English

Nowadays, writing is generally seen as one of the great human inventions. But the notion that writing was invented by humans has not at all times been self-evident and accepted. For long periods of history, writing was seen as a domain of the gods and of their representatives. In diverse traditions, letters were thought to have preceded the creation of the world. By some, the whole act of creation was conceived as a form of writing, and therefore signatures were thought to be embedded in all creatures. Some aspects of this tradition have been perpetuated even after the secularizations of modernity: there are still discourses that refer to writing without a human writer and without a human reader. The world is still thought to be full of nonhuman entities (animals, plants and anorganic matter) that leave traces and inscriptions for other nonhuman entities to read. A prominent example is the “deciphered” genetic code. Machines obviously also have learned to read and write to one another. Furthermore, psychoanalysis has asserted that the human psyche engages in writing and reading procedures of which the human subject is unaware. In this seminar, students read and discuss literary and theoretical texts that engage with these nonhuman forms of writing (and that sometimes even claim some kind of “nonhuman” status for themselves). 

This course explores contemporary examples and practices of creative fiction, nonfiction, and poetry and draws upon some of the formal and political motivations of contemporary English-language literature for its content. It is suited for students looking to develop their creative voice independently and alongside their existing critical writing skills. It teaches students to explore distinct narrative and/or poetic voices and techniques and issue as well as learn from peer-feedback in workshop environments. 

This introductory seminar gives a survey of historical change in phonology, morphology/syntax, and the lexicon across the Old, Middle, and (Early/Late) Modern English periods to the present day as well as of current geographical and socio-functional variation in the English language. It thus emphasizes the close relationship between language change and variation. It introduces the concept of the sociolinguistic situation with its various parameters and presents language change and variation as complex processes determined by the interaction of language-internal forces and extralinguistic factors.

This course is about travel and cultural encounters, the ways in which these experiences are recorded, and the exploration of the significance of such records through a journey around Trinity Library collections and students' own personal memories. The course introduces students to the methodologies applied to the analysis of travel writing in its various forms (e.g. historical narratives, autobiographical memoirs, travel fiction) and to the analysis of visual and material objects. Primary material are drawn, where possible, from the Library’s collections of remarkable texts and objects from around the world. Students engage with appropriately selected items available for viewing in person or in digital form on the Trinity Digital Collections website.  

This course examines the political lessons children’s books encode about what childhood is, and about which children matter and why. Students read children’s texts ranging genres and forms—including fantasy, school stories, picturebooks, and domestic fiction—written between the late eighteenth century and the present day. Key focuses include agency, gender, race, class, and the environment.  The course considers the role of illustration, classic film adaptations, and seminal works by authors which may include Lewis Carroll, Neil Gaiman, C. S. Lewis, Beatrix Potter, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and J. K. Rowling. These works are illuminated in discussions in small group seminars. 

This course explores the history and culture of different areas of the post-colonial English-speaking world. It offers an in-depth study of different films, books, and documentaries from several areas of the English-speaking world and analyzes their cultural context.

This course provides a broad and sweeping history of British literature, while also giving historical context (such as important wars, elections, etc.) that is necessary for understanding the evolution of British literature. Spanning from its early beginning with BEOWULF, the course touches upon some great British playwrights, such as Shakespeare, as well as its later novelists, such as Dickens and Wilde, from the tenth century to the Modern Era.