Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies:
Christina von Nolcken, 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 competency requirement, or they must receive equivalent credit by examination.

Arts Requirement

Beyond their general education requirement, English majors must take one course in art history or in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. This course may be in the same discipline as what is used to meet the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts; and it may be an advanced course.

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 they raise questions about literary change (influence, tradition, originality, segmentation, repetition, and others) that goes along with periodizing. To meet the period requirement in English, students should take two courses in literature written before 1700 and two courses in literature written between 1700 and 1950.

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. Students must also study both British and American literature. The program requires at least one course in each.

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 the dramatic, musical, or visual arts. By Winter Quarter of their third year, all students are required to file a worksheet. Worksheets are available on the following Web site: 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 the 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

                                  4      English courses to fulfill period requirements: two courses pre-1700 and two courses 1700-1950

                                  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 the 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, students should consult the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. 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; the required course in the dramatic, musical, or visual arts; and courses in creative writing that originate in Creative Writing or the Theater and Performance Studies Option [TAPS] of the Committee on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities [ISHU]) 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 (e.g., history, philosophy, religious studies, social sciences), or they may be taken in a study abroad program for which the student has received permission in advance 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. Transferred courses do not contribute to the student's University of Chicago grade point average for the purpose of computing an overall GPA, Dean's List, departmental honors, or general honors. NOTE: The Office of the Dean of Students in the College must approve the transfer of all courses taken at institutions other than those in which students are enrolled as part of study abroad programs sponsored by the University of Chicago. For details, see http://www.college.uchicago.edu/academics/transfer–credit.shtml.

Reading Courses (ENGL 29700 and 29900). Upon prior approval by the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, undergraduate reading courses (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 must submit a senior project. This may take the form of a critical essay, a piece of creative writing, a director's notebook or 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 product that demonstrates the highest quality of written work of which the student is capable. To be eligible for honors, a student's senior project or senior seminar paper must be judged to be of the highest quality by the graduate student preceptor, faculty supervisor, and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies.

The critical 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 typically work on their senior project over three quarters. In Spring Quarter of their third year, all students 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.

Students wishing to produce a creative writing honors project must receive permission of the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. 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 Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (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 the following Web site: 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 may be 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, three of which 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., Cornwall, 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.

Faculty

L. Berlant, D. Bevington (Emeritus), B. Brown, J. Chandler, B. Cormack, R. Coronado,
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)

00100. History/English Internship for Credit. (=HIST 10000) PQ: Consent of instructor must be obtained before May 25, 2005, via ajdegifi@uchicago.edu. Open only to students majoring in English Language and Literature or History. Must be taken for P/F grading. Students receive .25 course credits at completion of course. This course is for students either who must receive credit for a summer internship organization or who are international students in need of Curricular Practical Training. Working with the Career Advising and Planning Office (CAPS), students must secure before the end of Spring Quarter a summer internship that is full time (forty hours per week for at least ten weeks). Certain companies and institutions prefer to compensate interns through course credit; this course allows students to qualify for these internships. Through registration in this course, also international students also become eligible for an internship under Curricular Practical Training. The Curricular Practical Training time used for this internship does not count toward requirements for one year of Optional Practical Training. Students write a short paper and give an oral presentation reflecting on their internship experience. Course meets twice (June 3, 4 to 5 p.m.; September 23, 3 to 5 p.m.). Course fee $150. A. De Gifis. Summer.

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. A. Jernigan, Autumn; E. Dahn, S. Murray, Winter; J. Schleusener, J. Knight, 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. This two-quarter interdisciplinary sequence is designed as an introduction to theories and critical practices in the study of feminism, gender, and sexuality. Both classic texts and recent conceptualizations of these contested fields are examined. Problems and cases from a variety of cultures and historical periods are considered, and the course pursues their differing implications in local, national, and global contexts. Both quarters also engage questions of aesthetics and representation, asking how stereotypes, generic conventions, and other modes of circulated fantasy have contributed to constraining and emancipating people through their gender or sexuality.

10200. Problems in the Study of Gender. This course addresses the production of particularly gendered norms and practices. Using a variety of historical and theoretical materials, it addresses how sexual difference operates in various contexts (e.g., nation, race, class formation; work, the family, migration, imperialism, postcolonial relations). S. Michaels, Autumn; E. Hadley, Spring.

10300. Problems in the Study of Sexuality. This course focuses on histories and theories of sexuality: gay, lesbian, heterosexual, and otherwise. This exploration involves looking at a range of materials from anthropology to the law and from practices of sex to practices of science. S. Michaels. 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, as well as historical considerations. R. von Hallberg. Winter.

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. Autumn.

10800. Introduction to Film Analysis. (=ARTH 20000, CMST 10100, COVA 25400, ISHU 20000) This course 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. Autumn, Spring.

11300. Criticism and Ideology. (=CMLT 20200) PQ: Prior reading of Anna Karenina. This course examines the contributions of Marxism to the theory and practice of literary and cultural criticism. Starting with different Marxist approaches to Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, we use the concept of ideology as formulated by Marx, Lenin, Williams, Eagleton, Macherey, and others as the point of departure for an investigation of the relationships among literary texts, social life, and power. The extensive reading list includes drama and prose fiction, as well as novels by Marxist theorists (i.e., Lukacs, Jameson) and drama (i.e., Brecht, Benjamin). Our goal is to prepare students for graduate study in the humanities. L. Kruger. Winter.

11400/31400. Writing Argument. (=CRWR 26000, HUMA 25300, 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. Winter.

11505/31505. Dramaturgy. (=CMST 28301/38301, GRMN 34100, ISHU 26100, MUSI 30704) This experimental seminar/workshop course considers the history and development of dramaturgy, including its conceptual foundations and pragmatic aspirations as well as what distinguishes a dramaturgy of theater, film, and opera. In order to clarify some of these generic considerations, the course focuses on multiple renderings of the same material (i.e., Macbeth as Elizabethan drama, nineteenth-century opera, various twentieth-century films). In addition to our more-or-less conventional academic analysis, students engage in dramaturgical practice(s) in writing and on stage. D. Levin. Not offered 2005-06; will be offered 2006-07.

11900. The Literature of Trauma. (=GNDR 11900) This course introduces advanced trauma theory and surveys classics in the field (e.g., Maus, Dispatches, Ariel, War Journalism) and relevant psychoanalytic and social scientific theoretical works from Freud onward through critical social theory related to holocausts, genocides, illness and accident, and torture. We pay special attention to the relation of the "historic" scenes of obliteration to modes of negativity in everyday life. While primary texts come from the United States, theoretical and historical works derive their arguments from a variety of geopolitical scenes. L. Berlant. Winter.

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.

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.

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.

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.

14600/34600. Dialect Voices in Literature. (=AFAM 24500, CRPC 24500, LING 24500/34500) In this course, we use linguistic techniques to analyze literary texts, especially to assess how adequately and successfully dialect is represented, whether it matches the characters and cultural contexts in which it is used, and what effects it produces. Authors may include Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright. S. Mufwene. Autumn.

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. C. von Nolcken. Autumn.

15102/35102. Seminar at the Newberry Library: Law and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England. PQ: ENGL 14900/34900. Law and literature are both narratives that reveal much about the community that produces them. This seminar explores legal issues such as feud, marriage and status of women, and theft. We read and translate the legal texts that discuss these issues and then see how literary texts incorporate legal elements to create tension and drive the narrative. Some texts include laws from Aethelberht, Alfred, Edmund, and Cnut, as well as selections from Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Juliana, and the Wife's Lament. This course meets at the Newberry Library. J. Schulman. Winter.

15203. Dreams and Literary Interpretations. This course focuses on dream interpretation in the Classical, Romantic, and post-Freudian eras of Western dream interpretation. We read texts on dream interpretation, dream-induced literature, and literary representations of dreams in order to explore the nature of dreams and their relationship to literary production. I. Hsiao. Spring.

15500. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales. (=FNDL 25700) 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.

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 the lives of saints. There are also some supplementary readings in the social history of late medieval England. M. Miller. Spring.

15801. Medieval Vernacular Literature of the British Isle. (=CMLT 26000, RLST 28301) This course covers the Celtic tradition, Old and Middle English, Anglo-Norman French, and a late text from Scotland. Texts include: from Old English, Beowulf; from Irish, The Battle of Moytura and the Tain, and two of the immrana or voyages, those concerning Bran Son of Ferbal and Mael Duin; from Anglo-Norman French, The Lays of Marie de France; from Welsh, The Four Branches from the Mabinogion; from Middle English, selections from The Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; and from Scotland, Dunbar. M. Murrin. Winter.

16202. Spenser. The texts for this class are all of The Faerie Queene, The Shepheardes Calendar, the Amoretti, Epithalamion, and Prothalamion. M. Murrin. Winter.

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. Winter.

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. C. Mazzio. Spring.

16901. Roaring Girls: Gender and Renaissance Drama. This course addresses some of the issues, themes, and techniques of reading Renaissance drama, both as a historical period and as a literary genre. The primary focus of the course is on how gender, culture, and class is represented in the plays, through physical presentation onstage, through what other characters say about female characters, and through what the female characters themselves have to say. Close reading is essential in this process, as the specific language of gender is investigated, but we also address the historical context of these representations through consideration of the material environment of the original staging. S. Murray. Autumn.

17500. English Poetry from Wyatt to Milton. This course introduces both Renaissance poetry in particular and sixteenth- and seventeenth-century culture more generally. Although we focus on the lyric in such writers as Wyatt, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton, the readings also include historical poetry and some examples of early rhetorical and literary criticism. B. Cormack. Winter.

18104. Fragments and Ruins: 1760 to 1820. (=CMLT 23800) In this course, we consider the congruence between ruins and fragments in the period 1760 to 1830 by reading texts that take ruins as their subject and texts that are themselves fragments (either poems left unfinished or prose episodes extracted from longer works). We begin with texts by German Romantics (Schlegel, Hölderlin), then examine poems by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, Keats, and Hugo. We also read the literary forgeries of Macpherson (Ossian) and Chatterton, as well as passages from sentimental novels that were excerpted and anthologized (Sterne, Mackenzie, and Chateaubriand). Readings in English, but reading the original is encouraged. J. Britton. Winter.

18901. Origins of the English Novel: 1688 to 1813. In this course, we read canonical histories of the novel alongside important early examples of the novel form. Texts include selections from Watt's Rise of the Novel, McKeon's Origins of the English Novel, Armstrong's Desire and Domestic Fiction, Lynch's The Economy of Character, and Woloch's The One vs. The Many; and novels such as Behn's Oronooko, Defoe's Roxana, Richardson's Pamela, Fielding's Joseph Andrews, Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Sterne's Sentimental Journey, and Austen's Pride and Prejudice. S. Macpherson. Spring.

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. Autumn.

20102. London Program: Victorian London in Literature and Art. PQ: Enrollment in London Program. This course uses London to explore two related aspects of Victorian Literature and Art: The realist norm and the "aesthetic" reaction. We look first at how more-or-less realist works depict a tension felt particularly by middle-class urban Victorians between "private" and "public," the idealized home, and the never completely separate life of streets and public places. Then we study instances of the reaction against realism, particularly in poetry and the visual arts, including home decoration. Readings include Dickens's novel Bleak House (to be read over the summer), with attention to its famous illustrations. We visit various London neighborhoods (from former Dickensian slums to a new suburb built at the height of the Aesthetic movement), surviving Victorian domestic and public interiors, and museum collections of Victorian paintings and furnishings. We view paintings, including realist panoramas of public events, domestic genre scenes, particularly popular, and pre-Raphaelite and aesthetic efforts to shock, subvert, or reform middle-class ideas. E. Helsinger. Autumn.

20111. London Program: Arthurian Romances. PQ: Enrollment in London Program. The major Arthurian romances in the medieval French and English traditions are studied with a glance at Celtic origins. M. Murrin. Autumn.

20404. Narrative and the English Modern Novel. This course investigates some of the central issues regarding narrative in the modernist novel in England. Questions considered include: How did modernist novelists transform conventions of narrative form? How did these diverse writers posit new and "modern" representations of self, challenge linear notions of history, boundaries of masculinity and femininity, of self and other? We answer these questions through a study of literature and essays from the period. S. Babli. Spring.

21100. Victorian Wives, Mothers, and Daughters. (=GNDR 21300) This introduction to modern theoretical debates is concerned with the role of gender in Victorian society. We focus on the female gender in history, as well on as instructive and medical texts. We begin with readings by Armstrong, Poovey, and Langland. We then concentrate on several contested and much-studied modes of identity (i.e., marriage, motherhood, the role of daughters) and related categories (e.g., leisure labor). Authors include Eliot, Wood, and Gaskell. E. Hadley. Winter.

21401/30204. 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. We then situate these theories in global and historical perspectives. Topics and issues are explored through theoretical, ethnographic, popular, and film and video texts. L. Berlant. Winter.

21901. The Victorian Novel. This course focuses on the subgenre of the Bildungsroman during the Victorian period as a means of re-examining a number of classic Victorian novels and exploring broader Victorian interests in self-cultivation. All texts share traits that constitute the genre of the "novel of education": a provincial child or young man or woman seeks to educate and acculturate themselves within an urban cultural center; s/he has a number of romantic encounters that causes him or her to imagine a variety of life or career paths; and s/he reaches some form of maturity and enlightenment after overcoming a crisis. We also discuss the relationship of the Bildungsroman to the Victorian novel in general and its place within British socioeconomic history. R. Bonfiglio. Autumn.

22804. Chicano/a Intellectual Thought. (=GNDR 22401, LACS 22804, RLLT 22801) This course traces the history of Chicana/o intellectual work that helped shape contemporary Chicana/o cultural studies. Our focus is on how Mexican Americans have theorized the history, society, and culture of Mexicans in the United States. Themes include feminism, sexuality, literary history and theory, ethnographic studies, historiographic debates, Marxism, postcolonialism, and the emergence of a pan-Latino culture. Readings include political essays, histories, memoirs, novels, folklore studies, and cultural criticism. R. Coronado. Autumn.

22901. Utopia and Dystopia. This course introduces literary utopias and dystopias, from the works of Edward Bellamy and Karl Marx to George Orwell and Ursula Le Guin. Although we focus primarily on fiction, we also draw on theory, architecture, sociology, historical projects, urbanism, and environmentalism. J. Atkinson. Spring.

23001. War Creations: Ideology, World War II, and the Novel. (=CMLT 23400) With its unprecedented atrocities, ideological disputes, and engaged intellectuals, World War II threw into question the role of the novel, influencing both the literature and the literary theory that followed. What are the approaches of novelists to the war and its ideologies, and how do they differ between countries? How far might the "novel" venture into allegory, memoir, and political propaganda? How does fiction address fanatical politics differently from journalism and historical writing? The course examines theoretical texts alongside works by Albert Camus, Italo Calvino, Heinrich Böll, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Kurt Vonnegut, Elio Vittorini, and Joseph Heller. Readings in English, but reading the original is encouraged. K. Lewis. Spring .

24000. Ulysses. (=FNDL 24100) This course takes students through Joyce's novel, exposing them to various recent critical approaches. We take some additional excursions into materials contemporary to Ulysses that can be placed in dialogue with the novel. L. Ruddick. Spring.

24500. American Contemporary Drama. (=ISHU 23450) This course focuses on twentieth-century American contemporary playwrights who have made a significant impact with regard to dramatic form. Texts are considered in context to historical decade and in conversation with previous forms. Playwrights include Albee, Auburn, Baraka, Kaufman, Kushner, Mamet, Miller, O'Neill, Smith, Vogel, Williams, and Wilson. This course is offered in alternate years. H. Coleman. Winter.

25100/45200. Colonial Encounters. This course explores the project of colonialism in seventeenth-century America, focusing on English colonies in Virginia and New England. We begin with an examination of Spanish conquest and settlement of the Southwest. Drawing on the work of recent critics, these regions are studied as zones of contact between Amerindian, English, and Spanish cultures. Our approach is varied. We focus on primary texts (e.g., historical accounts, maps, traveller's portfolios) but we also consider demographic analyses, town plans, and other aspects of material culture. We also survey the wide range of recent studies of colonialism in the period. J. Knight. Spring.

25103. When and Where They Entered: Black Women Writers of the 1940s and 1950s. (=AFAM 25103, GNDR 24702) 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. Autumn.

25302. Utopias. (=ARTH 22804, BPRO 2530, HUMA 25350, ISHU 25350) PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing. We live in a post-utopian world—so some people would argue, especially after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But what does it mean to say that the end of one experiment in reorganizing human relations toward the good life equals the end of all such experimentation? This course surveys significant moments in utopian practice, choosing case studies from among Plato's Republic, Sir Thomas More's Utopia, national experiments, utopian communities, socialism, technophily, new social movements, radical conservatism, and fundamentalisms. We focus on literature and art, including music, painting, architecture and urbanism, and film and digital media. L. Berlant, R. Zorach. Spring. Not offered 2005-06; will be offered 2006-07.

25305. American Revolution: Culture and Politics. (=HIST 17601, LLSO 26502) This course explores the causes and consequences of independence and the creation of national identity. Readings include texts by Abigail and John Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Paine, as well as recent histories describing the contributions of ordinary people, free and unfree, and the meaning of the Revolution for later generations. E. Slauter. Winter.

25901. American Modern: Experimental Fiction. This course concentrates on the formal experiments of American fiction in the first three decades of the twentieth century. On the one hand, we examine those experiments within the context of a more general understanding of "modernism," a context established through other genres (e.g., poetry) and other media (e.g., painting, photography, film). On the other, we locate these experiments within a broader cultural milieu (e.g., the world of war, mass production, consumer culture, the age of jazz). Still, the primary engagement is with the texts themselves, major works by Charles Chesnutt, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jean Toomer, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, and Nella Larsen. B. Brown. Spring.

25903. Failures of Feeling. We begin this course by surveying some of the aberrations that theorists have diagnosed as endemic to emotional experience in the twentieth century (e.g., the placidity of "cool" [Stearns]; the enlightened indifference of "cybical reason" [Sloterdijk]; and the failure of response of "cultural anesthesia" [Buck-Morss, Feldman]). But our primary focus is the way mid-century American novelists measured the country's emotional climate and tried to affect readers. Fictionists may include Nella Larson, Richard Wright, John Hersey, James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath, Michael Herr, Joan Didion, and Dorothy Allison. Theorists may include Susan Sontag, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Patricia Williams, Cathy Caruth, Kirby Farrell, Lauren Berlant, and Adam Phillips. A. Jernigan. Winter.

25904. Modernism and the American South. This course attempts to get a sense of the different Souths that are created in the literature of the first part of the twentieth century. How do modernist techniques give these writers a way to look at the South in the twentieth century? How do regionalism and modernism work together? E. Dahn. Spring.

25905. Postmodern American Fiction. This course explores how the postmodern novel uses depictions of the past and future as a device for commenting on the present. Possible works include the historical fiction of Ishmael Reed and Toni Morrison, as well as the science fiction of Philip K. Dick and Octavia Butler. N. Evans. Winter.

25907/46020. Phonographic Fictions: Literature and Sound. This course introduces the nascent field of sound studies and asks how it can aid understanding of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature and culture. We read fictions that thematize mechanically reproduced sound alongside essays about how the effects of mechanical reproducibility. We also consider how sonic environments register differently in different literary genres and movements. Genres may include the late-Victorian Gothic, the Harlem Renaissance, high modernism, and postmodernism. Authors may include Bram Stoker, James Weldon Jonson, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, and Don Dellilo. K. Biers. Autumn.

26400. Reading American Environmental Classics. (=ENST 28200) Both historic and modern environmental classics are analyzed. Brief critical reviews by students serve as the basis for class discussion. Authors might include Crevecoeur, Emerson, Thoreau, Mitchell, Nelson, Abbey, Dillard, and Leopold, as well as background materials from Nash and Meinig. Class discussion encouraged. J. Opie. Spring.

26401. Literary Environments: From Wilderness to Cityscape. Using place as a critical category, this course explores literary environments and landscapes from Turner's frontier to the post-apocalyptic Los Angeles of Philip K. Dick and the utopian communities of Ursula Le Guin. Throughout our readings, we examine the ideological, aesthetic, and generic dimensions of spatial categories (e.g., wild, domestic, urban-industrial, pastoral, sacred, toxic, utopic, mythological, public, private). J. Atkinson. Autumn.

27000. Fiction of the Three Americas. Three "America's" (i.e., North, Central, South) compose our hemisphere, and each of these geographic realms has contributed significantly to the literary compositions of post-modernism. Close reading are central to this course. Attention to textual detail enables us to study the work done by the intricate formal artifices constructed by our authors. Close reading is supplemented by attention to issues of gender, psychology, and society, as we explore the private and social sources of the pain so evident in our texts. Authors include Borges, Rosario Ferre, Carlos Fuentes, Jamaica Kincaid, Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, Andre Dubus, and Bharati Mukherjee. W. Veeder. Spring.

27300. The Harlem Renaissance. This course examines the literature, art, music, and politics of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s. We pay particular attention to the problem of periodizing the Renaissance and to the scholarly debates about the politics and aesthetics of key writers and artists. K. Warren. Spring.

27800. American Poetry from 1945 to the Present. The first goal of this course is to introduce a representative sampling of important work done by American poets after World War II (e.g., Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Jorie Graham, Allen Grossman, Frank Bidart). Next we pose to the poetry of the present two recurrent and related questions: Can there be a poetry of the present? How do poets make sense of the thing that happens only one time, or to only one person? O. Izenberg. Spring.

27801. Love Lyric in the Twentieth Century. This course explores how English-language authors in the twentieth century have written about love in a genre traditionally associated with love: the lyric poem. Topics include the influence of social reformist movements (e.g., "free love," feminist) and the changing definitions of the aims and purposes of poetry. L. Glidewell. Autumn.

28701. Cinema as Vernacular Modernism: An International Perspective. (=CMST 27401, COVA 25301) This course focuses on an important direction in twentieth-century mainstream cinema that can be considered as a "vernacular" form of modernism, interacting with but also independent from modernist movements in the traditional media. We explore this idea beginning with a sample of Hollywood films (slapstick comedies, The Crowd, Lonesome, Gold Diggers of 1933, film noir) and responses to American cinema by artists and intellectuals, mostly European. We then look at examples from British, Soviet, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese cinema, asking how these films can be understood as both aesthetic expressions of and responses to the social and cultural experience of modernity and modernization (including the world-wide circulation of Hollywood films) in different local and global constellations. M. Hansen. Winter.

29300/47800. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era. (=ARTH 28500/38500, CMLT 22400/32400, 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. The aim of this course is to introduce 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. Autumn.

29600/48900. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960. (=ARTH 28600/38600, CMLT 22500/32500, CMST 28600/48600, COVA 26600, MAPH 33700) PQ: Prior or current registration in CMST 10100 required. ENGL 29300/47800 highly recommended. The center of this course is film style, from the classical scene breakdown to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation, and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting). The development of a film culture is also discussed. Texts include Thompson and Bordwell's Film History, An Introduction; and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, and Godard. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir. Y. Tsivian. Winter.

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 quality 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. An instructor within the English Department who has agreed to supervise the course determines the kind and amount of work to be done. 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.

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.

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.

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.