This subject explores the value of literature by examining its competing uses in a range of historical contexts down to and including our own. Literature's potent combination of pleasure and instruction embraces conflicting personal, ethical, political, social, and ideological uses even as it resists them. The subject brings a comparative focus to bear on texts from diverse historical and cultural settings as a way of reflecting on and rediscovering the value of literature in the digital age. Students will also explore the function of criticism to educate the individual sensibility and shape the cultures of public life. Primary texts include poems, narrative fiction, essays, and may include drama, film, and other audiovisual material.