Classics-English
Associate Professor BUXTON (chair)
The Classics-English major provides the possibility for students to enhance their study of English and the Classics by learning the language(s) that most deeply influenced English (over 60 percent is either Latin or Greek), and the literary subject matter that is the primary material from which later centuries in the West created their literature. For example, reading the Odyssey in Greek cannot help but deepen one’s knowledge and appreciation of Joyce’s Ulysses, learning mythology, such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Latin, is of paramount importance in understanding Shakespeare and many other authors.
The joint major allows students to take advantage of Classics courses as well as one (or both) of the ancient languages to benefit their English literature training and vice versa.
This major starts from the observation that English and Classics reinforce each other. Classical genres underlie modern poetry, drama, and fiction, and many writers in English, into the 20th and 21st-centuries, have studied classical languages (at least Latin) and literature, so that classics is an important interpretive context for them. Moreover, English literature responds to Classics in ways that are important for Classics itself. We therefore allow students to complete slightly less work in each department than they would need to graduate with the single major.
Major Requirements
Requirements: Normal requirements are between 9 and 12 units as follows:
- Classical Language (Greek or Latin), including one block at the 300 level in one classical language (1 unit minimum)
- Introduction to literary study and interpretation (2 units): EN250/CO250 Introduction to Literary Theory and EN100 Introduction to Literature:
- English courses at the 300 or 400 level covering at least two of the following three periods (2 units):
- Medieval/Renaissance
- 18th/19th centuries
- 20th/21st centuries
- At least two Classics courses covering the genres of literature, drama, or mythology (2 units minimum)
- The department of classics written and oral examination over the department’s reading list
- Senior Thesis (2 units minimum): EN480 (1 unit) plus either EN499 or CL431 (Independent Senior Thesis, 1 unit minimum). The senior thesis project is to be co-directed and co-evaluated by two faculty members, one from Classics and one from English. It will be evaluated on the basis of its sophistication in the methodologies of both disciplines.
Total units required: 9-12.
Both departments also recommend study of a modern language to a level allowing literary reading.
Courses
Classics
Introduction to reading Attic Greek, the language of ancient Athens in its political, literary, and philosophical prime. Students will acquire fluency with the language’s grammar and vocabulary, enabling them to read and translate actual Greek literature (including the koine of the New Testament). In unpacking how Attic Greek works, students will simultaneously gain an ability to analyze the grammar of English and other languages. We will also learn about the history of the Greek language and its considerable influence on English’s scientific vocabulary and literature. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
A lower-level maintenance course for students who plan to continue their study of Greek. A systematic review of grammar with supervised readings and translation practice. Prerequisite: Classics 101 or equivalent. .25 unit.
A lower-level maintenance course for students who plan to continue their study of Greek. A systematic review of grammar with supervised reading and translation practice. Prerequisite: Classics 101 or equivalent. .25 unit.
Consideration of two of the major ancient civilizations spanning the Mediterranean. The course traces their development into major centers of power by examining archaeological and textual records and comparing Greek and Roman approaches to urban and rural spaces, households, religious centers, and burial spaces. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement.
This course is a survey of how archaeology is currently conducted in the Mediterranean world and the issues that archaeologists face when studying ancient cultures. It explores how archaeology actually happens by looking at various types of projects and how each one approaches different geological or environmental concerns. It looks at new technologies that are helping archaeologists and scholars expand their studies of both recent finds and in the reexamination of previously excavated material. (Not offered 2024-25).
Investigation of daily life in ancient Athens and Rome, considering people from various social classes and occupations, through and examination of the objects, spaces, and written records in the archaeological record. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.
Introduction to basic Latin grammar, syntax, and vocabulary; reading of texts from various ancient authors. Attention to the history of the language and its importance to, and influence on, other languages and cultures. 2 units Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
A lower-level maintenance course for students who plan to continue their study of Latin. A systematic review of grammar with supervised reading and translation practice. Prerequisite: Classics 111 or equivalent. .25 unit.
A lower-level maintenance course for students who plan to continue their study of Latin. A systematic review of grammar with supervised reading and translation practice. Prerequisite: Classics 111 or equivalent. .25 unit.
Aegean and Greek archaeological, historical, literary, and philosophical texts, with emphasis on ideas formative of Western culture. The development and transformations of these ideas as reflected in selected texts from the early Christian era, the Enlightenment, and the Modern Age. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Intensive Latin Grammar Review and Reading Practice. This course will use a morphological and syntactic approach to review and practice the essential structures and concepts of Latin grammar. It is intended to prepare students for courses at the 200 level. (Not offered 2024-25).
Survey of the civilizations that flourished in and around Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, Greece and Italy from the time of the first cities (3000 BC) to the rise of Islam (seventh century AD). Beyond providing a historical overview, the course explores the surprising ways in which the various peoples of this area influenced one another culturally. We will also learn about the different types of evidence, both literary and archaeological, on which knowledge of the ancient world is based. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
An introduction to the theoretical concept of ethnicity and related issues as they played out in the ancient Mediterranean world. In particular, a focus on the way Greeks and Romans defined themselves and distinguished themselves from other peoples as a way of assigning meaning to the universe, and how those attitudes motivated their behavior towards outsiders. Also an examination of the practical effects of such discourses on the lives of people who lived in Greek and Roman communities without belonging to the dominant groups, and some of the ways in which modern approaches to race and ethnicity have structured and sometimes distorted our collective understanding of the past. The materials studied include literary, artistic, and archaeological evidence, as well as modern scholarship. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement.
Latin Language course taken on Mediterranean Semester Program. (Not offered 2024-25).
Introduction to Greek literature, including Homer and dramatic, philosophical or historical writing. Meets the Language Requirement requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Introduction to Greek literature, including Homer and dramatic, philosophical or historical writing. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
An upper-level maintenance course for students who plan to continue their study of Greek. A systematic review of grammar with reading and translation practice. Prerequisite: Classics 201 or equivalent. .25 unit.
An upper-level maintenance course for students who plan to continue their study of Greek. A systematic review of grammar with reading and translation practice. Prerequisite: Classics 201 or equivalent. .25 unit.
Examines how warfare was conducted in ancient Greece and Rome and its effects on society. Traces the development of military strategy and technology, asking why combat units like the Roman legion proved so effective. Considers the military as a social institution affecting families, politics and the economy, even in peacetime. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examination of traditional subsistence methods and management of local environments in the ancient Mediterranean from the Paleolithic to the Roman Empire. Topics discussed include human alteration of the landscape and extinctions, urbanism and its impact on ancient life, ancient climate change, and the geology of the Mediterranean.
Survey of slavery in ancient Greek city-states and throughout the Roman Empire. Considers the various economic, administrative, and social functions that slavery supported; and the apparatus of warfare, human trafficking, state terror, ideology and domestic coercion that let slavery survive. Emphasis on the challenges that biased primary sources present. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.
A study of imagery during Late Antiquity—200-750 CE--through art, architecture, archaeological sites and texts. The course covers the visual arts in imperial Rome and Sassanid Persia, the mystery religions of Mithras, Isis and Dionysus as well as Judaism, Christianity and early Islam. We will study how the power of images was harnessed to convey religious meaning and convert adherents; how the imagery of pagan antiquity influenced the eventual formation of a Christian visual language; how the first monuments of Islamic art drew on pre-existing traditions. Monuments to be studied include the Arch of Constantine, sanctuaries of Mithras and Isis, catacomb paintings, synagogues and their mosaic floors, the religious buildings of Dura Europos, Christian basilicas and their decoration, the Hagia Sophia and the Dome of the Rock. 1 unit Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement.
Major writers and schools from the thousand year history of Greek philosophical research in the areas of nature, the gods, the mind, and ways of life: Ionian and Italian Pre-Socratics, Plato and the Academy, Aristotle, Pyrrho, the Cynics, the Stoa, Epicurus and Lucretius, and the revival in Late Antiquity of Pyrronian Scepticism and Platonism. Emphasis on close reading of the texts (including certain Greek terms) and on critical and comparative writing. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement.
Various ancient and medieval Latin works. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
Various ancient and medieval Latin works. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
An upper-level maintenance course for students who plan to continue their study of Latin. A systematic review of grammar with reading and translation practice. Prerequisite: Classics 211 or equivalent. .25 unit.
An upper-level maintenance course for students who plan to continue their study of Latin. A systematic review of grammar with reading and translation practice. Prerequisite: Classics 211 or equivalent. .25 unit.
Consideration of the role sport played in ancient Greek society, with an extensive study of the ancient Olympics and other major festivals. The types of events and the evolving role athletics played in Greek education and society are discussed, as is the relationship between ancient athletics and modern sports. The course includes several local field trips either during class time or occasional afternoons, evenings, or weekends.
Focus on the development of Rome, from a small city ruled by kings, to a regional power ruled under a Republic. The course will trace Rome's expansion through Italy, its conflict with Carthage and will closely examine the end of the Republic. Individuals discussed will include the Gracchi, generals Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar, and Rome's greatest politician (and author) Cicero. (Also listed as History 216.) Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Consideration of various forms of entertainment in the Roman world and the social status of the entertainers. Gladiatorial games, beast hunts, mock naval battles, and chariot racing, as well as theatrical entertainments, such as plays, ballet, and pantomime are examined. The relationship between ancient athletics and modern sports is also discussed. The course includes several local field trips either during class time or occasional afternoons, evenings, or weekends. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
The Iliad and Odyssey as oral traditional poems, preservers of Bronze Age and archaic lore, locus of the creation of classical Greek culture and predecessors of European epic; together with Hesiodic epic and Homeric hymns. Reading in English with attention to the formal Greek diction and the problems of translation, except that students who know Greek will read parts of the original text. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
A study of origins, early texts, performance practices and developing theatrical conventions in various cultures, with special emphasis on ancient Greek and Roman theatre. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Religion and myth of ancient Greece and Rome in relation to that of the ancient Mediterranean (Akkadian, Hittite, Sumerian, Egyptian). Female presence in art, literature and religion compared to treatment of women in their respective cultures. Theoretical approaches to the understanding of myth (Comparative, Jungian, Structuralist) in relation to myths as they are encoded in their specific cultures. Students may trace a myth through Medieval, Renaissance and modern transformations in art, music, poetry and film, or study myth in other cultures (e.g. Norse and Celtic). May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
Herodotus, sometimes called the 'father of lies,' and Thucydides, sometimes called the first political scientist, treated as the first historians. Study of the ways of conceiving history and its relation to the peoples and periods explored. No Greek or Latin required. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement.
Courses vary from year to year, to include offerings in classical and comparative religion and mythology, history, language and literature, anthropology, archaeology and women's studies supplementary to those offered in the catalog. No Greek or Latin required.
Surveys the art and architecture of Greece and Rome from their origins in Bronze Age Greece to their transformation in the late Roman Empire using methods of art history and archaeology. Ancient Greek cities and sanctuaries with emphasis on Athens and the monuments of the Acropolis. The spread of Hellenism and the formation of an imperial visual language under Alexander the Great and his successors. The influence of Etruscan and Greek art in the Roman Republic. Imperial monuments of the city of Rome and throughout the empire as instruments of power. The class will consider political and social factors in the formation and utilization of Classical forms in both ancient and modern times. (Also listed as AH 207). Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examination of archaeology of the Greek world from the Bronze age through end of the Hellenistic period using a thematic approach, or focused study of certain periods/cultures (Minoan, Mycenean, etc.). Exploration of sites such as Troy, Sparta, Knossos, Mycenae, Athens, Olympia, and Delphi. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
Examines the excavation, management and display of Ancient Mediterranean artifacts and sites. Case studies explore difficult ethical dilemmas about who can claim ownership of past objects and legacies, the balance at sites between conservation and tourism, and how museums and archaeologists contribute to looting and the politicization of the past. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Focus on the development of the Roman state in the late first century B.C. under the emperor Augustus. The city, its monuments, its art, its literature, bureaucracy and territorial expansion, the role of women, and various social and minority groups will all be discussed. In particular, the course will emphasize important and influential literary figures, such as Horace, Ovid, Propertius, Virgil and Augustus himself. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
A survey of economic life in ancient Greece and Rome, which involved both primitive subsistence agriculture and a complex international marketplace of luxury goods—often tightly regulated by predatory states. Topics will include the essential but diverse role of slavery, why debt crises plagued rich and poor alike, the degree to which banking facilitated international trade, and how governments manipulated the silver content of coinage to cover budget shortfalls or finance armies. Also considered are the reasons behind the invention and spread of coinage as a medium of exchange. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Focus on how conservative Roman republican ideals were reconciled with an increasingly Hellenized empire dominated by an imperial dynasty. Following a brief survey of prior Roman history, the course will examine the development of the Roman state in the first century AD under the Julio-Claudian emperors. The course will proceed to consider the Empire’s evolution and management under subsequent Flavian and Antonine dynasties. The city, its monuments, its art, its literature, bureaucracy and territorial expansion, the role of women, various social and minority groups, and the growth of Christianity will all be discussed. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement.
A survey of the development and expansion of Greek city states (known as “poleis”) from their emergence in the eighth century BC to Greece’s conquest by Philip II of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great. Particular attention will be paid to Athens and Sparta, the two great powers of this period. The class will examine Greece’s political institutions (How direct was direct democracy?), social relations (What were the lived realities of women, foreigners and slaves?) and intellectual history (especially the rise of rhetoric to better persuade mass audiences in a democracy). Readings will draw on ancient historians (Herodotus, Thucydides), political theorists (Plato, Aristotle), satirists (Aristophanes) and statesmen (Demosthenes, Lysias, Xenophon). (Not offered 2024-25).
An examination of the life of Alexander the Great and the ancient Mediterranean world in which he lived. Also considered are the impact he had on the historical development of that world after his death, the political use of his legacy from antiquity to the 21st century, and the fascination he continues to inspire. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement.
Since the beginning of time, humans have been searching into the nature of the soul, its life and its meanings. Starting from the Greeks, this course seeks to discover how the concept of “soul” is understood, and how its life is conceived. We will explore the roots of these questions in ancient Greek epic, drama and philosophy, how these answers transform in medieval and renaissance literature, and how modernity offers strikingly new answers to them. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
An introductory survey of issues relating to gender and sexuality in Greece and Rome. The focus will be on the role of women in ancient society and their characterization in literature. Though our sources are dominated by male perspectives, the class will attempt a balanced and accurate picture of ancient society. The course will also place these literary depictions in the broader context of art, political and societal structure, religious belief and family relations. Authors examined will include Hesiod, Homer, Aristophanes, Virgil, the female poets Sappho and Sulpicia, Ovid, and many more. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.
The course considers the role sport and entertainment played in ancient society. We begin by examining athletics in the Greek world, specifically the Olympics and other major games. We will discuss the different types of events and then consider the evolving role athletics played in Greek education and society. We will then transition to the Roman world, examining gladiatorial games, chariot racing, the theatre, and the Olympics in the Roman period. We will trace the development of the status of athletes from amateurs to the professionalization of sport, and pause to consider the place of musicians and actors in Greek and Roman society. Throughout the course students will become familiar with the architecture of related venues and investigate the role of spectators. Students will continually be challenged to relate ancient athletics to the sports of today. Sources will include Homer, Pindar, Virgil, Ovid, Martial and various inscriptions. (Not offered 2024-25).
Supervised readings or investigations in areas of interest to the students that are not covered in regular Classics Department offerings. Readings and/or investigations to be followed up with discussions and written reports. Must be approved by the Chair on behalf of the Department, in addition to the supervising professor.
Further exploration of ancient, medieval or modern Greek literature, done as independent reading. Meets the Language Requirement requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Further exploration of ancient, medieval or modern Greek literature, done as independent reading. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
Prerequisite: Classics 301. .25 Unit.
Prerequisite: Classics 301.
Further exploration of ancient or medieval Latin literature. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
Further exploration of ancient or medieval Latin literature. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
Prerequisite: Classics 311. .25 unit.
Prerequisite: Classics 311.
Study for advanced students in the languages, arts, drama and literature. (Not offered 2024-25).
Independent study of various authors and special topics. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
Independent study of various authors and special topics. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
Independent study of various authors and special topics. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
Independent study of various authors and special topics. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Language Requirement requirement.
Thesis subjects chosen by student and approved by department. Senior Classics, Classics-History-Politics and Classics - English majors.
English
An introduction to literary analysis, close reading, and form across an array of historical periods, genres, and traditions. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
This high-energy workshop allows creative writers to try their hands at a range of styles. From prose to spoken word to plays, we will explore across genres, building a tool box of literary adventure. (Summer only 2024-25).
History of the English Language provides an overview of the origins, development, and global reach of the English language. Class discussions will focus on the social and political events that have influenced linguistic changes in English. Students will consider the impact of invasion, conquest, and colonization on the development of the English language. Students will also explore how changes in the English language’s sound systems, grammar, and vocabulary (from Old English to Middle English to Early Modern English to contemporary English) reflect changing cultural power dynamics. Literary examples will provide context for these explorations. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.
The study of a single theme or subject as it emerges in selected periods of literature, chiefly English and American, from the Renaissance to the 20th century. Attention will be directed toward the Classical and Medieval origins of texts and traditions. The historical periods and the subjects will vary from section to section and from year to year. The focus will be upon such themes and subjects as nature, cities, love, oppression, satire, the epic, narrative, and critical tradition and revolt. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines a single literary genre or mode such as pastoral, epistle, romance, tragedy, or satire within and across a range of historical periods and cultural and national contexts. May include related theoretical and critical readings. (Not offered 2024-25).
An introduction to reading (or interpreting) narrative fiction. (Offered in some years as Writing Intensive.) (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines creativity from both a theoretical and a practical standpoint. The course is divided into three sections. The first explores theoretical material on creativity as an individual process and practical exercises on generating creative material. The second examines creativity as a product of social groups, especially as this relates to the issue of 'craft'. The third focuses on creativity as it is tied to particular times and places and practical issues of making creative products public. (Not offered 2024-25).
Provides an introductory vocabulary and structure regarding the history of books, bibliography, textual materiality, and printing. Topics explored will include the rise of writing, the scroll, manuscript codices, the growth of literate culture, the invention of movable type and the impact of printing on scholarship, science, and religion, the distribution and marketing of books, the rise of a reading public, the shift from hand- to machine-powered printing, and the move from printed to electronic formats. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Introduction to close reading of poetry through a wide range of poems. Students will learn the terminology and techniques used to analyze poetry and employ these in readings of poems, and will become familiar with a variety of poetic forms and traditions. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
The Bible considered as one of the great literary works of the Western world and, in the King James translation, a masterpiece of English prose. Emphasis on its narrative structure, its characterization, and the beauty and power of its language, with some attention to its influence on later works of literature. (Not offered 2024-25).
An introduction to Shakespeare’s dramatic works through four to seven representative plays Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
An introduction to environmental literature, through genres such as nature writing, memoir, climate fiction (cli-fi), and topics such as wilderness, apocalypticism, climate change, and environmental justice.
The early modern era introduced and heightened critical debates on identity, medicine, and the human body that resonate in contemporary society. This course will focus on the discussions around the notion of disability and its representation, purpose, and function in literature and film by looking specifically at the theoretical writings of prominent scholars of the new Critical Disability Studies paradigm. Taking these approaches, the course will then apply such critical frames to texts and films produced over the last 3 centuries. (Not offered 2024-25).
An introduction to literary theory and criticism. Students will study selected poetry, plays and fiction through leading methods such as New Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, and New Historicism, with attention to such topics as Psychoanalytic, Marxist, Feminist, and Post-Colonial approaches. Students will have the opportunity to develop their own critical approaches. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
Provides a broad overview of literature by Native American writers through a range of genres, modes, and media. Builds an indigenous-centered understanding of the literary terrain and evaluates former and current expectations set upon texts by Native American writers by studying the social, cultural, historical, and literary contexts of which each generation of writers/artists have engaged in subtle, sweeping, restorative, and/or even problematic ways. Identifies and studies key concepts, terms, and methods by tracing chronologically themes such as settler colonialism and genocidal trauma; tribal sovereignty and current social issues; and, stereotypes, tropes and modern Native American identity and conflicts of authenticity, as well as survival models of resistance and recovery for Indigenous peoples in literature. 1 unit. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines literature by Native American writers through cultural, social, historical, generic, and/or aesthetic lenses. Students will focus on a curated selection of texts by Native American writers in order to identify and study key concepts, terms, methods, and techniques through a concentrated scope. Topics may include, for example, works by Native American writers and artists within specific literary genres or alongside another medium (art, film, etc.). 1 unit. (Not offered 2024-25).
The literature of the Native Americans, the Spanish, and the Anglos. Readings in transcribed poetry and song, diaries, folk literature, and modern authors such as D. H. Lawrence, Willa Cather, Edward Abbey, Rudolfo Anaya, and Leslie Silko. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines literature dealing with the American West, its reflection of imperialism and settler colonialism, the idea of the frontier, the influence of the land and landscape, and the history around which the literature revolves. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Introduces features of what might be called a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer literary and theoretical tradition. Uses classical, Renaissance, modern postmodern, and contemporary literature, criticism, and film to examine the complicated status and experience of non-majority sexualities. Considers writers, theorists and activists who have explored the relationships among sexuality, knowledge, and literature, including Plato, Michel Foucault, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, Nella Larsen, James Baldwin and Alison Bechdel. (Not offered 2024-25).
Introduces students to the history, theory, and study of postcolonial literature. We will read literary and theoretical texts from and about the Caribbean, Ireland, Britain, Africa, and India in order to see how postcolonial writers appropriate and retool the English language and its literary forms. We will examine how this writing expresses the dynamics of decolonization and the complexities of postcolonial societies, while also allowing us to consider whether the world we live today is truly postcolonial. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.
What does it mean to be a black or mixed-race European woman today? This class explores the way some of the preeminent writers in Europe negotiated black European identities and issues of citizenship in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other European countries. Topics include: different approaches to artistically theorizing and expressing the emotional, social, and political effects of transnational migrations; cultural hybridity; struggles for citizenship rights; and the intersectional perplexities of gender. Writers and artists explored in this course include: Maud Sulter, Jamika Ajalon, Gisèle Pineau, May Opitz, the Algerian, and Nina Bouraoui. Students will have the option to read French texts in the original language and to focus on issues of translation. (Not offered 2024-25).
Explores the history and craft of graphic narrative from the eighteenth century to the contemporary moment. Students will consider how the medium of comics negotiates both visuality and textuality by tracing the role of typography and iconography in the development of graphic narrative from its designation as pop cultural ephemera to high literary and artistic form. Considers writers and theorists such as Roland Barthes, Scott McCloud, W.J.T. Mitchell, Marshall McLuhan, Lynd Ward, Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, Alan Moore, and Alison Bechdel. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Traces the historical and aesthetic development of comics as a cultural form as deployed by Jewish writers and artists. Looks at the early days of the comics industry, Jewish oppression and racialization, the creation of the superhero, and the Jewish immigrant experience to examine how Jewish artists have utilized the narrative possibilities of comics as a hybrid medium with particular focus on the Holocaust, global diaspora, and Jewish-American identity. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Studies in a wide array of cultural, social, historical, generic, and aesthetic topics in British and American literature. Designed for first-year students, sophomores, non-majors, as well as majors.
An introduction to creative writing through various forms and genres including poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction.
Practice in writing poetry. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement.
Practice in writing prose fiction. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement.
Practice writing nonfiction prose with literary, artistic intention. Typical uses include personal essays, biographical profiles, and prose essays dealing with issues in history, science, nature, travel, and culture which employ the narrative tools commonly used by writers of fiction. May be taken instead of EN 280 Literary Journalism, for credit for the thematic minor in Journalism. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement.
Practice in writing specific genres, both fiction and non-fiction. Topics may include travel writing, autobiography, nature writing, science fiction, detective fiction, and others.
Identifies techniques utilized by writers of performance, ranging from slam poets to monologists to playwrights. Script and poem excerpts as well as video and audio samples will serve as the basis for in-class conversations around craft. Students will embark on a series of short solo and group writing exercises, trying their hand at a myriad of performance writing forms. Selected student work of merit will be presented in a final public staged reading. (Not offered 2024-25).
Origins in the New Republic (Charlotte Temple, Wieland, the Last of the Mohicans, Hope Leslie), 19th-century young adulthood (The Blithedale Romance, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The American). Historical conditions that nurtured or stymied the development of the novel. Practice in close textual reading. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines focused topics regarding literary works by Asian American writers through cultural, social, historical, generic, and/or aesthetic lenses. (Not offered 2024-25).
Explores major themes and texts in a variety of American ethnic writings including but not limited to African American, Asian American, Native American, and Latinx literatures. Provides an overview of the foundations and the possible futures of literary approaches to race and ethnicity in the United States. Introduces the role literature plays in creating and maintaining a racial and ethnic identities.
Explores major themes and texts in Asian American Literature and provides an overview of the foundations and the possible futures of the field. Introduces the role literature plays in creating and maintaining a pan-Asian political label. Presents the Vietnam War as a watershed moment to discuss the many shifts within the field, such as the emergence of Southeast Asian American writers and the rise of Gender Studies. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement.
This course offers an introduction to Chicanx/Latinx literature in the United States. Examines the relationship between place and identity for Chicanx/Latinx peoples of the Southwest, West, and Midwest and considers how written texts reflect social, political, and historical contexts by addressing issues of colonialism, race, class, gender, and sexuality.
As contemporary writers work towards inventing characters that better represent our diverse world in their fiction, they often must wrestle with constructing identity through and against stereotypes, privilege, overt and indirect racism, objectification, and bias. Even the most valiant attempts for racial, gendered, LGBTQ*, and able-bodied inclusion in fiction come with concerns and unintended pitfalls, particularly when writers represent bodies that are radically different than their own. Students will read multiple texts, participate in discussions and research, and write responses, essays, and creative experiments in order to begin a discussion on body and identity representation in contemporary fiction. This literature course focuses on craft writing with a heavy writing component; however, there is no creative writing prerequisite. With an emphasis upon close reading, we will begin with a study of character construction and review trends of body representation in literature starting with the early novel before delving into current and ongoing articles and arguments. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Extended format adjunct (.25 unit per semester or .5 unit per full year). Studies in a wide array of creative writing practice, publishing, or cultural, social, historical, generic, and aesthetic topics in British and American literature. Designed for declared English majors (any track).
In-depth examination of a single literary genre or mode (such as pastoral, epistle, romance, horror, tragedy, or satire) within and across a range of historical periods and cultural and national contexts. Includes theoretical and critical readings. (Not offered 2024-25).
Key issues in literary interpretation. Cultural criticism, Marxism, structuralism and deconstruction, feminist theory, ethnic criticism, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, rhetorical criticism, etc. (Not offered 2024-25).
This course is a continuation of Beginning Creative Nonfiction Writing and is intended for students who are experienced in reading, writing, and experimenting across the genre, as well as in sharing and discussing their work and encouraging and supporting the work of their classmates. Students will work in both short and longer forms, while developing and cultivating specific projects, and methods of both creative research and revision.
Writing workshop for experienced writers, with focus on issues of craft in poetry.
Writing workshop for experienced writers, with focus on issues of craft in fiction.
Selected English and/or Continental literature of the period 400-1500, organized around a specific topic or theme.
Introduction to Middle English and close reading of selections from The Canterbury Tales Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
Introduction to Middle English and close reading of selections from Chaucer's minor poems, including The Book of the Duchess, Troilus and Criseyde, The Legend of Good Women, and Parlement of Fowles. (Not offered 2024-25).
Intensive study (in translation) of Dante and his intertexts as context for readings and/or further coursework in later English literature (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley, Joyce, T. S. Eliot, etc.). (Not offered 2024-25).
Selected literature of the period 1500-1660, organized around a specific topic or theme. (Not offered 2024-25).
Selected poetry of the period 1500-1660 focusing on a single poet (such as Donne or Spenser), a group of poets (such as Donne and the Metaphysicals or Ben Jonson and the Tribe of Ben), or a particular genre of poetry (such as narrative verse, the lyric, pastoral poetry, the sonnet sequence, or satire.) (Not offered 2024-25).
Detailed study of one of the following groups: 1) histories, 2) comedies and romances, 3) major tragedies, 4) a number of the works grouped according to a thematic principle. (Not offered 2024-25).
Tragedies, comedies, and tragi-comedies by Shakespeare's contemporaries. (Not offered 2024-25).
Major poetry and selected prose of John Milton, with particular emphasis on Paradise Lost. (Not offered 2024-25).
Key issues in ecocriticism and/or the environmental humanities through the sustained study of a particular genre or mode, or in a particular historical period. Includes theoretical and critical readings.
Selected British (and occasionally some American) literature of the period 1660-1830, organized around a specific topic or theme. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines the origins of the British novel as literary and cultural form from the late 17th century through the early 19th century. Emphasis on one or several of the following critical issues: the epistolarity, satire, spiritual narrative, representations of disability, race, class, and gender, imperialism and colonialism, and narrative theory. Authors may include Haywood, Behn, Defoe, Fielding, Richardson, Burney, Smollett, Sterne, Mackenzie, Smith, Edgeworth, and Austen. (Not offered 2024-25).
Selected literature of the period 1780-1830, organized around a specific Romantic-era topic or theme.
Examines the novel from 1780 to 1830. Authors may include Godwin, Smith, Radcliffe, Lewis, Wollstonecraft, Edgeworth, Austen, Shelley, Hogg, and Scott. (Not offered 2024-25).
Principal works of selected Romantic-era poets, such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Smith, Barbauld, Burns, Robinson, Byron, Keats, the Shelleys, Hemans, and Clare, with attention to formal, critical, and historical issues. (Not offered 2024-25).
Selected fiction, poetry, and non-fiction prose which looks at a problem or theme in 19th-century British and/or American literature such as narratives of identity, archetypes of city and nature, the politics of genre, comparisons of British and American culture, and the nature of literary periods themselves. (Not offered 2024-25).
Selected works by poets writing after 1830, such as Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, the Rossettis, Hopkins, with attention to formal and historical issues. (Not offered 2024-25).
The novel in Britain 1815-1914, with emphasis on such authors as Thackeray, the Brontes, Dickens, George Eliot, Trollope, Hardy, and Conrad. (Not offered 2024-25).
Advanced topics course exploring the theoretical and literary issues, questions, and themes raised in the rich literature, culture and theory that emerge as a response to and in contestation of the experiences of the colonial and postcolonial worlds.
Built on the histories of colonialism, slavery, and indentureship, the Caribbean region has been at the heart of global movements of people and commodities for centuries. This course introduces students to the history of the region through close engagement with literary and cultural productions. It focuses on authors from African, Indian, and Chinese heritages that call these islands home. Discussions are organized around themes of empire, labor migration, racial intimacies, and modes of narrativizing collective histories developed by Caribbean authors. (Not offered 2024-25).
Study of Irish writing through a range of writers such as Swift, Edgeworth, Joyce, Yeats, O'Brien and Heaney. (Not offered 2024-25).
Studies in a wide array of topics in American and British literature and media. (Not offered 2024-25).
In-depth study of one major author, either contemporary or from an earlier period.
Selected fiction exploring some aspect of the century's literary and cultural concerns or some particular literary movement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Selected poetry exploring some aspect of the century's literary and cultural concerns or some particular poetic movement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Readings in black American writers such as. W. E. B. Dubois, Ralph Ellison, Nella Larsen, and Rita Dove. Organized around aesthetic and cultural issues such as feminism, the 'anxiety of influence,' pressures of the marketplace, identity politics, and post-modern theory. (Not offered 2024-25).
A concentrated study of Joyce's masterpiece, using extensive historical, biographical, critical, and theoretical materials. (Not offered 2024-25).
Three centuries of texts by African-American women who have conspired with, rebelled against, and created literary traditions, such as Zora Neale Hurston, Pauline Hopkins, Rita Dove, Andrea Lee, and Nella Larsen.
Major and minor works of the colonial period and the early republic by such writers as Edwards, Franklin, Rowlandson, Charles Brockden Brown, Cooper, and Irving.
Examines major American authors of the 19th century. Authors may include Sedgwick, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Twain, Emerson, Dickinson, Thoreau and Whitman.
Major works of such authors as Dickinson, Mark Twain, Henry James, Crane, Robinson, Dreiser, Wharton and Henry Adams.
Explores advanced theoretical and literary issues, questions, and themes raised in the literature, culture and theory of various American ethnic writings including but not limited to African American, Asian American, Native American, and Latinx literatures. Provides in depth examination of the foundations and the possible futures of literary approaches to race and ethnicity in the United States by highlighting the role literature plays in creating and maintaining racial and ethnic identities.
The rise of Modernist literature in the U.S. in relation to its discontents. Writers may include Eliot, Pound, W.C. Williams, Cather, Toomer, Stein, Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hurston, and O’Neill. (Not offered 2024-25).
Major works of such authors as O'Connor, Pynchon, Delillo, Carver, Morrison, Wallace and others. (Not offered 2024-25).
Methodological preparation for advanced work in the literature track. Focus on secondary critical texts in the study of a literary topic or period. Required of junior English literature track majors.
(Not offered 2024-25).
Advanced study of a topic of literary significance. Required of all senior Literature Track English majors and of all senior Film Track English majors. Students taking this course for 1 unit must complete EN499 as well. Students taking this course for 2 units complete their senior theses within the course.
Two-block advanced study of creative writing culminating in a creative capstone project such as a collection of short stories, a novella or novel, a collection of poems, a long essay or a collection of essays, or hybrid writing project. Required of all senior Creative Writing Track English majors.
Advanced study of a topic chosen by a student completing the English minor in the Literature or Creative Writing track and in consultation with department faculty. Assignments, project outcome, research, etc. must be approved by the department. Student work is directed by individual faculty member(s).
Advanced study of a topic chosen by the student and approved by the department, with student research, writing, and planning directed by individual faculty member(s). One unit of EN499 Senior Project is required; students may take a maximum of two EN499 blocks.