Graduate Program

Fall Term Schedule for Graduate Courses

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Fall 2025

Number	Title	Instructor	Time
ENGL 400-1 History of the English Language Sarah Higley TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM
English is a banquet of words. And language is political. How do changes in English represent and affect culture? Inflicted by invasions and adaptations it remained English. Brought to Britain by Germanic tribes in the 5th century, it was matured by violent and peaceful contact with other peoples and ideas. Few other languages are so accepting of neologism, so humongous in vocabulary, so malleable of construction. We’ll peruse texts from Old, Middle and Modern English and watch it grow from a Teutonic tongue to the powerful, ductile, and eclectic instrument it is today, spreading to other continents, colonizing and absorbing. We’ll peruse linguistic Angst and jouissance by King Alfred, Aelfric, Robert of Gloucester, Chaucer, Caxton, Mulcaster, Shakespeare, Swift, Johnson, Webster, Orwell and others who praise or blame our shifty English, or who MANIPULATE it?. We’ll grok urban dialects, vernaculars, slang, texting, gender. Is it “based on” or “based off of”? “lie” or “lay”? What’s the deal with register? Vernacular vs. high-falutin’ “academic” English? Are you down with this? Grads welcome! Location (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)
ENGL 403-1 Medieval Drama Steven Rozenski TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM
What did drama look and feel like in the Middle Ages? How much can we know about performances that took place well over 600 years ago? We have two main goals ahead of us in this course: to read the major extant works of drama in Middle English, and to stage a medieval play. Along the way, we will discuss the texts themselves, the manuscript history of the surviving plays, their performance history, their relation to drama on the Continent, the religious opposition to them, sixteenth-century attempts to de-Catholicize them, their ultimate suppression after the Reformation, and their revival in twentieth-century England and North America. Location (TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)
ENGL 405-2 Dante's Divine Comedy 1 Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM
The first of a sequence of two, the course approaches 'The Divine Comedy' both as a poetic masterpiece and as an encyclopedia of medieval culture. Through a close textual analysis of 'Inferno,' and the first half of 'Purgatorio,' students learn how to approach Dantes poetry as a vehicle for thought, an instrument of self-discovery, and a way to understand and affect the historical reality. They also gain a perspective on the Biblical, Christian, and Classical traditions as they intersect with the multiple levels of Dantes concern, ranging from literature to history, from politics to government, from philosophy to theology. A visual component, including illustrations of the 'Comedy' and multiple artworks pertinent to the narrative, complements the course. Class format includes lectures, discussion, and a weekly recitation session. Intensive class participation is encouraged. Dante I can be taken independently from Dante II. No prerequisites. Freshmen are welcome. Part of the Dante Humanities Cluster. Location (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 406-01 Studies in Medieval Literature Steven Rozenski TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM
Varying topics relating to the literature and culture of the Middle Ages. Location (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)
ENGL 410-1 Shakespeare William Miller MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM
This class explores the full range of Shakespeare's theater, including examples of comedies, history plays, tragedies, and “romances.” We approach the plays from many angles, looking at their stark and extravagant language; their invention of complex conflicted human characters; their self-conscious references to contemporary stage practices; and their meditations on death, love, politics, power, and revenge. We learn about the literary and theatrical conventions that would have been second nature to Shakespeare and his audience over 400 years ago and consider how Renaissance stage practices might help us to better understand his plays and better appreciate why Renaissance audiences found them so compelling. When possible, we consult video of recent staged productions. This course is appropriate for all students, from those in their first semester at the university to senior English majors. No restrictions or prerequisites; all are welcome. It fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the English major and satisfies a requirement in two English Clusters (Great Books, Great Authors; Plays, Playwrights, and Theater). Location (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)
ENGL 421-1 Nineteenth-Century British Literature Supritha Rajan TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM
British literature of the Victorian period (1830-1900), including prose, drama, and poetry. This topics course can be repeated (2 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. Location (TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)
ENGL 434-01 Aesthetics Robert Doran TR 4:50PM - 6:05PM
Studies the history of “aesthetic” thought—namely the philosophical reflection on the concepts of beauty, taste, and sublimity, on our affective response to art and nature, and on the role of art and the artist in society—from Plato to Nietzsche, with particular emphasis on how aesthetics relates to questions of epistemology, anthropology, ethics, ontology, and politics. The concepts of mimesis and the sublime will be given special attention. Authors studied include Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, Boileau, Batteux, Burke, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Nietzsche. Conducted in English. Location (TR 4:50PM - 6:05PM)
ENGL 435-1 Post-1800 Drama Stephen Schottenfeld MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM
Varying topics in drama written after 1800, in its historical and cultural contexts. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. This topics course can be repeated (2 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different. Location (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)
ENGL 437-01 The Disabled Body in Medicine and Culture Erik Larsen W 2:00PM - 4:30PM
Throughout much of modern medical and cultural history, bodily difference has been categorized as disability—as a problematic deviation from standards of normalcy and health. This legacy has been fiercely debated and contested in recent years, with much disagreement about the category’s usefulness in medical contexts and beyond. This course will explore different perspectives on disability through works of modern culture, and primarily through literature, television, and film. We will investigate the traditional medical model of disability, and explore what changing understandings of disability mean for the future of healthcare and the relationship between healthcare providers and patients. The course is writing-intensive, and requires students to share and workshop their papers with peers. Location (W 2:00PM - 4:30PM)
ENGL 440-1 Topics in Literary Criticism and Theory David Bleich TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM
Varying topics in the theoretical and historical study of literary analysis and its methods. Location (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)
ENGL 443-2 Major Authors John Michael MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM
Intensive study of the writings of a single author or small group of authors from literary traditions in English. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. This topics course can be repeated (2 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different. Location (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)
ENGL 445-01 Literary Modes Jeff Tucker MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM
Varying topics relating to literature and culture representing specific styles, modes, genres, or media. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. This topics course can be repeated (3 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different. Location (MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM)
ENGL 449-1 Gender, Writing, and Representation Supritha Rajan TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM
Varying topics relating to writings by women and the representation of gender from a variety of periods and cultures. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. This topics course can be repeated (3 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different. Location (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)
ENGL 452-1 Theater in England Katherine Mannheimer 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This 4-credit intersession course will be conducted in London, UK, for approximately two weeks at the end of December into Early January. Attending two plays per day with a seminar discussion each morning, students in this course are exposed to a full range of theatre experiences, from intimate theatre-in-the-round to monumental productions at the National Theatre, and from West End spectaculars to cutting-edge works mounted in post-industrial spaces. See the link on the English Department homepage to find the course's website, which describes the program in greater detail and contains syllabi from the past 25+ years. Need-based financial aid is available. The fee total is $2850. Please see the public notes for the exact travel dates. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 455-1 Film History: Early Cinema James Rosenow MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM
This course surveys the history of cinema from its emergence in the mid-1890s to the transition to sound in the late 1920s. We will examine the cinema as a set of aesthetic, social, technological, national, cultural and industrial practices as they were exercised and developed during this 30-year span. We will explore the diverse forms cinema took and functions it performed during this period by looking closely at a range of films and writings about films and film culture. We will also examine contexts within which these films were produced and experienced as well as theorizations of cinema that emerged concurrently with them. The course thus introduces students to the study of film history as well as a key national and international trends in making and thinking about cinema as it rose to prominence as a vital component of the art and culture of the twentieth century. Previous coursework in film is recommended, though not required; please contact the professor if this will be your first experience studying film in an academic setting. Location (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 457-01 Film History: 1959-1989 Sharon Willis MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM
This course will explore developments in world cinema industrial, social, and political from 1959 to 1989. It will explore film aesthetics, technologies, and circulation questions, considering questions like the following: What’s new about the French New Wave? What do we mean by Third Cinema? How do different national cinemas influence each other? In what ways have various national cinemas responded critically to Hollywood’s commercial dominance and to its conventions? How do popular and art? cinemas speak to each other. How does cinema respond to the pressures and provocations of other media at the inception of the digital age? Weekly screenings and film journals required. Location (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)
ENGL 469-1 Museum Practice Jeff Stoiber 7:00PM - 7:00PM
Restricted to Selznick Students Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 470-1 Curatorial Theory & Practice Jeff Stoiber 7:00PM - 7:00PM
Restricted to Selznick Students Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 471-1 Film Conservation and Restoration Jeff Stoiber 7:00PM - 7:00PM
Restricted to Selznick Students Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 475-2 Seminar in Writing: Fiction Stephen Schottenfeld M 2:00PM - 4:40PM
Read short stories by contemporary writers along with fiction by the students in the workshop, and discuss ways writers can sharpen the conversation between text and reader. Also consider editing and reviewing techniques. Students expected to write and revise at least three original stories or three sections of a longer work of fiction. Location (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 476-1 Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry Jennifer Grotz T 2:00PM - 4:40PM
Prerequisites; English 122 or equivalent; instructor permission. Students are to submit 3-5 typed poems to jennifer.grotz@rochester.edu to obtain permission to register. Poems, as William Carlos Williams once said, are machines made out of words, and in this advanced poetry workshop we will work on making the most gorgeous, gripping, and efficient machines possible. To that end, we will read both one another's poems and poems by established authors, in either case paying attention to the ways in which the authors harness aspects of their medium, the English language: syntax, diction, rhythm. The poems we write may take any shape, any form, but we will work towards understanding why a particular poem must take the shape it has; we will pay attention not so much to what the poems say as to how they say it. Requirements: weekly writing and reading assignments, revisions of assignments, devoted participation in class discussions, a final project. Permission of instructor is required. Students are to submit 3-5 typed poems to jennifer.grotz@rochester.edu in order to apply. Please note that this course is only being offered in Fall for the 24/25 academic year Location (T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 478-1 Seminar in Writing: Fiction Joanna Scott T 4:50PM - 7:30PM
Read short stories by contemporary writers along with fiction by the students in the workshop, and discuss ways writers can sharpen the conversation between text and reader. Also consider editing and reviewing techniques. Students expected to write and revise at least three original stories or three sections of a longer work of fiction. Location (T 4:50PM - 7:30PM)
ENGL 487-4 Studies in Translation Stella Wang W 2:00PM - 4:40PM
This course will introduce students to the theoretical backgrounds, practical challenges, and creative activity of literary translation. We will consider varied descriptions by translators of what it is they believe they are doing and what they hope to accomplish by doing it; and we will study specific translations into English from a variety of sources to investigate the strategies and choices translators make and the implication of those choices for our developing sense of what kinds of texts translations are. Finally, students will undertake a translation project of their own. By the end of this class each student should have a working knowledge of both the theory and the craft of literary translation. Location (W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 491-1 Master’s Readings David Bleich 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is for master's students that have made arrangements with a faculty member to complete readings and discussion in a particular subject in their field of study. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 491-3 Master’s Readings William Miller 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is for master's students that have made arrangements with a faculty member to complete readings and discussion in a particular subject in their field of study. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 500-1 Graduate Colloquium William Miller 7:00PM - 7:00PM
Graduate colloquium is a semester-long introduction to doctoral study in English. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 514-1 Medieval Book Gregory Heyworth M 2:00PM - 4:40PM
In medieval and early modern Europe, the book functioned as a master trope for a world whose mysteries lie open to those who can read them, a world in which every action, gesture, image, utterance, is significant and imbued by God with a hidden meaning. This course is an introduction to metaphorics, semiotics, allegoresis, and iconography in the pre-Modern period before printing standardized our notion of what books are, do, and mean. In it we will reading various kinds of books writ large: the Book (Books) of God, Nature, Love, Fortune, and Secrets. That is to say, we will be reading the Bible, Augustine, Petrarch, Chaucer, Alain de Lille, Ovid, Boethius, Shakespeare and the forerunners of the encyclopedia. In addition we will learn to read visual books,? including the Biblia Pauperum, and the stained glass sequences of the Cathedral of Chartres, as well as the arcane miscellanies of the Early Modern period known as books of secrets (think Prosperos book, or Newtons alchemical notebooks). Location (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 534-1 Black and Indigenous Speculation Matthew Omelsky R 2:00PM - 4:40PM
This is a course, fundamentally, about relationality as it 1) materializes in culture, politics, aesthetics, and historical experience and 2) constitutes the fields of black studies and indigenous studies. In these fields, relationality not only involves acknowledging difference and incommensurability, but it also calls for belonging, solidarity, and, crucially for us, speculation. Our seminar will examine how 20th and 21st century artists and scholars imagine and theorize relationality from a speculative vantage point, envisioning “otherwise worlds” in the face of empire, (settler) colonialism, and white supremacy. We’ll aim to speculate collectively as well, producing knowledge together and always working on the assumption that no one enters the room with the complete tools to make sense of the full scope of what speculation means and enables in black and indigenous studies. In the process, we’ll move capaciously across North America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Oceania, spanning multimedia installation, fiction, poetry, music, film, and writing by artists like Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Octavia Butler, Mati Diop, Grace Dillon, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Lisa Reihana, Sofia Samatar, Miryam Charles, and Canisia Lubrin, and theorists and critics such as Saidiya Hartman, Kathryn Walkiewicz, Jayna Brown, Mark Rifkin, Ian Baucom, Keguro Macharia, Edouard Glissant, Tiffany King, Joseph Pierce, and Hugo Ka Canham. Location (R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 538-1 19th Century American Literature John Michael T 2:00PM - 4:40PM
Recent critical work has called into question the saliency of national traditions and the efficacy of conventional periodization in literary studies. This shift in critical focus from the nation to the globe has implications for the field of American literature and the rationale for literary studies more generally. In this seminar we will consider reevaluations of the always evolving canon of nineteenth-century American literature in light of our increased awareness of globalization’s long history. Does rereading writers once considered “pure products of America,” like Cooper, Child, Emerson, Melville, Poe, Whitman, Hawthorne, Douglass, Delaney, Thoreau, Stowe, Dickinson, Twain, James and others, in contexts that traverse the once heavily policed borders of the U.S.A., change the meaning and implications of their work? What is the purpose of studying any national literature when the concept of the nation itself seems increasingly questionable? We will read representative works by selected canonical “American” authors as well as recent critical reevaluations of the field by Robert Levine, Wai Chee Dimock, Lisa Lowe, Edward Said, Paul Gilroy, Paul Giles, John Guillory and others. Location (T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 553-1 Fredric Jameson and Contemporary Marxism Joel Burges W 2:00PM - 4:40PM
This course traces the career of contemporary Marxism through its most well-known proponent of the last fifty years: Fredric Jameson. In light of Jameson’s recent passing, we have a chance to evaluate his legacy vis-a-vis what Marxists have been doing for the past half century, especially in the study of aesthetics, economics, and politics. While Jameson’s expansive body of work will provide the backbone of the course, we will always pair him with historical and contemporary figures who analyze the work of culture from a materialist standpoint. In so doing, students will engage not only with Jameson’s many lines of thought but also with thinkers who are both parallel and perpendicular to him. Echoing his own efforts in Marxism and Form, Late Marxism, and The Years of Theory, the course hopes to model the intellectual complexity of any theoretical tradition, its most famous representatives, and the paradigmatic texts to which they are sometimes reduced. We will resist such reductions ourselves to see what is gained and lost by positing any thinker as “representative” of a field of thought. Our goal will thus not be to lionize Jameson but, rather, to tussle with his influence on contemporary Marxism such that we unpack its antinomies, assumptions, and antagonisms as they pertain to the interpretation of culture. Location (W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 571-1 Writing Pedagogy Matt Bayne; Kate Soules MWF 11:30AM - 2:30PM
Restriction: Instructor's permission required Location (MWF 11:30AM - 2:30PM)
ENGL 574-01 Moving Image Preservation in Practice Jeff Stoiber 7:00PM - 7:00PM
Under the direction of English Department Faculty and staff of George Eastman Museum’s Moving Image Department, the student will plan and undertake a significant project designed to challenge her/his abilities to function at a professional level in the moving image archive field. Examples of potential projects include: archival projection, public programming and exhibitions, collection management, video and digital preservation techniques, processing and conservation of motion picture related materials, acquisitions, access and cataloging. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 575-1 Film Preservation Project – 7:00PM - 7:00PM
topic specific training/study in film preservation work. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 580-1 Pedagogical Training William Miller 7:00PM - 7:00PM
2nd year PhD or 2nd year MA Selznick pedagogical TA training. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 591-1 PhD Readings William Miller 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is for PhD students that have made arrangements with a faculty member to complete readings and discussion in a particular subject in their field of study. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 591-3 PhD Readings Steven Rozenski 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is for PhD students that have made arrangements with a faculty member to complete readings and discussion in a particular subject in their field of study. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 591-4 PhD Readings – 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is for PhD students that have made arrangements with a faculty member to complete readings and discussion in a particular subject in their field of study. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 591-5 PhD Readings Katherine Mannheimer 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is for PhD students that have made arrangements with a faculty member to complete readings and discussion in a particular subject in their field of study. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 591-6 PhD Readings Supritha Rajan 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is for PhD students that have made arrangements with a faculty member to complete readings and discussion in a particular subject in their field of study. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 595-1 PhD Research William Miller 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students with fewer than 90 credits the opportunity to conduct, develop, and refine their doctoral research projects. Students will engage in research relevant to their field of study and make progress toward completing their dissertations. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 895-1 Continuation of Master’s Enrollment – 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is designed for master's degree students who have completed all required coursework but still need to finalize specific degree requirements under less than half-time enrollment. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 897-1 Masters Dissertation William Miller 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides master's students who are currently completing their final required coursework, or with special circumstances like an approved reduced courseload, with the opportunity to work full-time on their degrees. Students will make significant progress toward completing their degrees. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 995-1 Continuation of Doctoral Enrollment – 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course is designed for PhD students who have completed all required coursework but still need to finalize specific degree requirements under less than half-time enrollment. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)
ENGL 999-01 Doctoral Dissertation William Miller 7:00PM - 7:00PM
This course provides PhD students who have completed or are currently completing 90 credits of coursework and have fulfilled all degree requirements (except for the dissertation) with the opportunity to work full-time on their dissertation. Students will make significant progress toward completing their degrees. Location ( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)

Number	Title	Instructor	Time
Monday
ENGL 475-2 Seminar in Writing: Fiction Stephen Schottenfeld
Read short stories by contemporary writers along with fiction by the students in the workshop, and discuss ways writers can sharpen the conversation between text and reader. Also consider editing and reviewing techniques. Students expected to write and revise at least three original stories or three sections of a longer work of fiction.
ENGL 514-1 Medieval Book Gregory Heyworth
In medieval and early modern Europe, the book functioned as a master trope for a world whose mysteries lie open to those who can read them, a world in which every action, gesture, image, utterance, is significant and imbued by God with a hidden meaning. This course is an introduction to metaphorics, semiotics, allegoresis, and iconography in the pre-Modern period before printing standardized our notion of what books are, do, and mean. In it we will reading various kinds of books writ large: the Book (Books) of God, Nature, Love, Fortune, and Secrets. That is to say, we will be reading the Bible, Augustine, Petrarch, Chaucer, Alain de Lille, Ovid, Boethius, Shakespeare and the forerunners of the encyclopedia. In addition we will learn to read visual books,? including the Biblia Pauperum, and the stained glass sequences of the Cathedral of Chartres, as well as the arcane miscellanies of the Early Modern period known as books of secrets (think Prosperos book, or Newtons alchemical notebooks).
Monday and Wednesday
ENGL 410-1 Shakespeare William Miller
This class explores the full range of Shakespeare's theater, including examples of comedies, history plays, tragedies, and “romances.” We approach the plays from many angles, looking at their stark and extravagant language; their invention of complex conflicted human characters; their self-conscious references to contemporary stage practices; and their meditations on death, love, politics, power, and revenge. We learn about the literary and theatrical conventions that would have been second nature to Shakespeare and his audience over 400 years ago and consider how Renaissance stage practices might help us to better understand his plays and better appreciate why Renaissance audiences found them so compelling. When possible, we consult video of recent staged productions. This course is appropriate for all students, from those in their first semester at the university to senior English majors. No restrictions or prerequisites; all are welcome. It fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the English major and satisfies a requirement in two English Clusters (Great Books, Great Authors; Plays, Playwrights, and Theater).
ENGL 445-01 Literary Modes Jeff Tucker
Varying topics relating to literature and culture representing specific styles, modes, genres, or media. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. This topics course can be repeated (3 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different.
ENGL 435-1 Post-1800 Drama Stephen Schottenfeld
Varying topics in drama written after 1800, in its historical and cultural contexts. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. This topics course can be repeated (2 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different.
ENGL 443-2 Major Authors John Michael
Intensive study of the writings of a single author or small group of authors from literary traditions in English. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. This topics course can be repeated (2 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different.
ENGL 457-01 Film History: 1959-1989 Sharon Willis
This course will explore developments in world cinema industrial, social, and political from 1959 to 1989. It will explore film aesthetics, technologies, and circulation questions, considering questions like the following: What’s new about the French New Wave? What do we mean by Third Cinema? How do different national cinemas influence each other? In what ways have various national cinemas responded critically to Hollywood’s commercial dominance and to its conventions? How do popular and art? cinemas speak to each other. How does cinema respond to the pressures and provocations of other media at the inception of the digital age? Weekly screenings and film journals required.
ENGL 405-2 Dante's Divine Comedy 1 Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio
The first of a sequence of two, the course approaches 'The Divine Comedy' both as a poetic masterpiece and as an encyclopedia of medieval culture. Through a close textual analysis of 'Inferno,' and the first half of 'Purgatorio,' students learn how to approach Dantes poetry as a vehicle for thought, an instrument of self-discovery, and a way to understand and affect the historical reality. They also gain a perspective on the Biblical, Christian, and Classical traditions as they intersect with the multiple levels of Dantes concern, ranging from literature to history, from politics to government, from philosophy to theology. A visual component, including illustrations of the 'Comedy' and multiple artworks pertinent to the narrative, complements the course. Class format includes lectures, discussion, and a weekly recitation session. Intensive class participation is encouraged. Dante I can be taken independently from Dante II. No prerequisites. Freshmen are welcome. Part of the Dante Humanities Cluster.
ENGL 455-1 Film History: Early Cinema James Rosenow
This course surveys the history of cinema from its emergence in the mid-1890s to the transition to sound in the late 1920s. We will examine the cinema as a set of aesthetic, social, technological, national, cultural and industrial practices as they were exercised and developed during this 30-year span. We will explore the diverse forms cinema took and functions it performed during this period by looking closely at a range of films and writings about films and film culture. We will also examine contexts within which these films were produced and experienced as well as theorizations of cinema that emerged concurrently with them. The course thus introduces students to the study of film history as well as a key national and international trends in making and thinking about cinema as it rose to prominence as a vital component of the art and culture of the twentieth century. Previous coursework in film is recommended, though not required; please contact the professor if this will be your first experience studying film in an academic setting.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
ENGL 571-1 Writing Pedagogy Matt Bayne; Kate Soules
Restriction: Instructor's permission required
Tuesday
ENGL 476-1 Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry Jennifer Grotz
Prerequisites; English 122 or equivalent; instructor permission. Students are to submit 3-5 typed poems to jennifer.grotz@rochester.edu to obtain permission to register. Poems, as William Carlos Williams once said, are machines made out of words, and in this advanced poetry workshop we will work on making the most gorgeous, gripping, and efficient machines possible. To that end, we will read both one another's poems and poems by established authors, in either case paying attention to the ways in which the authors harness aspects of their medium, the English language: syntax, diction, rhythm. The poems we write may take any shape, any form, but we will work towards understanding why a particular poem must take the shape it has; we will pay attention not so much to what the poems say as to how they say it. Requirements: weekly writing and reading assignments, revisions of assignments, devoted participation in class discussions, a final project. Permission of instructor is required. Students are to submit 3-5 typed poems to jennifer.grotz@rochester.edu in order to apply. Please note that this course is only being offered in Fall for the 24/25 academic year
ENGL 538-1 19th Century American Literature John Michael
Recent critical work has called into question the saliency of national traditions and the efficacy of conventional periodization in literary studies. This shift in critical focus from the nation to the globe has implications for the field of American literature and the rationale for literary studies more generally. In this seminar we will consider reevaluations of the always evolving canon of nineteenth-century American literature in light of our increased awareness of globalization’s long history. Does rereading writers once considered “pure products of America,” like Cooper, Child, Emerson, Melville, Poe, Whitman, Hawthorne, Douglass, Delaney, Thoreau, Stowe, Dickinson, Twain, James and others, in contexts that traverse the once heavily policed borders of the U.S.A., change the meaning and implications of their work? What is the purpose of studying any national literature when the concept of the nation itself seems increasingly questionable? We will read representative works by selected canonical “American” authors as well as recent critical reevaluations of the field by Robert Levine, Wai Chee Dimock, Lisa Lowe, Edward Said, Paul Gilroy, Paul Giles, John Guillory and others.
ENGL 478-1 Seminar in Writing: Fiction Joanna Scott
Read short stories by contemporary writers along with fiction by the students in the workshop, and discuss ways writers can sharpen the conversation between text and reader. Also consider editing and reviewing techniques. Students expected to write and revise at least three original stories or three sections of a longer work of fiction.
Tuesday and Thursday
ENGL 403-1 Medieval Drama Steven Rozenski
What did drama look and feel like in the Middle Ages? How much can we know about performances that took place well over 600 years ago? We have two main goals ahead of us in this course: to read the major extant works of drama in Middle English, and to stage a medieval play. Along the way, we will discuss the texts themselves, the manuscript history of the surviving plays, their performance history, their relation to drama on the Continent, the religious opposition to them, sixteenth-century attempts to de-Catholicize them, their ultimate suppression after the Reformation, and their revival in twentieth-century England and North America.
ENGL 421-1 Nineteenth-Century British Literature Supritha Rajan
British literature of the Victorian period (1830-1900), including prose, drama, and poetry. This topics course can be repeated (2 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions.
ENGL 400-1 History of the English Language Sarah Higley
English is a banquet of words. And language is political. How do changes in English represent and affect culture? Inflicted by invasions and adaptations it remained English. Brought to Britain by Germanic tribes in the 5th century, it was matured by violent and peaceful contact with other peoples and ideas. Few other languages are so accepting of neologism, so humongous in vocabulary, so malleable of construction. We’ll peruse texts from Old, Middle and Modern English and watch it grow from a Teutonic tongue to the powerful, ductile, and eclectic instrument it is today, spreading to other continents, colonizing and absorbing. We’ll peruse linguistic Angst and jouissance by King Alfred, Aelfric, Robert of Gloucester, Chaucer, Caxton, Mulcaster, Shakespeare, Swift, Johnson, Webster, Orwell and others who praise or blame our shifty English, or who MANIPULATE it?. We’ll grok urban dialects, vernaculars, slang, texting, gender. Is it “based on” or “based off of”? “lie” or “lay”? What’s the deal with register? Vernacular vs. high-falutin’ “academic” English? Are you down with this? Grads welcome!
ENGL 440-1 Topics in Literary Criticism and Theory David Bleich
Varying topics in the theoretical and historical study of literary analysis and its methods.
ENGL 406-01 Studies in Medieval Literature Steven Rozenski
Varying topics relating to the literature and culture of the Middle Ages.
ENGL 449-1 Gender, Writing, and Representation Supritha Rajan
Varying topics relating to writings by women and the representation of gender from a variety of periods and cultures. Please see public notes for specific section titles and course descriptions. This topics course can be repeated (3 times) for additional credit as long as the special topic (section title) is different.
ENGL 434-01 Aesthetics Robert Doran
Studies the history of “aesthetic” thought—namely the philosophical reflection on the concepts of beauty, taste, and sublimity, on our affective response to art and nature, and on the role of art and the artist in society—from Plato to Nietzsche, with particular emphasis on how aesthetics relates to questions of epistemology, anthropology, ethics, ontology, and politics. The concepts of mimesis and the sublime will be given special attention. Authors studied include Plato, Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, Boileau, Batteux, Burke, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Nietzsche. Conducted in English.
Wednesday
ENGL 437-01 The Disabled Body in Medicine and Culture Erik Larsen
Throughout much of modern medical and cultural history, bodily difference has been categorized as disability—as a problematic deviation from standards of normalcy and health. This legacy has been fiercely debated and contested in recent years, with much disagreement about the category’s usefulness in medical contexts and beyond. This course will explore different perspectives on disability through works of modern culture, and primarily through literature, television, and film. We will investigate the traditional medical model of disability, and explore what changing understandings of disability mean for the future of healthcare and the relationship between healthcare providers and patients. The course is writing-intensive, and requires students to share and workshop their papers with peers.
ENGL 487-4 Studies in Translation Stella Wang
This course will introduce students to the theoretical backgrounds, practical challenges, and creative activity of literary translation. We will consider varied descriptions by translators of what it is they believe they are doing and what they hope to accomplish by doing it; and we will study specific translations into English from a variety of sources to investigate the strategies and choices translators make and the implication of those choices for our developing sense of what kinds of texts translations are. Finally, students will undertake a translation project of their own. By the end of this class each student should have a working knowledge of both the theory and the craft of literary translation.
ENGL 553-1 Fredric Jameson and Contemporary Marxism Joel Burges
This course traces the career of contemporary Marxism through its most well-known proponent of the last fifty years: Fredric Jameson. In light of Jameson’s recent passing, we have a chance to evaluate his legacy vis-a-vis what Marxists have been doing for the past half century, especially in the study of aesthetics, economics, and politics. While Jameson’s expansive body of work will provide the backbone of the course, we will always pair him with historical and contemporary figures who analyze the work of culture from a materialist standpoint. In so doing, students will engage not only with Jameson’s many lines of thought but also with thinkers who are both parallel and perpendicular to him. Echoing his own efforts in Marxism and Form, Late Marxism, and The Years of Theory, the course hopes to model the intellectual complexity of any theoretical tradition, its most famous representatives, and the paradigmatic texts to which they are sometimes reduced. We will resist such reductions ourselves to see what is gained and lost by positing any thinker as “representative” of a field of thought. Our goal will thus not be to lionize Jameson but, rather, to tussle with his influence on contemporary Marxism such that we unpack its antinomies, assumptions, and antagonisms as they pertain to the interpretation of culture.
Thursday
ENGL 534-1 Black and Indigenous Speculation Matthew Omelsky
This is a course, fundamentally, about relationality as it 1) materializes in culture, politics, aesthetics, and historical experience and 2) constitutes the fields of black studies and indigenous studies. In these fields, relationality not only involves acknowledging difference and incommensurability, but it also calls for belonging, solidarity, and, crucially for us, speculation. Our seminar will examine how 20th and 21st century artists and scholars imagine and theorize relationality from a speculative vantage point, envisioning “otherwise worlds” in the face of empire, (settler) colonialism, and white supremacy. We’ll aim to speculate collectively as well, producing knowledge together and always working on the assumption that no one enters the room with the complete tools to make sense of the full scope of what speculation means and enables in black and indigenous studies. In the process, we’ll move capaciously across North America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Oceania, spanning multimedia installation, fiction, poetry, music, film, and writing by artists like Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Octavia Butler, Mati Diop, Grace Dillon, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Lisa Reihana, Sofia Samatar, Miryam Charles, and Canisia Lubrin, and theorists and critics such as Saidiya Hartman, Kathryn Walkiewicz, Jayna Brown, Mark Rifkin, Ian Baucom, Keguro Macharia, Edouard Glissant, Tiffany King, Joseph Pierce, and Hugo Ka Canham.
Friday