Courses & Programs of Study

Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies:
Janice Knight, G-B 308, 702-8024

Secretary for Undergraduate English Language and Literature:
Amy Schulz, G-B 309, 702-7092

Web: english.uchicago.edu/courses/undergrad/index.shtml

(for updated course information and required student forms)

Program of Study

The undergraduate program in English Language and Literature provides students with the opportunity to study intensively works of literature, drama, and film originally written in English. 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. Students in the English Department 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 English Department 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. This is done by permitting up to two courses outside the English Department to be counted as part of the major if a student can demonstrate the relevance of these courses to his or her program of study.

Program Requirements

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 major 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.

Language Requirement

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

Arts Requirement

English majors must also take one course in art history, dramatic arts, music, or visual arts in addition to the general education requirement. Students may choose an advanced course and it may be in the same discipline as the course that was used to meet the general education requirement.

Course Distribution Requirements

The major in English requires at least ten departmental courses, distributed among the following:

Critical Perspectives. All English majors must take an introductory course (ENGL 10100, Critical Perspectives). This course develops practical skills in close reading, historical contextualization, and the use of discipline-specific research tools and resources; and encourages conscious reflection on critical presuppositions and practices. The course prepares students to enter into the discussions that occur in more advanced undergraduate courses. Students must take ENGL 10100 before Autumn Quarter of their fourth year.

Period Requirement. 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 period requirement in English may be met in one of two ways: (1) Students may take two courses in literature written before 1700 and two courses in literature written between 1700 and 1950. At least one of these four courses must be a designated "period" course. (2) Students may take 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.

Genre Requirement. Because an understanding of literature demands sensitivity to various conventions and different genres, students are required to take at least one course in each of the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama/film.

British and American Literature Requirement. The program also asks that students study both British and American literature, requiring at least one course in each.

NOTE: The English Department does not currently offer a joint B.A./
M.A./M.A.T. program.

Summary of Requirements

The English Department requires a total of thirteen courses: ten courses in the English Department; two language courses; and one course in dramatic, musical, or visual arts. All students are required to file a worksheet by Winter Quarter of their third year. Worksheets are available at english.uchicago.edu/courses/undergrad/index.shtml.

2 quarters of study at the second-year level in a language other than English*

1 any course in dramatic, musical, or visual arts not taken to meet the College requirement (in the Department of Art History, the Department of Music, the Committee on the Visual Arts, or the Committee on Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities)

1 ENGL 10100

3-4 English courses to fulfill period requirements: either two courses pre-1700 and two courses 1700-1950 (including one designated "period" course) or three designated "period" courses (including one course pre-1700 and one course post-1700)

1 English course in fiction

1 English course in poetry

1 English course in drama or film

1 course in British literature

1 course in American literature

0-6 English electives (for a total of ten courses in the department; may include ENGL 29900)

senior project (optional)

13 **

* 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 dramatic, musical, or visual arts.

NOTE: Some courses satisfy several genre and period requirements. For example, a course in metaphysical poetry would satisfy the genre requirement for poetry, the British literature requirement, and the pre-1700 requirement. For details about the requirements met by specific courses, visit english.uchicago.edu/courses/undergrad/index.shtml. Please note that no matter how individual programs are configured, the total number of courses required by the program remains the same.

Courses Outside the Department Taken for Program 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 dramatic, musical, or visual arts) may count toward the total number of courses required by the major, 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 taking 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 permission from the Office of the Dean of Students in the College and an appropriate administrator in the English Department. Transfer credits for courses taken at another institution are subject to approval by the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies and are limited to a maximum of five credits. NOTE: Grades for transfer courses may not be counted in the grade point average for honors.

Reading Courses (ENGL 29700 and 29900). Upon prior approval by the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, the undergraduate reading course (ENGL 29700) may be used to fulfill requirements for the major if they are taken for a letter grade and include a final paper assignment. No student may use more than two ENGL 29700 courses in the major. Seniors who wish to register for the senior project preparation course (ENGL 29900) must arrange for appropriate faculty supervision and obtain the permission of the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. ENGL 29900 counts as an English elective but not as one of the courses fulfilling distribution requirements for the major. If a student registers for both ENGL 29700 and ENGL 29900, and if ENGL 29700 is devoted to work that develops into the senior 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 automatically expect to arrange a reading course. For alternative approaches to preparing a B.A. paper, see the section on honors work.

Grading. Students majoring in English must receive quality grades in all thirteen courses taken to meet the requirements of the program. Nonmajors may take English courses on a P/F basis with consent of instructor.

Students who wish to use the senior project in English to meet the same requirement in another major should discuss their proposals with both program chairs no later than the end of third year. Certain requirements must be met. A consent form, to be signed by the chairs, is available from the College adviser. It must be completed and returned to the College adviser by the end of Autumn Quarter of the student's year of graduation.

Senior Honors Work. Special honors in English are reserved for graduating seniors who have excellent course grades and who complete a senior seminar essay or senior thesis project judged to be of the highest quality. For honors candidacy, a student must have at least a 3.0 grade point average overall and a 3.5 grade point average in departmental courses (grades received for transfer credit courses are not included into this calculation).

Students who wish to be considered for departmental honors may choose to carry out a senior project or to take a senior seminar. 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 a project is to be a fully finished product that demonstrates the highest quality by the graduate student preceptor, faculty supervisor, and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies.

The scholarly B.A. project 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 adviser and a senior project supervisor, rethought, and rewritten. Students normally work on their senior project over three quarters. In Spring Quarter of their third year, each student will be assigned a faculty field specialist and graduate student preceptor. In Autumn Quarter of their fourth year, students will attend a series of colloquia convened by the preceptors and designed to prepare them for the advanced research and writing demands of thesis work. In Winter and Spring Quarters, students will continue to meet with their preceptors and will also consult at scheduled intervals with their individual faculty adviser (the field specialist). Students may elect to register for the senior project preparation course (ENGL 29900) for one-quarter credit.

Alternatively, students may elect to produce an honors essay in the context of a senior seminar. Senior seminars are advanced courses with topics that vary from year to year. At least one seminar will be offered each year, and enrollment will be limited to twelve students. If numbers permit, these seminars may admit other advanced students. However, preference will be always be given to fourth-year English majors. These seminars involve intensive student participation as well as deep engagement with critical traditions and theoretical perspectives, and require a long final paper. Students will work closely with the faculty member and a graduate student assistant to develop a research topic based on the course readings. All students taking this course will submit a final seminar paper. Those seniors who are eligible and who wish to be considered for departmental honors must then revise and resubmit their final paper within six weeks of completing the senior seminar. The essay will then be evaluated by the course instructor and the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies.

Students wishing to produce a creative writing honors project must receive permission of the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. The creative senior project may take the form of a piece of creative writing, a director's notebook or an actor's journal in connection with a dramatic production, or a mixed media work in which writing is the central element. Prior to the Winter Quarter of their fourth year, students will be required to take at least two creative writing courses in the genre of their own creative project. In Winter Quarter of their fourth year, these students will enroll in a prose or a poetry senior seminar. These seminars are advanced courses limited to twelve students, and will include students majoring in English as well as ISHU and MAPH students who are producing creative theses. Students will work closely with the faculty member, with a graduate preceptor, and with their peers in the senior writing workshops and will receive course credit as well as a final grade. Eligible students who wish to be considered for departmental honors will, in consultation with the faculty member and preceptor, revise and resubmit their creative project within six weeks of completing the senior seminar. The project will then be evaluated by the faculty member and a second reader to determine eligibility for honors.

Completion of a senior project or senior seminar paper is no guarantee of a recommendation for departmental honors. Honors recommendations are made to the Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division by the department through the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies.

Advising. All newly declared English majors must meet with the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies and must fill out the requirements worksheet. Students are expected to review their plans to meet departmental requirements at least once a year with the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. To indicate their plans for meeting all requirements for the major, students are required to review and sign a departmental worksheet by the beginning of their third year. Worksheets may be obtained online at english.uchicago.edu/courses/undergrad/index.shtml. The Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies has regularly scheduled office hours during which she is available for consultation and guidance on a student's selection of courses, future career plans, and questions or problems relating to the major.

In addition to consulting with the Associate Chair, all newly declared majors and all third-year English majors are also assigned faculty advisers who share similar field interests. Students meet with advisers in Autumn and Spring Quarter to discuss the intellectual direction of their proposed course of study. Students are also 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 members are available to students during regular office hours posted every quarter.

The London Program (Autumn). This program provides students in the College with an opportunity to study British literature and history in the cultural and political capital of England in the Autumn Quarter. In the ten-week program, students take four courses that are each compressed into approximately three weeks and taught in succession by Chicago faculty. The fourth course, which is on the history of London, is conducted at a less intensive pace. The program includes a number of field trips (e.g., Bath, Canterbury, Cambridge). The London program is designed for third- and fourth-year students with a strong interest and some course work in British literature and history. While not limited to English or History majors, such students will find the program to be especially attractive and useful. Applications are available online via a link to Chicago's study abroad home page (study-abroad.uchicago.edu) and are normally due in mid-Winter Quarter. For details on the 2004-05 programs, see the course descriptions for ENGL 20104, 20105, and 20106.

Creative Writing Option. English majors may choose to produce a creative project to satisfy part of the requirement for honors. Prior to the Winter Quarter of their fourth year, students will be required to take at least two creative writing courses in the genre of their own creative project. The senior project may take the form of a piece of creative writing, a director's notebook, an actor's journal in connection with a dramatic production, or a mixed media work in which writing is the central element. Such a project is to be a fully finished piece of work that demonstrates the highest quality of which the student is capable. Students choosing this option should consult the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies in English.

Faculty

L. Berlant, D. Bevington, B. Brown, J. Chandler, B. Cormack, F. Ferguson, J. Goldsby,
E. Hadley, M. Hansen, E. Helsinger, O. Izenberg, J. Knight, L. Kruger, J. Lastra,
S. Macpherson, C. Mazzio, M. Miller, W. J. T. Mitchell, M. Murrin, D. Nelson,
L. Rothfield, L. Ruddick, J. Schleusener, J. Scodel, E. Slauter, J. Stewart, R. Strier,
R. Valenza, W. Veeder, R. von Hallberg, C. von Nolcken, K. Warren, A. Yu

Courses: English Language and Literature (engl)

Boldface letters in parentheses refer to courses that meet the following program requirements: (A) Period; (B) Pre-1700; (C) 1700 to 1950; (D) Poetry; (E) Fiction; (F) Drama/Film; (G) American; (H) British.

10100. Critical Perspectives. Required of students majoring in English; ENGL 10100 must be completed by Autumn Quarter of their fourth year. This course develops practical skills in close reading, historical contextualization, and the use of discipline-specific research tools and resources, and encourages conscious reflection on critical presuppositions and practices. The course prepares students to enter into the discussions that occur in more advanced undergraduate courses. R. Devendorf, Y. Piggush, Autumn; T. Ford, Winter; J. Schleusener, L. Rothfield, Spring.

10200-10300. Problems in Gender Studies. (=GNDR 10100-10200, HUMA 22800-22900, SOSC 28200-28300) PQ: Second-year standing or higher. Completion of the general education requirement in social sciences or humanities, or the equivalent. May be taken in sequence or individually. For course description, see Gender Studies. S. Michaels. Autumn, Winter.

10400. 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: referentially, philosophical and ideological assumptions, and historical considerations. O. Izenberg. Winter, 2005. (D)

10700. Introduction to Fiction: The Short Story. In the first half of this course, we focus on the principal elements that contribute to effect in fiction (i.e., setting, characterization, style, imagery, 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. Winter, 2005. (E)

10701. Introduction to Fiction II: Narrative Theory. We begin by considering some texts that treat the question of perceptible structure in narrative to think about how we can tell that a story is complete. Then we discuss how an attention to structure in narrative makes it possible to see even inarticulate animals (e.g., Flush, the dog whose biography Virginia Woolf writes) and inanimate objects (e.g., forks, spoons, and cheeses in the Grimm Brothers's tales) as protagonists in narrative. Lastly we consider the narrative structure of autobiographical writing. F. Ferguson. Spring, 2005. (E)

10800. Introduction to Film Analysis. (=ARTH 19000, CMST 10100, COVA 25400, ISHU 20000) For course description, see Cinema and Media Studies. J. Stewart. Autumn. (E)

11400/31400. Writing Argument. (=ISHU 21403) This a pragmatic course in the rhetoric of arguments, meaning that we won't be asking whether an argument is internally valid but rather why it is more or less successful in persuading readers. By "pragmatic," we mean that we focus mainly on the arguments of students. We use arguments from politics, academics, and the professions to develop an analysis of argument, but the main goal is for students to use this analysis to enhance their ability to write arguments that succeed with their readers. In the final weeks of the course, we look at arguments that class members have chosen for discussion, as well as at competing theories. K. Cochran. Spring, 2006.

11401/31401. Writing Law. (=ISHU 21401, LLSO 21300) To a considerable extent, law is what gets written down as law. In this course, we ask two questions about the characteristic ways that contemporary American law is written: (1) How do you do it? and (2) What difference does it make? We identify key features of several genres of legal texts (i.e., opinions, statutes, contracts, briefs, memos) and students write parts of these texts. We also ask: If legal writing has these features and not others, what difference does in make in how we think of law? What difference does it make in how we create law? What difference does it make in how the law operates? What difference does it make in what the law is? L. McEnerney, K. Cochran. Autumn, 2004.

11502. Literary Criticism from Aristotle to Eliot. This course hits the high points of literary criticism in the West up to the 1920s. Critics read (aside from those in the title) include Longinus, Sidney, Dryden, Johnson, Coleridge, Shelley, Arnold, and Wilde. J. Scodel. Winter, 2005.

11503/31503. Translation and Adaptation. (=ISHU 26960) For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). C. Columbus. Offered 2005-06; not offered 2004-05.

11504/31504. Solo Performance: Biography. (=ISHU 27305) For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). J. Thebus. Winter, 2005.

11602/31602. Travel Writing. (=ISHU 21602, MAPH 37600) PQ: Consent of instructor. This class aims to capture in writing the experiences of travel: the awakening to a new geography or culture, the romance and humor, even the danger. With readings from classic and contemporary travel writers and through writing about their own journeys, students explore the role of the senses, as well as the landscape, in creating vivid accounts. T. McNulty. Spring, 2005.

11701. Writing Description. (=HUMA 27300) A descriptive passage might seem to be objective or to represent subjective experience. It might seem to be covertly or overtly supporting a claim, or it might appear to add detail and richness to a narrative. Throughout this writing-intensive course, we do not take the term "description" for granted, but rather we interrogate what we mean when we say that a piece of prose "describes" something. Students write weekly exercises to practice styles and techniques used by superlative writers of description (e.g., Marcel Proust, John McPhee, Virginia Woolf, J. R. R. Tolkien, Tom Wolfe, H. D. Thoreau, John Ruskin, Charles Darwin, Annie Dillard) and some texts of the students' choice. K. Cochran, T. Weiner. Spring, 2005.

12204/32204. Writing Creative Nonfiction. (=HUMA 25500, ISHU 21404) PQ: Consent of instructor. Spring, 2005.

12205/32205. Beginning Screenwriting. (=ISHU 27311) For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). J. Petrakis. Autumn.

12208/33308. Advanced Screenwriting. (=ISHU 27314) PQ: ENGL 12205/32205 and consent of instructor based on eight-page writing sample in screenplay format. Class limited to eight students. For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). J. Petrakis. Spring.

12300. Poetry and Being. PQ: ENGL 10400 or equivalent from another institution, or consent of instructor. This course involves close analysis of poems from a variety of periods and genres, some exposure to various critics' perspectives on literary form, and a number of theoretical readings (largely from the domain of psychoanalysis) on creativity, play, and emotion, which we place in dialogue with our interpretations of individual poems. L. Ruddick. Spring, 2005. (D)

12400/32400. Beginning Fiction Writing. (=ISHU 22406) PQ: Consent of instructor. The principal texts of this workshop are those written by the students during the quarter, and class discussion centers on these works. Several other short texts are examined, primarily to enable students to begin criticizing and editing their own works. Students specializing in the short story are expected to write at least three to five new stories during the quarter. Anyone embarking on a novel works out a schedule once the quarter begins. The goal is that students develop a clearer idea of what they want to be doing and how they want to do it. S. Schaeffer. Autumn, 2004.

12401/32401. Beginning Fiction Workshop. (=ISHU 22401) PQ: Consent of instructor. This workshop meets weekly to read, discuss, and analyze students' original work. Students are expected to rewrite, revise, and reevaluate from week to week. Lectures are based on issues that arise from student work. There are frequent exercises outside the students' own writing. A. Logue. Winter, 2005.

12403/32403. Beginning Fiction: Writing from the Margins. (=ISHU 22403) PQ: Consent of instructor. Weekly sessions feature in-class writing, discussion, and readings with a focus on writing from perspectives outside the mainstream and alternative viewpoints. One critical annotation is required during the term. Students keep a folder of all work for class. At semester's end, folders are used to evaluate work as a whole and to more closely examine growth. Generally, one-half of class is devoted to presentation and exercises, the other to student work and discussion. Attendance and active class participation required. A. Obejas. Spring, 2005.

12404/32404. Beginning Fiction Writing: The Short Story. (=ISHU 22404) PQ: Consent of instructor. This course focuses on the short story--its unique aspects in form and movement and how students can best use it to get their own stories on the page. In a workshop-based setting emphasizing the needs of the individual writer, a wide range of exercises and activities are used to help students discover their oral and written voices. M. Stielstra. Spring, 2005.

12405/32405. Beginning Fiction: Writing from Experience. (=ISHU 22405) PQ: Consent of instructor. This class thrives on creating and exploring new experiences to write about (i.e., actually getting out in the city to see and hear and live through new things). Weekly sessions feature in-class writing, discussion, and readings. Students keep a folder of all work for class. At semester's end, folders are used to evaluate work as a whole and to more closely examine growth. Generally, one-half of class is devoted to presentation and exercises, the other to student work and discussion. Attendance and active class participation required. A. Obejas. Offered 2005-06; not offered 2004-05.

12406/32406. Performance Poetry. (=ISHU 22908, MAPH 32905) PQ: Consent of instructor. This class starts with the premise that there are as many ways to perform a poem as there are to write one. It provides a safe, inspiring, encouraging environment for in-class writing assignments, out-of-class field trips, performance of the student's own and other poet's work, theater exercises, collaborative exploration, critiquing of performance poetry videos and recordings, and discussion of written and performed student work. C. Salach. Winter, 2005.

12506/32506. Advanced Fiction: Research for Writers. (=ISHU 24402) PQ: Consent of instructor. Weekly sessions feature in-class writing, discussion, and readings with a focus on writing from perspectives outside the mainstream and alternative viewpoints. One critical annotation is required during the term. Students keep a folder of all work for class. To end the class, folders are used to evaluate work as a whole and to more closely examine growth. Typically, one-half of class is devoted to presentation and exercises, the other to student work and discussion. Attendance and active class participation required. A. Obejas. Autumn, 2004.

12507/32507. Advanced Fiction: The Longer Manuscript. (=ISHU 24403) PQ: Consent of instructor and prior work on longer narratives (novels, novellas, or connected short stories). This workshop meets once weekly to read, discuss, and analyze students' original work. Students rewrite, revise, and reevaluate from week to week, as well as provide in-depth critiques of peer writing. Outside readings are provided. A. Obejas. Winter, 2005.

12700/32700. Writing Biography. (=ISHU 21406) Our goal is to identify successful biographical writing techniques in the class readings and then practice these techniques in frequent assignments. Texts include Janet Malcolm on Sylvia Plath, Joseph Ellis on Thomas Jefferson, Quentin Bell on Virginia Woolf, and Malcolm X's autobiography. We practice the techniques biographers use to transform into a coherent whole the diverse and often contradictory materials of biography. We construct narratives that aspire to do two things: (1) represent another person's life, and (2) make that life represent something beyond itself (a historical period; a social group; or a particular kind of achievement, admirable or otherwise). T. Weiner, L. McEnerney, K. Cochran. Autumn, 2005.

12702/32702. Writing Profiles. (=ISHU 21407, MAPH 37300) PQ: Consent of instructor. This course focuses on techniques for writing magazine-length profiles and, where desired, on expanding profiles into book-length biographies. Class reading consists of skillfully executed profiles from magazines that cover a variety of subjects. Students then select a subject of their own to profile. C. Felsenthal. Winter, 2005.

12800/32800. Theories of Media. (=ARTH 25900/35900, CMST 27800/37800, COVA 25400, ISHU 21800, MAPH 34300) PQ: Any 10000-level ARTH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course explores the concept of media and mediation in very broad terms, looking not only at modern technical media and mass media but also at the very idea of a medium as a means of communication, a set of institutional practices, and a habitat" in which images proliferate and take on a "life of their own." Readings include classic texts (e.g., Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Cratylus, Aristotle's Poetics); and modern texts (e.g., Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media, Regis Debray's Mediology, Friedrich Kittler's Gramaphone, Film, Typewriter). W. J. T. Mitchell. Winter, 2006.

12905/32905. Beginning Poetry Workshop: Letters to Young Poets. (=ISHU 22905) PQ: Consent of instructor. This course introduces the writing of lyric poetry through the careful study of famous letters written by major authors. In the correspondence of writers such as Dickinson, Rilke, Hopkins, and Stevens, we encounter "the burden of the mystery" of poetic language and compose our own weekly letters in response to the questions raised by these writers. We learn how to write in various poetic forms from these authors, as well as consider the more "theoretical" questions they raise regarding the relationship between poetry and sensation, poetry and the social order, poetry and knowledge. S. Reddy. Autumn, 2004.

12907/32907. Beginning Poetry Workshop. (=ISHU 22907) PQ: Consent of instructor. This course is designed to help poets get started and keep going. After a brief introductory look through some exemplary texts at various poetic approaches and strategies, we concentrate on student work. Each student's poems is discussed with an eye to improvement by the other students and by the instructor in a friendly workshop forum. A. Rollings. Spring, 2005.

12920/32920. Beginning Creative Writing: Creative Reading for Writers. (=ISHU 22910) PQ: Consent of instructor. This course examines the processes of how writers turn their reading of literary and nonliterary materials toward their own creative purposes. First we look at poems and fiction the way writers do, less to arrive at a critical position, more to find out how the works are put together to learn from their strategies. We look at works by Herman Melville, Virginia Woolf, Susan Howe, Charles Olson, Michael Palmer, Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer, Lisa Cooper, Joseph Donahue, and others. M. Sloan. Autumn, 2004.

12921/32921. Beginning Creative Writing: Introduction to Genres. (=ISHU 22911) PQ: Consent of instructor. This course introduces the study and practice of three major genres of imaginative literature: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. We experiment with the formal qualities of each and look at what links and separates them. The course is workshop-based, with an emphasis on steady production and revision. Through exercises and/or open and directed writing assignments, students produce a portfolio of original work. Spring, 2005.

13000/33000. The Little Red Schoolhouse (Academic and Professional Writing). (=ISHU 23000) PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing. P/F grading optional for English nonmajors. 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, K. Cochran, T. Weiner. Winter, Spring.

13405/33405. Performance Art. (=COVA 25600, ISHU 26800) PQ: Consent of instructor. Prior theater experience or acting training not required. For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). C. Allen. Spring, 2005.

13501/33501. Television Writing: The Situation Comedy. (=ISHU 27313) PQ: Consent of instructor based on writing sample and application. For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). E. Ferrara. Winter, 2004.

13502/33502. Advanced Television Writing: W.R.I.T.E. (Writers' Room Immersion Training Experiment). (=ISHU 27315) PQ: ENGL 13501/33501or consent of instructor based on writing sample. For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). E. Ferrara. Offered 2005-06; not offered 2004-05.

13503/33503. Advanced Television Writing: Creating the Situation Comedy. (=ISHU 27316) PQ: ISHU 27313 or consent of instructor. For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). E. Ferrara. Spring, 2005.

13600/43600. Playwriting. (=ISHU 26600) PQ: Consent of instructor. For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). C. Allen. Autumn.

13700/33700. Advanced Playwriting. (=ISHU 26700) PQ: ENGL 13600/43600 and consent of instructor. For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). C. Allen. Spring.

13800/31000. History and Theory of Drama I. (=ANST 21200, CLAS 31200, CLCV 21200, CMLT 20500/30500, ISHU 24200/34200) May be taken in sequence with ENGL 13900/31100 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 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 other members of the class. End-of-week workshops, in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed, are optional but highly recommended. D. Bevington, D. N. Rudall. Autumn. (B, F, H)

13900/31100. History and Theory of Drama II. (=CMLT 20600/30600, ISHU 24300/34300) May be taken in sequence with ENGL 13800/31000 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. The goal is not to develop acting skill but, rather, the goal is 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. End-of-week workshops, in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed, are optional but highly recommended. D. Bevington, D. N. Rudall. Winter. (C, F, H)

14303/34303. Advanced Poetry Workshop: Viewing and Reviewing Poetry. (=ISHU 24303) PQ: Consent of instructor. This workshop complements the creative work of students with the careful study of current trends in contemporary American lyric writing. We also explore the world of small literary journals and magazines to survey new directions in lyric writing, and we attend readings by emerging American poets at Chicago venues. S. Reddy. Spring, 2005.

14305/34305. Advanced Poetry Workshop: Writing Practices. (=ISHU 24305) PQ: Consent of instructor based on experience in writing poetry. This poetry workshop introduces advanced students of creative writing to a wide array of techniques and strategies for generating lyric poetry that fall outside of the Romantic model of "spontaneous utterance." Collage, "cross-outs," and various procedures involving chance operations are explored, along with a variety of other techniques and practices associated with avant-garde movements of the twentieth-century. S. Reddy. Autumn, 2004.

14400/34400. Advanced Fiction Writing. (=ISHU 24400) PQ: Consent of instructor based on experience in writing fiction. The principal texts for this course are the students' own writings, but several short texts may be examined. Those writing short stories are expected to write at least three new stories during the course of the quarter and those writing a longer work tailor a schedule to the project. It is imperative that all students participate in discussing the works of others in the class. S. Schaeffer. Autumn, 2004.

14401/34401. Advanced Fiction Workshop. (=ISHU 24401) PQ: Consent of instructor based on background in creative writing. Students are expected to rewrite, revise, and reevaluate their original work on a week-to-week basis based on outside readings, discussions, and analysis. Lectures are based on issues that arise from student work. There are occasional exercises outside the students' own writing. Offered 2005-06; not offered 2004-05.

14601. Aesthetics and Politics. This course aims to explore some of the various ways in which aesthetics is implicated in society and politics. Our focus is the romantic period because it was then that such implication became a pressing, focused, and broad literary concern. But readings in the fiction, poetry, and theory of relevant writers (e.g., Burke, Kant, Schiller, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Hegel, Owenson, Keats, Shelley, Scott, Hogg) is supplemented with a good deal of subsequent commentary. A secondary course objective is to evaluate the degree to which these romantic conceptions and concerns remain our own. B. Earle. Spring, 2005.

14900/34900. Old English. (=GRMN 34900) This course serves as a prerequisite both for further Old English study at the University of Chicago and for participation in the Newberry Library's Winter Quarter Anglo-Saxon seminar. This course is designed to prepare students for further study in Old English language and literature. We focus on the acquisition of linguistic skills needed to encounter such Old English poems as Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, and The Wanderer in their original language. In addition, we may also translate the prose Life of Saint Edmund, King and Martyr and such shorter poetic texts as the Exeter Book riddles. We also survey Anglo-Saxon history and culture, taking into account the historical record, archeology, manuscript construction and illumination, and growth of Anglo-Saxon studies as an academic discipline. A. Rabin. Autumn, 2005. (B, H)

15102/35102. Seminar at the Newberry Library: Old English. PQ: ENGL 14900/34900. During the first two-thirds of each meeting we translate (and to some extent "discover") Old English texts with precise attention to their grammar, style, lexicon, and thematic context. During the rest of each meeting we look at rare books in which those texts were first presented to a post-medieval reading public, thereby promoting their discovery by an unintended audience while also inventing them as modern artifacts. The class meets at the Newberry Library. J. Niles. Winter, 2005. (B, H)

15200/35200. Beowulf. (=FNDL 28100) PQ: ENGL 14900/34900 or equivalent. This course aims to help students read Beowulf while also acquainting them with some of the scholarly discussion that has accumulated around the poem. We read the text primarily as edited by Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, Beowulf: An Edition (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998); we also draw on the Newberry Library's rich collection of early printed and facsimile editions when discussing textual and paleographical matters. Once students have defined their particular interests, we choose which recent approaches to the poem to discuss in detail; the poem is, however, certainly viewed both in itself and in relation to Anglo-Saxon history and culture in general. C. von Nolcken. Winter, 2005. (B, D, H)

15201/35201. Writing the Graphic Novel. (=ISHU 21405) PQ: Consent of instructor. The goal of this class is to move from rough ideas to initial sketches and then to use the workshop to refine those sketches into finished pieces. We discuss the formal elements of comics, as well as the process of composing comics pages and structuring graphic narratives. We also discuss the wide variety of possible tools and media that can be used to draw comics. The class focuses as much on storytelling, using the iconic language of comics, as on developing ability in drawing. I. Brunetti. Spring, 2005.

15600. Medieval English Literature. (=GNDR 15600) 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. Autumn, 2004. (A, B, D, H)

15800/35800. Medieval Epic. (=CMLT 25900/35900) Major works such as Beowulf, The Song of Roland, The Cid, and II Pergerio are examined, and attention is also given to poems such as the alliterative Morte d'Arthur. M. Murrin. Autumn, 2004. (B, D, H)

15901. The Post-Human Condition. Technology revolutions in the past twenty years have given rise to new understandings of the "human condition." This course explores the convergence and emergence of new media in shaping experience, culture, aesthetics, and identity. Texts include Gibson's Neuromancer, Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Hayles's How We Became Posthuman, and Kittler's Gramophone Film Typewritter. E. de Almeida. Autumn, 2004.

16205. Spenser and Shakespeare: Memory and Imagination in Renaissance England. This course approaches Shakespeare and Spenser through two of their integral and reflexive themes: memory and imagination. Reading the poet and the playwright together with early modern treatises on poetics, the arts of memory and meditation, purgatory, and the power of fantasy, we survey the literary and cultural logics of memory and im-agination in late sixteenth-century England. A. Rzepka. Spring, 2005. (B, H)

16300/36300. Renaissance Epic. (=CMLT 29100/39100) This course emphasizes the neoclassical epic, its theory, and its connections with history. We read Camoes's Lusiads, the epic about the first European voyage around Africa to India; Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, the epic about the First Crusade that influenced The Faerie Queene, plus his Discourses on the Art of Poetry, in which he sets up a theory of neoclassical epic which also affected Milton; and Milton's Paradise Lost. M. Murrin. Winter, 2005. (B, D, H)

16304. Formal Study of Renaissance Poetry. Students in this course learn to identify and explore formal elements of poetry (e.g., meter, rhyme, tone) as well as particular poetic forms (e.g., sonnets, couplets, stanzas). The poetry is some of the best that the English Renaissance has to offer, from Wyatt to Milton. B. Plotinsky. Spring, 2005. (B, D, H)

16500. Shakespeare I: Histories and Comedies. (=FNDL 21403, ISHU 26550) This course is an exploration of Shakespeare's major plays in the genres of history plays and romantic comedy, from the first half (roughly speaking) of his professional career: Richard III, Henry IV (parts 1 and 2), Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night, and Troilus and Cressida. D. Bevington. Autumn, 2004. (B, F, H)

16600. Shakespeare II: Tragedies and Romances. (=FNDL 21404, ISHU 26560) ENGL 16500 recommended but not required. This course studies the second half of Shakespeare's career, from 1600 to 1611, when the major genres that he worked in were tragedy and "romance" or tragicomedy. Plays read include Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear (two versions), Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. R. Strier. Spring, 2005. (B, F, H)

16700. Shakespeare in Performance. (=ISHU 25200) PQ: Consent of instructor (based on conference and short audition) required; prior theater training helpful but not required. More information available from TAPS administrative office, RC 301. For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). G. Witt. Winter, 2005.

16703. Shakespeare's Imagery. Students in this course explore the field of Shakespearean imagery, studying nine plays and one poem to recognize and understand the complicated networks of images that underlie much of Shakespeare's work. Emphasis is placed on close reading. B. Plotinsky. Winter, 2005. (B, F, H)

16801/36801. Seventeenth-Century England. (=HIST 21300/31300) For course description, see History. S. Pincus. Autumn.

17501/37500. Milton. (=FNDL 21201) This course follows Milton's career as a poet and, to some extent, as a writer of polemical prose. We concentrate on his sense of his own vocation as a poet and as an active and committed Protestant citizen in times of revolution and reaction. Works include Nativity Ode, selected sonnets, A Mask, Lycidas, The Reason of Church Government, selections from divorce tracts, Areopagitica, Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, and Paradise Regained. J. Scodel. Spring, 2005. (B, D, H)

18600. Classical Film Theory. (=CMST 27201) For course description, see Cinema and Media Studies. J. Lastra. Winter, 2005. (F)

19202. Enlightenment and Revolution, 1660 to 1820. This course focuses on the developments in English letters during the years of enlightenment and revolution, from the bawdy tales of Charles II's court to the quietly smoldering drawing rooms of Jane Austen's novels. Eighteenth-century writers paid particular attention to the Horatian dictum that literature should instruct and delight. The poetry, prose, and drama on this course's syllabus have likewise been chosen with these two ends in mind: the reading is lively and provocative while at the same time exposing students to the broader intellectual and aesthetic concerns of eighteenth-century belles lettres. R. Valenza. Spring, 2005. (A, C, H)

19501. The Epistolary Novel in Europe, 1740-1840. (=CMLT 24100, GNDR 24101) For course description, see Comparative Literature. R. Schiffman. Winter.

19601. The Country House in English Literature. This course explores the development of the country house as a significant literary trope, examining the relationship between the aesthetic experiences of time and space that the country estate embodies and the forms of writing through which those experiences were developed and communicated from the seventeenth century through Brideshead Revisited. R. Devendorf. Spring, 2005. (C, H)

20104. From the Annals of Wales to Monty Python and the Holy Grail: King Arthur in Legend and History. PQ: Enrollment in London study abroad program. We consider the historical origins of the Arthurian Legend and some of the ways in which it has subsequently been reshaped and used in Great Britain. Early in the course we visit sites traditionally associated with King Arthur, including Tintagel Castle and St. Michael's Mount on Cornwall and Glasotonbury Abbey and Cadbuty Castle in Somersett. Later we examine nineteenth-century visual representations of the legend in London collections, most obviously the Tate gallery. We end with a viewing of the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. C. von Nolcken. Autumn, 2004. (B, D, H)

20105. Chaucer. (=FNDL 25700) PQ: Enrollment in London study abroad program. Prior knowledge of Middle English not required. We examine Chaucer's art as revealed in The Canterbury Tales. Although our main interest is in the individual tales, we also pay close attention to Chaucer's framing narrative of pilgrimage, and during the course we ourselves journey to Canterbury. We visit neighborhoods Chaucer would have known, the National Gallery to view that supreme example of English Gothic painting the "Wilson Diptych," and Westmister Abbey to view the tombs and effigies of Chaucer's royal patrons, as well as the tomb of Chaucer himself. C. von Nolcken. Autumn, 2004. (B, D, H)

20110. London: Urban Romanticism. PQ: Enrollment in London study abroad program. We often think of the Romantic movement in Britain as a return to nature and of London as place of coffeehouses, commerce, and cold comfort. But many of the most important motifs of British Romanticism, including many of those about "nature," were actually developed in London contexts. We engage with both representations of London and with London-generated materials through visual materials (e.g., Barker's panoramas, De Loutherbourg's Eidophusikon, and Girtin's Eidometropolis. We also read works by authors as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Wollstonecraft, Lamb, Hazlitt, Keats, Austen, and Dickens. J. Chandler. Autumn, 2004.

20202. Lyrical Ballads: Romantic Experiment in the 1790s (=MAPH 34115) This course examines and contextualizes a book often seen as initiating the Romantic Age: Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads. We concentrate on Wordsworth's contributions to the text, including the famous Prefaces of 1800/1802, asking what it means, in the wake of the French revolution and the social and political upheavals of the 1790s in Britain, to claim to be "a man speaking to men." To this end, we explore the emergent idea of the rights of man, the Romantic engagement with Enlightenment anthropology, as well as texts that interrogate the very promise that such notions of "man" seem to hold out. In addition to Lyrical Ballads, readings may include significant selections from Burke, Paine, and Wollstonecraft; poems by Barbauld, Charlotte Smith, and Blake; and significant contemporary criticism. H. Strang. Winter, 2005.

20403. Romantic Regulation. The period understood as Romanticism is also one shaped by technologies of administration that remain central to the organization of life in modern societies. This course explores connections between literary texts and the new modes of regulating population, gender, criminality, and labor. We read works by both literary authors (e.g., William Blake, Jane Austen, Byron) and theorists (e.g., Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith, William Godwin). T. Ford. Autumn, 2004. (C, E, H)

20702. Anomalous Ireland. (=MAPH 34113) In this course we turn our attention to Irish anomalousness, trying to understand it as a useful trope (one that puts pressure on dominant narratives about Irish culture and literature) while trying to resist the temptation to turn it into yet another sweeping narrative. Readings are drawn from the last three hundred years and fall into three (overlapping, but distinct) categories: (1) those that propose a kind of anomaly status for Ireland itself (eighteenth-century poems and economic tracts, famine writings, postcolonial theory); (2) those that are odd or anomalous from the point of view of generic convention or the Irish literary canon (Swift, Beckett, nineteenth-century Irish novels); and (3) those that explore subjects and subjectivities that have historically been construed as anomalous within "Irish" culture (gender and sexuality, the city, emigrants/immigrants, non-Catholics). C. Skeen. Winter, 2005.

20801. Revenge Tragedy. (=MAPH 34131) This course addresses some of the issues, themes, and techniques of reading Renaissance drama, both as a historical period and as a literary genre. Our primary focus is on how revenge becomes a trope that not only defines a specific genre but carries throughout the genres of the period. Close reading are essential in this process, as we investigate the specific language of revenge as it intersects with representations of history, commerce, gender, and culture; we also address the historical context of these plays through consideration of the material environment of the original staging. S. Murray. Winter, 2005.

21401/30201. Introduction to Theories of Sex/Gender: Ideology, Culture, and Sexuality. (=GNDR 21400/31400, MAPH 36500) PQ: Consent of instructor required GNDR 10100-10200 recommended. This course examines contemporary theories of sexuality, culture, and society and situates them in a global and historical perspective. Topics and issues are explored through theoretical, ethnographic, popular, and film and video texts. L. Berlant. Winter.

21900/42300. Victorian Women Writers. (=GNDR 21900) 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 (i.e., Gilbert and Gubar, Armstrong, Homans, Mermin, Leighton) and look at various analyses of sex and gender roles in the Victorian period (e.g., Davidoff, Hall, Poovey). E. Helsinger. Spring, 2005. (C, E, H)

21902/42102. Feelings and Forms: Affect and the Victorian Novel. This course examines how Victorian novels trained readers in the art and politics of feelings. Possible primary readings include novels by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy, as well as psychological, philosophical, and scientific writings by Charles Darwin, George Henry Lewes, John Stuart Mill, and Alexander Bain. Secondary readings may include works by D. A. Miller, Brian Massumi, Eve Sedgwick, Ann Cvetkovich, and Lauren Berlant. Z. Aslami. Autumn, 2004.

22300. Henry James: The Fiction of Crisis. (=FNDL 22910) 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 we explore. We also 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 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. Spring, 2005. (C, E, G)

22802. Caribbean Literature: Rewriting Colonial Fictions. (=CMLT 23000,GNDR 23301) For course description, see Comparative Literature. N. Tinsley. Autumn.

22805/43501. Nabokov's Early Novels. (=ISHU 24002/34002, RUSS 24001/34001) Knowledge of Russian not required. For course description, see Slavic Languages and Literatures (Russian). R. Bird. Winter, 2005.

22806/43502. Innocence and Insight in the Novel: F. M. Dostoevsky and Henry James. (=CMLT 22300/32300, ISHU 27502/37502, RLIT 30401, RLST 28700, RUSS 27501/37501) For course description, see Slavic Languages and Literatures (Russian). L. Steiner. Autumn, 2004.

22900. Utopia/Dystopia: An Introduction. This course introduces students to a wide range of utopian and dystopian writing, including both definitive models and unusual limit-cases. The readings follow a long chronology from Plato's foundational proposals in the Republic to William Gibson's invention of cyberspace in Neuromancer, and range through literary, philosophical, historical, fantastical, and architectural genres along the way. A. Rzepka. Winter, 2005.

23901/43901. Women, Writing, and Spirituality in Colonial America. (=GNDR 23200) We read the works of selected women authors in America, focusing on the relationship between spirituality and literary production. We read a variety of genres, including heresiographies, advice manuals, conversion and captivity narratives, letters, poems, and diaries. Our selections are attentive to such issues as class affiliation, the production of public and "domestic" utterance, and the disciplining of female speech. J. Knight. Autumn, 2004. (B, C, G)

24101/42301. Middlemarch. (=FNDL 22711) This course focuses on Eliot's masterwork, with some attention to the novel's literary and intellectual context. L. Rothfield. Winter, 2005. (C, E, H)

24500. American Contemporary Drama. (=ISHU 23450) For course description, see Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (TAPS). H. Coleman. Winter, 2006.

24801/44801. The Color of Queer: Race and Sexuality in Contemporary Writing. In this course, we discuss a variety of literary and critical texts, investigating how notions of heteronormativity and queer identity/community are inextricably enmeshed in and shaped by racial formations. Authors may include Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Cheryl Clarke, Marlon Riggs, Cherrie Moraga, John Rechy, Gloria Anzaldua, Craig Womack, Beth Brant, Chrystos, Greg Sarris, Tony Kushner, Adrienne Rich, Leslie Feinberg, Judith Butler, Cathy J. Cohen, Robert Reid-Pharr, Lisa Duggan, Roderick Ferguson, Will Roscoe, and Jose Esteban Munoz. M. Rifkin. Spring, 2005. (C, G)

25001/45001. Jewish/Latin American Literature. (=LACS 35001, LTAM 25001) This course is a survey of Latin American literature by Jewish writers, including Ariel Dorfman, Clarice Lispector, Mario Szichman, Rosa Nissan, Jose Kozer, Victor Perera, and Ilan Stavans. Issues include crypto-Judaism, displacement, and the particularities of construction of identity in the New World. Readings by Jorge Luis Borges address "the mythical Jew" in Latin America. Students are expected to read and discuss materials, as well as research literary and historical issues. Texts in English. A. Obejas. Spring, 2005. (E)

25101. The Frontier and Early American Literature. This course traces the concept of the Eastern United States frontier in fiction and nonfiction texts from the earliest English colonial contacts up to the 1850s. Topics include female and Native American perspectives that inform the later understanding of the frontier in the Far West. We examine the conceptualization of the frontier in American literature as a space of uncertain boundaries: where conversion occurs, where "civilization's" borders are troubled by the "savagery" they purport to exclude, and where human economic organization struggles to obtain, while maintaining, the resources of a supposedly empty wilderness. Y. Piggush. Spring, 2005. (G)

25102. Colonial/Postcolonial Theory and Literature. This course juxtaposes readings of colonial theory with literature of the period (and the same for postcolonial theory/literature) in an attempt to bring the two in conversation with one another. Do the questions that literature raises, stories that it plots, complement theories of the times, or does it offer ways of reading colonialism that theory because of its very nature cannot get a grasp at? Or conversely, does literature perhaps simplify some of the historical problems attendant to the colonial and postcolonial scenario, and, if so, what are the means by which it does so? A. Lakshmi. Autumn, 2004. (C)

25103. When and Where They Entered: Black Women Writers of the 1940s and 1950s. This second "woman's era" in African-American literature is often neglected as one compared to those of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this course, we attend to this group of writers to account for the unprecedented critical and popular acclaim that they received during the 1940s and 1950s. We focus on the writings of Brooks, Walker, Petry, and Hansberry. J. Goldsby. Winter, 2005.

25300. American Literature and Culture to 1865. This lecture/discussion course introduces American literary and cultural history between the sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. We survey major texts (novels, essays, poems, plays, personal narratives) from colonial North American settlement, the Enlightenment, the Revolutionary era, the American Renaissance, and the Civil War in light of a series of overlapping themes: tensions between liberty and authority, slavery and equality, national and regional identity, individualism and democracy, and the impact of social and political change on intellectual work. E. Slauter. Autumn, 2004. (A, C, G)

25302. Utopias. (=ARTH 22804, COVA 25301, HUMA 25350, ISHU 25350) For course description, see Big Problems. L. Berlant, R. Zorach. Spring, 2005.

25303. Approaches to American Studies. (=MAPH 34112) This course takes measure of what Donald Pease has called the "disciplinary unconscious and field imaginary" of American Studies. In doing so, we explore a variety of themes, theoretical influences, and methodological approaches currently alive in American Studies as well as survey works that were fundamental to the field's establishment. The class considers how to research and work across disciplines while still producing work that participates in the conventions of a given discipline. In particular, we explore why American Studies' investments in material reality and popular experience have been attractive to scholars trained in literature departments. For the first half of the course, the text is Herman Melville's Benito Cereno. The film Nurse Betty is our focus for the final half. W. Orchard. Winter, 2005.

25401/45401. U.S. National Beginnings Beyond the Black/White Binary. In this course, we focus on the antebellum period, exploring U.S./Indian relations, the lead-up to and impact of the Mexican-American War, and commercial expansion in the Pacific. Examining how a range of different authors and texts represent those events, we consider how such writings seek to (re)shape the meaning and popular understanding of the associated dynamics. Authors may include Thomas Jefferson, Nancy Ward, Charles Brockden Brown, William Apess, Lydia Maria Child, Black Hawk, Elias Boudinot, William H. Prescott, George Lippard, Richard Henry Dana, Henry David Thoreau, Juan Seguin, Antonio Maria Osio, Henry Obookiah, Charles Wilkes, M. C. Perry, and Herman Melville. M. Rifkin. Winter, 2005. (C, G)

25501. Wandering Women. (=HUMA 25001) What are the semantics of a sidewalk? What does it mean to walk-to be free to choose one's own way? This course engages the conjunctions of mobility, urbanity, and female subjectivity. We explore the relationships between depictions of female sexuality and activities such as shopping, prostitution, tourism, and flâneurie. Texts and authors include Gertrude Stein's "Melanctha," Djuna Barnes's Nightwood, Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Jane Bowles's Two Serious Ladies, Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, and Dorothy Parker. We also read a few critical texts to (dis)orient ourselves, including Michel de Certeau and Georg Simmel. J. Burstein. Autumn, 2004.

25600. The Poet in the Novel. Literary genres reflect different relations to the world; why should the genres reflect upon each other? In this course we examine a remarkable sequence of twentieth-century novels (and films) in which poets and poetry appear as central characters and concerns (James's The Aspern Papers, Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Nabokov's Pale Fire, Bellow's Humboldt's Gift, Powers's Galatea 2.2, Cocteau's Orphée, Hartley's Henry Fool and others). We consider the questions raised by the appearance of the most private, "difficult" and unpopular of the arts inside the most public and popular: questions about the social function of the imagination, about the limits of knowledge and reason, about the values and demands of high and mass culture. O. Izenberg. Autumn, 2004. (C, E)

25800. The American Novel and the Death of Jim Crow. (=AFAM 25800) Taken as a whole the fiction of Richard Wright, William Faulkner, Ann Petry, Paule Marshall, Ralph Ellison, Flannery O'Connor, and James Baldwin constitutes a powerful testament to the common humanity of black and white Americans in a nation where "separate but equal" in matters of race was deemed consistent with the law of the land. How decisive was the humanistic eloquence of these writers in helping to shift the nations legal climate against de jure segregation? How successful was the American novel of race in coming to terms with the turbulent social reality of the civil rights era? K. Warren. Winter, 2005. (A, C, E, G)

26701/46701. Whitman and His Successors. (=CMLT 25100/35100) This course treats Whitman's poetry and its influence on two later poets: the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. R. von Hallberg, M. Strand. Winter, 2005. (C, D)

26800. The Age of Realism and Naturalism. (=AFAM 26800) Literary histories tell us that realism and naturalism were aesthetic movements that redefined American fiction at the turn of the nineteenth century. Cultural histories of the era tell us that Americans fiercely debated what constituted the "real" and the "natural" as they coped with the revolutionary changes that turned their worlds upside down between the Civil and First World Wars. This course moves between these two accounts to appreciate the varied styles and issues that characterized the literature of this moment. We study works by authors that include Rebecca Harding Davis, William Dean Howells, Theodore Dreiser, Stephen Crane, Kate Chopin, Sui Sin Far, Helen Hunt Jackson, Charles Chesnutt, Mark Twain, and Henry James. J. Goldsby. Spring, 2005. (A, C, E, G)

27600/48601. Cinema in Africa. (=AFAM 21900, CMLT 22600/32600, CMST 24201/34201) PQ: At least one college-level course in either African studies or film studies. This course examines cinema in Africa as well as films produced in Africa. We begin with a film by Ousmane Sembene contrasted with a South African film that more closely resembles African-American musical film, and anti-colonial and anti-apartheid films from Lionel Rogosin's Come Back Africa to Sarah Maldoror's Sambizanga, Ousmane Sembene's Camp de Thiaroye and Jean Marie Teno's Afrique, Je te Plumerai. L. Kruger. Spring, 2005. (F)

27901. (Re)Defining African-American Cinema. (=AFAM 21400, CMST 21000/31000, COVA 27901) Must a film be produced by African Americans, feature a black cast, or address a black audience to be classified an "African-American" film? Is there a discernible black film aesthetic? Can a black film be produced within the Hollywood studio system? How important are these distinctions? This course examines a wide variety of films (i.e., "race movies" of the early twentieth century, fiction films, documentaries, animation, films made for television and the Internet) to explore how notions of African-American authorship, content, and reception have been defined and redefined in relation to dominant and independent media histories and institutions. J. Stewart. Autumn, 2004. (F, G)

28000. Reading American Environmental Classics. (=ENST 28200) For course description, see Environmental Studies. J. Opie. Offered 2005-06; not offered 2004-05.

28101/48101. The Cinema of Max Ophüls. (=CMST 26500/36500, GNDR 28100) For course description, see Cinema and Media Studies. M. Hansen. Winter, 2005. (F)

29300/47800. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era. (=ARTH 28500/38500, CMST 28500/48500, COVA 26500, MAPH 33600) This is the first part of a two-quarter course. ENGL 29300/47800 and 29600/48900 may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. For course description, see Cinema and Media Studies. T. Gunning. Winter.

29600/48900. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960. (=ARTH 28600/38600, CMST 28600/48600, COVA 26600, MAPH 33700) PQ: 29300/47800 highly recommended. For course description, see Cinema and Media Studies. R. Gregg. Spring.

29700. Reading Course. PQ: Petition to Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies and consent of instructor. These reading courses must include a final paper assignment to meet requirements for the English major and students must receive a letter grade. Students may not petition to receive credit for more than two ENGL 29700 courses. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. The kind and amount of work to be done are determined by an instructor within the English Department who has agreed to supervise the course. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

29809/39809. Honors Seminar: Poetry. PQ: Consent of instructor. Enrollment preference given to fourth-year majors writing honors theses in creative writing, but open to all qualified students if space permits. This course focuses on ways to organize larger poetic "projects." (e.g., poetic sequence, chapbook, long poem, poetry collection, book-length poem.) We also problematize the notion of broad poetic "projects," considering the consequences of imposing a predetermined conceptual framework on the elusive, spontaneous, and subversive act of lyric writing. The work of students is the primary text. S. Reddy. Winter, 2005.

29815. Literary Seminar: Stein and Wittgenstein. PQ: Consent of instructor. This course examines the work of Gertrude Stein in light of Wittgenstein's writings on language and reality. Our exploration takes place primarily in the field of poetics; we consider Wittgenstein's Tractatus, for instance, as offering something of a philosophical "gloss" on texts such as Stein's Stanzas in Meditation. Topics include the role of language games in Stein's oeuvre; aphorism and Modernist poetics; the place of digression in the philosophical lyric; the meditative epic; and the interpenetration of philosophical and poetic discourse in early twentieth-century intellectual life. S. Reddy. Winter, 2005. (C, D)

29816. Honors Seminar: Fiction. PQ: Consent of instructor. This advanced fiction course focuses on the extended development necessary for the completion of longer material, specifically the creative thesis. Students should already have a body of work in process (this can be in different stages), and be prepared to discuss their plans for their final manuscript in lieu of a formal proposal. A workshop format is utilized to give maxim feedback and greater understanding of audience in writing. A. Obejas. Winter, 2005.

29817. Honors Seminar: Prose. PQ: Consent of instructor. This advanced fiction course focuses on the extended development necessary for the completion of longer material, specifically the creative thesis. Students should already have a body of work in process (this can be in many different stages), and be prepared to discuss their ideas and plans for their final manuscript in lieu of a formal proposal. M. Stielstra. Winter, 2005.

29900. 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. For more information and an electronic version of the petition form, go to english.uchicago.edu/courses/undergrad/index.shtml. This course may not be counted toward the distribution requirements for the major, but may be counted as a departmental elective. Autumn, Winter, Spring.