course is part of the Critical Reasoning and Analytical Skills initiative.