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English Department

Graduate Courses - Spring 2010

 

ENGL 600 Seminar British Lit.: Nation and Gender in Irish Film  

Sec. 01

McDiarmid, Lucy

Tuesday  5:30 PM 

This course provides an introduction to Irish film, to Irish culture, and to film analysis, combining screenings of Irish films with readings of related Irish texts from 1902 to the present.  We will view blockbusters such as The Quiet Man, The Commitments, Michael Collins, and Butcher Boy, and independent films such as Poitin, Budawanny, Adam & Paul, and Once.    The course will  study the way the gendered nation -- Ireland as Dark Rosaleen, Kathleen ni Houlihan, the Sean Bhean Vocht, the "puella senilis"  -- features in many of these films, determining sometimes the emphasis on rural landscape (The Quiet Man, Into the West) and sometimes the emphasis on the "cottage" and domestic interiors (Poitin, Butcher Boy ).   Looking at gender from another angle, we'll consider "laddism,"  the wanderings of two men "on a spree,"  travels usually seen as inimical to domestic stability.   We'll also test the argument that the "family" as locus of value in older films set in rural Ireland is replaced by the "couple" in more recent urban Irish films.  And finally, we'll discuss to what extent the independent films tend to be oppositional to traditional Irish social and political values,  revealing and even foregrounding subjects ignored in the more expensive and widely distributed blockbusters. Students will learn the basic technical vocabulary of film art as well as major themes in modern Irish history and culture.    At the end of the semester we'll look at the work of Damien O'Donnell, a young Irish director who has won many awards for his short features.  Papers written on O'Donnell's work will be sent directly to O'Donnell himself, who has read papers by my students in the past (he doesn't grade the papers; he just reads them out of interest and curiosity).    Course requirements will include brief typed commentaries on all films viewed, an oral report, and a final paper.

ENGL 600 Seminar: British Literature
Abolition, Race, and Romanticism: Britain 1790-1830

Section 02

Matthew, Patricia

Wednesdays 5:30 pm

This course will focus on the writing that shaped, and reflected, England’s transition from a slave-owning and trading culture to one that embraced the abolition of slavery as a moral imperative of national importance. We will work with first-person narratives about slavery, consider the representations of people color in canonical and underread literature, and study the political writing that addressed the issue of abolition, paying particular attention to writing by British white women who saw their own plight in the horrors of slavery. We will also explore the contours of abolitionist writing from the “sentimental” to the hyper “rational.” Our primary readings will include writings by Olaudah Equiano, Mary Prince, Hannah More, Amelia Opie, Maria Edgeworth, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Robert Southey. Requirements for the course include: two short essays and a 20-25 page research project.

ENGL 601 Seminar American Lit: WHITMAN, DICKINSON AND THEIR INFLUENCE

Lorenz, Johnny    

Monday  5:30pm

We will begin the semester with an intensive study of the poetry of Whitman and Dickinson.  We will consider their aesthetic breakthroughs and develop a more sophisticated ear for prosody - the music of poetry.  We will also familiarize ourselves with dominant themes and tendencies (such as Whitman's return to the body and his praise songs for democracy, or Dickinson's epistemological interrogations of language).  Every American poet after Whitman and Dickinson has been, in some way, influenced by their electrifying linguistic experiments.  We will read poets whose work gives us the opportunity to see the ways in which that literary inheritance has been realized.  For instance, we will read Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," which borrows from Whitman's chanting lists and homoerotic imagery.  We will read work by poets such as Gertrude Schnackenberg, Charles Wright, or Jorie Graham and situate their poetry as contemporary replies to Dickinson's letters to the world.  Students will be asked to participate weekly on our on-line discussion board, and they will write two papers. ENLT 602 SEMINAR: The Hebrew Bible as Literature  


ENLT 514 Theoretical Approaches to Literature

Elbert, Monika

Thursday 5:30pm

An in-depth study of theoretical approaches to literature and issues of representation.  Critical methodologies will vary and might include:  Formalism, Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Historical Materialism,  Psychoanalysis,  Feminism/Gender Studies, Deconstruction, Cultural Studies, Post-Colonialism, New Historicism, Reader Response.  We will read proponents of various theories and apply theories to four or five major texts.  Does not count toward the International concentration, as this is a required core course. 

ENLT 602 SEMINAR: The Hebrew Bible as Literature

Behlman, Lee

Wednesday 8:15pm

The Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) is a crucial document for understanding world literature.  A source text for the three monotheisms - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - it is also the focal point for more than two millenia of interpretive study.  This course will take account of literary and historical aspects of the Hebrew Bible (in translation) as well as some of its early exegetical history.  The reading assignments will divide evenly between selections from critical sources and readings in the Hebrew Bible itself.  Critical sources will include literary-critical essays on formal aspects of the text, historical essays on early Israelite culture and religion, linguistic criticism that seeks to identify the multiple authors of the Hebrew Bible, and feminist criticism on the representation of women in the text.  Students of all faiths or of no faith whatsoever are welcome in this course.  Requirements will include weekly blackboard postings, 5 short (2-3 page) response essays to the reading, a session leading class discussion, a book review, and a 20-page final essay.

ENWR 583: Teaching Writing Through Literature.

Knight, Melinda

Tuesday 8:15pm

This course considers the best theories and practices for teaching writing through literature.
Students will also examine the social and historical intersections of literary studies and writing pedagogy and will specifically study how various movements in literary theory and criticism can illuminate and enhance Writing Studies theory and practice in the writing classroom. The course will be conducted as a hybrid, which means that a significant portion of learning objectives will be achieved in an online environment.

ENGL 588  Research in Writing Studies

Restaino, Jessica

Monday 5:30 pm

This course will introduce students to the field of writing studies, with particular attention to a range of research approaches, methods, and questions. Course readings will investigate the ways in which writing and, more broadly, literacy are embedded in our lives and cultures.  We will consider the challenges of teaching and learning about writing, and examine the ways in which research can contribute to writing pedagogy. Throughout the course of the semester, students will develop a detailed proposal for a research project of their own design.