Department of English
Chair
Claudia L. Johnson
Associate Chair
Anne A. Cheng
Departmental Representative
Oliver M. Arnold (fall)
Jeffrey Dolven (spring)
Professor
Eduardo L. Cadava
Anne A. Cheng, also African American Studies
Lawrence N. Danson
Maria A. DiBattista, also Comparative Literature
Jill S. Dolan, also Lewis Center for the Arts, Theater and Dance
Diana J. Fuss
Simon E. Gikandi
Claudia L. Johnson
Lee C. Mitchell
Deborah E. Nord
Jeff E. Nunokawa
James Richardson, also Lewis Center for the Arts, Creative Writing
Esther H. Schor
D. Vance Smith
Nigel Smith
Valerie A. Smith, also African American Studies
Susan A. Stewart
Susan J. Wolfson
Michael G. Wood, also Comparative Literature
Visiting Professor
Rey Chow, also Council of the Humanities
Rita Copeland, also Council of the Humanities
Wayne Koestenbaum
Associate Professor
Oliver M. Arnold
Daphne A. Brooks, also African American Studies
Jeffrey Dolven
William A. Gleason
Assistant Professor
Zahid R. Chaudhary
Sophie Graham Gee
Meredith Anne Martin
Gayle M. Salamon
Benjamin L. Widiss
Alexandra Vazquez, also African American Studies
Tamsen Olivia Wolff
Lecturer
Sarah M. Anderson, also Council of the Humanities
Ricardo Montez, also Council of the Humanities
Mendi L. Obadike, also Council of the Humanities
Miriam J. Petty, also Council of the Humanities
Robert N. Sandberg, also Lewis Center for the Arts, Theater and Dance
Visiting Lecturer
T. Colm Tóibín, also Lewis Center for the Arts, Creative Writing
Associated Faculty
April Alliston, Comparative Literature
Leonard Barkan, Comparative Literature
In the Department of English, students have the opportunity to read widely across different genres and periods of English, American, and Anglophone literature and to explore numerous approaches to literary study with a distinguished, internationally renowned faculty. The faculty represents a wide range of expertise and brings great excitement to their reading of literature. The faculty includes historicists and formalists, theorists and poets, postcolonialists and feminists; its teaching and writing concern not just poetry, drama, and prose, but film, music, art, architecture, and technology. Faculty members share a passion for talking about works that inspire and fascinate students and for thinking about what and how they mean.
The department offers courses that cover nearly two thousand years of literature and culture, and teaching formats range from large lectures to small seminars to one-on-one advising. A typical program of study embraces the most hallowed texts of the Western literary tradition as well as new or newly rediscovered works. Students acquire a common critical vocabulary and join faculty in debating enduring questions regarding the interactions of art, society, and language.
All majors enroll in one of a diverse array of junior seminars coupling the study of a specific subject with methodological training in critical reading and writing. Majors also pursue independent work on subjects of their own choosing in collaboration with the faculty during their junior and senior years, and they may choose concentrations that involve the study of English-language literature in conjunction with creative writing, theater, American studies, or a second national literature. The department encourages majors to pursue interdisciplinary work, particularly through the certificate programs, such as the programs in American studies, creative writing, European cultural studies, Judaic studies, medieval studies, theater and dance, visual arts, and women and gender, as well as the Center for African American Studies.
Departmental majors graduate as incisive readers, cogent thinkers, and powerful writers, well prepared for any profession requiring a rigorous understanding and mastery of language. They also carry with them a lasting ability to take informed pleasure in all forms of literature, in the process of writing, and in the meanings and powers of culture. While some graduates pursue careers in teaching, many go on to become leaders in such fields as law, medicine, business, and the creative arts. Simply put, learning to read closely and write fluently—the twin centers of the English major—are two of the most valuable skills students can bring to any career.
Information and Departmental Plan of Study
Advanced Placement and Writing Requirement. Students with scores of 800 on the SAT Literature or Subject Test or 5 on the Advanced Placement Examination are granted one unit of advanced placement in English. Advanced placement does not satisfy the University writing requirement.
Prerequisites. To enter the department, students must have successfully completed both of the following courses:
1. One “Reading Literature” course. These courses introduce students to the traditional genres of the English major. These courses include: ENG 200 Poetry; ENG 201 Fiction; ENG 202 Drama; ENG 203 The Essay.
2. ENG 205 Introduction to English Literature. This course introduces students to the foundational historical texts of English literature. Primarily a historical survey that covers English literature from the 14th to the 18th century, 205 prepares students to consider how the first conceptions of “English” and “literature” have changed over time and over national borders.
The Department recommends taking 200, 201, 202, or 203 before 205. Prospective concentrators who have not satisfied the prerequisites by the end of sophomore year may still enter the department, but should consult with the departmental representative.
Additional Prerequisites for Certificate Programs and Departmental Programs. The Department of English works in close collaboration with many certificate programs. While students are responsible for learning the requirements for the various certificate programs available to English students, the English department facilitates interdisciplinary work by a series of set “programs” within the major. Freshmen and sophomores interested in Program 2 (English in Comparative Contexts) should prepare to take 300-level courses in the foreign literature of their choice. Those considering Program 3 (English and American Studies) should try to take AMS 201 in their sophomore year. Those considering Program 4 (English and Creative Writing) should complete at least one course in creative writing. Students considering Program 5 (English and Theater) should enroll in an introductory course in theater and dance. Though there is no specific program to this effect, students in the English department also are encouraged to consider pursuing certificates in the Program in the Study of Women and Gender and the Center for African American Studies. Students should consult with the departmental representative for information about their particular interests and how these interests might fit in the department.
Course and Distribution Requirements. Because its fields of study are so broad, the department has general distribution requirements so that each student has both a historical and theoretical sense of the discipline. As stated above, students take two prerequisites (“Reading Literature” and ENG 205). Students also are required to take a 300-level junior seminar in the first term of the junior year (see below).
In addition to these three requirements, all majors must take eight courses in the department (seven of which must be at the 300 level) for a total of eleven courses (not counting independent work). Often, students may use cognate courses from outside the department as “departmentals” (courses that count toward the course and distribution requirements). The rules for the use of cognates vary among the five programs described below. All cognates must be approved in advance by the departmental representative.
Distribution Requirements. All majors fulfill the following departmental distribution requirements:
Three courses in literature before 1800
Two courses in literature after 1800
One “Approaches to Literature” course (a designated major author, special topic, or theory course)
A list of courses satisfying these requirements is available from the department.
Programs of Study. Students admitted to the department choose to concentrate in one of five programs of study:
Program 1: English and American Literature. Most majors choose Program 1, which has the broadest and most flexible requirements. Students should have completed at least one of the prerequisites (English 200, 201, 202, or 203, or 205) before the end of sophomore year. In addition to the junior seminar in the fall of junior year, majors take two English courses in each of the four upper-class terms for a total of nine departmentals. With the approval of the departmental representative students may substitute for one of these nine courses a cognate 300-level course from another department or program. This cognate may not be used to satisfy a departmental distribution requirement.
Program 2: English in Comparative Contexts. Students wishing to enhance their knowledge of the English and American literary traditions with the study of another national literature may elect Program 2. Students should have completed at least one of the prerequisites (English 200, 201, 202, or 203, or 205) before the end of sophomore year, and maintain an average of B or better in English and foreign language courses. Students take nine departmentals, including the junior seminar. At least three and not more than four of these nine must be 300-level courses in a single foreign language. With the approval of the departmental representative, students in Program 2 may use their foreign language courses to satisfy departmental distribution requirements. They are allowed no other cognates.
Program 3: English and American Studies. Students should have completed at least one of the prerequisites (English 200, 201, 202, or 203, or 205) and AMS 201 before the end of sophomore year. Program 3 students take a total of nine departmentals, including the junior seminar. A minimum of seven of these must be courses in the Department of English. At least two must be courses in the American field, normally from the offerings of the department or the Program in American Studies. American studies courses taken to meet this requirement may, with the approval of the departmental representative, be used to satisfy departmental or distribution requirements. Up to two American studies courses may count as cognates; no other cognates are permitted. Program 3 students also must complete the requirements for the Program in American Studies.
Program 4: English and Creative Writing. Students should have completed at least one of the prerequisites (English 200, 201, 202, or 203, or 205) and at least one 200-level course in the Program in Creative Writing by the end of sophomore year. Students entering the department elect Program 4 provisionally: final admission depends on securing the permission of the Program in Creative Writing to undertake a creative thesis. Juniors in Program 4 normally take two creative writing courses at the 300 level in addition to the junior seminar and other departmentals. At the end of the junior year, they apply to the Program in Creative Writing for permission to write a creative thesis. Those whose applications are accepted by the program may count two 300-level creative writing courses toward their required total of nine departmentals and submit a creative thesis in lieu of a critical thesis (see below). They are allowed no other cognates. Students not admitted to the Program of Creative Writing normally revert to Program 1. They may use one 300-level creative writing course as their Program 1 cognate.
Program 5: English and Theater. Students should have completed at least one of the prerequisites (English 200, 201, 202, or 203, or 205) and an introductory course in the Program in Theater and Dance by the end of sophomore year. Program 5 students take nine departmentals, including the junior seminar. Among these must be:
One upper-level course in Shakespeare (normally ENG 310 or 311)
One course in drama before 1700 (normally ENG 316 or CLA 323)
One course in drama after 1700 (normally ENG 345 or 356, but COM 326 or SLA 312 also may be used)
At least six of the student’s departmentals must be chosen from the offerings of the Department of English. At least two and not more than three must be from the Program in Theater and Dance, and at least one of these must be at the 300 or 400 level. With the permission of the departmental representative, Program 5 students may use courses in dramatic literature taken outside the department to fulfill departmental distribution requirements. No other cognates are allowed.
Note: Program 5 and the certificate in Theater and Dance are distinct entities with distinct requirements. For information on the latter, see the director of the Program in Theater and Dance.
Individualized Program of Study. Students who wish to pursue a particular interdisciplinary interest—e.g., literature and philosophy, literature and history, literature and journalism, literature and the visual arts— should follow the guidelines for Program 1, but may request additional cognates (these cognates may serve as departmentals, but not as distribution requirements). Proposals for such individualized programs of study will normally be submitted to the director of undergraduate studies when the student signs into the department at the end of the sophomore year.
Junior Independent Work. During the first term of junior year, students will write a research paper under the supervision of their ENG 300 seminar leaders. This paper will constitute junior independent work for the fall semester and will receive a grade separate from that awarded for work completed in the course (there is no requirement that the topic of the junior paper be related to the subject of the junior seminar). During the second term of junior year, students will write approximately 20–25 pages to be submitted at the end of the term. Students in Programs 1, 4, and 5 choose a topic within the field of English and American literature. Students in Program 2 must choose a topic that reflects their interest in the foreign literature of their choice. Students in Program 3 choose a topic within the field of American literature. In consultation with their advisers, students also may have the option of having their second junior paper lay the groundwork for their senior thesis (in this instance, the junior independent work later can serve as a basis for a thesis chapter, although it must be revised and developed more fully). All subjects must meet the approval of the Committee on Departmental Studies.
Senior Thesis. During senior year, departmental students will write a thesis (normally limited to 20,000 words) on a subject approved by the Committee on Departmental Students. The department requires a submission of at least 20 pages of the senior thesis in December, on or before the last day of fall term classes. The deadline for the completed thesis is set by the committee. Program 1 students will normally select a subject within the field of English and American literature. Program 2 students must select a subject that will involve some common aspect of English literature and the foreign literature of their choice. Program 3 students must select a subject directly connected with American literature. Program 4 students will write a collection of stories, a novel, or a group of poems or translations under the supervision of faculty of the Program in Creative Writing. Program 5 students may, at the end of the junior year, propose a creative thesis such as a full-length play; an actor’s, director’s, or choreographer’s notebook; or a production design. Such a thesis proposal must be approved by the departmental representative in tandem with the director of the Program in Theater and Dance. Any creative project, other than playwriting, must combine practical work in the theater or dance studio with a critical approach incorporating scholarly research. Creative theses will involve advisers from both the Department of English and the Program in Theater and Dance.
Departmental Examination. At the conclusion of the senior year, all departmental students will take a comprehensive examination devised by the Committee on Departmental Students. The exam will consist of two four-hour exams taken on consecutive days. The first exam will consist of a series of 15–20 passages of poetry, prose, and drama, covering the range of English and American literature from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present, and students are asked to write on three of these passages. The second exam is divided into two parts: first, period, and, second, genre/theoretical. Students are asked to write on one of seven or eight questions in each of these two parts. In both exams, students have a great deal of choice in what questions they wish to answer, and they are only asked not to use materials from their senior thesis in their answers.
Study Abroad. The department encourages students to consider studying abroad for a semester or a year. Courses taken abroad may, with approval, receive both departmental and distribution credit (in general, the department can accept up to two courses for each semester abroad). Students considering study abroad should consult the departmental representative at an early stage.
Further Information. For further information, consult the departmental representative and the department’s home page (http://english.princeton.edu).
Courses
ENG 131 Shakespeare — Not offered this year LA
An introduction to the plays of Shakespeare as literary, dramatic, and cultural texts. The aim is to rediscover Shakespeare in his own time, while also knowing him as our contemporary: a maker of our culture and a continuing source of pleasure. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 132 Imagining America — Not offered this year LA
An introduction to the cross-cultural study of American literatures, with special attention to the multiple points of connection, conflict, dialogue, and exchange that characterize American writings. Texts may be drawn from a broad range of periods, regions, and cultures. One lecture, two classes. Staff
ENG 200 Reading Literature: Poetry — Spring LA
An introduction to the art of poetry in English from Shakespeare to Mother Goose, from free verse to sestinas, from the beginnings to the 21st century. Discussions will range from the minutiae of how poetry works—rhythm, syntax, trope, image, lineation, sound—to the role of its unique kinds of thinking and feeling in our world. Two lectures, one two-hour preceptorial. J. Richardson
ENG 201 Reading Literature: Fiction — Fall LA
This course is designed to provoke and cultivate an interest both in close reading of particular texts and in the huge range of different forms of fiction. The goal is to enrich our understanding of the real world by knowing more about how the imagination works. Works studied will run from The Odyssey to contemporary English and American fiction. Two lectures, one two-hour preceptorial. M. DiBattista
ENG 202 Reading Literature: Drama — Fall LA
This course is designed to teach students how to read plays as literature written for performance. Key assumptions are that every act of reading is an act of interpretation, that a good reader of dramatic literature engages in an activity nearly identical to that of a good director or actor or designer, and that a reader might learn from theater practitioners how to make critical choices based on close reading. Students will get on their feet to explore exactly how a play is what it is. Two lectures, one two-hour preceptorial. R. Sandberg
ENG 203 Reading Literature: The Essay — Not offered this year LA
This course introduces students to the range of the essay form as it has developed from the early modern period to our own. The class will be organized, for the most part, chronologically, beginning with the likes of Bacon and Hobbes, and ending with some contemporary examples of and reflections on the form. We will consider how writers as various as Sidney, Hume, Johnson, Emerson, Woolf, C.L.R. James, and Stephen Jay Gould have defined and revised the essay’s shape and scope. Two lectures, one two-hour preceptorial. J. Nunokawa
ENG 205 Introduction to English Literature: From the 14th to the 18th Century — Spring LA
An introduction to English literary history. Centered on four great writers—Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, and Pope. Two lectures, one two-hour preceptorial. Staff
ENG 206 Public Speaking — Not offered this year LA
Emphasis upon the preparation and delivery of expository and persuasive speeches before audiences composed of the speaker’s fellow students. Consultations with the instructor, readings in textbooks, and written analyses of speeches supplement frequent practice in speaking. Two 90-minute seminars. T. Wolff
ENG 207 Introduction to African American Literature (see AAS 207)
ENG 208 Origins and Nature of English Vocabulary (see CLA 208)
ENG 209 Introduction to African American Literature: Harlem Renaissance to Present (see AAS 209)
ENG 213 Introduction to Language and Linguistics (see LIN 201)
ENG 214 Historical Linguistics (see LIN 214)
ENG 300 Junior Seminar in Critical Writing — Fall
Students learn to write clear and persuasive criticism in a workshop setting while becoming familiar with a variety of critical practices and research methods. The course culminates in the writing of a junior paper. Each section will pursue its own topic; students are assigned according to choices made during sophomore sign-ins. Required of all English majors. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ENG 301 The Old English Period — Fall LA
An intensive introduction to the English language spoken and written in the British Isles approximately 500 to 1100 C.E., leading to a critical survey of the literature. Attention is paid both to linguistic questions and to the cultural context of such poems as Beowulf and the Dream of the Rood. Two 90-minute seminars. S. Anderson
ENG 304 Medieval English Literature in Modern Versions — Spring LA
Representative masterpieces of pre- and post-Conquest medieval Britain in modern translation. Epic, romance, lyric, drama, and history (excluding Chaucer) will be studied. Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Anderson
ENG 305 The Medieval Period — Not offered this year LA
A study of the Middle English texts that span the period from the Norman Conquest to the Tudor Renaissance, with attention paid to Middle English as a language. Readings will be chosen from verse romance, drama, political and religious writings, romance and/or lyric. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 307 Chaucer — Spring LA
A study of Chaucer’s art with reference to the intellectual, social, and literary conventions of the Middle Ages. The course introduces the student by this means to the characteristically medieval aspects of Chaucer’s poetry. Two lectures, one preceptorial. D. V. Smith
ENG 310 Shakespeare I (also COM 387) — Fall LA
A study of Shakespeare’s plays, covering the first half of his career. Emphasis will be on each play as a work of art and on Shakespeare’s development as a poet and dramatist. Two lectures, one preceptorial. L. Barkan
ENG 311 Shakespeare II — Spring LA
A study of Shakespeare’s plays, covering the second half of his career. Emphasis will be on each play as a work of art and on Shakespeare’s development as a poet and dramatist. Two lectures, one preceptorial. L. Danson
ENG 312 Spenser and the Epic Romance — Not offered this year LA
A study of the development of the epic romance from Vergil to Spenser through a reading of the Aeneid and the three great Renaissance epic romances: Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata, and Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. Two lectures, one preceptorial. J. Dolven
ENG 313 The 16th Century — Not offered this year LA
The study of 16th-century literature, both prose and poetry, in order to define the achievement of the English Renaissance. Literary accomplishments will be placed in the more general context of Elizabethan culture and Renaissance intellectual history. Readings in Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser, Donne. Two 90-minute seminars. J. Dolven
ENG 314 The 17th Century — Not offered this year LA
A study of the interaction of literature, culture, and politics during the 17th century. The course will focus on the nature of political work done by literary texts, the representation of changing gender relations, and the evolution of literary forms. Authors include Jonson, Herbert, Donne, Marvell, Hobbes, Milton, Dryden, and the Cavalier Poets. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 315 Milton — Spring LA
A study of Milton’s poetry and prose, with particular attention to Milton’s poetic style and development and his indebtedness to various classical traditions. Emphasis will also be given to Milton as thinker and to the place he holds in 17th-century thought. Two lectures, one preceptorial. N. Smith
ENG 316 The English Drama to 1700 — Fall LA
A study of English drama from its medieval origins to Restoration comedy, with special attention to the astonishingly vital commercial theater of the Renaissance. The course will consider the aesthetic and cultural power of dramatic texts and the theater’s characteristic production of social anxiety. Two lectures, one preceptorial. O. Arnold
ENG 317, 318 Topics in the Renaissance — Fall, Spring LA
An intensive study of various aspects of Renaissance literature. Topics may include sex and gender in the Renaissance, Shakespearean comedies, Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, Renaissance lyric poetry. Two 90-minute seminars. N. Smith (318, spring)
ENG 320 English Literature of the 18th Century — Not offered this year LA
A study of major figures from the Augustan Age through the Age of Johnson: Swift, Pope, Fielding, Boswell, Johnson, Sterne, and Blake. Selections include a wide range of literary types from Gulliver’s Travels and Joseph Andrews to Boswell’s London Journal and Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Gee
ENG 321 English Fiction before 1800 — Not offered this year LA
Primarily a course in novels of the 18th century, though early narratives may also be read. Among writers read will be Defoe, Smollett, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, the Gothic novelists, and Jane Austen. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 325 African American Autobiography (see AAS 325)
ENG 326, 327 Topics in 18th-Century Literature — Fall, Spring LA
This course will at different times deal with particular currents of literature and thought in the 18th century, or with individual authors. Two lectures, one preceptorial. C. Johnson (327, spring)
ENG 328 Romanticism and the Age of Revolution — Fall LA
A study of the Romantic movement in an age of revolutions: its literary culture, its variety of genres, its cultural milieu, and the interactions of its writers. Major figures to be studied include Wollstonecraft, Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. Two 90-minute seminars. E. Schor
ENG 329 The Later Romantics — Spring LA
A study of the young writers who defined English literary culture, especially the Romantic movement, in Regency and late Georgian England. Course material will include poetry, prose, and fiction, with emphasis on close reading as well as cultural contexts. Among the major figures to be studied are the Shelleys, Byron, and Keats. Two 90-minute seminars. S. Wolfson
ENG 330 Topics in Romanticism — Not offered this year LA
An intensive study of particular aspects of British Romanticism. Two lectures, one preceptorial. E. Schor
ENG 331 19th-Century Fiction — Spring LA
Novels of the Romantic and Victorian periods, beginning with Jane Austen, including the Brontës and the major Victorians, and ending with Hardy. Two lectures, one preceptorial. J. Nunokawa
ENG 332 19th-Century Poetry — Not offered this year LA
This survey of 19th-century British poetry will explore the ways that Victorian poetry and poetic form influenced and was influenced by national movements: education, empire, voting reform, gender relations, and the rise of technology. It will consider how the afterlife of 19th-century poetry haunts our interpretation of early 20th-century poetry, and re-historicize Victorian poetics amid the vibrant and complicated tapestry of the 19th century. Students will read poems by Tennyson, D. G. Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Barrett Browning, Browning, Swinburne, Hardy, Clough, Bridges, and Hopkins. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 333 Victorian Literature and Society — Not offered this year LA
An examination of the responses of Victorian novelists, poets, social critics, and graphic artists to poverty, industrialization, the “woman question,” prostitution, slum life, and other social and political issues of the day. Special emphasis on the development of a language and imagery of social criticism. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 334 Literature of the Fin de Siecle — Fall LA
This course will study the literature of the Fin de Siecle, with forays into its afterlife in Edwardian England. It will be concerned especially with how these texts embody and illuminate various crises—aesthetic, linguistic, sexual, metric, ethnic, economic—that occupied the culture of the late 19th and earliest 20th centuries. Authors to be considered include Wilde, Conrad, Gilbert and Sullivan, Pater, Shaw, Hopkins, Hardy, Bridges, Patmore, Meynell, Kipling, Newbolt, Saintsbury, Rossetti, Field, Morris, and Yeats. Two lectures, one preceptorial. J. Nunokawa
ENG 335 Children’s Literature — Not offered this year LA
A close examination of fairy tales and fantasies written for children but also addressed to adults. Questions to be considered will be literary, cultural, and psychological: the role of fantasy in an age of repression, didacticism versus amorality, male versus female writers, and the conventions of the Victorian fairy tale. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 341 20th-Century Fiction — Spring LA
The Modern movement in English fiction, from Conrad and Joyce to the present. Two lectures, one preceptorial. M. DiBattista
ENG 342 Experimental Fiction (see COM 325)
ENG 344 Modern British Poetry — Not offered this year LA
British poetry from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th—from the height of empire to its dissolution. Special attention to the ways in which poets respond to crises historical and personal. Poets considered include Hardy, Yeats, Eliot, Auden, Stevie Smith, and Dylan Thomas, among others. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 345 Modern Drama — Spring LA
A study of major plays by Ibsen, Strindberg, Jarry, Chekov, Pirandello, Brecht, and Beckett. Emphasis will be given to the theatrical revolutions they initiated and to the influence they continue to exert on contemporary drama and theater. Two lectures, one preceptorial. T. Wolff
ENG 346 Modern British Drama — Fall LA
A study of major British playwrights from Wilde and Shaw to Beckett and Pinter, with special emphasis on Shaw. Two lectures, one preceptorial. M. Cadden
ENG 347 Topics in Drama — Fall LA
A detailed discussion of different bodies of theatrical literature, with emphasis and choice of materials varying from year to year. The focus will be on a group of related plays falling within a specific historical period, the developing work of one playwright, or the relationships among thematics, characterization, and structure. Two lectures, one preceptorial. T. Wolff
ENG 349 The Lyric (see COM 309)
ENG 350 Contemporary Poetry — Fall LA
With an emphasis on British, Australian, and American poetry from 1945 to the present, this course covers a range of work. It considers such groups as the Beats, the Confessionals, the Surrealists, and the New York School, but attention will mostly be devoted to major works by MacDiarmid, Bishop, Lowell, Auden, Berryman, Brooks, Jarrell, Thomas, Larkin, Levertov, Ammons, Creeley, Duncan, Ginsberg, O’Hara, Ashbery, Merwin, Tomlinson, Walcott, Hill, Plath, Murray, Trantner, Kinsella, and others. Classwork will be supplemented by attending readings on and off campus. Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Stewart
ENG 351 Contemporary Fiction — Spring LA
An exploration of the connections and disconnects of our ever-smaller world, viewed through English-language novels and films of the last 25 years. At stake: translatability of language and ideas, processes of immigration, dynamics of economic development, history and memory, heroism and maturity, and notions of the future itself, in socieities of rapid change. Throughout, the intersections between state policy and indivdual lives will be considered, such that while the course is premised on grand geopolitical questions, attention will focus on localized examples: specific texts, close reading. Two lectures, one preceptorial. B. Widiss
ENG 356 Contemporary Drama — Not offered this year LA
An examination of some of the best literature written for the stage since the Second World War. Two lectures, one preceptorial. T. Wolff
ENG 360 American Literature before 1825 — Not offered this year LA
An examination of the literature of early America within the context of the intellectual, social, and literary traditions. The course will survey writers from Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor to Irving and Cooper, with emphasis on the influence of Puritanism and the Enlightenment. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 361 Literature of the American Renaissance, 1820–1860 — Not offered this year LA
A study of the major forms and traditions of American literature during the earlier 19th century, with main emphasis on such writers as Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson, and Whitman. The artistic achievement of these writers will be studied in relation to developing literary conventions and cultural patterns in pre-Civil War America. Two 90-minute seminars. Staff
ENG 362 American Literature: 1865–1930 — Not offered this year LA
A study of the development of American literature within the context of the shifting social, intellectual, and literary conventions of the period. Emphasis will be on the artistic achievement of writers such as James, Howells, Twain, Dreiser, Crane, Adams, Wharton, Cather, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. Two lectures, one preceptorial. L. Mitchell
ENG 363 American Literature: 1930–Present — Fall LA
A study of modern American writing, from Faulkner to Diaz, that emphasize the interplay between formal experimentation and thematic diversity. Two lectures, one preceptorial. L. Mitchell
ENG 364 Modern American Poetry — Not offered this year LA
A survey of early 20th-century American poets. The course explores the Modernist transformation of Victorian poetics and considers the complex connections between the major modernists. Studies in Eliot, Pound, H. D., Stein, Moore, Stevens, and Williams will form the core of the work, with possible consideration given to Frost, Millay, and the poets of the Harlem Renaissance, among others, as important figures whose modernity went in other directions. Two lectures, one preceptorial. S. Stewart
ENG 365, 366 Topics in American Literature — Fall, Spring LA
An investigation of issues outside the scope of traditional surveys of American literature. Topics may include: definitions of “America,” literature of the South, contemporary poetry, New Historicism, America on film, the Harlem Renaissance, the Vietnam War, the sentimental novel, colonial encounters, literature of the Americas, fictions of empire, Jewish American writers. One three-hour seminar. E. Schor (365, spring); B. Widiss (366, fall); W. Gleason (366, spring)
ENG 369 American Women Writers — Not offered this year LA
Nineteenth- and 20th-century literature by American women, with particular emphasis on their historical, cultural, and critical contexts. This course will survey the diversity of writings by American women in relation to questions of canon formation, immigration, race and ethnicity, genre, aesthetics, modernism, and postmodernism. Two lectures, one preceptorial. D. Fuss
ENG 370 History of Criticism (also AAS 370) — Fall LA
A study of particular developments in criticism and theory, from Aristotle to Nietzsche. The course will also consider the relation of contemporary criticism to movements and issues such as deconstruction, feminism, psychoanalysis, and cultural materialism. One three-hour seminar. D. Brooks
ENG 371 Contemporary Literary Theory — Spring LA
Fundamental questions about the nature, function, and value of literary theory. A small number of strategically selected theoretical topics, including exemplary literary works as reference points for discussion. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Z. Chaudhary
ENG 372 Postmodernism and Contemporary Culture — Not offered this year LA
An interdisciplinary survey of texts and events in contemporary global culture, with special attention to the complex interplay between political and aesthetic questions. Material is drawn from theory, literature, and film and video, television, news, music, and art of today. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 373 Forms of Nonfiction — Not offered this year LA
A study of selected topics in nonfictional prose literature. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ENG 374 Topics in Poetry — Not offered this year LA
A focused view of a problem or issue in poetry, changing from year to year. Recent topics have emphasized problems of poetic language, metrics, poetry and social life, poetic influence and canonization, and the relations between poetry and other art forms. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 375 Topics in Comedy and Satire — Not offered this year LA
Examination of particular aspects of comedy or satire with emphasis on theoretical concerns and cultural contexts. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 376, 377 Topics in Literature and Ethics — Not offered this year EM
Courses offered under this rubric will investigate ethical questions in literature. Topics will range from a critical study of the textual forms these questions take to a historical study of an issue traditionally debated by both literature and ethics (responsibility, rhetoric, justice, violence, oppression). Two lectures, one preceptorial. L. Mitchell
ENG 378, 379 Topics in Literature and Gender — Not offered this year LA
Studies in the representation and construction of gender in literature, culture, and theory. Topics include feminist theory, the politics of sexuality in early modern England, gender, and literary modernism, among others. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 380 Literature and Environment — Not offered this year LA
Examines how literature defines concepts of “nature’’ or “environment’’ from agrarian to postindustrial times. The course will consider rural-urban interaction; forms of pastoral and anti-pastoral; representations of plant or animal life; images of place and region; influence of geography, ecology, and evolutionary biology on modern literary expression. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ENG 382, 383 Topics in Literature and Nationality — Fall, Spring LA
Approaches to the connections between literature and nationality, focusing either on literatures outside the Anglo-American experience or on the theoretical issues involved in articulating nationality through literature. Two 90-minute seminars. S. Gikandi (383, spring)
ENG 386, 387 Topics in Black Literature (also AAS 386, 387) — Fall, Spring LA
Study of relationships between discursive practices and ideologies of race in the writings of black authors from the United States and/or the African diaspora. Two lectures, one preceptorial. V. Smith (387, fall)
ENG 389 Women Writers of the African Diaspora (also AAS 389, WOM 389) — Spring LA
A reading of fiction by African, Caribbean, and African-American women writers. Diverse strategies for addressing issues of race, gender, and culture in local, global, personal, and political terms are considered. Two lectures, one preceptorial. D. Brooks
ENG 390 The Bible as Literature (see HUM 207)
ENG 391 The Foreigner’s Home: Studies in the Literature of Dispossession (see AAS 326)
ENG 392 Topics in African American Literature (see AAS 392)
ENG 399 The Female Literary Tradition — Not offered this year LA
The development of women’s writing from the 18th century to the present with readings in poetry, fiction, and drama. Emphasis on relationships between gender and genre, and on historical, cultural, and theoretical issues raised by a female literary tradition. Two lectures, one preceptorial. M. DiBattista, D. Nord
ENG 401–404 Forms of Literature — Fall, Spring LA
Each term course will be offered in special topics of English and American literature. Two lectures, one preceptorial. N. Smith (401, fall); D. Fuss (403, spring); L. Danson (402, spring)
ENG 411–414 Major Author(s) — Not offered this year LA
A close study of the works of one or two authors. May include Austen, Dickinson, Wordsworth, George Eliot, Dickens, Melville, Faulkner, James, Stevens, or Woolf, among others. Two 90-minute seminars. Staff
ENG 415 Chinatown USA (see AAS 329)