English 10: King James Version of the Bible, I, Professor Wykes at the 10 hour
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. CA tag Genre-narrative
English 15: Introduction to Literary Theory, Professor Will at the 2A hour
\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. Course Group IV.
English 24: Shakespeare I, Professor Luxon at the 9 hour
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. Course Group I, CA tag Genre-drama.
English 42: American Fiction to 1900, Professor Boggs at the 2A hour
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. Course Group II, CA tags National Traditions and Counter Traditions, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture
English 53: 20th Century British Fiction: 1900 to World War II, Professor Silver at the 10A hour
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. Course Group III, CA tags Genre-narrative, National Traditions and Counter traditions
English 62.1: Animals and Women in Western Literature: Nags, Bitches and Shrews, Professor Boggs at the 10A (cross-listed with WGST 60)
What do stories about animals tell us about the treatment of women in Western society? What do stories about women tell us about the treatment of animals in Western society? And why are the two so often linked in the first place? In this course, we will examine the philosophical traditions that associate women with animals, and will interrogate women’s complex response to those associations. We will ask why women and animals are jointly bracketed from subjectivity and from ethical consideration. Given the advances in areas such as women’s rights, we will ask whether there have been corresponding advances in the treatment of animals, and why women feel particularly called upon to work for those advances. Statistics suggest, for example, that the overwhelming majority of vegetarians and humane society members are women. Is the ethical treatment of animals an important feminist cause? We will read literary (Ursula Le Guin, Aesop, Anna Sewell, Virginia Woolf) alongside religious (the Bible) and philosophical (Aristotle, Wollstonecraft, Bentham) texts, and draw on current schools of critical thought such as ecofeminism (Carol Adams) to develop an understanding of these issues. Course Group n/a, CA tags Genders and Sexualities, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture
English 66.1: Restoration Comedy, Professor Wykes at the 12 hour
With the Restoration of the British monarchy in 1660 came a restoration of the London theatres, closed since 1642 by the ascendant puritans. The comedies of the later Stuart monarchy (1660-1714) are the only large group of plays still viable onstage to come from the period between Shakespeare and Shaw, and their place in the repertory owes a lot to the revived theatre's militantly anti-puritan origins. Sexual frankness could only be reinforced by the presence for the first time of professional actresses on the London stage and Restoration comedy became also a lively forum for discussion of the scandals and crises of a stormy period of English history. The reading will comprise comedies by such authors as: Dryden, Congreve, Wycherley, Shadwell, Aphra Behn, Ethgerege, Vanbrugh and Farquhar. Course Group II, CA tag Genre-drama
English 67.1: Romantics and Moderns, Professor Will at the 10A hour
This course will examine the influence of Romantic poetry and theory on Modernist writers. Readings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mme. de Stael, Schlegel, Thomas Mann, Proust and others in translation; by Byron, Coleridge, Carlyle, Woolf, Lawrence, Cather, Fitzgerald and others in English. Course Group III, CA tags National Traditions and Counter-Traditions, Genders and Sexualities
English 80: Creative Writing, Professor Mathis at the 10A hour
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 their seminar. Students will be admitted on a competitive basis. Please pick up the “How To Apply To English 80” 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 poetry and/or fiction to the Administrative Assistant of the English Department by the last day of classes of the term preceding the term in which they wish to enroll. English 80 is the prerequisite to all other Creative Writing courses. It does not carry major or minor credit.
English 81: Advanced Creative Writing-Poetry, Professor Mathis, hour to be arranged
