This writing-intensive introduction to literature written in English may include a selection of formal verse, fiction, drama, and at least one play by Shakespeare. The course is designed to develop the student’s imaginative understanding of literature along with the ability to write and speak with greater clarity. It is intended to be of interest to students at any level of preparation.
This writing-intensive introduction to literature written in English may include a selection of formal verse, fiction, drama, and at least one play by Shakespeare. The course is designed to develop the student’s imaginative understanding of literature along with the ability to write and speak with greater clarity. It is intended to be of interest to students at any level of preparation.
An examination of several masterpieces of Western literature, including Homer's Iliad and Dante's Divine Comedy. Some sections are writing-intensive.
An examination of several key texts of the classical and late-classical periods that provide critical reference-points for the English literary tradition. Texts will be read with an eye to how they shape writerly efforts in the subsequent centuries, and the class will ask students to think carefully about the status of the classical world as an element of literary value, both past and present. Texts (in translation) might include the dramatic tradition of Sophocles and Aeschylus, the poetry of Ovid, Lucretius, Statius, the writing of Boethius, Apuleius, Boccacio, Augustine, and more. Some sections are writing-intensive.
An examination of poems from British and American literature selected by the instructor. Writing-intensive some semesters.
Though its content will vary from semester to semester, this class always focuses on a special topic in English, Anglophone, or American literature not fully covered in existing courses. Examples might include courses on a single author, a literary movement or tradition, a genre, or a theme. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic differs.
A study of the Canterbury Tales and other poems by Chaucer. A term paper is usually expected.
A study of several plays written before 1600.
A study of the major sixteenth-century genres, with emphasis on sources, developments, and defining concerns. Readings include the sonnets of Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare; the mythological verse narratives of Marlowe and Shakespeare; the pastoral poems of Spenser; and Books I and III of Spenser's Faerie Queene.
The British eighteenth-century novel was at heart experimental, riffing on but also departing from established literary and popular forms. This reading- and writing-intensive survey includes such authors as Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Lawrence Sterne, Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, and Jane Austen, inviting us to explore the early British novel in all its multifarious inventiveness.
A survey of British poetry and non-fiction prose of the Victorian era (1837 to 1901). Texts include poetry by Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Arnold, Swinburne, D.G. Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Hopkins, and Hardy, as well as prose by Carlyle, Darwin, Arnold, Ruskin, Morris, and Wilde.
Many people know one sentence from early American literature: Puritan leader John Winthrop’s 1630 claim that “we shall be as a City on a Hill.” Often misinterpreted as a promise of inevitable national success, these words were actually a warning that America’s redemptive promises carried the risk of disastrous and conspicuous failure. This course traces the efforts of English-language writers to respond to both the promises and the failures of the tiny colonial settlements that became the United States. Authors studied include Anne Bradstreet, Mary Rowlandson, Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman.
A consideration of British fiction from the last half-century, this course will put you into the most current currents of literary expression. There is no canon yet in this course; instead, you will be invited to make and test bold claims about canonicity and how literary value is accorded and revised.
A study of representative American fiction published after World War II, including work by Thomas Pynchon, Josephine Humphreys, Louise Erdrich, Ernest Gaines, Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Stone, and Tim O'Brien.
This course supports students in conceiving and writing an honors thesis. Students explore the research and writing methods required by a thesis, such as creating a project bibliography, reading scholarship critically, identifying a compelling research question, drafting sections, and bringing multiple pieces of writing together into an extended work of scholarship. The writing for this course will culminate in a polished draft of the thesis.
Environmental Sciences
A study of sound and its roles in terrestrial and aquatic ecology, biodiversity conservation, and environmental justice. Topics include the evolution and ecology of sonic communication and soundscapes, the role of sound in the study and management of ecosystems, the origins and effects of noise pollution, and the future of Earth’s sensory richness. Labs emphasize the appreciation, measurement, and analysis of sounds from the local environment.
A study of sound and its roles in terrestrial and aquatic ecology, biodiversity conservation, and environmental justice. Topics include the evolution and ecology of sonic communication and soundscapes, the role of sound in the study and management of ecosystems, the origins and effects of noise pollution, and the future of Earth’s sensory richness. Labs emphasize the appreciation, measurement, and analysis of sounds from the local environment.
Environmental Studies
An interdisciplinary introduction to Environmental Studies through the examination of the scientific and social aspects of environmental issues. Field components of the course focus on the University Domain and the surrounding area. This course is required for all students who major or minor in environmental studies and should be taken before the junior year.