English

This course introduces Modernism as a literary and historical movement which attempted to redefine the major concepts of art, the role of artist and the value of aesthetics as offered and established by tradition. Emphasis is put on the historical factors and implications of this significant cultural change from tradition to modernity. Works to be discussed may be drawn from poetry, drama, fiction, as well as other creative and critical forms of discourse.

This interdisciplinary course focuses on the languages and cultures of the peoples that dominated the British Isles during the early medieval period (c.400-c.1100) – the Anglo-Saxons, Insular Celts, and Scandinavians – and how they interacted and influenced each other. The course is aimed at students of English and Celtic, so the group is split up accordingly for the seminar sessions. The English track provides a thorough introduction to the Old English language (phonology, syntax, morphology) and helps students develop skills in translating Old English. By placing the study of Old English in its cultural historical context through the translation and discussion of a number of literary and non-literary texts, the course also explores topics such as medieval history writing, learning in Anglo-Saxon England, daily life, the position of women, manuscript culture, and early legal tradition. The Celtic track provides students with a thorough understanding of language change in all its forms (phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, etc.), with a strong focus on the Medieval Insular Celtic languages.

This course looks at key examples of the Anglo-American short story, from the beginning of the twentieth century until the present time. It introduces the short story as one of the most significant and richest of our literary forms, a form that allows for a compressed exploration of the central aspects of human nature, including sexuality, betrayal, regret, temptation, fear, and death. The course examines works such as James Joyce, "The Dead" (1914); F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Babylon Revisited" (1931); Mary McCarthy, "The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt" (1943); Mavis Gallant, "The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street" (1963); Raymond Carver, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" (1981); James Lasdun, "An Anxious Man" (2007); Nathan Englander, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank" (2011); Kristen Roupenian, "Cat Person" (2017); Sadia Shepard, "Foreign-Returned" (2018). Assessment: First Assignment (30%), Second Assignment (30%), Final Exam (30%), Participation (10%).