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Course Criteria
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1.00 Credits
The Romantic period witnessed numerous and persistent controversies in the fields of art and politics, from the heated responses to the revolution in France to the often bitter reviews that filled the pages of newspapers and magazines. This seminar examines the culture of "controversialism" in Romantic-era England by attending to particular debates, such as the "Pope controversy" and what Coleridge called "the whole long-continued controversy" over the Lyrical Ballads. In addition to literary texts, we will consider political speeches and critical reactions that reflect the historical context of a Great Britain increasingly divided along lines of cultural identity, ideology, and, importantly, "taste." Why, we will ask, is art such a charged category for Romantics How do authors reflect and re-imagine reader relations In what ways have we inherited and challenged Romantic visions of art and society (Note: English 819 and English 419 are the same course.) For undergraduate English majors this course satisfies the requirement of a course emphasizing literature written after 1800, or a course emphasizing cultural contexts. For the English graduate program, this course satisfies the requirement of a course in British literature or a course emphasizing cultural contexts for the literary studies track; it counts as an elective for the writing, rhetoric, and media arts track. 1.00 units, Seminar
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1.00 Credits
In this course, we will study a selection of comparative novels that create conceptions of home, ranging from a desire for a place of one's own to the notion of home as either an idealized retreat from an unpleasant public sphere or a place of imprisonment. Authors to be studied include Dickens, V.S. Naipaul, Kate Chopin, Paule Marshall, Sinclair Lewis, and one recent American author to be determined. These issues will be considered within the context of various ethnic, racial, and cultural distinctions as well as individual choices. Note: This English course counts toward the American Studies Program. 1.00 units, Seminar
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1.00 Credits
Spenser's poems, written at the height of the English Renaissance, continue to amaze readers with their fantastic imagination of unseen worlds both mythic and divine. Moreover, Spenser's poetic evocations of geographically specific places, including Ireland and America, reflect Spenser's powerful engagement with issues related to English plantation and territorial expansion. In this course we will consider how Spenser's eclectic and allusive works connect to a variety of literary, cultural, and critical contexts, with particular attention to their status as "colonial texts". 1.00 units, Seminar
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3.00 Credits
Work, play, ritual, obsession: sports holds a sacred spot in American culture. In this seminar, we will scan an array of sports (professional, amateur, high school, recreational) through a variety of media (fiction, film, journalism, comic art). How do local team help to build - and to rend - communities How do exports (baseball) and imports (soccer) shape national identity in an international context How do athletic fashions translate on the street and in the workplace How does America construct its sports heroes, how do those heroes construct themselves, and how are participants and observers both enmeshed in myths of race and gender Undergraduates who wish to enroll in this course must obtain permission of their adviser and the instructor. 1.00 units, Seminar
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1.00 Credits
This course offers an advanced investigation into major writers and issues from the British Victorian period (1837-1901). We will concentrate on texts-fiction, non-fictional prose, poetry-in which notions of propriety and morality are in productive dialogue with crimes, threatening secrets, and subversive passions. In seminar sessions and in written work we will interrogate textual constructions of sexuality and gender, considering the potential for slippage between high-conservative ideals and actual lived experiences. Our readings will be informed by a range of modern critical, theoretical, and socio-historical examinations of Victorian literature and culture. (Note: English 424-02 and English 824-02 are the same course.) For undergraduate English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a course emphasizing literature written after 1800. For the English graduate program, this course satisfies the requirement of a course in British literature or a course emphasizing cultural contexts for the literary studies track; it counts as an elective for the writing, rhetoric, and media arts track. 1.00 units, Seminar
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3.00 Credits
Autobiography, "autoethnography," and autobiographical novels have all served to construct ideas of what ethnic and racial identity mean in the United States. In this course we will read a number of literary and critical texts that take as their subject writing the self. We will explore a variety of genres, from slave narratives to spiritual autobiographies to social realist novels to postmodern collages. We will explore how race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, and national origin intersect to build an American identity. Texts may include Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; George Copway, The Life of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh; Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road; Jo Sinclair, Wasteland; John Okada, No-No Boy; Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera, as well as theoretical work by Hazel Carby, Homi Bhabha, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway. 1.00 units, Seminar
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1.00 Credits
In this course, we will focus on the ways in which Romantic writer re-configured many of the major tenets of European Enlightenment thought, focusing in particular on attitudes toward freedom an restraint, on the notion of the individual, on concepts of the will, and on the conception of individual identity in relationship to social process. We will read works by Voltaire, Goethe, Blake, Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Nietzsche, Ibsen, Thormas Mann, and Shaw. 1.00 units, Seminar
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3.00 Credits
This course will consider American fiction and poetry that address the issues of social change and social protest. Among the works that may be discussed are Jack London's The Iron Heel, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here, Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, as well as poetry by Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Denise Levertov, and Robert Bly.(Note: English 428 and English 828 are the same course.) For English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a course emphasizing literature written after 1800. For the English graduate program, this course satisfies the requirement of a course in American literature, or a course emphasizing cultural contexts for the literary studies track; it satisfies the requirement of an elective for the writing, rhetoric, and media arts track. It satisfies a literary history requirement for the old requirements, predating fall 2004. 1.00 units, Seminar
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1.00 Credits
The period prior to the Civil War witnessed intense conflicts not only about slavery and race but about the spread of capitalism, restrictions on women's economic and social rights, the growth of cities, and a variety of other social issues. "Literature" in this period was seldom seen as standing apart from these issues. On the contrary, art, politics, and social issues were generally seen as heavily intertwined. In this seminar we will look at the relationships between a number of issues prominent in antebellum America and works of art which at once expressed ideas about such issues and helped shape responses to them. The Amistad affair will provide one instance; we will examine two or three others as well. This course satisfies the requirement of a senior project. 1.00 units, Seminar
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1.00 Credits
Beginning with Margaret Mitchell's epic novel and film Gone with the Wind, this course will examine the ways in which southern women writers have depicted the culture of the south in the 20th century. We will focus on the shorter fiction of six writers, tentatively including Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, and one or two selected recent writers. 1.00 units, Seminar
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