English (ENGL)
Chair: Professor Gregory Blake Smith
Professors: Chiara Briganti, Susan Jaret McKinstry, Michael J. Kowalewski, James McDonnell, Elizabeth McKinsey, Frank R. Morral, Kofi Owusu, Gregory Blake Smith, Robert G. Tisdale, Constance H. Walker, Ruth Weiner
Associate Professors: Nancy J. Cho, Timothy J. Raylor
Assistant Professors: Peter Balaam, Adriana Estill, Gregory G. Hewett, George G. Shuffelton
Visiting Assistant Professor: Patricia Wareh
Instructor: Jessica L. Leiman
Lecturer: Carol A. Rutz
General Information:
Courses numbered from 100 to 290 (introductory courses) are designed for non-majors and prospective majors alike. With the exception of English 200, Methods of Interpretation, and 260, Introduction to Creative Writing, 270, Crafts of Writing: The Short Story, and 271, Crafts of Writing: Poetry, they have no prerequisites. Literature courses numbered 300 and above (upper-level courses) normally require as a prerequisite ONE course numbered 110-175 or the written permission of the instructor. Prerequisites for upper-level courses in writing (English 370, 371 and 375) are as noted below. Courses that fulfill the "advanced seminar requirement" have as a prerequisite English 200. First year students normally do not enroll in courses numbered 300 or above.
Students wishing to prepare for public school teaching should consult with the chair of the department and the Department of Educational Studies as soon as possible.
Students considering graduate study in English should be aware that most graduate schools require one or two ancient or modern languages.
Requirements for a Major:
A. Sixty-six credits in English (not including English 100, 109, 290) distributed as follows:
1. English 110 and 111 preferably taken in this sequence before entering upper-level courses. English 112.
2. English 200, for which any two of the followingEnglish 110, 111, 112are prerequisites, preferably taken in the Sophomore year. Not open to first-year students.
3. At least 36 credits in courses numbered 300-395 taken at Carleton, including six credits in each of the following four groups. One course (6 credits) may be the 200 level (excluding English 200).
Group I: Medieval and Renaissance Literature
300, Chaucer I: The Canterbury Tales; 301, The Courtly Chaucer; 308, English Renaissance Verse; 310, Shakespeare: Histories and Comedies; 311, Shakespeare: Problem Plays, Tragedies and Romances
Group II: Restoration and Eihteenth Century Literature
313, The Faerie Queene; 314, Paradise Lost; 318, Gothic Spirit; 319, Eighteenth-Century Fiction; 322, Jane Austen; 381, London Program: Literature and Landscape in Georgian England
Group III: Nineteenth Century British and American Literature
323, English Romantic Poets; 328, Victorian Poetry; 331, American Transcendentalism; 336, Romance to Novel: Poe, Hawthorne, James
Group IV: Modernist and Contemporary Literature
117, African American Literature; 230, African American Autobiography; 234, Southern Literature, 235, Asian American Literature; 236, American Nature Writing; 237, American Indian Literature; 238, African Literature in English; 241, Language Thieves; 242, Twentieth Century American Drama; 249, Irish Literature; 330, Literature of the American West; 332, Studies in American Literature: Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald; 334, Studies in American Literature: The Postmodern American Novel; 339, Contemporary American Playwrights of Color; 340, Major Modernist Poets; 341, Contemporary Poetry; 342, Contemporary Latino/a Poetry; THEA 343, Modern British and European Drama; 344, Twentieth Century Literature; 349, Modern Irish Poetry, Fiction and Drama; AMST 386 California Program; 395, Vladimir Nabokov; 395 Irish Poetry from Yeats to Heaney
4. An advanced seminar (English 362 or 395) to be taken during the senior year or the second or third term of the junior year, after at least two 300-level coures.
5. An integrative exercise. A senior may choose:
a. Essay Option: An extended essay on an approved topic. Open only to students who enroll in English 400 winter term.
b. Examination Option: A written examination given early in spring term.
B. Six credits in literature other than English, read either in translation or, preferably, in the original language.
Double-majors considering completing the integrative exercise during the junior year will need written approval from the departmental chair.
The Two-Credit Essay:
The department encourages students to write a long essay (about 20 to 25 pages) on a subject growing out of an upper-level course. Such essays will normally require additional reading and will be written either while taking the upper-level course or within two terms of completing it. Students wishing to write a two-credit essay must obtain the consent of the instructor before enrolling.
Workshops in Writing:
The Department of English offers workshop courses in the writing of fiction, poetry, memoir, and the essay for those students who wish to gain experience in writing. The writing requirement is a prerequisite for all such courses. Students are encouraged to submit their work to college publications such as The Observer, manuscript, and Breaking Ground.
Writers on the Carleton faculty include poet Gregory Hewett and novelist Gregory Blake Smith. In addition to those courses offered by regular faculty members, the department brings visiting writers to campus to read and to conduct workshops in their specialties. Visitors in recent years have included playwrights Lee Blessing and Tony Kushner, memoirists Carol Bly and Patricia Hampl, poets Robert Creeley, Carolyn Forche, Donald Justice, and Czeslaw Milosz, and fiction-writers Paule Marshall, Jane Hamilton, Ann Beattie, Alison McGhee, and John Updike.
The Writing Requirement:
Part I of the College's Writing Requirement may be fulfilled in English 100 (Literature Seminar) or in English 109 (Writing Seminar).
English Courses:
ENGL 099. Summer Writing Program Emphasizing a writing process approach, the Summer Writing Program helps high school juniors and seniors learn to compose academic papers that are similar to those they will write in college. Students read both contemporary and traditional literature from classic texts by writers such as Plato and Shakespeare to a variety of modern short stories, essays, and poems by authors such as August Wilson, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, and Adrienne Rich. This literature then becomes the focus of their papers. Students write every day, and although occasional creative writing exercises are included, the main emphasis of the course will be on expository prose. Cannot be used for the Writing Requirement. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Summer—D. Appleman
ENGL 100. Spririt of Place We will consider a range of textsfiction, poetry, drama, nonfictionthat explore the intangible and multifaceted nature of "place" in literary works. We will attempt to determine what influence place has on human perception and behavior and study the variety of ways in which writers have attempted to evoke a "spirit of place." Authors read will include Shakespeare, Hardy, Frost and Heaney. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—M. Kowalewski
ENGL 100. Joseph Conrad: Capitalism, Colonialism, and Courage Conrad's fiction spans the globe, from the dingy streets of London to silver mines in South America and trading outposts in the South Sea islands. His interests read like tomorrow's front-page news: exploitation of the third world by transnational corporations, suicide bombers, spy networks, and the question of what heroic ideals might survive in our modern world. We will read several of his novels and shorter works. Considerable emphasis will be placed on the techniques of writing interpretive argument for courses in the humanities and the social sciences. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—G. Shuffelton
ENGL 100. Writing about Children's Literature Shrewd cats, beastly bridegrooms, neglected daughters, and the wishes of fools. An introduction to the western fairytale tradition as folklore and literature. These stories offer imaginative, deceptive, violent, and magical solutions to basic generational power struggles. We will observe the relatively recent process by which these oral tradition stories became designated as primarily for children. When we've learned the fairytale grammar of childhood predicament we will track how its features appear in nineteenth and twentieth century works meant for children. Authors include Irving, Hawthorne, F. H. Burnett, Kipling, Jarrell, E. B. White, and Sendak. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—P. Balaam
ENGL 100. Imagining a Self This course examines how first-person narrators present, define, defend, and construct the self. We will read an assortment of autobiographical and fictional works, focusing on the critical issues that the first-person speaker "I" raises. In particular, we will consider the risks and rewards of narrative self-exposure, the relationship between autobiography and the novel, and the apparent intimacy between first-person narrators and their readers. Authors will include James Boswell, Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Jacobs, Sylvia Plath, and Dave Eggers. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—J. Leiman
ENGL 100. Growing up Ironic Reading and discussion of a number of fictive narratives about coming of age in the United States. Among authors included will be Zora Neale Hurston, Paule Marshall, James Alan McPherson, Sandra Cisneros, Maxine Hong Kingston, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Tim O'Brien. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL,RAD, Fall—R. Tisdale
ENGL 100. Literature Seminar A writing seminar designed to teach college students to be successful readers and writers, each section includes a variety of readings in poetry, fiction, prose and drama in order to teach the skills of essay writing, editing and revision, collaborative work and oral presentations. Because of the focus on critical reading and writing, the course also serves as an excellent foundation to the English major. The following sections will be offered in 2004-2005: Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar I Devoted exclusively to the study and practice of clear and persuasive prose, this course is designed to introduce students to the fundamental organizational and argumentative skills they need to write effectively at Carleton. Specifically, the course aims to teach students to read critically and analyze thoroughly the evidence and arguments with which they engage; to consider audience, purpose, and context in the construction of a rhetorical strategy; to state an arguable thesis and develop it into a persuasive argument with coherence, logic, and evidence; and to develop effective writing habits. 6 credits cr., ND, Fall,Winter,Spring—Staff
ENGL 110. English Literature, I Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and lyric poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Required of English majors. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring—F. Morral, G. Shuffelton, P. Wareh
ENGL 111. English Literature, II Neoclassic, Romantic, and Victorian literature. Required of English majors. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring— S. Jaret McKinstry, J. Leiman, Jm. McDonnell
ENGL 112. Introduction to American Literature American literature to 1914 with an emphasis on the periods of Romanticism and Realism. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring—P. Balaam, G. Hewett, M. Kowalewski, E. McKinsey
ENGL 117. African American Literature This course provides an overview of African American literature. We will pay particular attention to the tradition of African American literary expression and the individual talent that brings depth and diversity to that tradition. Authors to be read include Baldwin, Baraka, Brooks, Ed Bullins, Douglass, Du Bois, Dunbar, Nikki Giovanni, Hayden, Hughes, Weldon Johnson, Locke, McKay, Morrison, Toomer, Wheatley, and Wilson. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—K. Owusu
ENGL 118. Introduction to Poetry We will look at the whole kingdom of poetry, exploring how poets use form, tone, sound, imagery, rhythm, and subject matter to create what Wallace Stevens called the "supreme fiction." Examples will be drawn from around the world, from Sappho to spoken word. Participation in discussion is mandatory; essay assignments will ask you to provide close readings of particular works; a couple of assignments will focus on the writing of poems so as to give you a full understanding of this ancient and living art. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—A. Estill
ENGL 119. Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Literature We will begin by examining the forefathers and mothers of Latino/a literature: the nineteenth century texts of exile, struggles for Latin American independence, and southwestern resistance and accommodation. The early twentieth century offers new genres: immigrant novels and popular poetry that reveal the nascent Latino identities rooted in (or formed in opposition to) U.S. ethics and ideals. Finally we will read a sampling of the many excellent contemporary authors who are transforming the face of American literature. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 120. Modern Literature: British and American Selected poems and prose narratives written since 1910. Senior English majors may take this course only with the consent of the instructor. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—R. Tisdale
ENGL 130. Shakespeare I About ten plays. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—P. Wareh
ENGL 200. Methods of Interpretation This course is required of students majoring in English. It will deal with practical and theoretical issues in literary analysis and contemporary criticism. Prerequisites: English 110 and 111. Not open to first year students. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—N. Cho, S. Jaret McKinstry
ENGL 220. Arts of Oral Presentation Instruction and practice in being a speaker and an audience in formal and informal settings. 3 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Winter,Spring—F. Morral
ENGL 230. African American Autobiography The African American slave narrative chronicles remarkable transformations: how a (wo)man was made a slave and how a slave was made a (wo)man. The ex-slave's affirmation of selfhood found expression in first-person narratives that launched a literary tradition. We will place this emerging tradition in its historical context, discuss its defining characteristics, and trace its development in twentieth century African American autobiography. Our definition of "the literary" will not be divorced from relevant cultural codes and historical context. We will read classic slave narratives by Equiano, Douglass, and Jacobs; and twentieth century autobiography by Washington, Hurston, Wright, Malcolm X, Angelou, Brooks, and Njeri. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL,RAD, Not offered in 2004-2005.
WGST 340. From Memory to Memoir: The Art of the Personal Narrative Cross-listed with ENGL 231. This is a writing class, designed to help students transform personal experience into finished narrative. Classes will feature visits from published writers, practical writing exercises, informal workshops and discussions about this new and important genre. This is the perfect place to ponder and reshape personal, family and cross-cultural experiences. Prerequisite: Part 1 of the writing requirement. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—Jn. McDonnell
ENGL 234. Southern Literature A study of the southern literary imagination from the Civil War to the present, with particular emphasis on the Southern Literary Renaissance in the early twentieth century. We will examine the cultural iconography of the South, reading poetry, fiction, and drama that explores southern writers' engagement with race, history, gender and "place." Authors read will include William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Zora Neale Hurston, and Eudora Welty. We will also watch a few films, including Gone with the Wind in connection with the course. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—M. Kowalewski
ENGL 235. Asian American Literature This course is an introduction to major works and authors of fiction, drama, and poetry from about 1900 to the present. We will trace the development of Asian American literary traditions while exploring the rich diversity of recent voices in the field. Authors to be read include Carlos Bulosan, Sui Sin Far, Philip Kan Gotanda, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jhumpa Lahiri, Milton Murayama, Chang-rae Lee, Li-young Lee, and John Okada. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL,RAD, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 236. American Nature Writing A study of the environmental imagination in American literature. We will explore the relationship between literature and the natural sciences and examine questions of style, narrative, and representation in the light of larger social, ethical, and political concerns about the environment. Authors read will include Thoreau, Muir, Mary Austin, Jeffers, Abbey, Snyder, and Terry Tempest Williams. Students will write a creative Natural History essay as part of the course requirements. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 237. American Indian Literature Study and discussion of Native American literature from its graphic and oral roots to contemporary memoir, fiction, and poetry. Twentieth century authors read will include Charles Eastman, James Welch, N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Susan Power, LeAnne Howe, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Sherman Alexie. Topics to be discussed will include the importance of place, spiritual life, nature and the "supernatural," and diverse representations of historical events, community, and individual and tribal identity. The course will also critique the depiction of Native Americans by Euro-Americans in popular media. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL,RAD, Winter—R. Tisdale
ENGL 238. African Literature in English We will read and discuss classic texts of African literary expression drawn from English-speaking Africa. Authors to be read include Chinua Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ayi Kwei Armah, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Ben Okri, Ngugiwa Thiong'o, and Wole Soyinka. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL,RAD, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 241. Language Thieves: Women in American Poetry An examination of how gendered identities affect the uses of poetry. Beginning with the modernists, we will look at the relationship their poetry builds to traditional gender identities. Next we will explore how feminism radically redefines poetry and its traditions. Finally we will turn to a few contemporary poets in order to question how poetry today responds to changes in women's and men's social roles. We will read a number of poets, including Gertrude Stein, Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Lyn Hejinian, Harryette Mullen and Julia Alvarez. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—A. Estill
ENGL 249. Irish Literature After a brief introduction to earlier literary texts, the course will concentrate on twentieth century fiction, poetry and drama by W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, J. M. Synge, Brian Friel, Frank O'Connor, Sean O'Faolain, Edna O'Brien, William Trevor, Patrick Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill and many others. We will pay particular attention to the recurrent themes of national and cultural identity, the plight of women in a repressive society, the perspectives of children, the power of religion and the prevalence of violence. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—Jm. McDonnell
ENGL 260. Introduction to Creative Writing This course offers blocks of intensive training in poetry, prose fiction, and what has recently been termed "creative non-fiction." The primary objective is to come to an understanding of the varying and at times overlapping capabilities of these three genres and to produce works in each. Discussion of each participant's writing is the central mode of instruction. This will be supplemented by examples from published writers and some theoretical essays on the creative process. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall,Winter—G. Hewett
ENGL 270. The Crafts of Writing: The Short Story An introduction to the writing of the short story. Each student will write and have discussed in class three stories (from 1,500 to 4,000 words in length) and give constructive suggestions about the stories written by other members of the class. Students are expected to write brief critiques of each story written by their classmates. Prerequisite: Part I writing requirement. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall,Winter—G. Smith
ENGL 271. The Crafts of Writing: Poetry This course concerns itself with the development of poetic vision as much as craft. Through intensive writing and revision of poetry, supplemented by reading and discussion of contemporary poetry and poetics, each member of the group will form a body of work and a statement that stakes a poetic claim. The objective is to begin to discover how each of us fits or does not fit into the modern poetical tradition and the diverse contemporary poetry scene, so as to free us from solipsism and vague notions of the powers of poetry. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Winter—G. Hewett
ENGL 273. Ireland Program: Ireland in Context: Writing in Place This course will involve both readings about contemporary Ireland and extensive writing on the part of students. The class will read material that ranges from documentary and journalism, to poetic evocations of the meaning of landscape, travel writing, and pieces about the political situation in Northern Ireland. Because it often seems that one learns best by writing, students will be asked to do extensive journal writing covering their own experiences of place, people, history, legend, contemporary events and conflicts, etc.out of which they are to produce two finished papers. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 275. Writing The Essay: From Imitation to Invention Practice in various styles and structures of expository and argumentation prose through imitation of models, ancient and modern, from Francis Bacon and Sir Thomas Browne through Twain and Orwell to Tom Wolfe and Molly Ivins. This course embodies the conviction that we learn to use language through imitation and fashion our own styles by response to the best we have read and heard. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Spring—R. Tisdale
ENGL 280. The Crafts of Writing: Creative Non-Fiction This course will involve both reading and writing works of creative non-fiction about nature and place. Working from the author's prize-winning books and essays on the American West, in which birds, mammals and environment hold equal status with human characters, the course will lead students to explore the relationship of the writer to his or her place in the world. Students will complete a substantial piece of non-fictional prose and will be expected to read and critique their peers' work. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Winter—D. O'Brien
ENGL 291. London Program: Reading in London Students will design an independent project (research and/or writing) to supplement the courses and their own interests. They will meet in workshop groups and present their project at the end of the term. 4 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Winter—N. Lutsky, C. Walker
ENGL 300. Chaucer I: The Canterbury Tales A study of The Canterbury Tales in Middle English (no previous knowledge assumed), concentrating on the pilgrims as narrating subjects, and Chaucer's legendary status as the "Father" of English literature. Group I. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—G. Shuffelton
ENGL 301. The Courtly Chaucer None of the 493 documents in the Chaucer Life Records mention his poetry; most describe his activities as a courtier and royal administrator. This course seeks to reconcile this courtly Chaucer with his writing prior to the Canterbury Tales. As we read his early dream visions, we will immerse ourselves in the courtly cultures Chaucer learned by reading French and Italian works in translation, and by examining the art and manners of the English court. The final weeks will be spent reading his finished masterpiece, Troilus and Criseyde, sometimes called "the first novel in English." Group I. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 308. English Renaissance Verse A study of the remarkable range of verses written by men and women of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in response to their turbulent times. We will trace the development of different genres and will attend to some of the debates over the nature and purpose of poetry, the relationship between man and woman, and that between humanity and God. Our emphasis will be on lyric poetry, including the love sonnets of the 1590s, and the so-called "metaphysical" poetry of Donne, Herbert, and Marvell. Group I. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—P. Wareh
ENGL 310. Shakespeare: The Histories and Comedies A study of Shakespeare's Lancastrien Tetralogy and of his comedies of the 1590s. Group I. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—F. Morral
ENGL 311. Shakespeare: Problem Plays, Tragedies and Romances A study of plays chosen from the second half of Shakespeare's career as a playwright. Group I. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—Jm. McDonnell
ENGL 313. Major Works of the English Renaissance: The Faerie Queene A study of Spenser's romance epic. Group II. 3 credits cr., AL, Winter—P. Wareh
ENGL 314. Major Works of the English Renaissance: Paradise Lost An examination of Milton's masterwork. Group II. 3 credits cr., AL, Winter—P. Wareh
ENGL 318. The Gothic Spirit The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw the rise of the Gothic, a genre populated by brooding hero-villains, vulnerable virgins, mad monks, ghosts, and monsters. In this course, we will examine the conventions and concerns of the Gothic, as we address its preoccupation with terror, sex, madness, and the supernatural. We will locate this genre within its historical and literary context, considering its excesses in light of the political and cultural anxieties of the age, and exploring the relationship between Gothicism, sensibility, and Romanticism. Reading will include novels, verse, and drama by Walpole, Radcliffe, Austen, Lewis, Byron, and Mary Shelley. Group II. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—J. Leiman
ENGL 319. Eighteenth Century Fiction A study of the origin and development of the English novel throughout the long eighteenth century. We will situate the early novel within its historical and cultural context, paying particular attention to its concern with courtship and marriage, writing and reading, the real and the fantastic. We will also consider eighteenth century debates about the social function of novels and the dangers of reading fiction. Authors will include Behn, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne and Radcliffe. Group II. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—J. Leiman
ENGL 322. The Art of Jane Austen All of Jane Austen's fiction will be read; the works she did not complete or choose to publish during her lifetime will be studied in an attempt to understand the art of her mature comic masterpieces, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion. Group II. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—C. Walker
ENGL 323. English Romantic Poets "It is impossible to read the compositions of the most celebrated writers of the present day without being startled with the electric life which burns within their words"P. B. Shelley. Readings in Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, and their contemporaries. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—C. Walker
ENGL 327. Nineteenth Century Fiction This course will study some of the major novels of the nineteenth century, examining their concern with social debates over the public and the private, crime and the law, the collective and the individual, and the masculine and the feminine. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 328. Victorian Poetry A study of Victorian poetry with particular emphasis on Pre-Raphaelite poetry and paintings. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—S. Jaret McKinstry
ENGL 330. Literature of the American West Wallace Stegner once described the West as "the geography of hope" in the American imagination. Despite various dystopian urban pressures, the region still conjures up images of wide vistas and sunburned optimism. We will explore this paradox by examining both popular mythic conceptions of the West (primarily in film) and more searching literary treatments of the same area. We will explore how writers such as Twain, Cather, Stegner, Castillo, and Cormac McCarthy have dealt with the geographical diversity and multiethnic history of the West. Films will include The Searchers, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Unforgiven, and Lone Star. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—M. Kowalewski
ENGL 331. American Transcendentalism The roots and aims, friends and some enemies, of this nineteenth century reform movement, with particular attention to its literary aspects and its legacy in U.S. cultural history. Major works of Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller as well as of lesser figures. We will weigh the movement's contributions to religious and social reform and examine its politics, especially its relation to slavery and abolitionism, feminism, and the environment. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—P. Balaam
ENGL 332. Studies in American Literature: Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald An intensive study of the novels and short fiction of William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The course will focus on the experimentation ethos and "homemade" quality of these innovative stylists who shaped the course of American modernism. Works read will be primarily from the twenties and thirties and will include The Sound and the Fury In Our Time, Light in August, The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, and Go Down, Moses. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—R. Tisdale
ENGL 334. Studies in American Literature: The Postmodern American Novel Is there such a thing as Postmodernism? And if there is, how do we define it? What sets Postmodern literature apart from the literature of the first half of the twentieth century? Or is Postmodernism merely a deviant branch of Modernism? We will try to answer these questions, first by using a classic Modernist text (let's say, Hemingway), to define Modernism, and then by reading a number of authors frequently referred to as Postmodern (Nabokov, Barth, Pynchon, Morrison, and others). Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 336. Romance to Novel: Poe, Hawthorne, James Major works of these crucial U.S. writers in cultural contexts between 1830 and 1900. What did the nineteenth century U.S. have to offer the ambitious, socially observant writer of fiction? What did U.S. audiences expect in a book? Attention to the gothic, Romanticism, psychological realism, and the emergence of the "international theme." Several tales and some literary theory from each, with longer works including Pym Blithedale Romance, House of Seven Gables, and Portrait of a Lady. Group III. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—P. Balaam
ENGL 339. Contemporary American Playwrights of Color This course will examine a diverse selection of plays from the 1970s to the present with an attempt to understand how different theatrical venues frame our understanding of ethnic identity. Playwrights and performers to be studied include Ntozake Shange, George C. Wolfe, Luis Valdez, David Henry Hwang, August Wilson, Philip Gotanda, Wakako Yamauchi, Maria Irene Fornes, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Ann Deavere Smith. There will be occasional video screenings and we will attend live theatrical performances when possible. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL,RAD, Winter—N. Cho
ENGL 340. Major Modernist Poets Study of the work of modernist poets writing in English, including W.B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), William Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore. Their poems will be studied in context of both World Wars, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, as well as in relation to Romantic and Georgian poetry, the confessional poets, Beat poetry, the Black Mountain School. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 341. Contemporary Poetry Studies in poetry written in English since 1945. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 342. Contemporary Latino/a Poetry In-depth examination of the major Latino/a poets from the 1960s to the present, including Julia Alvarez, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Sandra Cisneros, Sandra Marìa Esteves, Carolina Hospital, Tato Laviera, Pedro Pietri, Alberto Rios, and Gary Soto. We will examine the particular historical moments that enabled their voices to emerge and situate their styles and themes within the broader contexts of American literature and Latino studies. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 344. Twentieth Century Literature This course spans the Atlantic and two genres in search of definitions of Modernism. We will focus on works by Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, William Faulkner, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Butler Yeats. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 349. Modern Irish Poetry, Fiction, and Drama Students will discuss poetry, fiction, and drama by writers such as Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, J.M.Synge, Sean O'Casey, Brian Friel, Frank O'Connor, Edna O'Brien, William Trevor, Bernard MacLaverty and others. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 362. Narrative Theory "Does the world really present itself to perception in the form of well-made stories?" asks Hayden White (historiographer). To try to answer that question, we will read contemporary narrative theory and analyze various literary texts and films. This course fulfills the advanced seminar requirement. Prerequisite: English 200. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—S. Jaret McKinstry
ENGL 365. British Comedy A study of the elements of comedyplot, character, dialogue, wit, and humorin British comic plays, poems, novels, and films. Authors will include Shakespeare, Sheridan, Austen, Peacock, Wilde, and Stoppard. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 370. Advanced Crafts of Writing: The Short Story An advanced course in the writing of fiction. Students are expected to write brief critiques of each story written by their classmates. Prerequisite: writing requirement. Students must submit a story to the English Department Office prior to registration. Final enrollment is based on the quality of the submitted work. May be repeated for credit. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Spring—G. Smith
ENGL 371. Advanced Crafts of Writing: Poetry For students with some experience in writing poetry. We will take a workshop approach that develops the individual poet's craft and vision. Readings and exercises will be used to explore the poet's individual range and expand ideas about what poetic language can do. The goal of this course is for each poet to create a sequence of eight poems unified by technique, subject matter, form, or sensibility as well as eight experimental poems. A group public reading will be scheduled. Prerequisite: writing requirement. Students must submit three poems to the English Department Office prior to registration. Final enrollment is based on the quality of the submitted work. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Spring—G. Hewett
ENGL 375. Advanced Rhetoric Theory and practice, oral and written. Open to juniors and seniors only. Prerequisite: writing requirement. 6 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 380. London Program: London Theater Students will attend productions of classical and contemporary plays in London and Stratford-on-Avon. Class discussions and papers will compare and contrast dramatic genres, acting styles, and production design. The class will meet with actors, critics, and directors from the Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre, and the wider theatrical community of London. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—N. Lutsky, C. Walker
ENGL 381. London Program: Literature and Landscape in Georgian England Pope's Twickenham, Dr. Johnson's London, Wordsworth's Grasmere, Austen's Chawton and Bath, and Keats's Hampstead are some of the venues we'll visit and explore in a study of how the places these writers knew figured in their essays, poetry and novels. Group II. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—C. Walker
ENGL 384. Ireland Program: James Joyce Reading and discussion of James Joyce's Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Ulysses. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2004-2005.
ENGL 395. Vladimir Nabokov We will put on our explorer's gear, make sure our dues are paid up to the Society for the Propagation of the Irreal, and venture into the magical worlds of Vladimir Nabokov, the greatest novelist of the second half of the twentieth-century (the Chair will entertain objections only from Señor Garcia Marquez). We will lovingly pet the fauna of the Russian novels, inhale the exotic flora of the American novels, and fly from Terra to Antiterra where accommodations for fifteen intrepid souls have been booked at The Enchanted Hunters. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Fall—G. Smith
ENGL 395. Irish Poetry from Yeats to Heaney Reading and discussion of some of the most accomplished and fascinating poetry written in English during the last hundred years. Poets to be read will include the following: W. B. Yeats, Patrick Kavanagh, Louis MacNeice, John Montague, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Medbh McGuckian, Paul Muldoon, and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill (in English translation). Students will research the cultural, economic, and political contexts of this body of literature and write an imitation as well as interpretive and analytic essays. Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Winter—R. Tisdale
ENGL 395. The American Long Poem This seminar will examine the history and aesthetics of the long poem in America in the wake of Whitman and Longfellow, paying particular attention to the complicated role of narrative in poetry after the rise of the American novel and the advent of film and television. In addition to Whitman and Longfellow, the reading list will include works by T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane and H.D., as well as several more recent poets. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—G. Hewett
ENGL 400. Integrative Exercise Senior English majors may fulfill the integrative exercise either by taking a comprehensive examination based on a departmental reading list, or by writing a senior thesis on a topic approved by the department. The topic must be convincingly defined before the end of fall term, a substantial portion must be written by the middle of winter term, and the final draft must be submitted by the due date early in spring term. Those who choose the exam option should form groups to discuss the texts on the reading list. The six-hour exam will be given early in the spring term. No student may change from the paper to the exam option later than the deadline established by the department (one week after the winter term portion is due). Students may register for the integrative exercise according to their individual requirements, the grade will be registered at the end of spring term. 6 credits cr., S/NC, ND, Winter,Spring—E. McKinsey, G. Shuffelton
Other Courses Pertinent to English:
AMST 386 California Program: The Literature of California
LING 250 Linguistics and the Literary Art
THEA 242 Twentieth Century American Drama
THEA 343 Modern British and European Drama