English is a huge banquet of words. Its history is one of invasions and adaptations. 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 as English, 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, absorbing and irritating. We’ll read texts about linguistic Angst and jouissance by Alfred the Great, Aelfric, Robert of Gloucester, Chaucer, Caxton, Mulcaster, Shakespeare, Locke, Swift, Johnson, Webster, Orwell and others who praised or blamed our shifty English. Finally, we’ll grok urban dialects, vernaculars, slang, lolcat, texting, propriety and proscription. Is it “based on” or “based off of”? Does it matter? Is English in decline or poised on a new horizon?

Location

Online Room 14 (ASE) (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

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

Hylan Building Room 206 (MW 10:25AM - 11:40AM)

This course will examine the relationship between modern and contemporary works of poetry, the language or languages in which that poetry is written, and the nature of thinking that can be said to occur most intensely in poetic art. At the origin of this version of poetic modernity, Whitman occupies a very large place. We will consider poets and poems in several literary and linguistic traditions, primarily English, French, Spanish and German, though all texts will be read in English. We will also spend some time considering the importance of the Western reception of Japanese verse forms, like Haiku, and Chinese ideograms by Western modernists who continue the Whitman tradition on a global scale.

Location

Frederick Douglass Room 404 (MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

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 the present, with particular emphasis on how it relates to questions of epistemology, anthropology, ethics, ontology, and politics. Readings from Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Dubos, Burke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Nietzsche, Lyotard, Derrida, Rancière.

Location

Meliora Room 221 (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 the present, with particular emphasis on how it relates to questions of epistemology, anthropology, ethics, ontology, and politics. Readings from Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, Dubos, Burke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Nietzsche, Lyotard, Derrida, Rancière.

Location

Morey Room 525 (TR 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

Charles Dickens is considered one of the great novelists in the English language. There are few novelists whose name alone conjures a distinctive style. But when we refer to a novel as “Dickensian,” it elicits numerous associations—intricate plots, labyrinthine depictions of cityscape and social life, comedic characterizations, social satire, and sentimentalism, to name a few. In this course we will read a variety of Dickens’s major novels in order to appreciate his vision and style as a writer and thus learn, first hand, what it means to describe a novel as Dickensian. The course will situate Dickens’s novels in their biographical, aesthetic, and historical contexts, but it will also examine stylistic aspects of Dickens’s writing (e.g. descriptive language, narrative voice, characterization). We will address Dickens’s influence on other nineteenth-century novelists and conclude with a twentieth-century novel that critics have labeled Dickensian. Fulfills the post-1800 requirement. No prerequisites.

Location

Meliora Room 218 (TR 11:05AM - 12:20PM)

More broadly, a study of the gray zone between short story and novel, containing many ambiguous labels (long short story, novella, short novel). The course will interrogate various boundaries -- When does a short story become a novella? When does a novella become a novel? -- and locate answers not merely in word count, but in reader experience and expectation. Because of the (relative) brevity of these in-between texts, the course will cover much stylistic and geographic ground. Author list may include: Franz Kafka, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, Carson McCullers, Nathanael West, Gabriel García Márquez, Henry James, George Saunders, Jane Smiley, Lan Samantha Chang, Aleksandar Hemon, William Gass, and Cynthia Ozick.

Location

Bausch & Lomb Room 270 (MW 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

Recently, women have collectively mobilized to announce and describe their anger to the public. We ask how to locate anger in social relations as well as in individuals. We try to distinguish between the behaviors emerging from men’s and women’s anger. We read Mercy and other works by Andrea Dworkin, graphic stories by Phoebe Gloeckner and Isabel Greenberg, the off-genre What Purpose Did I Serve in Your Life by Marie Calloway, The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh, Vox by Christina Dalcher, autobiographical/documentary films by Michelle Citron, Su Friedrich, and Cheryl Dunye, the TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale, and political writings such as Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister, Eloquent Rage: a Black Feminist Discovers her Superpower by Brittney Cooper, and Rage Becomes Her by Soraya Chemaly. Weekly essays, final essay, no exams.

Location

Online Room 3 (ASE) (TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

This four-credit intersession course is conducted in London, UK, from late December through early January. We will see, discuss, and write on 16 to 18 plays. The itinerary this year will include world premieres of plays by Alan Bennett, John Logan, Lee Hall, and David Hare; Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, John Guarre's Six Degrees of Separation, Tom Stoppard and Andre Previn's Every Good Boy Deserves a Favour, several musicals, and splendid extravaganzas from the National Theatre such as War Horse and Nation, to name a few. The fee for the course is $2550.

Intro to history, technology, cultural significance of motion pictures of the 'pre-sound' era, screenings of 35mm prints accompanied by live music in the Dryden Theatre. Special attention to major pioneers, Dickson, Porter, Lumire, Mlis, and Griffith, including a variety of internationally produced films selected from the world-famous archival film collection of the George Eastman House. Same as FMS 247

Location

Hylan Building Room 101 (TR 4:50PM - 6:05PM)

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)

A focused study of Godzilla on film, beginning with the 1954 film that inspired and helped define the Japanese kaiju eiga genre. The larger context of the course is a critical investigation of genre film, specifically the science-fiction/horror/creature-feature film, and a careful consideration of the “culture of war” (World War II through 21st century). We begin with a sampling of seminal non-Japanese titles that provided the foundation for the Godzilla film paradigm, then focus on a close textual study of select “Godzilla films” that help us understand the historical and social contexts for Godzilla’s erratic trajectory since 1954. Recent DVD releases with both dubbed and original Japanese language versions enable us to dissect the culturally generated permutations of kaiju eiga.

Location

Meliora Room 206 (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

A focused study of Godzilla on film, beginning with the 1954 film that inspired and helped define the Japanese kaiju eiga genre. The larger context of the course is a critical investigation of genre film, specifically the science-fiction/horror/creature-feature film, and a careful consideration of the “culture of war” (World War II through 21st century). We begin with a sampling of seminal non-Japanese titles that provided the foundation for the Godzilla film paradigm, then focus on a close textual study of select “Godzilla films” that help us understand the historical and social contexts for Godzilla’s erratic trajectory since 1954. Recent DVD releases with both dubbed and original Japanese language versions enable us to dissect the culturally generated permutations of kaiju eiga.

Location

Online Room 11 (ASE) (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

A focused study of Godzilla on film, beginning with the 1954 film that inspired and helped define the Japanese kaiju eiga genre. The larger context of the course is a critical investigation of genre film, specifically the science-fiction/horror/creature-feature film, and a careful consideration of the “culture of war” (World War II through 21st century). We begin with a sampling of seminal non-Japanese titles that provided the foundation for the Godzilla film paradigm, then focus on a close textual study of select “Godzilla films” that help us understand the historical and social contexts for Godzilla’s erratic trajectory since 1954. Recent DVD releases with both dubbed and original Japanese language versions enable us to dissect the culturally generated permutations of kaiju eiga.

Location

Meliora Room 206 (TR 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

This course explores three of Italy’s mostprominent postwar directors, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Liliana Cavani, who developed distinct cinemas and contributed radical representations to key cultural debates. 
Students will examine each filmmaker’s specific formal and thematic innovations, such as Fellini’s 
carnivalesque and dreamlike states, Antonioni’s use of space and color, and Cavani’s marginal 
figures and use of flashback. Students will also compare how their works address three of postwar 
Italy’s and the West’s most critical questions: modernization, the 1968 student protests and the 
legacy of Fascism. Films include: Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Amarcord; Antonioni’s Red Desert and 
Zabriskie Point; Cavani’s The Cannibals and The Night Porter. Assignments include: historical, 
biographical and critical readings, film screenings, short papers and a final essay. Readings will 
be in English and films will be shown with English subtitles

Location

Lechase Room 182 (MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

3/4 Per CS no meeting pattern needed and should be 4 credits ca

Restricted to Selznick Students

Restricted to Selznick Students

Restricted to Selznick Students

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.

In all cases, there will be a 75-minute weekly class meeting to synthesize common goals and address topics of general interest as it relates to the week’s reading or writing assignments. This weekly class session will be followed by individualized tutorials once a week between faculty and student.

Seminar in fiction writing. Emphasis on individual development of style.

Location

Frederick Douglass Room 302 (T 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.

In all cases, there will be a 75-minute weekly class meeting to synthesize common goals and address topics of general interest as it relates to the week’s reading or writing assignments. This weekly class session will be followed by individualized tutorials once a week between faculty and student.

Location

Online Room 21 (ASE) (R 3:00PM - 4:15PM)

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

Online Room 9 (ASE) (M 2:00PM - 4:00PM)

From smart planning to solid research to sparkling communication, this course nurtures skills crucial in almost any field. We’ll look at how successful feature writers bridge the gap between news and commentary, shedding light on people, places, and perplexing issues. We’ll study their methods and put them into practice as we write our own articles. Among the feature forms we’ll explore: profiles, trend pieces, investigations, science and travel stories, and color pieces. Among our topics: finding and developing ideas; digging for information; interviewing and quoting effectively and ethically; achieving the right structure and tone; fact checking; revising and pruning; and getting published. Applicable English Cluster: Media, Culture, and Communication. Please email Instructor a paragraph or two about why you would like to take the course.

Location

Morey Room 403 (T 11:05AM - 1:45PM)

A study of the theoretical backgrounds, practical challenges, and creative activity of literary translation.

Location

Goergen Hall Room 110 (M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Credit to be arranged.

Credit to be arranged.

Credit to be arranged.

Introduction to Graduate Studies in English is a semester-long introduction to doctoral study in English.

At the start of the semester, we will engage with recent work in critical race studies, and investigate the ways in which recent and contemporary models of critical race studies are (or are not) in dialogue with the practices, ideas, images, institutions, and documents that instantiate race in the Western Middle Ages.  The works we will read include the Helenistic Alexander Romance and related writings on Indians, the History of Alexander, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, 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, “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

(M 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Toril Moi, in her book, Revolution of the Ordinary (2017) has urged ordinary language as a framework for the study of literature. This sense of language highlights speakers and uses in all contexts. Moi and Rita Felski also consider how this view of language overrides the traditional “hermeneutics of suspicion”--a way of reading that separates “meaning” from observable language, that meaning is occult, or that it needs to be recovered from texts and speech. Both critics urge a renewed respect for the experience and contexts of reading, for how different constituencies read and talk about literature through tropes of common sense, local interest, and collective purpose. We consider, in the light of 20th century criticism and theory, how this perspective on literary study has come about. We review New Criticism and early statements by feminist and critics of color that led to Moi’s and Felski’s proposals. Students are invited to propose texts to be read as “ordinary literature.”

Location

(R 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Studies in Avant Garde Film Making

Location

Morey Room 403 (W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

“Utopia” commonly refers to an ideal society; this course presents “utopia” as a (para-)literary genre, an occasion of societal modeling, and as a cognitive mode, attitude, and process. The course addresses literary representations of utopias throughout the tradition of literature in English. Topics for discussion include the relationship between utopia and dystopia (including “critical” utopias and dystopias), utopian literature’s influence on and representation in modern science fiction, the politics of utopias, and intersections with the history of intentional communities. Readings include primary texts by Thomas More, Edward Bellamy, George Orwell, Octavia E. Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Joanna Russ, and more; featured criticism and scholarly essays include work by Lyman Tower Sargent, Tom Moylan, Fredric Jameson, Hannah Arendt, and more. Course requirements include a seminar paper, an in-class presentation on a critical reading, and class participation.

Location

Morey Room 403 (W 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

WWI, it has been argued, initiated a new form of distinctly modern memory – unsparing, unsentimental, and essentially ironic. It also ushered in an unprecedented era of remembrance that transformed Britain into a culture obsessed with the commemoration of its war dead – in a manner anything but ironic. Recently, scholars have begun to question not only how the war was remembered but whose war has been remembered and whose memories valued, opening the history of the war to other narratives: war as experienced by women, working class men, colonial soldiers and laborers. We will explore some of the many memoirs, poems, and other works of imaginative literature that appeared in the decades immediately following the war, as well as the appropriation and transformation of the war and its memory in late 20th-c. literature, film, and TV. We will also consider the rich body of theoretical and historical scholarship on memory work, trauma, collective memory, and memorialization, not all of it specific to WWI.

Location

(T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

Restrictions: Instructor's permission required

Restriction: Instructor's permission required

Restriction: Instructor's permission required

Location

Online Room 11 (ASE) (MWF 10:00AM - 1:00PM)

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Credit to be arranged.

Credit to be arranged.

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Credit to be arrangedThe following courses may be taken for four hours of graduate credit.

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