ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

Courses Offered:

Number	Title	Credits
0310	Dramatic Imagination	3 cr.
0315	Reading Poetry	3 cr.
0325	Short Story In Context	3 cr.
0350	Literature, Tradition, And The New	3 cr.
0350	Lit, Tradition And The New	3 cr.
0354	Words And Images	3 cr.
0360	Women And Literature	3 cr.
0370	Literature And Ideas	3 cr.
0500	Introduction To Critical Reading	3 cr.
0500	Introduction To Critical Reading: (majors)	3 cr.
0500	Introduction to Critical Reading: Literature of Growing Up	3 cr.
0530	Film Analysis	3 cr.
0550	Introduction To Popular Culture	3 cr.
0570	American Literary Traditions	3 cr.
0572	Introduction To African Literature	3 cr.
0580	Introduction To Shakespeare	3 cr.
0590	Formative Masterpieces	3 cr.
0597	Bible As Literature	3 cr.
1020	History Of Literary Criticism	3 cr.
1028	Literature And Psychoanalysis	3 cr.
1100	Medieval Imagination	3 cr.
1125	Renaissance In England	3 cr.
1126	Advanced Shakespeare :Theatre and the Identity of the Court	3 cr.
1150	Enlightenment To Revolution	3 cr.
1175	19th Century British Literature	3 cr.
1200	American Literature To 1860	3 cr.
1220	Emergence of Modern America (1860-1914)	3 cr.
1240	Topics In American Literature	3 cr.
1250	20th Century American Literature	3 cr.
1280	Contemporary American Women Writers	3 cr.
1291	History Of American Film 2	3 cr.
1300	Realist Tradition	3 cr.
1325	The Modernist Tradition	3 cr.
1342	Contemporary Literature In Context:	3 cr.
1380	World Literature In English	3 cr.
1470	Film Directors; Martin Scorsese And Steven Spielberg	3 cr.
1551	Introduction To The English Language	3 cr.
1570	Myth And Folktale	3 cr.
1572	Fantasy And Romance	3 cr.
1603	Satire	3 cr.
1640	Literature For Children	3 cr.
1645	Critical Approaches To Children's Literature	3 cr.
1647	Literature For Adolescents	3 cr.
1663	Detective Fiction	3 cr.
1720	Working Class Literature	3 cr.
1752	Television Analysis	3 cr.
1774	Literature Of Sports	3 cr.
1901	Independent Study	1 to 6 Cr.
1910	Senior Seminar	3 cr.
1910	Senior Seminar: Joyce	3 cr.
1910	Senior Seminar: Work And Play In Literature	3 cr.

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0310	Dramatic Imagination	3 cr.

1. I'm going to be asking you to think drama : that is, to think pragmatically about the difficulties involved in putting across ideas on stage. I will also be asking you to think about yourself in relation to drama; about, that is, the way that such dramatic thinking informs the whole of our experience. We will read, in this connection, a half-a-dozen really good, really ambitious Renaissance-to-Modern plays.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course.
3. Requirements: I'll want something from you every week. We will be writing a lot of dialogue.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered every term.

0315	Reading Poetry	3 cr.

1. This course is intended as an exploration of the activity of reading poetry. Its subject, in other words, is as much as it is We will be studying not only poems they are made, how they work also our processes of reading and responding to them. The cou rse offers students an assisted opportunity to become readers of poetry who are engaged and self-aware, and in doing so to discover what uses poetry might have for them.
   The intellectual inquiry of the course centers on three related questions: 1. Wha t is poetry? Can it be distinguished from other uses of language? 2. What does it mean to read something as a poem? How is that one poem can have so many 3. What is poetry good for? We will take up these questions by reading poems of various historical er as, including the present, and reflecting on our own experiences as readers.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: The grade will be based mainly on essays written in class and class participation; some instructors may assign reading journals. All W-designated courses require at least 20-25 pages of writing and some revision.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0325	Short Story In Context	3 cr.

1. The short story emerged in the nineteenth century and rapidly became popular among English-speaking readers; numerous critics and authors have formulated what they believed short stories ought to accomplish. This course will take up two kinds of conte xts for short stories: the context of the rise of the short story itself and its development into recognizable types and the socio-historical contexts of particular stories. We will read a variety of kinds of short stories from the nineteenth century up t o the present, plus documents and _essays that help provide context. We will also consider the question of what the relationship is between a text and a context.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: The grade will be based mainly on essays written in class and class participation; some instructors may assign reading journals. All W-designated courses require at least 20-25 pages of writing and some revision.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0325	Short Story In Context	3 cr.

1. The short story emerged in the nineteenth century and rapidly became popular among English-speaking readers; numerous critics and authors have formulated what they believed short stories ought to accomplish. This course will take up two kinds of conte xts for short stories: the context of the rise of the short story itself and its development into recognizable types and the socio-historical contexts of particular stories. We will read a variety of kinds of short stories from the nineteenth century up t o the present. We will also consider the question of what the relationship is between texts and their contexts.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: The grade will be based mainly on essays and class participation; some instructors may assign reading journals. All W-designated courses require at least 20-25 pages of writing and some revision.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0350	Literature, Tradition, And The New	3 cr.

1. In this course, students will read literary works written across several centuries, and explore their relationship to various literary and cultural traditions. The course considers a range of issues or questions about the value, uses, or functions of "tradition." How, for instance, do texts participate in a "tradition"? How do they resist, revise or depart from them? How do readers and writers negotiate between tradition and narration? How should we understand the modern imperatives to "make it new"?
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: The grade will be based mainly on essays written in class and class participation; some instructors may assign reading journals. All W-designated courses require at least 20-25 pages of writing and some revision.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0350	Lit, Tradition And The New	3 cr.

1. This course will explore the relationship of the texts we read to various literary and cultural traditions. We will raise such questions as: What constitutes a tradition? How do texts participate in a tradition? How do they resist, revise, renew, or b reak with a tradition? What are some of the functions of tradition? We will ask these questions in relation to several texts from the New World, situating them with respect to one another, as well as to literary texts from the "Old World."
2. Prerequisites: This is a "W" course. Students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: Grades will be based on class participation and several short papers. In keeping with the requirements of "W" courses, at least 20-25 pages of writing will be assigned, and there will be an emphasis on revision.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0354	Words And Images	3 cr.

1. This is an interdisciplinary course that explores the relationships between language and many different kinds of images. Its goal is to study how we describe and understand visual images and how they help us model and understand qualities that otherwi se could not easily be defined. We will consider the ways images function in literary texts, and other writing, including narrative description. We will talk about the differences between viewing and reading, and also the relationship between a text and i ts illustrations or an image and its caption. Texts are likely to include illustrated works by Blake and Wilde and images like the Mona Lisa that have generated controversy and commentary.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: The grade will be based mainly on essays written in class and class participation; some instructors may assign reading journals. All W-designated courses require at least 20-25 pages of writing and some revision.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0360	Women And Literature	3 cr.

1. This course examines how issues of gender and the position of women in society inflect the reading and writing of imaginative texts, shaping how they are interpreted and valued. We will consider how women writers must negotiate and transform cultural ways of reading and writing, how they write and are read in relation to their male contemporaries and predecessors, and how they engage the literary traditions they inherit. Readings will include a range of literary and cultural texts as well as essays in feminist theory.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completeed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: Students will write several papers (totalling 20-24 pp., with required revision) and will be asked to participate actively in class discussion.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered every term.

0370	Literature And Ideas	3 cr.

1. This course studies invention and interpretation, and explores the various ways writers produce texts and readers make them make sense. Course texts vary each term and to some extent with instructor, but they are always chosen to stimulate investigati on into reading and writing as ways of knowing.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: The grade will be based mainly on essays written in class and class participation; some instructors may assign reading journals. All W-designated courses require at least 20-25 pages of writing and some revision.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0500	Introduction To Critical Reading	3 cr.

1. This course investigates the habits and practices of readers, including professional readers (some of them critics, some of them English professors) but also including non-professional readers--"common readers," student readers, avid readers, and so o n. This is a course that works closely with a few books rather than aiming to cover or survey a wide range of literature in English.
   The goals of the course are several: for you to reflect upon (and improve) your performance as a reader; for you to co nsider your relationship to English as a field (your relationship either as a potential English major or as someone with an outsider's interest in literature); and for you to think about your own habits and practices, as a reader, in relation to a history of reading and literary education in the United States.
   These goals are grandly stated. In practice, we will read and discuss four or five books, usually including at least one novel and one book of poems, and always including some contemporary works . I will ask you to write about what you read. We will talk about your essays in class and use them as examples of readers reading. In addition, you will be assigned a sample of the published critical responses to the assigned texts. These, too, will be u sed as examples of readers reading (and not simply, that is, as "correct" or final).
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of this course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Four essays (about 5 pages each). Two of them will be revised; one will be revised a third time. All will be submitted at the end of the course in a portfolio for final evaluation. I pay particular attention to what happens in revision. Attendance is required. There may be occasional quizzes on the readings.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0500	Introduction To Critical Reading: (majors)	3 cr.

1. A critical reading of a text always proceeds from certain assumptions about what kind of meaning it is legitimate and valuable to find or make in a written work. In this course, we will explore some of the assumptions about literature and its social f unction that inform different kinds of reading, and we will try to forge approaches that fit our interests and convictions. The course readings will include challenging works of poetry and fiction, critical essays about some of them, and essays about lite rary interpretation.
2. Prerequisites: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course.
3. Requirements: 3-4 formal essays, ongoing brief assignments in writing and revision, attentive class participation.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly in Fall and Spring terms.

0500	Introduction to Critical Reading: Literature of Growing Up	3 cr.

1. The object of this course is to enable students to become better readers: more perceptive in their approaches to written texts generally, more knowledgeable in distinguishing between various critical appraisals of such texts, and more effective in rep resenting themselves as writers about both. Our focus will be on some of the different, often conflicting, ways in which growing up, the passage from adolescence to young adulthood, has been represented and explained in order to enable students to develop ways of reading thoughtfully as well as imaginatively, and to see why such an activity is worth bothering about to begin with.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of this course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: There will be a number of out-of-class writing assignments (varying in length) as well as some in-class writing. Regular attendance and participation in class discussion are required. Students will be graded on their development as write rs and contributors to class conversation.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. Various versions of this course are offered regularly.

0530	Film Analysis	3 cr.

1. Film is one of the most important, vital and representative arts of the twentieth century and one that it is crucial for all of us to appreciate and comprehend. Film analysis introduces the student to the art of the cinema, and to the techniques for i ts formal and iconographic analysis. Among the aspects of the cinema to be examined (through close analysis of films) are: the nature of shot composition and visual framing, the use of color, the role of lighting as a pictorial element, the potentials of camera movement, the modes of editing, as well as the nature of image/sound montage. In addition to stressing techniques of analysis appropriate to the cinema, the course will seek to introduce students to its dominant forms (narrative, experimental and d ocumentary film).
2. Prerequisite: none. Introductory level. This course is required for the Film Studies major and certificate. It also serves as a prerequisite for certain more advanced film courses.
3. Requirements: Grading will be based on: attendance, class participation, a midterm and a final exam, and two quizzes.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered every Spring and sometimes in the Fall Term or Summer Terms. It alternates between faculty in the History of Art and Architecture Department and English Departments and is cross-listed with the Film Studies Program.

0530	Film Analysis	3 cr.

1. This course is designed to introduce students to the critical evaluation of film as an art form, cultural form, and medium of communication. In doing this, we will be focusing both on specific elements common to most films -- the shot, editing, the so und track -- and on the relationship between those elements and a variety of film forms, including narrative cinema, documentary, and abstract film. In addition, we will explore a variety of concepts which have been particularly important in articulating theories of film, including realism, authorship, genre, and representation. Our goal will be to not only broaden our understanding of what film can be but also to understand what film has been and why it has been that way, historically and culturally.
2. Prerequisite: none. This course is required for the Film Studies major and certificate and is a prerequisite to certain advanced film courses. It fulfills the CAS core curriculum A.2 category as a first course in the visual arts.
3. Requirements: Film Analysis is graded on the basis of three short papers, a midterm exam, and a cumulative final exam. Tests will consist of both objective and essay questions and will require students to have a firm understanding of class reading mat erial, lectures, and films (all films will be screened in class and are available for review in Hillman library).
4. Recitation sections will be used to discuss film screenings and reading materials. Attendance of and participation in recitation section is required.
5. Expected class size is 80 students.
6. This course is offered annually in both the Fall and Spring semesters.

0550	Introduction To Popular Culture	3 cr.

1. This course will cover a range of "texts" from American mass culture, including popular fiction, advertising, television, popular music and popular magazines. The course will emphasize methods of analysing these texts and questions they raise about th e nature of popular culture in America. We will be interested in discovering what these products of mass culture have in common and also what these products of mass culture have in common and also what distinguishes them from other cultural artifacts, tho se of high culture and those of folk culture.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: The grade will be based mainly on essays written in class and class participation; some instructors may assign reading journals. All W-designated courses require at least 20-25 pages of writing and some revision.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0550	Introduction To Popular Culture	3 cr.

1. Our investigation of popular culture will proceed through a critical examination of the terms "modernity" and "postmodernity," the corollary distinction between "high" and "low" culture, and the phenomena these distinctions are meant to describe. We w ill examine cultural transformations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and their relation to industrial capitalism and political structures. We will then study changes in U.S. culture and society in the past 30 years as they bear on th e question of the "popular" and "postmodernism."
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. No recitation.
4. Expected class size is 60 students.
5. This course is offered every year.

0570	American Literary Traditions	3 cr.

1. This course could be viewed as a first course for students wishing to take other more specialized courses in American literature. Or it could be viewed as a course designed to illustrate the sweep of American literature: those characteristic features and persistent concerns that have defined the tradition from the colonial period to the contemporary period. Or it could be viewed from the perspective of American Studies, with the emphasis upon the interaction between the literature and its peculiarly A merican context, with its distinctive myths, history, politics, and philosophy. In practice, this course will be something of all of these, not omitting, of course, the "delight" that accompanies all great writing and all great reading.
2. Prerequisites: none. This course satisfies the CAS requirement for a first course in literature. (Humanities A.1)
3. Requirements: The course will combine lecture and discussion and students are encouraged to contribute to class discussions. Grades will be based on a mid-term (35%), final (35%), and journal (30%). Regular attendance is expected; no more than three u nexcused absences will be accepted.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 40 students.
6. This course is offered each term.

0570	American Literary Traditions	3 cr.

1. Description: This course will take a broad reader-centered, discussion-oriented overview of American literature. It will range from its beginnings in the seventeenth century to the present, from the theocratic world of Puritan New England to the paran oid contemporary one of California. In-between you will encounter poetry, short stories, novellas, plays, and novels that have been chronologically scrambled in order to blur temporarily recognized literary-historical periods, movements, and related group s of writers. This fracturing of traditional categories and historical continuity mixes modern and contemporary with colonial and eighteenth-century texts in order to encourage you to develop your own sense of "traditions" in American literature.
   Some classes will be structured around written student responses to the texts. These will be read aloud and used as a basis for organizing an approach to individual works. No prior knowledge is assumed. The course is designed for non-majors interested in gain ing some knowledge of their national literature.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: A combination of "commentaries" (journal entries that will be read in class), daily quizzes, paper, midterm, and final. Their relative weight will depend upon how they are combined differently from term to term.
4. Recitation sections: There are no separate "recitation sections." The teaching style will be a combination of lecture and discussion developed by the instructor.
5. Expected class size is 40 students.
6. This course is offered every term by a variety of instructors.

0570	American Literary Traditions	3 cr.

1. In this course we will study thematic developments in the American novel, from the eighteenth to twentieth-centuries. Our focus will be on conceptions of idea community. Students will read a selection of works, including, but not exclusively, those of Charles Brockden Brown, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Ellison, Thomas Pynchon.
2. Prerequisite: "Introduction to Critical Reading" recommended.
3. Requirements: Course requirements are regular class attendance, two short written assignments, 2-5 pages in length, and one written course project of no less than 10 and no more than 15 pages. The topic for each student's project will be determined by the third week of the term, in consultation with the professor.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 60 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

0570	American Literary Traditions	3 cr.

1. In this course, we will look at a selection of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, as a means of thinking about methods for reading literature, talking about it, and gaining insights from it that might be valuable to us, personally. While these literary texts can be moving and entertaining, they also strive to interpret historical, political and social conditions, and to affect readers' views of their country and its problems or potentials. One way we will approach such questions of context and perspect ive is to juxtapose two or more texts that deal with roughly the same moment in history. For example, we will read three very different novels that question one of the earliest (U.S.) American societies, that of the Puritan "Pilgrims." These and the other readings in the course also help us to think about what "American," "literary" and "tradition(s)" might mean -- for writers, critics, and readers such as ourselves.
2. Prerequisite: None, although previous literature and/or writing courses would be helpful.
3. Requirements: The course will be primarily discussion. Students will be asked to keep reading notes and write five 2-page response papers in preparation for class discussions. There is also a class (group) presentation, a midterm quiz, and the option of either a final exam or a term paper.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 40 students.
6. This course is offered every term but varies in content according to the instructor.

0570	American Literary Traditions	3 cr.

1. This course will be organized as an inquiry into the "American-ness" of American literature and the ramifications of organizing texts by reference to national origin. We will be asking how certain texts come to be awarded exemplary cultural value, wha t functions the establishment of literary traditions have served, and how the force of a tradition might influence the work of readers and writers. And we will be asking how the texts of American literature have worked to produce "America" through specifi c representations of nature, people, progress and civilization. Students in this course will read works of American fiction, non-fiction and poetry that have been classified, historically, as literature. We will also read a number of non-literary texts as well as texts written by non-American authors. The selection of texts will cover a broad historical range, from the colonial to the contemporary.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: The course will combine lecture and discussion. Grades will be based on exams and at least one essay.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 40 students.
6. This course is offered each term.

0572	Introduction To African Literature	3 cr.

1. This course will examine major works by contemporary African writers in various genres, including fiction, poetry, and drama. There will be some preliminary reading and discussion of the social context of the works but the principal focus will be on r ecurring themes in African literature. Eight works in English or in translation will be studied and some supplementary critical reading will be required. Two essays on selected themes (culture clash, racism and apartheid, neo-colonialism, coups in Africa, male-female relations, etc.) will be required: the topic will be chosen in consultation with the instructor.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Evaluation: grades will be based on a review (10%), midterm and final essays (40% each) and class attendance and participation (10%).
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 10 students.
6. This course will be offered regularly.

0580	Introduction To Shakespeare	3 cr.

1. In this course we'll be reading and discussing eight or nine of Shakespeare's major plays, including an early comedy and tragedy, one of the English history plays, a "problem play" and several tragedies from mid-career, and one of the late romances. C lasses will be devoted primarily to discussion, with a focus on ways in which Shakespeare explores psychological, social, and political issues important not only in his time and place but also in ours.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Regular attendance will be expected. There will be a mid-term, a paper, and a final exam. The mid-term will count for 1/4 of the grade for the course, the paper and the final for about 3/8 each. Effective participation in class discussio n can raise the grade for the course.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 40 students.
6. This course is offered every term.

0580	Introduction To Shakespeare	3 cr.

1. This course provides an opportunity to read and discuss a number of Shakespeare's plays in various significant historical and contemporary contexts. Classes will be devoted to analysis and discussion of the texts and to critiques of selected performan ces.
2. Prerequisites: none.
3. Requirements: Attendance and participation in class discussions. Students who miss more than three class meetings should not expect to receive a grade higher than "C-." The grade will be based on the quality of contributions to discussions, in-class w riting, and examinations: three mid-terms (20% each), one final (20%), and class discussions (20%).
4. No recitations or labs. Classes will include discussions and brief lectures.
5. Expected class size is 40 students.
6. This course is offered every term.

0580	Introduction to Shakespeare	3 cr.

1. In an effort to understand why so many people believe Shakespeare the greatest author who ever lived, we will read about a dozen of his plays. Comedies, histories, tragedies, problem plays, and romances will be represented, with major emphasis falling on the genres of comedy and tragedy. While students will inevitably learn something about the Renaissance, the age that gave birth to Shakespeare, we will be chiefly concerned with those features of Shakespearean drama that have kept it alive on the stag e ever since and fascinated every age including our own. Students are specifically urged to make sense of the plays from a modern viewpoint. Since plays are scripts written for theatrical performance, we must learn to read them with dramatic imagination. To foster this students are required to make some use of Hillman's audio-visual resources for Shakespeare.
2. Prerequisites: None, except a lively interest in literature and the ability to write decently. Students who have not yet passed English GW should have confidence in their prose.
3. Requirements: Students will submit a 15-page journal in three installments over the course. While this will be most important in determining the final grade (50%), weight will also be given to attendance participation (20%) and a final exam (30%).
4. All meetings of this course are in effect recitation sections where a willingness to discuss readings is expected.
5. Expected class size is 60 students.
6. This course is offered every term.

0580	Introduction to Shakespeare	3 cr.

0580	Introduction to Shakespeare	3 cr.

1. "The play's the thing/ Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King" ( Hamlet , 2,2, 605-06). In this case, we are the King and the plays seek to catch our conscience. We will read, usually in order of composition, two histories, two comedies, two tr agedies, and a late romance. We imagine how these plays might be performed. They are experiments, seemingly full accounts of our humanity--our rulers, our loves, our natures, our hopes for a better world. They play with whether we control our world or the world controls us. We will speculate on the differences in genre, on the writer's development, and on the relation between the plays and our lives. This is a course in problem solving. We ask questions about the texts; we discover answers appropriate for these words, for this time, and for this place. Students write journals, discuss texts, and support their own judgments on the basis of Shakespeare's words. The first requirement is to ask the questions. At the end of the term, students demonstrate their competence as critical thinkers by an analysis of an eighth play of their own choosing.
2. Prerequisites: Students should have met the college writing requirement before registering.
3. Requirements: Students write three papers, a midterm, and a final exam. One-third of the grade is contribution to class discussion; one-third on the final; one-third on the papers.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 40 students.
6. This course is offered every term.

0590	Formative Masterpieces	3 cr.

1. In this class we will study in some detail eight or nine of those masterpieces which form the largest part of the background of what we now regard as the Western tradition of literature. Classes will consist of both lecture and organized discussion, a nd the individual works chosen will come from the various genres of epic poetry, drama, the novel, and satire. They will also span the centuries from the classical periods of ancient Greece and Rome through the Renaissance to the twentieth century.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: There will be two essay exams (one mid-term and one final) and a critical essay (approximately six or seven typewritten pages) due near term's end. Students should also expect to participate in class discussions.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 40 students.
6. This course is offered regularly in Fall and Spring terms.

0590	Formative Masterpieces	3 cr.

1. This is a survey course and will consider major masterpieces and great classics in world literature.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: The grade will be based partly on quizzes and partly on two term papers to be submitted around mid-term and on the finals-period: (1/3 each).
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 40 students.
6. This course is offered occasionally.

0597	Bible As Literature	3 cr.

1. This course is an introduction to reading the Bible as literature. We will read selected books from both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. There will be short lectures on the historical context of the Bible and on the Bible's literary themes an d narrative techniques. We will also read some works of western literature (mostly short stories, poems, and essays) which have an "intertextual" relationship to the Bible in order to examine ways in which the Bible has been appropriated, read, revised, a nd otherwise contributes to our long tradition of western literature.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Quizzes, examinations, and short written assignments.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered three times a year.

0597	Bible As Literature	3 cr.

1. This is an introductory course intended to acquaint students with what is in the Bible and to provide background information, drawn from various disciplines, about the elements and issues that give it its distinctive character. Some attention is necessarily given to its religious perspectives, since they govern the nature and point of view of the biblical narratives, but no specific religious view is urged. Class is conducted by informal lecture and discussion.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Grade is based on a series of quizzes and examinations.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 90 students.
6. This course is offered three times a year.

1020	History Of Literary Criticism	3 cr.

1. In this course we will study some of the major thinkers, works, and issues that have shaped literary and cultural theory. This term we shall focus on African American literary theory. In particular, we shall read the work of Houston Baker, Kimberly Be nston, Barbara Christian, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah McDowell, Valerie Smith, James Snead, and Hortense Spiller. We shall be chiefly interested in the question of theories of reading.
2. Prerequisite: Upper division undergraduate students who have completed the composition requirements, and "Introduction to Critical Reading". This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: Regular class attendance, two short written assignments, 2-5 pages in length, and one written course project of no less than 10 and no more than 20 pages. The topic for each student's project will be determined by the second week of the term, in consultation with the professor. Each student will present to the class a summary presentation of the project.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

1028	Literature And Psychoanalysis	3 cr.

1. Why do people write stories, poems and plays? And why do we read them? The psychoanalytic "principle of multiple function" suggests that most human actions have multiple motives, and that many of these motives are likely to remain unconscious unless b rought to light by psychoanalytic modes of inquiry.
   This course will introduce students to the basic methods, observations and theories of psychoanalysis, and to some important psychoanalytic contributions to our understanding of the processes of arti stic creation and aesthetic response. It will also offer opportunities to discover how familiarity with psychoanalytic ways of reading people's words and actions can enhance the alertness, subtlety and power of our reading of literary texts.
   We'll rea d texts by Freud and by other analysts and psychoanalytic literary critics. Literary texts will probably include fairy tales, a play by Shakespeare, stories by Kafka, and novels by such authors as Henry James and Emily Bronte or Virginia Woolf.
2. Prerequisite: Students must have a minimum QPA of 3.25, or permission of the instructor.
3. Requirements: Students will be able to choose between writing three short papers, and keeping a journal of responses to the readings and class discussions. Grades will be based upon this written work and upon the quality of class participation.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 18 students.
6. This course is offered occasionally.
7. Students must come to UHC office in 3500 CL to obtain CRN and permission form before processing their registration at Thackeray.

1100	Medieval Imagination	3 cr.

1. This course will explore some of the ways in which people in the Middle Ages saw the world around them--from ancient Irish tales of fantasy and magic, to the mystical visions of saints, to Christian allegory, to the idealized adventure of romance. We will try to understand such modes of consciousness by reading a variety of literary works, by comparing these works to the other arts whenever possible, and by examining similar kinds of experiences in the modern world (for example, pop psychology and ato mic physics as ways of understanding the world, "sword and sorcery" romances as a way to daydream).
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Mid-term exam (25%), term paper (25%), final exam (25%), class attendance and participation (25%).
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered every term.

1125	Renaissance In England	3 cr.

1. We'll be reading literature from 16th and 17th century England, the time and place of social and intellectual changes important in making our world what it is today. This version will have a special but not exclusive emphasis on gender: this means tha t, for example, we will look at love poetry (of Wyatt, Shakespeare, Donne) partly in terms of attitudes towards women, explore conflicts about gender in plays, and read some recently rediscovered works by women, including some in which they defended thems elves from attacks.
2. Prerequisite: English Lit 0500, Introduction to Critical Reading, is strongly recommended.
3. Requirements: Two short papers (5-6 pages) and midterm and final essay exam are required, and will be weighted equally. Attendance and participation in class discussion are expected; quality of class participation can raise a student's grade.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered regularly every term, but emphasis varies.

1126	Advanced Shakespeare :Theatre and the Identity of the Court	3 cr.

1. This court will explore the contours of courtly power and identity as they took shape inShakespeare's theatre. Ever concerned with the expression and force of "darker" purposes, his plays profoundly interrogate the values, claims of legitimacy, and th e consequences of the search for order, by England's ruling classes. From staging the early "feudal chronicles" throughtelling tales of the War of the Roses to the later tragedies--which have been considered "nothing less than the negation and dismantling of the Elizabethan world picture"--In Shakespeare, chivalry, love, melancholy, ambition, madness, corruption, rejection, are presented as strategies of negotiation within a Court where power was, apparently, evermore located in the figure of the monarch. We will be concerned with the relationship between the dynamics of aristocratic power and the literary and aesthetic forms which were contingent upon Shakespeare's dramatic writing. Borrowing from Brecht, I hope the course will "develophistoricalsense in to a real sensuous delight".
2. Prerequisites:
3. Requirements: Gobbets; Mid-term paper (1500 words); Final research paper (3,500-4000 words); Attendance mandatory.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size: 35 students.
6. This course is offered every year.

1150	Enlightenment To Revolution	3 cr.

1. This course studies British literature of the late 17th and 18th centuries. During this period there were important changes in the way writers and readers viewed their personal experience and its relationships to the world around them, changes which w ere revolutionary in character. The Enlightenment brought with it unsettling shocks to traditional views and habits of life. Science, politics, religion and the economy underwent transformations that affected every literate person's consciousness of self and society. Such changes were reflected in the forms and content of the literature of the age we shall read. Although these changes had already given evidence of their power to effect upheavals in national life in the two English revolutions of the 17th century, they perhaps had their most startling expression in the Revolution in France and the Industrial Revolution. We shall read as widely as possible in the prose, poetry and drama of the period in order to gain some understanding of the qualities of t he age.
2. Prerequisite: English Lit 0500, Introduction to Critical Reading, is strongly recommended.
3. Requirements: Regular attendance is required. Grades will be based on evaluation of both written work and evidence of regular preparation given in class discussion.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered every other year.

1175	19th Century British Literature	3 cr.

1. This course will focus on figures who are especially representative of a great literary century: three Romantic poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats), and two Victorian poets (Arnold and Browning), as well as a number of significant prose writers; other figures, some more minor, will not be altogether neglected. In classes that combine lecture and discussion, we will pay close attention to the texts themselves, but we will also try to define the cultural, critical and moral thinking that shapes the m.
2. Prerequisite: English Lit 0500, Introduction to Critical Reading, is strongly recommended.
3. Requirements: There will be two two-hour examinations, a midterm and a final; there will also be a critical paper (of approximately ten typewritten pages) due late in the term. Students should expect to participate in organized discussions concerning carefully defined questions and issues. Regular attendance is expected.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered once a year.

1200	American Literature To 1860	3 cr.

1. In the 17th-century, the Puritan writer Cotton Mather promised to "fill this Countrey with devout and useful Books." In the 1860s, President Lincoln credited a book with "making" the Civil War. This course will investigate the formation of "American L iterature," its q"usefulness," and its relationship to the construction of a national culture. We will address the diverse claims for literature's territory, function, and value in the "new world." American writers of this period often described themselve s as powerful formers of national experience, responsible for new language, forms, styles, and subjects. They represented the time, place, and situation as a cultural turning point, as a brave experiment in reforming the moral and imaginative practices of the old world. At the same time, they feared that literature had little status or value in an industrial democracy beset with divided cultural interests. Much of the writing of this era is marked by its instruction of readers and by the emergence of wome n, blacks, and working-class writers and readers. We will discuss how writers of the time explored and defended the place of literature and reading in their culture.
2. Prerequisite: English Lit 0500, Introduction to Critical Reading, is strongly recommended .
3. Requirements: Grade based on short homework assignments, mid-term research project, and final paper (10-12 pp.).
4. No recitation. Class will be conducted by discussion and informal lecture.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered every semester.

1220	Emergence of Modern America (1860-1914)	3 cr.

1. This course will focus on the literary embodiments of social struggles and innovations during the time period between the Civil War and the outbreak of World War I. We will study novels, poems, and non-fiction works about women's constraints and freed oms, the effects of capitalist development on workers and consumers, race relations in the wake of Reconstruction and Western Expansion, and the shift from a rural to urban national consciousness.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: The grade will be based on substantial mid-term and final essays plus frequent short informal writings.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered every other year.

1240	Topics In American Literature	3 cr.

1. The specific topic for this version of the course is "Masterpieces of American Literature in Relation to Masterpieces of European Social Theory." We will read a range--from late 18th to early 20th centuries, by writers of different social positions--o f major American works of high literary merit, and we will read along with them selected major works of European social theory (liberal, radical, and conservative). The purpose of the course is to illuminate both types of work by the dialogue between them (not to fit the literary works into a procrustean model drawn from social theory). Writing assignments and discussion will emphasize ways in which the literary works challenge social-theoretical frames of understanding as well as the ways--beyond the pur ely aesthetic or formal--in which literature may be understood.
2. Prerequisites: There are no specific prerequisites, but students will be more likely to feel ready for this course who have taken at least one previous course in literature.
3. Requirements: Students will be required to attend class meetings and to participate regularly in discussion. Students will be asked to write a page or two (on an assigned topic) each time we begin a new work; and three essays (five to six pages each) will be assigned at intervals through the term. There will be no final exam. The longer writings will be graded and will account for over half of the grade, with the rest balanced between participation and the overall file of short writings.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 15 students.
6. This course has not been offered before, and it may never be offered again.
7. Students must come to UHC office in 3500 CL to obtain CRN and permission form before processing their registration at Thackeray.

1250	20th Century American Literature	3 cr.

1. Description: Somewhere in his journals Kierkegaard asked "Which is harder: to be executed, or to suffer that prolonged agony which consists in being trampled to death by geese?" In this offering of Twentieth-Century American Literature we will focus o n literary texts by writers intent on avoiding that slower way of passing on. The selection of texts will favor neither the more baffling and obscure forms of philosophy masquerading as literature nor the most recent literary production of this century. B ut the gaggle of texts rounded up should reflect both the stylistic concerns and the intellectual issues that have characteristically engaged twentieth-century American writers. These texts should provide us with a representative collage of form and conce rn that will provoke lively discussion of the interrelatedness of literature, culture, and society.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Midterm (40%), final (40%), journal commentaries and class participation (20%).
4. No recitation; informal lecture and discussion.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered each year.

1280	Contemporary American Women Writers	3 cr.

1. What kinds of cultural authority can a "writer" or an "intellectual"--especially a "woman writer" or a "woman intellectual"--have in the late twentieth century? How can an author respond to being made an institution while she is still alive and writin g? Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, and Adrienne Rich are not only the authors of complex novels and poems that are widely respected and frequently taught; they are also cultural commentators whose writings about literature, nationalism, race, gender, sexu ality, and education have had considerable currency and influence. This course will take up their creative writings--Atwood's fiction and poetry, Morrison's novels, and Rich's poetry--as well as their writings about culture and literature, which are in ma ny respects equally creative. In addition, we will consider the representation and self-representation of these women as public figures, taking up questions posed by the relationship between these authors' works and they way that the authors themselves ha ve been made historical figures within their own lifetimes. To help frame these questions, we will read some short works reflecting on the cultural roles of authors and intellectuals.
2. No specific coursework is required as a prerequisite, but "women and Literature" or some other course in Women's Studies would be useful background. Since this is an upper-level English course, previous coursework in literature is desirable.
3. Requirements (in order of importance): 3 essays, class participation, and participation in a group presentation requiring some research.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.

1291	History Of American Film 2	3 cr.

1. In 1940, Americans spent 88 cents of every entertainment dollar on movies; American cinema was one of the 10 largest U.S. businesses. This course explores the development of this art and industry, and its influence, from 1940 to the present. Although the emphasis of the course will be on the evolution of American film style and genre, attention will also be paid to the history of the American film industry, and the relation between Hollywood cinema and the broader cultural context of American society. For, as historian Lewis Jacobs has noted, film is simultaneously "a commodity, a craft and a social force." Among the topics to be discussed are: the development of the studio system and a studio style, the rise of "B" and low budget movies, the star sys tem and its influence on film, documentary and experimental traditions, the developments of film genres (for example, musicals, horror, westerns, etc.) Films will be screened during each class session. The course will provide the student with the historical and aesthetic background with which to better appreciate the American cinema of today and yesterday.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: the course grade will be based on a midterm exam, a final exam, and quizzes.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course will be offered regularly every other year in the Winter Term.

1300	Realist Tradition	3 cr.

1. We will read continental, English and American works in the so-called realist tradition. Most of the material will be 20th Century.
2. Prerequisite: English Lit 0500, Introduction to Critical Reading, is strongly recommended.
3. Requirements: The grade will be based partly on quizzes and partly on two essays, one around mid-term and one about finals time. Class participation can help but not hurt the student. Regular attendance and demonstrable familiarity with the reading ar e both required.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered every Fall.

1325	The Modernist Tradition	3 cr.

1. The early part of the twentieth century marks a period shaped by colonialism and anti-colonial liberation struggles, two world wars, and rapid and revolutionary developments in the social, political, cultural, and technological arenas. The literature and art emerging from this period have come to be termed "modernist." Although we will begin with a working definition of "modernism," one of the tasks of the course will be to refine and redefine our sense of the term with each new text we read. We will investigate how different texts stage the cross-cultural encounter between Europe and its "Others," and we will ask ourselves how the meanings of modernity, modernization, and modernism might differ in different social contexts. Readings will include theo retical debates about modernism, and works by such writers as Franz Kafka, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, T.S. Eliot, Wole Soyinka, Wilson Harris, and Zora Neale Hurston.
2. Prerequisites: At least one previous literature course.
3. Requirements: Grades will be calculated based on participation in class discussion, a midterm examination, several pages of informal writing, two 5-7 page papers, and a take-home final examination.
4. No recitation. This is a discussion class with occasional short lectures.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

1342	Contemporary Literature In Context:	3 cr.

1. The contemporary American novel deals with a variety of issues that are part of our cultural heritage and present experiences. The texts chosen offer an opportunity to read about such subjects as the family in transition, the role of women and minorit ies, the emergence of a multicultural society, the effects of the Vietnam War, the effects of rural and city life on the American psyche, and the restlessness inherent in American life.
   Through these novels we can experience a variety of personal voic es and stories which both validate and question American values and culture. The course includes novels by Toni Morrison, Tim O'Brien, John Gardner, Paula Marshall, Barbara Kingsolver, Charles Johnson, Ron Arias, and Julia Alvarez. We will also explore th e changing ways novelists approach the telling of stories and examine the "new" trends in creating texts.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: Class discussion is the main way of sharing ideas and developing critiical judgments about the assignments. The course requires the writing of three papers of 6-7 pages each (40% of the evaluation) and a mid-term and final examination. ( 30%) Also, you will be asked to write brief answers to journal questions for class preparation and quizzes. (30%)
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered at least once a year, although with varying readings and emphases.

1380	World Literature In English	3 cr.

1. This course serves as an introduction to the anglophone literatures of the world, with an emphasis on the literatures of Africa and the Caribbean. We will study colonial writings about Africa and the Caribbean, nationalist novels that celebrate the pr omise of liberation, and post-independence texts that ask whom the nation-state serves. We will pay particular attention to issues of gender as they relate to nationalism, for though women participated in most Third World nationalist movements, feminism h as often been considered unrelated to national concerns.
2. Prerequisites: None, though one or two literature courses are highly recommended.
3. Requirements: two short (6-8 pp) papers, an in-class presentation and a comprehensive final exam.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered regularly.

1470	Film Directors; Martin Scorsese And Steven Spielberg	3 cr.

1. Since the importation of French auteur criticism to the United States in the early 1960s, American film criticism has focused to a great extent on the director, usually as the individual responsible for a film's artistic vision and structures of signi fication. Post-structuralist theory, however, has called these assumptions into question by arguing that the imoportance of the author is not as a guiding individual but rather as a social discourse. In this course we will consider just these theoretical questions by taking up a sustained examination of the work of two directors: Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. The work of Scorsese ( Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, GoodFellas , etc.) and that of Spielberg ( Close Encounters of the Third Kind , E.T ., Raid ers of the Lost Ark , etc.) have little in common in many respects. Yet these two directors have come to personify two aspects of American filmmaking (and thus two discourses of authorship), each socially valued in its own way: Scorsese as the non-commerc ial, inner-directed artist; Spielberg as the crassly commercial, audience-pleasing entertainer. Taken together, they offer a fruitful site for considering not only the place of the director in film criticism but also social notions of art and entertainmen t as they have coalesced around American film of the past two decades.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Students' grades will be based on two short papers (20% each), a longer paper (30%), and a final exam (30%). Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss required reading and screenings (screening will take place both in an d out of class).
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course will be offered every 2-3 years.

1551	Introduction To The English Language	3 cr.

1. This course is designed as an introduction to the study of language. The first segment of the course focuses on the terms and concepts that a student of language needs to acquire and covers the topics of morphology, syntax, semantics, phonetics, and p honology. The middle segment of the course uses these terms and concepts to examine the history of English, the growth of standard English, American English, dialects, and global Englishes. The final segment of the course uses Shirley Brice Heath's Wa ys With Words as a basis for discussion of the implications of language study for the work that teachers and students do in classrooms.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Students will be required to complete six short assignments, each of which involves the application of some concept of language study, a case study project, a mid-term, and a final exam.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 100 students.
6. This course is offered occasionally.

1570	Myth And Folktale	3 cr.

1. Description: Commenting on the loss of mythological guidance in modern life, Joseph Campbell said: "With the loss of that [guidance] we've really lost something because we don't have a comparable literature to take its place. These bits of information from ancient times, which have to deal with themes that have supported human life, built civilizations, and informed religions over the millennia, have to do with deep inner problems, inner mysteries, inner thresholds of passage, and if you don't know wh at the guidesigns are along the way, you have to work it out for yourself." "Myths," (and folk tales as well) he felt, "are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life." This introductory course will echo Campbell's sentiments in its analyses of a select group of mythic and folk texts. We will look at myths and folk tales as forms of symbolizing activity which reflect both culture and human nature. We will read and analyze Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman, Authurian, Mesopotamian, and European tex ts. Some questions that we will explore are: What does myth have to tell us about the structure and dynamics of the psyche? How might myths suggest differing hero/heroine journeys toward individuation, and how are we to understand the implications of thei r difference? What archetypal ("universal") bases for human emotion and development may possibly be discovered in myth? What does myth have to tell us about gender stereotypes and their relation to the shift from polytheism and matriarchal religions to mo notheism and patriarchal ones? How might individual mythological figures (Aphrodite and Dionysus, for example) offer clues to the nature of certain feeling states like ecstasy, inspiration, and sexual desire, and how might the absence of comparable figure s in Judeo-Christian religion be explained?
2. Prerequisite: It would be helpful to have taken prior courses in literature, psychology (especially psychoanalysis), cultural anthropology, and religious studies. But none of these are required as prerequisites.
3. Requirements: A combination of a journal, daily quizzes, papers, midterm, and final. Their relative weight will depend upon how they are combined differently from term to term.
4. There are no separate "recitation sections." The teaching style will be a combination of lecture and discussion developed by the instructor.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered infrequently from term to term depending on student interest, curriculum design, and other factors.

1572	Fantasy And Romance	3 cr.

1. A course that will examine fantasy as a literary mode that is not essentially faithful to representing the everyday world by writers whose fictional worlds violate "natural law." We will examine artistic conventions in this mode in a variety of works ranging from fairy tales and to modern adaptations of earlier forms, focusing particularly on the ways in which different fantasies work out the connection of the conscious with the unconscious, the real with the ideal, the temporal with the mythic. We wi ll also discuss topics of perennial interest in the field: fabulation, relationships between fantasy and realism, the representation of alternate worlds, revisions of gender, subversions of conventional narrative, fantastic modes of thought, transformatio n, time travel, supernatural intrusions, magic, and mythic motifs.
   Special attention will be given to folk and fairy tales, science fantasy, gothicism, "dark" fantasy, romantic fantasy, the weird, and tales of wonder, and ghost stories. Readings will be chosen from Hoffmann, MacDonald, Carroll, Baum, Dunsany, Kipling, Bowles, Beagle, Calvino, Crowley, Le Guin, Russ, Barthelme, Wilde, Coover, Millhauser, Pratchett, and Carter.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements will include: Attendance and participation in class discussions. Students who miss more than five class meetings should not expect to receive a grade higher than "C-." The grade will be based on the steadiness and quality of students' con tributions to discussions, in-class writing, and examinations: three mid-terms (25% each), and class work and informal essays (25%). In some cases, students will be able to replace one mid-term with a project of special interest.
4. No recitations or labs. Classes will be organized as discussions.
5. Maximum class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered each Fall Term.

1603	Satire	3 cr.

1. Satire is Monty Python and Jonathan Swift, Juvenal and Lenny Bruce, Doonesbury and Kurt Vonnegut. To start, we define it as an indirect attack on flaws in human behavior or attitudes. Often, that indirection comes from humor--that is, satire is usually fun and often funny, but it is almost invariably serious. This course aims to develop a critical appreciation of satire in general and its techniques in particular. Along the way we also look at lots of non-satires: comedy, parody, burlesque, e tc. My goal is for you to come out able to say "this is (or is not) a satire, for these reasons." The reasons should be your own, but they should be informed. While you're at it, you should become more appreciative of all the satire in the world around us , at Pitt and elsewhere.
   The best satire often comes in small packages, so we do a variety of reading of authors from all periods: Horace and Ben Franklin, but also Pogo and Nathanael West, and we see two films, probably Lenny and so mething by Monty Python. We look at political cartoons, National Lampoon artists, and some of the great visual satirists of the past (Hogarth, Daumier, Beardsley). We listen to recorded satire, watch videos and discuss satire on TV. A good way to get an advance idea of the course is to look at my Satire study guide in the Hillman Reserve Room, #W550.
2. Prerequisite: Students ought to have had the equivalent of one college-level literature course. We read poems, prose, plays, and novels, and it is useful to have some experience dealing critically with some of these.
3. Requirements: Students take a mid-term and a final. Everyone also completes two worksheets and tries to write a satire (not graded.).
4. Recitation sections examine the texts more intensely than possible in lecture. Contributions to recitation discussions can raise the grade earned on the exams.
5. Expected class size size is 100 students.
6. This course is offered every Spring as a lecture course.

1640	Literature For Children	3 cr.

1. This course, which introduces students to the study of books written for children, situates children's books within the broader cultural frameworks that mediate the experience of books and reading for contemporary children, frameworks such as film and television, and CD Rom. As we study a series of books written for children, our discussions of newer forms such as TV complicate a series of questions such as: how do we know a children's book when we see one; are children's books necessary; what sets of cultural expectations accompany the term "literature for children", are children's books distinctly different from those written for adults, what might such a difference entail, and what is the role of the adult critic? In addition to reading set literar y texts, students will be required to view and discuss a series of films and TV programs and material on CD Rom.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Students will be required to write two essays of not less than four pages each, due on dates to be decided, and up to two class papers, of not more than two pages each, one of which may be delivered orally in class. Each of the essays wi ll be worth 40% of the final grade, and each of the class papers 10%. If only one class paper is required, it will be worth 20% of the final grade.
4. Each student must attend one recitation a week. The class papers which are part of the overall assessment will be based on the work undertaken in recitations; the grade for recitations will be the same as the grade given for class papers.
5. Expected class size is 80 students.
6. This course is offered every term.

1645	Critical Approaches To Children's Literature	3 cr.

1. Adults reading books meant for children undertake an interestingly complex task. The books themselves seem an easy read, but on closer examination it turns out that an adult's interpretation of a child's text is far from simple. Is it, for example, ea sy to know how a book affects a child? When we say children "identify" with characters what do we really mean? How can we understand the popularity of series books and horror stories among children? This course looks in detail at a selection of books writ ten for children through the lens of three critical approaches - psychological, narratological and historical - in an attempt to answer questions such as these. This course complements and extends work done in the unit Literature for Children, but will al so be of interest to those concerned more generally with the role played by literature in society.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Two essays of not more than five pages each due on dates to be specified, each worth 40% of the final grade, and two class papers, of not more than one page each, due on specified dates, each worth 10% of the final grade.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered every other term.

1647	Literature For Adolescents	3 cr.

1. This course prepares a student to develop a culturally pluralistic reading program for an individual or class in a secondary school and to teach fiction, poetry and drama in the classroom. It should be of interest primarily to present and future teach ers and librarians. Class will be conducted by lecture and small group discussion. We will read a variety of literature written specifically for an adolescent audience. We will also read and discuss various critical approaches to adolescent literature as well as historical, sociological, ethnographic, and psychological studies of adolescents.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: Each student will be responsible for one 5-10 minute oral report on an assigned reading. One short paper will be due at the mid-term period. A longer paper will be due at the end of the course which must include at least one literary wor k outside the required reading list. The written work will comprise 80% of the final grade; the remaining 20% of the grade will be based on class participation. Students missing more than one week of class will not receive credit for the course.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is generally offered once a year in the Fall term. Instructor and content may vary.

1663	Detective Fiction	3 cr.

1. This course will focus on the development of the modern detective story and novel in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a primary focus on English and American writers. The approach will be historical, beginning with the tradition of ratiocination and then examining in greater detail major British and American writers form the golden age of detective fiction in the 1920s and 1930s. We will examine in some detail the tradition of the "hard boiled" school of writers. The course will end with stories and books by contemporary writers who push the genre in new directions. These works may include comic novels, police procedurals, post-modern and experimental works as well as novels with central characters who are not white males. The course will be taught t hrough lecture and discussion.
2. Prerequisite: No specific prerequisites. Some course work in narrative fiction would be very helpful.
3. Requirements: Students will be required to keep a journal in which they discuss all the required readings as well as additional information or critical opinions derived from lectures, class discussion and outside reading. (40%) There will also be a fi nal paper (10-15 pages) (40%) and a final exam (20%) required.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered irregularly.

1720	Working Class Literature	3 cr.

1. This course explores the world of working-class writing and cultural production, in Britain and the US, on the assumption that "class" is an important category for literary and cultural studies. We will study key texts and moments in a history of writ ing by working-class men, women and children that stretches over the past two hundred years. We will address such questions as: What is "class," and who is working-class? What is "work," and what is its relation to class? What difference do differences of class and work make in our social experience and in the means and modes available for writing and cultural production? What are the uses and understandings of "literature" in working-class culture? What has happened to working-class culture under postmod ernism and the Reagan/Thatcher revolution? Texts for the course represent a wide range of forms and purposes, including works of fiction, poetry, song, autobiography, journalism, film, video, history and cultural theory, mostly authored by members of the working-class, including young people.
2. Prerequisites: none.
3. Requirements: Students will be expected to make regular entries in reading-log, to write several short "conversation papers," and to complete a final project ("critical-analytical" and/or "creative" in nature). There will be no final exam.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered once every two years.

1752	Television Analysis	3 cr.

1. This course has the goal of increasing students' awareness of television as a visual medium and as a cultural force. Primary attention will be paid to the forms television programming takes and the way these structures in turn influence viewer respons e. We will examine recurring television formats (genres) by looking carefully at specific examples of them. The course will examine various fictional forms television takes (e.g., sitcoms, serials) as well as forms of reality programming (e.g. news, made- for-tv movies, talk shows). We will also consider "quality" forms of television and forms influenced by new technologies.
   Note : This section will be involved in testing a new computerized form of the course. Half the students will do one of the units on-line. Students not wanting to work with computers should not take this section.
2. Prerequisite: Willingness to do a small part of the course on-line and participate in group exercises and discussions. This section does not meet the W requirement.
3. Requirements: Attendance, class participation, and a number of short papers and exercises.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered every year.

1752	Television Analysis	3 cr.

1. This course has the goal of increasing students' awareness of television as a visual medium and as a cultural force. Primary attention will be paid to the forms television programming takes and the way these structures in turn influence viewer respons e. We will examine recurring television formats (genres) by looking carefully at specific examples of them. The course will examine various fictional forms television takes (e.g., sitcoms, serials) as well as forms of reality programming (e.g. news, made- for-tv movies, talk shows). We will also consider "quality" forms of television and forms influenced by new technologies.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their Composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course .
3. Requirements: Attendance, class participation, and a number of short papers and exercises.
4. No recitation.
5. Expected class size is 22 students.
6. This course is offered every year.

1774	Literature Of Sports	3 cr.

1. The course studies modern American culture through the medium of sports. We begin with essays that take liberal and conservative positions on the fundamental issues embedded in the topic of sports: competition, aggression, the hero, team identity, fan motivation, racism, sexism, the media, etc. But we mainly examine these issues as they present themselves in a series of significant sports novels, mainly about baseball and football, from the last 40 years.
2. Prerequisite: none.
3. Requirements: In addition to reading several essays and 6 or 7 novels, the students will write three papers totaling approximately 15 pages. There will be no exams, but there will be frequent reading quizzes. Class discussion will be important.
4. No recitations.
5. Expected class size is 35 students.
6. This course is offered occasionally.

1901	Independent Study	1 to 6 Cr.

Please note that a student must have earned at least 6 credits in depa rtment literature courses, and that the study proposed must not duplicate the content of regularly offered courses. The purpose of this option is to complement a student's program by permitting him or her to design a course not covered by the curriculum. It is not designed to permit students to avoid taking regularly offered courses. This course is also available under (UHC) University Honors College.

1910	Senior Seminar	3 cr.

1. A course that will explore fantasy as a literary mode. We will investigate process, interaction, and change in traditional fantastic writing ranging from early through postmodern transformations of earlier romance forms. We will also discuss topics of consequence to recent theorists: intertextuality, fabulation, fantasy as interrogation of representation, the uncanny and the marvelous, closure, and revisions of gender. Special attention will be given to science fantasy, Gothicism, "dark" fantasy, roma ntic fantasy, the weird tale, magic realism, and ghost stories. Readings will be selected from texts available and accessible and may include Hoffmann, MacDonald, Carroll, Kipling, Baum, Wells, Wolfe, Crowley, Le Guin, Gass, Russ, Wilde, Coover, de Lillo, Millhauser, Coetzee, and Carter.
2. Prerequisites: Introduction to Critical Reading (Eng Lit 0500) and three historically based core courses (one before and one after 1800. Exceptions may be made only with the instructor's consent.
3. Requirements will include: regular attendance and participation in class discussions. Students should expect to contribute regularly to discussions. Those who miss more than five class meetings should not expect to receive a grade higher than "C." The grade will be based on the steadiness and quality of students' contributions to discussions, short essays, and a longer project resulting in a paper of about 3,000 words. All aspects of students' work will be weighed in deciding the final grade.
4. No recitation. Classes will be organized as discussions.
5. Expected class size is 15 students.
6. This course is offered each term.

1910	Senior Seminar: Joyce	3 cr.

1. The course is a general introduction to Joyce's work from Dubliners to Finnegans Wake . The main focus of the course however is Ulysses which is read with individual presentations chapter by chapter. Questions of narrative, of the relations between politics and literature, and of the representation of sexuality are constant concerns of the course.
   The primary objective of the course is that the students have read Ulysses in its entirety and feel in a position to read Finnegans Wake . They should have a firm grasp of what is at stake in modernism, and to have the elements of an understanding of the relation between politics, sex, and language.
2. Prerequisites: No formal prerequisites, but a good knowledge of English literature and some interest on questions of interpretation are probably a necessity for anyone to fully appreciate the course. Completion of three historical period courses, the English Composition requirement and Introduction to Critical Reading.
3. Requirements: The students will be evaluated on their class participation, their end of term paper, and their oral presentation in the ratio 20:50:30.
4. The initial classes on Dubliners and a Portrait of the Artist will be run as lecture and discussion classes. Each student will have been assigned a chapter of Ulysses and from week 4 to 12 the classes will also include their oral presentations. The final 2 weeks on Finnegans Wake will be the same format as the first 3 with a much greater focus on the reading of specific passages.
5. Expected class size is 15 students.
6. This course is offered occasionally.

1910	Senior Seminar: Work And Play In Literature	3 cr.

1. College students face the challenge of choosing a vocation and making satisfying lives for themselves. Is this one challenge or two very different challenges? Some graduating seniors are eager to enter the "real" world of work. Others may regret leavi ng the cozy environment where they have sported--intellectually and otherwise--for four final years of socially sanctioned play. (The word school derives from a Greek root meaning leisure ). What if anything can a literature major teach you about balancing the twinned values of work and play? Which notion better describes literature? Did you study Shakespeare's works or his plays? In this seminar we will explore such questions by reading more than a dozen books ranging from Shakespeare t o the present: many novels, a couple of plays, some non-fictional prose. Mostly by classic Anglo-American authors like Defoe, Thoreau, and Conrad, these texts revolve around the issues of work and play. They should help students sharpen their ideas on thi s topic. To that end we will also read a couple of cultural studies and some criticism.
2. Prerequisite: This is a W-section of the course. CAS and CGS students must have completed their composition requirement (GW or its equivalent) before taking this course . This course is limited to senior English majors or students who have ta ken three historical period courses in English literature.
3. Requirements: Students will submit several installments of a journal (total 12-15 pp.) exploring their reactions to the reading. Toward the end of the seminar they will submit a short research paper of 5-7 pages and a personal essay of 3-4 pages; at l east one of these should grow out of ideas first broached in the journal. Though the grade will be based mainly on student writing, some weight will also be given to class participation and a final exam.
4. No recitation sections, but students are always expected to be abreast of the reading and ready to recite in seminar. Preparation is tested by regular quizzes.
5. Expected class size is 15 students.
6. This course is offered occasionally.

For further information see: Dr. Valerie Krips, Department of English, x49341.

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