English 14, Introduction to Criticism, at the 2 hour with Professor Crewe
A historical and formal introduction to literary criticism as a discipline, with primary emphasis on English and American critics from the late 19th century through the present. Beginning with Matthew Arnold and Oscar Wilde as dynastic founders, we will examine the work and influence of, among others, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, William Empson, F.R. Leavis, Cleanth Brooks, Northrop Frye, Paul de Man, Harold Bloom, Stanley Fish, Barbara Johnson, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Edward Said, and Judith Butler. An intellectual history in itself, the story of modern criticism is also a story of changing terms, concepts, and critical practices, many of which continue to shape our ways of understanding literary and other texts. Complementing English 15 (Introduction to Theory) this course is strongly recommended for majors. Dist: LIT. Course Group IV.
English 18, History of the English Language, at the 11 hour with Professor Pulju (crosslisted with LING 18)
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. Emphasis will be given to the linguistic and cultural reasons for ‘language change,’ to the literary possibilities of the language, and to the political significance of class and race. Open to all classes. Dist: SOC. Course Group IV. CA tags: Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, National Traditions and Countertraditions, Literary Theory and Criticism.
English 24, Shakespeare I, at the 10 hour with Professor Crewe
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. Prerequisite: Writing 2/3, Writing 5 or Writing 5 exemption status. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I. CA tag Genre-drama.
English 48, Contemporary American Fiction, at the 10 hour with Professor Favor
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.
English 50, American and British Poetry Since 1914, at the 11 hour with Professor Zeiger
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.
English 58, Introduction to Postcolonial Literature, at the 2 hour with Professor Giri
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.
English 62.1, Immigrant Women Writing in America, at the 12 hour with Professor Zeiger
In responding to the obstacles facing America's immigrants -- problems of dislocation, split identity, family disunity and claustrophobia, culture shock, language barriers, xenophobia, economic marginality, and racial and national oppression -- women often assume special burdens and find themselves having to invent new roles. They often bring powerful bicultural perspectives to their tasks of survival and opportunity seeking, however, and are increasingly active in struggles for cultural expression and social and economic justice. We will examine the different conditions for women in a variety of immigrant groups in America, reading in several histories, anthologies of feminist criticism, interdisciplinary surveys, and relevant texts in critical theory, but ultimately focusing on the words, in autobiography and fiction, of women writers. We will read such works as Akemi Kikimura's Through Harsh Winters: The Life of a Japanese Immigrant Woman; Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior; Bharati Mukerjee's Darkness; Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street; Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy; and Kim Chernin's In My Mother's House. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III, CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genders and Sexualities.
English 67.7, Telling Stories, The Art of Narrative Nonfiction, at the 2A hour with Professor Alex Kotlowitz (Montgomery Fellow)
This course will explore the art of telling stories - true stories. The craft is often called Literary Journalism or Creative Nonfiction. The writer John McPhee calls it The Literature of Fact, which I prefer for its lack of pretension and ambiguity. We'll do a good deal of writing in this course, exploring ways to tell authentic stories, employing the literary tools of a novelist. We'll read works by John Hersey, Ryszard Kapuscinski, George Orwell, Susan Orlean, Joan Didion and David Foster Wallace among others. We'll also listen to some radio - and watch one or two documentary films. Dist: LIT, pending faculty approval. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-narrative, Creative Writing.
English 80.1, Creative Writing, T/Th 7-9pm, with Professor Hebert
This course offers a workshop in fiction and poetry. Seminar-sized classes meet twice a week and include individual conferences. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and to first-year students who have completed Writing 5 (or have exemption status).Procedures for enrolling in English 80: To gain admission to English 80, students must fill out an application, available on-line or in the English Department office, and submit it to the English office no later than the last day of classes of the term preceding the one in which they wish to enroll. Deadline for equal consideration for admittance is the last day of classes in the term preceding the course. Late applications will be accepted, but held until the add/drop period and reviewed if vacancies occur. Please answer all questions on the application and make sure your name is legible. Be sure to indicate clearly on your application the sections(s) of 80 for which you are applying. If you do not indicate which sections work with your schedule, we will place you in whatever section is available. Students should then enroll in three other courses. If admitted to English 80, students can then drop one of the other courses. Changing sections after enrollment is highly discouraged and will not be possible except in extenuating circumstances.English 80 is the prerequisite to all other Creative Writing courses. Dist: ART.
English 82.1, Intermediate Creative Writing-Fiction, M/W 7-9pm, with Professor Hebert
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, available on-line or 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 classes of the term preceding the term in which they wish to enroll. Dist: ART.
