Reading Literature: Theory & Artistry In this seminar we will cover the basics of literary theory while analyzing a broad selection of literature from the sonnet to slam poetry, and from the modernist novel to the contemporary short story. Our goals are to become competent and confident critics of literary meaning, both in its politics (gender, race, class, sexual) and in its philosophy (hermeneutic, formal, deconstructive). Our objects of study are both literature and ourselves. We will even do some creative writing of our own. Authors may include William Shakespeare, John Donne, Virginia Woolf, Nella Larsen, Octavia Butler, Junot Diaz, Ocean Vuong, Danez Smith, and Franny Choi, among others.

Victoria's Secrets Known as the great age of the realist novel and the epitome of staid decorum, the nineteenth century also had its guilty pleasures--mysteries, ghost stories, science fiction, adventure tales, and more--which exposed a radical underside to the Victorian imagination where norms of gendered, racial, and ethnic identity were called into question. In this course we will read both canonical realist novels and their non-traditional counterparts in an attempt to understand the productive interplay between these two seemingly disparate literary traditions. Authors may include: Austen, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, the Brontës, Wilkie Collins, R.L. Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and others.

Victoria’s Secrets Known as the great age of the realist novel and the epitome of staid decorum, the nineteenth century also had its guilty pleasures--mysteries, ghost stories, science fiction, adventure tales, and more--which exposed a radical underside to the Victorian imagination where norms of gendered, racial, and ethnic identity were called into question. In this course we will read both canonical realist novels and their non-traditional counterparts in an attempt to understand the productive interplay between these two seemingly disparate literary traditions. Authors may include: Austen, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, the Brontës, Wilkie Collins, R.L. Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and others.

Literature and the Visual Arts In this course we will explore the intersections of literary texts with the visual arts. What happens when literature tries to capture in words a visual image? What happens when a picture tries to tell a story? We will examine literary texts which respond directly to specific paintings as well as texts which are more broadly visual in their impact on readers; we will also look at hybrid texts like the graphic novel which include both words and images. Course readings will include poems, short stories, short novels, illustrated books, and graphic novels. We will also look at a wide range of paintings, sculptures, and other visual artifacts.

Introduction to Contemporary Literary Theory In this course we will introduce several major schools of contemporary literary theory. By reading theoretical texts in close conjunction with works of literature, we will illuminate the ways in which these theoretical stances can produce multiple interpretations of a given literary work. The approaches covered may include New Criticism, Psychoanalysis, Marxism and Cultural Criticism, Race Theory and Multicultural Criticism, Feminism, Post-Colonial Criticism, Queer Studies, Eco-Criticism, Post-Structuralism, and others. These theories will be applied to various works of fiction, poetry, and drama. The goal will be to make students critically aware of the fundamental literary, cultural, political, and moral assumptions underlying every act of interpretation they perform.

Animals in Literature and Culture Animals, wrote anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, are good to think with. They are good to write with as well; almost all works of literature include animals, their importance varying from the merely peripheral to the absolutely central.  Among other narrative functions, animals serve as essential metaphors for understanding the human animal. In this course we will read a wide variety of fiction, poetry, children's literature, philosophy, science, history, and cultural theory from Ancient Greek sources (in translation) to the present. We will consider theoretical, ethical, religious, psychological, linguistic, and political issues pertaining to animals and their representation in literary texts. lect./disc.

Towards a Poetics of Community Why read literature? One answer: such reading is not individual but communal. It links readers to each other in aesthetic experience, in ethical and hermeneutic debate, and in appreciation for writers and fellow readers. As we read literary texts from different times, cultures, and genres, we will examine how they anticipate, create, or recreate readerly communities, and how these communities in turn help shape the texts as they are experienced. We will also strive to form our own readerly community—one that is as inclusive and as intellectually generous as possible. We will begin with close analysis of poetry in various forms from various historical periods. We will then read dramas by such playwrights as William Shakespeare, Margaret Edson, and/or Lolita Chakrabarti, as well as two works from among such prose writers as Charles Dickens, Emily Brontë, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Marilynne Robinson, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Ian McEwan, Walter Moseley, and Jean Rhys.

Writer's Decathlon One of the best skills a writer can hope to cultivate is flexibility—the ability to write for different audiences, different situations, different media, and with different goals in mind. In this course we will develop our skills as flexible writers by tackling ten different writing exercises, including the op-ed, several sub-genres of the traditional academic paper, personal essays, creative fiction, the persuasive essay, business communications, modern tech-based genres, and more—we may even try our hand at writing an old-fashioned love letter with a quill pen. We will workshop our writings in class regularly, and examples of these various genres will be our course readings.

Antonia Losano

Reviews and ratings for Antonia Losano at Middlebury College.Antonia Losano teaches Reading Literature, Victoria's Secrets, Literature & the Visual Arts and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Antonia Losano good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

While I took this course as I had been recommended it by a friend (and not because I am an english major), I found this class interesting and engaging. The works we read aren't difficult readings but very classic ones that college students should have read before, and as someone who had not read all of the assigned books, I found it engaging. Professor Losano is also very passionate and caring for her students. 

Professor Losano is one of the best lecturers at Middlebury. She is energetic and her lectures are insightful. She has an incredible understanding of the course material. She is very accommodating  of students' needs and is a fair grader. I would highly recommend this course.

Overall a straightforward course that does a good job teaching a broad amount of English Literature. I enjoyed Losano's teaching style and it felt very easy to be in class and participate. I would say its an easy A as long as you do the readings and the papers. 