The primary goal of this course is to expand students’ ability to interpret and engage critically with texts, as well as to express their ideas in argumentative writing appropriate for academic audiences. We will learn how to read texts as conveyors of data about culturally shared meaning. We will look at various literary works, journalism, film, etc. to see how and what they tell us about their authors. As both users and producers of culture, we will examine how and why that representation is constructed and negotiated.