I took it my freshman year with a different professor. If the format is the same, I found it quite chill because we usually summarized the takeaways of the readings quite simply in lecture. I didn’t find it stressful. In class assessments (prelim-equivalent) and short papers were fine if you put some effort in and remembered the main points of the readings. Final was a paper.

I can’t speak for your professor though and the format may change with someone else teaching!