English

The new twenties of today bear more than a passing resemblance to the Jazz Age that F. Scott Fitzgerald so memorably chronicled. The role of literature itself, on the other hand, has in the meantime changed dramatically. At the centennial of the full arrival of Anglo-American literary Modernism (The WASTELAND and ULYSSES headline the literary milestones published in 1922) this seminar revisits Fitzgerald's oeuvre, guided by the central question: In what way does Fitzgerald, an author tied to a particular era like few others, speak to our own time and predicaments today? The course explores Fitzgerald's life and works in his own context first—against the social and cultural history of the interwar period—and then engage his novels and short fiction through a number of critical lenses and close readings, including Marxist and intersectional approaches (focused on class, race, and gender), ecocriticism, and affect theory, along themes ranging from addiction and celebrity, to masculinity and fascism.

This course enables students to improve their creative prose writing skills, both fiction and creative non-fiction. The emphasis is on practice rather than text-based study. Students explore story structure, sense of place, character and point of view as well as techniques for approaching the personal essay. Through writing exercises and other written stimulus, the workshop element of the course will allow students to experiment with different forms and techniques as well as developing original ideas and material. Students also gain experience of evaluation and the ability to effectively critique the work of their peers. 

In this course, students study themes of medieval Welsh stories, techniques of the medieval Welsh storyteller, social and historical contexts of medieval Welsh stories, and the application of critical analysis to medieval Welsh texts.

This seminar explores a selection of the writings of Jane Austen (1775-1817). Austen’s current status as one of the best-loved and most critically-admired novelists in English literature can obscure the formative influences and cultural contexts of her work. This course begins with some of Austen’s earliest work, tracing a transition in narrative voice from parody to satire to a distinctive ironic mode. It then traces the refinement of this mode into a powerful tool of ethical commentary through examining two of Austen’s most complex and often-misunderstood mature novels. Students also examine the present-day cultural production of Austen as author through 20th-century cinematic adaptations and literary pastiches.

This course surveys the first thousand years of English literature from the Middle age to its coming of age in the English Renaissance period (1485-c.1640). The assigned reading will be situated in their literary and historical context, and we will consider when and how knowledge of historical context enhances our understanding of a text’s meaning and the extent to which we can treat literature as a mirror of history. The course also explores the development of the English literary tradition and its salient characteristics and concerns.