SPRING 2008

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Class Numbers are included in parentheses following the course number and are followed, when applicable, by the previous course catalogue number.

1362-001+ (3295) [1362].  CRAFTY WORLDS.  12 MWF.  115 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Holahan.

An introductory study of selected twentieth-century novels emphasizing both ideas of modernity and the historical or cultural contexts of catastrophe that generated these ideas.  Topics include traditions of family and wealth, representations of world war, new effects of capital and society, war and sensibility, race and the novel, Big D.  Writing assignments: quizzes, one short essay, mid-term, final examination.  Enrollment limit: 35.

Texts: James, The Spoils of Poynton; Hemingway, In Our Time; Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Faulkner, As I Lay Dying; Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider; Ellison, Invisible Man; Orwell, Animal Farm; Heller, Catch 22; Mailer, Why Are We in Vietnam?

1365-001H#+ (3213) [1365H].  LITERATURE OF MINORITIES.  12:30 TTh.  115 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Levy.

From historical and contemporary perspectives, this class examines American minority writing and the literatures of immigration. We will also view a number of documentaries and films that touch upon these subjects.  Students will also have an option of working in a local social agency that works with minority and immigrant populations.

Enrollment limit: 35.

Texts: Douglas, My Bondage and My Freedom; Cahan, Yekl; Morrison, Bluest Eye; Bharatajee: A Wife’s Story;

Magruder, Boondocks; Bechdel, Fun Home; Burke and Reidy, Confessions of a Video Vixen; Arana: American

Chica; American Voices, (Anthology)

2302-001 (3514) [2302].  BUSINESS WRITING.  12:30 TTh.  G18 Clements.  Prof. Tongate.

This course introduces students to business and professional communication, including a variety of writing and speaking tasks, and the observation and practice of rhetorical strategies, discourse conventions, and ethical standards associated with workplace culture.  The course includes much active learning, which means students will attend events on campus and off and will conduct a detailed field research project at a worksite.  The course meets in a computer lab, and may not be counted toward requirements for the English major.  Writing assignments: summaries, analyses, evaluations, letters, reports, memoranda, and individual and collaborative research reports, both oral and written. 

Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts: Kolin, Philip C. Successful Writing at Work 8th ed. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2007. and additional readings, as assigned.

2302-002 (3515) [2302].  BUSINESS WRITING.   2 TTh.  G16 Clements.  Prof. Jackman.

This course introduces students to business and professional communication, including a variety of writing and speaking tasks, and the observation and practice of rhetorical strategies, discourse conventions, and ethical standards associated with workplace culture.  The course includes much active learning, which means students will attend events on campus and off and will conduct a detailed field research project at a worksite.  The course meets in a computer lab, and may not be counted toward requirements for the English major.  Writing assignments: summaries, analyses, evaluations, letters, reports, memoranda, and individual and collaborative research reports, both oral and written. 

Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts: Philip C. Kolin, Successful Writing at Work, 8th ed. Houghton Mifflin, 2007.  Readings on Blackboard or distributed in class.

2311-001 (3808) [2305].  POETRY.  3 MW.  106 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Bozorth.

Introduction to the study of poetry and how it works, examining a wide range of poems by English and American writers.  Special attention to writing about literature.   Writing assignments: shorter and longer analytical assignments, totaling twenty pages; midterm; final examination.
Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: Poems, Poets, Poetry, 2d edition, ed. Helen Vendler; Easy Writer, ed. Andrea Lunsford.

2311-002 (3419) [2305].  POETRY.  2 TTH.  155 Fondren Science.  Prof. Schwartz.

Introduction to the study of poetry and how it works, examining a wide range of poems by English and American writers.  Special attention to writing about literature.   Writing assignments:  occasional quizzes and written exercises; four short essays; two one-hour tests. 

Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts:  An Introduction To Poetry, Kennedy and Gioia.

2312-001+ (3051) [2306].  FICTION: FROM SHORT STORY TO NOVEL.  11 MWF.  120 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Murfin.

This course will introduce narrative fiction by looking at three of its sub-genres:  the short story, the novella, and the novel.  Because many great fiction writers have written in two or even all three of these forms—and because they have adapted the same themes and strategies to fit the constraints or exploit the opportunities characteristic of the sub-genre in which they were working--we will study Nathaniel Hawthorne’s best-known stories (collected in The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories) and novel (The Scarlet Letter), followed by Joseph Conrad’s most famous story (”The Secret Sharer”) and novella (Heart of Darkness), concluding with Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights , a novelistic compilation of narratives that involves the rearrangement of story (defined in The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms as “a narrative of events ordered chronologically”) into a complex, a chronological plot.  Theories regarding narrative fiction--including elements such as story and plot, first and third person point of view, direct and indirect discourse, and the overlap between sub-genres (including between story, tale, fable, and allegory)--will be introduced and applied along the way. Writing assignments: Three 4-6 page papers four to six in-class quizzes, one cumulative final exam.
Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories, The Scarlet Letter,  Hawthorne; The Secret Sharer, Heart of Darkness, Conrad; Wuthering Heights, Brontë; and other texts TBA.

2312-701+ (3597) [2306]. FICTION.  6:30 T.  152 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Lewis.
An introduction to modes and genres of fiction from the nineteenth century to the present. We will begin the course with Paul Auster’s City of Glass and end it with the graphic novel based on this work. In between we will read stories, tales, and novellas from the two anthologies given below, with special attention to close reading, terms of art, and perspectives offered by critical theory. Lecture-discussion format, with numerous short exercises, three out-of-class explications, a midterm, and a final examination.

Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: Neider, Short Novels of the Masters (Cooper Square Press), and Kelly, Seagull Reader: Stories, 2^nd edition (Norton).

2314-001H+ (5689) [2308].  DOING THINGS WITH POEMS.  9:30 TTh.  351 Dallas Hall. 

Prof. Spiegelman.

Introduction to the study of poems, poets, and how poetry works, focusing on a wide range of English and American writers.  Some attention to matters of literary history.  Writing assignments: approximately five short essays, daily paragraphs, final examination if necessary.  Students will memorize 100 lines of poetry. 

Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: Vendler, Poems, Poets, Poetry; Hollander, Rhyme’s Reason.

2315-001 (3809).  INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDY.  12 MWF.  153 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Ards.

Introduction to the formal analysis of literature, covering texts that span a range of genres and historical periods.  Writing assignments: brief weekly exercises, four essays, mid-term, and final examination.

Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: TBA.

2315-002 (3810).  INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDY.  11 TTh.  152 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Householder.

Introduction to the discipline for beginning English majors, covering methods of literary analysis in selected texts spanning a range of genres and historical periods. Writing assignments:  brief weekly exercises, four essays, mid-term, final examination.
Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: Harmon, A Handbook to Literature; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; Austen, Persuasion; Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth; Negri, ed., Great American Short Stories; James, The Turn of the Screw; selected poetry and short stories available online and in handouts.

2315-003 (3811).  INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDY.  12:30 TTh.  138 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Sudan.

Introduction to the discipline for English majors, covering methods of literary analysis in selected texts spanning a range of genres and historical periods.  Writing assignments:  brief weekly exercises, four essays, mid-term, final examination.

Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: TBA.

2391-001 (3445) [2391].  INTRODUCTORY POETRY WRITING.  11 TTh.  137 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Myers.

A workshop in which student poetry and directed exercises in basic techniques form the content of the course.  Open to everyone, regardless of background and experience in poetry.  Emphasis on contemporary poetry.  Writing assignments: 12-15 poems, along with journaling and annotations on books read.
Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts: Myers & Weingarten, New American Poets of the 90s; Myers, The Portable Poetry Workshop.

2391-002 (3812) [2391].  INTRODUCTORY POETRY WRITING.  12:30 TTH.  105 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Key.

This is an introductory course designed to expose students to a wide array of poets; to develop a vocabulary with which to discuss poetry; and to practice, refine, and enjoy the art of writing poems. Writing Assignments: class exercises, writing and revising poems.

Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts: Vital Signs, ed. Ron Wallace.

2392-001 (3023) [2392].  INTRODUCTORY FICTION WRITING.  9:30 TTH. 120 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Key.

A beginning workshop in theory and technique, and writing of fiction.  Writing assignments: various class exercises, writing and rewriting short stories.

Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts: The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, ed. Richard Bausch and R.V. Cassill (7th edition).

2392-002 (3813) [2392]  INTRODUCTORY FICTION WRITING.  12:30 TTH 120 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Smith.

A beginning workshop in theory and technique, and writing of fiction.  Writing assignments: various class exercises, writing and rewriting short stories.

Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts: Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction, ed. by Cassill and Oates; Letters From the Horse Latitudes, C.W. Smith.

2392-003 (3814) [2392].  INTRODUCTORY FICTION WRITING.  3:30 TTH.  102 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Key.

A beginning workshop in theory and technique, and writing of fiction.  Writing assignments: various class exercises, writing and rewriting short stories.

Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts: The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, ed. Richard Bausch and R.V. Cassill (7th edition).

3305-001 (3815) [3342].  WRITING AND THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL.  9 MWF.  156 Dallas Hall. 

Prof. Crusius.

Study of the men and women whose essays and books shape our understanding of current events, culture, and society.  Key questions: Why are we persuaded by some writers more than others?  How should we assess what we read?  How can we write more forcefully ourselves?  The course will focus on consumer society. Some lecture, but the course will be organized around small-group collaborative research and issue-oriented class discussion.  Writing assignments: three short essays; one longer essay; final examination.

Enrollment limit:  25.

Texts: James Twitchell, Living It Up; Peter Whybrow, American Mania; Roger Rosenblatt, ed., Consuming Desires

3310-001 (2729) [3304].  CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND CULTURE.  11 MWF. 106 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Crusius.

An introduction to contemporary methods of interpreting literature and to the theoretical assumptions-about language, culture, gender, politics, sexuality, and psychology-informing these methods.  Writing assignments: four short essays, final examination. 

Enrollment limit: 22.

Texts:  Stephen Lynn, Texts and Contexts; Lex Williford and Michael Martone, eds., The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction; course packet of readings

3310-002(2730)[3304].  CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND CULTURE 3:30 TTH 106 Hyer Hall.  Prof. Siraganian.

What is literature?  How do we read it, and why? How can students make sense of and use literary criticism?  This course introduces linguistic, cultural, and theoretical issues informing contemporary literary discourse and applies a variety of contemporary critical approaches to a few literary texts. Writing assignments: bi-weekly short essays, final essay, final examination.
Enrollment limit: 25.

Texts: Tyson, Critical Theory Today, Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Joyce, “The Dead”, Shakespeare, The Tempest, plus additional essays and poems.

3320-701^ (5691) [3323].  TALES OF WALES.  5:30 T. 156 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Grooms.

Marginalized by successive external forces, the Welsh and their language nonetheless gave shape to the figure and image of King Arthur and his heroic company, a collection of characters preeminent in the literary imagination of medieval Europe.  This survey explores the literature of the native Celtic peoples of Britain and its contribution to other contact languages and literatures from the sub-Roman and medieval period to the present.  Writing assignments: several short response papers, two analytic essays, a research essay. 

Enrollment limit: 27.

Texts: Gerald of Wales, The Journey through Wales; Davies, ed., The Mabinogion; Clancy, ed., Medieval Welsh Poems; Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain.

3331-001 (3899) [3305].  BRITISH LITERARY HISTORY I: CHAUCER TO POPE.  11 TTH.  351 Dallas Hall. 
Prof. Rosendale.

Introduction to the major works, genres, writers, issues, and periods of earlier English literature (c. 800-1750), with careful attention to close reading and analysis of texts.  We will also attend to the political, religious, and social history in which these texts were written, and to which they responded in complex ways.  Authors covered include Chaucer, Langland, Kempe, More, Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Lanyer, Donne, Herbert, Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Pope.  Writing assignments: three or four short essays, mid-term, final examination.

Enrollment limit: 22.

Texts:  Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. I (8^th edition).

3332-001+ (5692).  SHAKESPEARE.  2 TTH.  115 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Rosendale.

A discussion- and writing-oriented intermediate survey of Shakespeare’s writings, including histories, comedies, tragedies, romances, sonnets, and narrative poems.  We will think and talk about basics like character, plot, and language; more advanced skills, like close textual analysis and interpretive argument, that revel in the complex ambiguities of literary meaning; the trajectory of Shakespeare’s career; and the historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts that inform his work.  Evaluation: several short papers; midterm and final exams; reading quizzes; regular attendance and participation; possibly, in-class presentations.

Enrollment limit: 30.

Texts: TBA.

3346-001 (2732) [3307].  AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY I.   9:30 TTH.  106 Hyer Hall.  Prof. Greenspan.

This course will explore the literary responses of major American writers from 1775-1900 to questions and problems of individual, group, and national identity emerging in the wake of American political and cultural independence. Central issues will include slavery, the Civil War, immigration, women’s rights, and economic exploitation. Writing assignments:  three short essays, various short assignments, midterm and final examination.

Enrollment limit: 25.

Texts: Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Edition (7th edition); Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; Dreiser, Sister Carrie.

3366-701 (3916) [3307].  AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY II.  6:30 MW.  101 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Lewis.

A study of American literature focused on changing perceptions of American identity from the American (political) Revolution through the transformation brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Lecture-discussion format, with three short analytical essays, a longer research project, a midterm, and a final examination

Enrollment limit: 25.

Texts: Spengemann, Nineteenth-Century American Poetry (Penguin), Portable Enlightenment Reader (Penguin), Buell, The American Transcendentalists: Essential Writings (Modern Library), and Portable American Realism Reader (Penguin)

3392-001 (2733) [3392].  INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING.  11 TTH.  138 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Haynes.

An intermediate workshop in writing fiction, building on craft techniques taught in ENGL 2392.  Writing assignments: class exercises, writing and rewriting short stories.  Prerequisite: ENGL 2392.

Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts:  TBA.

3392-002 (5693) [3392].  INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING.  2 TTH.  102 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Haynes.
An intermediate workshop in writing fiction, building on craft techniques taught in ENGL 2392.  Writing assignments: class exercises, writing and rewriting short stories.  Prerequisite: ENGL 2392.

Enrollment limit: 15.

Texts:  TBA.

4323-001^ (5920) [4324]).  CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY TALES  9:30 TTH. 156 Dallas Hall.  
Prof. Wheeler.

Readings of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from perspectives of medieval thought and contemporary criticism.  Open to majors and non-majors.  Writing assignments: short essays, commentaries, final examination.

Enrollment limit: 18.

Text: Benson, ed., The Riverside Chaucer.

4332-001^ (5921) [4336].  STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN BRITISH LITERATURE.  9:30 TTh.  137 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Sudan.

In September of 1666, a few short years after the restoration of Charles II to the throne in England, the Great Fire destroyed four-fifths of the commercial and topographical center of London in three days, and, in the process, destroyed everything that had represented London to Londoners.  The social, historical, commercial, cultural, and physical city that had been in place for them was simply gone, and the task of rebuilding, re-imagining, and re-conceptualizing the “city” became the major project of Restoration London.  Among the many tasks of social reconstruction Londoners faced was the changing face of sexual identity: building the modern city on the ruins of the medieval one worked in tandem with building a modern sense of self, including a sexualized and gendered self, on older forms of social and national identity.  This course examines the ways in which concepts of sexual identities developed as ideologies alongside the architectural and topographical concept of urban life in England.  Urbanity, in both senses of the word, is an idea that we will explore in various representations stretching from the late seventeenth-century Restoration drama to the Gothic novel of the late eighteenth century.  Readings include poems, plays, novels, and prose by Wycherly, Pope, Swift, Defoe, Cleland, Burney, and Lewis.  Writing assignments: weekly quizzes, two short essays, and one longer essay.

Enrollment limit: 18.

Texts: TBA.

4333-001 (5925) [4332].  SHAKESPEARE.  10 MWF.  138 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Holahan.

Close reading of the major tragedies along with representative later comedies, problem plays, and romances. Reading will be supplemented by the viewing of videotaped performances.   Writing assignments:  three essays, quizzes, mid-term, final examination.

Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: Greenblatt, ed., The Norton Shakespeare.

4340-001 (5927) [4362].  ROMANTIC WRITERS: WORDSWORTH- KEATS. 12:30 TTH.  137 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Spiegelman.

The course will focus on two great poets, one from the first and the other from the second generation of Romanticism. We shall spend most our time in a close reading of their work and in studying the intersections and overlappings between them, as well as the ways in which Keats was inspired and intimidated by Wordsworth, the most revolutionary poet of the past two hundred years. In addition, we shall read representative criticism of the two poets by their contemporaries and ours. There will be short writing assignments.

Enrollment limit: 18.

Texts: Wordsworth, Selected Poems and Prefaces, ed. Jack Stillinger (Houghton-Mifflin); Keats, The Complete Poems and Selected Letters, ed. Douglas Bush (Houghton-Mifflin).

4360-701 (5928) [4373].  POST-WORLD WAR II AMERICAN POETRY.  6:30 W.  138 Dallas Hall. 
Prof. Siraganian.

A post-WWII American poetry course focusing on two categories that have fascinated poets during the past sixty years: art objects (such as paintings and sculpture) and historical artifacts (such as archeological remains preserved in the Smithsonian Museum).  We shall explore poets’ relations to art and history, notions of literary ancestry, and the development of cultural histories and family/ethnic narratives.  Authors include Elizabeth Bishop, Charles Olson, John Ashbery, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Adrianne Rich and Victor Hernandez Cruz.  Artists include Joseph Cornell, De Chirico, Robert Rauschenberg and Cindy Sherman.  Some background in the visual arts is helpful but not required.  Writing Assignments: several shorter papers and in-class writing, one longer essay, mid-term and final.

Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: Bishop, Complete Poems, 1927-1979, Olson, Selected Poems, Ashbery, Selected Poems, Plath, Collected Poems, Sexton, Complete Poems, Rich, Poetry and Prose, Cruz, Maraca.

4370-001 (5933) [4373].  SPECIAL STUDIES: BLACK LIKE US: AFRICAN AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN THE POST-CIVIL RIGHTS ERA  3:00  MW  343 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Ards.

The plethora of terms coined in recent years to define contemporary African American identity and culture—“post-civil rights,” “post-soul,” “the hip-hop generation” –reflects a national community entering a new stage of its history.  A half century after the civil rights movement, black communities, never monolithic, are increasingly varied, as questions of gender, class, and sexuality complicate old allegiances and agendas based solely on race.  This historical moment demands recalibrated ways of thinking about black history, identity and agency.  This course examines how writers bring their lived experience to bear on crafting both a language and a politic that might account for this brave new world in African American life.  As a genre, autobiography is often about selecting and shaping the incidents of one’s life to articulate some form of “piety,” an ethic about how to be and move in the world.  Using traditional and experimental nonfiction narratives, in addition to exploring the autobiographical mode in fiction, film and music, we will probe traditional pieties defined in the civil rights era and later broadened by feminist, hip hop, and queer politics.  The interdisciplinary approach allows students the opportunity to consider not only the complexities of contemporary African American cultural formation but also how the study of language can render transparent the emergent ethics that animate it.

Enrollment limit: 20.

Texts: Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison; Zami: A New Spelling of My Name¸ Audre Lorde; Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals; Unafraid of the Dark, Rosemary Bray; Parallel Time, Brent Staples; Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Byron Hurt; When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip Hop Feminist: Joan Morgan; The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill; New Black Man, Mark Anthony Neal; Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunne.

4391-001 (3927) [4391].  ADVANCED POETRY WRITING.  2 TTh.  137 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Myers.
A practical workshop for those seriously engaged in writing poetry.  Class meetings organized around selections of the students' poems.  Writing assignments:  12-15 poems.  Prerequisites: ENGL 3391 and permission of the instructor.

Enrollment limit: 10. 

Texts: Myers, The Portable Poetry Workshop.

4392-001 (2735) [4392].  ADVANCED FICTION WRITING WORKSHOP.  3:30 TTh.  137 Dallas Hall. Prof. Smith.

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 the first class meeting. Writing assignments: TBA.  Prerequisites: English 3392 and permission of the instructor.

Enrollment limit: 10. 

Texts: Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction.

6311-001 (5941).  SURVEY OF LITERARY CRITICISM.  11 TTh.  120 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Foster.

A survey of literary criticism and theory from some of the ancient roots of critical thought to contemporary literary practice: from Heraclitus to Badiou.  The purpose of the course is to provide the theoretical background necessary to understand the discipline of literary study. The course will require regular critical responses and several essays analyzing both critical and literary texts. 

Enrollment limit: Graduate Students only.

Texts: TBA

6335-001 (5946).  EARLY MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURE.  12:30 TTh.  Texana Room, DeGolyer Library.  Prof. Householder.

This course surveys written responses to the social, political, cultural, economic, and intellectual changes wrought on both sides of the Atlantic as a result of the English colonization of North America, from first contact to the burgeoning settlements of New England in the mid-seventeenth century. Although many of our readings will focus on English ventures and texts, and on familiar figures and events (e.g., the “lost colony” of Roanoke, John Smith and Pocahontas, the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving) we will also read some less familiar texts, including some by writers who were not English, or who never even traveled to the Americas, to help understand the origins and significance of these cultural icons.

Writing assignments: 15 page paper, research presentation, final examination.

Enrollment limit: Graduate Students only.

Texts: Mandeville, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville; More, Utopia; Las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies; Hariot, A Briefe and True Report; Strachey, A True Repertory of the Wracke; Shakespeare, The Tempest; Bradford et al., Mourt’s Relation; Wood, New England’s Prospect.
 

6340-001 (5947).  BRITISH LIT IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION.  2 W.  137 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Murfin.

An examination of eight British novels spanning the periods commonly referred to as Victorian, Edwardian, and modern, this iteration of English 6340 will focus more on social, sexual, and aesthetic revolutions than on specifically political upheavals.  We will read one early novel by each of the following authors:  Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist [1837]), George Eliot (Adam Bede [1859]), Thomas Hardy (Far from the Madding Crowd [1874], and D. H. Lawrence (Sons and Lovers [1913]).  Then we will study four later, more mature works by the same four novelists:  Bleak House [1852-3], Middlemarch [1871-72], Tess of the d’Urbervilles [1891], and Lady Chatterley’s Lover [1928].  Special emphasis will be placed on changing definitions of truth, fiction, and justice (especially but not exclusively in works by Dickens, Eliot, and Hardy)—as well as on evolving representations of interpersonal relationships involving friendship, romantic love, and sex (especially but not exclusively in works by Eliot, Hardy, and Lawrence).  Students will write two medium-length papers and take an essay final.  In addition, during the course of the semester, they will lead two discussions of passages chosen for their broad significance and make one bibliographic presentation involving an overview of recent criticism and scholarship.

Enrollment limit: Graduate Students only.

Texts: See above description.

7340-001 (5951).  SEMINAR IN BRITISH LITERATURE: MALORY.  2 M.  156 Dallas Hall.  Prof. Wheeler.
A study of Malory’s late fifteenth-century Arthurian in relation to its chivalric predecessors; genres and styles; role in shaping the idea of ‘England’; editorial history and hot spots; liminal status on edge of script and print cultures; classic and contemporary interpretations. Expectations: weekly ‘focus’ responses; regular oral presentations; significant seminar paper.

Enrollment limit: Graduate Students only.

Texts: Vinaver’s Works of Sir Thomas Malory (1 vol OUP pb) and other editions TBA.