Schedule of Classes

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.

A course which examines texts in various genres and which may focus on a particular theme chosen by the instructor.

A survey of the development of the English language from its Indo-European roots to its present variations with attention to both historical linguistics and sociolinguistics. The course explores the concept of language, the early origins of English, patterns of pronunciation and spelling, linguistic diversity through time, and modern dialectal variation. As well, it explores political, economic, and cultural factors that have helped to determine the character of the multiple forms of the language that are spoken today. Students engage in some close study of earlier forms of English.

This course approaches the reading and writing of poems as contemplative practices through a diverse selection of poetry with environmental themes, combined with daily meditation in and outside of class, and assigned journals and other writing. In doing so, it explores the relationship of the self to its surroundings and the role of the written word in defining that relationship.

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.

From the rise of the British Empire to its decline and fall, this course considers literary responses to the colonial experience, ranging from narratives of imperial adventurers, travelers, and administrators to contemporary responses to and reflections on the imperial era. The course analyzes how Britain's territorial and ideological expansion abroad shaped both British and colonial world views as well as the form and content of literary expression. Potential readings include works by Daniel Defoe, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, and Chinua Achebe.

A study of the poetry and designs of William Blake in the context of his revolutionary era. Selected readings from Milton and the Bible will be assigned as essential background; prior knowledge of these sources is helpful but not required. Digital resources will aid in our study of the visual art, and students will read and report on selected critical works.

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.