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, Timothy J. Raylor, Gregory Blake Smith, Robert G. Tisdale, Constance H. Walker
Visiting Professor: Carol Oliver
Associate Professors: Nancy J. Cho, Gregory G. Hewett
Assistant Professors: Peter Balaam, Adriana Estill, Jessica L. Leiman, George G. Shuffelton
Visiting Assistant Professor: Lina Perkins Wilder
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, 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 followingÂEnglish 110, 111, 112Âare 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; 312, Pain: Torture, Murder and Revenge in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
Group II: Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature
313, The Faerie Queene; 314, Paradise Lost; 318, Gothic Spirit; 319, Eighteenth-Century Fiction; 322, The Art of Jane Austen
Group III: Nineteenth Century British and American Literature
239, American Best Sellers; 322, Nineteenth Century Fiction; 323, English Romantic Poets; 328, Victorian Poetry; 331, American Transcendentalism; 336, Romance to Novel: Poe, Hawthorne, James; 395, Moby-Dick and its Contexts; 395 Pre-Raphaelites; 395, Henry James and Edith Wharton
Group IV: Modernist and Contemporary Literature
227, Borderlands: Places and People; 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; 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; 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; 381, London Program: Empire and Modern British Literature; AMST 386 California Program; 395, Toni Morrison
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 courses.
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. 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 by taking an English course designated as a WR course. Typically, these courses are at the 100-level (e.g. English 100, 109, 110, 111, 112, etc.)
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. Reading, Interpreting & Writing We will read, interpret, and write about short stories, poems, and plays from The Norton Introduction to Literature. We will, for example, read short stories by Atwood, Baldwin, Bambara, Chekhov, Gordimer, Garcia Marquez, Hawthorne, Joyce, and Poe; poems by Brooks, Barrett Browning, Coleridge, Dickinson, Lorde, Pound, and Rich; and plays by Sophocles, Wilde, Tennessee Williams, and August Wilson. 6 cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—K. Owusu
ENGL 100. The Carleton Miscellany An in-depth study of the Carleton Miscellany a nationally known literary quarterly published at the college for two decades, from 1960-1980. The work of 17 Pulitzer Prize winning authors, as well as that of many Carleton faculty, appeared in the pages of the Miscellany. The magazine, which mixed cosmopolitan taste with a touch of prairie populism, was characterized by its literate whimsy. We will explore the significance of the Miscellany in the context of the history of "little magazines" in America. The class will include a variety of student research assignments, some of them in the Carleton archives. 6 cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—M. Kowalewski
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. Writing about Children's Literature
A literary historical reconsideration of the familiar shrewd cats, beastly bridegrooms, and neglected daughters of the western fairytale tradition. We begin reading oral tradition stories in several versions to register their imaginative, violent, and magical solutions to feudal and familial power struggles. We then observe how such tales were reworked in the Enlightenment to serve the socialization of children. When we've mastered the fairytale grammar of childhood predicament, we will track its reappearance in more contemporary works meant for children. Readings from the Grimms, Straparola, Basile, Perrault, d'Aulnoy, Bettelheim, Kipling, Jarrell, E. B. White, and Sendak. 6 cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—P. Balaam
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 2005-2006: Not offered in 2005-2006.
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar This course focuses on critical reading and analytical thinking and the practice of purposeful, effective, and persuasive academic writing. Students will read and analyze a variety of literary forms by American writers and will compose frequent papers, using invention to generate ideas, defining audience, planning rhetorical strategies, drafting, and revising. Through a writing workshop approach, students will be encouraged to hone their critical skills and to refine their own writing strategies. 6 cr., ND, Fall,Winter—C. Oliver
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar We will apply ourselves to the skills and arts of critical reading and persuasive writing through reading of recent journalism and commentary about "globalization." Students will learn to note the particular rhetorical purposes and performed innovations of works asking: Are national cultures safe against globalization? Is the idea of the sovereign nation obsolete? What are the ethics of consumerism and cultural export in this new era? Students will do lots of informal writing, compose and revise three major essays, and present a talk in a final symposium on globalization. Readings from George Orwell, Pico Iyer, Michiko Kakutani, Arundhati Roy. 6 cr., ND, Spring—P. Balaam
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar This course will emphasize critical reading, critical thinking, and writing persuasive academic papers. Focusing on rhetorical choices and writing strategies, we will read a variety of documents, speeches, fiction, poetry and prose from nineteenth century America that focus on pivotal debates over rights and roles (e.g. slavery, women's roles, wealth and class conflict), as well as current issues that might be seen as "descendents" of these earlier debates; we will analyze and discuss the readings; and we will write analytic and interpretive papers. Each student will be encouraged to develop an effective writing process and enhance writing skills, through experimentation, peer review, faculty feedback and consultation, and practice; we will write frequent short papers. 6 cr., ND, Fall—E. McKinsey
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar Instruction and practice in writing clear and persuasive prose, with an emphasis on making sound arguments. Weekly essays; readings in Plato, Aristotle, Swift, Johnson, and Orwell, among others. 6 cr., ND, Fall—C. Walker
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar Writing is the medium of inquiry, and in this course, you will pursue an inquiry of your own, writing in reflective, exploratory, and persuasive genres that will prepare you to take an informed position based on your research. You will gain valuable practice in gathering and assessing primary data, raising questions in light of your data, and organizing data, questions, and answers in persuasive terms. In the Fall Term, this course is linked with a section of History 110 taught by Professor Kirk Jeffrey. Please see that course description for details. The inquiry project for this course will be connected to the material in the History course, which means students must enroll in both courses. For Winter Term, this course will stand alone; no concurrent registration in another course is required. 6 cr., ND, Fall,Winter—C. Rutz
ENGL 109. Writing Seminar 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 cr., ND, Fall—L. Wilder
ENGL 110. English Literature, I Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and lyric poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Required of English majors. 6 cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring—Staff
ENGL 111. English Literature, II Neoclassic, Romantic, and Victorian literature. Required of English majors. 6 cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring—Staff
ENGL 112. Introduction to American Literature American literature to 1914 with an emphasis on the periods of Romanticism and Realism. 6 cr., AL, Fall,Winter,Spring—Staff
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. 6 cr., AL, Winter—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 cr., AL, Fall—A. Estill
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 cr., AL, Spring—R. Tisdale
ENGL 130. Shakespeare I About ten plays. 6 cr., AL, Fall—L. Wilder
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 cr., AL, Winter,Spring—G. Hewett, 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 227. Borderlands: Places and People
The borderlands provide a powerful metaphoric vehicle for discussing contemporary cultural expression. We will engage this metaphor through a broad chronological and generic range of American literary and visual texts. Gloria Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera and John Sayles's Lone Star will initiate our discussion through their reflections on the U.S.-Mexico border and its production of border identities. We will then address additional narratives that defy racial, gender, sexual, ethnic, cultural, or religious classification. Finally, we will consider the ways in which individual hybrid, mestizo, or border identities are related to particular understandings of the nature of place and community. Group IV. 6 cr., AL, Spring—A. Estill
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 cr., AL,RAD, Spring—K. Owusu
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 cr., AL, Fall—E. McKinsey
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 cr., AL,RAD, Fall—N. Cho
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 cr., AL, Fall—M. Kowalewski
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 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 cr., AL,RAD, Not offered in 2005-2006.
ENGL 239. American Best-Sellers
A "book's popularity is itself a kind of criticism, complex evidence that the best-seller in question expressed the hopes and fears of people who found them nowhere else so forcibly put. In this course--a literary, historical, and cultural exploration of best-selling nineteenth century American fiction--we will seek to understand not only which books became popular, but why they did, how their formal qualities and particular engagements moved contemporary readers to buy and read them so avidly. Page-turners, barn-burners, and tear-jerkers, nine of them, by Rowson, Cooper, Stowe, Alger, Burroughs, Zane Grey, Wharton. Group III.
6 cr., AL, Winter—P. Balaam
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 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 cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall,Winter—G. Hewett, G. Smith
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. 6 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 cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Fall—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 cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
ENGL 290. Directed Reading: Ireland Program
In the course of the program students will attend plays and have a number of visiting speakers (poets, historians, folklorists, linguists, etc.). Students will be responsible for readings and discussions attended in conjunction with these events. In addition, students will be asked to do journal writing covering their experiences of place, people, history, legend, contemporary events and conflicts, etc.-out of which they will produce an essay in what is now called "creative nonfiction." 6 cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Summer—G. Hewett
ENGL 290. Directed Reading: London Program
Directed Reading: London Program Students accepted for the London Program will read selected books and essays intended to provide them with a background for the program; the works will focus on British history and theater and will include one or two literary pieces. 3 cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Spring—N. Cho
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
ENGL 310. Shakespeare: The Histories and Comedies A study of Shakespeare's Lancastrien Tetralogy and of his comedies of the 1590s. Group I. 6 cr., AL, Fall—Jm McDonnell
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 cr., AL, Winter—F. Morral
ENGL 312. Pain: Torture, Murder, and Revenge in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
The Elizabethan and Jacobean boards were slippery with the kind of bloody acts that might make twenty-first century audiences (even fans of Quentin Tarantino or John Carpenter) blanch: stabbings, boilings, dismemberings, smashed skulls, forced sodomy. This course will examine the staging of violence in non-Shakespearean drama as a function of the peculiar physicality of the early modern English theater and as an expression of what it meant to be an outsider in Elizabethan and Jacobean society. Texts may include Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine I and II, The Jew of Malta, and Edward II; Arden of Feversham; Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy; Cyril Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy; and John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil. Group I.
6 credits cr., AL, Spring—L. Wilder
ENGL 313. Major Works of the English Renaissance: The Faerie Queene A study of Spenser's romance epic. Group II. 3 cr., AL, Winter—L. Wilder
ENGL 314. Major Works of the English Renaissance: Paradise Lost An examination of Milton's masterwork. Group II. 3 cr., AL, Winter—L. Wilder
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 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 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 cr., AL, Fall—S. Jaret McKinstry
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 cr., AL, Spring—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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
ENGL 328. Victorian Poetry A study of Victorian poetry with particular emphasis on Pre-Raphaelite poetry and paintings. Group III. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Winter—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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL,RAD, Not offered in 2005-2006.
ENGL 341. Contemporary Poetry Studies in poetry written in English since 1945. Group IV. 6 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
ENGL 349. Ireland Program: Modern Irish Poetry, Fiction, and Drama The course will discuss twentieth century Irish poetry, fiction and drama. As far as possible the schedule of readings will correspond to the places visited. Group IV. 6 cr., AL, Summer—G. Hewett
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 cr., AL, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Winter—C. Walker
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. 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 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. 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 cr., S/CR/NC, AL, Spring—R. Tisdale
ENGL 375. Advanced Rhetoric Theory and practice, oral and written. Open to juniors and seniors only. Prerequisite: writing requirement. 6 cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Not offered in 2005-2006.
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 cr., AL, Spring—N. Cho
ENGL 381. London Program: Empire and Modern British Literature
From visions of the Orient and Africa's "heart of darkness" to more recent postcolonial fictions, the history of imperialism has profoundly influenced British literature. The course begins with a brief examination of selected Romantic and Victorian poets, and will then focus on modern and contemporary novels and plays. The group will also use museum, art galleries, and other historic sites in order to enrich our understanding of the foundations and current reality of London's multicultural diversity. Group IV.
6 cr., AL, Spring—N. Cho
ENGL 384. Ireland Program: James Joyce's Ulysses Professor Kiberd is an internationally renowned expert on Joyce and Irish literature. He is editor of the Penguin edition of Ulysses; and author of two major critical studies: Inventing Ireland and Irish Classics. 6 cr., AL, Summer—Non-Carleton Faculty, G. Hewett
ENGL 395. Pre-Raphaelites
Henry James called the Pre-Raphaelites "people who look at the world and at life not directly...in all its accidental reality, but in the reflection and ornamental portrait of it." We will study Pre-Raphaelite poetry and painting, examining individual poems and their illustrations such as Tennyson's Lady of Shalott and setting these works in their broader Victorian aesthetic, literary and cultural contexts to understand the Pre-Raphaelites' contributions to our theories of aesthetics, poetics, and art consumption. The primary poets will be Dante Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Morris, and Algernon Swinburne; the primary artists Dante Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. Group III.
6 cr., AL, Spring—S. Jaret McKinstry
ENGL 395. Moby-Dick and its Contexts
We will read Melville's sublime and shaggy novel in conjunction with texts that convey the ideas in the water in 1850: race, labor, domesticity, patriarchy, democracy, scientific discourse, Biblical tradition and theology. Along the way we will consider shifts in U.S. literary culture as we chart a history of the book’s popular and critical reception from 1850 to our era. Group III. 6 cr., AL, Winter—P. Balaam
ENGL 395. Toni Morrison: Nobel Laureate
We will read Morrison's nonfiction collection, Playing in the Dark, and her fiction (The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz, Paradise, and Love) and discuss the impact of this writer and critic on African American and American literature and letters. Group IV. 6 cr., AL, Fall—K. Owusu
ENGL 395. Henry James and Edith Wharton
We will read some of the major fiction of two great novelists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, contemporaries and friends, Henry James and Edith Wharton. Americans who lived much of their lives as expatriates in Europe, both wrote masterpieces of "psychological realism" in which they explored issues of gender and gender roles, wealth and class, art and aesthetics, national identity, and the pressures on the individual of the clash of "modern" ideas with traditional social norms. In addition to reading their major novels, we will read some shorter fiction, literary criticism by and about each of them, and students will write a long seminar paper. Group III. 6 cr., AL, Winter—E. McKinsey
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 cr., S/NC, ND, Winter,Spring—J. Leiman, S, Jaret McKinstry
Other Courses Pertinent to English: