FALL 2007

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Class Numbers are included in parentheses following the course number.
List of all graduate course numbers.

6310-001 (6215).  ADVANCED LITERARY STUDIES.  11 TTh.  137 Dallas Hall.  Mr. Weisenburger.
An introduction to English graduate work by way of three foundational concerns—the texts, archives, and professions of literary study.  We first take up books themselves as objects of study: descriptive and analytical bibliography, consideration of editorial practices and textual studies, as well as book history (including etexts).  Next we turn to what archives are and how we may regard them critically, how we find and use primary materials such as manuscripts and letters, and the ways we research secondary bibliographies using traditional sources and electronic databases. We then conclude with considerations of the profession:  the history of what we do, including critical-theoretical approaches in advanced studies, as well as the conventions and forms of scholarly presentation, writing, and publication.  A hands-on course involving guest presenters, various projects (including some “field-work” in the DeGolyer and Bridwell libraries), several short papers and some oral presentation, our work will require readings in essays and chapters on topics outlined above, as well as of various English and American literary texts, and intensive studies in one especially problematic example—most likely Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor.
Enrollment limit: 15.
            Texts: TBA.

6330-001 (6224).  PROSEMINAR: MILTON.  2 W.  137 Dallas Hall.  Mr. Rosendale.
An advanced, critically-oriented survey of major works (in religious and political context) from the career of John Milton—including his early writings, his work as a revolutionary prose polemicist, and the great poems of his final years.  Evaluation:  One 15-page critical project; one 15-page final paper; one or two 15-20 minute presentations; participation in seminar discussions.
Enrollment limit: 15.
            Texts: TBA.

6360-001 (6284).  PROSEMINAR: THE SOUTHWEST UNBOUND.  2 T.  138 Dallas Hall.  Ms. Bost.

"The Southwest Unbound" will explore the changing historical, cultural, and symbolic significance of the U.S. Southwest relative to the United States and Mexico.  We will analyze both canonical and non-canonical texts to consider the divergent meanings attached to the Southwest, in particular, as well as to address larger questions about aesthetics, identity, nation, region, and American history.

Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts: Ruiz de Burton, Who Would Have Thought It?; González, The Dew on the Thorn; Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath; Cather, The Song of the Lark; Schaefer, Shane; Villarreal, Pocho; Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49; Silko, Ceremony; Anzaldúa, Borderlands; McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses; Urrea, The Devil's Highway; Yamashita, The Tropic of Orange.

6392-001C (2995).  GRADUATE FICTION WORKSHOP.  12:30 TTh.  137 Dallas Hall.  Mr. Haynes.

Advanced workshop for students seriously interested in writing the short story or novel. Each student is required to have a story ready for reading to the class for discussion by first class meeting.  Writing assignments: At least three works of original fiction created during the semester.

Enrollment limit: 10.

Texts: TBA.

7376-001 (6226).  SEMINAR: SPECIAL TOPICS: TECHNOLOGIES OF EMPIRE.  2 M.  138 Dallas Hall.  Ms.

Sudan.  This course examines the structures of British imperialism as they are reflected in literature, science, and technology. The premise for our examination, however, is that such structures were not necessarily European in origin. Resisting the self-image of the “Enlightenment” as it was developed in 17^th- and 18^th-century Europe (and as it has been extended in academic and cultural work since), we will investigate how “Enlightenment” values and socio-political norms prized by modernity may also have roots in cultures and geographies other than Europe. Our focus will be on the critical encounters between England and Asia (although we will be considering New World encounters as well), particularly India, with an eye to deconstructing legacies of Eurocentrism. Readings include Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, New Voyage Around the World, Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, the poetry of Alexander Pope, Jane Austen’s Emma, the letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, excerpts from 17^th- and 18^th-century correspondence of the British East India Company correspondence and selections from the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions. We will also be looking at the critical work of Giogio Agamben, Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, Thomas Kuhn, and Michel Foucault in order to construct some paradigms with which to work, and historians Ruchard Grove, Andre Gunder Frank, and Jonathan Spence. Ultimately, we will consider the implications of these histories in relation to our own understanding of imperial identity and the assumptions about legacies of power in the global marketplace.
Enrollment limit: 15. 
            Texts: Please see the above description; TBA.