(file last updated: [8/10/1998 - 15:23:5])
Undergraduate Concentration
The English concentration isdesigned to train students in the formal analysis of literarytexts and to introduce them to their literary and cultural heritage.
Graduate Program in English
The graduate program in Englishand American literature is designed to offer training in the interpretationand evaluation of literary texts in their historical and culturalcontexts.
Prospective concentrators shouldtake one of the following: HUM 10a, HIP 20a, or HIP 20b (see "A"under the "Main Track" description below), as well asEnglish 11a, Introduction to Literary Method, as early as possiblein their careers; the latter course focuses on the basic skillsrequired by the major. Concentrators must also take five differentperiod courses (each period is designated by a different number)from a list of six. In addition, concentrators must take a onesemester course devoted primarily to literary criticism or literarytheory and a one-semester elective, which may be any course (exceptwriting courses) offered by either the English or comparativeliterature departments.
Candidates for admission shouldhave a bachelor's degree, preferably with a major in English andAmerican literature, and a reading knowledge of French, Italian,Spanish, German, Greek, or Latin. They are required to submita sample of their critical writing not to exceed 35 pages; the35-page maximum may consist of a single critical essay or twoshorter essays of approximately equal length. Students are alsorequired to submit scores on the verbal aptitude portion of theGraduate Record Examination and on the GRE advanced test in literature.The general requirements for admission to the Graduate School,as specified in an earlier section of this Bulletin, applyto candidates for admission to this area of study.
William Flesch, Cochair
Poetry. Renaissance. Theory.
Michael Gilmore, Cochair
Puritanism. Literature of theAmerican Revolution. American Renaissance. Film studies.
Olga Broumas (Director ofCreative Writing)
Poetry.
John Burt
American literature. Romanticism.Composition. Philosophy of education. Literature of the AmericanSouth. Poetry.
Mary Campbell, GraduateAdvising Head
Medieval literature. Poetry.Renaissance literature.
Patricia Chu
Modernism. American literature.Asian-American literature.
Eugene Goodheart
19th- and 20th-century literatureand thought. Literary theory.
Thomas King
Performance studies. Genderstudies. Gay studies. 17th- and 18th-century drama.
Karen Klein
Interdisciplinary humanities.Women's studies. Medieval literature.
Alan Levitan
Shakespeare. Renaissance poetryand drama. Music and poetry. Classical and contemporary Japanesedrama, poetry, and fiction.
Victor Luftig (Directorof University Writing)
Modern literature. Victorianand 20th-century literature.
Stephen McCauley
Fiction, Writer-in-Residence.
Paul Morrison
Modernism. Literary criticismand theory.
Jayne Anne Phillips
Fiction, Writer-in-Residence.
Laura Quinney
Romanticism. Literature andphilosophy. 18th-century literature.
Bapsi Sidwha
Fannie Hurst novelist.
Faith Smith
African and Afro-American literature.Caribbean literature.
Susan Staves, UndergraduateAdvising Head
Restoration and 18th century.
Jay Wright
Fannie Hurst poet.
Except for courses in the 90-99range, English department courses are numbered systematically.The final digit for any course number identifies the subject,as follows:
0 - Courses in a literary genre
1 - Courses in literary theoryand literary criticism
2 - Medieval British literature(roughly before 1500)
3 - Renaissance British literature(circa 1500-1660)
4 - Restoration/18th-centuryBritish literature
5 - 19th-century British literature
6 - 19th-century American literature
7 - 20th-century British orAmerican literature
8 - Miscellaneous literarysubjects
9 - Writing courses
Nine semester courses are required,including the following:
A.A semester course in major foundational texts of the Western literarytradition (HUM 10a), or a semester course in major foundationaltexts of world literatures (HIP 20a or HIP 20b), to be taken asearly as possible, either before or during the student's firstyears as an English concentrator.
B.A semester course in literary method, ENG 11a, which should betaken during the student's first year as an English concentrator.
C.One semester course in each of five different periods, chosenfrom courses with final digits numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 (describedabove) or from cross-listed courses in the corresponding categories.
D.A one-semester elective, which may be any course (except writingcourses) offered by either the English or comparative literaturedepartments.
E.A semester course directed primarily to literary criticism orliterary theory.
F.No course with a final grade below C- can count toward fulfillingthe concentration requirements in English and American literature.
G.Honors Track: The department shall determine which studentsare eligible to enter the Honors Track. In order to receive departmentalhonors a student must satisfactorily complete an Honors Thesisduring the senior year.
Students interested in theWriting Track should consult the pamphlet, The Creative WritingTrack in the Department of English, obtainable from the mainoffice of the department. The requirements of the Writing Trackare, in brief, as follows:
A.A semester course in literary method, ENG 11a, which should betaken during the student's first year as an English major.
B.Two semester courses in directed writing (poetry, prose, or both):e.g., ENG 19a, ENG 109a, ENG 109b, ENG 119a, ENG 119b. At leastone course in directed writing must be completed before the endof the sophomore year. All required courses in directed writingmust be concluded before the beginning of the senior year. Onlyone course in directed writing can be taken in any semester.
C.One semester course in the student's preferred genre, to be agreedupon with the director of the Writing Track (e.g., ENG 10b orENG 180a). This course must be completed before the student'ssenior year.
D.One semester course in each of three different periods, chosenfrom the Main Track list above.
E.ENG 99d (The Senior Thesis). The student will produce, under thedirection of his or her advisor, a body of writing (usually abook of poems or a collection of stories) of appropriate scope(two semesters).
F.An elective course normally in a studio or performing art, tobe agreed upon with the director of the Writing Track.
G.The Writing Track also requires an essay on a tutorial bibliography.This will be done at the end of the student's senior year.
H.Admission to the Writing Track is by application only. Admissionwill be decided by the faculty of the Writing Track on completionby the student of at least one course in directed writing, normallyat the end of the sophomore year.
Concentrators in the Departmentof English and American Literature are not eligible to enrollin minors offered by the department.
Four semester courses are required,including the following:
A.Three writing workshops, chosen from the following: ENG 9a, 19a,109a, 109b, 119a, and 119b.
B.An academic course to be chosen by the student to match a literarygenre practiced in one of the chosen workshops, e.g., ENG 10bor ENG 80a.
Five courses are required,including the following:
A.ENG 6a.
B.ENG 7a.
C.Two advanced courses (on the 100-level) in American literature.
D.One course in American history or philosophy as approved by theadvisor to minors.
E.No course with a final grade below C- can count toward fulfillingthe requirements for the minor in American Literature.
This department participatesin the European Cultural Studies concentration and, in general,its courses are open to ECS concentrators.
Transfer credit toward concentration:Application for the use of transfer credit (awarded by the Officeof the University Registrar) toward concentration requirementsmust be accompanied by a Requirement Substitution Form providedby the English office. The student may be asked to provide a syllabus,a transcript of grades, and in some cases examples of writtenwork for which credit is being sought. The number of concentrationrequirements that can be satisfied with transfer credit is atthe discretion of the undergraduate advising committee.
More detailed descriptionsof the courses offered each semester will be available in theEnglish department office.
Program of Study
First-year students are expectedto take six courses in the English department. Each student willtake ENG 200a (Methods of Literary Study); each student will completea series of workshops in the teaching of writing. Other coursesmay be selected from departmental offerings at the 100 and 200level, although at least two of these electives must be 200-levelseminars. First-year students must present a paper at the FirstYear Symposium in the spring term.
Residence Requirement
The minimum residence requirementis one year, though students with inadequate preparation may requiremore.
Language Requirement
A reading knowledge of a majorforeign language (normally modern European, classical Greek, orLatin) must be demonstrated by passing a written translation examination.The completion of the language requirement at another universitydoes not exempt the student from the Brandeis requirement.
A.ENG 200a (Methods of Literary Study).
B.WMNS 205a, or a foundational course alternative.
C.Five additional courses in the English department selected from100-level courses and graduate seminars (200-level courses). Atleast two of these courses must be at the 200 level. One of thesefive courses must be listed as an elective with the Women's StudiesProgram.
D.One cross-listed women's studies course in a department otherthan the English department.
E.Attendance at the year-long, noncredit, eight-part Women's StudiesColloquium Series.
F.Language requirement: A reading knowledge of a major foreign language(normally modern European, classical Greek, or Latin) must bedemonstrated by passing a written translation examination. Thecompletion of the language requirement at another university doesnot exempt the student from the Brandeis requirement.
G.Thesis requirement: This project must be 25 to 35 pages long.Papers written for course work, papers presented at conferences,and papers written specifically for the M.A. degree are all acceptable.The paper must engage a feminist perspective or deal with literarysubjects appropriate to women's studies. The paper must satisfythe reader's standards for excellence in M.A. degree level work.Each paper will be evaluated by a reader for whom the paper wasnot originally written. For further information, contact the women'sstudies advisor in the English department.
Program of Study
Second-year students continueto take courses, usually two each term. Students have an obligationto review their preparation in the field with their advisors andto ensure that they are acquiring both a comprehensive knowledgeof the various historical periods and genres of English and Americanliterature and a deeper knowledge of the particular period orfield they propose to offer as a specialty. With the exceptionof ENG 200 and the teaching workshops, no specific courses arerequired of all Brandeis Ph.D. candidates; each student's programwill be designed in light of the strengths and weaknesses of hisor her previous preparation and in accord with his or her owninterests.
A student who comes to Brandeiswith a B.A. degree is required to take 12 courses for the Ph.D.degree. A student with an M.A. degree in English is required totake eight additional courses, six of which must be taken in theBrandeis English department. Additional courses may be taken inother departments at Brandeis or at other universities throughvarious consortium arrangements.
Residence Requirement
The minimum residence requirementis two years beyond the master's degree or three years beyondthe bachelor's degree.
Language Requirement
In addition to the first languagerequirement, the student must (1) demonstrate a reading knowledgeof a second major foreign language; or (2) demonstrate an advancedcompetence in the first foreign language and a knowledge of itsliterature; or (3) take a graduate course, ordinarily a seminar,in a field closely related to research on the dissertation. Approvalof the graduate committee must be sought before such a courseis taken; the student must demonstrate the relevance of the proposedcourse to the dissertation.
Training in Teaching
Training in teaching is providedthrough workshops offered in the first year. Second, third, andfourth year students are given a variety of teaching assignments,including University Writing Seminar courses associated with theUniversity Seminar in Humanistic Inquiries program and assistantshipsin English department courses. Additional opportunities are availablein the University Writing Center, in the program for teachingEnglish as a Second Language, in other departments, and in competitivelyawarded Prize Instructorships in the University.
Dissertation Field Examination
All candidates for the Ph.D.will be asked to pass an oral examination in the historical periodor genre in which the candidate expects to write a dissertation.This examination should be taken in the third year.
Dissertation and Defense
Each student will submit adissertation in a form approved by his/her dissertation directorand by a committee appointed by the director of graduate studies.The student will defend the dissertation at a Final Oral Examination.
Students should also consultthe General Degree Requirements and Academic Regulations foundin an earlier section of this Bulletin.
BCOM 1a Composition
Prerequisite: Placementby the director of University Writing. Enrollment limited to 10per section. Successful completion of this course doesNOT satisfy the first-year writing requirement.
A course in the fundamentalsof writing, required as a prerequisite to the University WritingSeminar for selected students identified by the director of Universitywriting. Several sections will be offered in the fall semester.
Staff
FWS 1a Foundational WritingSeminar
Prerequisite: Placementby the director of University Writing. Enrollment limited to15. Enrollment restricted to students who already have satisfiedthe USEM requirement.
A full-credit course for studentsbeyond the freshman year who have yet to meet the graduation requirementotherwise met by completing the University Writing Seminar (seebelow). As in the University Writing Seminar, the stress is onargumentative and stylistic strategies. Usually offered everyyear.
Staff
WL 1a University WritingSeminar
Enrollment limited to 17.May yield half-course credit toward rate of work and graduation.Two semester hour credits.
A preparatory course in collegewriting, with stress on writing sound argumentative essays thatdemonstrate mechanical and stylistic expertise. This course satisfiesthe first-year writing requirement. University Writing Seminarsare offered in conjunction with University Seminars in HumanisticInquiries and are limited to first-year students. Each studentis automatically enrolled in the University Writing Seminar connectedto the particular University Seminar in which he or she enrolls.Offered every semester.
Staff
HUM 10a The Western Canon
[ hum ]
Texts from the ancient portionof the canon from (from Homer to the New Testament), construedas masculine and feminine models of effective and empowering socialaction or as ineffective social action, alienation, and failure.Attempts to view each work in its own cultural context as wellas to explore its enduring value. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Muellner
ENG 3a The Renaissance
[ cl30 hum]
We will study lyric, narrative,and dramatic poetry and some prose. The purpose is to acquaintstudents with the intellectual and stylistic transformations thatmark the English Renaissance as the most varied and seminal periodof "awakenings" and "reawakenings" in Englishliterary history. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Levitan
ENG 4a The Restoration andthe Eighteenth Century: From Satire to Sentiment
[ hum ]
Verse and prose by major authorsincluding Dryden, Swift, Pope, Goldsmith, Sheridan, and Sterne.What motivates the rejection of satire and the turn to feelingand sentiment? How different are the relations of male and femalewriters to satire and sentiment? Usually offered every year.
Ms. Staves
ENG 5a Nineteenth-CenturySurvey
[ hum ]
This survey course offers generalcoverage of the major literary genres in the 19th-century. Thecourse studies the cultural context forged by the interactionof fiction, prose, and poetry. Usually offered every third year.Last offered in the spring of 1995.
Staff
ENG 6a American Literaturefrom 1832 to 1900
[ hum ]
The transformation of our literaryculture: the literary marketplace, domestic fiction, transcendentalism,and the problem of race. Cooper, Poe, Thoreau, Hawthorne, FannyFern, Harriet Wilson, Chopin, and Melville. Usually offered everyyear.
Mr. Gilmore
ENG 7a American Literaturefrom 1900 to 1965
[ hum ]
Realism and beyond. Eliot,Frost, Dreiser, Fitzgerald, Hurston, Faulkner, and others. Usuallyoffered every year.
Mr. Burt
ENG 9a Advanced WritingSeminar
[ hum ]
Signature of the instructorrequired.
A workshop in nonfiction designedmainly for juniors and seniors who want to develop skills in thecritical or personal essay, in memoir, autobiography, or scholarlywriting. Readings include short works of nonfiction by a widevariety of writers. Usually offered every year.
Staff
ENG 10b Poetry: A BasicCourse
(Formerly ENG 100b)
[ hum ]
This course may not be repeatedfor credit by students who have taken ENG 100b in previous years.
Designed as a "first"course for all persons interested in the subject. It is intendedto be basic without being elementary. The subject matter willconsist of poems of short and middle length in English from theearliest period to the present. Usually offered every third year.Last offered in the fall of 1995.
Staff
ENG 11a Introduction toLiterary Method
[ hum ]
Enrollment limited to 15per section in the fall and 18 per section in the spring.
The course's purpose is totrain students in the critical reading of literary texts. Therewill be frequent assignments of writing that involve literaryanalysis. Usually offered every semester. Multiple sections.
Staff
ENG 16a Nineteenth-CenturyAfrican-American Literature: Texts and Contexts
(Formerly ENG 116a)
[ hum ]
This course may not be repeatedfor credit by students who have taken ENG 116a in previous years.
We will examine some of themajor 19th-century texts of African-American literature and whythey are at the center of often heated debates about the canontoday. We will consider why the issues raised by these texts--genderand sexuality, race and ethnicity, the limits of democracy, andthe relationship of African-Americans to the United States andother national spaces-
-resonate so profoundly inliterary and cultural studies, and in national life. Usually offeredin even years.
Ms. Smith
ENG 19a Introduction toCreative Writing
[ hum ]
Offered exclusively on acredit/no credit basis. Signature of the instructor required.
A workshop for beginning writers.Practice and discussion of short literary and oral forms: lyric,poetry, the short story, tales, curses, spells. Usually offeredevery year.
Ms. Campbell
ENG 21b Theories of theSelf
[ hum ]
A study of the modern representationof self as porous and fragmented. We trace the evolution of thisnotion in literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. Texts willinclude: Locke, Hume, Wordsworth, Woolf, Freud, and Ashbery. Usuallyoffered every third year. Will be offered in the spring of 1999.
Ms. Quinney
ENG 23a Domains of Seventeenth-CenturyPerformance
(Formerly ENG 24a)
[ cl33 cl42hum ]
This course may not be repeatedfor credit by students who have taken ENG 24a in previous years.
Seventeenth-century Londonperformance investigated through the domains of its production--thecourt, the city, and the emerging "town," center ofa new leisure class. Drama, masques, and music drama studied asmodes of representation negotiating class mobility, changing conceptsof state authority and personal identity, and shifts in genderand sexual relations. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. King
ENG 25a Romanticism I: Blake,Wordsworth, and Coleridge
[Formerly ENG 125a]
[ cl43 hum]
This course may not be repeatedfor credit by students who have taken ENG 125a or ENG 135b inprevious years.
We will read the major poetryand some prose by the first generation of English Romantic poetswho may be said to have defined Romanticism and set the tone forthe last two centuries of English literature. Usually offeredin even years.
Mr. Burt or Ms. Quinney
ENG 30a "Tales of theDark Side": The Gothic Tradition in English and AmericanLiterature
[ hum ]
Examines the Gothic novel fromthe 18th to the 20th centuries, looking at Gothic writers as rebelsagainst the realistic novelists, incorporating some of their techniques,radically modifying others, and creating a tradition. Usuallyoffered every summer.
Staff
ENG 33a Shakespeare
[ cl30 hum]
A survey of Shakespeare asa dramatist. From nine to 12 plays will be read, representingall periods of Shakespeare's dramatic career. Usually offeredevery year.
Mr. Flesch
ENG 44a Rights: Theory andRhetoric
[ cl9 cl20cl44 hum ]
Classic enlightenment textsabout political, intellectual, economic, gender, and human rights:Milton, Locke, Adam Smith, the Bill of Rights, Paine, Wollstonecraft,and Wilberforce. Usually offered every third year. Will be offeredin the fall of 1998.
Ms. Staves
ENG 47a Asian American Literature
[ hum ]
Examines literature in Englishby North American writers of Asian descent from the 19th centuryto the present. Focuses on issues of literary collectivity basedon national origin and race, and how gender, sexuality, and classhave affected critical approaches to this literature. Usuallyoffered in even years. Will be offered in the spring of 1999.
Ms. Chu
ENG 58b AIDS, Activism,and Representation
[ cl46 cl47hum ]
Signature of the instructorrequired.
Selected topics in the culturalconstruction and representation of AIDS. Usually offered everythird year. Last offered in the spring of 1997.
Mr. Morrison
ENG 60b Writing About theEnvironment
[ cl16 hum]
Prerequisite: Completionof the FWS/WL requirement. Signature of the instructor required.
A course on writing persuasivelyabout humans' interactions with, and responsibilities for, theworld around us. Practice in several forms of non-fiction prose;readings from various cultures and periods, mainly from the UnitedStates since Thoreau, including Berry, Carson, Dillard, and Lopez.Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Luftig
ENG 63a Renaissance Poetry
(Formerly ENG 163a)
[ cl30 hum]
This course may not be repeatedfor credit by students who have taken ENG 163a in previous years.
We will read lyric and narrativepoetry by Wyatt, Surrey, Marlowe, Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare,Jonson, Donne, and Herbert. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Levitan
ENG 67b Modern Poetry
[ cl26 hum]
A course on the major poetsof the 20th century. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Morrison
ENG 75b The Victorian Novel
[ hum ]
The rhetorical strategies,themes, and objectives of Victorian realism. Texts may includeEliot's Middlemarch, Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Brontë'sVillette, Gaskell's Mary Barton, Dickens's BleakHouse, and Trollope's The Prime Minister. Usually offeredevery year.
Staff
ENG 77a Wit as Control inContemporary American Women Writers
[ hum ]
Examines how wit operates asan effective writing strategy in the fiction of Grace Paley, ShirleyJackson, Elinor Lipman, Anne Tyler, and Lisa Alther. Wit is studiesas a controlling device, as a way to enliven a text and charma reader into a sympathetic response. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Levy
ENG 80a Readings in theShort Novel
[ hum ]
A study of major short worksof modern fiction with a view toward understanding the modernelement in those works. Readings will include James, Conrad, Joyce,Faulkner, Hemingway, Mann, Kafka, Gide, and Camus. Usually offeredin even years.
Mr. Goodheart
ENG 98a Independent Study
Signature of the instructorrequired.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
ENG 98b Independent Study
Signature of the instructorrequired.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
ENG 99a The Senior Essay
Signature of the instructorrequired.
Open to all students with theapproval of an instructor.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
ENG 99b The Senior Essay
Signature of the instructorrequired.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
ENG 99d The Senior Thesis
Signature of the instructorrequired.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
ENG 101a Studies in PopularCulture
[ hum ]
A critical analysis of contemporaryculture, including television, film, video, advertising, and popularliterature. Combines applied criticism and theoretical readings.
Mr. Morrison
ENG 105a Women of Letters:The Nineteenth-Century
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: ENG 11a, orthe equivalent.
Using a variety of genres (prose,novel, poetry), the course explores how women writers of the 19thcentury negotiated the split between public (commercial, political)and private (domestic) concerns in their writing. How did thesewomen writers understand the intersections between sexual, racial,class, and national forms of identity? Usually offered every thirdyear.
Staff
ENG 105b Nineteenth-CenturyNovel
[ hum ]
A study of the changing relationsbetween self and society in the 19th-century novel in a worldin which society has achieved an unprecedented, almost god-like,authority-creating values, shaping behavior, passing judgement.What are the possibilities of personal freedom and self-expression?We consider the ways in which Jane Austen, George Eliot, CharlesDickens, Emily Brontë, and Thomas Hardy represent marriage,passion, work, and the moral life. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Goodheart
ENG 107a Poetry of the Americas
[ hum ]
Enrollment limited to 15.
A seminar devoted to rigorousand full analyses of selected poetry, in English, by recent andcontemporary American writers. Writers will include Sandra McPherson,Pattiann Rogers, Robert Earl Hayden, Derek Wolcott, Robert Bringhurst,and Don Domanski. Students will make written and oral presentations.
Mr. Wright
ENG 107b The Serious Businessof Comedy
[ hum ]
Enrollment limited to 15.
Satire, farce, comic monologue,and more in 20th-century American novels and short stories. Whatmakes a work of fiction funny? How do Nabokov, Roth, Edith Wharton,Randall Jarrell, and others employ the language of comedy to expressthe social, sexual, and political anxieties and absurdities oftheir times? Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. McCauley
ENG 109a Directed Writing:Poetry
[ hum ]
Offered exclusively on acredit/no credit basis. Signature of the instructor required.Students wishing to enroll should submit a writing sample consistingof three poems to the English department office, Rabb 144, beforethe first meeting of class.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
ENG 109b Directed Writing:Short Fiction
[ hum ]
Offered exclusively on acredit/no credit basis. Signature of the instructor required.Students will be selected after the submission of sample writing,preferably three pages of fiction. The deadline for submissionof application manuscripts to the English department office, Rabb144, is the day before the first meeting of class.
A workshop for motivated studentswith a serious interest in pursuing writing. Student stories willbe copied and distributed before each class meeting. Students'stories, as well as exemplary published short stories, will providethe occasion for textual criticism in class. Usually offered everyyear.
Mr. McCauley
ENG 116b Eighteenth- andNineteenth-Century Afro-American Literature
[ hum ]
Addresses the history of Afro-Americanliterature from its mid-18th-century beginnings through the post-CivilWar Reconstruction of the late 19th century. We will examine transcriptionsof oral folk productions, slave narratives, autobiography, essays,poetry, and prose fiction. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Smith
ENG 117a Directed Studiesin Current Literature
[ hum ]
Writing sample and signatureof the instructor required.
Examines prose and poetry thatenlarge our perception of the possible, in literature and theimagination. We look at sentence patterns as choreographers, writeunder their influence, and generate a hands-on understanding ofliterary invention and the exciting generosities of form. Usuallyoffered every third year. Last offered in the spring of 1996.
Ms. Broumas
ENG 117b The AutobiographicalImagination
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: ENG 11a. Signatureof the instructor required.
This combination literature/creativewriting course will combine the study of contemporary autobiographicalprose and poetry with a series of writing exercises based on thesetexts. We'll examine--as writers--what it means to construct thestory of one's life, and the ways in which lies, metaphor, andimagination transform memory to reveal and conceal the self. Usuallyoffered in even years.
Ms. Broumas
ENG 119a Directed Writing:Fiction
[ hum ]
Offered exclusively on acredit/no credit basis. Signature of the instructor required.Those wishing to enroll should submit a sample of their fictionwriting to the English department office, Rabb 144, before thefirst meeting of class.
An advanced fiction workshopfor students primarily interested in the short story. Studentsare expected to compose and revise three stories, complete typedcritiques of each other's work weekly, and discuss readings basedon examples of various techniques. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Phillips
ENG 119b Directed Writing:Poetry
[ hum ]
Offered exclusively on acredit/no credit basis. Signature of the instructor required.Admission by consent of the instructor on the basis of a shortmanuscript of poems submitted to the English department office,Rabb 144, before the first meeting of class.
A workshop for poets, usingtraditional workshop formats as well as body work to ground theimagination in breath and felt experience. Usually offered everyyear.
Ms. Broumas
ENG 121b Contemporary LiteraryTheory
[ cl21 hum ]
Recommended preparation:A course in the history of criticism.
A broad consideration of recentissues and trends in literary theory, primarily formalist, structuralist,psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, feminist, and Marxist. Usuallyoffered in odd years.
Staff
ENG 122a The Medieval World
[ cl39 hum]
A survey of early English literature.The first half will be Old English in translation: charms, riddles,elegiac poetry, the epic poem Beowulf. The second halfwill consist of selected Canterbury Tales in Middle Englishand some literature in translation: lyric poetry, the Gawain Romance,and Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Klein
ENG 124a Reason and Ridicule:The Literature of Britain in the Enlightenment
[ cl9 hum]
Writers' concern with "criticism"broadly understood, including literary criticism in Johnson andSheridan, skeptical historiography in Gibbon and Hume, and politicalcriticism in Paine and Wollstonecraft. Debates on the effectivenessand propriety of wit in reasoned argument and political debate.Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the fall of1996.
Ms. Staves
ENG 125b Romanticism II:Byron, Shelley, and Keats
[ cl43 hum]
This course may not be repeatedfor credit by students who have taken ENG 135b in previous years.ENG 25a (Romanticism I) is not a prerequisite for this course.
The "younger generation"of Romantic poets. Byron, Shelley, and Keats both continue andreact against poetic, political, and philosophical preoccupationsand positions of their immediate elders. We will read their majorworks, as well as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Usuallyoffered in odd years.
Staff
ENG 126a American Realismand Naturalism, 1865-1900
[ cl44 hum]
The course's concern will behow some of the central American Realists and Naturalists setabout representing and analyzing American social and politicallife. Topics include the changing status of individuals, classes,and genders, among others. Usually offered every third year. Lastoffered in the spring of 1997.
Staff
ENG 126b American Romanticism
[ cl43 hum]
Essays, poems, and fictionby Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Dickinson, Melville, Fuller, Poe,and Hawthorne. Usually offered every third year. Last offeredin the spring of 1995.
Mr. Burt
ENG 127a Joyce and Lawrence
[ hum ]
A study of the major worksof the two great antithetic novelists of the Modern period. Usuallyoffered odd years.
Mr. Goodheart
ENG 127b Migrating Bodies,Migrating Texts
[ hum ]
Enrollment limited to 15.
As colony, homeland, Paradise,Babylon, the Caribbean has been at the center of theorizationsof identity, imperialism, nation, and diaspora. We examine theimpact of migration on the imagination of writers from and onthe region. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Smith
ENG 129a Writing Workshop
[ hum ]
Signature of the instructorrequired. Students must submit a three to five page writing sampleto the English department office, Rabb 144, before the first meetingof class.
A workshop for writers. Usuallyoffered in even years.
Staff
ENG 129b Understanding theScreenplay: A Workshop
[ hum ]
Offered exclusively on acredit/no credit basis. Signature of the instructor required.Students must submit a three to five page writing sample to theEnglish department office, Rabb 144, before the first meetingof class.
Examines the screenplay asa unique literary genre, and investigates the differences betweenwriting stories in prose and writing for the screen. The courseis divided into three equal parts: reading theory; reading publishedscreenplays; editing a published story into screenplay format.
Mr. McCauley
ENG 132b Chaucer I
[ cl39 hum]
Prerequisite: ENG 10b orENG 11a.
In addition to reading Chaucer'smajor work, The Canterbury Tales, in Middle English, wewill pay special attention to situating The Tales in relationto linguistic, literary, and social developments of the laterMiddle Ages. No previous knowledge of Middle English required.Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Campbell
ENG 133a Advanced Shakespeare
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: ENG 33a orENG 33b.
An intensive analysis of asingle play or a small number of Shakespeare's plays. Usuallyoffered in odd years.
Mr. Levitan
ENG 134a The Woman of Letters,1600-1800
[ cl7 cl15hum ]
Women writers from Behn toAusten; novels, plays, pamphlets, diaries, and letters. The culture'sattitudes to women writers; women's attitudes to literary achievementand fame, women's resistance to stereotypes, and women's complicityin the promulgation of images of the "good woman." Usuallyoffered every third year. Last offered in the fall of 1995.
Ms. Staves
ENG 135b Romanticism
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Major texts by Blake, Wordsworth,Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, and Byron, among others. Our purposeis to define the common ground of the Romantics' poetic, political,and philosophic goals and to determine the singularity of eachwriter's achievement. Usually offered in even years.
Staff
ENG 137b Studies in Modernism
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An attempt to explore the conceptof "modernism" through an intensive reading of seminalpoems, novels, and plays. Focuses on the formal innovations ofmodernism and their relation to various ideological and politicalissues. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Morrison
ENG 140a Satire and itsUses
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Examines the forms and methodsof satirical fiction and poetry, with emphasis on writers fromclassical Rome, Britain, and the United States.
Staff
ENG 142b Introduction toOld Norse
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Designed to introduce studentsto the linguistic structure of Old Norse, to develop reading proficiencyin Old Norse, and to introduce students to some of the classictexts of the Old Norse sagas, especially those with parallelsto Beowulf. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Maling
ENG 143a Elizabethan andJacobean Drama
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A study of the revenge traditionin the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The problemof blood-revenge will be looked at as a historical phenomenonin Renaissance society and as a social threat transformed intoart in such dramatists as Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, Marston,Tourneur, Chapman, and Webster. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Levitan
ENG 144b The Body as Text:Castiglione to Locke
(Formerly ENG 141b)
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This course may not be repeatedfor credit by students who have taken ENG 141b in previous years.
How are our bodies the materialfor our presentations of self and our interactions with others?We will read contemporary theories and histories of the body againstliterary, philosophical, political, and performance texts of the16th- through the 18th-centuries. Usually offered every thirdyear. Last offered in the fall of 1997.
Mr. King
ENG 147b Modern Irish Literature
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This course examines a publiclyprominent literature and its testing and validation of the identitiesof various constituencies: Irish, Irish-American, Irish-Jewish,Irish-Unionist, and so on. Writers considered include Joyce, Yeats,Synge, and Beckett. Other prominent figures as well as a widerange of contemporary authors are also taken up. Usually offeredin even years. Last offered in the spring of 1995.
Mr. Luftig
ENG 151a Lesbian and GayStudies: Desire, Identity, and Representation
[ cl46 wihum ]
Historical, literary, and theoreticalperspectives on the construction and performance of homosexualidentities. How has the sin that cannot be named been overdeterminedas the margin against which heterosexuality defines itself? Howhas that margin provided a space for radical praxis? Usually offeredin even years. Last offered in the fall of 1994.
Mr. King
ENG 152b Arthurian Literature
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Prerequiste: ENG 11a.
A survey of (mostly) medievaltreatments of the legendary material associated with King Arthurand his court, in several genres: bardic poetry, history, romance,prose narrative. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Campbell
ENG 157a The PostmodernGeneration: Contemporary Poetry
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An introduction to recent poetryin English, dealing with a wide range of poets, as well as strikingand significant departures from the poetry of the past. We willlook, where possible, at individual volumes by representativeauthors. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in thespring of 1996.
Staff
ENG 157b American WomenPoets
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Prerequisite: ENG 10b orENG 11a. Enrollment limited to 20.
In this course we will imaginemeanings for terms like "American" and "women"in relation to poetry. After introductory study of Anne Bradstreet,Phillis Wheatley, and Emily Dickinson, readings of (and about)women whose work was circulated widely, especially among otherwomen poets, will be selected from mainly 20th-century writers.Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Campbell
ENG 164b Restoration andEighteenth-Century Drama and Performance
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Investigates the exchange betweenperformance texts and contemporaneous discussions of class, nationality,and political party. Emphasizes the emergence of modern genderand sexual roles and the impact of the first professional womenactors. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. King
ENG 165b Victorian Poetryand its Readers
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Studies how poetry was writtenand read during the last time poetry held a prominent role inEngland's public life. The course centers on Tennyson's careeras Poet Laureate, but also gives full attention to Robert Browning'swork. The course also surveys the work of E. B. Browning, thePre-Raphaelites, and others, and concludes with the poetry ofHardy and of the early Yeats. Usually offered every third year.Last offered in the spring of 1996.
Mr. Luftig
ENG 166b Whitman, Dickinson,and Melville
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Poetry of Whitman, Dickinson,Emerson, and Melville, with representative poems of Whittier,Bryant, Longfellow, Poe, Sigourney, and Tuckerman. Usually offeredevery third year. Last offered in the fall of 1995.
Mr. Burt
ENG 167b Narratives of Slaveryand Freedom in the African-American Tradition
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This course explores the slavenarrative genre, with close attention to 19th- and 20th-centurytexts by Frederic Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Ralph Ellison, SherleyAnn Williams, and others. Close attention is paid to the politicsof authorship and endorsement, as well as to the controversy overWilliam Styron's 1967 Confessions of Nat Turner. Usuallyoffered in odd years.
Ms. Smith
ENG 171a History of LiteraryCriticism
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This course may not be repeatedfor credit by students who have taken ENG 71a in previous years.
Explores major documents inthe history of criticism from Plato to the present. Texts willbe read as representative moments in the history of criticismand as documents of self-sufficient literary and intellectualinterest. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in thespring of 1995.
Mr. Morrison
ENG 173a Spenser and Milton
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A course on poetic authority:the poetry of authority and the authority of poetry. Spenser andMilton will be treated individually, but the era they bound willbe examined in terms of the tensions within and between theirworks. Usually offered in even years. Last offered in the springof 1997.
Mr. Flesch
ENG 174b Eighteenth-CenturyNovel
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The early development of thenovel in England, with particular attention to contemporary theoriesof the novel and the relationship between the literary historyof genre and the social history of class. Authors include Defoe,Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, and Burney. Usually offered everyyear.
Ms. Staves
ENG 176b Hawthorne, Melville,and Poe
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Readings will include MobyDick, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, The Scarlet Letter,and The Marble Faun, as well as short novels by all threeauthors. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in thespring of 1998.
Staff
ENG 177a American Gothicand American Romance
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This course may not be repeatedfor credit by students who have taken ENG 176a in previous years.
Examines Gothic fiction asa method of exploring the capacities of the imagination, disclosingits power, and meeting its threat. Beginning with the 19th-centuryfounders of the genre in America, the second half of the coursedeals with some 20th-century masters. Usually offered in evenyears.
Mr. Burt
ENG 177b Fiction of theTwentieth-Century American South
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Fiction of the 20th-centuryAmerican South: Faulkner, Warren, Porter, Welty, and others. Usuallyoffered every third year. Last offered in the fall of 1994.
Mr. Burt
ENG 180a The Modern AmericanShort Story
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Signature of the instructorrequired.
Close study of American shortfiction masterworks. We read as writers write, discussing solutionsto narrative obstacles, examining the consequences of alternatepoints of view. We study words and syntax to understand and articulatehow technical decisions have moral and emotional weight. Usuallyoffered in even years.
Staff
ENG 181a Making Sex, PerformingGender
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Gender and sexuality studiedas sets of performed traits and cues for interactions among socialactors. Theorists suggest that gender and sexual identities areneither biologically innate nor psychologically essential, butare repeatedly produced in everyday social practices. Readingswill argue that differently organized gender and sexual practicesare possible for men and women. Discussion and three short papers.Usually offered in odd years. Last offered in the spring of 1998.
Mr. King
ENG 187b Twentieth-CenturyLiterature: American Passages
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Prerequisite: ENG 11a, orthe equivalent. Signature of the instructor required.
Focuses on literary explorationsof American childhood and identity. Race, gender, and the searchfor meaning and connection through language in a multiculturalsociety are represented through a range of contemporary Americanvoices.
Ms. Phillips
ENG 197b The Political Novelin the Twentieth Century
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Defining politics as strategiesof power, we will look at these strategies in sexual, racial,economic, and ideological terms as they are represented in primarilyBritish and American novels of the 20th century. We will focuson literary responses to various political and economic systemsand on the literary depictions of the body in public and institutionalspaces. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Klein
Seminars
ENG 200a Methods of LiteraryStudy
Required of all first-yeargraduate students.
Usually offered every year.
Mr. Flesch
ENG 221a Selected Topicsin Literary Theory
This seminar considers a broadrange of recent issues and trends in literary theory. Attentionis given to structuralist, post-structuralist, psychoanalytic,Marxist, and feminist theories. Usually offered every third year.Last offered in the fall of 1994.
Mr. Morrison
ENG 223a Early Modern Literaturesof Information and Empire
(Formerly ENG 242a)
Reading in (primarily) Englishgenres of the period of discovery and colonial exploration (upto 1727): "births" of Utopia, anthropology, sciencefiction, and the novel; relations of science to prose fictionand sensational genres. Collaterally an overview of the methodsand assumptions of intellectual history in its "new historicist"and "cultural materialist" avatars. Usually offeredevery third year.
Ms. Campbell
ENG 227a Studies in Modernism
An exploration of the conceptof the modern through an intensive reading of The Waste Land,Ulysses, Between the Acts, and Endgame. Usually offeredevery third year. Last offered in the spring of 1998.
Mr. Morrison
ENG 227b Critics of Culture:Past and Present
The cultural criticism of thepast 200 years may be read as a history of the quarrel betweenliterature and the modern world. We will read, among others, Carlyle,Ruskin, Arnold, Marx, Eliot, Orwell, Trilling, Williams, Eagleton,Jameson, and Said. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Goodheart
ENG 230a Canons and AestheticIdeology
The debates, theoretical andpractical, historical and contemporary, on canonicity and taste.How and what is the canon? What is a canon? Is the canon oppressive?Would every canon be? Are there any criteria for literary evaluation?Readings include Dryden, Burke, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Woolf,Smith, Harpham, Sedgwick, Guillory, Nussbaum, Bourdieu, Gates,Froula, Ronald Dworkin, Fish, both Blooms, Rorty, and WilliamJames. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the springof 1993.
Staff
ENG 230b Feminist Theory
This course, primarily devotedto literary theory, will also pay some attention to feminist scholarshipin related disciplines, including history, anthropology, and legalstudies. Usually offered in odd years.
Staff
ENG 231a Seminar in PerformanceStudies: Performing the Early Modern Self
In this seminar we read contemporaryperformance theory against everyday and formal performances ofthe Restoration and the 18th century in England. We will investigateagents' negotiations of social and personal space in plays, diaries,novels, and treatises. Usually offered every third year. Lastoffered in the spring of 1995.
Mr. King
ENG 232b Chaucer
A survey of the historicallypivotal literary career of Chaucer, with emphasis on The CanterburyTales. Chaucer's works as social analysis and critique, fromthe point of view of a bourgeois outsider in an aristocratic milieu;Chaucer's medieval genres and their transformation into vehiclesof early modern sensibility; medieval relations of secular literatureto its audience(s); orality, literacy, and the book. Usually offeredin odd years.
Ms. Campbell
ENG 234a Feminist Criticismand Women's Writing, 1660-1800
Recent feminist criticism oftexts written by women between 1660 and 1800. The emphasis willnot be on feminist theory, but rather on issues in the criticismand interpretation of literary texts and on feminist issues inliterary theory. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Staves
ENG 235a Topics in Romanticism
This seminar looks in depthat issues surrounding English Romanticism. Works considered includethe poetry of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Percy Shelley,and Keats, and the prose of De Quincey, Hazlitt, Lamb, Mary Shelley,and Brontë. The works are examined from theoretical, historical,political, and formal perspectives. Usually offered in even years.
Staff
ENG 236a American Poetryof the Nineteenth Century
A graduate seminar on Americanpoetry of the 19th century, including Dickinson, Whitman, Emerson,Melville, Tuckerman, the "Fireside poets" (Longfellow,Whittier, Lowell, Bryant), the "Nightingales" (Sigourneyand Oakes-Smith), religious and patriotic lyrics, and much more.Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the spring of1995.
Mr. Burt
ENG 236b Special Topicsin Postcolonial Literature and Theory
Using rotating topics ("BlackBritish," "Anglophone Caribbean," "Intellectualsand the British Empire"), this course is designed to introducestudents to some of the major issues and thinkers in this field.Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the springof 1996.
Ms. Smith
ENG 240a Sex and Culture
Studies in the cultural constructionand representation of the self and its sexuality; we focus primarilyon the various technologies of self-knowledge and self-fashioning(literary and otherwise) in the modern West. Usually offered everythird year. Last offered in the fall of 1996.
Mr. Morrison
ENG 240b The Ethics of Representationin Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Fiction
Examining exemplary works of19th- and 20th-century fiction, we study the ways in which narrativeconstruction (plotting, rhetoric, narrative voice, ideologicalmotivation) represent personal and social reality. We raise questionsabout the relationship between the real and the ethical, betweenwhat is and what ought to be, and how our own ethical concernscomplicate our understanding of the novels we read. Usually offeredevery third year. Last offered in the spring of 1996.
Mr. Goodheart
ENG 243a Renaissance Intertextualities
Once recovered, to what degreeare the paradigmatic texts of classical antiquity--or even thelater models of Petrarch and the "Pléiade"--ratherre-covered by Renaissance English poets? How and why dotexts influence texts? Translation, imitation, and variation willbe the subjects of inquiry. Usually offered every third year.Last offered in the fall of 1995.
Mr. Levitan
ENG 243b Sonnets, Lyrics,and Short Narratives: Tudor and Elizabethan
Studies the short poem between1520 and 1600, in the native and continental traditions. The majorfigures to be read include John Skelton, Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney,Spenser, and Shakespeare. Among the motifs to be examined areRenaissance musical realization of lyric texts (Dowland, Campion,and the madrigalists), variations on classical sources, and stylisticinnovations. Usually offered every third year. Last offered inthe spring of 1993.
Mr. Levitan
ENG 250a Representationsof Eighteenth-Century Marriage: Literary Texts, Historical Documents
Explores a variety of 18th-centuryrepresentations of marriage, each of which has been thought tomake some claim to being a "realistic" representation.Sources include legal documents, medical treatises, paintings,periodical accounts, conduct books, drama, and novels. We concernourselves with the apparent social function of each text and withthe ideology of marriage it promotes. Usually offered in evenyears.
Ms. Staves
ENG 250b Historical andTheoretical Introduction to Modern English Versification
The history of English versificationfrom Wyatt on is the history of the theory of versification. Thiscourse studies both, asking what rhyme and meter are, and whattheir connection to poetic meaning is. We consider the answersgiven by poets from Wyatt through Ashbery and Merrill and theoristsfrom Spenser and Milton through Freud, Empson, and Easthope. Usuallyoffered in even years.
Mr. Flesch
ENG 256a InterdisciplinaryApproaches to American Literature
A comprehensive survey of Americanliterature, with particular emphasis on its interactions witha range of disciplines: history, law, linguistics, philosophy,and science. Usually offered in even years.
Staff
ENG 264a Pope, Montagu,and Fielding
A study of three major 18th-centurycomic writers with an emphasis on exploring some common groundamong them, including their complex uses of irony and sentiment,and considering their generic experiments. Among the issues tobe considered are the writers' highly self-conscious relationto new developments in the early modern book trade. Usually offeredevery third year. Last offered in the spring of 1994.
Ms. Staves
ENG 266a Literature, Culture,and Society: American Novels from the Revolution to the TwentiethCentury
This course will explore therelation between selected American novels and the social orderout of which they emerged. We will pose the following questions:Is literature a criticism of society, or an affirmation of prevalentvalues? Do novels challenge or reinforce popular sentiment? Usuallyoffered in odd years.
Mr. Gilmore
ENG 280a Making it Real:The Tactics of Discourse
Critical investigation of representationalpractices as modes of agency, problematizing identity and difference,and negotiating hegemony and marginality. Interdisciplinary focusincluding performance and cultural studies; the practice and theoryof literary, visual, and performing arts; and historiography.Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the spring of1996.
Mr. King
ENG 299b Pedagogy
Modern theories of pedagogyand composition with practical experience. Students are apprenticedto current instructors. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Luftig
ENG 352a and b DirectedResearch
Specific sections for individualfaculty members as requested. Permission of the director of graduatestudies required.
Staff
ENG 402d Dissertation Research
Specific sections for individualfaculty members as requested.
Staff
Courses in Literary Genre
Lyric Poetry and Drawing
Women in American Jewish Literature
Courses in Literary Theoryand Literary Criticism
Feminist Theory in Literaryand Cultural Studies
Humanities FoundationalTexts
Imagining How We Are: Eastand West I
Imagining How We Are: Eastand West II
Renaissance British Literature(circa 1500-1660)
Madness and Folly in RenaissanceLiterature
Restoration/18th-CenturyBritish Literature
Sex and Sensibility in Pre-RevolutionaryEuropean Novels
19th-Century British Literature
Dickens and Dostoevsky
20th-Century British orAmerican Literature
Afro-American Literature ofthe Twentieth Century
American Jewish Writers inthe Twentieth Century
Seminar in American JewishFiction: Literary Readings: Roth and Ozick
Miscellaneous Literary Subjects
The Grammar of English