Students must submit four 4-page "response" papers, distributed throughout the term. The papers will be evaluated on the connections you'd make in these "thinking-it-through" exercises: between the external portrait of the Wife of Bath and the story she tells.... or between satire and humor in Swift and Hogarth... or between what "wit" means to John Donne and to Oscar Wilde....
These papers are occasions for students to ask questions and to make connections; such connections make the "thick description" by which we understand things systemically. It is not expected that a fully-delineated, proven argument will be given in a 3-page exercise. However, careful reading, insightful thinking, good statement of questions or problems or insight or response is expected.
Other work for the subject: frequent quizzes, intermittent overnight "problem-solving" writing assignments, and a final exam.