503.001 MIDDLE ENGLISH
T. Toon
TTh 8:30-10
4211 AH (3 Credits)
Meets together with English 408

This term we will examine, (often with the aid of parallel translations), works in early Middle English, as well as the better known and more frequently studied major authors - Chaucer, Gower, Piers, the Pearl poet. Readings will include selections from prose and poetic histories, mystical writers, contemporary social and political documents (laws, recipes, medical texts, chronicales, charters). We will examine a wide range of early Middle English texts as we develop an appreciation for the roles written English played in medieval England and the cultural and political consequences of the ability to read and write.

The course requirements include regular in-class participation, frequent quizzes, two hour exams, and a short paper.

509.001 ENGLISH PROSODY
R. Cureton
TTh 11:30-1
Room TBA (3 Credits)


This course will explore the far-reaching effect of rhythmic form in Modern English poetry and its enabling contexts - biological, psychological, social, historical and aesthetic. The hypothesis we will explore is this: As the common denominator of all evolutionary processes, rhythmic form is the ultimate metaphysical and humanistic ground. Our species specific abilities with rhythm lie at the foundations of our sensibility, sociality, and communicative competence, and therefore at the foundations of language, culture, and mind. Rhythmic form provides an essential link between different minds, mental abilities, cultures, historical periods, arts, linguistic structures, and aesthetic uses of those structures. Rhythmic form gives language its ordered complexity and poetic expression, its mysterious power to wield that order and complexity for expressive purposes.

Throughout the course, we will balance this concern for theory and context with an equal concern for close rhythmic analysis and practical criticism. We will survey the best new work on linguistic prosody, versification, and poetic stylistics. We will scan the various components of poetic rhythm (meter, grouping, prolongation, etc.), both individually and in interaction. And we will explore how the defining qualities of these rhythmic forms give shape and order to the many other aspects of poetry - sound, intonation, syntax, meaning, trope, etc.

Many course materials will come from several books that I am writing on these issues. Readings will be taken from recent work in evolutionary biology and cognitive science, the psychology of rhythm, literary theory, linguistic theory, poetics, and verisification. The major requirements will be a research paper on some concern related to the course.

545.001 EARLY BRITISH FICTION
D. Porter
TTh 10-11:30
4175 AH (3 Credits)

The emergence of the novel as a popular form, one often hears, was the most important development in the literary history of eighteenth-century Britain. One can readily account for such a claim, in part, as the retrospective bias of subsequent generations of readers who have continued to show an overwhelming preference for narrative prose fiction over, say, the Horatian ode; it is a far more complex and rewarding exercise to attempt to evaluate it in terms of the cultural history of the period itself. This course will survey major fictional works by such writers as Behn, Haywood, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Lennox, Burnley, and Lewis, with an emphasis on how they arose from, and how, ultimately, they began to transform the various social contexts of which they formed so integral a part. We will spend considerable time on the question of "the novel" as a genre, political and philosophical backgrounds, issues of travel and "otherness", gender and sexuality, and the interplay of moral and aesthetic constructions. Selections from recent scholarship on romance and the novel will provide a critical subplot running through the semester, as well as a variety of theoretical frameworks with which to experiment in the course of our own conversations. Class requirements include active participation, oral presentations, a short essay, and a longer paper.

546.001 THE NEW ROMANTICISMS
A. Henderson
TTh 2:30-4
4175 AH (3 Credits)

This course has two principal aims. The first is to introduce students to selected canonical poems of the Romantic period, poems such as "Tintern Abbey" , Prometheus Unbound, and the odes of Keats. The second is to read some of the non-canonical writing of the period, along with the critical work that has recently brought it into prominence. Thus, we will read poems by Charlotte Smith and Mary Robinson, a domestic novel by Maria Edgeworth, and a play by Joanna Baillie. At the same time, by broadening our historical sense of the period we should find fresh ways of understanding even the most canonical of Romantic works: we will see, for instance, that the characteristic style of Keat's odes was influenced by the gardenesque, and that Percy Shelley's concern with translucency reflects not only his idealism but also contemporary trends in costume and interior design. Course requirements will include one long paper and a class presentation.

549.001 THE CONTEMPORARY NOVEL
E. Pollack
MW 2:30-4
G251 AH (3 Credits)
Meets together with English 434

This term, we will read a dozen American novels written within the past fifty years. Possible list of authors: (Gayl) Jones, (J.K.) Toole, DeLillo, Roth, Baker, (Marilynne) Robinson, Ford, O'Brien, Cunningham, Munro, Erdrich, (Rosellen) Brown, Tyler, Ha- Jin. In addition to discussing the intellectual and emotional content of each book, we will take apart each novel and see how the writer has put it together. To this end, we will focus on questions of structure, voice, point of view, setting, control of information, tense, authorial intrusion, modes of discourse, authorial distance, gestures towards realism, and flights into fantasy. We will pay special attention to ways in which these novels are problematic and develop possible criteria for reviewing contemporary fiction. Though this is slotted to be a large class, students will be encouraged to take active part in discussions. Each student will turn in two short papers and one longer essay.

549.002 ORAL AND WRITTEN TRADITIONS
T. Chamberlin
TTh 1-2:30
Room TBA (3 Credits)

This course will focus on the relationships between oral and written traditions, including the continuities and discontinuities between spoken and written forms of language as they develop in different societies, and at different periods (for example, in the medieval, renaissance, 18th century, modernist and contemporary periods within the English literary tradition); the performative qualities of narrative, lyric and dramatic modes in both oral and written traditions; theories of orality and literacy, with special attention to some of the differences between Aboriginal, African, Asian and European theories, and to perspectives provided in disciplines such as anthropology, history, philosophy, law, religious studies, and cognitive psychology; the influence of spoken and written language on literary forms and styles, and on notions of naturalness and artifice; modes of production and reception; the interpretative and evaluative dynamics of reading and listening; the development of literatures in English in colonial and postcolonial societies, and the ways in which the extensive use of dialect in literature has (for a very long time, in fact) been part of the transformation of linguistic and literary standards, the development of new regional and national identities, and a heightened consciousness of race, gender and class. Texts will be chosen from a range of periods and genres. Particular attention will be paid to the development of theoretical approaches and practical strategies for teaching literature.

Each student will be expected to give two or three seminar presentations (depending on class size) during the term, and an essay (about 6000 words) will be due at the end of the term.

A packet of readings, which will form the basis for the course, will be available at the beginning of the term.

553.001 JEWISH LITERATURES IN AMERICA
A. Norich
TTh 2:30-4
Room TBA (3 Credits)

Reading fiction, poetry, and criticism, this course will examine some of the ways in which ethnic literature is produced and consumed in America. We will seek to expand what we mean by American literature by including perspectives, histories and even languages not generally admitted into the discussion. What happens to our sense of American culture when we consider not only English, but also works written in immigrant or politicized languages (in this case, primarily Yiddish, but also Hebrew and Ladino)? Among our thematic concerns will be the contested cultural status of Israel, the Holocaust, American civil religion, and Jewish ritual and tradition.

All works will be read in English; there are no language requirements for engaging these texts. We will read some well-known authors (Henry Roth, Anzia Yezierska, Delmore Schwartz, I. B. Singer, Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Phillip Roth, Bernard Malamud), some unfamiliar ones (Yankev Glatshteyn, Moyshe Leyb Halpern, Anna Margolin, H. Leivick), and some others to be decided when we meet as a group. Requirements include an oral presentation, an end-of-term paper, and, of course, engagement in class discussion.

572.001 FICTION WORKSHOP
R. McKnight
W 6-9
4199 AH (6 Credits)
This course is only open to current MFA Fiction students.

575.001 POETRY WORKSHOP
R. Tillinghast
W 6-9
4175 AH (6 Credits)
This course is only open to current MFA Poetry students.

A gathering of poets with the purpose of providing frank but supportive readings of each other's work. Workshop: a place to work on your poems. Careful reading, rewriting and revision will be a focal point. We will try to learn how to appreciate and evaluate a diverse variety of poetries - poetries represented by the work of members of the class as well as by poems brought to class by the instructor and students. We will try to take a practical rather than theoretical approach to poetry in this workshop.

579.001 CREATIVE WRITING
Poetry/Prosody
R. Tillinghast
M 6-9
4175 AH (3 Credits)
Meets together with English 429

614.001 EDITING AND THE CREATION OF TEXTS--
Constructing Literature: Editorial Theory and Cultural Transmission
G. Bornstein
MW 1-2:30
4175 AH (3 Credits)

This course aims to demystify material texts by revealing them as not transparent and unproblematic but rather highly constructed and contingent. The texts we study and teach never come to us unmediated, but are always the product of individual and social forces. Our approach will be to focus on the ongoing revolution in textual scholarship since the 1980s and its expanding consequences for both editing and interpretation. We will examine both theoretical positions and their practical applications for the construction of texts, and will explore particularly the relation between contemporary textual theory on the one hand and contemporary literary theory and interpretation on the other. The course will be in two parts, as follows:

PART ONE will track current issues in textual theory from W. W. Greg's classic "The Rationale of Coyp Text" to Jerome McGann's recent response "The Rationale of Hypertext". Major issues will include whether there is a "the" text, the implications of multiple versions of literary works, the semantic importance of material features of the text, and the growing importance of electronic media. Along the way, we will illustrate our discussion with diverse examples from the work of William Shakespeare, John Keats, Marianne Moore, W. B. Yeats, W. E. B. DuBois, and Alain Locke's New Negro anthology among others.

PART TWO will involve a series of case studies of editorial theory and practice. Our most extended examples will probably involve Shakespeare's King Lear, Joyce's Ulysses, Dickinson's fascicles, and Yeats' poems. The same palimpsistic principles seem to apply to all kinds of works - modern, ancient, "canonical", minority, colonial/post-colonial, even visual or auditory - and students will be encouraged to contribute examples from works that particularly interest them and to explore ways in which the methods of this course can enrich their ongoing projects and concerns.

Besides attendance and participation in class discussions, course work will consist of a short group exercise in practical editing, a short oral presentation, and a research paper applying editorial theory and practice in a critical or interpretive study of a literary work.

626.001 MARXISM AND LITERATURE:
Black Marxism: African American Writers from the 1930s to the 1960s
A. Wald
TH 5-8
4211 AH (3 Credits)
Meets together with American Culture 699.002

This is a weekly seminar sponsored by the English Department and Program in American Culture that will explore the art and politics of the African American Literary Left in the mid-twentieth century. The category of "Black Marxism" will be derived from writings by scholars such as Robin Kelley and Cedric Robinson, as well as from the careers of Paul Robeson and C. L. R. James. The term refers to the diverse appropriations of socialist thought developed by activists and theorists in liberation movements of the African Diaspora.

Writings to be explored are likely to include fiction, poetry, drama, and literary criticism by Langston Hughes, Ann Petry, Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Wright, Chester Himes, Alice Childress, and John Oliver Killens. We may also examine some primary documents such as left-wing African American magazines of the period (New Challenge, Negro Quarterly, Harlem Quarterly) and perhaps unpublished manuscripts and letters. Requirements include full participation in the seminar, two papers, and oral presentations.

648.001 THE 'DISCOVERY' OF HOMOSEXUALITY 1880-1930
M. Vicinus
MW 8:30-10
4175 AH (3 Credits)

This course will concentrate on an exceptionally rich transitional period during which elaborate taxonomies of sexual behaviors were created and institutionalized. It would be easy to create a "coming out" trajectory, in which the invisible Victorian spinster or bachelor came to be defined as the homosexual subject. I hope that our study will develop a more complex and interesting narrative, examining both literary and scientific texts. By looking at both Victorian and Modern authors, we may find unexpected continuities and different breaks in the usual chronology of literary change. We will read some of the pioneering pre-Freudian sexologists, such as Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis, August Forel, and Edward Carpenter. In addition we will explore such Decadent writers as Oscar Wilde, Vernon Lee, Michael Field (Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper), and the black and white artist, Aubrey Beardsley. We will then turn to some key early Modernist texts by Henry James, Katherine Mansfield, D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forester, concluding with the (in)famous Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall.

Course requirements will include an annotated bibliography, short essay, and a final project.

675.001 CREATIVE WRITING
Thesis (Fiction)
P. Ho Davies
T 6-9
4207 AH (6 Credits)
This course is only open to current MFA Prose students.

675.002 CREATIVE WRITING
Thesis (Poetry)
T. Liu
T 6-9
4175 AH (6 Credits)
This course is only open to current MFA Poetry students.

841.001 COSMOPOLITANISM, RACE, AND IDENTITY IN BLACK LITERATURE OF THE AMERICAS
The Nineteenth Century
I. Nwankwo
W 6-9
Room TBA (3 Credits)

(Ex)slave narrator Olaudah Equiano's constant travel between the U.S. and the Caribbean, the weekly cataloging of the movement of ships between U.S. and Caribbean sites in newspapers such as the South Carolina Gazette and W. E. B. DuBois' detailed descriptions of the smuggling of slaves from Africa through the Caribbean to the U.S. in his PhD dissertation on the (failed) Suppression of the African Slave Trade remind us of the extent to which transnational movement was the norm in the Americas during slavery. Along with these goods and people moved ideas, including modes of self-definition, notions of relationality, conceptions of race and nation, and the prioritization of these elements in the construction of identity.

This course will center on the ways in which race in general, and Blackness in particular, are imagined, valued and defined by people of African descent in the U.S., Haiti, Cuba, and the British West Indies during the nineteenth century. In order to facilitate our analysis we will consider several means of interpreting and theorizing the relationship between the desire for transnational, transregional, translinguistic engagement and the drive toward national, regional, or linguistic orientations in Black America's thought. Our approach will be specific, as well as comparative and integrative. That is to say, we will read texts as arising out of specific national contexts and circumstances, as well as in comparison with other texts, and through the interactions between people in different sites that are represented within them or that were pivotal to their creation.

In addition to undertaking close readings of texts produced during the century, we will explore the usefulness of contemporary theoretical frameworks for our analysis, including theories of hybridity, transculturation, cosmopolitanism, orientalism, pan- Africanism, and pan-Americanism. Course requirements include regular attendance, research paper, and presentations.

Probable readings include all or part(s) of:
Simon Bolivar, Letter from Jamaica
Carole Boyce Davies, Black Women, Writing, and Identity
Martin Robison Delany, Blake;or the Huts of America
Frederick Douglass, Documents relating to tenure as U.S. Consul to Haiti
- The Heroic Slave
Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
Juan Francisco Manzano, The Autobiography of a Cuban Slave
-Poems of a Slave
Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave
Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes
Bruce Posnock, Color and Culture
Bruce Robbins, "Comparative Cosmopolitanism"
Edward Said, Orientalism
Jose David Saldivar, The Dialectics of our America

842.001 MASOCHISM AND VICTORIAN FICTION
J. Kucich
M 6-9
4211 AH (3 Credits)

Victorian culture was rife with masochistic excess, from the spectacularly self-martyring heroines of dramatic convention to the more mundane but relentless emphasis on self- denial that dominates the period's moral values. Christopher Herbert, in Culture and Anomie, has gone so far as to speak of "a fundamentally masochistic cultural and political unconscious" in Victorian England. This will be a course on the cultural and political dimensions of masochism, particularly as they were represented in Victorian fiction. We will begin with a variety of conceptual frameworks within which psychoanalysis, relational theory, Foucauldian approaches, feminist and queer theory, as well as the work of contemporary performance artists. We will then try to situate a number of mid- and late-Victorian works in these various contexts. Readings will most likely include: essays by Freud, Laplanche and Pontalis, Kaja Silverman, Armando Favazza, Jack and Kerry Kelly Novick, Bob Flanagan, Susie Bright, Fakir Musafar, Lynda Hart, Leo Bersani, Anne McClintock; Gilles Deleuze's Coldness and Cruelty, and John Noye's The Mastery of Submission; and the following novels: Wuthering Heights, Alton Locke, Daniel Deronda, She, The Story of an African Farm, The Ebb Tide, and Picture of Dorian Gray. Requirements include regular attendance, and a long seminar paper.

862.001 MILTON
M.Schoenfeldt
MW 2:30-4
4207 AH (3 Credits)

The purpose of this course is to read closely the poetry and prose of John Milton amid the various intellectual and social currents of the seventeenth century, through the lenses made available by the various major theoretical schools of the late twentieth century. Milton is a figure with whom almost every subsequent generation of English writers has had to deal, for better and worse, and his reputation has fallen and risen as political, social, and aesthetic ideals have changed. Milton's impassioned efforts to address the ills of his day entailed contradictions that are still very much with us: he was a political revolutionary who was willing to endorse authoritarian methods to accomplish liberal goals; he was a devout believer in meritocracy who rarely felt this belief threaten an inherited if incorrigible misogyny; he was the epic narrator of the War in Heaven who felt that military valor had nothing to do with true virtue. Milton also wrote some of the most sublime poetry available in English about the joys of the natural world, and the deeply embodied pleasures of eating and sex, and about human relationships. We will be particularly interested in how Milton's political career reverberates throughout the poetry - the ways, for example, that his experience as a defender of regicide may have influenced his portrait of Satan's rebellion against a resolutely monarchical God, and the ways that political defeat produced a radically inward reorientation of his ardent political aspirations. We will also explore Milton's frequent recourse to myths describing the origins of social and sexual difference, and map his felicitously mixed success at synchronizing these two kinds of difference.

As is appropriate for such an engaged and engaging writer, attendance and participation are required. There will also be frequent in-class reports, a shorter paper, and a longer research project.

881.001 WOMEN WRITERS AND BRITISH AESTHETICISM
Y. Prins
F 1-4
4199 AH (3 Credits)
Meets together with Women's Studies 801.001

In this seminar we will consider the place of women writers in British aestheticism, as a literary and artistic movement ranging broadly from the second half of the nineteenth century into the early twentieth century. Alongside the circulation of New Woman novels in the 1890s, there was a network of female aesthetes in England at the turn of the century whose writing has received renewed critical attention in recent years. Concentrating in particular on the relation between poetry, music, and the visual arts, we will analyze how these female aesthetes deployed the "sister arts", in poems inspired by paintings, in essays about music and art, in musical settings of poetry, and so on. We will read poetry and aesthetic prose by British women writers such as Christina Rossetti, Amy Levy, Alice Meynell, Mary Coleridge, Graham R. Tomson (Rosamund Marriott Watson), Michael Field (Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper), A. Mary F. Robinson, Ethel Smyth, Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), and Virginia Woolf, in relation to each other and in response to male aesthetes such as John Ruskin, Walter Pater, and Oscar Wilde. We will consider the sexual politics of British aestheticism, and ask how feminist aestheticism complicates our understanding of literary culture in late Victorian England. Throughout the semester, we will also take stock of current work on "forgotten" female aesthetes and think about alternative literary histories of aestheticism, and ask how feminist aestheticism complicates our understanding of literary culture in late Victorian England. Throughout the semester, we will also take stock of current work on "forgotten" female aesthetes and think about alternative literary histories of aestheticism. Course requirements will include regular attendance and active participation, an oral presentation, and a research paper.