Spring 2009

Students interested in taking introductory-level courses in writing should also see the Rhetoric and Composition section of the catalog. Descriptions of writing-oriented courses and procedures to be followed in order to meet the college-wide writing requirements may be found there. These courses do not count towards an English major.

INTRODUCTORY COURSES TO THE STUDY OF ENGLISH

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 ELECTIVE Courses

Courses in this category do not serve the "Gateway" function for the English major; they do, however, introduce students to literary or linguistic study, and prepare them for advanced work in English.

237 (14380) Joyce's Ulysses, 2 hours / 2HU

MWF 2:30-3:20, J. Hobbs
First Module. An in-depth yet reader-friendly experience of one of the most important and challenging 20th-century novels. We will view it in the contexts of Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce’s biography, Irish nationalism, music, post-structuralist narrative theory, and recent film adaptations. Enrollment limit: 30.

239 (14541) History & Structure of the English Language, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

MWF 9:00-9:50, J. Bryan
This course traces the development of English from its Anglo-Saxon beginnings to the present, focusing on lexical, morphological, syntactic, and phonological change, and emphasizing the intersections between language, literature, and culture.  The course requires a consistent level of commitment; students should expect weekly assignments and numerous exams. British, Pre-1700.  Enrollment Limit:  30. 

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. Two Gateway courses are required for the English major.

203 (14379) Medieval and Renaissance Literature, 4 hours / 4HU,WR

MWF 11:00-11:50, J. Bryan
 An introduction to issues in English literary history between the 12th and 17th centuries.  We will be particularly interested in how drama, lyric, and romance change across what we now consider a major period boundary.  What happens to textual representation under the pressure of dramatic historical shifts?  How does literary entertainment reflect the differences between "pre-modern" (medieval) and "early modern" (Renaissance)?  Authors will include the Gawain-poet, Malory, Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, and Donne.  Papers and exams.  Nature of Text.  British, Pre-1700.  Enrollment Limit: 30.

 

212 (13956) Wit, Rakes, Madmen, and Jane: A Survey of Eighteenth-Century Literature, 4 hours / 4HU,WR

TuTh 1:30-2:45, L. Baudot
This course will introduce students to the various modes of literary production in eighteenth-century Britain, including the periodical essay, the novel, neoclassical and lyric poetry, satire, and drama. We will read these forms of literary expression with a view toward understanding how they illuminate large-scale historical transformations, such as the rise of commodity capitalism, the consolidation of the middle class, and the formation of feminist consciousness. Nature of Text. British, 1700-1900. Enrollment Limit: 30.

257 (14381) Late Nineteenth-Century American Literature: The Re-Making of "America," 4 hours / 4HU, CD, WR

TuTh 9:35-10:50, T. Jaudon
The literature of this era reflected and participated in debates about the nature of "America" and "Americans" in the decades after the Civil War. Moreover, the understanding of "literature" and the circumstances of its production, distribution, and reception were also in flux. Such issues will frame this course. Reading will include narratives and essays by Howells, James, Sinclair, Jewett, Freeman, Chesnutt, Hopkins, Twain, Dunbar, Sui Sin Far, Zitkala Sa, others.  Nature of Interpretation.  American, Diversity, 1700-1900.  Enrollment limit:  30.   [Cross-referenced with CAST.]

261(14382) American Literary Culture in the 19th Century, 4 hours / 4HU,CD, WR

TuTh 1:30-2:45, G. Johns
Self-discovery and -report has been foundational to the African-American intellectual and literary tradition, and this course focuses particularly on ways in which African-American women have re-conceptualized both autobiographical and disciplinary norms and boundaries as well as their own subjectivity (e.g., as actors, thinkers, and citizens) in now-classic "genre-bending" autotexts.  Authors will include Jacobs, Wells, Hurston, Brooks, Angelou, Lorde, Williams, and Souljah; we will also read genre studies exploring common and uncommon features of autobiographical writing. Nature of Text. American, Diversity, Post-1900. Enrollment limit: 30.  [Cross-referenced with AAST, CAST, and GSFS.]

275-01 (14351)/CMPL 200-01 (12983) Introduction to Comparative Literature, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 1:30-2:45, R. Watkins
What kinds of theoretical models are valid for grounding literary comparisons across history, place, language, nation, culture, genre and medium? Texts from several literary traditions will be used to answer that question and explore topics in theory, translation, East-West comparison, and literature and the other arts. Identical to CMPL 200 (12983). Note: Comparative Literature majors should take this course by the junior year. Diversity. Enrollment limit: 25.

284 (14384) Contemporary Irish Fiction, 4 hours / 4HU,WR

TuTh 11:00-12:15, J. Hobbs
Selected short stories and novels by Samuel Beckett, Frank O’Connor, Mary Lavin, William Trevor, John McGahern, Roddy Doyle, Neil Jordan, Patrick McCabe, Edna O’Brien, and Anne Enright. Major issues will be the tensions between innovation and tradition, nationalism and internationalism, the country and the city in the context of the rapid modernization of Irish society. Recent film adaptations will also be shown. Nature of Text. Diversity, Post-1900. Enrollment limit: 30.

ADVANCED COURSES

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.

Prerequisites: Two 200-level courses, including at least one Gateway course; or three 200-level courses.

303 (14588) Shakespeare's Comedies, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 9:35-10:50, M. Booth
This course will focus on Shakespeare's comedies, along with some of the closely related "problem plays" and "romances."  Plays will include The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Troilus and Cressida and Cymbeline among others.  We will consider Shakespeare's imaginative development, as well as the tastes, assumptions and expectations of his original audience.  British, Pre-1700.  Enrollment limit:  25.  [Cross-referenced with THEA.]

305 (14589) The Age of Discovery, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 3:00-4:15, M. Booth
This course observes Elizabethan minds at work on themselves, their past, and the wider world they were beginning to encounter.  We will investigate: the referential and expressive range of 16th- and 17th-century English; the political context and conceptual backgrounds of Elizabethan writing; major changes in English society, language and thought; the consequences of English expansion for peoples encountered or colonized. British, Pre-1700. Enrollment limit:  25.

306 (14197) Poetry and the Mind: Verse Forms in the English Renaissance and Afterward, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

MW 2:30-3:45, M. Booth
We'll consider the interrelationship between verse (an art of rhythmic sound patterns) and poetry (an art of strange or intense meaning). We will read early modern poets and critics, to understand how the experiences of writing and of reading poetry were understood in the days when poetry was verse.  Then we will read work from more recent times.  We will also consider poetry in relation to what recent cognitive researchers call "conceptual blending."  Pre-1700, OR Post-1900. Enrollment limit:  25.

315 (14385) Rise of the Novel, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 9:35-10:50, L. Baudot
An intensive survey of the eighteenth-century British novel. We will take our critical bearings from Locke's famous description of the mind as "white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas." Experience thus makes us who we are -- a notion that bequeathed to the eighteenth century both an unprecedented freedom and danger. Accordingly, we will study the pleasures and perils of human experience in novels by, among others, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Burney, and Austen. British, 1700-1900. Enrollment limit: 25.

328 (14386) Modern Drama II: Brecht to Pinter, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

W 7:00-9:30 pm, C. Tufts
This course will study the development of drama from World War II to 1975 from both a literary and a theatrical point of view. Playwrights will include Brecht, Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Churchill, Pinter, Fornes, and Adrienne Kennedy. Post-1900. Enrollment limit: 25. [Cross-referenced with THEA.]

329 (14387) Contemporary Irish Poetry, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

MWF 10:00-10:50, J. Hobbs
Selected poems by Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Paul Muldoon, John Montague, Paul Durcan, Medbh McGuckian, and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill. Contexts: poetry and nationalist politics in the North, tradition and modernization, country and city in the South; feminism, the Irish language, Celtic mythology, and postmodernism. Diversity, Post-1900. Enrollment limit: 25.

330 (14388) Modernist Chicago: Urban Literature and Sociology, 4 hours / 4HU, CD, WR

Tu 7:00-10:00 pm, G. Johns
This course focuses on literature associated with the social, literary, and academic scene of Chicago from 1900 to 1959.  Reading multi-ethnic articulations of patterns of identity and lifestyle emerging due to rapid industrialization, migration, and class differentiation, we will consider both social and formal features of this strain of modernism (in works by Dreiser, Anderson, Farrell, Wright, Himes, and Hansberry, among others); we will also examine select sociological studies and reflections on Chicago's intellectual culture. Cross-referenced with CAST. American, Diversity, Post-1900. Enrollment limit: 25.

338 (14389) Modern Fiction and Sexual Difference, 4 hours / 4HU, CD, WR

MWF 1:30-2:20, D. Walker
This course will study the representation of gay and lesbian experience in selected British and American fiction, both modern and contemporary. We will begin with early 20th-century figures (Cather, James, Wilde, Forster, Woolf, Larsen), and proceed to short fiction and novels written after 1960 by such writers as James Baldwin, Andrew Holleran, Michael Chabon, Alan Hollinghurst, Jeanette Winterson, and Michael Cunningham. British OR American (not both), Diversity, Post-1900. Enrollment limit: 25. . [Cross-referenced with GSFS.]

342 (14590) The Rise of the Novel in the Americas: Seduction, Revolution, Rights, 4 hours / 4HU, CD, WR

MW 7:30-8:45 pm, T. Jaudon
This course focuses on the development of the novel in the 18th- and 19th-century Americas.  We will attend to relations of literary, aesthetic, and political influence between Europe and the Americas.  While some of our texts have been studied for decades, we will also read several novels recently recovered through archival work.  Of particular interest will be these novels' adaptations of earlier narratives of seduction and romance to political and social conditions in the Americas.  American, Diversity, 1700-1900. Enrollment limit:  25. [Cross-referenced with CAST.]

343 (14591) The Nineteenth-Century U.S. Novel: Feeling National, 4 hours / 4HU, CD, WR

TuTh 1:30-2:45, T. Jaudon
This course offers an intensive study of the U.S. novel in the nineteenth century.  We will explore the influence of the 19th-century novel's myriad forms—from Charles Brockden Brown's experiments with the gothic to Harriet Beecher Stowe's reinvention of the jeremiad—on the "American" in American literature.  Reading contemporary literary criticism and theory, we will examine how the literary incitement to feel intense emotion shaped and constrained the development of a national literary tradition.  American, Diversity, 1700-1900. Enrollment limit:  25. [Cross-referenced with CAST.]

344 (14592) Power Eroticized: Five Dramatists, 4 hours / 4HU, CD, WR

MW 2:30-3:45, P. Mustamaki
This course brings together a group of 20th-century dramatists – August Strindberg, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Sarah Kane and Suzan-Lori Parks – who share a concern and a fascination for the effects of social power on the individual. Each play examined is paired with a theoretical reading that attempts to explain the human tendency to eroticize power and such acts’ possible social ramifications. Theorists include Frantz Fanon, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler. Diversity, Post-1900. Enrollment limit:  25.  [Cross-referenced with CMPL, GSFS, THEA]

347 (14593) Modern Fiction and Sexual Difference, 4 hours / 4HU, CD, WR

TuTh 3:00-4:15, P. Mustamaki
This course examines plays by American women of color since the cultural turmoil of the mid-60s. We will trace changes in the perceptions of identity in plays by African American, Asian American and Latina women up to the 21st-century view of identities as commodified.  Playwrights include Adrienne Kennedy, Lorraine Hansberry, Wakako Yamauchi, Maria Irene Fornes, Anna Deavere Smith, Migdalia Cruz, Alice Tuan.  Secondary readings by for example bell hooks, Cherrie Moraga, Grace Hong. American, Diversity, Post-1900. Enrollment limit:  25. [Cross-referenced with AAST, CAST, GSFS, THEA]

349 (14390) American Drama in the 1990s, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 11:00-12:15, P. Mustamaki
The 1990s was a great decade for American Drama: the postmodern tolerance of plurality enabled new voices in playwriting to rise to prominence, brought social issues to the forefront and challenged the reign of American realism.  Our reading list reflects this cultural and formal diversity and consists of both experimental works as well as more traditional approaches.  Playwrights include John Guare, Suzan-Lori Parks, Tony Kushner, Paula Vogel, August Wilson, David Mamet, Jose Rivera, Naomi Wallace. American, Post-1900. Enrollment limit:  25. [Cross-referenced with CAST, THEA]

358 (14353) European Modernism and the World, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

MWF 1:30-2:20, J. Deppman This course is cancelled.
Between 1880 and 1930, Europe was convulsed by wars, technological advances, and social transformations of all kinds. Writers and artists responded by creating revolutionary new forms, techniques, and movements like Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. Strains of Modernism then carried philosophical, political, and aesthetic models across the 20th-century world. We will study why and how non-European authors received, rejected, and/or recombined central aspects of European Modernism. Identical to CMPL 381. (7826). Diversity, Post-1900.  Enrollment Limit: 25.

395-01 (7308) /CRWR 310 (7146) Poetry Workshop, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

Tu 7:00-10:00 pm, K. Ali
The writing of poetry. Intensive discussion of student work, accompanied by assigned reading. Admission based on a completed application form and a writing sample of six to eight poems. Identical to CRWR 310 (7146). Prerequisite: CRWR 201. Consent of instructor required. Enrollment limit: 12.

397 (7309) /CRWR 320 (7147) Fiction Workshop, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

W 7:00-10:00 pm, C. Johnson
The writing of short fiction. Admission based on a completed application form and a writing sample of at least 12 pages of fiction, made up of at least two separate pieces. Identical to CRWR 320 (7147). Prerequisite: CRWR 201. Consent of instructor required. Enrollment limit: 12.

398 (14365) /CRWR 330 (14364) Playwriting Workshop, 4 hours / 4HU, WR

TuTh 3:00-4:15, D. Walker
A workshop focused on discussion of student work and on selected examples from modern and contemporary drama, working toward a staged reading of an original one-act play. The course presupposes considerable knowledge of drama. Admission based on a completed application form and writing sample. Identical to CRWR 330 (14364). Consent of instructor required. Enrollment limit: 12.

 

399-01 (1458) /RHET 401 (7393) Teaching and Tutoring Writing Across the Disciplines, 3 hours / 3HU, WRi

TuTh 1:30-2:45, A. Trubek
A course in which students will tutor at the writing center or assist one of the writing-intensive courses offered in various disciplines while studying composition theory and pedagogy. In the process of helping to educate others, students work toward a fuller understanding of their own educational experiences, particularly in writing. Enrollment Limit: 12. Prior journalism instruction (including RHET 106) is not necessary for this course. Juniors or seniors who write well, regardless of major, are encouraged to apply. Identical to RHET 401 (14113). Consent of instructor required. Note: Students enrolling in RHET 401 or ENGL 399 should also enroll in RHET 402, Tutoring Lab.

SENIOR TUTORIALS, SEMINARS, AND HONORS PROJECTS
Senior Tutorials and Senior Seminars are designed primarily for English majors, and fulfill the 400-level requirement for the English major. Rising senior English majors should apply for tutorials and seminars through a common application available at the department office, not through individual instructors. Some places in seminars may be available for other qualified students after all English majors have been accommodated, by application to the department.

Honors in English also fulfills the 400-level requirement for the English major; it is only open to students who have been admitted through the application process.

Prerequisite: Admission based on a completed application form (available at the department office). Letter of explanation for 2008-09 senior tutorials, seminars, and Honors.

400-01/-02 Senior Tutorial, 2-4 hours / 2-4HU, WR

-01 (1768): M 7:00-9:30 pm, G. Johns
-02 (11769): TuTh 10:00-10:50, J. Pence
For English majors in either semester of their final year only, involving close work in a small group on an individual project, leading to a substantial paper. Consent of instructor required. Enrollment Limit: 9.
Request 2008-09 senior tutorial/seminar application form.

451 (12905) Honors Project, 2-4 hours / 2-4HU, WR

TBA, W.P. Day
Intensive year-long work on a topic developed in consultation with a member of the Department, culminating in a substantial paper and a defense of that paper. Prerequisite: Senior major standing and acceptance by the Department. Consent of instructor required.
Request 2008-09 Honors application form.

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London Semester
Frequently 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."

907 (13525) A History of London, 2 hours / 2SS

TBA, A. Needham, S. Volk
This course explores the history of London from its Roman origins to the present day and examines how royalty, trade, religion and transport have shaped the city's pattern of growth over 2,000 years. Course work consists of weekly lectures, guided walks and discussions of readings from contemporary sources. Students are given an opportunity to investigate an aspect of London history of particular interest to them.  This course is required for all Oberlin students. Consent of instructor required.

 

932 (14551) The Place of "Islam" in British Discourses of Multiculturalism and Immigrant Identity, 6 hours / 6HU

TBA, A. Needham
Through select contemporary literary texts and relevant theoretical/critical essays, this course will examine how "Islam" is positioned within dominant (white) discourses of multiculturalism and immigrant identity in present-day Britain.  We will examine The Satanic Verses, My Son the Fanatic, White Teeth, Brick Lane, and Maps for Lost Lovers.  With Satanic Verses as our paradigmatic text, we will also examine some of the significant debates and controversies surrounding it as they relate to our subject.  The course will be reading and writing intensive and require significant student engagement. Consent of instructor required.

 

933 (14548) Colonialism's Impact on the Shaping of English National Identity,6 hours / / 3HU, 3SS

TBA, A. Needham, S. Volk
This course will critically examine the way in which the interaction between England and its colonial "peripheries" -- the Caribbean and Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Far East -- ultimately helped shape national English identity. Students will explore the memories, myths, and histories underwriting dominant representations of English identity as well as those invoked by minority populations that work their way into, contest, or modify, standard narratives. We will explore greater London as a site in which English identity was formed and contested. Consent of instructor required.

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Interdivisional Arts
This course is cross-referenced with English.

XART 101 (14577) Connections: Landscape/Soundscape/Wordscape, 3 hours / 3HU

MW 2:30-4:00, N. Jones, P. Swendsen
An interdisciplinary team-taught exploration of how places become texts through the work of composers, writers, and visual artists. Texts include poetry, fiction, acoustic and electroacoustic music, digital media, films, paintings and drawings. We will make extensive use of the Allen Memorial Art Museum. In addition to scholarly engagement with the course material, students will undertake their own creative work during the semester (though no prior experience in this regard is required). Consent of instructor required. Enrollment Limit: 20. [Cross-referenced with ENGL, TIMARA]