Catalog
English
Professors Dillon, Federico, and Nayder; Associate Professors Freedman (chair), Osucha, and Pickens; Assistant Professor Villagrana; Lecturers Anthony, Hardy, Salter, Strong, and Wright
Through a wide range of courses offered in English, students develop the ability to read closely and to engage in skilled textual analysis. They gain a sense of diverse literary histories and an understanding of literary genres. Deepening their engagement with literature, they formulate and test questions about texts and compare them critically. Students learn to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of critical sources, methods, and interpretations and to negotiate among them. Discussions and course work require students to develop their own ideas about texts and to present persuasive arguments in an articulate, responsive, and insightful manner, in both speech and writing. The English major prepares students for careers such as teaching, publishing, and writing, for graduate study in literature, and for graduate programs leading to the study or practice of medicine, law, public health, bioethics, and library science.
Departmental offerings are intended to be taken in sequence. Courses at the 100 level are open to all students. Courses at the 200 level are more difficult in both the amount of material covered and the level of inquiry; they also address questions of theory and methodology in more self-conscious ways. Most 200-level courses have prerequisites. Seminars at the 300 level are generally for juniors and seniors who have completed several English courses (the latter requirement may be waived at the discretion of the instructor for certain interdisciplinary majors). More information on the English department is available on the website (bates.edu/english).
Major Requirements
Majors must complete eleven courses of which a minimum of seven must be taken from Bates faculty in the English department.1) The eleven courses required for the major include one or two courses at the 100-level, nine or ten courses at the 200-level or above and the thesis.
2) Among the eleven courses, students must complete the following:
a) a methods course (generally taken by the second year);
b) three courses on literature before 1800 (one must be medieval; only one may be on Shakespeare);
c) three courses on literature after 1800;
d) two courses taken in the department that examine race, ethnicity, or diasporic literature;
e) two junior-senior seminars taken in the department;
f) a one-semester or two-semester thesis.
The department views the critical methods course as a prerequisite for the senior thesis. Students are strongly advised to take the methods course in their second year. Students are also strongly encouraged to take an additional critical theory course before their senior year.
The department requires each major to begin to assemble a portfolio of their most significant writing from courses (that is, ambitious, accomplished, representative writing). The portfolio includes critical essays written for 100-, 200-, or 300-level courses, and if relevant to the individual major's plans, also creative work in fiction or poetry. During the winter or Short Term of the third year, the department reviews each major's portfolio.
No English Short Term courses may be counted toward the major.
Students may count one course in creative writing toward the major.
Students may count any two literature courses outside the department toward the English major, including:
a) literature courses in a language other than English in which the primary focus is on literature rather than on language instruction.The English department strongly recommends that majors take courses in Greek and Latin literature, particularly courses in Homer, Virgil, Ovid, or classical mythology that are offered by the Program in Classical and Medieval Studies.
b) literature courses offered by the Department of Theater and Dance, with a primary emphasis on literature rather than production.
Students may receive no more than two credits for junior-semester-abroad courses, and, normally, no more than two credits for junior-year-abroad courses. Under special circumstances, and upon written petition to the English department, junior-year-abroad students may receive credit for three courses.
One course credit is granted for Advanced Placement scores of four or five. Such credits count only toward overall graduation requirements, not toward the eleven-course major requirement in English.
Creative Writing
English majors may elect a program in creative writing. This program is intended to complement and enhance the English major and to add structure and a sense of purpose to those students already committed to creative writing. Students who wish to write a creative thesis must undertake this program.Requirements for the focus on creative writing include:
1) Two introductory courses in the writing of fiction (291), poetry (292), or drama (THEA 240).
2) One advanced course in the writing of fiction or poetry (391 or 392).
3) Three related courses in the English department or in the literature of a language other than English. These courses should focus on the genre (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction) in which the student plans to write the thesis.
4) A one- or two-semester thesis (nonhonors) in which the student writes and revises a portfolio of creative work.
Students who elect the creative writing concentration must fulfill all English major requirements but may count toward those requirements one creative writing course as well as the related literature courses and the thesis.
Honors
With departmental approval, students may write a two-semester honors thesis in the senior year. Majors who wish to present themselves as potential honors candidates are encouraged to register for at least one junior-senior seminar in their junior year. Majors who elect to participate in a junior-year-abroad program and who also want to present themselves as honors candidates must submit evidence of broadly comparable course work or independent study pursued elsewhere; such persons are encouraged to consult with the department before their departure or early in their year abroad. At the end of their junior year, prospective honors candidates must submit a two-page proposal and a one-page bibliography; those wishing to write a two-semester creative thesis must submit a one-page description of a project and a substantial writing sample. Both are due at the department chair's office on the first Friday of the Short Term.Graduate Study
Students planning to do graduate work should seek advice early concerning their undergraduate program, the range of graduate school experience, and vocational options. Graduate programs frequently require reading proficiency in two other languages, so it is strongly recommended that prospective graduate students achieve at least a two-year proficiency in a classical (Latin, Greek) or modern language.Pass/Fail Grading Option
Pass/fail grading may not be elected for courses counting toward the major. CoursesCM/EN 103. Introduction to Classical and Medieval Studies.
This course introduces students to major topics, methods, and modes of inquiry in classical and medieval studies. By examining the transmission and reception of selected textual and material cultures of antiquity in the Middle Ages, students develop an understanding of the critical approaches that define the field. Specific topics and texts vary, but include such themes as "Images of the City" (Troy, Rome, Jerusalem, London) and "Lovers and Warriors" (Achilles, Caesar, Christ, Edward III), and are drawn from a mixed sampling of ancient poetry in translation (Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Lucan) and medieval texts either in translation (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio) or in manageable Middle English (Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate). Historical and archaeological evidence is studied in conjunction with literary works to emphasize current research methods in an interdisciplinary context, with ample opportunity for questioning the categories of periodicity and genre that give rise to the definitions of "classical" and "medieval" studies. [W1] Normally offered every year. S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
CM/EN 104. Introduction to Medieval English Literature.
This course offers an introductory survey of the literature produced in England between 800-1485, from Anglo-Saxon poetry through the advent of print. Major texts include pre-Conquest poetry and prose (such as Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle), early Middle English romance, post-Conquest lyric and narrative verse (including Chaucer), the fourteenth-century alliterative revival, Arthurian romance, drama, chronicles, and personal letters. Designed for nonmajors and prospective majors, the entry-level course provides a foundation in critical thinking about literary history. Enrollment limited to 39. S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 105. Narrating 9/11 in Literature and Film.
This course examines historical memory of the violence, trauma, and public grief that defines "9/11" in the American cultural imagination by looking at works of literature, film, and art that attempt to narrate these events and/or their aftermath. In addition to asking what kind of "post-9/11 American culture" these varied representations project, students also consider the complex ways in which national belonging and racialized exclusions intersect in the public cultures of mourning and memorialization that frame historical memory of September 11, 2001. Enrollment limited to 49. E. Osucha.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 113. Theory of Narrative.
The novelist E. M. Forster distinguished between "the king died and then the queen died," which is a story, and "the king died, and then the queen died of grief," which is a plot. How does the causal meaning of "then" explain narrative? Narratology provides a theory of reading that crosses literary criticism, neuroscience, and philosophy of law. This course, in examining causality, agency, event, and temporality, pursues recent questions that ask what role narratives play in understanding self, consciousness, and cognition and emotion. Special attention is given to three case studies: the short stories of D. H. Lawrence, the narrative and lyric poems of Philip Larkin, and the "The Decalogues" of Krzysztof Kieslowski. Enrollment limited to 49. S. Freedman.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/EN 114. Introduction to African American Literature I: 1600–1910.
This introductory course traces the development of a distinct African American literary tradition from the Atlantic Slave Trade to 1910. Students examine music, oratory, letters, poems, essays, slave narratives, autobiographies, fiction, and plays by Americans of African descent. The essential questions that shape this course include: What is the role of African American literature in the cultural identity and collective struggle of black people, and what should that role be? What themes, tropes, and forms connect these texts, authors, and movements into a coherent living tradition? Enrollment limited to 49. T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/EN 115. Introduction to African American Literature II: 1910–Present.
This introductory course traces the development of a distinct African American literary tradition from 1910 to the present. Students examine music, oratory, letters, poems, essays, slave narratives, autobiographies, fiction, and plays by Americans of African descent. The essential questions that shape this course include: What is the role of African American literature in the cultural identity and collective struggle of black people, and what should that role be? What themes, tropes, and forms connect these texts, authors, and movements into a coherent living tradition? This course is a continuation of African American Literature I, which considers literary production before 1910. Recommended background: AA/EN 114. Enrollment limited to 49. T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 117. Art of the Novella.
The novella was once described by Stephen King as an "anarchy-ridden literary banana republic." This course examines the long-beleaguered novella, a story that murkily exists between 10,000 and 50,000 words. Despite being overshadowed by its overly heralded compatriots, the short story and the novel, the novella has been, and continues to be, explored by writers across cultures. This course broadly explores the aims and unique aesthetic seduction of works of this strange length; readings may include novellas by Voltaire, Stevenson, Melville, Mann, Joyce, Conrad, Woolf, Hemingway, Wright, Tolstoy, Jewett, Zola, Cervantes, Cortázar, McCullers, Kafka, Wells, and Kosinski. Enrollment limited to 49. J. Anthony, S. Dillon.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 118. The Aesthetics of Seeing: Poetry as Witness.
This course explores poetry profoundly influenced by poets’ lived experiences as witnesses. Often the aesthetic of witness is one based in the traumatic: war, abuse, exile, and injustice. But this witnessing can also be the experience of observing kindness, joy, and beauty during times of inhumanity. The course examines how poets use what they have seen, what they have witnessed, to make poems. In effect, poetry preserves memories of the unmemorable. The course studies poems by Carolyn Forche, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Mahmoud Darwish, among others. Classes are discussion-based and include close readings of poems, group exercises, and short papers. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 119. "I, too, sing America.": Poetry of this Moment/Movement.
In the tradition of Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes, American poets who explicitly wrote of the political and social anxieties of their country's moment, this course analyzes the work of contemporary poets responding to the current social and political moment in the United States. Students closely examine poetry that speaks from small town America, environmental wreckage, #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, the Standing Rock Dakota Pipeline movement as well as poetry that addresses our current political leadership. Readings include Claudia Rankine, Terrance Hayes, and Layli Long Soldier. Students engage these discussions through the production of critical examinations of the texts and through their own creative writing. New course beginning Winter 2019. Enrollment limited to 25. M. Hardy.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 121. Colloquia in Literature.
Colloquia introduce students to the study of literature from a variety of perspectives, with a focus on such objects as author, genre, and literary period. These courses not only delve into their particular subject matter, they also allow a preliminary discussion of critical vocabulary and methods that will carry over into more advanced courses. Discussion and frequent writing assignments characterize each section. Prospective majors are urged to take at least one colloquium. Enrollment limited to 25 per section.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
CM/EN 121D. The Many Lives of King Arthur.
King Arthur is called the "once and future king," but this malleable, mythic figure in some sense always lives in the present time. Approaching Arthur as an idea as much as a man, students analyze the ways in which the Arthur story has been adapted for different literary, social, and political purposes according to the needs and desires of its changing audience. They explore the features of the Arthurian legend which make it universally compelling, including feudal loyalty and kinship, women and marriage, questing and adventure, magic and monsters, violence and warfare, and consider the fierce debate over Arthur's historical and mythical origins. Enrollment limited to 25. S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 121E. Introduction to Poetry.
An introduction to reading poetry through the close reading of British and American poems from the Renaissance to the present day. Topics include authorial intention, literary "meaning," cultural context, the diversity of traditional forms, and contemporary lyric genres. The course is based on the discussion of one or two poems each class day. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. Offered with varying frequency. S. Dillon.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/GS 121G. Asian American Women Writers.
This course examines from a sociohistorical perspective fictional, autobiographical, and critical writings by Asian American women including Meena Alexander, Sui Sin Far, Gish Jen, Maxine Hong Kingston, Tahira Naqvi, Cathy Song, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Hisaye Yamamoto. Students explore their concerns with personal and cultural identity, as both Asian and American, as females, as minorities, and often as postcolonial subjects. The course highlights the varied immigration and social histories of women from different Asian countries, often homogenized as "Oriental" in mainstream American cultural representations. Not open to students who have received credit for EN/WS 121G. Enrollment limited to 25. T. Salter.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 121H. The Brontës.
Reading a selection of fiction and poetry by the three Brontë sisters, as well as critical essays about them, students consider questions of authorial intention, and discuss the relation between literature and history in the Victorian period. Particular attention is paid to the Brontës' representations of gender and class, and to the interrelations between these social categories. Not open to students who have received credit for FYS 306. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. L. Nayder.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ENG 121I. Poetry in the Twenty-First Century.
A critical study of the variegated terrain of American poetry in the twenty-first century. Readings include mainstream and experimental poetic works, critical works, and commentary. Students use music, film, and visual art to reflect on unique themes and novel directions for poetry in this century. Written work includes short response papers and a longer essay. Students also produce a small sample of poems in order to better grasp questions concerning the craft of poetry. Enrollment limited to 25. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 121L. Modern Short Stories.
A study of the short story and novella as characteristic twentieth-century genres, with a brief introduction to works in the nineteenth century. The course focuses on both "classic" and contemporary texts by writers selected from among Anton Chekhov, Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, Jamaica Kincaid, Jhumpa Lahiri, D. H. Lawrence, David Leavitt, W.S. Maugham, Katherine Mansfield, Susan Minot, Shani Mootoo, Susan Sontag, Guy Vanderhaeghe, and Virginia Woolf. Students experiment with writing a short story. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. T. Salter.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/ES 121O. The Creative Spirit: Self and Nature.
What is the relationship among the spirit, the self, and nature? How does communion with nature help the creation and evolution of one’s sense of "self " and the soul’s journey? Is creativity connected with divinity? How have nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century writers, artists, and spiritual thinkers described their connection with the self and the natural world? In this course, students create original poetry, poetic prose, visual art, and/or music within the context of inward reflection, contemplation, mindfulness, and meditation. Authors studied may include Frost, Elizabeth Gilbert, Jack Kornfeld, Mary Oliver, Shelley, Snyder, Cathy Song, Tagore, Thoreau, Whitman, David Whyte, Woolf, Wordsworth, and Yeats. Enrollment limited to 25. J. Anthony.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/ES 121Q. The Lives of Rivers.
In this colloquium, students read broadly—from the magical waterways of classical antiquity to the American folk tradition that takes us "down by the riverside"—in order to better understand the human need to write about rivers. Students consider verse by Whitman, Walcott, and Spark alongside Twain's stories of Huckleberry Finn and the classic angling novella A River Runs Through It. From the local riparian zone on the banks of the Androscoggin, students follow contemporary currents of ecocritical inquiry, investigating moments when the landed human body is literally or figuratively swept away by a torrent of fresh water. Enrollment limited to 25. M. Wright.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 121W. Image and Sound: Reading and Writing Poems.
This course introduces students to lyric poetry written in the last two centuries, and in varied cultural settings, from the "canonical" English and American classics to the contemporary, multicultural, and transnational. Poets studied may include Meena Alexander, Agha Shahid Ali, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, John Keats, Audre Lorde, Cathy Song, Rabindranath Tagore, Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth, and W. B. Yeats. The focus is on "close reading" with some attention to the poets' varied historical and sociocultural contexts. Students attend live poetry readings and write their own poems. Not open to students who have received credit for FYS 323. Enrollment limited to 25. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 121Y. Becoming America.
In the United States, Thanksgiving and Independence Day are national holidays, but how did this country transform from theocracy to nascent democracy? This course examines intellectual forces shaping the idea of America from Puritanism to Transcendentalism. Students read philosopher-theologians Jonathan Edwards and Cotton Mather, poets Dickinson and Wheatley, writers Hawthorne and Emerson, and theorists of the era. How do we reconcile the Puritans' use of nature as providential barometer of their predestination, Edwards’ idea that the world will "shadow forth spiritual things" once we turn from our abject self, and Emerson’s concept of "nature as an appendix to the soul" where self-reliant individuals find unmediated divinity? Enrollment limited to 25 per section. R. Strong.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 129. Introduction to Early Modern English Literature.
This course offers an introductory survey of early modern English literature from 1509 to 1660. Major works include courtly lyric, drama, epic, and prose romance. Topics include the Protestant Reformation, the Anglo-Spanish War, Tudor and Stuart courtly politics, print culture, and Humanist learning. Designed for nonmajors and prospective majors, this entry-level course provides a foundation in critical thinking about literary history. Enrollment limited to 39. Normally offered every year. J. Villagrana.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 142. Early American Literature.
A survey of significant works and voices from the diverse traditions that contributed to the creation of a U.S. national literature, including the oral storytelling traditions of the indigenous peoples of North America. The course of reading extends from fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European accounts of "New World" exploration through the turn of the nineteenth century and the emergence of a distinctive tradition of the American novel and its genres. Authors include Bradford, Morton, Bradstreet, Rowlandson, Tyler, Franklin, Jefferson, Wheatley, Equianah, de Crèvecoeur, Occum, Brockden Brown, Foster, and Rowson. Enrollment limited to 25. E. Osucha.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 143. Nineteenth-Century American Literature.
A critical study of American literary history from the early national period through the Gilded Age. Students examine a wide range of texts, giving attention to the historical phenomena and events that shaped them and to the aesthetic and political traditions that dominated literary production in that century. Authors may include Melville, Poe, Hawthorne, Emerson, Fuller, Dickinson, Douglass, Howells, Davis, Fuller, Cooper, Child, Gilman, Jacobs, Jewett, Chesnutt, Wharton, and Chopin. Enrollment limited to 25. E. Osucha.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ENG 152. American Writers since 1900.
A study of ten to twelve American texts selected from the works of such writers as Dickinson, Twain, Gilman, Chesnutt, James, Adams, Dreiser, Hughes, Frost, Stein, Hemingway, Larsen, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Pound, Eliot, Crane, Cullen, Wright, Stevens, Williams, Baldwin, Plath, Albee, Brooks, Walker, Ellison, Pynchon, and Morrison. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. Normally offered every year. S. Dillon, E. Osucha.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ENG 202. The Global English Renaissance.
A survey course on the transnational and transatlantic contexts informing sixteenth-century English literature. Students are introduced to critical approaches and terms in early modern literary and cultural studies. They explore the impact on literature of religious controversy, ethnicity, colonial encounters, and literary form. Selections from Spanish, French, Italian, and ancient Roman colonial sources complement primary readings of More, Kyd, Spenser, Marlowe, Sidney, Raleigh, Bacon, and Donne. Recommended background: one English course. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. J. Villagrana.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 203. Thinking through Dreams in Medieval and Early Modern Britain.
How did medieval and early modern people reckon with the mystery of dreams? What did they make of the relationship between the involuntary act of dreaming and the deliberate practices of reading and writing? This course explores the compelling, terrifying, and revelatory effects of dreams in British literature from Chaucer to Shakespeare. In reading works by these and other authors including Malory, Spenser, and Wroth, students examine how literary dreams invite readers to look differently at everyday sources of anxiety: God, sex, nation, and the boundaries of the self. Recommended background: ENG 213 or 214. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. New course beginning Winter 2019. Enrollment limited to 29. [W2] One-time offering. M. Wright.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 204. Milton and the English Civil War.
An exploration of Milton’s literary, political, and intellectual career in the context of the English Civil War. This course examines Milton’s inventions and innovations in English poetry and language; his political writings on censorship and religion; and his public writings on divorce, regicide, and international affairs. Considerable attention is paid to Milton’s biography: his blindness, his marriages, his travels, and his political enemies. Primary readings in prose and verse include Lycidas, A Masque at Ludlow Castle, Of Education, Areopagitica, Paradise Lost, and Samson Agonistes. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. J. Villagrana.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
CM/EN 206. Chaucer.
Reading and interpretation of Chaucer's major works, including The Canterbury Tales. All works are read in Middle English. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. [W2] Normally offered every year. S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AV/EN 208. Asian American Graphic Narrative.
This course the evolution of Asian American graphic narrative. Students consider the narrative in a visual format, discussing how works created by Asian Americans combat decades of stereotypes propagated in comic books, especially as evil-genius Fu Manchu figures. They read graphic novels, graphic memoir, and selected issues of several comics series. Topics include race, identity, family history, military history, gender performance, and sexuality. Students discuss writing practice, style, genre, research, and multimodal composition. They also workshop writing and discuss effective revision critiques and applying feedback in the revision process. Enrollment limited to 25. [W2] T. Salter.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 213. Shakespeare I.
A study of the major plays, with some emphasis on the biography of Shakespeare and the Elizabethan milieu. ENG 213 is offered in the fall. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Not open to students who have received credit for ENG 215. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. Normally offered every year. S. Freedman, J. Villagrana.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 214. Shakespeare II.
A study of the major plays, with some emphasis on the biography of Shakespeare and the Elizabethan milieu. ENG 214 is offered in the winter. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. Normally offered every year. S. Freedman, J. Villagrana.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 220. Dickens Revised.
Focusing on several works that span Dickens's career, students place Dickens in his Victorian context and consider how and why his fiction has been adapted and reworked in the twentieth century. Students discuss film and musical adaptations as well as fictional reworkings, and examine changes in Dickens's reputation and the evolving cultural meaning of his stories. Novels, films, and musicals include Oliver!, Jack Maggs, The D. Case, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood: The Solve-It-Yourself Broadway Musical. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. L. Nayder.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ENG 222. Seventeenth-Century Literature.
A study of significant writers of the seventeenth century. Writers may include William Shakespeare, John Donne, George Herbert, Aemilia Lanyer, John Milton, and Aphra Behn. Attention is given to the intellectual, political, and scientific revolutions of the age. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. M. Wright.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/EN 223. Survey of Literatures of the Caribbean.
This course examines the literatures of the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Some texts are drawn from Anglophone authors such as Lamming, Anthony, Walcott, Brodber, Danticat, Lovelace, Brathwaite, NourBese (Philip), Hopkinson, and Denis Williams; others, from Francophone and Hispanophone writers, including Guillen, Carpentier, Condé, Chamoiseau, Depestre, Ferré, Santos-Febres, and Morejón. The course places each work in its historical, political, and anthropological contexts. Students are introduced to a number of critical theories and methodologies with which to analyze the works, including poststructural, Marxist, Pan-African, postcolonial, and feminist. Recommended background: one 100-level English course or the introduction to African American studies. Enrollment limited to 49. S. Houchins.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
CM/EN 225. Imagining Troy: Medieval Tales of the City.
This course examines the popular motif of ancient Troy in late medieval literature, from 1100 to 1500, in Western Europe. Topics include the representations of epic heroism and treachery, the problematics of "pagan" sensuality, and the political and social uses of Troy as a foundation for aristocratic identity and nascent ideas of nationality in the late Middle Ages. Competing narratives of Troy are studied alongside their classical and medieval sources, primarily in English, French, Welsh, Irish, and Scottish texts; Italian and German versions are also studied for comparative purposes. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level course in classical and medieval studies or English. Enrollment limited to 29. S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 226. Milton's Paradise Lost.
Milton's Christian epic, Paradise Lost (1668), which retells the story of man's fall from Paradise, is one of the most influential and interesting works in English literature. Students read this poem twice: once before midterm, with attention to internal form and structure, and then again afterwards, focusing on significant problems from the history of Milton criticism and on the remarkable influence of Milton's poem in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level course in English. Not open to students who have received credit for ENG 204. Enrollment limited to 25. S. Dillon.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 227. Surreal Fictions.
The word "surrealism" often evokes Dali's melting clocks or perhaps Magritte's headless man, images culled from, or speaking to, a dream. This course examines the history and aesthetic of the surreal in various fictions. Surreal stories and novels do not defy realism, rather they employ the rules of realism as a means to go beyond, into the dream. What are the unlikely effects of surreal fictions? How do surreal fictions manage the essential components of storytelling, such as character, allusion, metaphor, and verisimilitude? What sorts of truths can be unearthed through stories that challenge or defy reason? Authors may include Breton, Barthelme, Carroll, Ellison, Budnitz, Millhauser, Morrison, Antrim, Murakami, Calvino, and Crevel. Prerequisites(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. J. Anthony.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 231. Women Writers of the 1950s.
This course examines the fiction, poetry, and drama of female writers writing and/or publishing in the 1950s, including O'Connor, Welty, Plath, Moore, Bishop, Jackson, McCullers, Hansberry, Brooks, and Porter. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. J. Anthony.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 232. Eighteenth-Century Literature.
A study of Restoration and eighteenth-century British authors, including Dryden, Congreve, Swift, Pope, Fielding, and Johnson. Attention is given to parallel developments in Continental literature and to continuity with Renaissance humanism. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. S. Freedman.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 234. The Bronte Siblings.
Reading a selection of fiction and poetry by the four Brontë siblings—Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell—as well as their juvenile writings and a range of critical essays and biographical studies, students approach their literary productions in the context of family dynamics, consider the relation between literature and history in the Victorian period, examine the Brontës' representations of British imperialism and of gender and class, and discuss the interrelations between these social categories. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. New course beginning Fall 2019. Enrollment limited to 25. L. Nayder.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 238. Jane Austen: Then and Now.
Students read Austen's six major works, investigate their relation to nineteenth-century history and culture, and consider the Austen revival in film adaptations and fictional continuations of her novels. The course highlights the various and conflicting ways in which critics represent Austen, and the cultural needs her stories now seem to fulfill. Readings include Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. L. Nayder.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ENG 241. Fiction in the United States.
Critical readings of a diverse selection of novels and shorter fictions, ranging from works by earlier writers such as Hawthorne, Howells, James, Wharton, Jewett, and Chesnutt, to more recent writing from James Baldwin, Don DeLillo, Toni Morrison, Donald Barthelme, Sherman Alexie, and David Foster Wallace, among others. In addition to major directions in the history of American fiction, more recent developments concerning postmodernism, multi-ethnic literature, and emergent forms—graphic novels and electronic texts—are considered. Class discussions and writing assignments also address critical terms and methods. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. E. Osucha.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ENG 243. Romantic Literature (1790–1840).
The theoretical foundations of English and European Romanticism, including its philosophical, critical, and social backgrounds. The course concentrates on Rousseau, Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, and Keats. Attention is also given to Lamb, Hazlitt, De Quincey, Swedenborg, and other prose figures and critics of the period. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25 per section. S. Dillon, S. Freedman.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
AM/EN 247. Contemporary Arab American Literature.
This course studies Arab American literature from 1990 until the present. Students examine novels, short fiction, memoirs, or poetry in an effort to understand the major concerns of contemporary Arab American authors. Students are expected to engage theoretical material and literary criticism to supplement their understanding of the literature. In addition to a discussion of formal literary concerns, this course is animated by the way authors spotlight gender, sexual orientation, politics, and history. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level course in English. Not open to students who have received credit for AC/EN 247. Enrollment limited to 25. T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/EN 253. The African American Novel.
An examination of the African American novel from its beginnings in the mid-1800s to the present. Issues addressed include a consideration of folk influences on the genre, its roots in the slave narrative tradition, its relation to Euro-American texts and culture, and the "difference" that gender as well as race makes in determining narrative form. Readings include narratives selected from among the works of such writers as Douglass, Jacobs, Wilson, Delany, Hopkins, Harper, Chesnutt, Johnson, Toomer, Larsen, Hurston, Wright, Petry, Ellison, Baldwin, Walker, Morrison, Marshall, and Reed. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 254. Modern British Literature since 1900.
An introduction to the birth of modern British literature and its roots, with attention to its social and cultural history, its philosophical and cultural foundations, and some emphasis on its relationship to the previous century. Texts are selected from the works of writers such as Forster, Lawrence, Joyce, Woolf, Mansfield, Eliot, Yeats, Orwell, Rushdie, and Lessing. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. L. Dhingra, L. Nayder, S. Dillon.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
AA/EN 259. Contemporary African American Literature.
This course introduces students to contemporary African American literature. They explore literature written after 1975, considering a range of patterns and literary techniques as well as consistent themes and motifs. Students read a mix of canonical and less well-known authors. This course requires a nuanced, complicated discussion about what encompasses the contemporary African American literary tradition. Prerequisites(s): one 100-level English course. Recommended background: course work in American studies, African American studies, or English. Not open to students who have received credit for INDS s37. Enrollment limited to 25. Normally offered every year. T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 260. Passages to and from India.
This course introduces fiction, poetry, and films by writers who are of South Asian descent, Indian American immigrants, or who have considered the Indian subcontinent their home. Topics include British influence on South Asia, the Partition of India, national and diasporic identity formation, women's social roles, the impact of Western education and the English language, and the emergence of a new generation of postcolonial and immigrant literary artists. Writers are selected from among Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai, Satyajit Ray, Rabindranath Tagore, Jhumpa Lahiri, U. R. Anantha Murthy, and E. M. Forster. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
- Asian Modernity (C053)
- Asian Narrative Traditions (C052)
- Colonialism (C059)
- Diasporas (C038)
- English (C086)
- Globalization (C014)
- Identity, Race, and Ethnicity (C037)
- Learning and Teaching (C084)
- Popular Culture (C040)
- Producing Culture: Arts and Audience (C061)
- South Asian Studies (C087)
- The Translated World (C067)
- Women and Gender in Asia (C050)
ENG 263. Literature, Medicine, Empathy.
Focusing on a range of novels published from the nineteenth century to the present day, and on scholarship in the developing field of empathy studies, students consider the relationships among literature, medicine, and empathy. Students examine representations of medical practice and practitioners and of relations between physicians and patients. They explore claims that literature has the power to develop empathy and should be central to medical education. Authors include George Eliot, Bram Stoker, Abraham Verghese, and Ian McEwan. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. L. Nayder.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 264. Modern Irish Poetry.
A study of the development and transformation of Anglo-Irish poetry in the twentieth century, especially as it responds to the political, social, and gender forces at work in Ireland's recent history. Beginning with brief but concentrated study of key poems by W. B. Yeats, Patrick Kavanagh, and Louis MacNeice, the course then examines work by inheritors of these major figures' legacies, including Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Eavan Boland, Nuala ni Dhomnhaill, Paul Muldoon, Ciaran Carson, and Medbh McGuckian. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Not open to students who have received credit for ENG 110. Enrollment limited to 25. [W2] Staff.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
AA/EN 265. The Writings of Toni Morrison.
This course surveys the writing of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. Texts are selected from her novels, essays, children's literature, and drama and also include criticism written about her work by other scholars. Recommended background: one 100-level English course or AAS 100. S. Houchins.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/EN 268. Survey of Literatures of Africa.
This course explores folklore, myths, and literary texts of the African continent. These include works written by Anglophone authors such as Achebe, Soyinka, Ngugi, Vera, Njau, Aidoo, Nwapa, Head, Cole, Mda, Abani, Okorafor, and Atta; those drawn from oral traditions of indigenous languages transcribed into English, such as The Mwindo Epic and The Sundiata; and those written by Lusophone and Francophone authors including Bâ, Senghor, Liking, Neto, Mahfouz, Ben Jelloun, and Kafunkeno. The course contextualizes each work historically, politically, and anthropologically. Students are introduced to a number of critical theories and methodologies with which to analyze the works, such as poststructural, Marxist, Pan-African, postcolonial, and feminist. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. S. Houchins.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/EN 269. Narrating Slavery.
This course examines selected autobiographical writings of ex-slaves; biographical accounts of the lives of former slaves written by abolitionists, relatives, or friends; the oral histories of ex-slaves collected in the early to mid-twentieth century; and the fiction, poems, and dramas about slaves and slavery (neo-slave narratives) of the last hundred years. Students consider these works as interventions in the discourses of freedom—religious, political, legal, and psychological—and as examples of a genre foundational to many literary works by descendants of Africans in diaspora. The course surveys early works written by slaves themselves, such as broadsides and books by Jupiter Hammond, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs; dictated biographies such as those by Esteban Montejo, Nat Turner, Mary Prince, and Sor Teresa Chicaba; and fictional works inspired by the narratives, such as works by Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones, Charles Johnson, Michelle Cliff, and Sherley Ann Williams. Recommended background: one 100-level English course or AAS 100. Not open to students who have received credit for AA/EN 267. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. S. Houchins.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 275. English Novel.
A study of the English novel from its origins to the early nineteenth century. Readings include selections from Homer's Iliad, and novels by Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Radcliffe, Austen, and Scott. Among the issues addressed by this course are the relation of the novel to the epic, and the social and political orientation of this new genre. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. L. Nayder.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 291. Fiction Writing.
A course for students who wish to have practice and guidance in the writing of prose. Admission by writing sample. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 292. Poetry Writing.
A course for students who wish to have practice and guidance in the writing of poetry. Admission by writing sample. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. S. Dillon, M. Hardy.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 295. Critical Theory.
Major literary critics are read, and major literary works are studied in the light of these critics. Critical approaches discussed may include neoclassical, Romantic, psychoanalytical, formalist, generic, archetypal, structuralist, and deconstructionist. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 25. Normally offered every year. S. Freedman, T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 296. Methods and Modes of Literary Study.
This course introduces students to major trends, methodologies, and modes of inquiry in the field of literary study. Students identify and discuss the continuing significance of the formation of the Western canon (including counter responses to that formation), identify and demonstrate knowledge of the meaning of different literary genres, perform close readings of a given text, appreciate poetic form and experimentation, critically analyze a given text with reference to its historical significance, deploy theoretical concepts in relation to a given text, identify appropriate theoretical or digital methodologies to apply in different textual circumstances, and conduct research in the field. Enrollment limited to 25. S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDC 306. Queer Africana: History, Theories, and Representations.
This course examines the debates among authors, politicians, religious leaders, social scientists, and artists in Africa, the African Americas, and Afro-Europe about the very existence of same-sex desire and relationships—any non-normative sexualities, in general—throughout the African world. While the class analyzes histories of sexualities, legal documents, manifestos by dissident organizations, anthropological and sociological treatises, it focuses primarily on textual and cinematic representations, and it proposes methods of reading cultural productions at the intersection of sexualities, race, ethnicities, and gender. Recommended background: at least one course in African American studies, gender and sexuality studies, or literary analysis. New course beginning Winter 2019. Enrollment limited to 15. S. Houchins.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDC 325. Black Feminist Literary Theory and Practice.
This seminar examines literary theories that address the representation and construction of race, gender, and sexuality, particularly, but not exclusively, theories formulated and articulated by Afra-diasporic women such as Spillers, Ogunyemi, Henderson, Carby, Christian, Cobham, Valerie Smith, McDowell, Busia, Lubiano, and Davies. Students not only analyze theoretical essays but also use the theories as lenses through which to explore literary productions of women writers of Africa and the African diaspora in Europe and in the Americas, including Philip, Dangarembga, Morrison, Herron, Gayl Jones, Head, Condé, Brodber, Brand, Merle Collins, and Harriet Wilson. Cross-listed in African American studies, English, and gender and sexuality studies. Strongly recommended: at least one literature course. Enrollment limited to 15. S. Houchins.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
CM/EN 344. Chaucer and His Context.
This seminar encourages students already familiar with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to further explore his other major poetic works in the context of his late fourteenth-century London milieu. Texts include a selection of dream visions, historical romances, and philosophical treatises ("Troilus and Criseyde," "Book of the Duchess," "Parliament of Fowls," and others). Chaucer's literary contemporaries, including John Gower, William Langland, and the "Gawain"-Poet, are studied along with their poetic forms and historical contexts. All texts read in Middle English. Prerequisite(s): CM/EN 206. Enrollment limited to 15. [W2] S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 360. Independent Study.
Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Normally offered every semester. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 365. Special Topics.
Offered occasionally by a faculty member in subjects of special interest. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 391. Advanced Fiction Writing.
Prerequisite(s): English 291. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. J. Anthony.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 392. Advanced Poetry Writing.
Prerequisite(s): English 292. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission is required. Normally offered every year. E. Osucha, M. Hardy.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395. Junior-Senior Seminars.
Seminars provide an opportunity for concentrated work in a restricted subject area. Two such seminars are required for the English major. Students are encouraged to see the seminar as preparation for independent work on a senior thesis. They may also choose to use the seminar itself as a means of fulfilling the senior thesis requirement. Sections are limited to 15. Instructor permission is required.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395A. Apocalypse Then and Now.
This seminar examines early modern apocalyptic literature and thought, the origins of biblical apocalypticism, and the ideological implications of apocalypticism on race, politics, and ecology from the early modern period to our present moment. Students examine primary sources centered on moments of historical crisis, critical theory on politics and race, and historical-theological criticism. Course readings taken from Spenser, Donne, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, and Milton are studied alongside contemporary films such as Mad Max: Fury Road and Fences. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] J. Villagrana.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AM/EN 395B. Privacy, Intimacy, and Identity.
This seminar explores American concepts of "self" in historical and cultural context, focusing on distinct yet overlapping discourses of privacy, intimacy, and identity, as these are shaped by evolving understandings of race, sexuality, gender, class, and nation. Beginning with a critical investigation of how the nation's Puritan settlers articulated, practiced, and regulated "the self" and concluding with a consideration of how self and identity are presented via social media on platforms such as Facebook, students consider scholarship in American literary and cultural history, critical theory, and primary literary and legal texts. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course or one American studies course. Recommended background: GSS 100. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] E. Osucha.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395D. Victorian Crime Fiction.
The seminar examines the detective fiction written by British Victorians, the historical context in which this literature was produced, and its ideological implications. Students consider the connection between gender and criminality, and the relation of detection to class unrest and empire building. Readings include works by Charles Dickens, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Grant Allen. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] L. Nayder.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
CM/EN 395E. Medieval Romance.
Romance was the most popular literary genre of the later Middle Ages. Originating in France in the twelfth century, this highly adaptable form quickly became an international phenomenon, with numerous examples found across Europe and the British Isles. Many romances tell tales of amorous exploits, exotic travels, and quests for knowledge; the celebration of chivalric ideals is a central theme. But many of these tales seem to question and sometimes undermine the very ideals they otherwise espouse: courtly love mingles with sexual adventurism, for instance, and loyalty to one's lord often results in alienation or death. Students read a selection of romances from France and Britain (all texts are in modern English translation or manageable Middle English) with an eye toward how they variously articulate and deconstruct the notion of chivalry. Prerequisite(s): one English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395E. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: 1970s U.S. Culture.
What does it look like when an age dedicated to hope and change turns to darkness and horror? Hard for many of us to imagine, but that is what happened when the 1960s became the 1970s. Students explore a range of cultural artifacts from novels and magazines to films and music. Writers and film directors may include Alice Walker, Philip K. Dick, Patti Smith, Hunter Thompson, Charles Burnett, and Martin Scorsese. Prerequisite(s): one English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. S. Dillon.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395F. Five American Women Poets.
Concentrated study of five major American poets, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sylvia Plath, and Adrienne Rich, whose various poetic achievements illuminate particular dilemmas facing female poets—issues of subject matter, visibility, literary tradition, and ideology. Corollary readings may be drawn from the work of both peers and inheritors, such as Marianne Moore, H. D., Edna St. Vincent Millay, Denise Levertov, Lucille Clifton, Rita Dove, Louise Gluck, Jorie Graham, and Marie Howe. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. S. Dillon.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ENG 395I. Literary Imagination and Neuroscience.
This course investigates two separate disciplines, inquiring how they speak and think about literary imagination, and asks students to consider what interdisciplinary overlap might exist between the two. The course frames imagination and the Lockean language about mind that accompanies it in the writings of Addison, Burke, Johnson, and Young. It then queries whether romantic writing (Schlegel, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats) advances radically different ideas than these earlier efforts. Finally it jumps to our contemporary moment and ponders how terms of explanation may once again have changed. The course asks whether or not the neurobiological picture of imagination — the cross-neural nature of cerebral processes, cognitive historicism, and imaging techniques — is at a great distance from what the eighteenth century once thought. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] S. Freedman.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395K. The Arctic Sublime.
Now the focus of grave concerns over climate change, the Arctic generated a different set of anxieties in the nineteenth century. Perceived as strange and terrifying, and deadly to those who tried to chart and conquer it, the region was a source of the sublime; its inhuman greatness both inspired and appalled. Drawing on various genres, students examine the "Arctic sublime," considering its artistic and ideological purposes for Romantics and Victorians. Works include Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym as well as works of visual art and selections from nineteenth-century theorists of the sublime. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] L. Nayder.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ENG 395M. Colossuses: Joyce's Ulysses and Wallace's Infinite Jest.
The seminar pairs two books, one modern, one written in the postmodern period, both joined by the colossal magnitude of their undertaking, their first readers’ failure to comprehend their work, and the patent ambition of both novelists. James Joyce’s Ulysses, a masterpiece of modernism, was thought unreadable in 1922 at the time of its publication; David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, "the first novel of the Internet," is often read as a postmodern novel of an imposing, perplexing 1,000 pages. The seminar closely compares the two works concerning their historical contexts, their use of history, digression, Hamlet, vulgarity, and stream-of-consciousness. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] S. Freedman.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ENG 395N. Literature/Cinema.
An overview of the multiple relationships between literature and cinema. Numerous films are adapted from novels, borrowing their stories, and the process of adaptation can be studied. But novels also adapt themselves to cinema's extraordinary powers of seeing and editing. Many films align themselves with poems more than novels ("lyric films"), while numerous poems take films for their subjects. Students read texts by authors such as Russell Banks, Adrienne Rich, and Don DeLillo, while watching films by directors such as Stan Brakhage, Jean-Luc Godard, and Claire Denis. Prerequisite(s) one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. S. Dillon.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/GS 395P. Worldly Women as Artists: Transnational Women Writers.
This course explores the question of what (or who) qualifies a woman to be regarded as an artist. Students also create an "artist portfolio" in the medium of their choice (visual arts, music, performance, photography, writing, etc.). In her novel, To the Lighthouse (1927), Virginia Woolf resisted the prevailing sentiment that "women can't paint, women can't write." How do twentieth- and twenty-first-century women writers represent female artists? How have transnational female painters and writers described their own creative journeys either visually or in writing? How are the female artists’ personae, themes, and challenges different from male perspectives on art? This seminar examines the fiction, paintings, poetry, and memoirs by Woolf, Dickinson, Kate Chopin, Christina Rossetti, Georgia O’Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, Mary Oliver, Cathy Song, Gogi Saroj Pal, Siona Benjamin, Shani Mootoo, and others. Not open to students who have received credit for EN/WS 395P. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/EN 395T. African American Literary Issues and Criticism.
This seminar takes as its premise that black literature engages with and reflects parts of the world in which it is produced. In this course, students sort through the various conversations authors and critics have with each other. They read canonical authors and less well-known figures in an effort to tease out the nuance present in this body of work. Each text is paired with another in a form of dialogue. These exchanges are not set, so it is up to students to understand how the texts speak to each other. Literary criticism requires us to think through privilege, citizenship, capitalism, intraracial dynamics, gender and sexual dynamics, and political movements. The course theme may vary from year to year (e.g., disability, literature of the left, black queer studies). Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395U. Postmodern Novel.
The seminar examines diverse efforts to define "postmodernism." Students read novels by Joyce, Pynchon, Wallace, Eco, and Rushdie. Contemporary reviews, secondary criticism, narrative theory, issues of socially constructed reality, and some problems in the philosophy of language mark out its concerns. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] S. Freedman.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395V. Literature, Medicine, and the Problem of Empathy.
Exposure to works of literature is widely understood to help develop empathy in readers — to enable us to forge connections and feel "as" others do — and is increasingly built into medical education. But some critics and theorists remain skeptical of such claims, questioning easy equations between literature and "real life," or seeing in empathy itself a troubling and inequitable power dynamic. Students examine the alleged relation between literature and empathy, and consider the importance of empathy to the practice of medicine, the debate over the value of literature for medical education, and theories of empathy and its neuroscience. Readings include short stories, novels, poetry, and memoirs as well as critical and theoretical studies. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. New course beginning Winter 2019. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] L. Nayder.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395X. Digital Dickens.
Students in this course read several major works of Charles Dickens, draw on digital archives of his work, including autograph letters at the Free Library of Philadelphia and journalism from "Dickens Journals Online," and produce a digital project relating to Dickens and/or his fiction while also writing a research paper. Students consider what is gained—and lost—by approaching Dickens through digital means as they study and represents the Victorian novelist by means of electronic resources and digital platforms. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] L. Nayder.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 395Y. Medieval London.
Medieval London was dangerous and thrilling: amid its markets, brothels, and taverns, citizens and foreigners plied their trades while Parliament convened treason trials and authorized public executions, the king held court attended by the royal family and assorted minions, and the monks at Westminster Abbey took notes on daily life in the city. This course looks at medieval London through the texts composed by its contemporary writers and residents, including Chaucer, Gower, Langland, Lydgate, and Hoccleve (in Middle English). Students also examine legal records, chronicles, and parliamentary proceedings (in translation). No previous experience with Middle English is necessary. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
EN/GS 395Z. Arab-American Feminisms.
This course develops students' ability to look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, politics, and sexuality. Students read theoretical and literary material as a catalyst for discussions of fiction, focusing on the way Arab American feminists articulate their unique theoretical concerns. Students read such scholars as Mohja Kahf, Rabab Abdulhadi, Nadine Naber, and Randa Jarrar. Students consider the critical triumphs and limitations of creative and theoretical work in discussing these subjects. Recommended background: previous course work in American cultural studies or gender and sexuality studies. Not open to students who have received credit for EN/WS 395Z. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 457. Senior Thesis.
Students register for ENG 457 in the fall semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both ENG 457 and 458. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG 458. Senior Thesis.
Students register for ENG 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both ENG 457 and 458. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG s12. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale: Novel, Sources, Adaptations.
"Right now, I'm halfway through Hard Times." So Offred says of her illegal reading in Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale. In this course, students read Atwood's novel and examine its biblical and literary sources as well as its adaptations, considering the political and literary significance of the work. Readings include selections from Chaucer, novels by nineteenth-century novelists Mary Hays and Charles Dickens, as well as twentieth-century dystopian fiction. Students compare Atwood's novel to a number of film adaptations, including the 2017—2018 television series. Recommended background: one 100-level English course. New course beginning Short Term 2019. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. L. Nayder.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
CM/EN s14. Medieval Re-enactment: The Battle of Maldon.
This course offers the opportunity to explore the Middle Ages through creative re-enactment. An introduction to Anglo-Saxon literature is followed by a close reading of "The Battle of Maldon," a short poem commemorating the 991 battle between native Britons and an invading Viking army. Drawing on historical evidence, students create replica weapons and garb appropriate to both armies. The course concludes with a live re-enactment of the battle. Enrollment limited to 49. (Community-Engaged Learning.) S. Federico.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AV/EN s17. Cartoon Cartoon: Film Theory and History of Short-Form Animation.
This course provides an overview of short-form animation, its history, and film theory as relates to animation from birth of cartoons and their early use before and between feature films in theaters to their move to prime-time television and the rise of networks dedicated to cartoons. Students discuss issues of technique, production, form, audience, and venue. The course also explores what animation looks like in other regions of the world. Enrollment limited to 30. T. Salter.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/EN s23. Black Poetry.
How does the African American poetic tradition specifically contribute to the literary canon of African American literature and larger conceptions of American and global literature? This course is both an introduction to black poetics and a deep exploration. The course considers so-called basic questions (e.g., What are black poetics?) and more sophisticated questions (e.g., How do black poetics transform the literary and cultural landscape?). Students read a variety of authors who maneuver between intra- and inter-racial politics, including such canonical authors as Langston Hughes and Nikki Giovanni, and less well-known authors such as Jayne Cortez and LL Cool J. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course. Not open to students who have received credit for AA/EN 255. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 29. T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG s27. Downton Abbey and the Politics of the Estate.
Downton Abbey, the award-winning public television series, is considered a highbrow soap opera. Yet it belongs to a long-standing tradition of English estate narratives. Students approach Downton Abbey in this cultural context, examining the episodes, their structure, plotlines, characters, and dilemmas in relation to antecedents provided by Jane Austen and Wilkie Collins and in recent depictions of the estate in fiction and film. Addressing the politics of the estate—and of the series—students discuss representations of nationalism and race, class relations and antipathies, the patrilineal, gender roles and inequities, and the use of history. Prerequisite(s): one English course. Not open to students who have received credit for ENG 251. Enrollment limited to 29. L. Nayder.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG s43. Shakespeare in the Theater in London.
A study of Shakespeare's plays in performance, intended to acquaint the student with problems that are created by actual stage production in the interpretation of the plays. Students see Shakespearean productions in various locations, including London and Stratford-on-Avon, England. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ENG s50. Independent Study.
Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every year. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations