English 600 is a proseminar in the discipline of literary study, intended for students entering the graduate program. However, this fall's version is an experimental prototype, and is open to students in any of the course-taking years.

The aims of the course are to explain how the profession and the department work, to provide an overview of leading trends in literary theory, to explore research methods and facilities at Penn, and to go step-by-step through the creation of a term paper with potential for publication. Topics of discussion will be: the culture wars, the situation of the academy in America, canon-formation, and the roles of public intellectuals here and abroad. We will examine the MLA, the NEH, the NEA, PEN, literary prizes, scholarly journals, and general-audience book reviews. We will even analyze recent 50-book lists, field lists, and dissertation proposals in the department, and talk about possibilities for collaboration.

The idea, most broadly stated, is to understand that the structure of literary study at Penn affects the cultural memory of society at large. As future teachers and scholars, students must come togrips with both the hubris and the importance of this claim.