English

This seminar explores the relations between Transcendentalism and various reform movements and utopian projects of the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, in the areas of religion, education, women's rights, socialism, pacifism, and abolitionism. It places special emphasis on three themes: the religious and philosophical roots of the idea of human perfectibility; the self-image of the age (the nineteenth-century as the Age of Progress), and its critics; and the tension between individual and collective ideals of reform.

This course focuses on British poetry written in traditional forms from 1770 - 1850, as well as some modern and contemporary poetry. It introduces the major writers of the Romantic period: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Gordon (Lord Byron), Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, and John Keats.  Works from other Romantic period authors including Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, Thomas De Quincey, and Jane Austen will also be covered. 

Students will be expected to read poetry from the British Romantic period and show their understanding of the text and contexts by writing their own translations/imitations. The course covers traditional English poetic forms such as quatrains, the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, ottava rima, the English ode, and others. 

Officially, there are no prerequisites for this course; however, History of English Literature I (LIT106) (Anglo-Saxon - 1800) and History of English Literature II (LIT107) (1800 - Contemporary) are *strongly* recommended. GEH024 World of English Literature ('Lyric to Lyrics') is also recommended for a basic understanding of English poetic form. (For visiting students, the course requires some background knowledge of English poetry and the Romantic period, for example a 100-level survey literature course.) In the past, students who have not taken LIT106 and LIT107 first sometimes struggled with LIT226. 

This course examines the rise of the novel around the time of the eighteenth century. It explores some characteristic forms and concerns of early prose fiction in English including its roots, its routes, its forerunners, the first novel, the first novelists, the true contribution of women (as writers, producers, audience etc.), the role of social, political, religious factors, and the impact of technology and European expansionism.

This course offers a study of the works of Margaret Atwood. The first part of the course focuses on speculative elements, feminist themes, and the role of the narrator in Atwood's work, and examines how her novels' form contributes to their meaning. This part of the course discusses the claustrophobic first person narrative in THE HANDMAID'S TALE, the unreliable patchwork narrative of ALIAS GRACE, and the mythopoeic style of the PENELOPIAD. The course utilizes samples from TV adaptations, and a selection of essays by and about Atwood to provide a broad spectrum of perspectives and a basis for in-class discussion. The second part of the course builds on the theoretical context and literary analyses from the first part of the course. Students review essays and further context material on topics related to Atwood's novels such as the history and development of dystopian fiction in Anglophone literature, feminist literary theory, and the role of gender in classical mythology and modern adaptations. The second part of the course also offers exercises and room for discussion with regards to academic writing and working with secondary texts. Regular attendance is required. Students participate in class discussions, complete written assignments, and give an oral presentation.

This interdisciplinary course examines the representation of London in a variety of cultural outputs from the Victorian to the contemporary period. In particular, it analyzes how writers and artists have expressed their perception of the city as a dark site of social tensions, mystery, crime, and detective work. Alongside representative literary texts (from Dickens and Conan Doyle to Ackroyd), the course makes room for a significant amount of visual material such as illustrations (Doré, Cruikshank), films (Hitchcock, Reed), television dramas (Ripper Street, Sherlock), and documentaries (Keiller, Ackroyd). It is also supplemented by visits to UCL Collections and other London Museums.