The undergraduate program in English Language and Literature introduces students to English-language literature, drama, and film. Courses address fundamental questions about topics such as the status of literature within culture, the literary history of a period, the achievements of a major author, the defining characteristics of a genre, the politics of interpretation, the formal beauties of individual works, and the methods of literary scholarship and research.

The study of English may be pursued as preparation for graduate work in literature or other disciplines or as a complement to general education. Concentrators in the Department of English Language and Literature learn how to ask probing questions of a large body of material; how to formulate, analyze, and judge questions and their answers; and how to present both questions and answers in clear, cogent prose. To the end of cultivating and testing these skills, which are central to virtually any career, each course offered by the department stresses writing.

Although the main focus of the Department of English Language and Literature is to develop reading, writing, and research skills, the value of bringing a range of disciplinary perspectives to bear on the works studied is also recognized. Besides offering a wide variety of courses in English, the department encourages students to integrate the intellectual concerns of other fields into their study of literature and film by permitting up to two courses outside the Department of English Language and Literature to be counted as part of a concentration if a student can demonstrate the relevance of these courses to his or her program of study.

The program presupposes the completion of the general education requirement in the humanities (or its equivalent), in which basic training is provided in the methods, problems, and disciplines of humanistic study. Because literary study itself attends to language and is enriched by some knowledge of other cultural expressions, the concentration in English requires students to extend their work in humanities beyond the level required of all College students in the important areas of language and the arts.

English concentrators must take two additional quarters of work in the language used to meet the College language requirement, or receive equivalent credit by examination.

English concentrators must also take one course in music, art history, visual arts, or General Studies in the Humanities (for courses on the dramatic arts) beyond the general education requirement.

All English concentrators must take an introductory course (English 101). This course prepares students to enter into the discussions that occur in more advanced undergraduate courses by providing some grounding in critical methodology and controversies across a range of genres. Because English 101 serves as an introduction to the concentration, and because this course is a prerequisite for some English courses, newly declared English concentrators and potential concentrators are urged to take it as early as possible in their undergraduate careers. English 101 is offered every year.

Students are expected to study British and American literature and film from a variety of periods and genres. Reading and understanding works written in different historical periods require skills, information, and historical imagination that contemporary works do not require. Students are accordingly asked to study a variety of historical periods in order to develop their abilities as readers, to discover areas of literature that they might not otherwise explore, and to develop a self-conscious grasp of literary history. In addition to courses that present authors and genres from many different eras, the program in English includes courses focused directly on periods of literary history. These courses explore the ways terms such as "Renaissance" or "Romantic" have been defined and debated, and raise questions about literary change (influence, tradition, originality, segmentation, repetition, and others) that go along with periodizing. The program requires two courses in literature written before 1700 and two courses in literature written between 1700 and 1900, with at least one of these four a designated "period" course; or, alternatively, three designated "period" courses, with at least one focused on a period or periods before 1700 and at least one focused on a period or periods after 1700. The program also asks that students study both British and American literature, requiring at least one course in each. Furthermore, because an understanding of literature demands sensitivity to various conventions and different genres, concentrators are required to take at least one course in each of the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama/film.

The concentration in English requires at least ten departmental courses. In the fourth year of College study, many concentrators choose to carry out a senior project. The senior project may take the form of a critical essay, a piece of creative writing, or a director's notebook or actor's journal in connection with a dramatic production. Such an essay is to be a fully finished product, the best written work of which the student is capable. This B.A. paper may develop from a paper written in an earlier course or from independent research. Whatever the approach, the student is uniformly required to work on an approved topic and to submit a final version that has been written, critiqued by both a faculty advisor and a B.A. project supervisor, rethought, and rewritten. Students normally work on their senior project over three quarters, and they consult at scheduled intervals with their individual faculty advisor (the field specialist) and with the supervisor assigned to monitor senior projects. Students may elect to register for the B.A. paper preparation course (English 299) for one-quarter credit. To be eligible for departmental honors, a student's senior project must be judged worthy of honors.

Summary of Requirements

† Credit may be granted by examination.

* The total of thirteen required courses must include ten courses in the English department; two language courses; and one course in musical, visual, or dramatic arts.

Courses Outside the Department Taken for Concentration Credit. With the prior approval of the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, a maximum of two courses outside the English department (excluding the required language courses and the required course in the musical, visual, or dramatic arts) may count toward the concentration if the student is able to demonstrate their relevance to his or her program. The student must propose, justify, and obtain approval for these courses before registering for them. Such courses may be selected from related areas in the University (history, philosophy, social sciences, divinity, and so on) or they may be taken in a study abroad program for which the student has received the permission from the Office of the Dean of Students in the College and an appropriate administrator in the English department.

Reading Courses (English 297 and 299). Upon prior approval by the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, the undergraduate reading course (English 297) may be used to fulfill concentration requirements. No student may use more than two English 297 courses toward concentration requirements. Seniors who wish to register for the B.A. paper preparation course (English 299) must arrange for appropriate faculty supervision and obtain the permission of the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. English 299 counts as an English elective but not as one of the courses fulfilling distribution requirements for the concentration. If a student registers for both English 297 and English 299, and if English 297 is devoted to work that develops into the B.A. project, only one of these two courses may be counted toward the departmental requirement of ten courses in English. NOTE: Reading courses are special research opportunities that must be justified by the quality of the proposed plan of study; they also depend upon available faculty supervision. No student can expect to automatically arrange a reading course. For alternative approaches to preparing a B.A. paper, see the next section.

Senior Project: The B.A. Paper. Students who wish to undertake a senior project must register with the undergraduate secretary by the end of the fifth week of the first quarter of their graduating year. To help ensure the careful, finished work that must characterize the senior project, a B.A. project supervisor and a faculty advisor acting as field specialist monitor seniors' work on their projects. Seniors normally meet with their supervisor and faculty advisor during the first quarter and at regular intervals thereafter. The faculty advisor directs the researching and writing of the B.A. paper; the supervisor guides the student's progress and critiques the versions of the project. In initial meetings, the student and the supervisor seek to define a workable topic and to form a plan for developing the topic; during the winter quarter, the supervisor normally convenes groups of students to discuss their work in progress. Schedules of the quarterly deadlines for registering and for submitting drafts and final essays can be obtained in the undergraduate secretary's office (G-B 309).

There are three kinds of projects that may qualify for the senior project:

1. Critical or Historical Essay. The essay should be no more than twenty-five pages, on some topic in British or American literature. A B.A. paper should demonstrate the student's ability to identify a question or problem and to pursue it further than is usual in a course paper. The B.A. paper is judged by how well a student has thought and rethought a problem, and written and rewritten a response.

2. Creative Projects. Those students who exhibit interest in and ability for extended work in writing poetry, fiction, or drama may elect to write a creative B.A. project. Students must have taken two one-quarter courses in writing to qualify for this option.

3. Drama, Film, and Video. Students with particularly strong interests and background in the dramatic arts, film, or video, may be permitted to carry out the senior project by producing and/or directing and/or acting in a dramatic or cinematic or video production for which a director's (or actor's) notebook or an explanatory essay is prepared. However, it must be stressed that opportunities to produce or direct a play or film or video are very limited, and opportunities to act are only somewhat less so. Applications to use the Reynolds Club theaters, for example, must be submitted at least six months in advance of the desired scheduling. Winter quarter time is usually less in demand than spring quarter. In this option, as in the others, the senior project requires supervision. Students who wish to pursue this option must have taken two one-quarter courses in relevant subjects (e.g., drama and film). They must obtain prior approval from the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies (with whom an appropriate field specialist is arranged), as well as approval from the appropriate theater or film studies personnel (with whom scheduling is arranged).

The senior project may be carried out either in noncurricular arrangements with the supervisor and field specialist, or through formal course registration (English 299). The student may prepare the B.A. paper by starting afresh on a topic of his or her choosing or by working from a paper previously submitted in a regular course. Because revising and rethinking are vital parts of the process of preparing a B.A. paper, students cannot wait to begin their preparations until the quarter in which they wish to graduate.

NOTE: As stated above, English 299 may not be counted among the courses fulfilling distribution requirements for the concentration. Any student may, of course, take English 299 as an English or free elective. No one can register for English 299 without previously obtaining permission from a faculty member willing to serve as field specialist for the project.

Advising in the Concentration. Concentrators in English are expected to review their programs at least once a year with the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. In the quarter before graduation, students are required to complete and submit a departmental worksheet that indicates plans for meeting all concentration requirements. These worksheets can be obtained in the undergraduate secretary's office (G-B 309). The Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies has regularly scheduled office hours during which he is available for consultation and guidance on a student's selection of courses, future career plans, and questions or problems relating to the concentration.

Students are encouraged to consult the faculty directory distributed by the English department. This directory lists faculty interests and current projects, providing leads for students seeking general counsel on their intellectual direction or specific guidance in reading courses. Faculty are available to students during regular office hours posted every quarter.

Grading. Students concentrating in English must receive letter grades in all thirteen courses aimed at meeting the requirements of the degree program. Exceptions are allowed only in creative writing courses where the instructor regards P/N grades as an appropriate form of accreditation. Students not concentrating in English may take English courses on a P/N basis if they receive the prior consent of the faculty member for a given course.

Honors. Special honors in English are reserved for those graduating seniors who achieve overall excellence in grades for courses within the concentration and who also complete a senior project of the highest quality. For honors candidacy, a student must have at least a 3.0 grade point average overall and a 3.3 grade point average in departmental courses. Honors recommendations are made to the Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division by the faculty of the department through the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies.

101. Methodologies and Issues in Textual Studies. Required of English concentrators. This course introduces students to the concerns and critical practices of English. It provides some grounding in critical methodologies and controversies across a range of genres and prepares students to enter into the discussions that occur in more advanced courses. L. Ruddick, Staff, Winter; Staff, Spring.

104. Introduction to Poetry. This course involves intensive readings in both contemporary and traditional poetry. Early on, the course emphasizes various aspects of poetic craft and technique, setting, and terminology; and provides extensive experience in verbal analysis. Later, emphasis is on contextual issues: referentiality, philosophical and ideological assumptions, and historical considerations. J. P. Hunter. Autumn. (D)

107. Introduction to Fiction. In the first half of this course, we focus on the principal elements that contribute to effect in fiction (setting, characterization, style, imagery, and structure) to understand the variety of effects possible with each element. We read several different writers in each of the first five weeks. In the second half of the course, we bring the elements together and study how they work in concert. This detailed study concentrates on one or, at most, two texts a week. W. Veeder. Spring. (E)

108. Introduction to Film I (=ArtH 190, CMS 101, Eng 108, GS Hum 200). PQ: This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. The first part introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles. T. Gunning. Autumn. (F)

109. Introduction to Film II (=ArtH 191, CMS 102, Eng 109, GS Hum 201). PQ: This is the second part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. Not offered 1999-2000; will be offered 2000-2001.

115. Literature and Society in the Culture Wars. Literature and literary study have lately become a battleground as fierce public debates have erupted over such questions as what texts students should read and how they should read them. Debates over education open out into wider divisions in the culture over multiculturalism, political correctness, hate speech, sexual harassment, and even the Contract With America. Through selected canonical and revisionist literary texts, works of criticism, and journalism, we survey several of the main areas of dispute and the major positions in the controversy, with an eye to clarifying the issues if not resolving them. Literary authors are chosen from Shakespeare, Conrad, Zora Neale Hurston, Chinua Achebe, Gish Jen, and others. G. Graff. Winter.

117/328. The Teaching of English (=Educ 240/340, Eng 117/328, MAPH 320). Where did the study of "English" come from? What if anything gives the subject its coherence? What are the best ways to teach the subject at both the school and college level? This course traces the history of the teaching of English both in schools and colleges and looks at some of the exemplary controversies that have marked the field down to the present day. The emphasis falls about equally on the history of the field, its contending theories, and the practical demands of pedagogy. Though some contemporary literary theories are read and discussed, the course does not assume any prior familiarity with those theories. G. Graff. Spring.

120/319. Critical Theory. An introduction to theories of language (and their fallout for literary theory) from Frege and Saussure to Wittgenstein/Quine/Davidson and Derrida/Foucault. The course essentially tracks what used to be called the Continental and the Anglo-American schools from the beginning of the century through the 1970s. J. Schleusener. Spring.

122. Psychoanalytic Interpretation. This course explores fundamental concepts of psychoanalytic theory, as well as recent developments in psychoanalysis and criticism. At each meeting, we pair a theoretical or critical text with a poem or short story for discussion. Psychoanalytic readings emphasize classical theory (by Freud, Abraham, and Chasseguet-Smirgel), object relations theory (by Winnicott, Chodorow, and Benjamin), postcolonial theory with psychoanalytic dimensions (by Fanon, Bhabha, and Nandy), and recent work in trauma theory (by Cathy Caruth, Shoshana Felman, Dori Laub, and Robert Jay Lifton). L. Ruddick. Spring.

130/330. The Little Red Schoolhouse (Academic and Professional Writing). P/N grading optional for non-English concentrators. This course teaches the skills needed to write clear and coherent expository prose and to edit the writing of others. The course consists of weekly lectures on Thursdays, immediately followed by tutorials addressing the issues in the lecture. On Tuesdays, students discuss short weekly papers in two-hour tutorials consisting of seven students and a tutor. Students may replace the last three papers with a longer paper and, with the consent of relevant faculty, write it in conjunction with another class or as part of the senior project. Materials fee $20. L. McEnerney, Staff. Winter, Spring.

132/332. Creative Writing: Poetry. PQ: Consent of instructor after submission of three to five poems (along with e-mail address, year in the College, and area of concentration) by February 4, 2000, to G-B 309. Enrollment limited. The course is a poetry writing workshop in which student poems are discussed, along with some traditional and contemporary poems as working models. The class explores the nature and function of imagination, while developing strategies to invite it; and offers practice in the use of the "poetic logos," which is a language distinct from both daily and academic discourse. E. Wilner. Spring. (D)

136. Playwriting (=Eng 136, GS Hum 266). PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience not required. This course introduces the basic principles and techniques of playwriting through creative exercises, discussion, and the viewing of contemporary theater. Structural components of plot, character, and setting are covered as students develop their dramatic voices through exercises in observation, memory, emotion, imagination, and improvisation. C. Allen. Autumn. (F)

137. Advanced Playwriting (=GS Hum 267). PQ: Consent of instructor. For information call 702-3414; Prior Theater experience not required. (Description forthcoming) C. Allen. Winter. (F)

138/310. History and Theory of Drama I (=AncSt 212, ClCiv 212/312, ComLit 205/305, Eng 138/310, GS Hum 242/342). PQ: May be taken in sequence with Eng 139/311 or individually. This course is a survey of major trends and theatrical accomplishments in Western drama from the ancient Greeks through the Renaissance: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, medieval religious drama, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Jonson, along with some consideration of dramatic theory by Aristotle, Horace, Sir Philip Sidney, and Dryden. The course features optional but highly recommended end-of-week workshops in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed. The goal is not to develop acting skill but, rather, to discover what is at work in the scene, and to write up that process in a somewhat informal report. Students have the option of writing essays or putting on short scenes in cooperation with some other members of the class. D. Bevington, N. Rudall. Autumn. (B, F, H)

139/311. History and Theory of Drama II (=ComLit 206/306, Eng 139/311, GS Hum 243/343). PQ: May be taken in sequence with Eng 138/310 or individually. This course is a survey of major trends and theatrical accomplishments in Western drama from the late seventeenth century into the twentieth: Molière, Goldsmith, Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Wilde, Shaw, Brecht, Beckett, and Stoppard. Attention is also paid to theorists of the drama, including Stanislavsky, Artaud, and Grotowski. Like the autumn quarter course, the winter quarter course features optional but highly recommended end-of-week workshops in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed. The goal is not to develop acting skill but, rather, to discover what is at work in the scene, and to write up that process in a somewhat informal report. Students have the option of writing essays or putting on short scenes in cooperation with some other members of the class. D. Bevington, N. Rudall. Winter. (F)

142/342. History of the English Language. We examine how the language has changed from Old English to the present. Mainly by reference to primary texts, we consider cultural pressures on the language, as well as specific changes in the lexicon, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. C. von Nolcken. Winter. (B, H)

143/343. Fiction Writing. PQ: Consent of instructor after submission of writing sample of between ten and twenty pages by October 29, 1999, to G-B 309. Enrollment limited. This class is run as a workshop, meaning that student writing is its soul and subject. Our concentration is on language and craft, and we'll talk about some of the practical aspects of the writing life. Each student submits two stories or chapters from a work in progress for group discussion, and then meets with the instructor for a conference. Each student substantially rewrites one of his/her stories. In addition, we'll read a number of recent works of fiction by contemporary writers. Finally, there are brief, periodic lectures on different elements of fiction writing (e.g., plot, character, and point of view) followed by open discussion. C. D'Ambrosio. Winter. (E)

146/346. Dialect Voices in Literature (=AfAfAm 221, Eng 146/346, Ling 245/345). In this course we use linguistic techniques to analyze literary texts, especially to assess how successfully dialect is represented, whether it matches the characters and cultural contexts in which it is used, and what effects it produces. About half the quarter is spent articulating linguistic features that distinguish English dialects (including standard English) from each other and identifying some features that are associated with specific American dialects, such as African-American English, White Southern English, and Appalachian English. During the second half of the quarter we read and critique writers such as Toni Morrison, Zora Neal Hurston, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright. S. Mufwene. Autumn. (G)

147. Creative Writing: Fiction. PQ: Permission of the instructor after submission of a short sample manuscript by 9/15/99 in Gates-Blake 309. A workshop that meets once weekly to read, discuss and anaylze students' original work. Students are ex[ected to rewrite, revise and re-evaluate their work from week to week. Lectures are based on issues that arise from student work. There are occasional exercises outside the students' own writing. Achy Obejas. Autumn. (E)

149/349. Old English (=Eng 149/349, German 310). This course aims to provide the student with the linguistic skills and historical and cultural perspectives necessary for advanced work on Old English. C. von Nolcken. Autumn. (B, D, H)

152/352. The Monsters and the Manuscript: The Other Texts of the Beowulf Manuscript. PQ: Eng 149/349 or equivalent. This course meets at the Newberry Library. The four "other" works in the Beowulf manuscript, the "Wonders of the East," the "Letter from Alexander to Aristotle," Judith, and the "Life of St. Christopher," are rarely examined closely, even for the context they provide for Beowulf. Yet these texts provide much insight not only into the reading of Beowulf, but also into Anglo-Saxon literature and culture, as well as the construction of modern interpretations. In Kenneth Sisam's phrase, these works at the very least indicate "a special interest in monsters" throughout the manuscript. This "special interest in monsters," and its own other, the interest in normative corporeal, linguistic, religious, and cultural identity, will be the focus of the seminar. In our readings of Beowulf (largely in translation, though I will assume familiarity with the Old English) and these "other" texts, we will consider such topics as the figure of the monstrous Eastern Other in the establishment of "English" identity, the association of literacy and alienation, the uneasy relationship of monster text to monstrous image, the saint or martyr as monstrosity, and the rhetoric of the body. In addition, we will examine the critical discussions, most of which either dismiss or "reconstruct" these texts, and consider both the effects of and the motivations for their marginalization. This course will require reading in Old English (completion of an introductory course in Old English or the equivalent). Reading knowledge of Latin will be helpful but not necessary. In addition to the five works of the Beowulf manuscript, we will read, as both primary and secondary texts, a number of critical and theoretical studies. Seminar members will be required to participate in the construction ofaccurate translations in class, to engage in active class discussion, to present research in progress to the class, to submit weekly supplemental reading reviews, to write a short research paper, and to complete a final exam (brief translation).S. Kim. Winter. (B, H)

155. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (=Eng 155, Fndmtl 257). PQ: Knowledge of Middle English or of Chaucer's poetry not required. We examine Chaucer's art as revealed in selections from The Canterbury Tales. Our primary emphasis is on a close reading of individual tales, although we also pay attention to Chaucer's sources and to other medieval works providing relevant background. C. von Nolcken. Winter. (B, D, H)

156. Medieval English Literature. This course examines the relations among psychology, ethics, and social theory in fourteenth-century English literature. We pay particular attention to three central preoccupations of the period: sex, the human body, and the ambition of ethical perfection. Readings are drawn from Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain-poet, Gower, penitential literature, and saints' lives. There are also some supplementary readings in the social history of late medieval England. M. Miller. Spring. (A, B, D, H)

165. Early Shakespeare. We read Shakespeare's major Elizabethan plays, including The Comedy of Errors, Richard III, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2), The Merchant of Venice, and Twelfth Night. R. Strier. Autumn. (B, F, H)

166. Shakespeare II: Tragedies and Romances. PQ: Eng 165 helpful but not required. This course studies Shakespeare's major tragedies and one late romance. It concentrates on major themes and on dramaturgy in the second half of Shakespeare's career as a dramatist. We read plays that include Romeo and Juliet, the four "major tragedies" (Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth), Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest. The course features optional but highly recommended end-of-the week workshops in which selected scenes are read aloud dramatically with dramaturgical analysis; the small-group workshops are one hour a week in addition to scheduled class time. D. Bevington. Winter. (B, F, H)

169. English Renaissance Literature: Contexts and Subtexts (=ComLit 269, Eng 169). An exploration of English Renaissance literature with particular emphasis upon English literary genres' relations to its historical contexts and literary subtexts, the ancient and continental Renaissance models against which English Renaissance authors defined themselves, and their distinctive modernity. Readings of English texts may include love poetry of Wyatt, Marlowe, Sidney, Shakespeare, Donne, Jonson, and Herrick; religious lyrics of Donne and Herbert; satires and friendship poetry of Donne, Jonson, Herrick, Lovelace, and Philips; and pastoral and georgic prose and verse of Greene, Lodge, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Marvell, Milton, Cavendish, and Denham. Ancient and continental authors may include Greek Anthology poets, Theocritus, Catullus, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Martial, Petrarch, Sannazaro, Tasso, and Sarbiewski. Texts in English and the original. Discussion section required. J. Scodel. Autumn. (A, B, D, H)

178. Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Literature. A course in eighteenth-century British literature takes for granted two things eighteenth-century writers did not: the existence of a body of works one could point to and call British literature, and a clear sense of what it meant for a person and for a culture to be British. This course examines attempts between 1660 and 1740 to produce a literature for and about Britain and Britons. Texts include poetic, dramatic, imaginative, and nonfiction prose works by such writers as John Locke, George Etherege, Lord Rochester, Margaret Cavendish, John Dryden, Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Eliza Haywood, and Samuel Richardson. S. Macpherson. Winter. (A, C, H)

189/407. Commerce, Luxury, and Consumption in the Early Modern Era (Sixteenth through Nineteenth Century) (=Eng 189/407, Hist 292/392). This course examines the recent literature on consumerism in early modern Europe, focusing on Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Italy. The first part of the course is historiographical and methodological. We examine the value of techniques and methods drawn from economic, social and art history; literary studies; and anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies. The second of the course considers a series of case studies that include narratives of modernity; the luxury debate in mid-eighteenth-century France and England; reproductive engraving; shops and shopping; the female reader; the male fop; fashion and design in the textile industry; culinary implements; and colonial produce, especially sugar. J. Brewer. Spring. (C)

203. Romantic Orientalism (=Eng 203, ComLit 203). This course examines some of the texts and contexts that defined Europe's changing relationships with the Orient in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We draw on work in linguistics, sociology, history, politics, and literature from England, France, and Germany to examine the dynamics of Europe's collective obsession with the East during the period of the so-called "Oriental Renaissance." Readings include the work of authors such as Schlegel, Goethe, Anquetil, Volney, Lamartine, Flaubert, Nerval, Jones, Southey, Moore, Byron, and Shelley, as well as critical work by Edward Said, Raymond Schwab, Sara Suleri, Gauri Viswanathan, and others. S. Makdisi. Spring. (C, D)

205. Country and Town, 1819-1850. After the Napoleonic Wars, the British countryside and its regional industrial towns were the scene of violent protests and periodic famine. At the same time, the technological development and expansion of railroads revolutionized communications between the country, town, and London. This course will explore literary representations of the country and regional industrial towns during this period of rural suffering, industrial growth, and attempted political and economic reforms. The question, what are the changing affective qualities and moral values attributed to the town and the country, will guide readings that begin with Galt, Mitford, and Cobbett, and end with Disraeli, Gaskell, Dickens, Kingsley, and Eliot. One 4-6 page paper, one 9-12 page paper, participation in a class list-serve. Martha Bohrer. Autumn. (C, E, H)

206. Henry James: The Wings of the Dove (=DivRL 222, Eng 206, Fndmtl 287, GS Hum 222). Class limited to twelve students. A close reading of the novel together with other materials by James (e.g., stories, essays, notebook entries, letters, and prefaces). The course involves inquiry into questions of selfishness and self-abnegation, and love and death. We also discuss the ethics of writing, interpretation, and intimate relations. M. Krupnick. Spring. (E)

208. George Bernard Shaw: Man and Superman and St. Joan (=Eng 208, Fndmtl 206, Hum 206). This course focuses on witty and moving dramas among characters engaged in confusing contemporary problems of politics, society, money, war, religion, sex, and language. S. Tave. Winter. (F, H)

219/423.Victorian Women Writers (=Eng 219/423, GendSt 219). This course covers the difficulties and possibilities for women writing in nineteenth-century Britain, as these are variously encountered and exploited in works by Victorian poets and novelists. Likely texts include Charlotte Brontë, Villette; Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights and selected poems; Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South; George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss; and selected poetry by Felicia Hemans, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Alice Meynell, Michael Field, and Charlotte Mew. We also evaluate some approaches to Victorian women's writing (Gilbert and Gubar, Armstrong, Homans, Mermin, and Leighton) and look at various analyses of sex and gender roles in the Victorian period (e.g., Davidoff, Hall, and Poovey). E. Helsinger. Autumn. (C, E, H)

223. Henry James: the Fiction of Crisis. In 1895 Henry James suffered his first nervous breakdown. Over the next five years he produced several of the greatest novellas and novels of the nineteenth century. How fiction writing became a mode of self-therapy for James is one of the issues this course explores. In addition we examine how self-analysis interacted with a mordant social analysis to produce fiction that simultaneously looks outward and inward. By a close reading of James's texts and of various theorists, we work to engage the forces that produced James's masterpieces. Texts include The Aspern Papers, The Pupil, The Spoils of Poynton, In the Cage, The Turn of the Screw, What Maisie Knew, The Awkward Age, and "The Great Good Place." W. Veeder. Winter. (C, E, G, H)

236/486. Capra and Hollywood (=CMS 240/340, Eng 236/486). The primary focus of this course is on Capra's programmatic series of films from the 1930s and 1940s, especially Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe, It's a Wonderful Life, and The State of the Union. But we also attend to a range of other achievements: his pioneering contributions to screwball comedy (e.g., Platinum Blonde and It Happened One Night); his less widely-known early work for Columbia Pictures (e.g., The Miracle Woman, American Madness, and The Bitter Tea of General Yen); the best of his silent films (Strong Man and Long Pants); and his contributions to the Why We Fight series of educational/propaganda films. J. Chandler. Spring. (F, G)

237. Modern Fiction: Religion and Irreligion (=DivRL 237, Eng 237, GS Hum 213). PQ: Third-year standing or higher. This course takes up fiction written from within orthodox belief, indeed sometimes written in order to affirm particular religious doctrines (e.g., Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark, and Flannery O'Connor). We also study a contrasting body of work that calls all belief into question and relates to religious themes by way of satire, parody, and inversion (e.g., Franz Kafka, L.-F. Celine, and Nathanael West). M. Krupnick. Winter. (E)

238. Fiction in Ireland: Quaking the Sod (=Eng 238, Hum 288). Irish writers have often turned to the short story, the "well-told tale," to probe their homeland's "quaking sod:" its tremulous history, its shifting present, and its search for national and cultural self-definition. By placing works from different time periods and perspectives in sharp yet resonant juxtaposition, this course examines the visceral nature of the short story's relationship to Ireland and its development as a distinct genre there. We read a wide selection of new and recent writing in addition to works by Maria Edgeworth, George Morre, Seán Ó Faoláin, Frank O'Connore, Elizabeth Bowen, Swift, Goldsmith, Joyce, and Beckett. C. Skeen. Autumn. (E, H)

240. Ulysses. This course combines close attention to the text of Ulysses with readings designed to give a sense of the range of critical approaches available for interpreting Joyce. These include selected Joyce criticism, as well as material from the culture of early twentieth-century Dublin (including newspapers, music hall lyrics, and magazines) that we can place alongside Ulysses to formulate ideas about Joyce's relationship to popular culture. L. Ruddick. Winter. (E, H)

243. Contemporary Asian American Literature (=Eng 243, GendSt 244). Beginning with the debate between Maxine Hong Kingston and Frank Chin about the nature of Asian-American aesthetics, this course follows the path of Asian-American literature from canon-formation in the ethnic arts movements of the early 1970s to the proliferation of canons and contexts in the late 1990s. Central to our study are questions about masculinity, femininity, and sexuality; nation, immigration, and citizenship; and form, genre, and history. Among others, we might read Gish Jen, Theresa Cha, Chaeng Rae-Lee, David Mura, Shirley Lim, and Jessica Hagedorn. D. Nelson. Winter. (E, G)

246. Pulp Fictions. In this class, we will explore the often-neglected form of "pulp" literature, those stories and novels that originated in magazines printed on inexpensive pulp paper. This escapist fiction, enormously popular in the 1920's and 1930's, continues to have an impact on literature and culture today. Throughout the course, we will consider the mode of production of pulp fiction alongside the historical conditions of its consumption. We will read accounts of the popularity of the pulps, and try to comprehend why some of these fictions endured while others faded into oblivion--and the lasting impact of the pulps on literature and society today. One short paper, one final paper, brief weekly written assignments. Brian Fagel. Autumn. (E, G)

247. Third Wave Feminism And Girl Culture. This course examines the rise of "third wave" feminism and specifically focuses on the way the third wave has shifted interest away from "woman" as the governing subject of feminism and toward "girl." We will utilize an exciting array of contemporary extra- and interdisciplinary materials to interrogate the theoretical, generational, historical and economic implications of this shift in both its popular and scholarly registers. How can we begin to explain contemporary feminism's conspicuous investments in girlhood? Our texts will include novels (Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Carson McCullers' Member of the Wedding, Kathy Acker's Blood and Guts in High School), film and video (Tank Girl,Welcome to the Dollhouse, Girl Power), literary and cultural criticism (Judith Halberstam on "Tomboys," Susan Douglas' Where the Girls Are, Thomas Frank's The Conquest ofCool), comics (Ghost World, The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom), feminist theory (Letters to a Young Feminist, Girl Power!, Third Wave Agenda), 'zines (Bust, A Girl's GT Taking Over the World) and social scientific studies (Reviving Ophelia, The Body Project, Schoolgirls). M. Jensen. Spring. (G)

248. Gender and South African Writing (=Eng 248, GendSt 248). In this course we develop our understanding of South African writing. A major interest is in the changing social constructions of masculinities and femininities during the period 1950 to 1990, and the effects of race/racism and class on conceptions of gender. Texts include short stories by Cam Themba and other writers of the "Drum" school, Bessie Head, Nadine Gordimer, Gcina Mhlope, Miriam Tlali, and Zoe Wicomb; autobiographies by Noni Jabavu, Ellen Kuzwayo, and Emma Mashinini; and novels by Bessie Head, Lauretta Ngcobo, Lewis Nkosi, and Nadine Gordimer. D. Driver. Autumn. (E)

249. The Modernist Child (=ComLit 249, Eng 249, GS Hum 216, German 285). PQ: Knowledge of German helpful but not required. Drawing both on modernist classics and on children's literature, this course explores the experience and meaning of childhood in early twentieth-century Europe. Our course focuses on texts from Britain and from Central Europe, comparing the ways they describe children's relationship to the city and to family life, the acquisition of language, and the experience of socialization. We read texts by Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginia Woolf, May Sinclair, Dorothy Richardson, E. Nesbit, A. A. Milne, P. L. Travers, Frank Wedekind, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Thomas Mann, Erich Kaumlstner, Bertolt Brecht, and Oumldoumln von Horvaacuteth. Texts in English and the original. K. Trumpener. Spring. (E, H)

255. Contemporary American Monstrosity. If monsters are a persistent feature of nearly all societies and periods, historically speaking, their shapes are profoundly variable. Contemporary American monstrosity finds its most compelling form in a figure that emerged around the middle of the twentieth century, the sexual psychopath. In this course, we'll read a selection of contemporary American works of fiction and film, as well as a selection of historical and theoretical texts, to see what this distinctively 20th century American monster can tell us about the culture in which he was produced. Among the issues we will take up are: What are the defining characteristics of the monsters these texts contain? In what ways are these creatures "incompatible with the existing order?" In what ways do they function (or fail) to establish the boundaries of "the human?" How do they complicate abstract and universalizing notions of "the human" in terms of class, race, gender and other social and political structures? The aim of the course will be both to see how the sexual psychopath functions as a cultural production and to take stock of the historical transformations of the concept of the psychopath within the latter half of the century. One 8-10 page paper, mid-term, journal, class list-serve. F. Whiting. Autumn. (E, G)

259. Southern U.S. Literature, 1920-1955. This course will examine literary representations of the South, beginning with the early years of the Great Migration, and continuing through the year of Brown vs. Board of Education. We will analyze the ways in which writers produce understandings of regional identity, how these understandings conflict, and how these different versions of regional particularity intervene in national narratives. We will also consider the role of southern regionalism in the development of literary modernism. Authors include James Agee, James Baldwin, Erskine Caldwell, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Jean Toomer, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, And Richard Wright. One 4-5 page essay, final exam and one 8-10 page paper. L. Duck. Autumn. (E, G)

267. Whitman (=Eng 267, GendSt 267). Beginning with a historical context for understanding Whitman, and closing with current literary-critical contexts for rereading him, we pose basic questions about the relation of literature and history, pleasure and politics, and cultural production and reception. We begin by situating Whitman's poetics of incorporation with other modes of collection, organization, and display (from Thoreau's work as a naturalist to the 1850 U.S. census, and from daguerreotype parlors to medical museums). Though we encounter some of Whitman's prose, we concentrate on his major poems and on the place they have occupied in cultural and political imaginations. B. Brown. Spring. (C, D, G)

272. Nineteenth-Century New England Literary Cultures. This course surveys a variety of New England writers of the first half of the nineteenth century. Attentive to the cultural context, we read texts by Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Dickinson, Stowe, Sedgewick, Fuller, and Melville. J. Knight. Autumn. (A, C, E, G)

274/474. Black Literature and the Burdens of Representation. The strictures and structures of representation, as one critic has argued recently, have had wide and varied permutations in black communities not only in North America, but also in the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa. This course investigates the social and aesthetic implications of "black representation" as a conflict between practices of depiction and practices of delegation. The main questions that guide our investigations are: what imperatives are involved in the production and reception of black literature, and what strategies and resources are used in literary texts that allow writers to ease the burdens of representation? This course will be organized around five related subtopics: (1) Representation in General; (2) Black "Expressivity" and the Burden of Representation; (3) Articulations of a Black Aesthetic; (4) Problematizing Black Representation; and (5) The Uses and Limits of Literary History Typology. This course employs a lecture-discussion format designed to enhance your awareness of black literature and to foster your interpretive and critical skills. Required readings will include work by Phillis Wheatley, David Walker, Charles Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Adrienne Kennedy, Alice Walker, Ishmael Reed, Toni Morrison, M. Nourbese Philip, Caryl Phillips, and Darius James. Grades are assessed on the basis of regular attendance, enthusiastic participation, a free-form and exploratory reading response notebook, a mid-term paper of 7-pages, a final paper proposal of one page, and a final paper of ten to twelve pages. In addition, at least one conference with the instructor during the quarter is mandatory. Books are available at the Seminary Co-op, and a course packet of additional readings will be available on reserve in the library and in the English Department. If you can do so before the first meeting, please read the following (note the editions): Plato, "How Representation in Art is Related to Truth" in The Republic of Plato, translation by Francis MacDonald Cornford (NY: Oxford UP, 1968) 321-333 and Aristotle, Excerpts from De Poetica, Richard McKeon, ed. (NY: Random House, 1941) 1455-62, 1486-87. S. Lloyd. Autumn. (G)

276. Cinema in Africa (=AfAfAm 219, CMS 242, Eng 276). PQ: Anthro 207, or CMS 101, or Eng 108. This course places cinema in Sub-Saharan Africa in its social, cultural, and aesthetic contexts ranging from neocolonial to postcolonial, Western to Southern Africa, documentary to fiction, and art cinema to television. Depending on availability, films include African filmmakers with international reputations such as Ousmane Sembene, Djibril Diop Mambety, Flora Gomez, Idrissa Ouedraogou, and Lionel Rogosin; neocolonial adventure pics such as Zulu (Enfield); ethnographic film; both metropolitan (Rouch's Maitres Fous) and local (Bringing Back the Goddess, about the revival of a Zulu tradition); and narratives of antiapartheid struggle in South Africa and anticolonial struggle elsewhere. L. Kruger. Winter. (F)

281. Sound in the Cinema (=CMS 280, Eng 281, GS Hum 205). This course develops our abilities to discuss, analyze, and research sound recording, audio media, and aspects of auditorship in theoretical and historical terms. Beginning with basic terminology and concepts specific to sound forms, we investigate specific historical and theoretical topics, including the emergence of recorded sound from the 1870s to the 1890s, the coming of sound to the American and international cinemas from the 1920s to the 1930s, and theoretical investigations of acoustic technologies and of listening. Readings include essays by Edison, Benjamin, Adorno, Eisenstein, Prokofiev, Frith, and Altman. Films and videos include works by Vertov, Eisenstein, Disney, Kubelka, Lang, Coppola, and Cage/Cunningham. J. Lastra. Winter. (F)

289. The Films of Billy Wilder (=CMS 263, Eng 289, GS Hum 209). Known primarily for films that establish him as a Hollywood insider (Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, and Some Like It Hot), Billy Wilder began his five-decade-long career in Weimar Germany and France. He returned to Germany in 1945, where he worked on a documentary on Nazi death camps (Todesmühlen / Mills of Death) and A Foreign Affair. Through close readings of exemplary films, we explore Wilder's range from gentle ethnographer of modern life to caustic satirist of American society and the culture industry, focusing on issues of authorship and reception (in particular his exclusion from the auteurist canon). M. Hansen. Spring. (F, G)

290. Fiction's Fiction. Writers since World War II have increasingly found inspiration in recrafting classic works of English and American literature. Our course studies this phenomenon. What can we learn about classic texts by reading them in light of contemporary recraftings? In what ways do these contemporary novels enable their authors to express viewpoints and generate affects that could not be produced in less mediated ways? With each work we explore social and psychological intricacies through close-textual analysis. Our texts include Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, and The Fall River Axe Murders; What Maisie Knew and The Age of Consent; Robinson Crusoe and Foe; King Lear and The Thousand Acres; and Emma and Clueless. W. Veeder. Winter. (E, G, H)

293/487. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era (=ArtH 285/385, CMS 285/485, Eng 293/487, MAPH 336). PQ: This is the first part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. The aim of this course is to introduce students to what was singular about the art and craft of silent film. Its general outline is chronological; we also discuss main national schools and international trends of filmmaking. Y. Tsivian. Winter. (F)

296/489. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960 (=ArtH 286/386, CMS 286/486, Eng 296/489, MAPH 337). PQ: Eng 293/487 or consent of instructor. This is the second part of the international survey history for film covering the sound era up to 1960. The crystallization of the classical Hollywood film in terms of style and genre, as well as industry organization, is a key issue. But international alternatives to Hollywood are also discussed, from the unique forms of Japanese cinema to movements such as Italian Neo-Realism and the beginnings of the New Wave in France. Texts include Thompson Bordwell, Film History and Introduction, and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, Godard, and others. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir. T. Gunning. Spring. (F)

297. Reading Course. PQ: Consent of instructor and associate chair for undergraduate studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Must be taken for a letter grade. The kind and amount of work to be done are determined by an instructor within the Department of English Language and Literature who has agreed to supervise the course. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

299. Independent B.A. Paper Preparation. PQ: Consent of instructor and associate chair for undergraduate studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. May not be counted toward the distribution requirements for the concentration, but may be counted as a departmental elective. In consultation with a faculty member, students devote the equivalent of a one-quarter course to the preparation of a B.A. paper. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.