Fall 2012 Courses

These courses in literary history will study British, American and Anglophone literature during the periods of the English Department's Course Groups.

In 2012 Fall, English 9, Literary History I

At the 10 hour, with Professors Edmondson and Halasz

Literature up to the mid-17th Century.  This course surveys the first centuries of English Literature: from its origins in the Anglo-Saxon period through its invention in the Middle Ages to its consolidation in the seventeenth century. Course Group I. Dist: LIT; WCult: W.

At the 12 hour with Professor Travis

The course will introduce students to some of the leading texts, concepts, and practices of what has come to be known as theoretical criticism. Topics to be considered may include some of the following: structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, feminism, new historicism, post-colonialism, post-modernism, queer theory, and cultural studies. Attention will also be given to historical and institutional contexts of this criticism. Intended to provide a basic, historically informed, knowledge of theoretical terms and practices, this course should enable students to read contemporary criticism with understanding and attempt theoretically informed criticism themselves. Dist: LIT. Course Group IV.

At the 11 hour with Professor Pulju (crosslisted with LING 18)

The development of English as a spoken and written language as a member of the Indo-European language-family, from Old English (Beowulf), Middle English (Chaucer), and Early Modern English (Shakespeare), to contemporary American English. Emphasis will be given to the linguistic and cultural reasons for 'language change,' to the literary possibilities of the language, and to the political significance of class and race. Open to all classes. Dist: SOC. Course Group IV. CA tags: Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, National Traditions and Countertraditions, Literary Theory and Criticism.

At the 11 hour with Professor Travis

An introduction to Chaucer, concentrating on ten of the Canterbury Tales, and studying him as a social critic and literary artist. Special attention will be paid to Chaucer's language, the sounds of Middle English, and the implications of verse written for the ear. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I, CA tags Genre-poetry, Genders and Sexualities.

At the 10A hour with Professor Boose

A study of about ten plays spanning Shakespeare's career, including comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances. Attention will be paid to Shakespeare's language; to his dramatic practices and theatrical milieu; and to the social, political, and philosophical issues raised by the action of the plays. Videotapes will supplement the reading. Exercises in close reading and interpretative papers. Prerequisite: English 2/3, English 5 or English 5 exemption status. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group I, CA tag Genre-drama.

At the 10 hour with Professor Gerzina

This course examines later nineteenth-century British poetry, prose and fiction in the context of cultural practices and social institutions of the time. We will locate cultural concerns among, for example, those of capitalism, political reform, scientific knowledge, nation and empire. And we will consider revisions of space, time, gender, sexuality, class, and public and private life that characterized formations of British identity during this period. Texts may include work by George Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Christina Rossetti, Algernon Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling. We will also read selections from recent criticism of Victorian culture. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II, CA tags Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, National Traditions and Countertraditions.

At the 2A hour with Professor Schweitzer

The "invention" of America changed the world forever and precipitated the beginning of the modern era. This course explores that invention, covering the period of about 1500 to 1800 and surveying a wide range of cultural attitudes towards the imagination, exploration, and settlement of the Americas: Native American, Spanish, French, and English. Our reading, including oral tales, letters, diaries, captivity narratives, poetry, personal narratives, political tracts, and secondary criticism, will focus on the themes of conquest, captivity, cannibalism in the shaping of a particularly "American" identity. We will use historical sources and early books and manuscripts to illuminate attitudes towards power, identity, race, gender, and nature prevailing in the multicultural landscape of the early Americas that shaped the emerging literature and culture of British North America. We will also look at recent cinematic representations of this early period in our examination of the shifting and contentious meaning of "America," and we will do an assignment that helps us discover the 18th century Dartmouth.  Dist: LIT. WCult: NA. Course Group I, CA tags Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies, National Traditions and Countertraditions.

At the 10A hour with Professor Schweitzer

A survey of American poetry from the colonial period to the early decades of the twentieth century. Readings will include works by Bradstreet, Taylor, Wheatley, Emerson, Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Melville and Dunbar. We will also study Native American poetry and schools like the Fireside Poets, 19th-century women poets, and precursors of early Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. We will look at lyric, meditative, religious, comic and political poetry, the long poem and the epic. Some themes we will trace include the transatlantic character of American poetry, its "newness," its engagement with religion and self-definition, with nature, and with gender and race. Emphasizing close readings as well as historical and cultural contexts, this course examines the complexities of an American poetic vision and serves as an introduction to reading poetry and to American literature.  This course will contain a Community Based Learning (CBL) component in collaboration with the Ledyard Charter School in Lebanon, NH.  Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group II. CA tags Genre-poetry, National Traditions and Countertraditions.

At the 11 hour with Professor Will

A study of major American fiction in the first half of the twentieth century. Works by Dreiser, Stein, Fitzgerald, Cather, Larsen and Faulkner, and a changing list of others. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Genre-narrative.

At the 2A hour with Professor Vasquez

A survey of modern American and British poetry since the First World War, with particular emphasis on the aesthetics, philosophy and politics of modernism. The course covers such canonical and non-canonical poets as Yeats, Pound, HD, Lawrence, Eliot, Stevens, Frost, Williams, Crane, Moore, Millay, Auden, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Beats. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-poetry, National Traditions and Countertraditions.

At the 2A hour with Professor Gamboa

Major British plays since the 1890s. The course begins with the comedy of manners as represented by Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward. It then considers innovations in and rebellions against standard theatrical fare: the socialist crusading of Bernard Shaw; the angry young men (John Osborne) and workingclass women (Shelagh Delaney) of the 1950s; the minimalists (Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter) and the university wits (Tom Stoppard); the dark comedians of the modern family (Alan Ayckbourn) and the politically inflected playwrights of the age of Prime Minister Thatcher (Caryl Churchill, Timberlake Wertenbaker, David Hare). The course deals both with the evolution of dramatic forms and the unusually close way in which modern British theatre has served as a mirror for British life from the heyday of the Empire to the present. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-drama, National Traditions and Countertraditions.

At the 12 hour with Professor Halasz (crosslisted with COLT 40)

This course examines the book as a material and cultural object. We'll consider various practical and theoretical models for understanding the book form and investigating the materials, technologies, institutions, and practices of its production, dissemination, and reception. We'll focus primarily on the printed book in Western Europe and North America, but we'll also spend time talking about the emergence of the codex (book), medieval manuscript books, twentieth and twenty-first century artist's books and the challenges posed by digitality to the book form. The readings for the course will be balanced by frequent use of exemplars drawn from Rauner Library and practical experience in the Book Arts workshop setting type. Dist: LIT, WCult: W. Course Group IV. CA tags Literary Criticism and Theory, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture. Halasz

At the 10A hour with Professor Strachan

Literary memoir with a creative writing element. Examining works by Jeanette Winterson, Jackie Kay, Kathy Dobie, Diana Athill, Kapka Kassabova as well as extracts from Alice Sebold and others, to discuss how life experience may influence fiction. Wider topics include truth in memoir and fiction and the examined life as inspiration. Coursework includes a journal element, to be developed into a piece of creative writing.  Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Creative Writing and Genre-narrative.

At the 2A hour with Professors Crewe and Zeiger (crosslisted with COLT 31)

In this course, we will primarily examine theories of poetry, relying mainly on The Norton Anthology of Criticism and Theory and Poetry in Theory, 1900-2000 (Blackwell). These volumes provide a rich, comprehensive overview of poetic theory from its beginnings in Greek antiquity virtually to the present, covering Anglo-American, Continental, and other theorists. No single poetry anthology will be used, but poetic examples will studied at every stage, generally posted on Blackboard. We will consider the "philosophy" of poetic composition in different historical periods and contexts, and will examine the continuing interplay between poetic theory and practice. The point of the course will be to get a grip on ways in which people have thought about poetry from the earliest times to the present, and to consider the sometimes antagonistic interplay between theorizing about poetry and writing it. Dist: LIT.  Course Group IV.  CA tags Genre-poetry, Literary Theory and Criticism.

At the 10A hour with Professor Coleman

In this course we will read and discuss all of the published fiction, and most of the non-fiction, of acclaimed U.S. American author David Foster Wallace (1962-2008). Wallace is widely regarded as a major figure in the development of the novel over the past number of decades but his groundbreaking work as a writer of short prose works, including stories and essays, has also been acknowledged. Writers such as Dave Eggers, Don DeLillo, Jonathan Franzen, Zadie Smith, and Richard Powers have all praised his work, which is compelling in its formal inventiveness as well as the encyclopaedic range of his engagement with themes and issues such as sport, adolescence, mental illness, communication, entertainment, drug addiction, boredom, the uses of a liberal education and the interface between politics and popular culture in the (post)modern era. To use the phrase he gave to his study of infinity, Wallace attempted to write about "everything and more," and the purpose of this course is to try and get a better understanding of how he did it. While the course will be focused on the published works of David Foster Wallace, which will be read in order of publication, it will also acknowledge and explore his readings of other figures including John Barth (Lost in the Funhouse), Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov), William Gaddis (The Recognitions), Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49), and David Markson (Wittgenstein's Mistress).   Dist: LIT: WCult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-narrative, Period Study III.

At the 2A hour with Professron Benson Taylor (crosslisted with NAS 32)

This course explores the abundance of crime fiction and murder mysteries created by Native American artists in recent decades. For some, the genre provides an imaginative space for avenging the offenses of colonization. For others, it offers a democratized landscape where all are equal, where American law is malleable, and where intelligence and subversion triumph. While most critics applaud these decolonizing efforts, we will examine their darker implications as well: do these narratives do real cultural work, or do they simply cash in on a thrill-seeking, stereotype-infested, pop-cultural industry? Do such works reveal that colonial violence will beget only more-and bloodier-violence? And in the end, who are its true victims? Dist: LIT; WCult: Cl. Course Group III, CA tags National Traditions and Countertraditions, Multicultural and Colonial/Postcolonial Studies, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture

At the 2 hour with Professor Will (crosslisted with WGST 53)

In her well known passage from A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf stated that "we think back through our mothers if we are women"; twenty years later, Gertrude Stein would obliquely refer to herself as "the mother of us all." These two women occupy a central place in European and American modernism, their work having influenced successive generations of writers. Using a series of thematic and theoretical frameworks, we will explore the intersections between the two, asking how they staged their resistances to traditional/patriarchal literary and cultural structures. Possible frameworks are gender and genre; queer texts and contexts; war, nation, and gender; class, ethnicity, and authority; iconization. Texts by Woolf might include Jacob's Room, Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and Between the Acts; texts by Stein might include Ida, Three Lives, Everybody's Autobiography, and Mrs. Reynolds. We will also be reading a selection of critical and/or feminist theory. Suggested background courses are English 15, Comparative Literature 72, WGST 16. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Course Group III. Concentration area tags Genders and Sexualities, National Traditions and Countertraditions.

At the 10A hour with Professor Colbert (crosslisted with Theater 10 and AAAS 82)

This course examines Pulitzer Prize winning playwrights August Wilson and Suzan-Lori Parks's written works. In the late 20th century Wilson and Parks emerged as two African American playwrights who garnered significant critical and commercial attention. This course investigates the distinctive elements of African American drama in the late 20th century through the particular aesthetics of two of American drama's most notable playwrights. This course considers how social, political, and artistic histories inform Wilson and Parks's drama. Therefore, we will locate the distinctive qualities of their drama; how should we categorize their style, form, and content? Texts may include: Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Fences, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, King Hedley II, The America Play, Topdog/Underdog, The Red Letter Plays, and Getting Mother's Body. In addition to Wilson and Parks's plays and Parks's novel, we will read critical and theoretical works on drama and contemporary African American cultural expression written by the playwrights and by cultural critics. Dist: LIT, Wcult: W. Course Group III. CA tags Genre-drama, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture, National Traditions and Countertraditions.

At the 10A hour with Professor Mathis

This course offers a workshop in fiction and poetry. Seminar-sized classes meet twice a week and include individual conferences. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and to first-year students who have completed Writing 5 (or have exemption status). Students who wish to enroll in 80 must submit their applications to the administrative assistant in the English Office by the last day of the term preceding the term for which they wish to enroll. Students do not submit work for entry into the course. A brief application form is available in the English Office.  English 80 is the prerequisite to all other Creative Writing courses. Dist: ART.

At the 10A hour with Professor O'Malley

Continued work in the writing of fiction, focusing on short stories, although students may experiment with the novel. The class proceeds by means of group workshops on student writing, individual conferences with the instructor, and analysis of short stories by contemporary writers. Constant revision is required.  Prerequisite: English 80 and permission of the instructor. Please pick up the "How To Apply to English 81, 82 or 83" form from the English Department and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter. Students should submit a five-eight page writing sample of their fiction to the administrative assistant of the English Department by the last day of classes of the term preceding the term in which they wish to enroll. Dist: ART.

At the 2A hour with Professor Sharlet

This course offers students an overview of the conventions, genres and techniques of narrative-nonfiction writing.  The class proceeds by means of group workshops on student writing, individual conferences with the instructor, and analysis of classic works of literary nonfiction.   Prerequisite: English 80 and permission of the instructor.  Please pick up the form titled "How To Apply for English 81, 82 or 83" from the English Department and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter.  Students should submit a five-to-eight-page writing sample to the administrative assistant of the English Department by the last day of the term preceding the term in which they wish to enroll. Dist: ART. CA tag Creative Writing. No Course Group designation.

At the 2A hour with Professor Mathis

This course is offered in the senior year for English majors and minors concen-trating in Creative Writing. Each student will undertake a manuscript of poems, fiction, or literary nonfiction. All students who wish to enroll must submit an 8 to 12 page writ-ing sample to the administrative assistant of the English Department by the last day of classes in the term preceding the term in which the course is to be taken. Please also read the "How to Apply to English 85" document, available on-line and from the English Department, and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter. Prerequisite: English 80 and 81, 82, or 83.

At the 2A hour with Professor O'Malley

This course is offered in the senior year for English majors and minors concen-trating in Creative Writing. Each student will undertake a manuscript of poems, fiction, or literary nonfiction. All students who wish to enroll must submit an 8 to 12 page writ-ing sample to the administrative assistant of the English Department by the last day of classes in the term preceding the term in which the course is to be taken. Please also read the "How to Apply to English 85" document, available on-line and from the English Department, and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter. Prerequisite: English 80 and 81, 82, or 83.

At the 10A hour with Professor Sharlet

This course is offered in the senior year for English majors and minors concen-trating in Creative Writing. Each student will undertake a manuscript of poems, fiction, or literary nonfiction. All students who wish to enroll must submit an 8 to 12 page writ-ing sample to the administrative assistant of the English Department by the last day of classes in the term preceding the term in which the course is to be taken. Please also read the "How to Apply to English 85" document, available on-line and from the English Department, and answer all of the questions asked in a cover letter. Prerequisite: English 80 and 81, 82, or 83.