English Language

and Literature

Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies: Lisa Ruddick, G-B 308,

702-8024

Secretary for Undergraduate English: JoAnn Baum, G-B 309, 702-7092

Program of Study

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

The study of English may be pursued as preparation for graduate work in literature or other disciplines or as a complement to general education. English concentrators 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, which are skills central to virtually any career. To the end of cultivating and testing these skills, each course in English stresses writing.

While aimed at developing reading, writing, and research skills, the undergraduate program in English recognizes the value of bringing a range of disciplinary perspectives to bear on the works studied. Besides offering a wide variety of courses in English, the department encourages students to integrate the intellectual concerns of other fields into their study of literature and film by permitting up to two courses outside the English department to be counted as part of a concentration, if a student can demonstrate the relevance of these courses to his or her program of study.

Program Requirements

The program presupposes the completion of one of the Common Core Humanities sequences (or its equivalent), in which basic training is provided in the methods, problems, and disciplines of humanistic study. Because literary study itself attends to language and is enriched by some knowledge of other cultural expressions, the concentration in English requires students to extend their work in humanities beyond the level required of all College students in the important areas of foreign language and the nonverbal arts. English concentrators must take two quarters of work in a foreign language beyond the Common Core requirement (which is four quarters in French, German, Latin, and Spanish; three in all other languages), unless they have already demonstrated an equivalent proficiency in a foreign language. English concentrators must also take one course in Music, Art History, or Visual Arts, beyond the Common Core requirement and in a discipline different from that of the course used to satisfy the Core requirement. (For the purposes of this requirement, Art History and Visual Arts are separate disciplines. Students who use an Art History course to satisfy the Core requirement, for example, may use a Visual Arts course to meet this further requirement.) If General Studies in the Humanities 101 has not been used to satisfy the Core requirement, it may be used to satisfy this requirement.

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

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

The concentration in English requires at least ten departmental courses. In the fourth year of College study, most concentrators carry out a senior project for which they receive course credit. In lieu of a senior project, some students may choose to take a departmental course. In special cases, the senior project may take the form of a piece of creative writing or involvement in a dramatic production; normally, however, the senior project consists of a critical essay. Such an essay is to be a fully finished product, the best written work of which the student is capable. This B.A. paper may develop from a paper written in an earlier course or from independent research. Whatever the approach, the student is uniformly required to work on an approved topic and to submit a final version that has been written, critiqued by both a faculty advisor and a B.A. project supervisor, rethought, and rewritten. Seniors devote time in at least two quarters to their senior essays, and they consult at scheduled intervals with their individual faculty advisor (the field specialist) and with the supervisor assigned to monitor senior projects. To be eligible for departmental honors, a student must complete a senior project.

Summary of Requirements

Concentration 2 courses or placement in a foreign language, beyond the language courses taken to meet the Common Core requirement, and in the same language as those courses

1 GS Hum 101 or a course in musical, visual, and dramatic arts (offered in the Art History or Music Department, the Committee on the Visual Arts, or elsewhere), in a discipline not used to satisfy the Common Core requirement

1 Eng 101

3 - 4 courses to fulfill period requirement

either two courses pre-1700 and two 1700-1900 (including one designated "period" course)

or three designated "period" courses (including one pre-1700 and one post-1700), for example, Eng 156, 169, 209, 210, or 272

1 course in fiction

1 course in poetry

1 course in drama or film

1 course in British literature

1 course in American literature

0 - 6 concentration electives (for a total of ten courses in the department; may include Eng 299)

- senior project (optional)

13 Total: ten in the department, plus language courses and either GS Hum 101 or a course in musical, visual, and dramatic arts

NOTE: Some courses satisfy more than one requirement. For example, a course in metaphysical poetry would count as a course satisfying the genre requirement for poetry, as a course satisfying the British literature requirement, and as a course satisfying the pre-1700 requirement.

Courses outside the Department Taken for Concentration Credit. With the prior approval of the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, a maximum of two courses outside the English department (excluding the required language courses and the musical, visual or dramatic art course or GS Hum 101) may count toward the concentration if the student is able to demonstrate their relevance to his or her program. The student must propose, justify, and obtain approval for these courses before registering for them. Such courses may be selected from related areas in the University (history, philosophy, social sciences, divinity, and so on) or they may be taken in a study abroad program for which the student has received the permission from the Office of the Dean of Students in the College and an appropriate administrator in the English department.

Reading Courses (English 298 and 299). Upon prior approval by the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, the undergraduate reading course (English 298) may be used to fulfill concentration requirements. No student may use more than two English 298 courses toward concentration requirements. Seniors who wish to register for the B.A. paper preparation course (English 299) must indicate that they have arranged for appropriate faculty supervision and obtain the permission of the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. English 299 does, however, count as an English elective and not as one of the courses fulfilling distribution requirements for the concentration. If a student registers for both English 298 and 299, and if English 298 is devoted to work that develops into the B.A. project, only one of these two courses may be counted toward the departmental requirement of ten courses in English. NOTE: Reading courses are special research opportunities that must be justified by the quality of the proposed plan of study; they also depend upon available faculty supervision. No student can automatically expect to arrange a reading course. For alternative approaches to preparing a B.A. paper, see the next section.

Senior Project: The B.A. Paper. Students who wish to undertake a senior project must register with the undergraduate secretary by the end of the fifth week of the first quarter of their graduating year. To help ensure the careful, finished work that must characterize the senior project, a B.A. project supervisor is appointed to monitor seniors' work on their projects. Seniors meet with their supervisor during the first quarter and at regular intervals thereafter. The supervisor informs, helps, counsels, and participates in critiquing the versions of the project. In meeting initially, the student and the supervisor seek to define a workable topic, to determine a plan for developing the topic, and to identify an appropriate faculty advisor for the position of field specialist, who works more closely with the individual student and directs the actual researching and writing of the B.A. paper. During the winter quarter, the supervisor convenes groups of students to discuss their work in progress. Schedules of the quarterly deadlines for registering and for submitting drafts and final essays can be obtained in the undergraduate secretary's office (G-B 309).

There are three options for the senior project:

l. The Standard Option. Ordinarily, the project is a critical or historical essay, of no more than twenty-five pages, on some topic in British or American literature. A B.A. paper should demonstrate the student's ability to identify a question or problem and to pursue it further than is usual in a course paper. The B.A. paper is judged by how well a student has thought and rethought a problem, and written and rewritten a response. A senior is to devote time in at least two academic quarters to writing the senior essay.

2. The Writing Option. Those students who exhibit interest in and ability for extended work in writing poetry, fiction, drama, or expository prose may petition the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies, requesting permission to prepare a piece of such writing for a senior project. The petition must include both a proposal as to what work is to be done and a piece of writing that is to be evaluated by two faculty members before permission to proceed is granted. Any such student must have taken two one-quarter courses in writing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Joint B.A./M.A. Qualified students may be granted admission to the M.A. program and pursue it and their B.A. in English at the same time. However, both sets of degree requirements must be separately satisfied; there is no provision for double-counting of credit for courses or for the senior project and the M.A. essay. Inquiries may be directed to the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies or the department's Administrative Assistant, Barbara Crawford (G­B 310A, 702-8537).

Faculty

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language & Literature, Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, and the College

LAUREN BERLANT, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

DAVID M. BEVINGTON, Phyllis Fay Horton Professor in the Humanities; Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Comparative Literature, and the College

HOMI K. BHABHA, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

WILLIAM L. BROWN, Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

JAMES K. CHANDLER, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

GERALD GRAFF, George M. Pullman Professor, Departments of Education and English Language & Literature and the College

ELAINE HADLEY, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

MIRIAM HANSEN, Ferdinand Schevill Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities, Department of English Language & Literature, Committees on the Visual Arts and General Studies in the Humanities, and the College

ELIZABETH HELSINGER, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

GEORGE HILLOCKS, Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Education

J. PAUL HUNTER, Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities; Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

JANICE L. KNIGHT, Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

LOREN KRUGER, Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

MARK KRUPNICK, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature, the Divinity School, and Committees on Jewish Studies and General Studies in the Humanities

JAMES F. LASTRA, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

SAREE MAKDISI, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

CURTIS MAREZ, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

MARK MILLER, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

W. J. T. MITCHELL, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Art, Committee on the Visual Arts, and the College

JANEL MUELLER, William Rainey Harper Professor in the Humanities; Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

MICHAEL J. MURRIN, Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Comparative Literature, the Divinity School, and the College

DEBORAH NELSON, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

BRUCE B. REDFORD, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

LAURA RIGAL, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

LAWRENCE ROTHFIELD, Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

LISA RUDDICK, Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

JAY SCHLEUSENER, Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

JOSHUA SCODEL, Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature, Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, and the College

RICHARD G. STERN, Helen A. Regenstein Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

RICHARD A. STRIER, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

KATIE TRUMPENER, Associate Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature, Germanic Studies, and Comparative Literature, Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, and the College

WILLIAM VEEDER, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

ROBERT VON HALLBERG, Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Germanic Studies and the College

CHRISTINA VON NOLCKEN, Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

KENNETH W. WARREN, Associate Professor, Department of English Language & Literature, Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, and the College

JOSEPH M. WILLIAMS, Professor, Departments of English Language & Literature and Linguistics and the College

ALOK YADAV, Assistant Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the College

ANTHONY YU, Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities, Departments of English Language & Literature, Comparative Literature, the Divinity School, and Committees on Social Thought and East Asian Languages & Civilization

Courses

Refer to letters after course descriptions for courses that fulfill program requirements: (A) Period; (B) Pre-1700; (C) 1700-1900; (D) Poetry; (E) Fiction; (F) Drama/Film; (G) American; (H) British.

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

102-103. Problems in Gender Studies (=Eng 102-103, GS Hum 228-229, Hist 180-181, Hum 228-229, SocSci 282-283). PQ: Second- or third-year standing and completion of a Common Core social science or humanities course or the equivalent. 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 reconceptualizations 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 for local, national, and global politics. Topics might include the politics of reproduction; gender and postcolonialism; women, sexual scandal, and the law; race and sexual paranoia; and sexual subcultures. D. Nelson, Staff, Autumn; L. Auslander, Staff, Winter.

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

107. Introduction to Fiction. In the first half of this course, we focus on the principal elements that contribute to effect in fiction (setting, characterization, style, imagery, and structure) in order 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. (E)

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

109. Introduction to Film II (=CMS 102, Eng 109, GS Hum 201). PQ: This is the second part of a two-quarter course. The two parts may be taken individually, but taking them in sequence is helpful. Building on the skills of formal analysis and knowledge of basic cinematic conventions acquired in the first part, the second part focuses on intertextual and contextual problems, such as those associated with genre, authorship, stars, and various responses to the classical Hollywood film. Modes of film practice studied include documentary, European national cinemas, "art cinema," animation, and various avant garde movements. J. Lastra. Spring. (F)

126/326. Visual Culture (=ArtH 258/358, CMS 278, Eng 126/326). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course explores the fundamental questions in the interdisciplinary study of visual culture: What are the cultural (and, thus, natural) components in the structure of visual experience? What is seeing? What is a spectator? What is the difference between visual and verbal representation? How do visual media exert power, elicit desire and pleasure, and construct the boundaries of subjective and social experience in the private and public spheres? How do questions of politics, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity inflect the construction of visual semiosis? W. J. T. Mitchell. Winter. (F)

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

131/331. Writing Fiction. PQ: Consent of instructor after submission of a short sample manuscript. Much of the course centers on student stories. These are (painlessly) mixed with stories from an anthology of good fiction. R. Stern. Spring. (E)

135/335. Writing Fiction and Poetry. PQ: Consent of instructor after submission of a short sample manuscript. Discussion of student writing and the problems of literary composition. R. Stern. Autumn. (E)

136. Fairy Tales. This is a historical survey of folk and art fairy tales from the time of the first collection in the seventeenth century to the modern period. Major criticism of fairy tales is included. M. Murrin. Autumn. (C, E)

137. Sound Texts. PQ: Consent of instructor after submission of a short sample of creative writing by December 5, 1997, to G-B 309. Enrollment limited. Prior technical knowledge of multitrack sound recording and mixing not required. In this creative writing course, students write texts that are the basis of radio plays and produce a sound recording. ("Audio art" may be a term more applicable than "radio play." During the first half of the quarter, students work on writing and begin to conceptualize their projects. There is constructive discussion of each other's work and reading assignments about the medium of recorded sound and working in a time-based medium. In the second half of the quarter, students record, edit, and mix their projects at a local sound studio. D. Grubbs. Winter. (F)

138-139/310-311. History and Theory of Drama I, II (=ComLit 305-306, Eng 138-139/310-311, GS Hum 242-243/342-343; ClCiv 212/312=ComLit 306, Eng 139/311, GS Hum 243/343). This course covers Aeschylus to Ayckbourne and Sophocles to Sade. D. Bevington, N. Rudall. Autumn, Winter. (F)

140. History and Theory of Drama III (=Eng 140, GS Hum 244). The last course in this sequence focuses on modern drama and theater, from the realist drama of the late nineteenth century to the crisis of realism and other experiments in the twentieth century. In addition to plays from Ibsen's Doll's House and Chekhov's Cherry Orchard to Brecht's Mother Courage, Beckett's Endgame and contemporary drama in America, Europe, and Africa, students read relevant contemporary theory and watch theater and video material so as to explore the complementary and sometimes conflicting relationships between text and performance. Visits to Chicago theater productions (logistics permitting) are in addition to scheduled class time. L. Kruger. Spring. (F)

147. Writing about Cultural and Legal Conflicts (=Educ 247, Eng 147). American education has lately become a battleground, as public debates have erupted over such questions as what texts students should read and how they should read them. Educational institutions have come under attack for allegedly replacing traditional fundamentals with "politically correct" texts, subjects, and ideological agendas. These debates converge with wider divisions in the culture, often raising problems of law, as in the issue of affirmative action. Students develop their writing and argumentative skills by writing essays with the focus on strategies of writing, as well as on the issues being written about. G. Graff, S. Poskanzer. Spring. (G)

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

152/352. Beowulf. PQ: Eng 149/349 or equivalent. This course meets at the Newberry Library. For more information, consult Christina von Nocklen (702-7977, mcv4@midway.uchicago.edu). A. Frantzen. Winter. (B, D, H)

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

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

157/357. The Politics of Literacy in Pre-Modern England. PQ: Knowledge of Middle English not required. With the reestablishment of English as a vehicle for written, as well as spoken, texts in the later fourteenth century came the radical democratization of learning. Working especially with writings by Chaucer, Langland, the English mystics, Wyclif and his followers, and some early dramatists, we follow this democratization as it affected the literary production of the period. C. von Nolcken. Winter. (B, D, H)

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

166. Shakespeare II: Tragedies and Romances. This course studies Shakespeare's major tragedies and romances. Plays read include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest. D. Bevington. Autumn. (B, F, H)

169. The Renaissance in England. This course explores the way English literature came to participate in the European-wide movement that was known (then as now) as "The Rebirth" (in French, "Renaissance"). The aim is to see a sampling of the literary work of the sixteenth and earlier seventeenth centuries in England in this context (and in the context of that other great "re-" movement, the Reformation). We study the development of particular genres, especially the sonnet, secular play, psychologized religious lyric, and secular lyric. We read works by Sir Thomas Wyatt, Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, Elizabeth Carey, Jonson, Herbert, Herrick, Milton, and Katherine Philips. R. Strier. Spring. (A, B, D, H)

175/375. Milton. In this course, we read Milton's major works with the focus on his conception of the poetic vocation and career, and his sense of history: personal, literary, political, and cosmic. J. Scodel. Spring. (B, D, H)

176. Handmaidens of the Devil: Witches in Early Modern Anglo-American Literature. This class explores sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature that represents and/or discusses the existence and capabilities of witches and appropriate steps for identifying and prosecuting them. We begin with a focus on English dramas and texts and examine the ways in which they seem to pertain to various broader cultural fears. The second half of the course shifts to the New England colonies, examining the Salem outbreak of 1692 and concluding with Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables and Miller's The Crucible. S. Cohen. Autumn. (B, G, H)

192. Was There an English Enlightenment? It has long been a given of European intellectual history that one can speak meaningfully of a "Scottish," as well as a "Continental," Enlightenment. But does the same hold true for eighteenth-century England? We attempt to answer this question, and to explore models of "Enlightenment," by focusing on key texts in philosophy, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose. The syllabus consists of paired readings: Addison's Spectator essays, for example, juxtaposed with Voltaire's Letters on the English Nation. Other authors include Locke, Newton, Thomson, Montesquieu, Goldsmith, Diderot, and Johnson. B. Redford. Spring. (C, H)

196. Sex and Society: An Introduction to Lesbian Literature. This course foregrounds the figure of the lesbian as a primary category of historical and literary analysis to focus on the various ways that race, gender, and history itself intersect with sexuality to produce particular (sometimes unpredictable) social outcomes and experiences. Topics include eighteenth-century fantasy and the lesbian image, nineteenth-century romantic friendship, Boston marriages, Sapphic modernism, and the lesbian post-modern. Readings of literature are combined with interdisciplinary theoretical material and medical case studies. D. Seitler. Winter. (C, E, G, H)

197. The Essay as Genre. This course provides an introduction to genre theory and modes of formalist and stylistic analysis. We follow the essay from its inception (Bacon and Montaigne) to the twentieth century (Woolf, Baldwin, Sontag, and Barthes). The essay is read as an enactment of process rather than a presentation of product. In-class exercises are designed to improve analytic and writing skills. U. Bhowmik. Autumn. (C)

198. Portraying Gender in Eighteenth-Century Literature. This class examines how eighteenth-century writers such as Alexander Pope, Frances Burney, Lady Mary Montague, and the Reverend John Fordyce portrayed both masculinity and femininity. We consider a range of literary genres (including poetry, drama, fiction, novels, and nonfictional prose) and how eighteenth-century authors address such issues as education, conduct, sexuality, marriage, politics, and work. We examine how writers explored, enforced, and/or challenged the prevailing constructions of gender in their time. K. DiNal. Autumn. (C, H)

209. The Romantic Period: The Age of Revolution. PQ: This is the first part of a two-quarter sequence. The two parts may be taken individually, but students are strongly encouraged to take both parts. This course explores the complex and often volatile relationships between literary production and its backgrounds in Britain from 1785 to 1848. We consider how some of the important historical and political developments contributed to changes in British literary and cultural production, and how, in turn, cultural and literary production participated in the making of what has been called "the Age of Revolution." Readings draw on the work of Wordsworth, Blake, Shelley, Byron, Mary Shelley, Malthus, Wollstonecraft, Godwin, Austen, Scott, and others. S. Makdisi. Winter. (A, C, D, H)

210. The Victorian Period: The Age of Capital. PQ: This is the second part of a two-quarter sequence. The two parts may be taken individually, but students are strongly encouraged to take both parts. This course explores the literary history of the high Victorian era as an expression of (and participant in) broader political, cultural, and intellectual developments of this crucial period. Drawing on readings from a wide range of forms, genres, and disciplines we examine several quintessentially "Victorian" issues and describe the ways these issues make themselves felt within literary texts. Our primary interest is how the Victorians developed new kinds of literature, such as the dramatic monologue, the industrial novel, psychological realism, aestheticist criticism, and the detective story. Authors considered may include Dickens, Gaskell, Browning, Eliot, Darwin, Nightingale, Arnold, Pater, Wilde, Kipling, and Conan Doyle. L. Rothfield. Spring. (A, C, E, H)

211. Victorian Wives, Mothers, and Daughters. This course is an introduction to modern theoretical debates concerning the role of gender in Victorian society, with the focus on the female gender in literary, instructive, and medical texts. We begin by reading works by Armstrong, Poovey, and Langland, and then concentrate on several contested and much studied modes of identity: marriage, motherhood, adolescence, and labor. E. Hadley. Winter. (C, E, H)

220. Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre (=Eng 220, Fndmtl 238). These two novels by Emily and Charlotte Brontë were both published in 1847. The focus of the class is on careful reading and study of their art and an evaluation of its relation to their times. We may also make film versions by Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles available for study. S. Tave. Winter. (C, E, H)

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

225. Chicano Literary History. We survey Chicano literature from roughly 1848 to the present, paying special attention to the often neglected writings that predate the more celebrated "Chicano Renaissance" of the 1970s and 1980s. Topics may include the conquest of the Southwest, the consolidation and contestation of the U.S./Mexican border, post-Mexican Revolution migration, Chicanos and the emergence of American mass culture, the Depression and World War II, Chicano political and literary movements, Chicano feminism, and Chicanos and globalization. C. Marez. Autumn. (E, G)

227. Jewish-American Self-Reflection (=Eng 227, GS Hum 217, JewStd 227, NCD 221). This course studies works that illuminate the question of Jewish identity in America in the twentieth century. Some texts take up this issue as their explicit subject, and others may be revelatory without intending to or even despite their manifest intention. Most of the texts are literary (authors may include Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, Mike Gold, Henry Roth, Nathanael West, Saul Bellow, Grace Paley, and Philip Roth), but selections from the works of historians, social observers and reformers, and religious thinkers are also included. M. Krupnick. Autumn. (E, G)

232/432. Toward Modernity. This course centers on important twentieth-century texts. Questions about the nature of modernity radiate from the texts. The radiation creates not so much a context for literary discussion as a mental constellation of which the texts are important elements. R. Stern. Autumn. (E)

236/486. Capra and Hollywood (=CMS 263, Eng 236/486). The primary focus of this course is on Capra's Hollywood narrative films from the 1930s and 1940s, especially It Happened One Night, You Can't Take It with You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Meet John Doe, and It's a Wonderful Life, as well as lesser-known work in his oeuvre. It also attempts to come to terms with his preoccupation with his authorship of the films he directed, which means some attention not only to his signature gestures in the films but also his own biography. Finally, we consider recent examples of films that invoke or employ "the Capra effect," beginning with Preston Sturges's Sullivan's Travels, and extending to such recent films as The Hudsucker Proxy, Hero, It Could Happen to You, Groundhog Day, and Forrest Gump. J. Chandler. Autumn. (F, G)

237. Immigrant Fiction and Film (=CMS 212, Eng 237). This course surveys fiction and film by and about (mostly urban) immigrants in the first half of the twentieth century. The competition between narrative and visual paradigms (literature's reaction to new visual mass media such as film) is crucial to the course. Readings and screenings are organized around four issues and genres: strategies and politics of representation of the early immigrant ghetto, immigrant autobiography, immigrant melodrama, and the emergence of class in the 1930s. Authors include Abraham Cahan, Sui Sin Far, Anzia Yezierska, Mike Gold, and Pietro Di Donato; films include early ghetto films, The Cheat, The Italian, Hungry Hearts, and The Jazz Singer. S. Haenni. Spring. (E, F, G)

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

243. Contemporary Asian-American Literature. Beginning with Maxine Hong Kingston's path-breaking Woman Warrior, this course examines the intertwined genres of fiction and autobiography in the work of contemporary Asian-American writers such as Amy Tan, David Mura, Gish Jen, Shirley Goek-lin Lim, Chaeng Rae-Lee, and others. D. Nelson. Spring. (E, G)

248. The Media and the Virtual Public (=CMS 287, Eng 248, Hum 251). This course surveys the discourses surrounding four key communications media of the twentieth century: film, radio, video, and computer networks. During the initial phase of all these technologies, there were many speculations about how they would create a more prosperous existence for the entire population. Such fantasies were (and are) exchanged very seriously in fiction, art, and the popular press, as well as through the texts transmitted by the four media in question; all these outlets are discussed, with emphasis on film as a case study. P. Young. Spring. (F)

268. American Literary Realism (=Eng 268, GS Hum 222). This course investigates the rise of literary realism in late nineteenth-century America, tracing the emergence of realism from romantic and sentimental novels and the rise of naturalism, impressionism, and modernism. In reading novels by Theodore Dreiser, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin, and Charles Chesnutt, we chart the engagement of realist authors with urbanization, race relations, and the role of women in American society. K. Warren. Autumn. (C, E, G)

272. New England Literary Culture, 1800-1860. This course surveys a variety of New England writers of the first half of the nineteenth century including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Dickinson, Stowe, Sedgewick, Fuller, and Melville. J. Knight. Spring. (A, C, E, G)

275. The Harlem Renaissance (=AfAfAm 215, Eng 275, GS Hum 214). In his autobiography, The Big Sea, Langston Hughes writes, "The ordinary Negroes hadn't heard of the Harlem Renaissance. And if they had, it hadn't raised their wages any." This skeptical assessment of the Harlem Renaissance points to a need to rethink this periodization of black American writing. What was the significance of African-American arts and letters in the 1920s? K. Warren. Winter. (E, G)

278. American Poetry since 1945. This focus of this course is on individual poems by a wide range of poets (Susan Howe, Louise Gluck, Elizabeth Bishop, Frank Bidart, and Robert Pinsky) in order to give a sense of the range of writing that has distinguished the last quarter century. Class discussions involve matters of style as well as theme. R. von Hallberg. Autumn. (D, G)

284/484. Postwar Germany and the New German Cinema (=CMS 226, Eng 284/484, GS Hum 211/311, German 222/412). This course examines the emergence and development of the New German Cinema in relation to postwar German filmmaking and to concurrent New Waves elsewhere in Eastern and Western Europe, especially in the German Democratic Republic. We pay equal attention to the aesthetic strategies of individual films, to their reflections on history, memory, and subjectivity, and to the political and cultural contexts for the New German Cinema. The course may include films by Kluge, Schlöndorff, Fassbinder, Herzog, Straub and Huillet, Wenders, Lilienthal, Monk, Kotulla, Sander, Sanders-Brahms, Schroeter, Reitz, Staudte, Käutner, Maetzig, Beyer, Klein, and Wolf. Texts in English and the original; all films with subtitles. K. Trumpener. Autumn. (F)

288/488. The Films of Joseph Von Sternberg (=ArtH 292/392, CMS 262, Eng 288/488). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. This course attempts to explore the contradictions of Sternberg within the classical Hollywood system. His role as auteur and as part of the studio logic, and his relation to the popular glamour (as well as to modernistic techniques) demonstrate his tension with the Hollywood system and the role he played within it. Sternberg's relation to Marlene Dietrich is also examined. The course closely considers films themselves, as well as studio publicity, fan discourse, censorship boards, and other contextual documents. T. Gunning. Winter. (F)

294/494. Studies in Narrative. We give close examination to a great variety of narrative by a great variety of writers. The idea is to deal not only with the texts and their authors but with narrative itself, what it is and how it functions. R. Stern. Spring. (E)

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

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