A selection of topics are explored depending on interest. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic differs.
English
This course explores selected fiction by Toni Morrison and some of the literary criticism that surrounds her work. It examines Morrison's treatment of race, class, gender, and sexuality in her fiction, and also considers some of her nonfiction, interviews, and speeches to gain a clearer understanding of her contributions to the American literary canon and the African American literary tradition.
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.
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.
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.
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 poems from British and American literature selected by the instructor. Writing-intensive some semesters.
Slavery and its legacy, systemic racism, have been subjects for American writers and artists for more than two centuries. Revealing a yawning gap between American ideals and practices, they continue to tell us something vital about our country. This course examines representations of slavery and racism, including slave narratives and neo-slave narratives, across various media.
A course centered upon one of the most ambitious and challenging novels ever composed in English, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851) by Herman Melville. But readings range well beyond that text, attempting to place it in several of its contexts: that of Melville’s prior and subsequent career (possible titles include Typee, Clarel, and Billy Budd ), his intellectual milieu (works by contemporaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne), and the nautical and scientific literature available to Melville as he wrote. Much more than a fish story, Moby-Dick makes claims about literary history, politics, philosophy, religion, and—to use a term available to us though not to Melville—ecology. This course tries to engage as many of those claims as possible.
A study of literature written in Old English (700-1100), taught in translation. This course includes works of both poetry and prose, as well as extensive
investigation of early medieval Britain’s history, context, and culture. Works potentially studied include Beowulf, religious and historical texts (The Dream of the Rood, The Battle of Maldon, The Passion of King Edmund, and Judith), and Old English elegies (The Wanderer and The Seafarer), as well as Norse sagas and early Irish literature.
A study of drama from the fifteenth century to the English Civil War, excluding works by Shakespeare but typically including tragedies by Thomas Kyd, Elizabeth Cary, Mary Sidney, Christopher Marlowe, and John Webster, as well as comedies by Ben Jonson, Mary Wroth, and Francis Beaumont.
A study of several plays after 1600.
A study of Milton's poetry and prose in the context of religious and political upheavals in mid-seventeenth-century England. Particular emphasis is on Lycidas and Paradise Lost.
A study of the poetry and poetic theory of British romanticism. Included is an examination of such writers as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.
A study of several major Victorian authors, including Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Oscar Wilde.