Information For:

Courses for Spring 2020

  • Matters of Romance

    Narratives (1100-1500) of men, women, and elves seeking identity on the road, in bed, and at court. Readings (in modern English) include Arthurian romances, Havelok, lais by Marie de France, and Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale." Primarily for freshmen and sophomores. Students should register for ENGL 0100D S01 and may be assigned to conference sections by the instructor during the first week of class.
    ENGL 0100D S01
    All ENGL 0100s will be temp capped at 100 with reserved seating/registration as follows: For the SPRING term: semester-level 02/04 = 25 each; and 01/03 = 5 each Yielding: 60 total (40 remaining spots would be for upper-levels: seniors/juniors)
    Primary Instructor
    Bryan

  • City Novels

    This course examines 20th and 21st century novels to consider how these narratives envision the city, its possibilities and limits. How does the city shape how we think, wander, grow up, see and know each other? How does the city divide people? How does the novel imagine ways to bridge those divisions? Readings by Woolf, Chandler, Wright, Cisneros, Smith, Calvino, Adiga, Whitehead.
    ENGL 0100N S01
    All ENGL 0100s will be temp capped at 100 with reserved seating/registration as follows: For the SPRING term: semester-level 02/04 = 25 each; and 01/03 = 5 each Yielding: 60 total (40 remaining spots would be for upper-levels: seniors/juniors)
    Primary Instructor
    Katz

  • Do the Right Thing

    An examination of literary works as developing our modern framework of moral values, along the way taking up questions of temptation, corruption, punishment, redemption, and responsibility. We will start with Christian allegorical texts (Dr. Faustus and Pilgrim's Progress), complicate the picture with 19th century psychological fiction, and conclude with some masterpieces of art cinema.
    ENGL 0100Y S01
    All ENGL 0100s will be temp capped at 100 with reserved seating/registration as follows: For the SPRING term: semester-level 02/04 = 25 each; and 01/03 = 5 each Yielding: 60 total (40 remaining spots would be for upper-levels: seniors/juniors)
    Primary Instructor
    Parker

  • Love and Friendship

    What do we talk about when we talk about love? This course poses this question in various ways. How, for instance, can we tell the difference between love's various forms—between love that is friendly and love that is romantic? How do the different forms of love differently shape people? How does love work when it involves sex, or marriage, or children, or divinity? And what must love involve to be called “good”? Why? Materials will range from Plato and St. Augustine to Leo Bersani and Allen Bloom and will also include popular filmic representations of love. Limited to 19.
    ENGL 0150E S01
    Primary Instructor
    Kuzner

  • Realism and Modernism

    The novel as a genre has been closely identified with the act of representation. What it means to represent "reality," however, has varied widely. This seminar will explore how the representation of reality changes as modern fiction questions the assumptions about knowing, language, and society that defined the great tradition of realism. English and American novels will be the primary focus of our attention, but influential French, German, and Russian works will be studied as well. Limited to 19 first-year students. Banner registration after classes begin requires instructor approval.
    ENGL 0150Q S01
    Primary Instructor
    Armstrong

  • 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.
    ENGL 0200K S01
    Primary Instructor
    Brooksher

  • One True Pairing (“OTP”): The Courtship Plot from Jane Austen to Jane the Virgin

    What’s love got to do with it? This course examines how the courtship plot, from meet-cute to marriage, shapes our understanding, not only of romance and seduction, but also of gender, race, social class, sexual orientation, empire, and literary genre. Texts include fiction by Jane Austen, Nella Larsen, Jenny Han, and Henry James, alongside Clueless, Moonlight, and Jane the Virgin. Enrollment limited to 17.
    ENGL 0200M S01
    Primary Instructor
    Gilligan

  • Godforsaken Spaces: Literatures of the Demonic

    Has fear of the Devil outlived the fear of God? While the demonic rationalizes unfathomable violence and renders forms of otherness intolerable, it may also allow us to imagine social alternatives. This course will explore demonic figures in contemporary literature/film: the scapegoats, witches, and misfits that occupy the margins of society. Authors include: McCarthy, O’Connor, Morrison, Gyasi, Erdrich. Enrollment limited to 17.
    ENGL 0200N S01
    Primary Instructor
    Nagelhout

  • Literatures of Anxiety

    From Xanax to safe spaces to #MAGA, our age is notoriously characterized as an unduly anxious one. But anxious by what measures? Tracking expressions of anxiety through a range of literary works, we’ll explore how the so-called “anxious” subject may yet signal a crucial, generative political position. Works by: Atwood, Dostoevsky, Abdellah Taïa, Dionne Brand, Hieu Nguyen, Lacan and LaWhore Vagistan. Enrollment limited to 17.
    ENGL 0200P S01
    Primary Instructor
    Saili

  • Gender and Genre in Medieval Celtic Literatures

    This course traces images of masculinity and femininity in Welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Irish narratives within and around early medieval Britain. You will be introduced to the genres of saga, romance, and the short poetic lai as you consider how the nature and gender of the hero changes in specific cultural and linguistic moments.
    ENGL 0310G S01
    Primary Instructor
    Jacobs

  • Dickens: The Novel and Society

    This course rehabilitates Charles Dickens from his reputation as a mainstream writer paid by the word, most famous as the author of sentimental, implausible works for children, such as A Christmas Carol. We will be looking at Dickens’s social novels as a formally innovative response to the urban and industrial capitalism of his time. Issues will include: realism, the relation of his fiction to his journalism, serial form, and representations of work, the city, and bureaucracy.
    ENGL 0511A S01
    Primary Instructor
    Parker

  • Late Romantics

    An introduction to the varied work of canonical and non-canonical writers often described as British second-generation or late Romantics: Keats, the Shelleys, Byron, Clare, de Quincey, Hemans, Austen. We will explore what lateness constitutes for these authors as a political, aesthetic, and ethical category, and consider how it informs the kind of distinctly "Romantic" work that characterizes their writings. Particular emphasis on close readings of poetry and theoretical texts, as well as excursions into late nineteenth-century authors.
    ENGL 0511H S01
    Primary Instructor
    Khalip

  • Renegades, Reprobates, and Castaways

    In this ONLINE course, we’ll look at a range of literary works--including short stories, novels, graphic novels, films, and electronic literature—populated by characters cast as pirates, degenerates, depraved, and miscreants. We’ll examine how the seemingly disreputable characters, settings, and/or forms offer alternative visions of a just society by challenging powerful institutions, conventional moral principles, and/or dominant conceptions of the “normal” and “natural.”
    ENGL 0511J S01
    This course is offered fully online. Students do not need to be on Brown's campus to participate in this course. Learn what it is like to take an online course at Brown and view technical requirements at: http://brown.edu/go/whatisonlinelike
    Primary Instructor
    Egan

  • Reading Practices: An Introduction to Literary Theory

    What is it to read? This course is an introduction to theories of reading that have shaped literary interpretation and definitions of literature from the early twentieth century to the present, with particular attention to the relation between “literary theory” as a discipline and the broader reading practices it engenders and from which it emerges. We will read the New Criticism, structuralism, post-structuralism, and new historicism, critical race theory and feminist critiques, and recent work in aesthetics. Topics include literariness and textuality, the reader and subjectivity, narrative, rhetoric, and the problem of representation, and "new formalism." Enrollment limited to thirty.
    ENGL 0700P S01
    Primary Instructor
    Rooney

  • Death and Dying in Black Literature

    How is death represented in black literature as a topic and as a figure of genre? Which theoretical ideas help us think about the intertwining of blackness and death? How do notions of gender and sexuality inform this thinking? This course will explore works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to consider the scope of black literary imaginings of death.
    ENGL 0710V S01
    Primary Instructor
    Quashie

  • Literature of US Inequality, 1945-2020

    Study of the way inequality has been represented in US literature from 1945 to the present. Authors to be considered include Morrison, Updike, Wright, Highsmith, Lee, Adichie, Leavitt.
    ENGL 0710Y S01
    Primary Instructor
    Nabers

  • 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.
    ENGL 0900 S01
    Spring 2020 sections 01 and 02 are reserved for first-year students.
    Primary Instructor
    Ward
    ENGL 0900 S02
    Spring 2020 sections 01 and 02 are reserved for first-year students.
    Primary Instructor
    Golaski
    ENGL 0900 S03
    Spring 2020 sections 01 and 02 are reserved for first-year students.
    Primary Instructor
    Jackson
    ENGL 0900 S05
    Spring 2020 sections 01 and 02 are reserved for first-year students.
    Primary Instructor
    Dun

  • 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.
    ENGL 0930 S01
    Spring 2020 sections 01 and 03 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
    Primary Instructor
    Golaski
    ENGL 0930 S02
    Spring 2020 sections 01 and 03 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
    Primary Instructor
    Ward
    ENGL 0930 S03
    Spring 2020 sections 01 and 03 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
    Primary Instructor
    Arnold
    ENGL 0930 S04
    Spring 2020 sections 01 and 03 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
    Primary Instructor
    Rush
    ENGL 0930 S05
    Spring 2020 sections 01 and 03 are reserved for first-year and sophomore students.
    Primary Instructor
    Schapira

  • The Thoughtful Generalist

    This *ONLINE* section of “ENGL1030: Critical Reading and Writing II: Research” will prepare you for academic and real-world discourse. In Canvas, you will discuss essays demonstrating deep research distilled into engaging intellectual journey. You will research and revise four explanatory, analytical, persuasive essays, using varied sources to explore subjects or issues of your choice. Mandatory peer reviews and conferences ONLINE. Enrollment limited to 17. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
    ENGL 1030A S01
    This course is offered fully online. Students do not need to be on Brown's campus to participate in this course. Learn what it is like to take an online course at Brown and view technical requirements at: http://brown.edu/go/whatisonlinelike
    Primary Instructor
    Taylor

  • Writing Science

    This course explores how science, as an academic way of thinking and a method, affects our critical thinking and expression of culture. Readings examine the various dialects of scientific discourse. Students write three major research essays on self-selected scientific topics from both within and outside their fields of study. Enrollment limited to 17. Writing sample may be required. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
    ENGL 1030C S01
    Primary Instructor
    DeBoer-Langworthy

  • Backstory

    Everything has a backstory—every event, every object, every idea. In this workshop-based course we will explore the archives at Brown and RISD to write three research essays for general audiences. You can expect readings, looking at how authors like David Foster Wallace, John McPhee and Eula Biss structure their pieces, workshops and in-class writing prompts to get you going. Enrollment limited to 17. Writing sample may be required. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
    ENGL 1030G S01
    Primary Instructor
    Hardy

  • Narrative

    This course offers a broad exploration of the many kinds of essays you can write in creative nonfiction. We will be looking at how authors structure their pieces and the range of narrative techniques they often use. You can expect workshops, in-class prompts and readings by Jamaica Kincaid, John McPhee, David Foster Wallace, Annie Dillard, David Sedaris and others. Enrollment limited to 17. Writing sample required. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
    ENGL 1050A S01
    Primary Instructor
    Hardy

  • Line Work: Experiments in Short-Form Writing

    This class is based on the premise that to improve your writing, you need to write often. By responding to almost daily drills, you will develop a regular writing habit and explore a range of styles. We will take your most successful pieces through a series of workshops, helping you refine your work and ultimately build a writing portfolio. Enrollment limited to 17. Writing sample required. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
    ENGL 1050F S01
    Primary Instructor
    Stewart

  • Journalistic Writing

    This course teaches students how to report and write hard news and feature stories for newspapers and online. Students learn to gather and organize material, develop interviewing techniques, and hone their writing skills – all while facing the deadlines of journalism. The first half of the semester focuses on “hard" news: issues, crime, government, and courts. The second half is devoted to features, profiles, and narrative story telling. Writing sample required. Class list will be reduced to 17 after writing samples are reviewed in first week of classes. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
    ENGL 1050H S01
    Spring: 1050H section 01 is reserved for first-year and sophomore students.

  • Writing for Today's Electronic Media

    This course introduces students to the practice of reporting for television news, radio, and their online equivalents--online news and podcasts. Exploring the world of communications for contemporary media, the course features hands-on work in writing news, features, and opinion pieces for television, radio, online news, and podcasts. Students will develop skills in analyzing, writing, revising, and workshopping in these media. Enrollment limited to 17. Writing sample required. Banner registrations after classes begin require instructor approval. S/NC.
    ENGL 1050N S01
    Primary Instructor
    Readey

  • Writing the Family

    “You must not tell anyone” writes Hong Kingston’s auto-fictional narrator—and then a book of family secrets follows. This class examines how authors (authorized or not) use their families as subject matter, storying family and family life. Over the term, we’ll work on developing a practical and theoretical ethics of family-writing while contextualizing and practicing writing nonfiction about the family. Enrollment limited to 17. No prerequisites. Writing sample required. Instructor permission required.
    ENGL 1050Q S01
    Permission to register will be based on review of writing samples after the first day of classes. Interested students must attend the first class meeting.

  • Intellectual Pleasures: Reading/Writing the Literary Text

    Riffing on the generative tensions between intellectual rigor and aesthetic pleasure, this seminar will examine (through the theoretical framework of cognitive poetics) a richly diverse range of literary texts, from Susan Howe to Beowulf. Our objective: to develop an awareness of language that will reshape how we read and how we write literary texts in various genres. Writing centered. Enrollment limited to 12. Prerequisite: ENGL 0930 or any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. S/NC.
    ENGL 1140A S01
    Primary Instructor
    Stanley

  • Writing for Activists

    How can writing support and further change? In this course students will practice grant applications, budget narratives, mission and strategy statements, press releases, position papers, op-eds, and other writing strategies with practical application in activist work. We’ll read examples and theoretical grounding, and guest speakers will introduce us to writings and needs specific to a range of fields. 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. Instructor permission required. S/NC.
    ENGL 1140E S01
    Primary Instructor
    Schapira

  • Reporting Crime and Justice

    Crime and justice stories are people stories. The drama of everyday life is played out every day in courtrooms. This advanced journalism course will get students into the courtrooms, case files and archives of Rhode Island's judicial system and into committee hearings at the State House where they will report on stories that incorporate drama, tension, and narrative storytelling. Prerequisite: ENGL1050G, ENGL1050H or ENGL1160A (Advanced Feature Writing). Enrollment limited to 17. Instructor permission required. Preference will be given to English concentrators. S/NC.
    ENGL 1160F S01
    Primary Instructor
    Breton

  • Digital Nonfiction

    In this class, we will join the host of other artists, activists, and writers that have used Twitter bots, iPhone apps, virtual reality experiences, and more to tell compelling stories. No previous digital writing experience is necessary, however, as an advanced creative nonfiction class, Digital Nonfiction requires students to have completed ENGL 0930 or any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. Enrollment is limited to 17. Instructor permission required. S/NC.
    ENGL 1180B S01
    Primary Instructor
    Stewart

  • Advanced Creative Nonfiction: Writing with Food

    This course examines writing about food and how writing affects food and food culture. We shall explore the relationship of food to the pen through reading classic texts, writing in and out of class, guest lectures, and touring culinary archives. The goal is to polish personal voice in menus, recipes, memoir, history, reportage, and the lyric essay. 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.
    ENGL 1180C S01
    Primary Instructor
    DeBoer-Langworthy

  • Lyricism and Lucidity

    For the advanced writer. This course will explore two subsets of the personal essay that blur or cross boundary lines--the lyric essay and the photographic essay-- in both traditional and experimental formats. Writing sample required. Prerequisite: ENGL 0930 or any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. Not open to first year students. 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.
    ENGL 1180G S01
    Primary Instructor
    Imbriglio

  • Satire and Humor Writing

    For the advanced writer. This course will introduce students to the practice of writing satire and humorous essays. Readings will include works by Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, Garrison Keillor, Bill Bryson, David Foster Wallace, David Sedaris, and others, and students will develop skills in analyzing, writing, and workshopping in the genre. 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.
    ENGL 1180H S01
    Primary Instructor
    Readey

  • Testimony

    How does the creative nonfiction writer bear witness to profound political, social, and environmental change? In this course students engage with the world as writers. They will conduct extensive interviews within the Brown community and beyond and will turn those first hand testimonials into a suite of creative nonfiction pieces in various genres including the lyric, personal, “found,” and multi-media essay. 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.
    ENGL 1180U S01
    Primary Instructor
    Rush

  • Asian American Narrative

    This course considers themes, forms, and contexts of Asian American narratives. We will examine diverse representations of Asian American experience and explore the questions these texts raise about race and ethnicity; self-invention and identity; and visibility and representation. We’ll consider how Asian American authors have used writing to reclaim agency, preserve cultural memory, and redress past and present injustice. Prerequisite: ENGL0930 or any 1000-level nonfiction writing course. Writing sample required. Class list will be reduced to 17 after writings samples are reviewed during the first week of classes. Preference given to English concentrators. Instructor permission required. S/NC.
    ENGL 1180V S01
    Primary Instructor
    Arnold

  • 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.
    ENGL 1200 S04
    Primary Instructor
    Jackson
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S05
    Primary Instructor
    Breton
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S11
    Primary Instructor
    DeBoer-Langworthy
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S19
    Primary Instructor
    Foley
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S23
    Primary Instructor
    Imbriglio
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S27
    Primary Instructor
    Readey
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S41
    Primary Instructor
    Stanley
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S42
    Primary Instructor
    Taylor
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S48
    Primary Instructor
    Stewart
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S53
    Primary Instructor
    Schapira
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S59
    Primary Instructor
    Ward
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1200 S61
    Primary Instructor
    Golaski
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research

  • Shakespeare, Love and Friendship

    Shakespeare portrays friends who are compared to a "double cherry"; a lover who wants to cut her beloved out in little stars; and subjects who sweat with desire to see their kings. How does Shakespeare imagine the possibilities and pitfalls of affection, whether personal or political? What happens to that affection when Shakespeare is adapted into film?
    ENGL 1311G S01
    Primary Instructor
    Kuzner

  • Renaissance Poetry and Its Kinds

    English poetry from 1500-1650 traces a revolutionary arc of poetic invention remarkable for diverse individual voices and literary kinds. Forms such as lyric, heroic, pastoral, satiric, epistle, and epigram embraced concerns that were at once affective, political, and religious. How does this variety constitute literature? Wyatt, Surrey, Raleigh, Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Donne, Jonson, Herrick, Herbert, Crashaw, Milton.
    ENGL 1311M S01
    Primary Instructor
    Foley

  • Introduction to the Old English Language

    This course offers a thorough introduction to the earliest period of English language and literature. We begin with an extensive coverage of grammar and syntax before reading short texts and a few Old English poems, including The Battle of Brunanburh and Judith. Enrollment limited to 20.
    ENGL 1360H S01
    Primary Instructor
    Jacobs

  • 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.
    ENGL 1380 S07
    Primary Instructor
    Bryan
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1380 S19
    Primary Instructor
    Foley
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1380 S34
    Primary Instructor
    Rabb
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1380 S49
    Primary Instructor
    Redfield
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1380 S52
    Primary Instructor
    Rambuss
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1380 S54
    Primary Instructor
    Newman
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1380 S57
    Primary Instructor
    Kuzner
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1380 S58
    Primary Instructor
    Jacobs
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research

  • Jane Austen and Her Predecessors: The Other History of the Novel

    This course focuses on the novels of Jane Austen — from Sense and Sensibility to Persuasion. The course first establishes some familiarity with the earlier women writers of narrative fiction, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the development of the novel and of Austen's place in that rich tradition. Additional readings include work by Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Lennox, Elizabeth Inchbald, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
    ENGL 1510A S01
    Primary Instructor
    Rabb

  • Emily Dickinson and the Theory of Lyric Form

    This class examines the extraordinary work of Emily Dickinson in an attempt to understand what lyric poetry is and how it works. We will read a generous sampling of Dickinson’s poetry as well as a number of the major theoretical accounts of the lyric. Enrollment limited to juniors and seniors.
    ENGL 1511Y S01
    Primary Instructor
    Burrows

  • Swift and His Contemporaries

    Jonathan Swift's works are central to this course's investigation of early 18th-century literature and culture. The reading focuses on the period as an "information age" energized by issues not unlike those of our own time: partisan politics, money, proliferation of new forms of textuality, globalization, changing views on gender and sexuality, love, religion, and war. The emphasis will be on irony, parody, and satire. Other writers include Congreve, Defoe, Manley, Pope, Gay, Montagu, Addison, and Steele. Students who have taken ENGL 1510T may not register for this course. Not open to first-year students or students who have taken ENGL1510T. Enrollment limited.
    ENGL 1561C S01
    Primary Instructor
    Rabb

  • 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.
    ENGL 1580 S08
    Primary Instructor
    Burrows
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S15
    Primary Instructor
    Egan
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S18
    Primary Instructor
    Khalip
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S21
    Primary Instructor
    Gould
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S26
    Primary Instructor
    Keach
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S33
    Primary Instructor
    Nabers
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S34
    Primary Instructor
    Rabb
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S36
    Primary Instructor
    Rooney
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S49
    Primary Instructor
    Redfield
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S55
    Primary Instructor
    Anderson
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1580 S63
    Primary Instructor
    Parker
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research

  • The Literature and Culture of Black Power Reconsidered

    This course reexamines the Black Power movement as a signal development in American literature and culture. We will read classics from the period with a view toward reassessing the nuances and complexities of their form and politics. At the same time, we will recover less familiar texts that complicate conventional understandings of what defines this movement. Authors include Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, Angela Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, John Edgar Wideman, Ernest Gaines, and Amiri Baraka.
    ENGL 1710P S01
    Primary Instructor
    Murray

  • Gertrude Stein and What Comes After

    In this course, we will read a range of works written by Gertrude Stein and examine how they have influenced the landscape of post-1945 literature, focusing primarily on poetry.
    ENGL 1711M S01
    Primary Instructor
    Smailbegovic

  • The Korean War in Color

    We examine US and South Korean representations of the Korean War. We look at how this event was depicted in US films of the 1950s with a focus on how it occasioned a transformation of American understandings of race, both domestically and transnationally. We then look at how this event has been memorialized by contemporary American authors as well as in South Korean literature and film. Authors we read include: Susan Choi, Ha Jin, Chang-rae Lee, Toni Morrison, Jayne Anne Phillips and Hwang Sok-Yong. Enrollment limited to 20. Not open to first-year students.
    ENGL 1761V S01
    Primary Instructor
    Kim

  • Kubrick

    On Kubrick’s feature films, documentaries, and photography, starting with his sci-fi masterpiece 2001, followed by his early noirs (Killer’s Kiss; The Killing); sex films (Lolita; A Clockwork Orange; Eyes Wide Shut); and war films (Paths of Glory; Dr. Strangelove; Full Metal Jacket). Topics include: adaptation; genre; masculinity in extremis; technophilia and technophobia; the aesthetics of violence; and sex on film. Limited to 20 junior and senior concentrators in English and MCM. Instructor permission required.
    ENGL 1762D S01
    Primary Instructor
    Rambuss

  • 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.
    ENGL 1780 S02
    Primary Instructor
    Armstrong
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S03
    Primary Instructor
    Bewes
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S08
    Primary Instructor
    Burrows
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S15
    Primary Instructor
    Egan
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S19
    Primary Instructor
    Foley
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S20
    Primary Instructor
    George
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S25
    Primary Instructor
    Katz
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S28
    Primary Instructor
    Kim
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S32
    Primary Instructor
    Murray
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S33
    Primary Instructor
    Nabers
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S35
    Primary Instructor
    Reichman
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S36
    Primary Instructor
    Rooney
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S52
    Primary Instructor
    Rambuss
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S60
    Primary Instructor
    Gandhi
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S62
    Primary Instructor
    Smailbegovic
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S64
    Primary Instructor
    Quashie
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 1780 S65
    Primary Instructor
    Ramirez
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research

  • Zoopoetics

    This course will explore the intersections between the depictions of plants and animals in twentieth and twenty-first century poetry and the theoretical conversations about non-human worlds unfolding in emerging fields, such as animal studies and the environmental humanities. Readings will range from poetic texts by Francis Ponge and Marianne Moore to theoretical texts by figures such as Donna Haraway.
    ENGL 1900J S01
    Primary Instructor
    Smailbegovic

  • Neuroaesthetics and Reading

    Analysis of the theories of art, reading, and aesthetic experience proposed by neuroscience and cognitive science in light of traditional aesthetics and contemporary literary theory. Enrollment limited to 20. Prerequisite: At least one course on neuroscience or cognitive science and one 1000-level literature course. Instructor permission required.
    ENGL 1900Z S01
    Primary Instructor
    Armstrong

  • Fanon and Spillers

    This course will consider the conceptual/theoretical contributions of Frantz Fanon and Hortense Spillers, as frames for reading some iconic texts in the black literary canon. Central to our study will be an exploration of blackness, subjection, and gendering—as well as thinking about how these idioms relate to the genre conventions of our course’s literary works. Enrollment limited to 20 juniors and seniors. Instructor permission required.
    ENGL 1901J S01
    Class list for ENGL 1901J will be finalized after the first day of classes. Please email the professor to add your name to the potential roster.
    Primary Instructor
    Quashie

  • The Recent Novel and its Cultural Rivals

    A careful consideration of several major late twentieth- and early twenty-first century Anglophone novels in terms of their relationship to rival aesthetic forms and media--film, television, radio, video games, and the like. Writers to be considered included: Morrison, Lee, Rushdie, Smith, Didion, Díaz, Pynchon, and Egan. Enrollment limited to 20 senior English concentrators. Others admitted by instructor permission only.
    ENGL 1950H S01
    Primary Instructor
    Nabers

  • Inoperative Selves

    Romantic and post-Romantic literature often imagines characters that appear to break down, serve no purpose, act in ways that seem faulty and withdrawn. They resist social conventions and narratives of development and progress. How do such inoperative figures suggest alternative aesthetic, ethical, and political visions? And how can we conceive of inoperativity as a viable challenge to thought? Enrollment limited to 20 senior English concentrators.
    ENGL 1950L S01
    Primary Instructor
    Khalip

  • 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.
    ENGL 1992 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Armstrong

  • 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.
    ENGL 1994 S01
    Primary Instructor
    Imbriglio

  • Books of Love: Ruiz and Chaucer

    Discourses of love animated the vernacular literary masterworks of Juan Ruiz (c.1283-c.1350) and Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1342-1400), near-contemporaries who became celebrated canonical authors in Spain and England, respectively. This course considers their writings comparatively, in literary and historical context. Readings include Le Roman de la rose; Ruiz's El Libro de buen amor; Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (with instruction in Middle English). Qualified, advanced undergraduates will be admitted by instructor permission only.
    ENGL 2361C S01
    Primary Instructor
    Bryan

  • Graduate Independent Study in Medieval and Early Modern Literatures

    Section numbers vary by instructor. May be repeated for credit. Instructor's permission required.
    ENGL 2380 S07
    Primary Instructor
    Bryan
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2380 S15
    Primary Instructor
    Egan
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2380 S19
    Primary Instructor
    Foley
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2380 S34
    Primary Instructor
    Rabb
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2380 S49
    Primary Instructor
    Redfield
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2380 S52
    Primary Instructor
    Rambuss
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2380 S57
    Primary Instructor
    Kuzner
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research

  • 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.
    ENGL 2580 S08
    Primary Instructor
    Burrows
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S15
    Primary Instructor
    Egan
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S18
    Primary Instructor
    Khalip
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S21
    Primary Instructor
    Gould
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S26
    Primary Instructor
    Keach
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S30
    Primary Instructor
    McLaughlin
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S33
    Primary Instructor
    Nabers
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S34
    Primary Instructor
    Rabb
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S36
    Primary Instructor
    Rooney
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S49
    Primary Instructor
    Redfield
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S55
    Primary Instructor
    Anderson
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2580 S63
    Primary Instructor
    Parker
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research

  • Black Internationalism and Its Discontents

    This seminar reassesses the broad influence of internationalism in African American letters from the age of abolition to the present. We will be concerned with literary writings that foreground the global struggle of black subjects to assert political agency in relation to Western imperialism and transatlantic slavery. Equally crucial will be a reconsideration of an established body of theoretical writings that conceive of diasporic modes of solidarity and cultural expression as alternatives to the black nationalist intellectual tradition. Authors include Martin Delany, W.E.B Du Bois, Richard Wright, Angela Davis, Brent Edwards, and Paul Gilroy.
    ENGL 2761C S01
    Primary Instructor
    Murray

  • Naturalism and the Anthropocene

    The world of naturalist fiction is strange and terrifying: monstrous new forms of life; speaking animals; suicide; madness; financial ruin; ecological disaster. We will study this world in light of our catastrophic present, reading recent work in new materialism, neuroscience, animal studies, science studies, and environmentalism. Authors include Zola, Stein, Wharton, Chesnutt, Conrad, Hardy, Nietzsche, Bergson, Freud, Du Bois, James. Enrollment limited to 15 graduate students.
    ENGL 2761S S01
    Primary Instructor
    Burrows

  • Graduate Independent Study in Modern and Contemporary Literatures

    Section numbers vary by instructor. May be repeated for credit. Instructor's permission required.
    ENGL 2780 S02
    Primary Instructor
    Armstrong
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S03
    Primary Instructor
    Bewes
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S08
    Primary Instructor
    Burrows
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S20
    Primary Instructor
    George
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S25
    Primary Instructor
    Katz
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S28
    Primary Instructor
    Kim
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S32
    Primary Instructor
    Murray
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S33
    Primary Instructor
    Nabers
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S35
    Primary Instructor
    Reichman
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S36
    Primary Instructor
    Rooney
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S41
    Primary Instructor
    Stanley
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S52
    Primary Instructor
    Rambuss
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S60
    Primary Instructor
    Gandhi
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S62
    Primary Instructor
    Smailbegovic
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research
    ENGL 2780 S64
    Primary Instructor
    Quashie
    Schedule Code
    I: Independent Study/Research

  • Theory, Technics, Religion

    Critical theory has a rich history of engagement with fundamental and overlapping questions of technics, media and religion. This seminar focuses mainly on important texts from the last century (Benjamin, Heidegger, Levinas, Derrida, Agamben), but also reads more broadly in the post-Enlightenment critical and speculative tradition (Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, Weber). Selections from the Bible and readings from a few literary texts from various eras will also be assigned. Enrollment limited to 15 graduate students.
    ENGL 2901K S01
    Primary Instructor
    Redfield

  • Studying Humanities in an Information Age

    What roles can the humanities serve in a culture increasingly dominated by and imagined in terms of information? What are the conceptual and political implications of the use of “big data” in humanistic study? More broadly, what role does the digital turn play in shaping cultural concepts that provide the foundation for dominant ways of organizing knowledge and social structures? Enrollment limited to 15.
    ENGL 2901L S01
    Primary Instructor
    Egan

  • 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.
    ENGL 2970 S01
    Schedule Code
    E: Grad Enrollment Fee/Dist Prep

  • Thesis Preparation

    For graduate students who have met the residency requirement and are continuing research on a full time basis.
    ENGL 2990 S01
    Schedule Code
    E: Grad Enrollment Fee/Dist Prep

  • 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.

    Ethnic Studies
    ETHN 1750S Extravagant Texts: Reading the World Through Asian American Literature
    ENGL XLIST 0