English

This course explores how memoir has developed as a literary form in Ireland. The claustrophobic relationship between the stories of the nation and the individual has been a commonplace since at least the 1920s, when the Blasket Island autobiographies were at once held up as a model for the new Free State while also recording a way of life that was to quickly vanish. Beginning with an introductory session which establishes how this relationship has developed since then, this course examines the form of the memoir as a way of negotiating the relationship between the individual and society in Ireland, north and south. It asks students to critically examine the forms and themes by which we are called to remember the past century, and to investigate the contexts in which Irish memoir has been written and received.

Human Rights has been an object of literary studies since the 1980s-2000s. Tapping into the knowledge produced in this new field, this course reframes the history of modern literature as part of a broader development: the invention and history of human rights. This course explores several 'classics' in the history of Human Rights literature as well as a broad range of literary texts that discuss human rights from various perspectives but are not considered part of the literary canon. This course studies these forms as they have evolved since the late eighteenth century and across the globe in oral and written modes (songs, poems, novels, (auto-)biographies, graphic novels/comics, and so forth). There will be two seminar-style classes per week with assigned reading in advance of each session. There is a particular focus on partner/small-group work and interactive discussions, presentations, and discussions on the literature for an assigned session. An introduction to literature course is required for entry. 

This course concentrates on literary culture and its production in Ireland and Scotland in the transitional period of c.1100-1600. Students review the literary corpus that existed in Ireland before the arrival of the Normans, looking at the structure, genres, and typical content of this literature. The 12th century in Ireland witnessed the changeover from monastic to secular schools, a new professionalization of poetry-making, and the perfecting of syllabic metres which had been in use for some 500 years. Students assess the function of the poet and the nature of his relationship with his patron. Irish-Scottish literary connections at this period are often over-looked and forgotten, but the same standard literary language stretched across the straits of Moyle from north east Ulster to Gaelic-speaking Scotland. 

This course examines the grotesque style, a recurrent feature of American literature, by focusing on fiction works from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It begins by covering the definition of the “grotesque” from several scholars, each of whom present the concept differently. The grotesque, therefore, requires special deciphering that is examined in the seminar. An analysis of a selection of grotesque American fiction also allows a study of the reasons for the use of the grotesque and the role it plays.

This course explores madness and mental illness in recent and historical performance. It asks questions about how a society's constructions of madness are reflected in and produced by performance, and about the versions of subjectivity or selfhood that emerge when we play mad. The course is taught through practice-based case studies of ancient Greek, English Renaissance and 20th/21st century European texts and performances. It examines the versions of madness and mental illness produced in historical performance, and the ways in which these have been reinterpreted and rewritten to reflect current constructions and concerns of and about madness. It explores recent constructions of madness and its "treatment" on stage.

This introductory course aims to cultivate a broad understanding of the liberal arts, which forms the foundation of studies at Keio University. Conducted in a seminar style, students will deepen their learning through oral presentations, class discussions and debates, and practical work.

This course explores the relationship between the literary genre of “weird fiction” and conceptions of race and racism. How has weird fiction engaged with, promoted, and challenged racist ideas in an English language context? How might weird fiction be reworked to function as a positive force for change in an anti-racist way? More generally, why is it important that we, as 21st-century readers studying at a university in Japan, think seriously about these issues?

The class will read two stories by two different authors closely over the course of the semester. The goal of each class meeting will be to analyze the week’s assigned story section together in as much detail as possible, leading into broader thematic discussions of ideologies of race and racism in the genre of weird fiction.

This course introduces the major authors and characteristics of British poetry in the Romantic (ca. 1785-1830) and Victorian (ca. 1830-1900) periods. By analyzing the assigned texts carefully and critically, the course recognizes how the poets experimented with traditional poetic forms and genres to suit their artistic and imaginative vision, and how they critically reflected the political and social realities of their time. The course aids in understanding the artistic and cultural perspectives presented in the poems of each period. Students are encouraged to offer their own interpretations of the works in both oral and written form.

The course focuses on the variety of ways in which, since the mid-1800s, women writers from the United States have made use of non-realist genres and modes within short fiction as a means of both protesting and celebrating women’s positioning in what was still a self-consciously new and ostensibly utopian nation. It introduces students to the imaginative and discursive breadth displayed in texts produced by female writers prior to the 1970s. In doing so, the course explores the developments and continuities in fantastic fiction by women writers from the American Civil War, though the fin-de-siècle period, and into Modernism and its immediate aftermath. In this way, the course problematizes rigid periodization, in particular by highlighting the formal innovation and conceptual range of writers who employ a range of fantastical genres to explore issues from racism and oppression to infidelity and financial ruin, from science and the senses to the very nature of reality itself.

Aging is not all about old age; it is, more broadly, to do with one’s being in time and in relation to others. For example, aging invites one to think about care, something that many experience during their lifetime, and about their relationship to the environment. Thinking about aging, therefore, raises many important questions that are central to life.
 

The aim of this course is to address some of these questions, while introducing students to literary (and cultural) studies of aging. In particular, the course will think about aging from the feminist perspective by reading contemporary (post 1980s) narratives – short stories, novels and films – that explore aging for women and are produced or set in the UK. Although the texts are primarily concerned with women’s experiences of aging in the UK/Western context, one hope for the course is to encourage students to think about aging in broader contexts and one’s temporal being.

Although there will be brief lectures, the course will be run in a seminar style, focusing on class/group discussion. Students will be required to read and/or watch the texts outside class hours; ponder questions on worksheets provided in advance, and actively participate in discussion. 

 

The course provides practice in reading and understanding English texts, and the ability to express themselves orally and in writing in correct, polished English. Writing short texts of a general nature is practiced. Training in planning work and adapting to predetermined time frames is provided.