Autumn Course Descriptions

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10100. Critical Perspectives; Staff Autumn, Winter, Spring
10200-10300. Problems in Gender Studies
10300; Staff, Autumn, Winter.
10800. Introduction to Film Analysis; J. Lastra. Autumn.
11401. Writing Law; L. McEnerney, K. Cochran. Autumn 2002.
12300/32100.Poetry and Being; L. Ruddick. Autumn 2002.
12400/32400. Writing Fiction; S.Schaeffer. Autumn 2002.
12901/42901. Poetry Workshop: Poetic Forms; K. Volkman, Autumn 2002.
13600. Playwriting; C. Allen. Autumn.
13800/31000. History and Theory of Drama I; D. Bevington, D. N. Rudall. Autumn.
14300/34300. Advanced Poetry Workshop; K. Volkman. Autumn 2002.
14400/34400. Advanced Fiction Writing; S. Schaeffer Autumn 2002.
14700/34700. Creative Writing: Fiction; A. Obejas. Autumn 2002.
14900/34900. Old English; A. Rabin. Autumn 2003.
17501/37501. Milton; J. Scodel. Autumn 2002.
20104-20105-20106. London Program Courses.
20104.From the Annals of Wales to Monty Python and the Holy Grail: King Arthur in Legend and History; C. Von Nolcken Autumn-In London Program Only.
20105.Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales; C. Von Nolcken Autumn-In London Program Only.
20106.William Blake's London; S. Makdisi Autumn-In London Program Only.
24000. Ulysses; L. Ruddick. Autumn 2002.
24800/44800. Gender and South African Writing; D. Driver. Autumn 2002.
25200. Emerson and American Literature; A. Yaphe. Autumn 2003.
25300. American Literature and Culture to 1865; E. Slauter. Autumn 2002.
26400. Reading American Environmental Classics; J. Opie. Autumn 2002.
27900/47900. African American Poetry; R. Von Hallberg. Autumn.
28400. Surrealism and the American Cinema; J. Lastra Autumn 2003.
28700. Contemporary Poetics: Lyric, Experiment and the Social; R. Kaufman. Autumn.
29300/48700. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era; Y. Tsivian. Autumn 2002.
29806. Senior Seminar: Liberty and Slavery in American Culture; E. Slauter. Autumn.
29900. Independent B.A. Paper Preparation

For a description of the numbering guidelines for the following courses, consult the section on reading the catalog on page 15.

Boldface letters in parentheses refer to courses that fulfill the following program requirements: (A) Period; (B) Pre-1700; (C) 1700 to 1900; (D) Poetry; (E) Fiction; (F) Drama/Film; (G) American; (H) British.

10100. Critical Perspectives.
Required of English concentrators; ENGL 10100 is ideally taken by English concentrators in their third year and not later than autumn quarter of their fourth year. This course develops practical skills in close reading, historical contextualization, and the use of discipline-specific research tools and resources, and encourages conscious reflection on critical presuppositions and practices. The course prepares students to enter into the discussions that occur in more advanced undergraduate courses. Section1: L. Rothfield, Section 2: B. Sinha; Autumn, Winter, Spring

10200-10300. Problems in Gender Studies
(=ENGL 10200-10300, GNDR 10100-10200, HUMA 22800-22900, SOSC 28200-28300). PQ: Second-year standing or higher.
Completion of the general education requirement in social sciences or humanities, or the equivalent. May be taken in sequence or individually. This two-quarter interdisciplinary sequence is designed as an introduction to theories and critical practices in the study of feminism, gender, and sexuality. Both classic texts and recent conceptualizations of these contested fields are examined. Problems and cases from a variety of cultures and historical periods are considered, and the course pursues their differing implications in local, national, and global contexts. Both quarters also engage questions of aesthetics and representation, asking how stereotypes, generic conventions, and other modes of circulated fantasy have contributed to constraining and emancipating people through their gender or sexuality.

10200.
This course addresses the production of particularly gendered norms and practices. Using a variety of historical and theoretical materials, it addresses how sexual difference operates in the contexts of nation, race, and class formation, for example, and/or work, the family, migration, imperialism, and postcolonial relations. S. Michaels Autumn, Staff. Winter.

10300.
This course focuses on histories and theories of sexuality: gay, lesbian, heterosexual, and otherwise. This exploration involves looking at a range of materials from anthropology to the law, and from practices of sex to practices of science. Staff, Autumn, Winter.

10800. Introduction to Film Analysis
(=ARTH 19000, CMST 10100, COVA 25400, ENGL 10800, GSHU 20000). This course introduces basic concepts of film analysis, which are discussed through examples from different national cinemas, genres, and directorial oeuvres. Along with questions of film technique and style, we consider the notion of the cinema as an institution that comprises an industrial system of production, social and aesthetic norms and codes, and particular modes of reception. Films discussed include works by Hitchcock, Porter, Griffith, Eisenstein, Lang, Renoir, Sternberg, and Welles. J. Lastra. Autumn. (F)

11401. Writing Law.
To a considerable extent, law is what gets written down as law. In this course we'll ask two questions about the characteristic ways that contemporary American law is written: How do you do it? And What difference does it make? We hope that each question will inform the other. We will start by identifying key features of several genres of legal texts: opinions, statues, contracts, briefs, memos. Students will then study the writing of law by doing it: completing weekly exercises in which they write parts of these texts. Then, we'll ask what difference it makes that the texts have these features and not others. What difference does it make in how the law operates? What difference does it make in what the law is? L. McEnerney, K. Cochran. Autumn 2002.

12300/32100. Poetry and Being.
The course involves close analysis of poems from a variety of periods and genres, some exposure to various critics' perspectives on literary form, and a number of theoretical readings (largely from the domain of psychoanalysis) on creativity, play, and emotion, which readings we would place in dialogue with our interpretations of individual poems. L. Ruddick. Autumn 2002. (D)

12400/32400. Writing Fiction.
PQ: Consent of instructor; submit writing sample to G-B 309 by December1, 2002 (Winter); or February 15, 2003 (Spring). This class is run as a workshop, meaning that student writing is its soul and subject. Our concentration is on language and craft, and we talk about some of the practical aspects of the writing life. Each student submits two stories or chapters from a work in progress for group discussion, and then meets with the instructor for a conference. Each student substantially rewrites one of his/her stories. In addition, we read a number of recent works of fiction by contemporary writers. Finally, there are brief, periodic lectures on different elements of fiction writing (e.g., plot, character, and point of view) followed by open discussion. S.Schaeffer. Autumn 2002.(E)

12901/42901. Poetry Workshop: Poetic Forms
(ENGL 42901, MAPH 32901) This creative writing course will focus on the exploration of poetic form. Using Eavan Boland and Mark Strand's anthology The Making of a Poem as a central text, we will consider historical models and contemporary variations of major forms in the Western tradition, including the sonnet, sestina, and elegy. We will also explore notions of form representing alternate traditions--including set forms from Eastern cultures (ghazal, tanka, haiku) and oral traditions--and innovations such as projective verse and the prose poem which directly respond to conventional prosodies. The goal is to extend awareness of the ongoing revision and adaptation of tradition to contemporary concerns and to the compulsions of the individual maker, and to empower participation in that dialogue. A further ambition is to make the history of forms a living and vital element in students' relationship to a complex poetic legacy. You will write poems in the forms discussed as well as exploring a form-type or formal concern in a final paper. K. Volkman, Autumn 2002. (D)

13600. Playwriting
(=ENGL 13600, GSHU 26600). PQ: Consent of instructor; consult Tiffany Trent (702-9021) for more information. This course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. This course introduces the basic principles and techniques of playwriting through creative exercises, discussion, and the viewing of contemporary theater. Structural components of plot, character, and setting are covered as students develop their dramatic voices through exercises in observation, memory, emotion, imagination, and improvisation. C. Allen. Autumn. (F)

13800/31000. History and Theory of Drama I
(=ANST 21200, CLAS 31200, CMLT 20500/30500, ENGL 13800/31000, GSHU 24200/34200). May be taken in sequence with GSHU 24300/34300 or individually. This course is a survey of major trends and theatrical accomplishments in Western drama from the ancient Greeks through the Renaissance: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, medieval religious drama, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Jonson, along with some consideration of dramatic theory by Aristotle, Horace, Sir Philip Sidney, and Dryden. The goal is not to develop acting skill but, rather, to discover what is at work in the scene, and to write up that process in a somewhat informal report. Students have the option of writing essays or putting on short scenes in cooperation with other members of the class. End-of-week workshops, in which individual scenes are read aloud dramatically and discussed, are optional but highly recommended. D. Bevington, D. N. Rudall. Autumn. (B, F, H)

14300/34300. Advanced Poetry Workshop.
For students who have completed one or more poetry workshops. This course requires extensive reading, writing, and preliminary attempts by the student to place his or her work within the ongoing dialogue of tradition and innovation. We will start by reading T.S. Eliot's somewhat fusty "Tradition and the Individual Talent" and begin to frame our own definitions of broad and variable terms such as tradition and influence. Our reading will pair predecessor poets with a later figure, considering them in terms of legacy and cultural inheritance, focusing on Whitman/Ginsberg, Dickinson/Plath, Stevens/Ashbery, and Hughes/Komunyaaka. Students will write new poems prompted by the poets we discuss, and will explore influences on their own writing and the relationship of another set of poets in two short papers. K. Volkman. Autumn 2002. (D)

14400/34400. Advanced Fiction Writing.
PQ: Consent of instructor; submit three to five sample poems to G-B 309 by September 1, 2002 S. Schaeffer Autumn 2002. (E)

14700/34700. Creative Writing: Fiction.
PQ: Consent of instructor; submit a short story to G-B 309 by September 1, 2001. Students are expected to rewrite, revise, and reevaluate their original work from week to week based on our readings, discussions, and analysis. Lectures are based on issues that arise from student work. There are occasional exercises outside the students' own writing. The workshop meets weekly. A. Obejas. Autumn 2002. (E)

14900/34900. Old English.
This course is designed to prepare students for further study in Old English language and literature. As such, our focus will be the acquisition of those linguistic skills needed to encounter such Old English poems as Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, and The Wanderer in their original language. In addition to these texts, we may also translate the prose Life of Saint Edmund, King and Martyr and such shorter poetic texts as the Exeter Book riddles. We will also survey Anglo-Saxon history and culture, taking into account the historical record, archeology, manuscript construction and illumination, and the growth of Anglo-Saxon studies as an academic discipline. This course serves as a prerequisite both for further Old English study at the University of Chicago and for participation in the Newberry Library's Winter Quarter Anglo-Saxon seminar. A. Rabin. Autumn 2003. (B, D, H)

17501/37501. Milton.
This course examines John Milton's major works with particular focus on Milton's conception of his poetic vocation and of history--personal, literary, political, and cosmic. The course also introduces students to the diversity of critical approaches to Milton. J. Scodel. Autumn 2002. (B, D)

20104-20105-20106. London Program Courses.

20104. From the Annals of Wales to Monty Python and the Holy Grail: King Arthur in Legend and History.
C. Von Nolcken Autumn-In London Program Only. (B, D, H)

20105. Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales.
C. Von Nolcken Autumn-In London Program Only. (B, D, H)

20106. William Blake's London.
S. Makdisi Autumn-In London Program Only. (C, H)

24000. Ulysses.
(=Engl 43000) This course combines close attention to the text of Ulysses with readings designed to give a sense of the range of critical approaches available for interpreting Joyce. These include selected Joyce criticism, as well as material from the culture of early twentieth-century Dublin (including newspapers, music hall lyrics, and magazines) that we can place alongside Ulysses to formulate ideas about Joyce's relationship to popular culture. L. Ruddick. Autumn 2002. (E, H)

24800/44800. Gender and South African Writing.
(=ENGL 24800, GNDR 24800) In this course we develop our understanding of South African writing. A major interest is in the changing social constructions of masculinities and femininities during the period from 1950 to 1990, and the effects of race/racism and class on conceptions of gender. Texts include stories by Can Themba, Gcina Mhlope, Miriam Tlali, and Zoe Wicomb; autobiographies by Noni Jabavu, Ellen Kuzwayo, and Emma Mashinini; and a novel by Nadine Gordimer. D. Driver. Autumn 2002. (E)

25200. Emerson and American Literature.
This course will attempt to do two things. First, we will devote the beginning part of the quarter to intensive reading of Emerson's major lectures and essays, trying to figure out what they mean. We will then devote the remainder of our time to three pairs of authors-- Thoreau and Hawthorne, Whitman and Dickinson, William James and John Dewey--considering their work as extension and/or critique of Emerson. A. Yaphe. Autumn 2003. ( E, G)

25300. American Literature and Culture to 1865.
This lecture/discussion course provides an introduction to American literary and cultural history between the sixteenth and mid nineteenth centuries. We survey major texts (novels, essays, poems, plays, and personal narratives) from colonial North American settlement, the Enlightenment, the Revolutionary era, the American Renaissance, and the Civil War in light of a series of overlapping themes-tensions between liberty and authority, slavery and equality, national and regional identity, individualism and democracy, the impact of social and political change on intellectual work. Adopting a transnational and comparative perspective and focusing specifically on the relationship between writing and culture, we also treat connections between literature and other disciplines, including anthropology, history, law, philosophy, politics, religion, and the visual arts. E. Slauter. Autumn 2002. (A,C,E)

26400. Reading American Environmental Classics.
Both historic and modern environmental classics, mostly American, will be analyzed. The pace will be about one book a week. Brief critical reviews by students will serve as the basis for class discussion. Authors might include Thomas Jefferson, George Perkins Marsh, William Faulkner, Annie Dillard, Gretel Ehrlich, Terry Tempest Williams and perhaps Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" in parallel with the movie, "Apocalypse Now." J. Opie. Autumn 2002. (G)

27900/47900. African American Poetry.
R. Von Hallberg. Autumn. (D,G)

28400. Surrealism and the American Cinema.
(=CMST 25800, ARTH ??) From the early 1920s on, both "official" and "unofficial" Surrealists have shaped film history in profound ways. In addition to a substantial body of films that might be identified as surrealist in their own right the Surrealists identified and promoted certain American films, filmmakers, and genres as packing a powerful surrealist punch regardless of their apparent ignorance of the movement. The aesthetic and moral agendas of Surrealism were decisively shaped by their encounter with American film, and in response, Surrealists helped set the agenda for film criticism and film theory to the present day. Taking American slapstick films as a starting point, this course will approach the Hollywood cinema as what Miriam Hansen has called a "Vernacular Modernism," in order to understand the dialectical relationship between mass culture and modernist art movements. In addition to Hollywood films, we will study the films of key American Surrealists including Joseph Cornell, Maya Deren, and Bruce Conner, and investigate how elements of the surreal persist in contemporary film. J. Lastra Autumn 2003. (F)

28700. Contemporary Poetics: Lyric, Experiment and the Social.
Close reading of contemporary (roughly, post-1970) experimental lyric poetry; also, readings in a few key texts of critical, aesthetic, and poetic theory that have been influential not only within criticism, but within the art of poetry itself. Occasional brief, "backdrop" considerations of pre-1950 modernist poetry. Consideration of how various poets and critics explore the question of what lyric is, of why it has been and might continue to be a key literary genre; treatment of lyric's relationships to 19th- and 20th-century waves of artistic-aesthetic innovation, and to the realms of the social and political. Topics for discussion will include: the linguistic medium and the question of musicality; modern experimental lyric's accessibility and/or difficulty; tradition and innovation, form and formalism; "hermetic" poetry, aesthetic autonomy, and sociopolitical engagement or commitment; community and individuality. Readings will include texts by Rich, Mackey, Hass, Vallejo, Vicuna, Arteaga, Palmer, Ashbery, Baraka, Guest, Creeley, Howe, Moriarty, Blaser, Kim, Coolidge, Hejinian (writing together with Perelman, Watten, et al), Agamben, Hollander, Benajmin, Adorno. (Note: Basic familiarity with 19th- and 20th-century poetry highly recommended.) R. Kaufman. Autumn. (D)

29300/48700. History of International Cinema I: Silent Era
() Y. Tsivian. Autumn 2002. ( F)

29700. Reading Course.
PQ: Consent of instructor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. May not be taken for a letter grade. The kind and amount of work to be done are determined by an instructor within the Department of English Language and Literature who has agreed to supervise the course. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

29806. Senior Seminar: Liberty and Slavery in American Culture
This seminar focuses on slavery as a cultural problem between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Drawing on novels, poems, essays, paintings, and narrative testimony, our main interpretive concern will be with the strategic responses of black and white writers and visual artists to racial slavery and inequality, but we also address a few contemporary debates conducted in the language of liberty, including American Indian removal, temperance, labor reform, and women's rights. E. Slauter. Autumn. (C, G)

29900. Independent B.A. Paper Preparation.
PQ: Consent of instructor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. May not be counted toward the distribution requirements for the concentration, but may be counted as a departmental elective.

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