ENGL 126Bad Literature

3 credits · English · Penn State

This course explores texts and traditions that were once considered non-literary but are now the object of critical inquiry and/or aesthetic appreciation. In other words, how does trash become literature? Course content includes texts and media once considered to be in bad taste or to have come from disreputable publishers and venues. Other considerations might include aesthetic and commercial issues (genre and series fiction, bestsellers); the presence of polemics and propaganda in fiction; and/or the formation and influence of different processes of critical exclusion and inclusion.