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How To Read A Poem
It is difficult to get the news from poems/ yet men die miserably every day/ for lack/ of what is found there. Poet William Carlos Williams captures this course’s focus on the special ways that poetic language represents and gives shape to human experience. Organized around concepts and practical skills, the readings cross historical and geographical boundaries.
All ENGL 0100s will be temp capped at 100 with reserved seating/registration as follows:
For the FALL term: semester-level 01/03 = 25 each; and 02/04 = 5 each yielding: 60 total
(40 remaining spots for upper-levels: seniors/juniors)
- Primary Instructor
- Rabb
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Devils, Demons, Do-Gooders
Who hasn’t struggled with the problem of good and evil? We will investigate how various writers grapple with these fundamental questions of judgment. What constitutes good and evil in the first place, and who gets to make such judgments? Works may include John Milton, Mary Shelley, Jhumpa Lahiri, Frederick Douglass, Toni Morrison, and Herman Melville. Students should register for ENGL 0100F S01 and may be assigned to conference sections by the instructor during the first week of class.
All ENGL 0100s will be temp capped at 100 with reserved seating/registration as follows: For the FALL term: semester-level 01/03 = 25 each; and 02/04 = 5 each yielding: 60 total (40 remaining spots for upper-levels: seniors/juniors)
- Primary Instructor
- Egan
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Love Stories
What do we talk about when we talk about love? We will see how writers have addressed this question from Shakespeare's day to the present. Writers may include Shakespeare, Austen, Eliot, Flaubert, Graham Greene, Marilynne Robinson, and/or others. Students should register for ENGL 0100P S01 and may be assigned to conference sections by the instructor during the first week of class.
All ENGL 0100s will be temp capped at 100 with reserved seating/registration as follows:
For the FALL term: semester-level 01/03 = 25 each; and 02/04 = 5 each yielding: 60 total
(40 remaining spots for upper-levels: seniors/juniors)
- Primary Instructor
- Kuzner
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The Experiment: Poetry and Knowledge
How does the notion of the experiment in both science and poetry offer an opportunity for close observation, manipulation and description of the material world? Is poetry a form of knowledge? This course will examine the role of experimentation in poetry and science as a way of generating heightened modes of sensation and focused modes of inquiry.
All ENGL 0100s will be temp capped at 100 with reserved seating/registration as follows:
For the FALL term: semester-level 01/03 = 25 each; and 02/04 = 5 each yielding: 60 total
(40 remaining spots for upper-levels: seniors/juniors)
- Primary Instructor
- Smailbegovic
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The Medieval King Arthur
Where did stories of King Arthur come from and how did they develop in the Middle Ages? We will read the earliest narratives of King Arthur and his companions, in histories and romances from Celtic, Anglo- Norman, and Middle English sources, to examine Arthur's varying personas of warrior, king, lover, thief. Enrollment limited to 19 first-year students.
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Shakespeare's Present Tense
Shakespeare in Love suggests how Shakespeare was clued in to elite and popular cultures. Current adaptations like O and 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU demonstrate how Shakespeare provides anachronistic clues to issues of the present. This course will trace such clues by examining the cultural origins and ongoing adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Twelfth Night, Henry V, and the sonnets. Enrollment limited to 19 first-year students.
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The Claims of Fiction
This course explores the interplay of tropes of strangeness, contamination, and crisis in a range of novels and shorter fiction, in English or in translation. We will ask why social misfits and outsiders somehow become such fascinating figures in fictional narratives. How do these fictions entice and equip readers to reflect on collective assumptions, values, and practices? Writers will include Baldwin, Brontë, Coetzee, Conrad, Faulkner, Ishiguro, Morrison, Naipaul, Rushdie, Salih, Shelley. Limited to 19 first-year students.
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Brontës and Brontëism
The novels of Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë alongside works (fiction and film) influenced by or continuing their powerful (and competing) authorial visions: Wide Sargasso Sea (Rhys), Rebecca (Hitchcock), The Piano (Campion), and Suspiria (Argento). Among other questions, we will discuss the role of Romanticism, feminism, the bodily imaginary, colonialism, and genre. Enrollment limited to 19 first-year students.
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Hitchcock!
An exploration of the work of one of the most famous directors of the twentieth century. We will watch many of Alfred Hitchcock’s best-loved films, including The Birds, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, and Rope. In addition, we will read some of the most important criticism of these films. No knowledge of film theory required. Enrollment limited to 19 first-year students.
- Primary Instructor
- Burrows
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Trans–: Transformation, Translation, Transgression in Literature
From transgression to transformation to trans rights, why does the prefix “trans” appear inescapable whenever one is discussing radical change? Centering on this mercurial prefix, this course examines the possibilities and limits of change from ancient anxieties about transcendence to contemporary discussions of transnationalism and transgender identities. Authors include: Wordsworth, Woolf, Ginsberg, Plath, Morrison, Imogen Binnie, hooks, Dylan, Against Me!. Enrollment limited to 17.
- Primary Instructor
- Brooksher
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Between Home and Haven: Contemporary Narratives of Revolt and Refuge
What forces dictate our perception of “home?” Is it where we come from? Somewhere we must find? Or is home what persecutes us - a place from which we must escape or rebel? This course will contemplate sanctuary, family, authoritarianism, and resistance across fiction, graphic memoir, and film. Writers may include Marjane Satrapi, Julia Alvarez, and Viet Thanh Nguyen. Enrollment limited to 17.
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Shakespeare
We will read a representative selection of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, histories, and romances, considering their historical contexts and their cultural afterlife in terms of belief, doubt, language, feeling, politics, and form. Students should register for ENGL 0310A S01 and may be assigned to conference sections by the instructor during the first week of class.
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The Examined Self: Lives of the Soul
This course examines a crucial tradition in American letters and culture: the literature of self-examination and the spiritual quest. Each work focuses in some way on questions of identity and identification: We will be reading a wide range of authors and genres-- spiritual autobiography, short fiction, the novel, conversion narratives, confessions, and lyric and epic poetry. Limited to 30 students.
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Melville, Conrad, and the Sea
Stories begin with the sea: Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and the Seven Seas, Odysseus trying to sail home. The sea is the place of ‘tall tales,’ of adventure, and of terror, but also of industrial labor and modern commerce. This class reads the sea narratives of Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad within this larger narrative and historical context.
- Primary Instructor
- Burrows
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Postcolonial Literature
Examines fiction, drama, poetry, travel writing, and cultural criticism by contemporary writers from former colonies of the British Empire. We study works by Anglophone writers from African, Caribbean, and South Asian backgrounds. Issues that will concern us include: cultural-nationalism, diaspora, and globalization; histories, identities, and generational shifts; literary form and the idea of “postcolonial literature.” Authors will include Coetzee, Ghosh, Hartman, Naipaul, Ondaatje, Kincaid, Soyinka, Walcott, and Wicomb. Enrollment limited to 30.
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African American Literature and the Legacy of Slavery
Traces the relationship between the African American literary tradition and slavery from the antebellum slave narrative to the flowering of historical novels about slavery at the end of the twentieth century. Positions these texts within specific literary, historical, and political frameworks. Authors may include Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Charles Chesnutt, Octavia Butler, and Toni Morrison.
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Black Poetics
This course will think about black poetics through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Our attention will focus on formal dynamics—including genre conventions and innovation—as well as thematic/conceptual idioms (including poetics as epistemology and ontology and phenomenology). We will balance the close-reading of eight full collections with a gathering of single poems as well as critical essays.
- Primary Instructor
- Quashie
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Critical Reading and Writing I: The Academic Essay
An introduction to university-level writing. Students produce and revise multiple drafts of essays, practice essential skills of paragraph organization, and develop techniques of critical analysis and research. Readings from a wide range of texts in literature, the media, and academic disciplines. Assignments move from personal response papers to formal academic essays. Enrollment limited to 17. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
Fall 2019 sections 01, 02, 03, and 04 are reserved for first-year students.
- Primary Instructor
- Schapira
Fall 2019 sections 01, 02, 03, and 04 are reserved for first-year students.
- Primary Instructor
- Stanley
Fall 2019 sections 01, 02, 03, and 04 are reserved for first-year students.
- Primary Instructor
- Ward
Fall 2019 sections 01, 02, 03, and 04 are reserved for first-year students.
- Primary Instructor
- Jackson
Fall 2019 sections 01, 02, 03, and 04 are reserved for first-year students.
- Primary Instructor
- Nagelhout
Fall 2019 sections 01, 02, 03, and 04 are reserved for first-year students.
- Primary Instructor
- Gilligan
Fall 2019 sections 01, 02, 03, and 04 are reserved for first-year students.
- Primary Instructor
- Saili
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Introduction to Creative Nonfiction
Designed to familiarize students with the techniques and narrative structures of creative nonfiction. Reading and writing focus on personal essays, memoir, science writing, travel writing, and other related subgenres. May serve as preparation for any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. Writing sample may be required. Enrollment limited. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
Fall 2019 section 01 is reserved for first-year students.
Fall 2019 sections 04 and 05 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
- Primary Instructor
- Stanley
Fall 2019 section 01 is reserved for first-year students.
Fall 2019 sections 04 and 05 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
- Primary Instructor
- Golaski
Fall 2019 section 01 is reserved for first-year students.
Fall 2019 sections 04 and 05 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
- Primary Instructor
- Hardy
Fall 2019 section 01 is reserved for first-year students.
Fall 2019 sections 04 and 05 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
- Primary Instructor
- Arnold
Fall 2019 section 01 is reserved for first-year students.
Fall 2019 sections 04 and 05 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
- Primary Instructor
- Rush
Fall 2019 section 01 is reserved for first-year students.
Fall 2019 sections 04 and 05 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
- Primary Instructor
- Readey
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Myth + Modern Essay
A writing and research focused course, in which students read a small selection of ancient texts (including The Epic of Gilgamesh and Ovid’s Metamorphoses) and use the myths retold to illuminate the contemporary world and to inform the essays they write. Enrollment limited to 17. Writing sample may be required. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
- Primary Instructor
- Golaski
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The Artist in the Archives
While artists can benefit greatly from archival work, they are not typically given the tools to make use of these institutions. This writing intensive course takes a two pronged approach to the problem: embedding students in archives both at Brown and RISD to produce creative, lyrical, and multi-media essays; and exploring how artists have used these institutions for information and inspiration. Enrollment limited to 17. Writing sample may be required. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
- Primary Instructor
- Stewart
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Journalistic Writing
This course, taught by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, teaches students how to report and write hard news and feature stories. Students learn to gather and organize material, develop in-depth interviewing techniques, use public records to report stories and become better observers of everyday life. The first half of the semester focuses on hard news and investigative reporting -- crime, government and court news. The second half is devoted to feature writing -- profiles and the art of narrative storytelling. Class list will be reduced to 17 after writing samples are reviewed. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
Fall: 1050G section 01 is reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
- Primary Instructor
- Breton
Fall: 1050G section 01 is reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
- Primary Instructor
- Breton
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Reframing Race in Art Writing
This seminar will consider how contemporary writers and critics respond to art that directly addresses race and challenges institutional power. We will discuss past and recent controversies involving race and representation in exhibitions and examine the relationships between artists, museums and other art institutions, and public audiences. We will consider how writing about arts and culture can advance public discourse about race, equity, and justice. Enrollment limited to 17. No pre-requisites. Writing sample required. Instructor permission required.
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Writing Medical Narrative
This class will examine the recent turn toward the use of narrative in medicine and the recent trend of published medical narrative. We'll look at literary and cultural narratives of sickness and health and how they shape perceptions and treatments, while keeping the science and politics of health care—and its public discourse—in view. Writing sample required. Prerequisite: ENGL0900, ENGL0930, or any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. Class list will be reduced to 17 after writing samples are reviewed during the first week of classes. Preference will be given to English concentrators. S/NC.
- Primary Instructor
- Schapira
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Further Adventures in Creative Nonfiction
For the advanced writer. A workshop course for students who have taken ENGL 0930 or the equivalent and are looking for further explorations of voice and form. Work can include personal essays, literary journalism and travel writing. Readings from Ian Frazier, Joan Didion, David Sedaris, John McPhee and others. Writing sample required. Prerequisite: ENGL 0930 or any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. Class list will be reduced to 17 after writing samples are reviewed during the first week of classes. Preference will be given to English concentrators. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
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The Teaching and Practice of Writing: Writing Fellows Program
This course prepares students for their work as Writing Fellows. Course readings, activities, and assignments introduce students to: post-process writing theory and pedagogy; data-based investigations of the revision habits of experienced and inexperienced writers; and effective methods for responding to student writing and conferencing with student writers. Enrollment is restricted to undergraduates who have been accepted into the Writing Fellows Program in the preceding July. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
- Primary Instructor
- Jackson
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Nature Writing
This course seeks to develop your skills as a sensitive reader and writer of the natural world. You will build a portfolio of revised work through a process of workshops, tutorials, and conferences, and engage in discussion of a range of written and visual narratives with reference to their personal, political, and ecological contexts. Writing sample required. Prerequisite: ENGL 0930 or any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. Class list will be reduced to 17 after writing samples are reviewed during the first week of classes. Preference will be given to English concentrators. S/NC.
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Nonfiction Now
Nonfiction Now introduces students to contemporary nonfiction writing through in-person exposure to professional writers, who will visit the course to deliver a craft lecture, read from their latest work and discuss the labor that goes into maintaining a professional writing life. Students will be expected to read the work of the visitor and produce creative work in response. Prerequisite: ENGL 0930 or any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. Class list will be reduced to 30 after writing samples are reviewed during the first week of classes. Preference will be given to English concentrators. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
- Primary Instructor
- Stewart
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Independent Study in Nonfiction Writing
Tutorial instruction oriented toward some work in progress by the student. Requires submission of a written proposal to a faculty supervisor. Section numbers vary by instructor. Instructor permission required. S/NC.
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Breton
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- DeBoer-Langworthy
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Foley
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Imbriglio
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Readey
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Stanley
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Taylor
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Stewart
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Schapira
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Ward
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Golaski
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Middle English Literature
In the age of Chaucer, literature in Middle English ranged from lyrics to romance narratives to mystery plays and medieval genres like dream visions and debate poems. This course will introduce students to reading texts like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Owl and the Nightingale in their original Middle English. No prerequisites. Not open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20.
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Women's Voices in Medieval Literature
This course explores literary works from the early medieval period, both literature by women and literature that represents women’s voices and desires. Traditions examined will include the Old and Middle English, Norse, Welsh, and Irish. The course provides insight into the construction of premodern sexualities as well as into the cultural and social histories of multiple national traditions.
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Undergraduate Independent Study in Medieval and Early Modern Literatures
Tutorial instruction oriented toward a literary research topic. Section numbers vary by instructor. Instructor permission required.
- Primary Instructor
- Bryan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Foley
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rabb
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Redfield
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rambuss
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Newman
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Kuzner
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Jacobs
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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American Literature and the Civil War
An examination of the way the Civil War is represented in American literature from Reconstruction to the present. Authors to be considered include Grant, Twain, Dixon, Chesnutt, DuBois, Faulkner, Morrison, Ellison.
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Wordsworth and Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads
An introduction to and close reading of the Lyrical Ballads, one of the most radical and innovative volumes in British Romantic literature. We will pay special attention to the aesthetic, historical, ethical, and political dimensions of the text, patiently working through the poems and prefaces, as well as reading antecedent texts, in order to understand why the book was an experiment for its authors, and what are its enduring effects on our contemporary moment.
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Writing and the Ruins of Empire
An exploration of literary representations of "empire" and "imperialism" from the 18th century to the present. Readings in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volney's Ruins of Empire, and a wide range of 19th- and 20th-century texts. Some consideration of theories of imperialism and of visual representations of cultures of empire. Enrollment limited to 20. Prior coursework in 18th- and 19th-century literature advised.
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Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama
After almost two decades of closure, public theaters re-opened in 1660. This new beginning occasioned new plays, new kinds of performance and production, and new intersections between the stage and society. We will study works by Etherege, Wycherly, Congreve, Dryden, Behn, Gay, Lillo, Sheridan, and others. Not open to first-year students.
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What is an Author?: Poe, Hawthorne, Dickinson
What does it mean to be identified as an “author”? How did the practices of writing and reading change in 19th-century America? This course addresses such questions by reconsidering the literary careers of Hawthorn, Poe, and Emily Dickinson. Our work will investigate literary culture and book history, focusing on 19th-century. authors, readers, magazines, publishing, criticism, and popular media. Enrollment limited to 20.
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Undergraduate Independent Study in the Enlightenment and the Rise of National Literatures
Tutorial instruction oriented toward a literary research topic. Section numbers vary by instructor. Instructor's permission required.
- Primary Instructor
- Burrows
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Egan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Khalip
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Gould
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Keach
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Nabers
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rabb
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rooney
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Redfield
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Anderson
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Parker
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Bloomsbury and Modernism
The contribution of the avant-garde “Bloomsbury Group” to the development of literary modernism. The focus will be on the central literary figures (Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, and T. S. Eliot), but attention will also be paid to the visual arts (Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, and Post-Impressionism) and to social criticism (Lytton Strachey, Leonard Woolf, and John Maynard Keynes).
- Primary Instructor
- Armstrong
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Lyric Concepts: The Question of Identity in Modern and Contemporary Poetry
The lyric within contemporary poetry has often been associated with a desire to express a subjective relation to interior experience while experimental traditions have often imagined the poem as a site of formal or conceptual play devoid of specific concerns of identity. This course draws on poets such as Rankine, Moten, Robertson, Hejinian and the critical tools of affect theory to trouble these distinctions.
- Primary Instructor
- Smailbegovic
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Monsters in our Midst: The Plantation and the Woods in Trans-American Literature
This course focuses on how literary and visual culture grappled with land as a topographic entity in relation to race, gender, and time. Students read literature about the Caribbean and parts of the U.S., produced from the 19th century to the present. Readings include Marlon James's The Book of Night Women and Jean Rhys's Wide Saragasso Sea.
- Primary Instructor
- Ramirez
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Toni Morrison
This course will consider Toni Morrison’s novels and essays through four prisms: her interest in the anxieties of Americanness; her attention to language, which includes a consideration of form and of literary theory; her study of love; and her figuring humanity through the experiences of people who are racially black and (often) gendered female. Not open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20.
Class list for ENGL1760Y will be finalized in the fall. Attendance the first day is required to be considered for the class.
- Primary Instructor
- Quashie
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Hollywood and American Modernism from FDR to JFK
Study of the interactions among Hollywood and modernism from the beginning of the sound era through the early 1960s. Authors and directors to be considered include, Loos, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, West, Ferber, Hawks, Wilder, Hitchcock, Mann, and Ford. Enrollment limited to 20.
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Undergraduate Independent Study in Modern and Contemporary Literatures
Tutorial instruction oriented toward a literary research topic. Section numbers vary by instructor. Instructor's permission required.
- Primary Instructor
- Armstrong
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Bewes
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Burrows
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Egan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Foley
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- George
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Katz
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Kim
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Murray
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Nabers
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Reichman
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rooney
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rambuss
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Gandhi
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Smailbegovic
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Quashie
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Reading Sex
How do we interpret "sex," as a concept, as a thing, as a phenomenon? What kinds of ethical, political, historical, and aesthetic contexts are informed by--and, in turn, form--our sense of "sex" itself? This course will focus on intensive close readings of various queer theoretical texts, novels, and films that variously try to think through the multiple ways we try to represent and render sex legible, while at the same time calling into question our sense of what, ultimately, sex can be as something that both binds and unbinds the human. Enrollment limited to 20.
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Shakespeare's Comedies
We will read a selection of Shakespeare’s comedies with attention to his European sources and analogues. Consideration of both formal and historical questions including genre, convention, the Shakespearean text, gender, sexuality, status and degree, and nation. Written work to include two papers, one a close reading and a longer final paper on a topic of your choice. Limited to 20 senior English concentrators.
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Senior Honors Seminar in English
Weekly seminar led by the Advisor of Honors in English. Introduces students to sustained literary-critical research and writing skills necessary to successful completion of the senior thesis. Particular attention to efficient ways of developing literary-critical projects, as well as evaluating, incorporating, and documenting secondary sources. Enrollment limited to English concentrators whose applications to the Honors in English program have been accepted. Permission should be obtained from the Honors Advisor in English. S/NC
- Primary Instructor
- Armstrong
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Senior Honors Thesis in English
Independent research and writing under the direction of a faculty member. Permission should be obtained from the Honors Advisor in English. Open to senior English concentrators pursuing Honors in English. Instructor permission required.
- Primary Instructor
- Armstrong
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Senior Honors Seminar in Nonfiction Writing
This course is designed for students accepted into the Nonfiction Honors Program. It will be run in workshop format, and will focus on research skills and generative and developmental writing strategies for students embarking on their thesis projects. Weekly assignments will be directed toward helping students work through various stages in their writing processes. Students will be expected to respond thoughtfully and constructively in peer reviewing one another's work. Open to seniors who have been admitted to the Honors Program in Nonfiction Writing. Instructor permission required. S/NC
- Primary Instructor
- Imbriglio
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Senior Honors Thesis in Nonfiction Writing
Independent research and writing under the direction of the student’s Nonfiction Writing honors supervisor. Permission should be obtained from the Honors Advisor for Nonfiction Writing. Open to senior English concentrators pursuing Honors in Nonfiction Writing. Instructor permission required.
- Primary Instructor
- Imbriglio
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Proseminar
This seminar, required for first-year graduate students in English, considers the state and stakes of literary studies today. The course aims to familiarize students with contemporary critical debates and stances in the wider discipline, and to engage with current methodologies, theories, and analytical tensions. We also address issues of professionalization as they relate to the first years of graduate work. Enrollment limited to 10. S/NC.
- Primary Instructor
- Reichman
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Lyric and Ecstasy
This seminar principally focuses on ecstatic states in the lyric verse of three extraordinary seventeenth-century English poets—John Donne, Richard Crashaw, and John Milton—who are rarely read together. We will consider lyric poetry—both erotic and religious—not only as an apposite medium for rendering ecstatic experience, but also how lyric poetry itself might function as a stimulus for ecstasy. We might also venture into some consideration of music along similar lines. Limited to 15 graduate students.
- Primary Instructor
- Rambuss
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Graduate Independent Study in Medieval and Early Modern Literatures
Section numbers vary by instructor. May be repeated for credit. Instructor's permission required.
- Primary Instructor
- Bryan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Egan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Foley
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rabb
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Redfield
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rambuss
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Kuzner
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Rhetoric and Narrative Discourse, from Austen to James
An introduction to narrative theory and problems of meaning in fiction, including Roland Barthe's "readerly text," Wayne Booth's "implied author," Kenneth Burke's "socially symbolic" narration, Mikhail Bakhtin's "polyphonic novel," and others. To be studied alongside novels by: Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Henry James, Anthony Trollope.) Attention especially paid to the contested zone between author, narrator, and character. Enrollment limited to 15.
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Graduate Independent Study in the Enlightenment and the Rise of National Literatures
Section numbers vary by instructor. May be repeated for credit. Instructor's permission required.
- Primary Instructor
- Burrows
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Egan
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Khalip
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Gould
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Keach
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- McLaughlin
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Nabers
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rabb
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rooney
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Redfield
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Anderson
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Parker
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Temporalities
Centered on modernism and the early 20th century, this course will investigate the varied models of time pulsing through literary and theoretical texts, and consider a range of issues, including memory and forgetting, historical progress and decay, utopian futurity, and queer temporalities. Readings include work by Freud, Bergson, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Joyce, Woolf, Barnes, Stein, Faulkner. Enrollment limited to 15.
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Identity and Agency
Any consideration of identity is bound to run up against the concept of agency. Considering identity and agency as mutually constitutive, this course looks at identity's formation and reformation as a narrative experience and effect, examining its emergence on historical and affective terrains. Approaching identity from a range of vantages (psychoanalysis, gender, history, law), we trace the ways that identities might be consolidated into (or, alternatively, unravel) cultural, political, national, or social arrangements. Works by Woolf, Selvon, James Weldon Johnson, Christopher Isherwood, Proust, Fanon, Arendt, Freud, Winnicott, Butler. Enrollment limited to 15.
- Primary Instructor
- Reichman
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Graduate Independent Study in Modern and Contemporary Literatures
Section numbers vary by instructor. May be repeated for credit. Instructor's permission required.
- Primary Instructor
- Armstrong
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Bewes
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Burrows
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- George
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Katz
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Kim
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Murray
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Nabers
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Reichman
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rooney
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Stanley
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Rambuss
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Gandhi
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Smailbegovic
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
- Primary Instructor
- Quashie
- Schedule Code
- I: Independent Study/Research
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Scholarly Writing for Journal Publication
Writing and professionalization workshop intended for graduate students in literary studies. Topics covered include selection of journal; framing, structuring and composition of the article; the logistics of peer review; sharing and workshopping drafts; working with academic mentors and advisors. Every passing student will have a publishable article under consideration by the end of the semester. Enrollment limited to 12 English Ph.D. students. Instructor permission required. S/NC.
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Seminar in Pedagogy and Composition Theory
An experimental and exploratory investigation into writing as a preparation for teaching college-level writing. Reviews the history of writing about writing, from Plato to current discussions on composition theory. Against this background, examines various processes of reading and writing. Emphasizes the practice of writing, including syllabus design. Enrollment restricted to students in the English Ph.D. program.
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Preliminary Examination Preparation
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.
- Schedule Code
- E: Grad Enrollment Fee/Dist Prep
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Thesis Preparation
For graduate students who have met the residency requirement and are continuing research on a full time basis.
- Schedule Code
- E: Grad Enrollment Fee/Dist Prep
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Courses of Interest to Students Concentrating in English
These courses, offered in other departments, are cross listed with the English Department and do not require advisor approval to count toward the concentration for English concentrators. Please refer to the primary department for registration details.
American Studies
AMST 2220Q The Homo Sapiens at the End of the World; or, Readings in Race Theory
Comparative Literature
COLT 1431C Poets, Poetry, and Politics
Judaic Studies
JUDS 0820 The Language of Religious Faith
Modern Culture and Media
MCM 2110T The Contingency of Critique
