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Course Descriptions (Last updated: 20 July 2000)
The following course descriptions have been written by individual instructors
to provide more detailed information on specific section sthan that found
in the General Catalog. When individual descriptions are not available,
the General Catalog descriptions [in brackets] are used. (Although we try
to have as accurate and complete information as possible, this schedule remains
subject to change.)
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Interested in Medieval Literature? In the history of English? In English language study? Look at this graduate course in Old English open to undergraduates:
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304 YA (History of Literary Criticism & Theory II)
MW 7-8:50 pm
Shaviro
This class is an introduction to recent (post-structuralist) literary theory.
We start with a look at some important precursors (Nietzsche, Freud, Saussure)
against the background of the traditional assumptions of modern Western philosophy
(Descartes). We then take a look at the major poststructuralist theorists of
the 1960s
and 1970s (including Barthes, Derrida, Lacan,
Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, Irigaray, and Cixous) and end with a consideration
of the legacy that these thinkers have left for us today. Books ordered will
be supplemented by a course packet of additional readings from Derrida, Lacan,
Irigaray, Cixous, and Deleuze & Guattari. Evening Degree students only,
Registration
Period 1. Texts: Rene Descartes, Meditations on First
Philosophy; F. W. Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols; Sigmund
Freud, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis; Ferdinand de Saussure, Course
in General Linguistics; Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text;
Michel Foucault, The Foucault Reader; Jean Baudrillard, Selected
Writings.
307 A (Cultural Studies: Literature and the Age)
TTh 1:30-3:20
Butwin
Jewish Literature: Biblical to Modern. For simplicity’s sake let’s
call this 3000 years in ten weeks. In order to reduce that already
vast reduction to a few words I will list the headings of sections of the
course: Jewish Literature as Jewish History; Biblical Narrative; Martyrdom
and Suffering; Destruction and Exile; Exile and Yearning; Messiah and the
End of Days; Hasidism and Enlightenment; Zion rejects Exile; Exile in the
New World; and a section on modern apocalyptic visions of the 1930s and 1940s.
In this mammoth and, I hope, exhilarating task, we will see how a common
culture coheres over time and how writers are obliged by the conditions of
the world to depart from that coherence. All readings in a course packet;
lecture, discussion and short essays.
310 A (The Bible as Literature)
Dy 9:30
McCracken
--cancelled 3/30--
317 A (Literature of the Americas)
Dy 10:30
J. Griffith
Canadian Literature. We’ll read and discuss an assortment of
long and short stories written by Canadian authors in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. Students will be expected to attend class regularly,
keep up with reading assignments, and take part in open discussion.
Written work will consist of a number of brief in-class essays, done in response
to study questions handed out in advance. Texts: Rosemary Sullivan,
ed., Oxford Book of Stories by Canadian Women in English; Margaret
Atwood and Robert Weaver, eds., New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories;
Robertson Davies, Fifth Buisness; Michael Ondaatje, The English
Patient; Stephen Leacock, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town;
Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz; Alistair MacLeod,
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood; Jack Hodgins, The Macken Charm;
Margaret Atwood, Lady Oracle; Alice Munro, Lives of Girls and Women.
320 A (English Literature: The Middle Ages)
TTh 11:30-1:20
Mussetter
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the literature of medieval
England. This means reading a selection of Old and Middle English texts
(excluding Chaucer), mostly in translation. The first part of the course
will focus on the warrior culture of the Anglo Saxons and the epic/heroic
literature it produced. The second part of the course will focus on
the romantic culture of the later period and its literary production.
We will do a bit of the original language, especially in the latter part
of the course, a bit of the wider European contexts of English literature
(mostly Norse and French), and a bit of visual arts. In addition to the readings,
there will be two pretty hefty papers, two short “quizzes” (factual identifications
mostly), and a weekly e-mail “paper” on a topic relevant to class discussion.
Some of our texts will be bought, others are available on the Net. English
majors only, Registration Period 1. Text: Longman Anthology
of British Literature: The Middle Ages (Vol. 1a).
323 A (Shakespeare to 1603)
MW 1:30-3:20
Taylor
In this course we will look at an assortment of comedies and tragedies that
characterize Shakespeare's earlier dramatic work. Students should expect
to actively participate in discussion of texts. Two main papers, several
short papers, midterm and final. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew; A Midsummer Night's Dream; Romeo
and Juliet; The Merchant of Venice; Hamlet; Daniell, Tyndale's New
Testament.
324 YA (Shakespeare after 1603)
TTh 7-8:50 pm
Streitberger
Shakespeare’s career as dramatist after 1603. Study of comedies, tragedies,
and romances. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Text: Bevington,
ed., The Complete Works of Shakespeare.
326 A (Milton)
TTh 10:30-12:20
LaGuardia
Milton's early poems and the prose. Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained,
and Samson Agonistes, with attention to the religious, intellectual,
and literary contexts. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Text:
Orgel & Goldberg, eds., John Milton.
327 A (English Literature: Restoration & Early 18th Century)
MW 10:30-12:20
Lockwood
The writers and literature of England from 1660 to 1750. We will be
reading plays, prose, and poetry, chosen to illustrate the variety as well
as the creative force of the written word in this period, bringing to life
(for instance) the urban horrors of Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year,
the aristocratic dreamworld of Pope’s Rape of the Lock, big people
and little people in Gulliver’s Travels, or the cheerful crooks of
The Beggar’s Opera. Major authors covered: Dryden, Congreve,
Defoe, Swift, Pope, Gay, Fielding, Thomson, with emphasis on careful reading
for understanding and enjoyment of this literature in its social and cultural
context. Two papers with revision, weekly one-page reading responses,
mid-term, final. Majors only, Registration Period 1.
Text: Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 1C (The Restoration
and 18th Century).
328 A (English Literature: Later 18th Century)
TTh 9:30-11:20
McCracken
added 4/12/00 (sln: 8973)
We will be reading and discussing late eighteenth-century English writers,
among them Samuel Johnson, Wollstonecraft, Smollett, Blake, Sterne, Paine,
and Austen. Readings will include novels, essays, poems, travel books,
and a play, and we will be thinking about them in the context of history,
ideas, and literary forms—comedy, satire, apologue, irony, etc. Close
reading, good preparation, and class discussion are important. There
will be some in- and out-of-class essays, hour exams, and a final portfolio.
Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Jane
Austen, Sense and Sensibility; William Blake, Songs of Innocence;
Songs of Experience; Samuel Johnson, Rasselas; Thomas Paine, Common
Sense; R. B. Sheridan, The School for Scandal; Laurence Sterne,
A Sentimental Journey; Voltaire, Candide; Mary Wollstonecraft,
Mary and The Wrongs of Women.
329 YA (Rise of the English Novel)
TTh 7-8:50 pm
Lester
[Study of the development of this major and popular modern literary form
in the eighteenth century. Readings of the best of the novelists who founded
the form, and some minor ones, from Defoe to Fielding, Richardson, and Sterne,
early Austen, and the gothic and other writers.] Evening Degree students
only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe;
Journal of the Plague Year; Samuel Richardson, Clarissa; The Marquis
de Sade, The Misfortune of Virtue and Other Early Tales; Jonathan
Swift, Gulliver's Travels; Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas
Prince of Abissina; Michel Tournier, Friday.
331 A (Romantic Poetry I)
TTh 9:30-11:20
Modiano
This course will focus on a close study of the deeply conflicted and remarkably
intimate literary relationshiop between Coleridge and Wordsworth, and on
Blake's poetry and art. It will also investigate the impact of the
French Revolution on these authors' political philosophy and offer a broad
overview of major developments during the romantic era in religion (the attack
on Christianity), philosophy (the revolt against empiricism), aesthetics
(the popularity of the aesthetics of the picturesque, beautiful and the sublime),
science (the attack on Newtonian science). Requirements: two papers,
a final exam, and oral reports. Majors only, Registration Period 1. Texts:
Blake, Poetry and Prose; Songs of Innocence and of Experience; America:
A Prophecy and Europe: A Prophecy; Coleridge, The Oxford Authors:
S. T. Coleridge; Wordsworth, The Oxford Authors: William Wordsworth;
M. Butler, Burke, Peirce, Godwin and the Revolution Controversy; Stephen
Gill, Wordsworth: A Life.
333 A (English Novel: Early & Middle 19th Century)
Dy 10:30
Alexander
(sln: 9172)
Six novels, three from the Romantic period, three from the Victorian, will
be studied. Attention will be given to the way that novelists convey
ideas, and to the relation between form and content in these books. Majors
only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Austen, Pride and
Prejudice; Mansfield Park; Shelley, Frankenstein; C. Brontë,
Jane Eyre; E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights; Dickens, Oliver
Twist.
335 YA (English Literature: The Age of Victoria)
MW 7-8:50 pm
Dunn
Readings in the prose, poetry, and fiction of the Victorian age. Short
(5-7 pp.) papers, midterm, final. (Evening Degree students only, Registration
Period 1.) Text: Henderson & Sharpe, eds., The Longman
Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2B: The Victorian Age.
336 A (English Literature: The Early Modern Period)
TTh 11:30-1:20
--cancelled 4/27--
352 YA (American Literature: The Early Nation)
MW 7-8:50 pm
Abrams
Conflicting visions of the national destiny and the individual identity in
the early years of America's nationhood. Evening Degree students only,
Registration Period 1. Texts: Margaret Fuller, The Essential
Margaret Fuller; Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; Henry Thoreau, The Portable
Thoreau; Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Portable Hawthorne; Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson; Herman Melville, Moby-Dick.
354 A (American Literature: The Early Modern Period)
Dy 8:30
J. Griffith
We’ll read and discuss an assortment of novels and short stories by American
authors writing in the first half of the twentieth century. Students
will be expected to attend class regularly, keep up with reading assignments,
and take part in open discussion. Written work will consist of a number
of brief in-class essays, done in response to study questions handed out
in advance. Majors only, Registration Period 1 Texts: William
Faulkner, Go Down, Moses; Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching
God; Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls; Richard Wright,
Uncle Tom’s Children; John Steinbeck, The Long Valley; Sherwood
Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio; Eudora Welty, Thirteen Stories; Sinclair
Lewis, Babbit.
354 B (American Literature: The Early Modern Period)
TTh 2:30-4:20
Shulman
Meridel LeSueur, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright undercut stereotypes
about politics, race, and gender in the art of the late 1920s and 1930s.
In the process they encourage us to raise questions about the politics of
canon formation. We will then turn to William Carlos Williams, Ernest
Hemingway, and William Faulkner to probe the art, outlook, and changing status
of three masters of the old canon. Throughout, we will stay alert to
the relation between art, politics, cultural politics, and history.
I hope for lively discussion of the texts and the issues they raise. Majors
only, Registration Period 1. Texts: LeSueur, Salute to
Spring; Hughes, Good Morning Revolution; Wright, Native Son;
Williams, Imaginations; Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises; Faulkner,
Absalom! Absalom!; Zinn, Twentieth-Century America.
358 A (Literature of Black Americans)
TTh 9:30-11:20
Eversley
--cancelled 4/14--
359 A (Contemporary American Indian Literature)
MW 1:30-3:20
Colonnese
[Creative writings—novels, short stories, poems,--of contemporary Indian authors;
traditions out of which they evolved. Differences between Indian writers
and writers of the dominant European/American mainstream.] (Meets w. AIS
377A.) Majors only, Registration Period 1
360 A (American Political Culture: to 1865)
TTh 11:30-1:20
Crane
--cancelled 5/15--
368 A (Women Writers)
TTh 12:30-2:20
Eversley
--cancelled 4/14--
370 A (English Language Study)
MW 9:30-11:20
Tollefson
This course is an introduction to major issues in English language study.
The emphasis is on the links between language and society. Major topics
include socially patterned language variation, language acquisition, and
language in the schools. Majors only, Registration Period 1.
Text: Clark, et al., eds., Language: Readings in Language and Culture,
6th ed. NOTE: In Winter 2001, ENGL 370
will be taught in conjunction with ENGL 373; concurrent enrollment in both
ENGL 370 and 373 will be required. Students wishing to take ENGL 373
in Winter 2001 should not take ENGL 370 in Summer or Autumn, but wait and
sign up for both ENGL 370 and ENGL 373 in Winter.
374 A (The Language of Literature)
TTh 10:30-12:20
Riggenbach
--cancelled 4/27--
381 A (Advanced Expository Writing)
MW 8:30-9:50
Kuske
If you are eligible to take this "advanced" course, it means that you already
know a fair amount about writing effectively. But what makes writing
more than merely effective? What makes it striking, persuasive, even
elegant? How does context, audience, and purpose affect the impact
of the style choices you make? We will examine questions of style
and rhetorical purpose by experimenting with writing four distinct
types of arguments--an editorial, a manifesto, a memoir, and an essay.
Models will be provided for each genre, which we will analyze for audience,
context, tone, diction, etc. Students will have some lattitude in selecting
the topics they want to write about, but will be required to explore the
same (or a very similar) topic in at least two of the assignments. Students
should expect to engage in challenging, diverse readings, and to attend thoughtfully
to language on the level of the word, the sentence, and the paragraph.
Majors only, Registration Period 1
381 B (Advanced Expository Writing)
TTh 1:30-2:50
Prebel
This class considers debates and issues of multiculturalism through an extensive
study of one novel and several readings in a course packet. Majors
only, Registration Period 1. Texts: Americo Paredes, George
Washington Gomez; Martha Kolln, Rhetorical Grammar; photocopied
course packet.
383 A (Intermediate Verse Writing)
MW 11:30-12:50
Schramm
Intensive study and practice of the ways and means of making a poem. .Class
sessions will derive from reading, exercises, and discussion. Prerequisite:
ENGL 283.] Texts: David Young, ed., The Longman Anthology
of Contemporary American Poetry: 1950 to the Present, 2nd ed.
383 B (Intermediate Verse Writing)
TTh 2:30-3:50
Kenney
[Intensive study of the ways and means of making a poem. Further development
of fundamental skills. Emphasis on revision. Prerequisite: ENGL
283.] No texts.
384 A (Intermediate Short Story Writing)
TTh 9:30-10:50
Shields
Reading and rereading, writing and rewriting, short stories, with very strong
emphasis on short short stories. Prerequisite: ENGL 284.Text:
photocopied course packet.
384 B (Intermediate Short Story Writing)
TTh 11:30-12:50
Shields
Reading and rereading, writing and rewriting, short stories, with very strong
emphasis on short short stories. Prerequisite: ENGL 284. Text:
photocopied course packet.
