English Jump To: Jump To: Program Offerings A.B. Minor Offering type A.B. In the Department of English, students read widely across the genres and periods of British, American and Anglophone literature and explore approaches to literary study with a distinguished, internationally renowned faculty. The department's ranks include historicists and formalists, theorists and poets, and postcolonialists and feminists; the faculty teach not only poetry, prose and drama, but film, music, art, architecture and technology. The department is united by a passion for works of the imagination and for thinking about what they mean and the difference they make in the world.The department offers courses that cover more than two millennia of literature and culture, in settings ranging from large lectures to small seminars to one-on-one advising. A typical program of study embraces new and experimental writing, important rediscoveries and the most hallowed texts of the Western literary tradition, the "news that stays news." The department cultivates a common critical vocabulary and joins in debating enduring questions about art, language and society. The junior year begins with a diverse array of junior seminars, which couple the study of a specific subject with methodological training in critical reading and writing. Juniors and seniors pursue independent work on subjects of their choosing in collaboration with the faculty. The department also encourages majors who wish to pursue interdisciplinary work through certificate programs and minors.English majors graduate as incisive readers, cogent thinkers and persuasive writers. They carry with them a lasting ability to take informed pleasure in all forms of literature, in the process of writing and in the meanings and powers of culture. Graduates go on to become leaders in such fields as education, law, medicine, journalism, business, politics and the creative arts. Simply put, learning to read closely and write fluently — the twin pillars of the discipline — are among the most valuable skills graduates can bring to the world's work. Goals for Student Learning Courses in the Department of English enable students to develop crucial transferable skills, including:Analytical, critical and interpretive skills — students develop these faculties through close attention to the structures of arguments, specific aspects of language and expression, and conceptual synthesis.Excellent writing — students develop the ability to communicate in clear, efficient and elegant prose, and to write deliberately with a specific audience in mind.The ability to read closely and carefully, to attend to historical, rhetorical and grammatical aspects of English.Attention to translation — many students work with texts in other languages, comparing them with their English translations, to comprehend how English relates, stylistically and historically, to materials in other languages.Research skills that will enrich and improve these reading and writing skills — for instance, students acquire tools and methods for archival research, to understand the history of books and book production, how to read data and various modes of expression and interpretation, and the histories of aesthetics and literary criticism.The ability to understand, engage and assess relevant critical work (secondary sources that comprise the discipline or interdisciplinary fields like American studies, African American studies, Asian American studies, etc.).The exercise of these skills with an understanding of historical developments of English-language literatures, demonstrating an ability to situate a text, movement or style in relation to broader aspects of period or genre.The exercise of these skills with an understanding of how particular English-language literatures and theories address, and are implicated in, historical operations of power and empire.The ability to propose a subject for sustained research, analysis or critical interpretation, and to see the project to effective completion.The ability to recognize, use and assess a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives.In sum: students develop the ability to compose thoughtful, cogent, compelling and deliberate analytical writing, supported by careful consideration of evidence and informed by a comprehensive understanding of how language is implicated in questions of history, culture, aesthetic value and power. Prerequisites There are no specific prerequisite courses for the major in English, but prospective majors should take at least one course in English in the first and second years. Program of Study English majors must take a total of 10 courses: the Junior Seminar (ENG 300), one designated course in Literary and Cultural History (LCH), and eight departmental courses. The junior seminar is a topical introduction to research methods in the discipline and prepares students for their independent work. Literary and Cultural History (LCH) courses ask questions about tradition and transmission over longer periods, and provide background for more specialized study. Distribution RequirementsDepartmental distribution requirements ensure breadth in each major's program of study. Everyone must take at least one course in each of the following areas:Literary and Cultural History (LCH)Literature and Culture before 1700 (pre-1700)Literature and Culture from 1700–1900 (1700–1900)Literature and Culture from 1900–present (post-1900)Difference and Diversity (D&D)Theory and Criticism (T&C)Each semester, the department offers a wide variety of courses in each distribution area, and a full list is available on the department website. A single course cannot be used to satisfy two distribution requirements simultaneously. In total: There are six required distributions, plus the junior seminar (ENG 300), plus three additional English courses, for the 10 required courses for the major.A few rules regarding departmental courses:Majors may not take English courses on a pass/D/fail (P/D/F) basis. This includes cross-listed courses, even if English is not the home department.Students who study abroad may count up to two courses taken abroad as departmental courses. Cross-listed courses do not count against the Rule of 12 as long as the home department is not English.The Rule of 12. A student in the A.B. program is limited to 12 one-term courses (plus independent work) in a given department, plus up to two departmental prerequisites taken during the first year or sophomore year. Students who exceed the 31-course requirement for graduation may exceed the Rule of 12 by as many courses (e.g., if you take 32 courses total, you can exceed the rule of 12 by one course). For most English majors, this means only 12 courses primarily designated as English courses (ENG courses or cross-listed courses where ENG comes first—e.g., ENG 327/GSS 332). Departmental cognates do not count against the Rule of 12. Departmental Tracks Tracks and Certificate ProgramsTracks in Creative Writing and Theater. The English department has many majors with a strong interest in creative writing and theater, and offers special programs for students pursuing certificates in those closely related subjects.Creative Writing: Students accepted to the certificate program in creative writing may cognate two CWR courses as departmental courses in English and may substitute a thesis in CWR for the thesis in English.Theater: Students accepted to the certificate program in theater may cognate two THR courses as departmental courses in English.Certificate Programs. English encourages students with interdisciplinary interests to bring them to the department, and to pursue connections with literary and cultural studies. Students who will receive a certificate in another discipline, and who can show (in their coursework or independent work) vital connections with their studies in English, may count one course in that discipline toward their studies in English, by permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Independent Work The Junior Seminar (ENG 300)The JRS is a required introduction to the methods of research and the arts of criticism that must be taken in the fall of junior year. During the sophomore sign-ins, students are placed into one of four seminars at Princeton. The junior seminar instructor advises each member of the seminar on class selection for the spring.The completed junior paper takes the form of one 20-30 page JP, which is begun in conjunction with the junior seminar and which students complete in the spring semester, continuing the advising established during the junior seminar for the student's independent work.The Senior ThesisTheses are 60-75 pages in length, on a topic chosen in collaboration with the thesis adviser. One chapter or 20 pages of the thesis is due in December. Senior Departmental Examination All English majors take the senior departmental examination, which is explained in further detail here.HonorsHonors are decided by each cohort and not a set number. Honors in English are computed at graduation according to the following percentages:Departmental courses (excluding the junior seminar): 50%Thesis: 25%Junior Independent Work: 7.5% junior paper; 7.5% junior seminarSenior Oral Exam and Reflection Paper: 10% (7.5% for the exam, 2.5% for the reflection paper)Note that in English, it is not permissible to drop the lowest-graded departmental course from your average; all departmental courses are counted. Study Abroad The department encourages students to consider studying abroad. Courses taken abroad may, with approval, receive both departmental and distribution credit (in general, the department can accept two courses for study abroad). Students considering studying abroad should consult the director of undergraduate studies at an early stage. Offering type Minor In the Department of English, students are trained to read critically and to attend to the imbricated histories of language, literature, culture and power. Students read widely across genres and periods of British, American and Anglophone literature as well as across a variety of critical and theoretical approaches. In addition to lectures and seminars devoted to poetry, prose and drama, English offers courses on cinema, photography, architecture, the public essay, and data and culture, among other media and topics. We encourage students to think across disciplines and languages, and we offer vital skills and resources that support independent research.An English minor serves Princeton undergraduates from all majors, sharpening thinking and writing in ways that support work in their respective concentrations. English courses foreground language, style and rhetoric; they train students’ attention to effective writing as well as to a variety of analytical, critical and interpretive modes. In English courses, students pay close attention to the structures of arguments, to specific aspects of language and expression, to the history of literature in English, and to the cultural and grammatical aspects of the language. English courses also foreground the historical operations of language and power, affording students invaluable resources not only for addressing the inequities and disparities that shape our world but also for imagining the futures that can reinvent that world. Goals for Student Learning Courses in the Department of English enable students to develop crucial transferable skills, including:Analytical, critical and interpretive skills — students develop these faculties through close attention to the structures of arguments, specific aspects of language and expression, and conceptual synthesis.Excellent writing — students develop the ability to communicate in clear, efficient and elegant prose, and to write deliberately with a specific audience in mind.The ability to read closely and carefully, to attend to historical, rhetorical and grammatical aspects of English.Attention to translation — many students work with texts in other languages, comparing them with their English translations, to comprehend how English relates, stylistically and historically, to materials in other languages.Research skills that will enrich and improve these reading and writing skills — for instance, students acquire tools and methods for archival research, to understand the history of books and book production, how to read data and various modes of expression and interpretation, and the histories of aesthetics and literary criticism.The ability to understand, engage and assess relevant critical work (secondary sources that comprise the discipline or interdisciplinary fields like American studies, African American studies, Asian American studies, etc.).The exercise of these skills with an understanding of historical developments of English-language literatures, demonstrating an ability to situate a text, movement or style in relation to broader aspects of period or genre.The exercise of these skills with an understanding of how particular English-language literatures and theories address, and are implicated in, historical operations of power and empire.The ability to propose a subject for sustained research, analysis or critical interpretation, and to see the project to effective completion.The ability to recognize, use and assess a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives.In sum: students develop the ability to compose thoughtful, cogent, compelling and deliberate analytical writing, supported by careful consideration of evidence and informed by a comprehensive understanding of how language is implicated in questions of history, culture, aesthetic value and power. Prerequisites There are no specific prerequisite courses for the minor in English, but prospective minors are encouraged to take at least one course in English during their first or second year. Admission to the Program The Department of English will hold an “open enrollment” period every spring for prospective minors. While students are encouraged to declare in their sophomore year, to take advantage of departmental guidance and the potential “clusters” curated by faculty, they may declare a minor any time before the beginning of their junior spring. A student might join the minor after that, but only with the support of the DUS and their residential college dean, and after having a detailed conversation about advising and guidelines.English courses taken prior to the formal declaration of the minor may be counted retroactively. Program of Study English minors must take five courses, at least two of them seminars.Just as there are no prerequisites, there are also no required courses for the minor. As detailed above, the department will offer suggestions as to possible clusters, but we will also invite students to chart their paths and propose a new cluster.Students may apply one approved study abroad course toward completion of the minor. For the Class of 2026 and beyond, students may not apply cognates toward the completion of the minor. Only courses hosted or cross-listed by English will count toward the minor.Minors are required to complete a reflection paper after completing the minor course requirements.In this reflection paper, students are tasked with describing their paths through the minor and outlining the knowledge and skills they’ve acquired across their English courses.Students may submit their reflection papers at any time after they’ve completed the course requirements for the minor, but no later than March of their senior spring term. The reflection paper, which is submitted to the undergraduate administrator and the director of undergraduate studies, and then read by members of our committee on departmental studies, is the equivalent, for minors, of the senior departmental exam that graduating majors must take, which also includes, as one component, a reflection paper.No more than one elected pass/D/fail course may be counted toward the requirements for the minor.Students cannot count courses taken to fulfill the requirements of their major toward the requirements for the minor. Additional Requirements How to Report CompletionStudents will be required to submit two separate documents to successfully indicate the completion of their requirements. Completed documents should be submitted via email to the undergraduate administrator and the director of undergraduate studies. The two required documents are:The Self-Reporting FormThis will indicate the completion of course requirements.This is due in December of senior year.The Reflection PaperThis is due in March of senior year. Faculty Chair Simon E. Gikandi Associate Chair Russ Leo (acting) Gayle Salamon Director of Undergraduate Studies Russ Leo Director of Graduate Studies Joshua I. Kotin Professor Eduardo L. Cadava Anne Cheng Andrew Cole Bradin T. Cormack Maria A. DiBattista Jill S. Dolan Jeff Dolven Diana J. Fuss Simon E. Gikandi William A. Gleason Gene Andrew Jarrett Claudia L. Johnson Meredith A. Martin Lee C. Mitchell Rob Nixon Jeff Nunokawa Sarah Rivett Gayle Salamon Esther H. Schor D. Vance Smith Nigel Smith Robert E. Spoo Susan J. Wolfson Associate Professor Zahid R. Chaudhary Sophie G. Gee Joshua I. Kotin Russ Leo Kinohi Nishikawa Tamsen O. Wolff Autumn M. Womack Assistant Professor Monica Huerta Paul Nadal Robbie Richardson Lecturer with Rank of Professor Rhodri Lewis Senior Lecturer Sarah M. Anderson Lecturer Kristina Chesaniuk Mary K Naydan Spencer A. Strub Visiting Professor Gauri Viswanathan Visiting Lecturer Don Mee Choi David J. Sellers For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website. Courses ENG 132 - Imagining America Not offered this year LA An introduction to the cross-cultural study of American literatures, with special attention to the multiple points of connection, conflict, dialogue, and exchange that characterize American writings. Texts may be drawn from a broad range of periods, regions, and cultures. One lecture, two classes. Staff ENG 200 - Rewriting the World: Literatures in English, 1350-1850 Spring LA An introduction to English literary history. Centered on four great writers--Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, and Pope. Two lectures, one 50-minute preceptorial. R. Lewis ENG 203 - The Essay Spring LA This course introduces students to the range of the essay form as it has developed from the early modern period to our own. The class will be organized, for the most part, chronologically, beginning with the likes of Bacon and Hobbes, and ending with some contemporary examples of and reflections on the form. It will consider how writers as various as Sidney, Hume, Johnson, Emerson, Woolf, C.L.R. James, and Stephen Jay Gould have defined and revised The Essay. Two lectures, one 50-minute preceptorial. J. Nunokawa ENG 230 - Public Speaking Not offered this year LA Emphasis upon the preparation and delivery of expository and persuasive speeches before audiences composed of the speaker's fellow students. Consultations with the instructor, readings in textbooks, and written analyses of speeches supplement frequent practice in speaking. One 90-minute lecture, two classes. T. Wolff ENG 259 - Film and Media Studies (also AMS 259) Not offered this year LA This course offers a survey of the varieties of animation across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as well as their critical reception. Animation is a ubiquitous form, present across media and in advertising. Many viewers take its components and effects for granted. But the archive of animation fundamentally complicates any easy assumptions about "realism" in the twentieth century; animation, moreover, challenges assumptions about bodies and their functions, exaggerating their features and functions, promoting alternatives to more mundane notions of life and liveliness, and relatedly, to ideas of time, contingency, and experience. M. Huerta, R. Leo ENG 300 - Junior Seminar in Critical Writing Fall Students learn to write clear and persuasive criticism in a workshop setting while becoming familiar with a variety of critical practices and research methods. The course culminates in the writing of a junior paper. Each section will pursue its own topic; students are assigned according to choices made during sophomore sign-ins. Required of all English majors. One three-hour seminar. Staff ENG 304 - Children's Literature Spring LA A close examination of fairy tales and fantasies written for children but also addressed to adults. Questions to be considered will be literary, cultural, and psychological: the role of fantasy in an age of repression, didacticism versus amorality, male versus female writers, and the conventions of the Victorian fairy tale. Two lectures, one preceptorial. W. Gleason ENG 305 - Contemporary Literary Theory (also COM 312) Not offered this year LA Fundamental questions about the nature, function, and value of literary theory. A small number of strategically selected theoretical topics, including exemplary literary works as reference points for discussion. One three-hour seminar. Z. Chaudhary, C. León ENG 306 - History of Criticism (also COM 340) Fall LA A study of particular developments in criticism and theory, from Aristotle to Nietzsche. The course will also consider the relation of contemporary criticism to movements and issues such as deconstruction, feminism, psychoanalysis, and cultural materialism. One three-hour seminar. A. Cole ENG 310 - The Old English Period (also MED 310) Not offered this year LA An intensive introduction to the English language spoken and written in the British Isles approximately 500 to 1100 C.E., leading to a critical survey of the literature. Attention is paid both to linguistic questions and to the cultural context of such poems as Beowulf and the Dream of the Rood. Two 90-minute seminars. S. Anderson ENG 311 - The Medieval Period (also MED 309) Fall/Spring LA A study of the Middle English texts that span the period from the Norman Conquest to the Tudor Renaissance, with attention paid to Middle English as a language. Readings will be chosen from verse romance, drama, political and religious writings, romance and/or lyric. One three-hour seminar. D. Smith ENG 312 - Chaucer (also MED 312) Fall LA It's no accident that authors from William Shakespeare to Zadie Smith have taken inspiration from the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's collection of tragedies, romances, satires, fantasies, and farces engages with problems that remain urgent today vexed dynamics of gender and power, freedom, servitude, antisemitism, Islamophobia, grief, trauma, piety and hypocrisy. Our task in this class will be to read this multiform masterpiece from beginning to end, learning its original Middle English as we go. The goal: to understand the Tales both in their late-medieval context and as living literature, still capable of teaching today's writers a few tricks. S. Strub ENG 317 - Poetry and Poetics, 1500 to 1700 (also GSS 407) Spring LA This class considers short poems of the 16th and 17th centuries that are variously concerned with love, desire, and sexual intimacy. What are the modes of address in the erotic lyric? How do poems represent the subject and object of desire, and how do they represent the ethics of the erotic encounter? What is the social, political, and philosophical work of a personal and intimate poetry? Alongside a wide range of poems (including at least one contemporary collection placed in dialogue with the earlier poems), the course will include several short theoretical readings on the representation of desire. B. Cormack ENG 318 - Shakespeare: Toward Hamlet (also THR 310) Fall LA A study of Shakespeare's plays, covering the first half of his career. Emphasis will be on each play as a work of art and on Shakespeare's development as a poet and dramatist. Two lectures, one preceptorial. B. Cormack ENG 319 - Shakespeare: Hamlet and After Spring LA A study of Shakespeare's plays, covering the second half of his career. Emphasis will be on each play as a work of art and on Shakespeare's development as a poet and dramatist. Two lectures, one preceptorial. B. Cormack ENG 325 - Milton (also COM 371) Spring LA A study of Milton's poetry and prose, with particular attention to Milton's poetic style and development and his indebtedness to various classical traditions. Emphasis will also be given to Milton as thinker and to the place he holds in 17th-century thought. Two lectures, one preceptorial. N. Smith ENG 330 - Romanticism and the Age of Revolutions (also ECS 368) Fall EM or LA A study of the Romantic movement in an age of revolutions: its literary culture, its variety of genres, its cultural milieu, and the interactions of its writers. Major figures to be studied include Wollstonecraft, Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. Two 90-minute seminars. S. Wolfson ENG 331 - The Later Romantics (also ECS 382) Spring LA A study of the young writers who defined English literary culture, especially the Romantic movement, in Regency and late Georgian England. Course material will include poetry, prose, and fiction, with emphasis on close reading as well as cultural contexts. Among the major figures to be studied are the Shelleys, Byron, and Keats. Two 90-minute seminars. S. Wolfson ENG 334 - Literatures of the American Renaissance, 1820-1865 Not offered this year LA A study of the major forms and traditions of American literature during the earlier 19th century, with main emphasis on such writers as Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson, and Whitman. The artistic achievement of these writers will be studied in relation to developing literary conventions and cultural patterns in pre-Civil War America. Two 90-minute seminars. E. Cadava ENG 338 - Topics in 18th-Century Literature (also AMS 348/HIS 318) Not offered this year LA This course will at different times deal with particular currents of literature and thought in the 18th century, or with individual authors. Two lectures, one preceptorial. R. Richardson ENG 339 - Topics in 18th-Century Literature (also COM 342/GSS 438) Fall LA This course will at different times deal with particular currents of literature and thought in the 18th century, or with individual authors. Two lectures, one preceptorial. C. Johnson ENG 340 - Topics in American Literature (also AMS 359) Not offered this year LA An investigation of issues outside the scope of traditional surveys of American literature. Topics may include: definitions of "America," literature of the South, contemporary poetry, New Historicism, America on film, the Harlem Renaissance, the Vietnam War, the sentimental novel, colonial encounters, literature of the Americas, fictions of empire, Jewish American writers. Two lectures, one preceptorial. E. Schor, D. Nord, M. DiBattista ENG 342 - Indigenous Literature and Culture (also AMS 349) Spring CD or LA This course will look to understand the current and historical role of Indigenous people as a trope in both Western culture and in American culture more specifically, the material effects of such representations and the longstanding resistance to them among Indigenous people, and work toward developing ways of supporting Indigenous sovereignty and futurity. It will include a cross-disciplinary program of learning that will work closely with the Indigenous holdings in both Firestone Library and the Princeton Art Museum. R. Richardson ENG 344 - Topics in Romanticism Not offered this year LA An intensive study of particular aspects of British Romanticism, which may include individual authors, genres, experiments, and legacies. Two 90-minute seminars. E. Schor ENG 345 - 19th-Century Fiction Fall LA Novels of the Romantic and Victorian periods, beginning with Jane Austen, including the Brontës and the major Victorians, and ending with Hardy. Two lectures, one preceptorial. J. Nunokawa ENG 346 - 19th-Century Poetry Not offered this year LA This survey of 19th-century British poetry will explore the ways in which Victorian poetry and poetic form influenced and were influenced by national movements: education, empire, voting reform, gender relations, and the rise of technology. It will consider how the afterlife of 19th-century poetry haunts our interpretation of early 20th-century poetry, and re-historicize Victorian poetics amid the vibrant and complicated tapestry of the 19th century. Students will read poems by Tennyson, D.G. Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Barrett Browning, Browning, Swinburne, Hardy, Clough, Bridges, and Hopkins. Two 90-minute seminars. M. Martin ENG 347 - Victorian Literature and Society Not offered this year LA An examination of the responses of Victorian novelists, poets, social critics, and graphic artists to poverty, industrialization, the "woman question," prostitution, slum life, and other social and political issues of the day. Special emphasis on the development of a language and imagery of social criticism. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff ENG 348 - Late Victorian Literature: Decadence and Rebellion Not offered this year LA This course studies the literature of the last decades of the Victorian era, often referred to as the fin de siècle (or end of the century). It will focus on literary, cultural, and social developments in the final years of the nineteenth century and first years of the twentieth, among them aestheticism, decadence, literary naturalism, imperialism, socialism, the arts and crafts movement, and the "new woman." Authors to be considered include Wilde, Conrad, Pater, Schreiner, Shaw, Hopkins, Hardy, Bridges, Kipling, Morris, Gissing, and Stevenson. Two ninety-minute lectures, one-hour preceptorial. D. Nord ENG 351 - American Literature: 1865-1930 Spring LA A study of the development of American literature within the context of the shifting social, intellectual, and literary conventions of the period. Emphasis will be on the artistic achievement of writers such as James, Howells, Twain, Dreiser, Crane, Adams, Wharton, Cather, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. Two lectures, one preceptorial. L. Mitchell ENG 357 - Topics in American Literature Not offered this year LA An investigation of issues outside the scope of traditional surveys of American literature. Topics may include: definitions of "America," literature of the South, contemporary poetry, New Historicism, America on film, the Harlem Renaissance, the Vietnam War, the sentimental novel, colonial encounters, literature of the Americas, fictions of empire. Two lectures, one preceptorial. L. Mitchell ENG 358 - Caribbean Literature and Culture (also AAS 343/AMS 396/LAS 385) CD or LA The Caribbean is an archipelago made up of islands that both link and separate the Americas - islands that have weathered various waves of colonization, migration, and revolution. How do narratives of the Caribbean represent the collision of political forces and natural environments? Looking to the many abyssal histories of the Caribbean, we will explore questions of indigeneity, colonial contact, iterations of enslavement, and the plantation matrix in literary texts. How do island-writers evoke gender and a poetics of relation that exceeds tourist desire and forceful extraction? Staff ENG 360 - Modern Fiction Not offered this year LA The Modern movement in English fiction, from Conrad and Joyce to the present. Two lectures, one preceptorial. M. DiBattista ENG 361 - Modern Drama I (also COM 321/THR 364) Not offered this year LA A study of major plays by Ibsen, Strindberg, Jarry, Chekhov, Pirandello, Brecht, and Beckett. Emphasis will be given to the theatrical revolutions they initiated and to the influence they continue to exert on contemporary drama and theater. Two 90-minute seminars. M. Cadden ENG 368 - American Literature: 1930-Present (also AMS 340) Not offered this year LA A study of modern American writings, from Faulkner to Diaz, that emphasize the interplay between formal experimentation and thematic diversity. Two lectures, one preceptorial. L. Mitchell ENG 370 - Contemporary Fiction Not offered this year LA An exploration of the connections and disconnects of our ever-smaller world, viewed through English-language novels and films of the last 25 years. At stake: translatability of language and ideas, processes of immigration, dynamics of economic development, history and memory, heroism and maturity, and notions of the future itself, in societies of rapid change. Throughout, the intersections between state policy and individual lives will be considered, such that while the course is premised on grand geopolitical questions, attention will focus on localized examples: specific texts, close reading. Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Chihaya ENG 371 - Contemporary Poetry Not offered this year LA With an emphasis on British, Australian, and American poetry from 1945 to the present, this course covers a range of work. It considers such groups as the Beats, the Confessionals, the Surrealists, and the New York School, but attention will mostly be devoted to major works by MacDiarmid, Bishop, Lowell, Auden, Berryman, Brooks, Jarrell, Thomas, Larkin, Levertov, Ammons, Creeley, Duncan, Ginsberg, O'Hara, Ashbery, Merwin, Tomlinson, Walcott, Hill, Plath, Murray, Trantner, Kinsella, and others. Classwork will be supplemented by attending readings on and off campus. Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Stewart ENG 372 - Contemporary Drama (also THR 372) Not offered this year LA An examination of some of the best literature written for the stage since the Second World War. Two lectures, one preceptorial. T. Wolff ENG 383 - Topics in Women's Writing (also AMS 483/GSS 395) Fall CD or LA In received tradition there are no women authors writing in English before the very late 17th century, with a very few notable exceptions in the Middle Ages. This course charts the recovery and revaluation of early modern poetry, drama and prose by women. We'll learn how significant it is and enjoyable, as we encounter works that range in subject from the harrowing death of grown-up daughters, highly original philosophy, bold political verse and critiques of slavery. We'll consider all within frameworks provided by contemporary gender and race theory and history. N. Smith ENG 384 - Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies (also GSS 394) Not offered this year CD or LA This course explores early modern figurations of gender and sex in the literature and philosophy of Europe. We will look carefully at poetry, plays, utopian fiction, and natural philosophy from early modern England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and the wider Atlantic world. Orienting our reading around the intersecting paradigms of faith, labor, and utopia, this course will offer us the chance to explore historical theories of gender, sex, and desire as well as consent, race, and property. We will also consider how early modern problems and assumptions inform more recent debates concerning gender and sexuality. R. Leo, M. Wolfert ENG 388 - Topics in Critical Theory (also AAS 391/COM 399) Fall/Spring LA Frantz Fanon is among the most important intellectuals of the twentieth century. In this course we will concentrate on two of Fanon's major books: Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth. We will read Fanon's contemporaries like Aimé Césaire and Léopold Senghor as well as responses to Fanon by Jean-Paul Sartre, Hanna Arendt, Judith Butler, Sylvia Wynter, Ng'g wa Thiong'o, and others. Topics we will cover are decolonization, infrastructural critique, systemic racism, existentialist phenomenology, négritude, violence, dialectics, psychiatry (vs. psychoanalysis), national consciousness, revolution, poesis, praxis. A. Cole ENG 390 - The Bible as Literature (also COM 392/HUM 390/TRA 390) Fall/Spring LA The Bible will be read closely in its own right and as an enduring resource for literature and commentary. The course will cover its forms and genres, including historical narrative, uncanny tales, prophecy, lyric, lament, commandment, sacred biography, and apocalypse; its pageant of weird and extraordinary characters; and its brooding intertextuality. Students will become familiar with a wide variety of biblical interpretations, from the Rabbis to Augustine, Kafka and Kierkegaard. Cinematic commentary will be included--Bible films, from the campy to the sublime. Two lectures, one preceptorial. E. Schor ENG 397 - New Diasporas (also AAS 397/COM 348) Not offered this year LA This course will explore the works of contemporary authors of the African and Caribbean diaspora in Europe and North America in relation to the changing historical and cultural context of migration and globalization. The course will consider how these writers have represented the process of relocation, acculturation, and the transnational moment. What is the role of the imagination in the rethinking of identities lived across boundaries? Why and how do these authors use the term diaspora to describe their experiences? How do the works of a new generation of writers from Africa and the Caribbean transform theories of globalization? S. Gikandi ENG 401 - Forms of Literature LA Each term course will be offered in special topics of English and American literature. One three-hour seminar. L. Mitchell ENG 402 - Forms of Literature LA Each term course will be offered in special topics of English and American literature. One three-hour seminar. S. Stewart ENG 403 - Forms of Literature LA Each term course will be offered in special topics of English and American literature. One three-hour seminar. C. Johnson ENG 404 - Forms of Literature (also COM 448) Not offered this year LA Each term course will be offered in special topics of English and American literature. One three-hour seminar. Staff ENG 405 - Topics in Poetry Fall LA A focused view of a problem or issue in poetry, changing from year to year. Recent topics have emphasized problems of poetic language, metrics, poetry and social life, poetic influence and canonization, and the relations between poetry and other art forms. One three-hour seminar. P. Muldoon ENG 409 - Topics in Drama (also HUM 409/THR 410) Not offered this year LA A detailed discussion of different bodies of theatrical literature, with emphasis and choice of materials varying from year to year. The focus will be on a group of related plays falling within a specific historical period, the developing work of one playwright, or the relationships among thematics, characterization, and structure. Two lectures, one preceptorial. B. Sincox ENG 411 - Major Author(s) (also AAS 413/AMS 411) CD or LA A close study of the works of one or two authors. May include Austen, Dickinson, Wordsworth, George Eliot, Dickens, Melville, Faulkner, James, Stevens, or Woolf, among others. Two 90-minute seminars. E. Cadava ENG 412 - Major Author(s) LA A close study of the works of one or two authors. May include Austen, Dickinson, Wordsworth, George Eliot, Dickens, Melville, Faulkner, James, Stevens, or Woolf, among others. One three-hour seminar. Staff ENG 413 - Major Author(s) Not offered this year LA A close study of the works of one or two authors. May include Austen, Dickinson, Wordsworth, George Eliot, Dickens, Melville, Faulkner, James, Stevens, or Woolf, among others. One three-hour seminar. S. Stewart ENG 414 - Major Author(s) (also AAS 455) Spring LA A close study of the works of one or two authors. May include Austen, Dickinson, Wordsworth, George Eliot, Dickens, Melville, Faulkner, James, Stevens, or Woolf, among others. One three-hour seminar. R. Rainof ENG 415 - Topics in Literature and Ethics (also AFS 415/COM 446/JRN 415) Not offered this year CD or EM Courses offered under this rubric will investigate ethical questions in literature. Topics will range from a critical study of the textual forms these questions take to a historical study of an issue traditionally debated by both literature and ethics (responsibility, rhetoric, justice, violence, oppression). Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Gikandi ENG 416 - Topics in Literature and Ethics Not offered this year LA Courses offered under this rubric will investigate ethical questions in literature. Topics will range from a critical study of the textual forms these questions take to a historical study of an issue traditionally debated by both literature and ethics (responsibility, rhetoric, justice, violence, oppression). Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Gikandi ENG 417 - Topics in Postcolonial Literature (also AFS 416/COM 423) Not offered this year LA Approaches to the connections between literature and nationality, focusing either on literatures outside the Anglo-American experience or on the theoretical issues involved in articulating nationality through literature. Two 90-minute seminars. Z. Chaudhary ENG 418 - Topics in Postcolonial Literature Not offered this year LA Approaches to the connections between literature and nationality, focusing either on literatures outside the Anglo-American experience or on the theoretical issues involved in articulating nationality through literature. Two lectures, one preceptorial. D. Smith ENG 425 - Topics in London (also COM 462) Not offered this year LA In conjunction with University College London, this topic course addresses a range of topics, including the role of class, gender, ethnicity, race, and sexuality in the social dynamics of London life. Students will be considering works that represent the city in terms of the longing for kinds of relation that the city promises but may withhold. We will consider London as a city of neighborhoods, a national and imperial metropolis, a postcolonial and global city. By attending to our texts in their historical contexts and in relation to one another, we will be exploring writing about London that is as restless as the city itself. T. Wolff AAS 223 - Intro Topics in African American Culture & Life (also ENG 231) Spring LA This course examines the selected non-fiction writings of one of America's most influential essayists and public intellectuals: James Baldwin. Attention will be given to his views on ethics, art, and politics--with a particular consideration given to his critical reflections on race and democracy. E. Glaude AAS 253 - Introduction to African American Literature to 1910 (also ENG 352) Not offered this year LA This introductory course traces the emergence of an African American literary tradition, from the late-18th century to the early 20th. In readings, assignments, and discussion we will consider the unique cultural contexts, aesthetic debates, and socio-political forces underpinning African American literary cultural and practice. Over the course of the semester, we will investigate the poetry of Phillis Wheatley and Paul L. Dunbar, the political oratory of Sojourner Truth and David Walker, slave narratives by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Wilson, writing by W.E.B. DuBois, and novels by Frances Harper. AAS Subfield: AACL A. Womack AAS 325 - African American Autobiography (also ENG 393/REL 366) Not offered this year LA Highlights the autobiographical tradition of African Americans from the antebellum period to the present as symbolic representations of African American material, social, and intellectual history and as narrative quests of self-development. Students will be introduced to basic methods of literary analysis and criticism, specifically focusing on cultural criticism and psychoanalytic theory on the constructed self. Staff AAS 359 - African American Literature: Harlem Renaissance to Present (also ENG 366) Not offered this year LA A survey of 20th- and 21st century African American literature, including the tradition's key aesthetic manifestos. Special attention to how modern African American literature is periodized and why certain innovations in genre and style emerged when they did. Poetry, essays, novels, popular fiction, a stage production or two, and related visual texts. AAS Subfield: AACL K. Nishikawa AAS 392 - Topics in African American Literature (also ENG 392/GSS 341) Spring LA A historical overview of Black literary expression from the 19th century to present day. Will emphasize a critical and analytical approach to considering the social, cultural, and political dimensions of African American literature. Staff CLA 208 - Origins and Nature of English Vocabulary (also ENG 240/LIN 208/TRA 208) Not offered this year LA The origins and nature of English vocabulary, from proto-Indo-European prehistory to current slang. Emphasis on the Greek and Latin component of English vocabulary, including technical terminology (medical/scientific, legal, and humanistic). Related topics: the alphabet and English spelling, slang and jargon, social and regional variation, vocabulary changes in progress, the "national language'' debate. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff CLA 335 - Studies in the Classical Tradition (also COM 390/ENG 235/HLS 335) Not offered this year LA A classical genre or literary theme will be studied as it was handed down and transformed in later ages, for example, the European epic; ancient prose fiction and the picaresque tradition; the didactic poem. Two 90-minute seminars. K. Stergiopoulou COM 303 - Comparative History of Literary Theory (also ENG 302) Not offered this year LA A historical introduction to literary theory from Plato to the present. By reading philosophers, critics, and creative writers, students consider issues such as mimesis, imagination, religion, sexuality, and ethics, noting how each casts light on our understanding of literature and its cultural roles. Past terms and current problems are related to an inquiry into the nature--and the power--of literature through the ages. Students will read critical works from Plato and Aristotle, through Nietzsche, Beauvoir, Benjamin, Derrida, and Achebe, as well as poetry and plays by Sophocles, Shakespeare, Eliot, and Brecht. One three-hour seminar. S. Bermann COM 306 - The Modern European Novel (also ENG 440) Not offered this year LA Using Flaubert's Madame Bovary as a paradigm of the major thematic and technical preoccupations of the novel, lectures offer detailed interpretations of Ulysses, The Magic Mountain, Swann's Way, and theoretical speculations on symbolism, stream-of-consciousness, linguistic structures, psychoanalysis. Two lectures, one preceptorial. M. DiBattista COM 309 - The Lyric (also ENG 420/SPA 349) Not offered this year LA The lyric as a form of literary art, as distinct from narrative or drama. Readings encompass a variety of lyrical forms and a number of different cultures. Translations will be used. One lecture, one two-hour seminar. S. Bermann COM 372 - The Gothic Tradition (also ENG 303) Spring LA An exploration of the cultural meanings of the Gothic mode through a study of its characteristic elements, its origins in 18th-century English and German culture and thought, its development across Western national traditions, and its persistence in contemporary culture, including film, electronic media, clothing, social behavior, and belief systems, as well as literature. Films, artifacts, websites, and electronic publications will supplement readings. One three-hour seminar. A. Alliston ECS 342 - Literature and Photography (also COM 352/ENG 349) Spring LA Since its advent in the 19th century, photography has been a privileged figure in literature's efforts to reflect upon its own modes of representation. This seminar will trace the history of the rapport between literature and photography by looking closely at a number of literary and theoretical texts that differently address questions central to both literature and photography: questions about the nature of representation, reproduction, memory and forgetting, history, images, perception, and knowledge. E. Cadava GSS 400 - Contemporary Theories of Gender and Sexuality (also ENG 264) Spring SA We will take as our primary text the new translation of Simone deBeauvoir"s landmark volume The Second Sex, one of the most significant origin points of current understandings of gender. In our sustained consideration of The Second Sex, we will explore Beauvoir's ideas about the influence of sex and gender on childhood, the family, sexuality, relationships, aging, work, the social order, and the philosophical imaginary. We will also consider contemporary writing alongside that text, taking Beauvoir as our tour guide as we encounter and interpret contemporary representations of gender. G. Salamon REL 350 - God, Satan, Goddesses, and Monsters: How Their Stories Play in Art, Culture, and Politics (also CLA 352/ENG 442/HIS 353) Not offered this year CD or EC The seminar will investigate sources ranging from the Babylonian creation story and Homer's Illiad to passages from Genesis, Exodus, Job, the Hebrew prophets, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the New Testament to see how stories of invisible beings (gods, demons, angels) construct group identity (who "we" are, and who are the "others"--and what characterizes each) and express group values. One three-hour seminar. E. Pagels SLA 417 - Vladimir Nabokov (also COM 406/ENG 424/RES 417) Fall LA An examination of Nabokov's major accomplishments as a Russian/American novelist in the context of the Russian literary tradition and the cultural climate of emigration. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Y. Leving THR 205 - Introductory Playwriting (also CWR 210/ENG 205) Fall LA This is a workshop in the fundamentals of writing plays. Through writing prompts, exercises, study and reflection, students will be guided in the creation of original dramatic material. Attention will be given to character, structure, dramatic action, monologue, dialogue, language N. Davis, S. Khoury THR 300 - Acting, Being, Doing, and Making: Introduction to Performance Studies (also ANT 359/COM 359/ENG 373) Not offered this year LA A hands-on approach to this interdisciplinary field. We will apply key readings in performance theory to space and time-based events, at sites ranging from theatre, experimental art, and film, to community celebrations, sport events, and restaurant dining. We will observe people's behavior in everyday life as performance and discuss the "self" through the performativity of one's gender, race, class, ability, and more. We will also practice ethnographic methods to collect stories to adapt for performance and address the role of the participant-observer, thinking about ethics and the social responsibilities of this work. R. Williams, S. Wolf THR 452 - Topics in Ensemble Performance (also ENG 453) Spring LA This course is an acting intensive offering students the opportunity to engage in a rigorous rehearsal process with a professional theater director. The course emphasizes exploration and embodiment of character, and culminates in a staged production with simple technical elements, the focus on THE ensemble. This semester, the topic of A Midsummer Night's Dream will be explored through an immersive production staged in the Drapkin Studio in April. This production will explore the dynamics of queer identity using the complex backdrop of a contemporary Texas nightclub scene. The course is inclusive for every identity and ability. C. Snow