If you’ve seen a thick, three-ring black binder around campus, one seemingly heavy enough that carrying it around should count as a workout, then you’ve already caught a glimpse into the Literary Theory course. Taught by Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning Dr. Matthew Helmers, Literary Theory is a new 600-level English class where seniors unpack thousands of years of literary thought. The goal is to think critically about how language creates meaning.
Like any new course, it comes with a level of unpredictability, especially as it evolves alongside its first group of students. “We have no preconceived notions of what the class should be like. We’re all discovering it for the first time, and I think that’s great” said Bridget Mestepey ’26.
The class follows the standard warm-up, Harkness discussion and exit ticket daily structure, with only three major assignments in the first semester. Students choose from three submission options—a panel presentation, a written response, or a video interview where they explain a theoretical concept—and get to decide when they submit each. Throughout the different projects, they are able to tie the individual theories to something from their everyday lives, whether that be a movie, TV show, song, or a poster.
“I think theory dies when we see it as something that is from 1911. And we go, ‘Well, I didn’t live then. So, I don’t care,’” said Dr. Helmers. “I want the students to feel like they’re in a research cohort. That they’re driving the class. I’m never going to stop them if they want to run with the warm-up, and that feels great for the group.”
“I think the class is structured in a way that it does make it easy to understand and learn the readings if you’re confused.” remarked Mestepey ’26 “And the projects we do are really, really interesting.”
The class is currently open to students who took AP English Literature in 11th grade, and it is designed to attract students with a curiosity and passion for how meaning is created through text. “I think a student who will really thrive is one who is excited to engage thoughtfully about philosophy and the theory behind literature,” said Patrick Keedy Brown ’26.
Dr Helmers added, “Anyone is capable, as long as they understand something is happening in the literature in the world around them and want the keys for unlocking its meaning.”
Given how much of the class rests on language and its creation, it’s natural to wonder how AI will or will not find a place within it.
Dr. Helmers has a clear, no-nonsense perspective: “AI will always flatten your voice and smooth it out and make it neat and clean. I would rather talk to a beautiful, complex, messy human who has interesting things to say. I’m not going to send my mother an AI birthday card. I’m not going to have my wedding vows be written by AI. I want you to show up to class in your full humanity with your 17 or 18 years of experience on this earth, not some robot.”
The history of the course can be traced back almost 10 years. Dr. Helmers taught a similar course before arriving at RE and later taught a one-semester elective version of the course here three years ago. When he joined RE as English Department Coordinator, one of his goals was to help create a vertically aligned English program that allowed students to move up through increasingly complex levels of literary study. This led to the creation of the Advanced American Studies Class as well as a reworking of the 11th grade curriculum.
“We were missing an opportunity for students who had taken the advanced coursework in the junior year to move into more advanced research methods. So that’s where this course came from: a desire to introduce students to what advanced literary research would look like,” he said.
It’s a class that has been a long time in the making, and all that work is inserted into one binder. So, what’s inside?
Not fiction. Literary Theory doesn’t include many narrative texts, aside from Henry James’s horror novella The Turn of the Screw. Instead, it is a course on methodology, and the binder contains works of philosophy ranging from Plato to posthumanism. Dr. Helmers affirmed his belief in both the value and challenge that can be found in primary sources. He believes that students learn best when engaging with first-hand source material. In line with this approach, the texts chosen for each unit include both original works that helped establish each theory, as well as recent readings from the past four years.
This balance, Dr Helmers explained, keeps the class rooted in its literary origin, while also providing relatability for students and providing an easier way for everyone to feel connected to topics that are potentially hundreds of years old.
“In the binder, 2,000 years of thinking about meaning and purpose in the human experience is collected. I do want you to feel a sense of weightiness when you walk into this room, because I’m handing you something beautiful that people have spent their entire lives thinking about.”
Early in the semester, Dr. Helmers asks students to decorate the binder, and the reason goes beyond aesthetics. “I ask my students to put their own stamp on it, and to say, I understand that I’m now participating in a 2,000-year-plus trajectory, and it’s my duty to be respectful and reverential to all these incredible people that have come before me,” he reflected. “I’m in charge of guiding students through some of the most prolific contributions to our understanding of beauty in all history, and I take that very seriously.”
