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The curriculum of the Department of English is intended to aid students in developing methods for critical interpretation, to acquaint students with representative works in important periods of English, American, and Anglophone literature, and to introduce students to the main literary genres. Further information about the department, faculty and courses is available online (www.oberlin.edu/english). Advanced Placement. Students will receive three hours of Oberlin College credit for a score of 5 on the Advanced Placement Examination in English Literature/Composition or English Language/Composition, and will be eligible for entry into introductory (200-level) courses in English. First-Year Seminars. These small, Writing Intensive classes are for first-year students only, and do not count as part of the English major. They focus on the essential skills of reading, analysis, writing, and discussion. The successful completion of any first-year seminar will count as prerequisite for introductory work in English, as will a Writing Intensive course in any other department, or certification of writing proficiency in any Writing Certification course in the Humanities division. Courses for Non-Majors. Lecture courses at the 100 level are intended primarily for non-majors and do not count for Writing Certification. Students hoping to do further work in English or literary study in general should normally begin work with a First-Year Seminar and proceed directly to 200-level courses. Gateway and 200-Level Courses. 200-level courses in English are the normal introduction to advanced work in the department. All English courses above the 100 level are Writing Certification courses. 200-level courses cover a more or less substantial body of texts, provide instruction in the conventions of genre, period, and region as appropriate, and give significant attention to fundamental issues and approaches in critical reading and writing. Most 200-level courses are designated as Gateway courses, in which students will gain particularized knowledge of methodologies important to the discipline of English. The individual focus of each Gateway course is indicated more fully in the course descriptions below. English majors will be expected to take two Gateway courses, and should consult with their advisors about making appropriate choices of the Gateway courses. Qualified non-majors are welcome in Gateway courses, as well. Normally, students not wishing to major in English but intending to go on to further work at the advanced level should take at least two 200-level courses, including one Gateway. 300-Level Courses. Advanced courses at the 300 level are primarily intended for English majors who have completed two Gateway courses and for other students who have completed at least two courses at the 200 level, including one Gateway course. These courses are smaller in size to facilitate more intensive study than the 200-level courses. Senior Tutorials. Senior Tutorials allow students to purse an individual critical project in a small group. These courses are restricted to English majors, and are required of majors declaring the major in Spring of 2003 or later. Major. The English major is designed to meet the needs of students with various goals, including those who desire training in English in preparation for graduate study in the field; those seeking a foundation for postgraduate work or study in fields related to English (e.g., education, communications, editing and publishing, law, theater); and those who want a humanistic base in reading, thinking, and writing for a liberal arts education. Students interested in going on for graduate work in English should be aware that their candidacy will be strengthened by the following: readiness to define a likely direction or area of ongoing scholarly interest; evidence of the ability to conduct successful independent research and extended critical writing; reading knowledge of at least one foreign language; and a more ample distribution of historical period courses than that minimally required by the major. Students should consult with their advisors about the decision to go on for graduate work in English. Students who have declared the English major before 2003, under the old rules, have the choice to finish under the old rules or to change to the new. It will be assumed that such students are finishing under the old rules unless the student's advisor notifies the chair of a change. Students should consult with their advisor to determine how the changes will affect them. English majors continuing under the old rules are encouraged to take the Senior Tutorial. Before declaring the major in English, students should consult with a member of the department as advisor. As well as filling out the Declaration of Major form in the Office of the Registrar, students will need to complete a one-page Plan for the Major. This is a statement, written by the student after discussion with the advisor, exploring the student's intentions and goals for the major. The form of the Plan for the Major is flexible, but should address the basic questions: Why do I want to major in English? What do I want to do in the major? The student and advisor should re-visit the Plan for the Major several times during the student's work in the department and revise it as appropriate. The Department offers two types of majors, regular and concentration majors, described in detail below. The regular major is primarily a course of study within the discipline of English; the concentration majors are interdisciplinary. Students may count toward the English major (at the 200 level) one college course (up to three credit hours) in non-English-language literature, whether read in the original or in translation. Such a course will not satisfy the distribution requirements for the major (see below). The regular major in English consists of at least 27 hours, including: • two Gateway courses, • four courses at the 300 level, and • the Senior Tutorial. Distribution requirements: In order to assure cultural breadth, English majors must take at least one course designated as American, one as British, and one as Diversity—a category that encompasses areas of traditionally under-represented cultures. Furthermore, English majors must take at least one course in the following historical periods: Pre-1700, 1700-1900, and Post-1900. An individual course may satisfy several requirements. The Senior Tutorial does not satisfy distribution requirements. Distribution category designations for individual courses may be found on the department web site and in descriptions below for Introductory and Advanced courses ("American," "British," "Diversity," "Pre-1700," "1700-1900," and "Post-1900"). Distribution categories referring to the English major for students declaring before 2003 (the "old major") are also included for convenience ("EL" = English Literature before 1790; "AL" = American Literature; "WL" = English and other non-American Literature after 1790; "D" = drama; "P" = poetry; "F" = fiction). Guidelines for the old major are available online but are no longer printed in the catalog. English majors are urged to take at least one course in poetry and one in drama, as well as one course in a non-English language literature, whether read in the original or in translation. Concentration Majors. There are six interdisciplinary concentration major alternatives to the regular major. Based in English, these concentrations allow students to concentrate on particular aspects of literary study by bringing work in other disciplines to bear on their work in English—in particular, work in African American Studies, American Literature and Culture, Creative Writing, Gender and Women's Studies, Modern Culture and Media, and Theater and Drama. All concentration majors consist of at least 21 hours in English and 15 hours outside of English. For all concentration majors, courses in English must include: • two Gateway courses, • three courses (four for the concentrations in American Literature and Culture, and Modern Culture and Media) at the 300 level, and • the Senior Tutorial in English. Concentration majors must satisfy the same distribution requirements as for the regular major in English (see above). Specific requirements for concentration majors, in addition to the general requirements above: • African American Studies: in English: three courses with strong focus on African American or Third World literature with a significant treatment of the literature of Africa and/or the African diaspora; outside English: 15 hours in African American/Third World Studies courses, including no more than one literature course. • American Literature and Culture: in English: four courses in American literature and culture; outside English: 15 hours in courses dealing with American culture in History, Art History, African American Studies, etc. • Creative Writing: in English: three courses in 20th-century literature, including one in post-1945 literature; outside English: 15 hours in the Creative Writing Program, a minimum of 10 hours of which must be in the form of coursework offered for Creative Writing credit by Creative Writing Program Committee faculty. • Gender and Women's Studies: in English: three courses with a strong feminist or Women's Studies component; outside English: 15 hours from courses listed in the catalog under Gender and Women's Studies; one of these courses must be Gender and Women's Studies 100; the rest may include up to three hours in courses listed as "Related Courses" in Gender and Women's Studies; the remainder must be from courses listed as "Program Courses" or "Cross-Listed Courses." • Modern Culture and Media: in English: four courses dealing with issues in modern culture and media; outside English: 15 hours in courses dealing with modern culture and media. • Theater and Drama: in English: three courses in dramatic literature, playwriting, or other drama or film topic; outside English: 15 hours (total) in at least two other areas (dramatic literature, theater, film) to be chosen from among courses such as these: courses in theater and design/technical areas; film courses; other literature courses in translation or in the original language of which the substance is drama. In consultation with the department chairperson, majors may devise other concentrations to meet their particular interests. Because concentration majors require more advance planning than the standard English major, they may not be declared after the end of the student's junior year. Students who choose a concentration major have no guaranteed access to courses outside the English Department required for that major. Minor. An English minor consists of at least 15 hours in the English Department including at least: • one Gateway course and • two courses at the 300 level. Distribution requirements: at least one course in Diversity and at least one course in either Pre-1700 or 1700-1900. Honors. Honors in English begins with work in the Senior Tutorial, which students interested in being considered for the Honors Program must take in the semester before their final semester at Oberlin. As well as being enrolled in the Senior Tutorial by the time they apply for Honors, students are advised to have completed the majority of their major requirements, including distribution requirements and any specific requirements for a concentration major, and to have done significant work at the advanced level. Students are admitted to the Honors program based on their grade-point average and coursework in the major, their work in the Senior Tutorial, the recommendations of faculty, and personal interviews as needed. Students in the Honors program work closely with a faculty member in their final semester on a research project, leading to a 35-page essay or creative writing project and an oral examination on that project. Successful work in the Honors program will render a student eligible for consideration for Honors at graduation, but it does not guarantee such Honors. London Program. One semester each year, an English Department faculty member serves as co-director of the Danenberg Oberlin-in-London Program, thereby facilitating applications for English majors interested in that semester's program. For further information, see the section of the catalog entitled "London Program." Transfer of Credit. No more than 14 hours of transfer credit in English literature may be applied to the Oberlin English major. (Note: "English Literature" generally excludes basic composition, introductory creative writing, and more than one course in literature not written in English.) To have transfer credit approval toward the major and/or toward meeting prerequisites for upper-level courses, students should consult the faculty member in charge of Transfer of Credit (inquire at the department office), preferably with syllabi in hand. Winter Term. Winter Term projects sponsored by English faculty will be offered according to the interests and availability of staff. Students also are encouraged to propose group projects which, with an approved sponsor, they will direct.
Students interested in taking introductory-level courses in expository writing should see the Rhetoric and Composition section of this catalog. Descriptions of writing-oriented courses and procedures to be followed in order to meet the college-wide writing requirements may be found there. First-Year Seminars First-year seminars do not count toward the English major, which begins with classes at the 200 level. For descriptions, please see "First-Year Seminar Program." 111. Words That Matter 3 hours 3HU, WRi First Semester. For description, please see "First-Year Seminar Program" in this catalog. Enrollment Limit: 14 first-year students only. Ms. Bryan 117. Uses of Metaphor 3 hours 3HU, WRi Second Semester. For description, please see "First-Year Seminar Program" in this catalog. Enrollment Limit: 14 first-year students only. Mr. Hobbs 127. William Butler Yeats: the Last Romantic 3 hours 3HU, WRi First Semester. For description, please see "First-Year Seminar Program" in this catalog. Enrollment Limit: 14 first-year students only. Mr. Olmsted 128. Media and Memory 3 hours 3HU, WRi First Semester. For description, please see "First-Year Seminar Program" in this catalog. Enrollment Limit: 14 first-year students only. Mr. Pence 170. Fabulous Histories/Factual Fictions: How Literature and History Inform Each Other 3 hours 3HU, WRi First Semester. For description, please see "First-Year Seminar Program" in this catalog. Enrollment Limit: 14 first-year students only. Ms. Needham 183. From Page to Stage 3 hours 3HU, WRi First Semester. For description, please see "First-Year Seminar Program" in this catalog. Enrollment Limit: 14 first-year students only. Ms. Gorfain 187. Death and the Art of Dying 3 hours 3HU, CD, WRi First Semester. For description, please see "First-Year Seminar Program" in this catalog. Enrollment Limit: 14 first-year students only. Mr. Deppman 193. Destination: L.A. 3 hours 3HU, CD, WRi First Semester. For description, please see "First-Year Seminar Program" in this catalog. Enrollment Limit: 14 first-year students only. Mr. Liu
For courses added after catalog production, consult www.oberlin.edu/english. 173. Form, Style, and Meaning in Cinema 4 hours 4HU First and Second Semester. For description, please see "Cinema Studies" in this catalog. Identical to CINE 101. Enrollment Limit: 60. Staff
Courses at the 200 level are designed to introduce students to the discipline of literary study in English through attention to fundamental issues and methods of interpretation in critical reading and writing, substantial coverage of texts, and instruction in the conventions of genre, period, and region as appropriate. Prerequisites: These courses are open to students who have completed any Writing Intensive course, or have gained Writing Certification in any course in the Humanities. They are also open to those who have achieved a 5 on the AP exam in English Language/Composition or English Literature/Composition, or a score of 710 or better on the SAT II Writing test. Other students may be admitted by consent of the instructor, with the understanding that students should be able to demonstrate the ability to handle writing, discussion, and analysis in ways typically taught in Writing Intensive classes. Introductory Gateway Courses Courses designated as Gateway will engage students in the discipline in a focused way, with particular theoretical and methodological attention to the processes of reading and writing about texts; further information about the particular focus of each individual Gateway course can be found on the department web site. Two Gateway courses are required for the English major. For courses added after catalog production, consult www.oberlin.edu/english. 208. Shakespearean and Film 3 hours 3HU, WR First Semester. What happens when Shakespeare is produced on screen? Given the powerful status of "the Bard" in many cultures of the 20th century, a Shakespeare film must be studied not merely in itself, but also as a contribution to the ongoing reinterpretation and appropriation of Shakespeare; we'll read plays, study films, and work on the theoretical and cultural relationships between them. British, Pre-1700. D, EL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30. Mr. Jones 220. Romantic Literature 3 hours 3HU, WR Second Semester. An interdisciplinary study of "romanticism" in England and Scotland between 1789 and 1832, treating works by poets, essay writers, novelists, painters and urban architects. Among works to be considered will be poems by Blake, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, and Byron, essays by Burke, De Quincey, Coleridge, and Hazlitt, and fiction by Mary Shelley. Painters to be considered will include Girtin, Constable, and Turner. We will investigate the Prince Regent's attempts, working with John Nash and others, to transform London into an imperial city. British, 1700-1900. P, WL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30. Mr. Olmsted 221. Documentary Forms 4 hours 4HU, WR Second Semester. For description, please see "Cinema Studies" in this catalog. American, Post-1900. F, AL. Identical to CINE 221. Enrollment Limit: 30. Mr. Pingree 238. Contemporary American Fiction 4 hours 4HU, WR Second Semester. This course will focus on recently published American novels. We will attend to questions of style, authorship and interpretation against the backdrop of contemporary cultural and political history. Likely authors to include Dorothy Allison, Paul Auster, Don DeLillo, Louise Erdrich, Toni Morrison, E. L. Doctorow, Charles Johnson, Jayne Anne Phillips, Richard Powers, Sherman Alexie, Michael Chabon. American, Post-1900. F, AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30. Mr. Pence 240. Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett 3 hours 3HU, WR Second Semester. A comparative study of poetry, fiction, and drama by three major twentieth-century writers who all grew up in Ireland but were separated by their religions, social classes, and world-views. Major issues will be the tensions between literature and politics, innovation and tradition, elite arts and popular culture, and nationalism and internationalism. Working on poems, stories and plays, students will develop fundamental techniques of close reading informed by the historical context of revolutionary Ireland. British, Post-1900. WL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30. Mr. Hobbs 262. Boundaries of Yellow: Navigating Terrains in Contemporary Asian American Literature 3 hours 3HU, CD, WR First Semester. This course addresses two borders: the boundaries of Asian American representation, and the shifting parameters of the Asian American canon. Readings will include Maxine Hong Kingston, Frank Chin, Joy Kogawa, David Wong Louie, David Henry Hwang, Karen Yamashita, Jessica Hagedorn, as well as canonical Asian American criticism and theory addressing how stereotypes, history, cultural, and personal memories collide in the contentious relationships between gender, sexuality, and national/diasporic identity. American, Post-1900, Diversity. AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30. Ms. Takada 265. Anglophone Literatures of the Third World 3 hours 3HU, CD, WR Second Semester. Through a variety of theoretical essays and novels, this course will examine the problems of definition, analysis, and evaluation that attend our interpretation of works from the "Third World." We will consider, for instance, whether or not: 1) "Third World" or "Post-colonial" are appropriate designations; 2) notions of "marginality," "difference," and "alterity," so often deployed to characterize these works, are useful interpretive tools; 3) the perception that these works are always already enactments of resistance against dominant ideologies and formations is effective. Identical to CMPL 265. Diversity, Post-1900. F, WL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30. Ms. Needham 272. American Cinema: The Possibilities of Art in the Entertainment Business 4 hours 4HU, WR First Semester. This course will focus on how American cinema functions as an entertainment industry and the ways in which the demands of business and changes in technology have shaped it. At the same time, we will explore American movies as works of art produced in a tradition of strong genres and the star system, and efforts of filmmakers to use these for individualized expression. The course will focus particularly on two great eras of American cinema, 1939-1942 and 1966-73. Identical to CINE 272. American, Post-1900. F, AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30. Mr. Day 275. Introduction to Comparative Literature 3 hours 3HU, CD First Semester. For description, please see "Comparative Literature" in this catalog. Identical to CMPL 200. Enrollment Limit: 25. Mr. Deppman 293. Lyric Poetry Before 1700 4 hours 4HU, WR Second Semester. Intensive study of the various shorter forms of English poetry between the mythical Anglo-Saxon cowherd-singer Caedmon and the witty Parliamentarian Andrew Marvell. We will read alliterative elegies, troubadour and religious lyrics, songs, sonnets, more sonnets, still more sonnets, satires, odes, invitations, epitaphs, ballads, hymns, and other small gems of the medieval and Renaissance periods, attending to both aesthetic-formal and cultural-historical issues. There will be reading and reciting in Middle English, and several exams. British, Pre-1700. P, EL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30. Ms. Bryan Introductory Elective Courses Courses in this category do not serve the "Gateway" function for the English major. For courses added after catalog production, consult www.oberlin.edu/english. 239. History and Structure of the English Language 4 hours 4HU, WR Second Semester. The development of English from its Anglo-Saxon beginnings to the present, focusing on lexical, morphological, syntactic, and phonological change, with emphasis on the intersections between language, literature, and culture. British, Pre-1700. EL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 30. Ms. Bryan
Courses at the 300 level are designed to broaden students' experience of literature in English while also deepening the study of the discipline through focused reading of texts, criticism, literary history and theory. For courses added after catalog production, consult www.oberlin.edu/english. Prerequisites: Two 200-level courses, including at least one Gateway course; or three 200-level courses. 302. Medieval Women Writers 3 hours 3HU, CD, WR First Semester. Although we cannot really speak of a "female literary tradition" in the Middle Ages, the period is not quite the "long silence" for women's writing that scholars once thought. We will study those women who, remarkably, managed to make themselves heard, including Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, Marie de France, Heloise, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Christine de Pisan, the Paston women, and anonymous. British, Diversity, Pre-1700. F, EL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Bryan 305. Authority and Subversion in Shakespearean Drama 3 hours 3HU, WR Second Semester. Authority and challenges to it create tensions on many levels in Shakespeare's plays. Whether authority derives from institutions such as the Church or monarchy, from patriarchal family structures or social norms, from gender expectations or sexual roles, or from literary genres and conventions — disobedience, subversion, or critique motivate character, action, language, form, and stage interpretations in Shakespearean drama. We will study six to seven plays within histories of order and disorder in early modern England. British, Pre-1700. D, EL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Gorfain 316. Early Victorian Fiction in Context 4 hours 4HU, WR First Semester. A survey of British fiction written in the first half of the nineteenth century, with special attention paid to historical and cultural context, serial publication and changing readerships, the emergence of a sophisticated aesthetic of fiction in critical periodicals, and the interplay between text and visual image in illustrated fiction. Selections of poetry and prose of thought from the 1830s and 1840s will also be read. Works will include fiction by Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, Gaskell, Emily Brontë, and Charlotte Brontë, and poetry by Tennyson and Browning. British, 1700-1900. F, WL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Mr. Olmsted 320. Documentary Production 4 hours 4HU, WR Second Semester. For description, please see "Cinema Studies" in this catalog. F. Identical to CINE 320. Enrollment Limit: 12. Mr. Pingree 327. Modern Drama: Ibsen to Pirandello 3 hours 3HU, WR Second Semester. This course explores the different ways in which "reality" was staged by playwrights including Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Shaw, and Pirandello. We will consider how modern theatrical movements such as realism, naturalism, expressionism, and metadrama sought to represent "reality," focusing on evolving stagecraft. Emphasis will also be placed on the historical and cultural contexts surrounding the early stages of modern drama. Post-1900. D, WL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Tufts 340. Technology and Contemporary American Culture 4 hours 4HU, WR Second Semester. Innovation in technology is often seen as either a starry dream or a dystopian nightmare. This course seeks to move beyond such polarized judgments by looking closely at representations of technology in film, literature, visual art and electronic resources as well as critical and theoretical works on technology and aesthetic and social experience. Identical to CINE 340. American, Post-1900. F, AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above or consent of instructor. Enrollment Limit: 25. Mr. Pence 353. "To Write Like an American": American Literature 1825-1865 4 hours 4HU, WR Second Semester. Melville's phrase captures a major concern of American writers during the antebellum period: the creation of a distinctly American literature. Directly or indirectly, many writers of the era engaged with "writing like an American"—Melville, Emerson, Whitman, Douglass, Jacobs among them—while a few, notably Poe, repudiated the very idea. We'll read work by the writers I've listed and by others as we consider what "writing like an American" entailed during the formative era in American culture and history. American, 1700-1900. F, AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Zagarell 354. Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson 3 hours 3HU, WR Second Semester. A comparative study of America's two most important 19th-century poets: Whitman the exuberant poet-wanderer and Dickinson the thoughtful soul who selected her own society. We will examine some of the key contexts in and against which they wrote, including Puritanism, Transcendentalism, and the Civil War. Texts to include cycles such as Dickinson's bridal, riddle, definition, nature, prisoner, and beyond-the-grave groups and Whitman's Children of Adam, Calamus, Leaves of Grass, and Songs of Insurrection. American, 1700-1900. P, AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Mr. Deppman 355. The Word and the World: American Women Writers, 1830-1930, and Contemporary Feminist Cultural Criticism 4 hours 4HU, CD, WR Second Semester. For most 19th-century American women writers, the word (especially the written word) reflected the world and could affect it. This course is organized around four key terms: domesticity, regionalism, reform, and sentimentality. Via contemporary feminist criticism, we'll also consider the word-world relationship and the status of our key terms in U.S. culture today. Writers to be read include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Wilson, Sarah Orne Jewett and Sui Sin Far. Critics include Lora Romero, June Howard, Amy Kaplan, P. Gabrielle Foreman. American, Post-1900. F, AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Zagarell 361. Post-Colonial Women's Narratives 4 hours 4HU, CD, WR Second Semester. This course will scrutinize the issues of gender, sexuality, race, and nation/nationality in a variety of "Third" world narratives by women. Our discussion will focus on the following issues: narrative—especially the novel—as the preferred "genre" for describing and interrogating the birth and development of nations; women's role(s) in the narratives of nation-forming; the narrative strategies and structures—i.e., who speaks what and for whom? How is the narrative organized, around whose perspective, and what materials are selected for consideration? Diversity, Post-1900. F, WL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Needham 365. American Drama 3 hours 3HU, WR Second Semester. Selected works of major American playwrights. Emphasis will be placed on close reading, as well as on the significance of each play in regard to political and social movements of the time and the evolution of the American theater. Among the playwrights to be considered: Odets, O'Neill, Williams, Hellman, Albee, Shepard, Baraka, Bullins, Fornes, Kushner. American, Post-1900. D, AL. Prerequisites: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Tufts 368. Contemporary Ethnic America 3 hours 3HU, CD, WR Second Semester. How to represent the unspeakable? How to convey trauma without merely producing pleasurable spectacle? This course compares contemporary fiction, graphic novels, film, documentary, and performance art that represent historical events triggered by perceived racial difference—the Holocaust, American slavery, the Japanese American internment. We will discuss how affect is represented and racial differences (re)staged, and explore the psychic and social implications of narrative/visual pleasure and pain. American, Post-1900, Diversity. AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Takada 369. BodyLore 3 hours 3HU, CD, WR Second Semester. The body may seem natural, but bodylore treats it as a cultural artifact inflected by ethnicity, class, gender, so on. Folklore of the body treats the body—dead and alive—as a site where we inscribe notions about identity and society. We will study many forms of bodylore concerning reproduction, initiation, health, beauty, gesture, etiquette, hair, body parts, beliefs, and dress by utilizing various disciplinary approaches and examples from different cultures and periods. Prerequisite: See headnote above, or consult with instructor. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Gorfain 372. Contemporary Literary Theory in American Culture 4 hours 4HU, WR First Semester. This course is about developments in literary theory in the context of the last 35 years of American intellectual and artistic culture. Our concern will be understanding literary theories in their historical and institutional contexts as well as considering their value as ways of thinking about literature and art. We'll pay particular attention to the impact of post-structuralism on American critics, the relation of literary criticism to cultural criticism, and various elaborations of the idea of post-modernity. American, Post-1900. AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Mr. Day 381. European Modernism and the World 4 hours 4HU, CD, WR Second Semester. Between 1880 and 1930, European artists and writers responded to crises of war, technology and empire by creating an array of Modernist forms (e.g. Expressionist, Cubist and Surrealist). We will read works by a variety of non-Western authors to see why and how they received, rejected and/or recombined European Modernism. Note: Students who have taken ENGL 266 may not receive credit for this course. Diversity, Post-1900. WL. Identical to CMPL 381. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Mr. Deppman 389. Selected Authors: J. M. Coetzee 4 hours 4HU, WR First Semester. The substantive focus of this course is to read—closely, carefully, assiduously—novels and essays/critical exegeses by arguably one of the most important contemporary "postcolonial" writers, J. M. Coetzee. This focus will include sustained attention to contexts—of historical moment, location (geographical and epistemological), ideological investments—through which his work becomes, or is made, meaningful. Post-1900. F, WL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Ms. Needham 390. Selected Authors: William Faulkner 4 hours 4HU, WR Second Semester. An intensive study of major works by William Faulkner (1897-1962). Readings include Flags in the Dust, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, The Unvanquished and Absalom, Absalom!, and a selection of poetry, short stories, essays, and speeches. American, Post-1900. F, AL. Prerequisite: See headnote above. Enrollment Limit: 25. Mr. Olmsted 392. Selected Directors: Almodovar, Hartley, von Trier 4 hours 4HU, WR First Semester. This course will explore cinematic authorship by focusing on directors who have defined a distinctive style despite emerging from vastly different cultural contexts. While their films reward examination in relation to these contexts and to the body of work of each director, their films also share a common domain, the contemporary international cinema of quality. In all these registers, we will examine the value and limitation of a concept of cinematic authorship. Post-1900. Identical to CINE 392. Prerequisites: See headnote above or consent of instructor. Enrollment Limit: 25. Mr. Pence 395. Poetry Workshop 3 hours 3HU, WR First and Second Semester. For description, please see "Creative Writing" in this catalog. Identical to CRWR 310. Enrollment Limit: 12. Ms. Collins, Ms. Alexander 396. Nonfiction Workshop 4 hours 4HU, WR First and Second Semester. For description, please see "Creative Writing" in this catalog. Identical to CRWR 340. Enrollment Limit: 12. Staff 397. Fiction Workshop 4 hours 4HU, WR First and Second Semester. For description, please see "Creative Writing" in this catalog. Identical to CRWR 320. Enrollment Limit: 12. Staff, Ms. Watanabe 398. Playwriting Workshop 4 hours 4HU, WR Second Semester. For description, please see "Creative Writing" in this catalog. Identical to CRWR 330. Enrollment Limit: 12. Ms. Jackson Smith 399. Teaching and Tutoring Writing Across the Disciplines 3 hours 3HU, WRi First and Second Semester. For description, please see "Rhetoric and Composition" in this catalog. Identical to RHET 481. Enrollment Limit: 12. Ms. McMillin, Mr. Podis Senior Tutorial, Honors, and Individual Projects 400. Senior Tutorial 2-4 hours 2-4HU, WR First and Second Semester. For English majors in either semester of their final year only, involving close work on an individual project, leading to a substantial paper. Required for all students who declare the English major after March 2003; recommended for previously declared majors. Students planning to apply for Honors must take the tutorial in the semester before their final semester. Students are assigned to instructors on the basis of applications; application forms available from the department secretary two to three weeks before registration. Consent of instructor required. Staff 450. Honors Project 2-4 hours 2-4HU, WR First or Second Semester. Intensive work on the student's Honors project, culminating in either an Honors paper or creative project. Students interested in applying for Honors at graduation, whether in December or May, must complete the Senior Tutorial in the previous semester. Consent of instructor required. Staff 995. Private Reading .5-3 hours .5-3HU First and Second Semester. Consent of instructor required. |
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