English

This literature and philosophy interface explores the origins of drama as theorized by two major thinkers, Friedrich Nietzsche and René Girard, and then moves on to test their hypotheses by reading major plays in the dramatic canon. The first part of the course explores Nietzsche’s interpretation of the Dionysian origins of Greek drama and René Girard’s belief that early drama attempted to resolve a metaphysical crisis with reference to a surrogate victim. The arguments for and against the role of the god, Dionysos, in the dramatic tradition are taken up in theory and practice. Dramatists read include Euripides, Shakespeare, Dryden, and Camus. This course, which combines seminar and lecture, is intended for majors in English and Comparative Literature but should also interest students in philosophy, psychology, and the social sciences.

This course is a foundational course that introduces students to some of the central problems involved in the interpretation of literature. At the same time, the course provides students with an introduction to some of the most influential and challenging theories of interpretation itself. Throughout the history of literature, there have arisen various competing interpretations of literary texts and, with that, the need to adjudicate between rival interpretations from interdisciplinary backgrounds. "Theory" has therefore emerged as a means of justifying particular interpretations over and against others. This course demonstrates the connections between different theoretical perspectives within English Literature, and helps students to understand why these opposing "readings", theoretical perspectives, and interpretations occur, and how to analyze some of the more ambitious and compelling theories through which these readings have been generated.

The course examines the relationship between film and literature, focusing on narrative structure, genre, and adaptation. Using key films such as The Birth of a Nation, Citizen Kane, and works by Alfred Hitchcock, it explores concepts of film syntax and the role of the auteur. Literary and cinematic genres like melodrama and the Western are studied through texts such as The Ox-Bow Incident. The course also analyzes major adaptations, including The Turn of the Screw, Much Ado About Nothing, and Atonement, highlighting the dialogue between literary and cinematic storytelling.

This course offers a study of Anglo-American writer-critics from the transition between the 19th and 20th centuries. It focuses on the critical ideas of Matthew Arnold, Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot, though attention is also be paid to New Criticism.

This literature-focused course surveys major English-language texts of the 19th century, emphasizing literary analysis and critical interpretation. It examines works by Coleridge, Shelley, Austen, Dickens, Eliot, and Conrad, analyzing themes such as industrialization, social order, morality, and the supernatural. The course encourages students to view literature both as a product of its time and a vehicle for challenging dominant ideologies, while honing analytical writing and interpretive skills.

The history of lyric poetry in English is deeply connected to the history of popular music. The earliest lyric poems were chanted or sung. Early modern plays, like Shakespeare’s, were full of songs. Dances often followed performances of these plays.
 

This course studies lyric poetry from its beginnings in the English language to the present day, showing how lyric poetry is the foundation of song lyrics. The course begins by learning the basics of English poetic form: metre (like musical rhythm) and rhyme. The class covers some of the most famous English poems from Shakespeare to Emily Dickinson and W. B. Yeats, while listening to and studying lyrics from the earliest English ballads to the songs of Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys, Amy Winehouse, Taylor Swift, Lizzo, and many others.

This course investigates key literary works from the 18th century to the present that mark turning points in English-language literature. Beginning with the emergence of the English novel and continuing through Romanticism, Gothic literature, Modernism, Postmodernism, and contemporary identity-driven and decolonial narratives, the course emphasizes how literature both reflects and shapes historical change. 

The course offers a study of 20th century United States literature. Topics include: Americans in Europe; literary responses to WWI; the Lost Generation and the Jazz Age; literary responses to the Great Depression; trends in American Drama; literary impact of the Civil Rights Movement; postmodernism; multiculturalism and the emergence of new voices.

The aim of the course is to train students to be good interpreters for government organizations, enterprises and institutions, enterprises with foreign capital, joint ventures and wholly foreign owned enterprises, foreign affairs offices etc. and to do primary simultaneous interpreting as well as consecutive interpreting. They can also be equal to interpreting for business negotiation, higher level conference, press conference, international symposium and so on.

The teaching materials cover students' interpreting techniques and skills in the fields of etiquette, economy, diplomacy, culture, education, society, environment, law, news, politics etc. After mastering the interpreting techniques and skills, the students who attend the class can do all kinds of interpreting such as everyday life interpreting, liaison interpreting, guide interpreting, conference interpreting, interpreting for foreign affairs, interpreting for negotiation, interpreting for foreign trade and so on.

This course provides an outline of developments in children’s literature in England and parts of Europe through the study of some essential, central texts as well as recent books for children. The uses of fantasy and the educational aspects of books for children is discussed, along with notions of childhood and the nature of children. Through close reading of set texts students engage in critical techniques applicable to most literature, for the best texts for children satisfy sensitive adult readers too.