Graduate Program

Fall Term Schedule for Graduate Courses

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Fall 2022

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. 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. 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 Bausch & Lomb Room 270 (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)
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 Gavett Hall Room 310 (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 406-1 Mysticism and Literature:Melting into God and Marrying Jesus in Medieval England Steven Rozenski MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM
Writing down an account of the experience of God's presence can seem like an impossible task, and mystical authors often explore this fundamental paradox (using language that can both affirm and deny its own ability to discuss God). In medieval mystical literature one finds Jesus, both divine and human, sometimes both male and female, married to both the individual soul and the church; the explicit erotic poetry in the Hebrew Bible is often invoked to enrich accounts of this "mystical marriage." Devotional manuscript images, too, often vividly depict Jesus with female or nonbinary characteristics engaged in various courtly and romantic activities; medieval devotion to the side-wound is especially shocking to contemporary readers. To understand these phenomena, we will study key authors of the medieval mystical and contemplative tradition: theologians Pseudo-Dionysius and Hildegard von Bingen, condemned heretics Meister Eckhart and Marguerite Porete, popular devotional writer Henry Suso, the hermit Richard Rolle, and the English anchoress Julian of Norwich -- as well as fascinating anonymous guides to contemplation such as "The Cloud of Unknowing" and image cycles such as "Christ and the Loving Soul." We’ll end the semester by looking at the uses of mysticism in the 20th and 21st centuries, with particular attention to T.S. Eliot’s 1943 masterpiece, "Four Quartets." Location Morey Room 205 (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)
ENGL 406-2 Medieval Idea of the Book Gregory Heyworth TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM
For medievals, 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, word, is significant and imbued by God or nature with a hidden meaning. This is both a course in the intellectual history of the book and an introduction to semiotics, allegoresis, and iconography. In it we will learn to read six types of books: (1) the Manuscript; (2) the Book of Secrets; (3) the Book of God; (4) Books without words; (5) the Book of Love; (6) the Book of Fortune. Along the way we will address a variety of historical and theoretical questions. Do we read scripture differently from a mere text, and if so why? Where does allegory come from and how does it work? What is the relationship between orality and literacy in medieval narrative? Is there a meaningful spatial dialectic between a manuscript or a church and its marginalia and illustrations? Location Lechase Room 163 (TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)
ENGL 410-1 Shakespeare Rosemary Kegl MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM
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 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. It fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the English major and two English Clusters (Great Books, Great Authors; Plays, Playwrights, and Theater). Location Hylan Building Room 305 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)
ENGL 423-1 Madness, Marriage, and Monstrosity Bette London MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM
The nineteenth-century novel is usually associated with Victorian values: happy marriage; wholesome homes; moral propriety; properly channeled emotions and ambitions. Many of the most popular novels, however, paint a very different picture: with madwomen locked in attics and asylums; monsters, real and imagined, lurking behind the façade of propriety; genteel homes harboring opium addicts; fallen women walking the streets; and sexual transgression and degeneracy popping up everywhere. Indeed, for novels centrally structured around marriage and society, madness and monstrosity appear with alarming regularity. The intertwining of these tropes suggests some of the cultural anxieties unleashed by the new body of women writers and women readers. We will begin with Frankenstein and end with Dracula, two novels from opposite ends of the century. We will also consider such classic marriage plot novels as Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre and some popular sensation fiction of the 1860s. Location Morey Room 205 (MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM)
ENGL 436-1 Nobel Prize Literature Bette London MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM
This course will provide an opportunity to sample an exciting body of contemporary literature, some written by authors already widely acclaimed when they received the Nobel Prize and some by writers suddenly catapulted into fame and international recognition. A central focus of the course will be the literature itself, but we will also look at some of the controversies the prize has generated – including the recent sex scandal that led to the prize’s temporary suspension. We will consider how receipt of the prize changed writers' lives and literary reputations, and we will track the announcement of a new prize-winner in October 2022. In the U.S., where less than 5% of the literature published each year is literature in translation, Nobel prize-winning literature is often the only modern literature Americans read in translation. This raises the question of translation and the role of the Nobel Prize in creating and promoting an international literature. We will also consider the special challenges this literature poses for its readers in speaking to both local and global audiences. Some of the readings for the class will be chosen by the students. Location Morey Room 504 (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 447-1 Science Fiction Jeffrey Tucker MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM
With advances in digital technology, space exploration, and molecular biology—as well as converging social, health, and environmental crises—life in the 21st-century is increasingly Science Fiction-like. Moreover, mainstream contemporary literature increasingly draws from Science Fiction for formal innovations and thematic insights. This course focuses on the Science Fiction short story to introduce students to the history and diversity of this genre, from 19th-century European literary antecedents to early 20th -century pulp fiction, the Golden Age, the New Wave, cyberpunk, Afrofuturism, and beyond. The course also features works of cultural criticism that demonstrate how the genre has addressed a variety of topics. Assignments include periodic one-page Reading Responses, an in-class presentation, and a formal paper, as well as class attendance and participation. Location Frederick Douglass Room 404 (MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM)
ENGL 452-1 Theater in England Katherine Mannheimer –
This 4-credit intersession course will be conducted in London, UK, from December 26, 2022–January 7, 2023. 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
ENGL 456-1 Film History: 1929-1959 Sharon Willis MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM
A transnational survey of film history, examining the technical and formal aspects of the medium in its production and exhibition. As we explore the development of cinema, we will address aesthetic and technological issues. i.e. how did the development of sound technology affect film form? How did it affect Cross-cultural cinematic exchange? What is the significance of genre across various film traditions? What did the studio system contribute to Hollywood's success in the international market? How did immigrant and exiled film personnel shape the industries they joined? Weekly screenings and film journals required. Location Morey Room 504 (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)
ENGL 461-1 Classical Film Theory Sharon Willis T 2:00PM - 4:40PM
This course examines the philosophical, aesthetic, and social issues that are central to classical film theory. It traces the historical development of film theory from 1900 to the 1950s. We will begin with on thinkers in the period of early cinema, including Germaine Dulac, Jean and Marie Epstein, and then we will examine the development of film theory in the work of later theorists, such as Jean Mitry, Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Andre Bazin and Christian Metz. Weekly screenings of historically contemporary films will allow us to examine the ongoing dialogue between the evolving medium and the developing theoretical discussion. Location Morey Room 504 (T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 469-1 Museum Practice Jeffrey Stoiber –
3/4 Per CS no meeting pattern needed and should be 4 credits ca Restricted to Selznick Students
ENGL 470-1 Curatorial Theory & Practice Jeffrey Stoiber –
Restricted to Selznick Students
ENGL 471-1 Film Conservation&Restoratn Jeffrey Stoiber –
Restricted to Selznick Students
ENGL 475-1 Advanced Fiction Writing Stephen Schottenfeld W 10:25AM - 1:05PM
This workshop is for advanced fiction writers who have completed ENG 121 or have permission from the instructor. The course emphasizes the development of each student's individual style and imagination, as well as the practical and technical concerns of a fiction writer's craft. Readings will be drawn from a wide variety of modern and contemporary writers. Students will be expected to write three original short stories as well as to revise extensively in order to explore the full range of the story's potential. Applicable English Cluster: Creative Writing. Location Rush Rhees Library Room 226 (W 10:25AM - 1:05PM)
ENGL 475-2 Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction Stephen Schottenfeld M 2:00PM - 4:40PM
This workshop is for advanced fiction writers who have completed ENG 121 or have permission from the instructor. The course emphasizes the development of each student's individual style and imagination, as well as the practical and technical concerns of a fiction writer's craft. Readings will be drawn from a wide variety of modern and contemporary writers. Students will be expected to write three original short stories as well as to revise extensively in order to explore the full range of the story's potential. Applicable English Cluster: Creative Writing. Location Lechase Room 163 (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 476-1 Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry James Longenbach T 2:00PM - 4:40PM
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, preferably before the first class. Location Meliora Room 218 (T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 487-4 Studies in Translation Jennifer Grotz 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 Hylan Building Room 101 (W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 491-4 Master's Reading Course Ezra Tawil –
Credit to be arranged.
ENGL 500-1 Graduate Colloquium Ezra Tawil –
Introduction to Graduate Studies in English is a semester-long introduction to doctoral study in English.
ENGL 504-1 Medieval Race Then and Now Thomas Hahn T 2:00PM - 4:40PM
At the start of the semester, we will engage with recent work in critical race studies, and investigate the ways in which historical models of racialization are (or are not) in dialogue with the practices, ideas, images, institutions, and documents that instantiate race in the Western Middle Ages. We will also investigate the appropriation of medieval images and symbols by alt-right groups as evidence of Europe’s “white” origins. The works we will read include the Helenistic Alexander Romance and related medieval writings on Indians and the “East,” chronicles of the Crusades and other European encounters with Muslims, Gerald of Wales on the Welsh and Irish, the Letter of Prester John, Mandeville’s Travels, romances of Alexander the Great, and early writings on New World “Indians” by Columbus, da Gama, Vespucci, and others. Visual evidence (including maps, exotic alphabets, ethnographic portraits, “monsters,” body types, and skin pigment) will be a crucial source of investigation. Throughout we will address the ways in which our materials reflect the “global turn” that has recently emerged in visual, historical, and literary studies. Location Morey Room 403 (T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 524-1 The Early English Novel Katherine Mannheimer R 2:00PM - 4:40PM
This course reads examples of the Early English Novel while questioning what that category means. Traditional scholarly accounts describe the "rise" of the novel in the eighteenth century, in tandem with domesticity, bourgeois morality, and widespread literacy. We will read such accounts alongside newer ones, while of course adding our own to the mix: how does the novel, as opposed to other genres, approach reality and representation, psychology and character, subjectivity and difference? To what extent do the novel's formal and ideological characteristics owe to the largely commercial, print-oriented literary sphere in which the genre came into being? Syllabus includes works by Behn, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Austen; and by Watt, Hunter, McKeon, Bender, Bakhtin, Gallagher, and others. Location Morey Room 403 (R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 543-1 The Africanist Presence in American Literature Jeffrey Tucker W 2:00PM - 4:40PM
Toni Morrison’s essay “Unspeakable Things Unspoken” and her volume Playing in the Dark revolutionized the study of American literature. By identifying the “Africanist” presence in the work of white writers, Morrison deconstructed oppositional stances in debates about canonicity and generated new interest in—and approaches to—American fiction. Using Morrison’s claims as starting points and her methodology as an example, this course will analyze the fiction of American writers with a sensitivity for the representations and figurations of blackness in their work in order to understand those works as examples and analyses of racial discourse. The course will ask and seek to answer the following questions: How is the tradition of American literature a tradition of racial representation? How is blackness figuratively represented? What roles do such “Africanisms” play in the discursive construction of whiteness, masculinity, citizenship, and an “American” identity? In addition to Morrison’s writings, readings include novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Edgar Allan Poe, and more. Assignments include a research paper and an in-class presentation on a related work of literary criticism, as well as attendance and participation in discussion. Location Morey Room 403 (W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 551-1 Reading the Lyric Kenneth Gross M 2:00PM - 4:40PM
“The lyric” has always been an elusive quarry, as is the question of what kinds of critical tools we need to understand lyric poems. The seminar will combine the intense study and “close reading” of the work of particular lyric poets with the exploring of diverse texts by critics and theorists who have written about the lyric. I’m curious about poems as made things and forms of making, about the stories that poems tell about themselves and their makers, different myths of poetic vocation and survival. I’m curious about how we listen to poems, how we feel their ”voice,” also how poems play with what’s unspoken or silent, how they evoke banished or unacknowledged forms of thought. We’ll be thinking hard about the work of metaphor (“the cardinal inward burning source of poetry,” as John Ashbery wrote), the importance of formal elements (meter and rhyme, sound and syntax), also about the fate of the lyric “I,” the nature of linguistic play, changing ideas of poetic difficulty, and the nature of poetic memory—how poetry places itself in time and history. The poets whose work we’ll be reading include William Shakespeare, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, W. B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, and Elizabeth Bishop. We will also be devoting time to important critical texts by William Empson, John Hollander, R. P. Blackmur, Christopher Ricks, Helen Vendler, Paul de Man, Sharon Cameron, Anne Carson, Jonathan Culler, Allen Grossman, Susan Stewart, Victoria Jackson, and Jahan Ramanzami among others. It’s not irrelevant that a number of these critics are themselves poets. Location Morey Room 403 (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)
ENGL 571-1 Writing Pedagogy Matt Bayne MWF 10:00AM - 1:00PM
Restriction: Instructor's permission required Location Rush Rhees Library Room G121B (MWF 10:00AM - 1:00PM)
ENGL 574-1 Moving Image Preservation in Practice Jeffrey Stoiber –
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.
ENGL 580-1 Pedagogical Training Ezra Tawil –
No description
ENGL 595-1 PhD Research Ezra Tawil –
Credit to be arrangedThe following courses may be taken for four hours of graduate credit.
ENGL 895-1 Cont of Master's Enrollment – –
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ENGL 897-1 Masters Dissertation William Miller –
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ENGL 995-1 Cont of Doctoral Enrollment – –
No description
ENGL 997-1 Doctoral Dissertation Katherine Mannheimer –
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ENGL 997-2 Doctoral Dissertation Kenneth Gross –
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ENGL 997-3 Doctoral Dissertation Thomas Hahn –
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ENGL 997-4 Doctoral Dissertation Supritha Rajan –
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ENGL 999-01 Doctoral Dissertation Katherine Mannheimer –
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ENGL 999-02 Doctoral Dissertation John Michael –
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ENGL 999-03 Doctoral Dissertation David Bleich –
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ENGL 999-04 Doctoral Dissertation Ezra Tawil –
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ENGL 999-05 Doctoral Dissertation Thomas Hahn –
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ENGL 999-06 Doctoral Dissertation Jeffrey Tucker –
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ENGL 999-07 Doctoral Dissertation Gregory Heyworth –
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ENGL 999-08 Doctoral Dissertation Morris Eaves –
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ENGL 999-09 Doctoral Dissertation Kenneth Gross –
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ENGL 999-10 Doctoral Dissertation Rosemary Kegl –
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ENGL 999-11 Doctoral Dissertation William Miller –
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ENGL 999-12 Doctoral Dissertation Sarah Higley –
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ENGL 999-13 Doctoral Dissertation Supritha Rajan –
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ENGL 999-14 Doctoral Dissertation Bette London –
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ENGL 999-15 Doctoral Dissertation Jason Middleton –
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ENGL 999-16 Doctoral Dissertation Joel Burges –
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ENGL 999-17 Doctoral Dissertation James Longenbach –
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ENGL 999-18 Doctoral Dissertation Kenneth Gross –
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Number	Title	Instructor	Time
Monday
ENGL 475-2 Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction Stephen Schottenfeld
This workshop is for advanced fiction writers who have completed ENG 121 or have permission from the instructor. The course emphasizes the development of each student's individual style and imagination, as well as the practical and technical concerns of a fiction writer's craft. Readings will be drawn from a wide variety of modern and contemporary writers. Students will be expected to write three original short stories as well as to revise extensively in order to explore the full range of the story's potential. Applicable English Cluster: Creative Writing.
ENGL 551-1 Reading the Lyric Kenneth Gross
“The lyric” has always been an elusive quarry, as is the question of what kinds of critical tools we need to understand lyric poems. The seminar will combine the intense study and “close reading” of the work of particular lyric poets with the exploring of diverse texts by critics and theorists who have written about the lyric. I’m curious about poems as made things and forms of making, about the stories that poems tell about themselves and their makers, different myths of poetic vocation and survival. I’m curious about how we listen to poems, how we feel their ”voice,” also how poems play with what’s unspoken or silent, how they evoke banished or unacknowledged forms of thought. We’ll be thinking hard about the work of metaphor (“the cardinal inward burning source of poetry,” as John Ashbery wrote), the importance of formal elements (meter and rhyme, sound and syntax), also about the fate of the lyric “I,” the nature of linguistic play, changing ideas of poetic difficulty, and the nature of poetic memory—how poetry places itself in time and history. The poets whose work we’ll be reading include William Shakespeare, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, W. B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, and Elizabeth Bishop. We will also be devoting time to important critical texts by William Empson, John Hollander, R. P. Blackmur, Christopher Ricks, Helen Vendler, Paul de Man, Sharon Cameron, Anne Carson, Jonathan Culler, Allen Grossman, Susan Stewart, Victoria Jackson, and Jahan Ramanzami among others. It’s not irrelevant that a number of these critics are themselves poets.
Monday and Wednesday
ENGL 447-1 Science Fiction Jeffrey Tucker
With advances in digital technology, space exploration, and molecular biology—as well as converging social, health, and environmental crises—life in the 21st-century is increasingly Science Fiction-like. Moreover, mainstream contemporary literature increasingly draws from Science Fiction for formal innovations and thematic insights. This course focuses on the Science Fiction short story to introduce students to the history and diversity of this genre, from 19th-century European literary antecedents to early 20th -century pulp fiction, the Golden Age, the New Wave, cyberpunk, Afrofuturism, and beyond. The course also features works of cultural criticism that demonstrate how the genre has addressed a variety of topics. Assignments include periodic one-page Reading Responses, an in-class presentation, and a formal paper, as well as class attendance and participation.
ENGL 423-1 Madness, Marriage, and Monstrosity Bette London
The nineteenth-century novel is usually associated with Victorian values: happy marriage; wholesome homes; moral propriety; properly channeled emotions and ambitions. Many of the most popular novels, however, paint a very different picture: with madwomen locked in attics and asylums; monsters, real and imagined, lurking behind the façade of propriety; genteel homes harboring opium addicts; fallen women walking the streets; and sexual transgression and degeneracy popping up everywhere. Indeed, for novels centrally structured around marriage and society, madness and monstrosity appear with alarming regularity. The intertwining of these tropes suggests some of the cultural anxieties unleashed by the new body of women writers and women readers. We will begin with Frankenstein and end with Dracula, two novels from opposite ends of the century. We will also consider such classic marriage plot novels as Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre and some popular sensation fiction of the 1860s.
ENGL 410-1 Shakespeare Rosemary Kegl
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 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. It fulfills the pre-1800 requirement for the English major and two English Clusters (Great Books, Great Authors; Plays, Playwrights, and Theater).
ENGL 406-1 Mysticism and Literature:Melting into God and Marrying Jesus in Medieval England Steven Rozenski
Writing down an account of the experience of God's presence can seem like an impossible task, and mystical authors often explore this fundamental paradox (using language that can both affirm and deny its own ability to discuss God). In medieval mystical literature one finds Jesus, both divine and human, sometimes both male and female, married to both the individual soul and the church; the explicit erotic poetry in the Hebrew Bible is often invoked to enrich accounts of this "mystical marriage." Devotional manuscript images, too, often vividly depict Jesus with female or nonbinary characteristics engaged in various courtly and romantic activities; medieval devotion to the side-wound is especially shocking to contemporary readers. To understand these phenomena, we will study key authors of the medieval mystical and contemplative tradition: theologians Pseudo-Dionysius and Hildegard von Bingen, condemned heretics Meister Eckhart and Marguerite Porete, popular devotional writer Henry Suso, the hermit Richard Rolle, and the English anchoress Julian of Norwich -- as well as fascinating anonymous guides to contemplation such as "The Cloud of Unknowing" and image cycles such as "Christ and the Loving Soul." We’ll end the semester by looking at the uses of mysticism in the 20th and 21st centuries, with particular attention to T.S. Eliot’s 1943 masterpiece, "Four Quartets."
ENGL 456-1 Film History: 1929-1959 Sharon Willis
A transnational survey of film history, examining the technical and formal aspects of the medium in its production and exhibition. As we explore the development of cinema, we will address aesthetic and technological issues. i.e. how did the development of sound technology affect film form? How did it affect Cross-cultural cinematic exchange? What is the significance of genre across various film traditions? What did the studio system contribute to Hollywood's success in the international market? How did immigrant and exiled film personnel shape the industries they joined? 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 436-1 Nobel Prize Literature Bette London
This course will provide an opportunity to sample an exciting body of contemporary literature, some written by authors already widely acclaimed when they received the Nobel Prize and some by writers suddenly catapulted into fame and international recognition. A central focus of the course will be the literature itself, but we will also look at some of the controversies the prize has generated – including the recent sex scandal that led to the prize’s temporary suspension. We will consider how receipt of the prize changed writers' lives and literary reputations, and we will track the announcement of a new prize-winner in October 2022. In the U.S., where less than 5% of the literature published each year is literature in translation, Nobel prize-winning literature is often the only modern literature Americans read in translation. This raises the question of translation and the role of the Nobel Prize in creating and promoting an international literature. We will also consider the special challenges this literature poses for its readers in speaking to both local and global audiences. Some of the readings for the class will be chosen by the students.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
ENGL 571-1 Writing Pedagogy Matt Bayne
Restriction: Instructor's permission required
Tuesday
ENGL 461-1 Classical Film Theory Sharon Willis
This course examines the philosophical, aesthetic, and social issues that are central to classical film theory. It traces the historical development of film theory from 1900 to the 1950s. We will begin with on thinkers in the period of early cinema, including Germaine Dulac, Jean and Marie Epstein, and then we will examine the development of film theory in the work of later theorists, such as Jean Mitry, Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Andre Bazin and Christian Metz. Weekly screenings of historically contemporary films will allow us to examine the ongoing dialogue between the evolving medium and the developing theoretical discussion.
ENGL 476-1 Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry James Longenbach
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, preferably before the first class.
ENGL 504-1 Medieval Race Then and Now Thomas Hahn
At the start of the semester, we will engage with recent work in critical race studies, and investigate the ways in which historical models of racialization are (or are not) in dialogue with the practices, ideas, images, institutions, and documents that instantiate race in the Western Middle Ages. We will also investigate the appropriation of medieval images and symbols by alt-right groups as evidence of Europe’s “white” origins. The works we will read include the Helenistic Alexander Romance and related medieval writings on Indians and the “East,” chronicles of the Crusades and other European encounters with Muslims, Gerald of Wales on the Welsh and Irish, the Letter of Prester John, Mandeville’s Travels, romances of Alexander the Great, and early writings on New World “Indians” by Columbus, da Gama, Vespucci, and others. Visual evidence (including maps, exotic alphabets, ethnographic portraits, “monsters,” body types, and skin pigment) will be a crucial source of investigation. Throughout we will address the ways in which our materials reflect the “global turn” that has recently emerged in visual, historical, and literary studies.
Tuesday and Thursday
ENGL 400-1 History of the English Language Sarah Higley
English is a banquet of words. 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. 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 406-2 Medieval Idea of the Book Gregory Heyworth
For medievals, 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, word, is significant and imbued by God or nature with a hidden meaning. This is both a course in the intellectual history of the book and an introduction to semiotics, allegoresis, and iconography. In it we will learn to read six types of books: (1) the Manuscript; (2) the Book of Secrets; (3) the Book of God; (4) Books without words; (5) the Book of Love; (6) the Book of Fortune. Along the way we will address a variety of historical and theoretical questions. Do we read scripture differently from a mere text, and if so why? Where does allegory come from and how does it work? What is the relationship between orality and literacy in medieval narrative? Is there a meaningful spatial dialectic between a manuscript or a church and its marginalia and illustrations?
Wednesday
ENGL 475-1 Advanced Fiction Writing Stephen Schottenfeld
This workshop is for advanced fiction writers who have completed ENG 121 or have permission from the instructor. The course emphasizes the development of each student's individual style and imagination, as well as the practical and technical concerns of a fiction writer's craft. Readings will be drawn from a wide variety of modern and contemporary writers. Students will be expected to write three original short stories as well as to revise extensively in order to explore the full range of the story's potential. Applicable English Cluster: Creative Writing.
ENGL 487-4 Studies in Translation Jennifer Grotz
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 543-1 The Africanist Presence in American Literature Jeffrey Tucker
Toni Morrison’s essay “Unspeakable Things Unspoken” and her volume Playing in the Dark revolutionized the study of American literature. By identifying the “Africanist” presence in the work of white writers, Morrison deconstructed oppositional stances in debates about canonicity and generated new interest in—and approaches to—American fiction. Using Morrison’s claims as starting points and her methodology as an example, this course will analyze the fiction of American writers with a sensitivity for the representations and figurations of blackness in their work in order to understand those works as examples and analyses of racial discourse. The course will ask and seek to answer the following questions: How is the tradition of American literature a tradition of racial representation? How is blackness figuratively represented? What roles do such “Africanisms” play in the discursive construction of whiteness, masculinity, citizenship, and an “American” identity? In addition to Morrison’s writings, readings include novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Edgar Allan Poe, and more. Assignments include a research paper and an in-class presentation on a related work of literary criticism, as well as attendance and participation in discussion.
Thursday
ENGL 524-1 The Early English Novel Katherine Mannheimer
This course reads examples of the Early English Novel while questioning what that category means. Traditional scholarly accounts describe the "rise" of the novel in the eighteenth century, in tandem with domesticity, bourgeois morality, and widespread literacy. We will read such accounts alongside newer ones, while of course adding our own to the mix: how does the novel, as opposed to other genres, approach reality and representation, psychology and character, subjectivity and difference? To what extent do the novel's formal and ideological characteristics owe to the largely commercial, print-oriented literary sphere in which the genre came into being? Syllabus includes works by Behn, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Austen; and by Watt, Hunter, McKeon, Bender, Bakhtin, Gallagher, and others.
Friday