100- and 200-level | 300-399 | 400-499 |
A complete up to date listing of English Department course descriptions can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/.
For all English classes, registered students must be present at each of the first two meetings to claim their places. Any student who does not meet this requirement may be dropped from the course. NOTE: If you must miss a class due to religious observances, contact the instructor or leave a message for the instructor with the department (764-6330).
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Primarily for Juniors and Seniors
412/Film-Video 412. Major Directors. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee ($35) required. May be repeated for a total of nine credits with department permission.
Section 001 - Gender and Sexuality: Alfred Hitchcock and Douglas Sirk. In this course, we will examine the work of two major American directors, Alfred Hitchcock and Douglas Sirk, focusing on the years 1946-1964, typically classified as the "true" 1950s. We will explore how these two filmmakers brought issues of sexuality, gender roles, and gender relations, as well as class distinctions brought about by these issues, to the screen during the Technicolor decade, redefining American cinema. Films to be screened include Rope, Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, and possibly The Birds for Hitchcock, and Written on the Wind, Magnificent Obsession, Imitation of Life, Tarnished Angels, and All That Heaven Allows for Sirk. We may also see one or two other films focusing on gender issues from the decade, such as Wilder's Some Like it Hot, as a means for comparison. Students should expect to attend lecture regularly, as well as all screenings, take a comprehensive final essay examination, write two short (5-7 page) papers, and write frequent responses to films shown at weekly screenings. At this time, the reading for the course has not yet been finalized; however, students should expect to read approximately 30-50 pages per week from a variety of collected readings concentrating on film history, introductory film theory, and style/technical aspects of film. Students will also need to purchase Timothy Corrigan's A Short Guide to Writing About Film for use with the paper and responses. This is not an introductory course, but students from other areas than English and Film/Video with an interest in film studies and/or gender studies are welcome. Students with no film background whatsoever should see the instructor during the first week of class for additional reading suggestions. (Ritter)
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431. The Victorian Novel. (4). (Excl).
Many issues that concern us today really took flight in the Victorian period - issues of class, gender, sexuality, politics, popular culture, family life, and more. And that period's most characteristic literary form, the novel, provides a hugely entertaining and suggestive way of thinking about these issues then and now. Our aim in this course is to explore the substantial pleasures of reading Victorian novels - they were, in effect, the popular miniseries of their day - and to enrich our understanding of these novels by keeping an eye to their relevant social contexts. Our primary emphasis goes to canonical authors such as the Brontës, Dickens, Eliot, and Hardy. But we also explore the formation of canonical value by looking to one or two texts from less traditionally celebrated authors. Coursework includes three papers, a presentation, and a reading journal. (Thomas)
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440. Modern Poetry. (3). (Excl).
In this course we shall study the major poetry in English of the period 1900-1940. Our principal subject matter will be work by the most important poets - Thomas Hardy, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, D. H. Lawrence, H.D., W.C. Williams, Marianne Moore, Robert Frost, Hart Crane, Wallace Stevens - but we will also devote some time to special topics like Imagism, the poetry of The Great War, and the Harlem Renaissance, as well as to the social, historical, and literary backgrounds of modern poetry. The objective of the course is a clear understanding of the techniques and themes of modern poetry, which are especially significant because they continue to influence and inform the poetry of our own time. The format is lecture and discussion. Requirements include two papers, a midterm, and a final examination. This course fulfills the American Literature requirement for English concentrators. (Goldstein)
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443/Theatre 321. History of Theatre I. (3). (HU).
See Theatre and Drama 321. (Walsh)
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447. Modern Drama. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 - From Ibsen to Brecht. This course will examine the rise of modern drama in the Western world by concentrating on the work of Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg, Shaw, Pirandello, and Brecht. Emphasis will be placed on learning how to read a dramatic text for its performative qualities and its potential for enactment. Although no previous experience in the study of drama or theater is required, the course will begin by concentrating on the differences between the modern repertory and the forms we associate with Classical and Shakespearean dramatic conventions. Other topics of consideration include: the transformation from melodrama to modern drama, the social consciousness of the twentieth-century stage, and the rise of the female figure as subject of dramatic inquiry. Requirements: There will be three papers of 5-7 pages each, a midterm, and a final exam. Cost:2 (Brater)
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449/Theatre 423. American Theatre and Drama. (3). (HU).
See Theatre and Drama 423. (Cardullo)
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461. English Romantic Literature. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 - True Lies: British Romantic Literature. I offer this course for a generation of students who would like a reason to take seriously the dusty fictions of the past. I invite them to experience a literature that established the norms of feeling, thought, and action structuring both The English Patient and most of the videos on MTV. This is (among other things) a quest literature, and the quest is for a more various, authentic, and intense career in living (and dying) than any social structure could accommodate. I teach this course in order to explore the pleasure-principle threading through the poetry and fiction of the age, and to see what it can teach us about the pleasures on offer in our own cultural economy. I call the course "True Lies" as a double reference: first, to the entertainment industry of our own time, and second, to both Sir Philip Sidney's and Percy Bysshe Shelley's definition of poetry as a higher form than history and philosophy, not despite the "lies" or fiction that poetry trades in, but because of them. Poetry "feigns images of virtue and vice" to show both the reality behind the appearance and the ideal beyond it. Readings: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron. Fiction: Scott, Radcliffe, De Quincey, Austen. (Levinson)
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484. Issues in Criticism. (3). (Excl).
Section 001 - Cultural Theory and the Non-Western World: The Indian Debates. This course will engage with key questions and formative debates in cultural theory as it relates to the non-Western world. India occupies a central place in this theory, partly because it was one of the oldest and largest of British colonies, and partly because some of the most significant new work in the area is emerging in India or in relation to India. We will therefore focus on India, though neither the readings nor the discussion will be restricted to that country, further, the India-centrism of postcolonial theory will be addressed. Presentations and term papers on cultural theory as it relates, say, to Africa, the Caribbean or other South Asia countries and their diasporas will be welcome. The readings are arranged in thematic clusters. Some of these are designed to help us clarify and nuance the issues at stake in what are, by now, established discussions. Others address attempts that are being made, in the context of the 1990s, to re-theorize citizenship, community, rights, secularism and popular culture in non-Western modernities, and to critique postcolonial theory. These are some of the questions that will engage us: What is colonial discourse? What does the concept enable/disable? How is "tradition" invented? What are some of its uses? In what ways might we map the travel of colonial administration from one colony to another? What is the role played by boys' adventure fiction/virtuous Indian widows/West Asian harems in the making of the humanities and social sciences? How has India/Africa been exhibited, museumized, anthologized? How might we characterize modernity in the non-Western world? When was modernism/realism in India fiction/cinema? How has Indian history represented conflicts involving gender, class, caste, majority and minority, the old and new diasporas? How does the encounter with the non-Western world split open the enabling concepts of Western political theory aesthetics? How are they being reworked? The requirements for this course are regular and active participation, a class presentation, and a term paper of about 5,000 words. This course satisfies the New Traditions requirement for English concentrators. (Tharu)
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497. Honors Seminar. Junior or senior standing, and permission of instructor. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of 9 credits.
Section 001 - Self and Society in Early English Literature. Some of the most fascinating and challenging works in earlier English literature worry about the problems that arise when people seek to find and understand themselves, both as inwardly defined individuals and as socially defined members of various groups: a marriage, a noble court, or a nation, for instance. Do self-discovery and social identity confirm and support one another? Do they undermine or even endanger one another? How does literature contribute to the quest for a self, whether in or out of society? We will read a variety of literary versions of the relation of self and society, including works by Marie de France, Chaucer, the Gawain-poet, Spenser, and Shakespeare. This course satisfies the Pre-1600 requirement for English concentrators. (Taylor)
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100- and 200-level | 300-399 | 400-499 |