English

This course examines the world of the bustling and controversial theaters of the Anglo-Atlantic Eighteenth Century. Taking a dramaturgical approach to a number of dramatic texts produced in this important period in the history of popular entertainment, this course will examine key developments in literary innovation such as character development and the rise of interiority from within the context of new theatrical technology, the rise of new forms of media, the growing power of government censorship, an emerging imperial identity, nationalism, and increased social mobility. We will also focus on the rise of celebrity culture in the period and examine the development of popular obsession with “stars” within the broader social contexts of shifting gender norms, new regimes of sexual expression, and the rise of consumer culture. We will also examine plays alongside other forms of texts such as published gossip, celebrity memoirs, newspaper advertisements, playbills, and acting manuals, making use of existing databases hosted at the Folger, Huntington, and the British Libraries. This course also aims to serve as a general introduction on how to read literary texts historically, and how the study of literature can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach.

In this course, students study literature produced in the context of settler nations, focusing in particular on writing and visual art from Canada, Latin/South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Students look at writers and artists of settler descent as well as indigenous and immigrant narratives and how each of them negotiate issues of place, race, and belonging. Texts include poetry, novels, and short fiction, as well as theoretical engagements with settler colonialism, landscape painting, and histories of migration.

In this course, students study how Shakespeare’s plays have travelled around the world in stage productions, literary adaptations, and films during the 20th and 21st centuries. Students consider how many of these adaptations combine aesthetic and political concerns and agendas and how they incorporate elements of literary, dramatic, and cinematic traditions from around the world. Students also learn how the stage productions, film, and animated versions, and literary adaptations on the syllabus might be illuminated by current theories of translation, globalization, nationalism, and appropriation. In addition to the films, productions, and rewrites of the plays on the syllabus, students also are asked to read some scholarly articles and/or book chapters on each of the adaptations as well as relevant reviews, interviews, and artist biographies. Students are asked to read or re-read each of the four Shakespeare plays (Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet) that most of the adaptations covered is based on.

This course is an introduction to medieval literature. 

Using selected Singapore texts from a variety of different genres, this course explores the historical roots and contemporary relevance of literary production in Singapore. Beginning with colonial writing, the course moves through considerations of national and postcolonial literatures to contemporary concerns. Given Singapore's history, the notion of a "Singapore" text will be used creatively in order to reflect upon the growth of Singaporean identity and culture, and literary texts from other countries in the region may be used for comparative purposes.

The course aims at introducing to the students the art of short story writing and the cultural messages therein contained, as well as the way to interpret and write critically on short stories.

The course consists of a series of interpretive and critical readings of about 20 English short story masterpieces, by authors ranging from British, American (for the early stage of the course development), Irish, Canadian and Australian (to be added as replacements later on).

This course utilizes The Great Gatsby not only to understand the complex desires of the characters and the gilded age of 1920s America, but also to compare them with those here and now in Korea. The course begins by reading The Great Gatsby, and then reading select critical perspectives on the story, along with an introduction to such critical perspectives.

This course examines the ways in which writers in different parts of the world have used ideas around food to express and communicate the fundamental human experience. Focusing on the recurring images of cooking, eating, feasting, and fasting in a range of literary works and cultural productions, the course explores how food is imagined to convey the innermost feelings and desires of individuals, evoke cultural memory, and form a sense of community.

This course examines the creative process of writing literary work, from the first idea through the development, editing and presentation, including the identification of sources, and choice of style and form. Students will be encouraged to attempt a variety of forms including creative non-fiction, graphic narratives, photo-essays, screenplays, and scripts for games and podcasts. 

This course is an introduction to the most important texts in English Literature written between the Middle Ages and the end of the eighteenth century. The course begins with the Anglo-Saxon ('Old English') epic poem Beowulf (a tale of heroes and monsters) and ends with the lyrical poetry of the early Romantic period. The course studies a wide range of poets, including Marie de France, Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, Herrick, Milton, Marvell, and Pope; as well as the letters and political speeches of England's first modern queen, Elizabeth I.

The course includes reading scenes from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, and parts of Jonathan Swift’s satirical adventure novel, Gulliver’s Travels. 

The course emphasizes themes of the medieval and early modern worlds; the importance of religion in shaping English literature; comic and tragic heroes; women and gender in society, and English poetic language.
This Foundation Course has no prerequisite courses.