Please check the English Department website for up-to-date information on course offerings
SECTION I: NON-MAJOR COURSES
7. First-Year Seminars in English
Consult special listings
8. Readings in English and American Literature
12S: 11 13S: Arrange
Readings in English and American literature. The course is intended principally for students who are not majoring in English. It does not carry major credit. Writing requirements will be limited to tests and brief exercises. To be offered periodically, but with varying subject matter.
In 12S at 11 (section 1), Narrative Journalism: Literature and Practice. This course will explore the role of print journalism in shaping the modern American literary, cultural and political landscape—from Nellie Bly’s late 19th century undercover exposure to Seymour Hersh’s coverage of the Iraq War. Students will also participate in an intensive weekly workshop on reporting and writing, with a short unit on radio commentary. This course does not carry English major credit. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Jetter.
9. Composition: Theory and Practice (Identical to, and described under, Writing 9)
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
This course does not carry English major credit. Dist: ART. Gocsik.
SECTION II: MAJOR COURSES
12. Introduction to Literary Study
11F: 10 12S: 10
Designed for prospective majors in English and for students interested in a general literature course, English 12 offers an introduction to the critical historical and creative study of literature. Each of the sections provides a survey of literature from different historical periods and an overview of the aims, assumptions and methodologies of reading, critical analysis and creative practice. The course counts for credit in the major. Dist: LIT. No course group or CA tag designation.
Introduction to Literary Study—Methods
12S: 10
This section focuses on the interpretive methods, critical modes and creative practices of English Literature as a disciplinary study. Texts will be drawn from at least two genres and historical periods as well as the history of criticism and theory. Writing for the class will include both critical and creative practices. Will.
Introduction to Literary Study—Poetry
Not offered in 2011-201, may be offered in 2012-2013
Introduction to Literary Study—Narrative
11F: 10
This section introduces narrative literature--works that tell stories often, but not always, in prose. Students will become familiar with close reading practices, critical strategies of analysis, and the formal problems of creating narrative. In addition to discussing individual texts, broader areas of inquiry may include the history of the novel, the evolution of narrative genres, and the changing politics of identify and representation. Writing for the class will include both critical and creative practices. Chaney.
Introduction to Literary Study—Drama
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
14. Introduction to Criticism
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
15. Introduction to Literary Theory
12W: 10 13W: Arrange
The course will introduce students to some of the leading texts, concepts, and practices of what has come to be known as theoretical criticism. Topics to be considered may include some of the following: structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminism, new historicism, post-colonialism, post-modernism, queer theory, and cultural studies. Attention will also be given to historical and institutional contexts of this criticism. Intended to provide a basic, historically informed, knowledge of theoretical terms and practices, this course should enable students to read contemporary criticism with understanding and attempt theoretically informed criticism themselves. Dist: LIT. Course Group IV. CA tag Literary Theory and Criticism. Boggs, Edmondson, McKee, Travis, Will.
16. Old and New Media
12S: 10A 13S: Arrange
A survey of the historical, formal, and theoretical issues that arise from the materiality and technology of communication, representation, and textuality. The course will address topics in and between different media, which may include oral, scribal, print, and digital media. Readings and materials will be drawn from appropriate theorists, historians, and practitioners, and students may be asked not only to analyze old and new media, but also create with them. Dist: LIT. Course Group IV. CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, Literary Theory and Criticism. Evens, Halasz.
17. Introduction to New Media
12W: 2A 13W: Arrange
This course introduces the basic ideas, questions, and objects of new media studies, offering accounts of the history, philosophy, and aesthetics of new media, the operation of digital technologies, and the cultural repercussions of new media. A primary emphasis on academic texts will be supplemented by fiction, films, music, journalism, computer games, and digital artworks. Class proceeds by group discussion, debate, student presentations, and peer critique. Typical readings include Alan Turing, Friedrich Kittler, Ray Kurzweil, and Henry Jenkins, plus films such as Blade Runner and eXistenZ. Dist: ART. Course Group III. CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, Literary Theory and Criticism. Evens.
18. A History of the English Language (Identical to and described under Linguistics 18)
12X: 11 13X: Arrange
Dist: SOC. Course Group IV. CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, Literary Theory and Criticism, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Otter, Pulju.
19. Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian Epic and Saga
12W: 11 13W: Arrange
An introduction both to Old English literature and to Old Norse sagas. In the first half of the course we concentrate on reading, translating and setting into cultural context selected Anglo-Saxon poems, most notably ‘The Wanderer,’ ‘The Dream of the Rood,’ and ‘Beowulf.’ In the second half of the course we read a variety of Old Norse sagas, including ‘Egil’s Saga,’ ‘The Saga of the People of Laxardal,’ and two shorter sagas recounting contacts with North America. In addition to papers and reports, we’ll discuss the new film ‘Beowulf,’ and each student will write a mini-version of a Norse saga. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genre-narrative. Otter, Travis.
20. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
11F: 11 12F: Arrange
An introduction to Chaucer, concentrating on ten of the Canterbury Tales, and studying him as a social critic and literary artist. Special attention will be paid to Chaucer’s language, the sounds of Middle English, and the implications of verse written for the ear. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities. Edmondson, Otter, Travis.
21. Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and Other Poems
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I, CA tags Genre-poetry, Genre-narrative. Edmondson, Otter, Travis.
22. Medieval English Literature
12S: 10 13S: Arrange
An introduction to the literature of the “Middle English” period (ca. 1100- ca. 1500), concentrating on the emergence of English as a literary language in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries and on some of the great masterworks of the late fourteenth century. Readings will include early texts on King Arthur, the Lais of Marie de France, the satirical poem The Owl and the Nightingale, the romances Sir Orfeo, Pearl, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Book of Margery Kempe, and The York Cycle. Most readings in modern English translation, with some explorations into the original language. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Edmondson, Otter, Travis.
23. The English Renaissance
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genders and Sexualities, Genre-poetry. Crewe, Halasz.
24. Shakespeare I
11F: 12 12X, 12F: Arrange
A study of about ten plays spanning Shakespeare’s career, including comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances. Attention will be paid to Shakespeare’s language; to his dramatic practices and theatrical milieu; and to the social, political, and philosophical issues raised by the action of the plays. Videotapes will supplement the reading. Exercises in close reading and interpretative papers. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tag Genre-drama. Boose, Crewe, Gamboa, Halasz, Luxon.
26. English Drama to 1642
12W: 11 13W: Arrange
A study of commercial theater in London from about 1570 until the closing of the theaters in 1642. Anonymous and collaborative plays will be read as well as those by such playwrights as Kyd, Marlowe, Dekker, Jonson, Webster, and Ford. The course will focus on the economic, social, political, intellectual, and theatrical conditions in which the plays were originally produced, on their continuing performance, and on their status as literary texts. Research into the performance history of a play or participation in a scene production is required. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genre-drama, Genders and Sexualities. Boose, Halasz.
27. The Seventeenth Century
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tag Genre-poetry. Crewe, Luxon.
28. Milton
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities. Luxon.
29. English Literature 1660-1714, Including Drama
11F: 10A 12F: Arrange
A survey of English literary culture in the reigns of the later Stuart monarchs. Poetry by Dryden, Marvell, Rochester, Butler, Oldham and Pope; biographical writing by Aubrey, Halifax, Lucy Hutchinson, and Margaret Cavendish; the diaries of Pepys and Evelyn; spiritual autobiography and religious fiction by Bunyan; prose satires and analytical prose of Swift and Halifax. Within the survey there will be two areas of special attention: the theatre and the literary response to public events. We will read three plays by such authors as Dryden, Wycherley, Congreve, Lee, Behn, Shadwell, Otway and Farquahar, and study the writing in response to such events as the Great Plague and Fire of 1666, the Popish Plot, and the Exclusion Crisis. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tag Genre-drama. Cummings.
30. Age of Satire
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II, CA tag National Traditions and Countertraditions.
31. Reason and Revolution
11F: 10 12F: Arrange
Was there a British Enlightenment? In the age of the American and French Revolutions Britain seemed to hold steady. But in the literature of the period there are many social and literary struggles which took their tolls in the madness and suicide of writers such as Smart and Chatterton, the difficulties of attaining creative freedom, and the emergence of new literary forms such as the Gothic. This course will trace the fortunes of writers such as Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Oliver Goldsmith, and Edmund Burke as they grapple with the anxieties of their time. We will also consider how women thinkers and novelists such as Charlotte Lennox and Mary Wollstonecraft forged new roles for themselves, and we may include studies of the novel of political paranoia such as Caleb Williams, written by Wollstonecraft’s husband, William Godwin. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II, CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genre-narrative. Garrison.
32. The Rise of the Novel
12W: 10 13W: Arrange
A study of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English novel, from Daniel Defoe to Jane Austen. The course will look at the major sub-genres of the period, including criminal biography, scandalous memoirs, epistolary fiction and the Gothic novel. It will also explore the relationship between narrative fiction and the changing cultural landscape of a period defined by commercial uncertainty, imperial expansion, and the threat of revolution. Finally, and most importantly, the course will ask why the novel became so central to modern conceptions of subjectivity, sexuality, social cohesion and transgression. Readings may include work by Daniel Defoe, John Cleland, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Laurence Sterne, Fanny Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Charlotte Dacre, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane Austen. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genre-narrative. McCann, Garrison.
34. Romantic Literature: Writing and English Society, 1780-1832
12S: 10 13S: Arrange
This course offers a critical introduction to the literature produced in Britain at the time of the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic wars.There will be a strong emphasis throughout the course on the specific ways in which historical forces and social changes shape and are at times shaped by the formal features of literary texts. The question of whether romantic writing represents an active engagement with or an escapist idealization of the important historical developments in this period will be a continuous focus. Readings include works by Blake, Wordsworth, Helen Maria Williams, Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Robert Southey, Coleridge, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Keats, and Clare. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tag National Traditions and Countertraditions. McCann, Will.
36. Victorian Literature and Culture, 1837-1859
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, National Traditions and Countertraditions. McCann, McKee, Gerzina.
37. Victorian Literature and Culture, 1860-1901
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Gerzina, McCann, McKee.
38. The Nineteenth-Century English Novel
12W: 11 13W: Arrange
A study of the nineteenth-century novel focusing on the Victorian novel’s representation of public and private categories of experience. Readings may include Shelley’s Frankenstein, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, Dickens’ Bleak House, George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Mrs. Henry Wood’s East Lynne and Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Gerzina, McKee.
39. Early American Literatures: Conquest, Captivity, Cannibalism
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Chaney, Schweitzer.
40. American Poetry
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Genre-poetry, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Schweitzer.
41. American Prose
11F: 12 12F: Arrange
Readings of nonfiction narratives by such American writers as Franklin, Emerson, Thoreau, Henry Adams, Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, and Jack Kerouac. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Boggs, Chaney.
42. American Fiction to 1900
12W: 12 13W: Arrange
A survey of the first century of U.S. fiction, this course focuses on historical contexts as well as social and material conditions of the production of narrative as cultural myth. The course is designed to provide an overview of the literary history of the United States novel from the National Period to the threshold of the Modern (1845-1900). To do justice to the range of works under discussion, the lectures will call attention to the heterogeneous cultural contexts out of which these works have emerged as well as the formal and structural components of the different works under discussion. In keeping with this intention, the lectures include the so-called classic texts in American literature The Last of the Mohicans, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, but also the newly canonized Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Life in the Iron Mills, Hope Leslie in the hope that the configuration of these works will result in an understanding of the remarkable complexity of United States literary culture. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Boggs, Pease.
43. Early Black American Literature (Identical to African and African American Studies 34)
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, Genre-narrative. Chaney, Favor.
44. Asian American Literature and Culture
12W: 2A 13W: Arrange
This course examines narratives of migration to, from, and between the Americas by groups from East, South, and Southeast Asia. We will analyze novels, short fiction, poetry, and films by twentieth-century artists (i.e. Joy Kogawa, Theresa Cha, Shani Mootoo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Bienvenido Santos, Wayne Wang) against the historical backdrop of imperialism in Asia and the Americas; periods of exclusion and internment; and social movements that coalesce around intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship. Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial Postcolonial Studies, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Bahng.
45. Native American Literature (Identical to, and described under, Native American Studies 35)
12S: 11 13S: Arrange
Open to all classes. Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial/ Postcolonial Studies. Palmer, Benson.
46. Twentieth-Century American Fiction: 1900 to World War II
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Will.
47. American Drama
12S: 12 13S: Arrange
A study of major American playwrights of the 19th and 20th centuries including S. Glaspell, O’Neill, Hellman, Wilder, Hansberry, Guare, Williams, Wilson, Mamet, Miller, Albee, Shepard, Wasserstein. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genre-drama. Colbert, Pease.
48. Contemporary American Fiction
12S: 11 13S: Arrange
Contemporary American fiction introduces the reader to the unexpected. Instead of conventionally structured stories, stereotypical heroes, traditional value systems, and familiar uses of language, the reader finds new and diverse narrative forms. Such writers as Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Maxine Hong Kingston, Leslie Silko, Norman Mailer, Don DeLillo, and Ralph Ellison, among others, have produced a body of important, innovative fiction expressive of a modern American literary sensibility. The course requires intensive class reading of this fiction and varied critical writing on postmodernism. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Favor, Bahng.
49. Modern Black American Literature (Identical to African and African American Studies 35)
12W: 10 13W: Arrange
A study of African American literature from the Harlem Renaissance to the present, this course will focus on emerging and diverging traditions of writing by African Americans. We shall also investigate the changing forms and contexts of ‘racial representation’ in the United States. Works may include those by Hurston, Hughes, Wright, Ellison, Morrison, Schuyler, West, Murray, Gates, Parks. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Favor, Vásquez.
50. American and British Poetry Since 1914
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-poetry, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Zeiger, Vásquez.
53. Twentieth-Century British Fiction: 1900 to World War II
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags: Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Gerzina.
54. Modern British Drama
11F: 2A 13F: Arrange
Major British plays since the 1890s. The course begins with the comedy of manners as represented by Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward. It then considers innovations in and rebellions against standard theatrical fare: the socialist crusading of Bernard Shaw; the angry young men (John Osborne) and workingclass women (Shelagh Delaney) of the 1950s; the minimalists (Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter) and the university wits (Tom Stoppard); the dark comedians of the modern family (Alan Ayckbourn) and the politically inflected playwrights of the age of Prime Minister Thatcher (Caryl Churchill, Timberlake Wertenbaker, David Hare). The course deals both with the evolution of dramatic forms and the unusually close way in which modern British theatre has served as a mirror for British life from the heyday of the Empire to the present. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-drama, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Gamboa, Pfister.
55. Twentieth-Century British Fiction: World War II to the Present
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Giri.
58. Introduction to Postcolonial Literature (Identical to African and African American Studies 65)
12S: 11 13S: Arrange
An introduction to the themes and foundational texts of postcolonial literature in English. We will read and discuss novels by writers from former British colonies in Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, and the postcolonial diaspora, with attention to the particularities of their diverse cultures and colonial histories. Our study of the literary texts will incorporate critical and theoretical essays, oral presentations, and brief background lectures. Authors may include Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, V.S. Naipaul, Merle Hodge, Anita Desai, Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Paule Marshall, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Salman Rushdie, Earl Lovelace, Arundhati Roy. Dist: LIT or INT; WCult: NW. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-narrative, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Giri.
59. Critical Issues in Postcolonial Studies
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
Dist: LIT or INT; WCult: NW. Course Group IV. CA tags Multicultural/Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, National Traditions and Countertraditions, Literary Theory and Criticism. Giri.
SECTION III: SPECIAL TOPICS COURSES
60-67 Special Topics in English and American Literature
These courses are offered periodically with varying content: one or more individual writers, a genre, a period, or an approach to literature not otherwise provided in the English curriculum. Requirements will include papers and, at the discretion of the instructor, examinations. Enrollment is limited to 30. Courses numbered 65-67 require prior work in the period (normally a course in the corresponding course group) or permission of the instructor. Dist: LIT; WCult: Varies
60. Open Topic
11F: 11, 2A 12W: 10 12S: 2A
In 11F, at 2A (section 1), Reading and Writing Short Fiction. As a bridge between creative writing and literary studies, this course considers works of short fiction, essays on form and craft, and literary criticism. Students explore short-form fiction as both readers and writers, through their own stories and analytical essays, as well as annotations of the readings. Assignments include submission of critical and fictional works-in-progress for workshop sessions throughout the term. Students will complete two substantial pieces of work, a critical essay and a short story. Dist: ART, pending faculty approval. CA tags Literary Theory and Criticism, Genre-narrative, Creative Writing. Tudish.
In 11F at 11 (section 3), Dave the Potter: Slavery Between Pots and Poems (Identical to AAAS 90). This course examines the work of David Drake, a South Carolinian slave who made some of the largest ceramic storage vessels in America during the 1850s, signing them and etching sayings and poems onto them as well. This seminar engages with Drake’s poetry-pottery through critical and historical research, interpretive writing, and our own creative adventures in ceramic handicrafts. In addition to writing your own updated imitations of Dave Drake’s poetry and attempting ceramic facsimiles of his earthenware, students will also spend time in the letterpress studio as a means of acquiring a deeper historical and aesthetic appreciation of Dave’s life and work; it was while working as a typesetter for a regional newspaper that Dave acquired literacy. As a culminating assignment, students will contribute chapters to a scholarly book on Drake, which the instructor will edit. Dist: LIT or ART, Course Group II. CA tags Creative writing, National Traditions and Countertradtions, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Chaney.
In 12W at 10 (section 4), Native American Oral Traditional Literatures (Identical to and described under NAS 34). Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. No Course Group designation. CA tags Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Palmer.
In 12S at 2A (section 2), Raising the Dead: Creative Nonfiction. How can we practice “immersion journalism,” as creative nonfiction is sometimes described, when writing about people and events of the past? In this creative nonfiction writing course, we’ll immerse ourselves in the kind of archival research that will allow us to recreate moments and moods for which we couldn’t be present. We’ll become witnesses, nonetheless; and, through careful attention to our own roles in the construction of our stories, participant-observers, as well. Dist: ART, pending faculty approval. No course group designation. CA tags Creative Writing, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Sharlet.
62. Gender/Literature/Culture
12W: 11 12S: 2
In 12W at 11 (section 1), The Poetry and Rhetoric of Love, from Petrrarch to Nerve.com (Identical to WGST 53). What we call “love poetry” has generally been a way of expressing much more than the emotional and erotic fascination of one person with another. Often it seems to bypass the love-object altogether, and more eagerly examines power relations or poetic achievement. Beginning with early examples, and moving on to contemporary and modern poems, our course will place love poems by men and women in the context of an ongoing poetic tradition, recent feminist criticism and theory, and talk about love and sex in recent popular culture. This last will include: excerpts from recent books about dating and seduction, film, contemporary song lyrics, dating websites, and Blitzmail. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities. Zeiger.
In 12S at 2 (section 2), Immigrant Women Writing in America (Identical to WGST 47.1). In responding to the obstacles facing America’s immigrants, women often bring powerful bicultural perspectives not only to their tasks of survival and adaptation but also to new forms of cultural expression. We will study explorations of genre--memoir, fiction, film, and poetry--by foreign-born women writers such as Julia Alvarez, Mei-Mei Bersenbrugge, Woon-Ping Chin, Sandra Cisneros, Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jhumpa Lahiri, Alice McDermott, Mei Ng, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Grace Paley. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III, CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genders and Sexualities. Zeiger.
63. Topics in Theory and Criticism
12W: 10A 12S: 12, 2A
In 12W at 10A (section 1), Digital Game Studies. This course explores digital gaming. Reading academic and popular texts, we will situate digital gaming in relation to new media, visual, and literary studies. Class discussion will focus on problems in digital game studies: Where do the histories of technology and gaming meet? How do games change players and shape culture? This class will also study particular games, and, in addition to writing essays, students will invent individual and group projects in the game domain. Dist: TAS. Course Group IV. CA tag Literary Theory and Criticism. Evens.
In 12S at 12 (section 2), Cosmopolitanism. Cosmopolitanism has been described as a way of thinking and working outside the boundaries of the local and the national, a way of living ethically “in a world of strangers.” In recent years, in the work of writers as diverse as Jacques Derrida and Anthony Appiah, “cosmopolitanism” has emerged as a way of pushing forward, or even transcending, some of the theoretical impasses of postmodernism and some of the political impasses of multiculturalism. This course will focus on the idea of cosmopolitanism as it has been used (and perhaps abused) in contemporary theory, philosophy, politics, and aesthetics. Dist: LIT. Course Group IV, CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Will.
In 12S at 2A (section 3), Colonial and Postcolonial Masculinities (Identical to AAAS 67, COLT 67, and WGST 52.1; described under COLT 67). Dist: LIT. CA tags Genders and Sexualities, National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Coly.
65. Literature Before the Mid-Seventeenth Century
12W: 2A
In 12W at 2A (section 2), Shakespeare in the Theater (Identical to THEA 10). The course will cover one play in alarming detail, leading to a modest but strenuously rehearsed production. Students will learn about Shakespeare’s theater, the conventions he inherited and refined, his writing and his use of actors through extensive bookwork and as part of a collective approximating his company’s theatrical practices. One paper on an aspect of the play or its production will complement participation in roles both onstage and off. No acting experience is required. Dist: LIT; WCult: W, pending faculty approval. Course Group I. CA tag Genre-drama. Gamboa.
66. Literature from the Mid-Seventeenth Century to the End of the Nineteenth Century
12W: 11
In 12W at 11 (section 1), Gothic Fiction. The so-called Gothic revival at the end of the eighteenth century dramatically changed the ways in which Europeans read and wrote fiction. While the supernatural orientation of the Gothic has often been read as a resistance to the culture of the Enlightenment, it is just as clear that Gothic writing from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries became an important forum for innovative thinking about sexuality, psychology and the nature of political power. This course will examine some of the radical political and aesthetic possibilities inherent in the Gothic genre as it was conceived in this period. Readings may include work by Horace Walpole, William Godwin, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Charles Maturin, and Mary Shelley. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Genre-Narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions. McCann.
67. Literature from the Start of the Twentieth Century to the Present
11F: 10, 10A 12S: 10A, 2A 13S: 2A
In 11F at 10 (section 2), South African Literature in English (Identical to AAAS 85.1). A study of works by outstanding South African men and women of various ethnicities, including two Nobel prizewinners, who have chosen to write in English. Confrontation between black militancy and white oppression features in much writing about South Africa under Apartheid, but that is a complex story, as is that of South Africa after Apartheid. This complexity can be seen in works on the syllabus by Olive Schreiner, Solomon Plaatje, Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Zoe Wicomb, Alan Paton, J.M Coetzee, Njabulo Ndebele, Athol Fugard, Nelson Mandela, and Zakes Mda. Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Crewe.
In 11F at 10A (section 3), Caribbean Women Writers (Identical to WGST 52.2, AAAS 80.2, LACS 65). This course analyses the women’s writings from various Caribbean territories. The exploration of novels, short fiction, poetry and personal narratives will be complemented by essays by and about Caribbean women. The literary texts will be studied with reference to their varied historical, social, ethnic and cultural contexts. The course will require close textual reading of the primary material, as well as comparative thematic and stylistic analyses. It will explore what these texts reveal about how diverse Caribbean women are defining and taking agency for themselves in and through their writing. Students will be encouraged to locate these expressions within the broader categories of Caribbean writing, postcolonial/ postmodernist writing, and women’s writing in general. Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Course Group III. CA tags Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies, Cultural Studies and Popular Studies. Morgan.
In 12W at 2 (section 6) Black Britain in Literature and Film (Identical to and described under AAAS 81). Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Course Group II, CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Gerzina.
In 12S at 10A (section 4) Science Fiction Studies. A discussion-based course examining major and marginal science fiction novels and stories of the last century. We will consider definitions of the genre, probe its boundaries, and trace its history. Primary reading will be accompanied by theoretical approaches that address the political and literary-theoretic dimensions of science fiction writing. Course may also include some film and other media. Dist: LIT. CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, Literary Theory and Criticism. Evens.
In 12S at 2A (section 5) Contemporary Asian American Literature and Culture. This course examines narratives of migration to, from, and between the Americas by groups from East, South, and Southeast Asia. We will analyze novels, short fiction, poetry, and films by twentieth-century artists (i.e. Joy Kogawa, Theresa Cha, Shani Mootoo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Bienvenido Santos, Wayne Wang) against the historical backdrop of imperialism in Asia and the Americas; periods of exclusion and internment; and social movements that coalesce around intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship. Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Bahng.
In 13S at 2A (section 5), African Literatures: Masterpieces of Literature From Africa (Identical to African and African American Studies 51 and Comparative Literature 51. Described under Comparative Literature 51). Dist: LIT. CA tags Genders and Sexualities, National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Coly.
SECTION IV: ADVANCED SEMINARS
Seminars are designed as small courses, limited to twelve students, primarily seniors; qualified juniors may enroll. These courses emphasize discussion, and allow the student to develop his or her thinking about a subject throughout the term. Though assignments vary according to the nature of the material being studied, seminars usually involve class presentations and a term paper. They fulfill the “Culminating Experience” requirement. Prerequisite: at least four completed major courses, of which one must be in the same course group as the seminar. Students who successfully complete a seminar may sometimes be allowed to follow it with a one-term Honors project (see the section on Honors, above). Dist: LIT; WCult: Varies.
70. Literature Before the Mid-Seventeenth Century
12W: 2A 12S: 10A
In 12W at 2A (section 1), Gender and Power in Shakespeare: From Page to Stage. The course will begin by defining the varieties of power inscribed in Shakespeare’s plays, and proceed to explore the following questions. Is language gender-inflicted? Do men and women speak “different” languages? How do power and gender affect each other? How do women negotiate power among themselves? How do men? How is power exerted and controlled in sexual relationships? How do unspoken social definitions exert their power over the politics of gender? Possible works studied will be drawn from The Rape of Lucrece, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, All’s Well That Ends Well, Othello, Macbeth, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Winter’s Tale. Prerequisite: English 24 or permission of the instructor. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genre-drama, Genders and Sexualities.
In 12S at 10A (section 2). John Milton. Members of this seminar should be prepared to settle on a project of research designed to produce new and interesting readings of Milton’s poetry and/or prose within the first week of class meetings. The group readings, both in Milton and in the secondary literature, will then be determined by what topics the members have selected. Though no prerequisite has been specified, those who have completed English 26, 27, 28, or a Special Topics course will be best prepared for this seminar. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities. Luxon.
71. Literature from the Mid-Seventeenth Century to the End of the Nineteenth Century
11F: 10A 12S: 12
In 11F at 10A (section 2), Henry James. In this course we will read four novels by James: The American, The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove. We will consider how James positions his American visitors to Europe, how he attempts to define American and European cultures through these visits, and the importance of gender to cultural experience in the novels. We will also read recent thinking about travel and tourism, in the works of James and as cultural practices, and consider James himself, especially through his writings in The American Scene, as transatlantic tourist. Dist: LIT. WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions. McKee.
In 12S at 12 (section 1), Bohemia and the 19th Century Novel. By the 1890s, the figure of the Bohemian had become central to a cosmopolitan literary culture eager to assert its autonomy from the marketplace and a restrictive notion of Englishness. It also evoked a range of anxieties bound up with cultural decadence, racial degeneration, transgressive sexuality and the occult. This course will study a series of novels that foreground these issues, including major texts by Oscar Wilde, George Gissing, Marie Corelli, and Joseph Conrad. Dist: LIT; WCult: W, pending faculty approval. Course Group II. CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions. McCann.
72. Literature from the Start of the Twentieth Century to the Present
11F: 10A 12W: 2, 2A 12S: 11, 2A
In 11F at 10A (section 1), Elizabeth Bishop. Elizabeth Bishop, a major 20th century poet, has become with each passing decade a tremendous influence on the art of much younger writers. We will read all of Bishop’s poems, as well as some of her letters and the work of other writers who were important figures in her life. Emphasis will be on the crafting of Bishop’s poems as we will explore her background, influences, and her unique voice in American poetry. Active participation is expected in this seminar. Students will give presentations and write four papers. Dist: LIT, WCult: W, pending faculty approval. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities. Mathis.
In 12W at 2A (section 3), Toni Morrison. This course is an intensive study of Toni Morrison’s major fictional works. We will also read critical responses by and about the author. Required texts may include Sula, Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jazz, Paradise, Playing in the Dark, and critical contributions by writers such as Barbara Smith and Paul Gilroy. Some of the central issues we will examine include alternative constructions of female community and genealogy, and representations of race, class, nationhood and identity. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genre-narrative. Vásquez.
In 12W at 2 (section 4), James Joyce. This seminar will be devoted to the study of Joyce’s Ulysses. After some discussion of Joyce’s Portrait and Dubliners—both of which students are urged to read before the course begins—we will focus on the text of Joyce’s Ulysses, with an emphasis on close reading and an examination of Joyce’s experiments in prose and his place in modern literature. Each student will be asked to write two papers. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III, CA tags Genre-narrative, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Huntington.
In 12S at 2A (section 5), Jews in American Culture and Theory: The New York Intellectuals. (Identical to and described under JWST 30). Dist: LIT: WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Milich.
In 12 S at 11 (section 6), Modern American Women Poets (Identical to WGST 47.3). American women poets form a countertradition within American modernism and within English language poetry more generally. This course will follow debates about what makes it possible to break previous silences--and to what degree and in what ways it is useful or satisfying to do so. Topics will include sexuality, race, illness, literary modes, female literary succession; poets such as HD, Brooks, Lorde, Dove, Howe; theorists such as Johnson, Duplessis, and Spahr. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. CA tags Genre-poetry, National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genders and Sexualities. Zeiger.
74. Open Topic
Not offered in 2011-2012, may be offered in 2012-2013
75. Seminar in Criticism and Theory
11F: 2
In 11F at 2 (section 1), Form and Theory of Poetry. How do poets think about poetry? What goals, tools, strategies, and forms have been employed by modern and contemporary poets in their own writing and criticism? Topics will include questions of form, revision, inspiration, voice, and the role of the author as both maker and speaker in much contemporary poetry. Readings will include theory and craft texts by poets, along with examples of their own and others’ poetry. Readings will be supplemented by visits and interviews with local and visiting poets. Dist: LIT. Course Group IV. CA tags Genre-poetry, Literary Theory and Criticism. Huntington.
SECTION V: CREATIVE WRITING
Introductory Creative Writing Course
80. Creative Writing
All terms: Arrange
This course offers a workshop in fiction and poetry. Seminar-sized classes meet twice a week plus individual conferences. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and to first-year students who have completed Writing 5 (or have exemption status).
Procedures for enrolling in English 80: To gain admission to English 80, students must fill out an application, available on-line or in the English Department office, and submit it to the English office no later than the last day of classes of the term preceding the one in which they wish to enroll. Deadline for equal consideration for admittance is the last day of classes in the term preceding the course. Late applications will be accepted, but held until the add/drop period and reviewed if vacancies occur. Please answer all questions on the application and make sure your name is legible. Be sure to indicate clearly on your application the section(s) of 80 for which you are applying. If you do not indicate which sections work with your schedule, we will place you in whatever section is available. Students should then enroll in three other courses. If admitted to English 80, students can then drop one of the other courses. Changing sections after enrollment is highly discouraged and will not be possible except in extenuating circumstances. English 80 is the prerequisite to all other Creative Writing courses. It carries major or minor credit. Dist: ART. Hebert, Huntington, Mathis, Tudish, Lenhart, O’Malley, Finch, Sharlet.
Intermediate Creative Writing Courses
Students who wish to enroll in an intermediate Creative Writing Course must read the appropriate “How to Apply to English 81, 82 or 83” document, available on-line and in the English Department, and answer all the questions asked in a cover letter. They should also submit a five-eight page writing sample, as stated in each of the course descriptions below. Deadline for equal consideration for admittance is the last day of classes in the term preceding the course. Late applications will be accepted, but held until the add/drop period and reviewed if vacancies occur. Students should then register for three other courses, not including the Creative Writing course. Students accepted into Creative Writing 81, 82 and 83 will be notified before the first day of class. To secure their spot in the class, students must be present at the first meeting. At that time, students will be given a permission card and can then drop one of their other courses and enroll in the Creative Writing course. The intermediate courses in Creative Writing may each be taken a second time for credit.
81. Creative Writing: Poetry
12W: 3A 13W: Arrange
Continued work in the writing of poetry, focusing on the development of craft, image, and voice, as well as the process of revision. The class proceeds by means of group workshops on student writing, individual conferences with the instructor, and analysis of poems by contemporary writers.
Prerequisite: English 80 and permission of the instructor. Please read the “How To Apply To English 81, 82 or 83” document, available on-line and from the English Department, and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter. Students should submit a five-eight page writing sample of their poetry to the administrative assistant of the English Department. Deadline for equal consideration for admittance is the last day of classes in the term preceding the course. Late applications will be accepted, but held until the add/drop period and reviewed if vacancies occur. Dist: ART. Huntington, Mathis.
82. Creative Writing: Fiction
11F, 12S: 10A 12W: 10A 12F, 13S: Arrange
Continued work in the writing of fiction, focusing on short stories, although students may experiment with the novel. The class proceeds by means of group workshops on student writing, individual conferences with the instructor, and analysis of short stories by contemporary writers. Constant revision is required.
Prerequisite: English 80 and permission of the instructor. Please read the “How To Apply To English 81, 82 or 83” document, available on-line and from the English Department, and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter. Students should submit a five-eight page writing sample of their fiction to the administrative assistant of the English Department. Deadline for equal consideration for admittance is the last day of classes in the term preceding the course. Late applications will be accepted, but held until the add/drop period and reviewed if vacancies occur. Dist: ART. Hebert, O’Malley, Tudish.
83. Creative Writing: Literary Nonfiction
12W: 10A 13W: Arrange
This course offers students an overview of the conventions, genres and techniques of narrative-nonfiction writing. The class proceeds by means of group workshops on student writing, individual conferences with the instructor, and analysis of classic works of literary nonfiction. Prerequisite: English 80 and permission of the instructor. Please read the “How To Apply To English 81, 82 or 83” document, available on-line and from the English Department, and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter. Students should submit a five-to-eight-page writing sample to the administrative assistant of the English Department by the last day of the term preceding the term in which they wish to enroll. Dist: ART. CA tag Creative Writing. No Course Group designation. Tudish, Sharlet.
Advanced Creative Writing Courses
85. Senior Workshop in Poetry, Prose Fiction and Nonfiction
11F, 12W: 2A
This course is offered in the fall and winter of senior year for English majors and minors concentrating in Creative Writing. Each student will undertake a manuscript of poems, fiction, or literary nonfiction. All students who wish to enroll must submit an 8 to 12 page writing sample to the administrative assistant of the English Department by May 15 of the spring term preceding their senior year. Please also read the “How to Apply to English 85” document, available on-line and from the English Department, and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter. Prerequisite: English 80 and 81, 82, or 83.
97. Creative Writing Project
All terms: Arrange
A tutorial course to be designed by the student with the assistance of a member of the Creative Writing Faculty willing to supervise it. This course is intended for the purpose of producing a significant manuscript of fiction, nonfiction or poetry. It carries major credit only for English majors concentrating in Creative Writing. English majors concentrating in Creative Writing must request permission to take English 97 (one or two terms) during fall of senior year. Decisions regarding admission to English 97 will not be made before fall term of senior year. Prerequisite: Permission of the Director of Creative Writing.
98. Honors Course in Creative Writing
All terms: Arrange
To be arranged in fall term of senior year. Independent study under the direction of a faculty advisor. Honors majors will elect this course in each term in which they are pursuing Honors projects. For more information, see “English Honors Program,” above, and consult the “Guide to Honors” booklet available in the English Department.
Other Creative Writing Courses
The courses listed below, described elsewhere, carry the Concentration Area tag “Creative Writing” and may be used to fulfill the Creative Writing concentration area requirements as well as English major course requirements.
In 11F at 2A, English 60.1, Reading and Writing Short Fiction
In 11F at 11, English 60.3, Dave the Potter: Slavery Between Pots and Pans
In 12S at 2A, English 60.2, Raising the Dead: Creative Nonfiction
SECTION VI: FOREIGN STUDY COURSES
90. English Study Abroad I
11F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow) 12F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow, Dublin)
Major credit for this course is awarded to students who satisfactorily complete a course of study elected as part of one of the Department’s two Foreign Study Programs (FSPs). On the Glasgow FSP, this will be a course of study in literature at the University of Glasgow. On the Dublin FSP, this will be a course of study in the English Department at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Of the three courses at TCD at least one must be in Irish literature. Students are also required to do an independent study project on some aspect of Irish literature or culture, culminating in a long essay; the grade for the independent study is factored into the grade for the Irish literature course.
Glasgow and Dublin Dist: LIT; WCult: W.
91. English Study Abroad II
11F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow) 12F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow, Dublin)
Major credit for this course is awarded to students who satisfactorily complete a course of study elected as part of one of the Department’s two Foreign Study Programs (FSPs). On the Glasgow FSP, this will be a course of study in literature at the University of Glasgow. On the Dublin FSP, this will be a course of study in the English Department at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Of the three courses at TCD at least one must be in Irish literature. Students are also required to do an independent study project on some aspect of Irish literature or culture, culminating in a long essay; the grade for the independent study is factored into the grade for the Irish literature course.
Glasgow and Dublin Dist: LIT; WCult: W..
92. English Study Abroad III
11F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow) 12F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow, Dublin)
One college credit (not major or minor credit) for this course is awarded to students who satisfactorily complete a course of study elected as part of one of the Department’s two Foreign Study Programs (FSPs). The purpose of English 92, when taken in Glasgow, is to enhance the experience of studying English and Scottish literature in a European, and more specifically British, context. The requirement may be fulfilled by taking a course, approved by the program director, in Scottish literature or culture, British cultural history, Celtic civilization, comparative literature, or the English language. Other courses relevant to the study of English literature (in art history, philosophy or media studies, for instance) may be taken subject to the approval of the English Department’s Committee on Departmental Curriculum. English 92 on the Glasgow FSP satisfies no distributive requirement. On the Dublin FSP, this will be a course of study in the English Department at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Of the three courses at TCD at least one must be in Irish literature. Students are also required to do an independent study project on some aspect of Irish literature or culture, culminating in a long essay; the grade for the independent study is factored into the grade for the Irish literature course.
Glasgow Dist: Varies; Dublin Dist: LIT.
SECTION VII: INDEPENDENT STUDY AND HONORS
96. Reading Course
All terms: Arrange
A tutorial course to be designed by the student with the assistance of a member of the English Department willing to supervise it. This course is available, as an occasional privilege, to upperclassmen who have demonstrated their ability to do independent work. During the term prior to taking the course, applicants must consult the Department Vice Chair to make arrangements for approval of the project.
(Note: English 96 does not normally count towards the English major or minor, though in special circumstances the C.D.C. may approve occasional exceptions to that rule. Students seeking such an exception are asked to petition the C.D.C. before taking English 96. English 96 may not be used to satisfy course group requirements.)
98. Honors Course in Critical Studies
All terms: Arrange
Independent study under the direction of a faculty advisor. Honors majors will elect this course in each term in which they are pursuing Honors projects. For more information, see “English Honors Program,” above, and consult the “Guide to Honors” booklet available in the English Department.