FDN 2250 - Why Read? The Literature of Love, Learning, and Liberation (3)

When Offered: Spring
GEN ED: Literary Studies Designation; Integrative Learning Experience (Theme: “Critical Consciousness: Learning for Equity and Justice”)
This course will focus on the genre of novels, short stories, and works of narrative non-fiction (including philosophical works) that explore the act of reading itself. A rich and intriguing body of novels and short stories explores and examines through characters and human relationships the question of Why Read? Through our encounters with these books and stories, both in silently reading alone and in conversations with others, we will begin to see how stories about reading and learning to read reveal to us answers to the questions of what is the value and purpose of reading and its relationship to critical consciousness. In surprising and fascinating ways this engagement will also begin to show us the value of a liberal education in our lives and its relationship to liberation from the limiting consequences of oppressive socialization.