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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
Rather than read the texts of high realism normally associated with the nineteenth-century, we will cover the sub-genres of the nineteenth-century novel that often are neglected in more traditional versions of such a course, including the gothic novel, the sensation novel, the detective novel, and science-fiction. Our reading list tentatively includes, but is not limited to The Monk, The Woman in White, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and a number of Sherlock Holmes stories. Two essays/papers, midterm, final.
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3.00 Credits
Attacked by Christian moralists and radical feminists alike, the re-emergence of the coquette and the aristocratic libertine rapist in the radical novel of the 1790s exposes a number of important gender and political preoccupations of the late eighteenth century. We will look at the role seduction plays in what has been called the "sex panic" of the 1790s, and at what the seduction narrative reveals about gender and agency, in the context of the moral and legal debates on seduction and sexual violence. A key strand focuses on how concepts of male and female gender identity impact on the perception and representation of seduction and rape (explored through the influence of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa on the writers of the period). The course places legal cases, conduct manuals, newspapers, and moral and religious tracts alongside fiction of the 1790s, and takes as its focus novels that have only recently been republished, and which push the boundaries of our understanding of gender, class, and sexualities.
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3.00 Credits
This course will look at different representations of work and desire in a wide range of Victorian novels. Gender and sexuality studies will play a central role in our discussions of these novels and their representations of work and desire. We will, for example, consider the interconnections among constructions of masculinity and working men's collectives. And we will ask how heterosexuality and models of femininity inform representations of the division of labor and gendered separate spheres. Readings include novels by Elizabeth Gaskell (North and South), George Eliot (Felix Holt the Radical), William Morris (News From Nowhere), Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray), Isabella Ford (On The Threshold) and H. G. Wells (Ann Veronica). Course requirements include 2 papers (one 6 to 8 page paper and one 10 to 12 page research paper) and four short (2-page) response papers.
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3.00 Credits
A study of how narratives concerning World War I affected two connected discourses: feminism and psychoanalysis, particularly in light of men's and women's differing roles in the war through the work (physical, emotional, and artistic) in which they were engaged.
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3.00 Credits
An exploration of how history and memory are narrated and constructed in American and European novels throughout the 20th century through answering such questions as: How is novel-writing different than history-writing? How does the process of writing relate to the process of memory, particularly in the case of a traumatic memory? What makes a novel "literary" versus merely "popular"? And does the creation of a narrative, story, or history have value, even if it leaves something, or someone, out of the story?
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3.00 Credits
Narrowly understood, decadence indicates a late-nineteenth century fashion-craze of debauched poets and artists. In this course, we study those materials, but we also engage a broader view of decadence, extending from the 18th century to the present. That second viewpoint broaches the prospect that modern life itself involves us in less obvious versions of decadence - not only phenomena such as conspicuous consumption but also (if you believe Nietzsche) such concerns as morality and truth-seeking. Our course emphasizes literary texts, along with numerous forays into drama, visual arts, cinema and criticism. Early on, we lay conceptual groundwork with texts by Freud and Nietzsche. Other well-known authors include Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Walter Pater, Virginia Woolf, and Patrick Süskind. We also study films by Ken Russell, Peter Greenaway and Sally Potter. Please note that some of our discussion matter is not for the faint-hearted. Bring a sense of humor, a tolerance for the grotesque, and a readiness to think carefully about authors who deliberately challenge deeply held western attitudes concerning morality and values.
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3.00 Credits
This course examines the persistence of mystical and spiritual traditions in the literary texts of the early 20th century: Underhill, Hopkins, Yeats, Conrad, Joyce, Owen, Eliot, Crane, Hesse, Forster, Mansfield, Woolf, and Waugh.
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3.00 Credits
A study of Christian writers and how they struggle with the literary and cultural movement labeled "modernism."
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3.00 Credits
How British and American modernist writers responded to an upheaval of traditional religious belief in the first half of the 20th century.
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3.00 Credits
In this course we will be focusing on the significance poetic communities have had on poetry in the 20th century. From the Modernists until today, poetic communities have been the primary center of writing, publication, collaboration, and theorizing. We will start from the premise that poets do notwork alone, but cultivate a community of poets and artists with whom they write. When we look at poetry through the lens of community, rather than through individual poets, we are able to understand the art worlds they inhabited and the ways in which collaboration with painters, film makers, and musicians helped to create a poetry that addressed the needs and ambitions of a particular group. Poetic communities are politically engaged groups that often function as sites of resistance, critique, and exploration. With each poetic community we study, from Modernism, to Black Mountain, to The New York School, to Minimalism, to the Beat Generation, to Punk rock, we will be asking what particular historical circumstances enabled the formation of the community, what challenge does each community address, how does one community's concerns differ politically or historically from another community, and how do these group affiliations condition their poetry. By focusing on poetry that is created within and between poetic communities we will examine how their writing is able to engage the construction of self and other, how modern poetry challenges artistic and academic institutions, and how modern poetry interacts with various media, such as painting, music, and film.
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