SECTION I: NON-MAJOR COURSES
6. Essay Writing
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
This course explores various forms of academic and personal essay-writing. Students write one original essay each per week. Every student essay is critiqued by the whole class and also discussed by the student and instructor in a private conference. Model essays and essays on the craft of writing are read and discussed to guide students in honing their writing for verbal logic, communicative power, and visceral appeal. Taught credit/no credit; not for major credit. Limited to 12 students.
7. First-Year Seminars in English
Consult special listings
8. Readings in English and American Literature
08S: 11 09S: 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 08S at 11 (section 1), 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)
09S: 12
This course does not carry English major credit. Dist: ART. Gocsik.
SECTION II: MAJOR COURSES
10. The King James Version of the Bible, I
07F: 10
A study of the preeminent English translation of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanak, or Old Testament), with special emphasis on its relationship to English literature and on the history of its interpretation. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. CA tag Genre-narrative. Wykes.
12. Introduction to Literary Study
08S: 12 09S: Arrange
This course introduces the student to the aims, assumptions and methodologies of reading and the study of literature. This course is designed as an introductory course to the English literature major and other literature and humanities majors. Students must complete Writing 5 before enrolling in English 12. Texts may include theory, history of literature, and will be drawn from at least two genres and historical periods. Dist: LIT. Will.
14. Introduction to Criticism
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
A historical and formal introduction to literary criticism as a 20th-century discipline, with primary emphasis on English and American contributors. Leading critical figures and critical approaches will be considered; some important critical terms will be reviewed; and students will be given practice in close reading and textual interpretation. Selections from the work of some or all of the following may be included: T.S. Eliot, I.A. Richards, Cleanth Brooks, Kenneth Burke, William Wimsatt, Northrop Frye, Wayne Booth, Paul de Man, Stanley Fish, Harold Bloom, Barbara Johnson, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Henry Louis Gates. Complementing English Department courses in particular literary periods, topics, and authors, this course is strongly recommended for majors. Dist: LIT. Course Group IV. CA tag Literary Theory and Criticism. Crewe.
15. Introduction to Literary Theory
08W: 2 08S: 10 09W, 09S: 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. Travis, Will, Boggs, Edmondson, McKee.
16. Old and New Media
08W: 2A 09W: 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. Halasz, Evens.
17. Introduction to New Media
08S: 2A 09S: 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 Linguistics 18)
08W, 08X: 10
The development of English as a spoken and written language as a member of the Indo-European language family, from Old English (Beowulf), Middle English (Chaucer), and Early Modern English (Shakespeare), to contemporary American English. Topics will include some or all of the following: the linguistic and cultural reasons for ‘language change,’ the literary possibilities of the language, and the political significance of class and race. Open to all classes. 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
08W: 11 09W: Arrange
An introduction to Old English language and literature, this course concentrates on reading, translating and interpreting selected poems understood in terms of their cultural environment—political, historical, artistic, and religious. The major poems studied are ‘The Wanderer,’ ‘The Dream of the Rood,’ and Beowulf. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genre-narrative. Travis, Otter.
20. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
07F: 11 08F: 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, Genre-narrative. Travis, Otter, Edmondson.
21. Chaucer: Troilus and Other Poems
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
A study of Chaucer’s works other than the Canterbury Tales, focusing on some of the early dream visions (Book of the Duchess, House of Fame) and the courtly love romance Troilus and Criseyde, which many consider Chaucer’s most accomplished work. Some attention will be given to the French and Italian context of these works (in translation). Prior acquaintance with Middle English (English 20, 22, or 18) is helpful but not absolutely required. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities. Travis, Otter, Edmondson.
22. Medieval English Literature
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
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 romance 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. Travis, Otter, Edmondson.
23. The English Renaissance
08W: 10A 09W: Arrange
English verse and prose of the sixteenth century: a study of Wyatt, Gascoigne, Nashe, Marlowe, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, and others in the cultural context of Tudor England. The course will investigate issues of classical and European influence, publication, and courtly patronage, especially under the auspices of a female ruler (Elizabeth I). Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genders and Sexualities, Genre-poetry. Halasz, Crewe.
24. Shakespeare I
07F: 2 08X, 08F: 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. Campos, Boose, Crewe, Luxon, Halasz.
26. English Drama to 1642
08W: 10A 09W: 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
08S: 10A 09S: Arrange
English poetry and prose from 1603 to 1660. Primary focus on major lyric tradition including poems by John Donne, Ben Jonson, Mary Wroth, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, and John Milton. Secondary focus on significant prose works of intellectual history (Francis Bacon, Robert Burton) and political controversy (debates about gender and/or political order). Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tag Genre-poetry. Luxon, Crewe.
28. Milton
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
A study of most of Milton’s poetry and of important selections from his prose against the background of political and religious crises in seventeenth-century England. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities. Luxon.
29. English Literature 1660-1714, Including Drama
08S: 10 09S: 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. Wykes, Cosgrove.
30. Age of Satire
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
Visit the great age of British Satire. In a time when literacy was rapidly expanding, party politics was emerging and women’s rights were being advocated in print for the first time, satire ruled the literary scene. This course will explore the plays, poems, and novels of satirists from the libertine Earl of Rochester to the great satirist, Alexander Pope, not omitting the works of Aphra Behn, the first woman dramatist, and Mary Astell’s sardonic comments on the role of women in marriage. May include: the comedies of Wycherey and Congreve, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, and the novels of Daniel Defoe. There will be an opportunity to study the techniques of satire and its role in social and personal criticism. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II, CA tag National Traditions and Countertraditions. Cosgrove.
31. Reason and Revolution
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
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 forge new roles for themselves and we may include studies of the novel of political paranoia as exemplified by Caleb Williams, and by Wollstonecraft’s father, William Godwin. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II, CA tag National Traditions and Countertraditions. Cosgrove.
32. The Rise of the Novel
08W: 12 09W: Arrange
A study of the eighteenth-century English novel, with emphasis on formal variations within the genre as well as on interrelations of formal, political, and psychological elements of the narratives. Reading may include works by Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett, Oliver Goldsmith, Frances Burney, and Elizabeth Inchbald, as well as twentieth-century criticism. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. Genre-narrative. Cosgrove.
34. Romantic Literature: Writing and English Society, 1780-1832
08W: 10 09W: 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. Will, McCann.
36. Victorian Literature and Culture, 1837-1859
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
This course examines early Victorian poetry, prose and fiction in the context of cultural practices and social institutions of the time. We will locate cultural concerns among, for example, those of capitalism, political reform, scientific knowledge, nation and empire. And we will consider revisions of space, time, gender, sexuality, class, and public and private life that characterized formations of British identity during this period. Texts may include work by Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charlotte Bronte, John Ruskin, Charles Darwin. We will also read selections from recent criticism of Victorian culture. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tag Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. McKee, McCann.
37. Victorian Literature and Culture, 1860-1901
07F: 10 08F: Arrange
This course examines later nineteenth-century British poetry, prose and fiction in the context of cultural practices and social institutions of the time. We will locate cultural concerns among, for example, those of capitalism, political reform, scientific knowledge, nation and empire. And we will consider revisions of space, time, gender, sexuality, class, and public and private life that characterized formations of British identity during this period. Texts may include work by George Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Christina Rossetti, Algernon Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling. We will also read selections from recent criticism of Victorian culture. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tag Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. McKee, McCann, Gerzina.
38. The Nineteenth-Century English Novel
08S: 12 09S: 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 tag Genre-narrative. McKee, Gerzina.
39. Early American Literatures: Conquest, Captivity, Cannibalism
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
The “invention” of America changed the world forever and precipitated the beginning of the modern era. This course explores that invention, covering the period of about 1500 to 1800 and surveying a wide range of cultural attitudes towards the imagination, exploration, and settlement of the Americas: Native American, Spanish, French, and English. Our reading, including oral tales, letters, diaries, captivity narratives, poetry, personal narratives, political tracts, and secondary criticism, will focus on the themes of conquest, captivity, cannibalism in the shaping of a particularly “American” identity. We will use historical sources and early books and manuscripts to illuminate attitudes towards power, identity, race, gender, and nature prevailing in the multicultural landscape of the early Americas that shaped the emerging literature and culture of British North America. We will also look at recent cinematic representations of this early period in our examination of the shifting and contentious meaning of “America.” Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Schweitzer.
40. American Poetry
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
A survey of American poetry from the colonial period to the early decades of the twentieth century. Readings may include works by Bradstreet, Taylor, Wheatley, Emerson, Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Melville and Dunbar. We may also study Native American poetry and schools like the Fireside Poets, 19th-century women poets, and precursors of early Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. We will look at lyric, meditative, religious, comic and political poetry, the long poem and the epic. Some themes we might trace include the transatlantic character of American poetry, its “newness,” its engagement with religion and self-definition, with nature, and with gender and race. Emphasizing close readings as well as historical and cultural contexts, this course examines the complexities of an American poetic vision and serves as an introduction to reading poetry and to American literature. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Genre-poetry, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Schweitzer.
41. American Prose
07F: 12 08F: 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. Boggs, Renza, Chaney.
42. American Fiction to 1900
08W: 12 09W: 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. Renza, Pease, Boggs.
43. Early Black American Literature (Identical to African and African American Studies 34)
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
A study of the foundations of Black American literature and thought, from the colonial period through the era of Booker T. Washington. The course will concentrate on the way in which developing Afro-American literature met the challenges posed successively by slavery, abolition, emancipation, and the struggle to determine directions for the twentieth century. Selections will include: Wheatley, Life and Works; Brown, Clotel; Douglass, Narrative; Washington, Up from Slavery; DuBois, Souls of Black Folk; Dunbar, Sport of the Gods; Chestnut, House Behind the Cedars; Harriet Wilson, Our Nig; Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man; and poems by F. W. Harper, Paul L. Dunbar and Ann Spencer. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Chaney, Favor.
45. Native American Literature (Identical to Native American Studies 35)
08S, 09S: 11
Published Native American writing has always incorporated a cross-cultural perspective that mediates among traditions. The novels, short stories, and essays that constitute the Native American contribution to the American literary tradition reveal the literary potential of diverse aesthetic traditions. This course will study representative authors with particular emphasis on contemporary writers. Open to all classes. Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial/ Postcolonial Studies. Goeman, Palmer.
46. Twentieth-Century American Fiction: 1900 to World War II
08W: 11 09W: Arrange
A study of major American fiction in the first half of the twentieth century. Works by Dreiser, Stein, Fitzgerald, Cather, Larsen and Faulkner, and a changing list of others. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tag National Traditions and Countertraditions. Will.
47. American Drama
08S: 12 09S: 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. Pease.
48. Contemporary American Fiction
07F: 2A 08F: 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, Santa Ana.
49. Modern Black American Literature (Identical to African and African American Studies 35)
07F: 2A 08F: 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
08S: 2A 09S: Arrange
A survey of modern American and British poetry since the First World War, with particular emphasis on the aesthetics, philosophy and politics of modernism. The course covers such canonical and non-canonical poets as Yeats, Pound, HD, Lawrence, Eliot, Stevens, Frost, Williams, Crane, Moore, Millay, Auden, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Beats. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-poetry, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Zeiger.
53. Twentieth-Century British Fiction: 1900 to World War II
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
A study of major authors, texts, and literary movements, with an emphasis on literary modernism and its cultural contexts. We will read works by Conrad, Forster, Joyce, Woolf, Lawrence, Rhys, and Beckett, as well as writers such as Kipling, Ford, West, Waugh, Bowen, and Lowry. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Silver.
54. Modern British Drama
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
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 a mirror for British life from the hey day of the Empire to the present. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-drama, National Traditions and Countertraditions.
55. Twentieth-Century British Fiction: World War II to the Present
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
A study of the multiple currents within British fiction in a period characterized by major literary, cultural, and social transitions in Britain, including the emergence of a “post”(-war, -empire, -modern) sensibility. Writers may include Amis, Sillitoe, Greene, Golding, Burgess, Lessing, Wilson, Carter, Swift, Atkinson, MacLaverty, Ishiguro, Barker, Barnes, McKewan, Smith. 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)
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
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. Serves as prerequisite for FSP in Trinidad. 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 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
Intended for students who have some familiarity with postcolonial literary texts, this course will combine the reading of postcolonial literature with the study and discussion of the major questions confronting the developing field of postcolonial studies. Issues may include: questions of language and definition; the culture and politics of nationalism and transnationalism, race and representation, ethnicity and identity; the local and the global; tradition and modernity; hybridity and authenticity; colonial history, decolonization and neocolonialism; the role and status of postcolonial studies in the academy. Authors may include: Achebe, Appiah, Bhabha, Chatterjee, Coetzee, Fanon, Gilroy, Gordimer, James, JanMohamed, Minh-ha, Mohanty, Ngugi, Radhakrishnan, Rushdie, Said, Spivak, Sunder Rajan. Prerequisite: English 58, Trinidad FSP, or permission of the instructor. Dist: LIT or INT; WCult: NW. Course Group IV. CA tags Multicultural and Colonial/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
Note: For the class of 2006 and following, one course in the major must be a Special Topics course (60-67).
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
07F: 11 08W: 2A, 11
In 07F at 11 (section 1), History of the Book. This course examines the book as a material and cultural object. We’ll consider various practical and theoretical models for understanding the book form and investigating the materials, technologies, institutions, and practices of its production, dissemination, and reception. We’ll focus primarily on the printed book in Western Europe and North America, but we’ll also spend time talking about the emergence of the codex (book), medieval manuscript books, twentieth and twenty-first century artist’s books and the challenges posed by digitality to the book form. The readings for the course will be balanced by frequent use of exemplars drawn from Rauner Library and practical experience in the Book Arts workshop setting type. Dist: LIT, pending faculty approval. Course Group IV. CA tags Literary Criticism and Theory, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Halasz.
In 08W at 2A (section 2), Islam and Judaism: Europe’s Orientalist Visions (Identical to Jewish Studies 27.3, pending faculty approval). An interdisciplinary study of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism as represented in the arts, in history, and in studies of race and religion in nineteenth century Britain, France, and Germany, this course will consider how identities achieve definition and difference in relation to one another. We will examine the rise of Jewish and Islamic Studies and the popularity of Orientalist themes in the arts, including poetry, novels, travel writing, and, briefly, music and panting. Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Course Group II. CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. McKee, Heschel.
In 08W at 11 (section 3), Native American Oral Traditional Literature (Identical to Native American Studies 34). Native American oral literatures constitute a little-known but rich and complex dimension of the American literary heritage. This course will examine the range of oral genres in several tribes. Since scholars from around the world are studying oral literatures as sources of information about the nature of human creativity, the course will involve examining major theoretical approaches to oral texts. Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. Runnels.
62. Gender/Literature/Culture
08W: 2A
In 08W at 2A (section 3), War and Gender (Identical to Women’s and Gender Studies 42). Throughout history, war has been constructed into a powerfully gendered binary. From The Iliad onward, battle is posed as a sacred domain for initiating young men into the masculine gender and the male bond, and the feminine as that which both instigates male-male conflict and that which wars are fought to protect. With a special concentration on U.S. culture of the past century, this course will examine the way our modern myths and narratives instantiate this cultural polarity through film, fiction, non fiction and various media material. Dist: SOC; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genders and Sexualities, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Boose.
63. Topics in Theory and Criticism
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
65. Literature Before the Mid-Seventeenth Century
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
66. Literature from the Mid-Seventeenth Century to the End of the Nineteenth Century
08S: 2
In 08S at 2 (section 1), Whitman and Dickinson. Personally outgoing and poetically long-winded, Walt Whitman seemingly had little in common with his contemporary, the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson who made an art of brevity. Yet both shared a fierce willingness to experiment with form, and keen critical insights into the role that gender, race, religion, science, commerce and the arts played in transforming American society. We will study each poet individually and compare the poetic personae, literary devices, and themes their works explore. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities. Boggs.
67. Literature from the Start of the Twentieth Century to the Present
07F: 10A, 2A 08W: 2 08S: 12, 2A, 3A 09S: 11
In 07F at 10A (section 1), Caribbean Literature (Identical to AAAS 80 and LACS 66). This course will examine the work of various Caribbean writers from former British colonies. We will explore several issues including notions of exile, the significance of particular socio-historic events, the importance of language and music, and the complex concerns involving articulations of identity. The class will move from early twentieth century writers like Claude McKay to later authors such as Kamau Brathwaite, Jamaica Kincaid, George Lamming, V.S. Naipaul, Olive Senior and Derek Walcott. Dist: LIT: WCult: CI. Course Group III. CA tags Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Vásquez.
In 07F at 2A (section 2), Culture and Society in Modern Scottish Fiction. The course will cover the period from the early 20th century to the present day. It will focus on Scotland’s historically complex national and cultural identity, and consider such themes as religion and morality, class and gender, industrialization, and rural and urban life in the Scottish Highland and Lowlands. The Irish contribution to modern literature has been universally acknowledged. The modern Scottish literary tradition now merits equally close attention. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Countertraditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Hook.
In 08W at 2 (section 3), Woolfenstein (Identical to Women’s and Gender Studies 53). Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein occupy a central place in European and American modernism, their work having influenced successive generations of writers. Using a series of thematic and theoretical frameworks, we will explore the intersections between the two, ask-ing how they staged their resistances to traditional/patriarchal literary and cultural structures. Possible frameworks are gender and genre; queer texts and contexts; war, nation, and gender; class, ethnicity, and authority; iconization. We will also be reading a selection of critical and/or feminist theory. Suggested background courses are English 15, Comparative Literature 72, Women’s and Gender Studies 16. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. Concentration area tags Genders and Sexualities, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Silver, Will.
In 08S at 12 and 09W at 10A (section 4), Jewish American Literature: From its Inception to the Present (Identical to and described under Jewish Studies 21). Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Milich.
In 08S at 12 (section 5), Celtic Myths and Mudbloods. Irish literature in the twentieth century set out to redefine its identity during a period of political upheaval and civil war. Intense struggles arose over the roles of the urban community as in Joyce’s Dubliners and mythic and rural values as in Synge and Yeats. Simultaneously women writers like Edna O’Brien and Eavan Boland questioned the place of women in the myth of national heroism. We will delve into this cultural ferment using the works of these writers as well as contemporary novelists and poets such as Roddy Doyle and Seamus Heaney. The course will have a visual dimension with the movies, Michael Collins, The Crying Game, and Bloody Sunday. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tag National Traditions and Countertradtions. Cosgrove.
In 08S at 3A (section 6), August Wilson and Suzan-Lori Parks (Identical to AAAS 82, pending faculty approval). This course examines Pulitzer Prize winning playwrights August Wilson and Suzan-Lori Parks’s written works. We will consider how social, political, and artistic histories inform their drama. Texts may include: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Fences, The Piano Lesson, King Hedley II, The America Play, Topdog/Underdog, The Red Letter Plays, and Getting Mother’s Body. We will also read theoretical works on black drama and cultural expression. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-drama, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, National Traditions and Countertraditions. Diggs.
In 08S at 2A (section 7), Bob Dylan. In this course, we will do close, critical readings of certain Dylan lyrics spanning his entire career, also taking into consideration their social, historical, and biographical circumstances. Oral reports as well as a long final paper will be required. Note: some attention will be given to the performance aspect of Dylan’s songs, but we will not listen to them in class. All of the songs assigned and discussed will be available for your listening in the Paddock Music Library beforehand. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-poetry, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Renza.
In 09S at 11 (section 8), Modern Jewish American Women Writers (Identical to, and described under Jewish Studies 21.2, pending faculty approval). Dist: LIT, WCult: CI. Course Group III. CA tags Genders and Sexualities, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Zeiger.
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
08W: 2A 08S: 10A
In 08W at 2A (section 1), 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.
In 08S at 10A (section 2). Love, Gender and Marriage In Shakespeare. In Shakespeare, issues so seemingly “domestic” as love, sexuality and family are problems of such colossal significance that they could be said to constitute the focal center of the canon itself. Hamlet and King Lear, for instance, are plays more truly “about” the politics of family than they are about the politics of kingdom. Focusing on seven plays, this course will interrogate the knotty issues of love, sexuality, and family. As part of the course, students will be required to participate in at least one scene production. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tags Genre-drama, Genders and Sexualities. Boose.
71. Literature from the Mid-Seventeenth Century to the End of the Nineteenth Century
08W: 10A
In 08W at 10A (section 1) Thomas Hardy. We will study novels of Thomas Hardy, including Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1896), as well as the late-Victorian culture in which Hardy wrote. Important to our discussions will be the tensions between classes, between genders, and between rural and urban life which were central to his fiction; and we will read with an eye to both Victorian and modernist aesthetics. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Genre-narrative, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. McKee.
72. Literature from the Start of the Twentieth Century to the Present
07F: 11, 3A 08W: 2A
In 07F at 3A (section 1), The Poetry of Wallace Stevens. The course will mostly consist of reading and discussing Stevens’ collected poems and some prose. We will also read critical interpretations of his works. Students will give oral class reports and write two essays on approved topics. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III, CA tag Genre-poetry. Renza.
In 07F at 11 (section 2), The Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. An orphan, a female poet, a lesbian, a long-term expatriate in Brazil, Elizabeth Bishop is nowhere definitively at home; for a long time, literary criticism had trouble accommodating her as well. Recently, queer, feminist, and postcolonial analyses have provided a new critical context for this elusive poet; we will read widely in this work, while focusing on Bishop’s poems, drafts, and letters. We will also consider her relationships with contemporaries like Moore and Lowell. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genders and Sexualities, Genre-poetry. Zeiger.
In 08W at 2A (section 3), Transnationalism in Asian American Literature and Cultural Criticism. Drawing on contemporary debates about transnationalism in Asian American cultural criticism, this course will examine narratives and films by Asian Americans that feature the experience of crossing national borders and living in global America. Requirements: oral presentations, analytical essay, and research paper. Texts include Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, Andrew Pham’s Catfish and Mandala, Jessica Hagedorn’s Dream Jungle, David Mura’s Turning Japanese, Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life, and the films Fire and First Person Plural. Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Course Group III. CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies. Santa Ana.
74. Open Topic
Not offered in 2007-2008, may be offered in 2008-2009
75. Seminar in Criticism and Theory
08W: 3A
In 08W at 3A (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 Literary Theory and Criticism, Genre-poetry. 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).
Students who wish to enroll in English 80 must submit their applications to the administrative assistant in the English Department Office by the last day of the term preceding the term for which they wish to enroll. A brief application form is available in the English Department Office. Students do not submit sample work for entry into the course, but must complete the application form. Students should then register for three other courses, not including the Creative Writing course. Students accepted into Creative Writing 80 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 for the Creative Writing course.
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.
Intermediate Creative Writing Courses
Students who wish to enroll in an intermediate Creative Writing Course must pick up the appropriate “How to Apply to English 81, 82 or 83” form from 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. This must be delivered to the administrative assistant of the English Department by the last day of the term preceding the term for which they wish to enroll. 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 for the Creative Writing course.
81. Creative Writing: Poetry
08W, 08S, 09W, 09S: 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 pick up the “How To Apply To English 81, 82 or 83” form 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 by the last day of the term preceding the term in which they wish to enroll. Dist: ART. Mathis, Huntington.
82. Creative Writing: Fiction
08W: 3A 08S: 10A 09W, 09S: 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 pick up the “How To Apply To English 81, 82 or 83” form 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 by the last day of the term preceding the term in which they wish to enroll. Dist: ART. Hebert, O’Malley, Tudish.
83. Creative Writing: Literary Non-Fiction
07F: 2A 08F: Arrange
This course offers students training in the writing of literary nonfiction. The class proceeds by means of group workshops on student writing, individual conferences with the instructor, and analysis of work by contemporary writers.
Prerequisite: English 80 and permission of the instructor. Please pick up the “How To Apply To English 81, 82 or 83” form 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 non-fiction 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. Tudish.
Advanced Creative Writing Courses
85. Senior Workshop in Poetry and Prose Fiction
07F, 08F: Arrange
This course is to be taken by Creative Writing majors in the fall of their senior year. Each student will undertake a manuscript of poems, short fiction, or literary non-fiction. While all Creative Writing majors are guaranteed a spot in English 85, they must nonetheless submit a eight-to-ten page writing sample to the administrative assistant of the English Department by May 15 of the spring term preceding their senior year. Please also pick up the “How To Apply To English 85” form from the English Department and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter.
Prerequisite: English 80 and 81, 82, or 83. Students who are not Creative Writing majors may be admitted by permission of the Creative Writing staff. Dist: ART. Hebert, Huntington, Mathis, O’Malley, Tudish.
97. Creative Writing Project
08W, 08S, 09W, 09S: 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 creative writing majors. Creative Writing majors must request permission to take English 97 (one or two terms) during fall of senior year when they are enrolled in English 85. Decisions regarding admission to English 97 will not be made before fall term of senior year. Prerequisite: English 85 and permission of the Director of Creative Writing.
98. Honors Course in Creative Writing
08W, 08S, 09W, 09S: Arrange
To be arranged in fall term of senior year. Independent study under the direction of a faculty adviser. 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.
SECTION VI: FOREIGN STUDY COURSES
90. English Study Abroad I
07F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow, Dublin) 08F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow, Trinidad)
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 three Foreign Study Programs (FSPs). On the Glasgow FSP, this will be a course of study in literature at the University of Glasgow. On the Trinidad FSP, this will be a course of study in literature at the University of the West Indies. 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. Trinidad Dist: LIT; WCult: NW.
91. English Study Abroad II
07F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow, Dublin) 08F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow, Trinidad)
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 three Foreign Study Programs (FSPs). On the Glasgow FSP, this will be a course of study in literature at the University of Glasgow. On the Trinidad FSP, this will be a course of study in literature at the University of the West Indies. 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. Trinidad Dist: LIT; WCult: NW.
92. English Study Abroad III
07F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow, Dublin) 08F: D.F.S.P. (Glasgow, Trinidad)
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 three Foreign Study Programs (FSPs). On the Glasgow FSP, the third course (English 92) is taken in a discipline outside the English department offerings, but must nevertheless be on a subject that relates directly to the study of English literature and must be approved by the program director. On the Trinidad FSP, this will be a course of study in West Indian history and culture. 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; Trinidad Dist: INT or SOC; 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 Professor Will 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 adviser. 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.