ENGL 5305, Studies in Shakespeare: The Macbeths

In this course, we will conduct an in-depth study of William Shakespeare’s haunting and haunted late tragedy, Macbeth. After beginning with an intensive reading—and re-reading—of the play alongside some of its most prominent sources (Holinshed, King James VI and I, the Gunpowder Plot), the course will then turn to adaptations of the tragedy ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, by the likes of William D’Avenant, Eugene Ionesco, Akira Kurosowa, and others. Along the way, our discussions will center on some of the most central themes explored by the Scottish play: prophecies, magic, and the supernatural; witches; fate, necessity, and free will; theater; mothers, wives, and children; happy marriages; psychological torment; good and evil; sleep; and fear.

Requirements Fulfilled: British Literature; Period: Early: Genre: Drama

ENGL 5324, Studies in Twentieth-Century American Literatures: “My Story was Maltreated”: Memoir, Trauma, and Ethics

In The Art of Time in Memoir, Sven Birkerts wrote that the trauma memoir can be understood and analyzed as a bildungsroman – the story of a self-renewal through mortal circumstances. This course will explore the evolution of the trauma memoir in North America from the late 20th into the early 21st century, including works by Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary Karr, Lacy M. Johnson, Michael Herr, Terese Marie Mailhot, Bhanu Kapil, and Alexander Chee. Framing questions include: What are the ethics of recreating trauma on the page? How careful must we be with others whose stories we are also telling? And do we agree with Birkerts that the arc of a trauma memoir is similar to a coming-of-age, or are we identifying other hallmark characteristics of craft? In order to deepen our conversation, we will also incorporate poetry, painting, craft essays, video art, and social media. Students will be expected to complete a short project and lead class discussion on one of the texts, a 5-7 page midterm paper reflecting on and synthesizing two of the memoirs, and a final seminar paper.

Requirements fulfilled: American Literature, Period: Later, Genre: Non-fiction

ENGL 5340, Research Methods

This seminar introduces students either beginning or near the start of their graduate work to a range of research methods and methodologies utilized in humanities-based studies, including the vast array of digital, material, and archival resources available to researchers. The course focuses on the process of research to better prepare students for the kind of work expected at the graduate level. Students will develop a significant research project in their selected area of specialization that will include a book review, annotated bibliography, conference-length presentation, and research paper. This section is reserved primarily for new distance/online MA students in English, but is open (based on enrollment availability) to graduate students across the humanities.

Requirements Fulfilled: Foundation Course (English MA)

ENGL 5351, Studies in Film and Media: Censorship in American Cinema

This course will study one of the critical gatekeepers for media, here particularly censorship in American cinema. Questions the course will ask include the various sources of censorship pressure, industry responses, individual resistance, legal challenges, and – importantly – the ways in which censorship has historically and continues to shape the content of American films (individually and in aggregate). Moreover, how does the concept of “Hollywood Cinema” (or even “American Cinema”) inherently carry with it the footprint of a moral agenda as a result. The course will survey the role and effects of censorship across the past 125 years of American filmmaking, starting with local censorship boards in the 1910s; the introduction of the Hays Code in 1930 and its enforcement starting in 1934, which significantly shaped the content as well as the moral perspective of Hollywood filmmaking for over 3 decades; its erosion in the 1950s and ’60s; its cancellation in 1967 and replacement in 1968 with the current ratings system; and the introduction of PG-13 and then NC-17 ratings in 1984 and 1990, respectively. The course will also discuss ways in which television historically and streaming services currently have both accommodated and challenges these systems of censorship for films.

Readings will include secondary scholarship and histories as well primary materials from the trade press. Students will also be expected to watch assigned films outside of class which will demonstrate films that closely adhered, worked within, pushed against, and clearly defied these systems of censorship. In addition to participation and weekly discussion leaders, assignments will include a short research paper and presentation on a film and its history of censorship and a final article-length paper. The final paper can use what you learn about censorship in relation to any media form (literature, video games, internet content, etc.).

Requirements fulfilled: American Literature, Period: Later, Genre: Film & Media

ENGL 5380, Special Topics in Literary Studies: Afro-Asian Solidarity: Literatures of Decolonization

The middle decades of the twentieth century were marked by the simmering tensions of the Cold War as well as the revolutionary energies of anti-colonial movements across the African and Asian continents. Moving between a long history of empire and more contemporary forms of imperialist globalization, this seminar examines the rise and legacy of Afro-Asian solidarity movements in the 1950s and 60s. We will read literary and critical texts by prominent African and Asian anti-colonial thinkers who contributed to the Afro-Asian Writer’s Union journal such as Abdel-Aziz El-Ahwani, Abdel-Rahman al-Sharqawi, Yehia Haqqi, Breyten Breytenbach, and Peter Abrahams alongside scholarly work by Samir Amin, Edward Said, Laleh Khalili, Vijay Prashad, Christopher Lee, and Andrew Rubin in order to gain a better understanding of the impact of these forces on the cultural and literary output of decolonizing nations. We will further consider how these texts draw on literary forms to convey the lived experience of a global modernity shaped by the twin forces of anti-colonial revolution and imperialist globalization. What lessons do they teach us about our contemporary struggles and about global solidarity? How do the literatures of the Global South challenge some of the assumptions of Cold War historiography and nationalist discourses?

Requirements Fulfilled: Comparative Literature, Globalization, and Translation (CLGT); Period: Later; Genres: Fiction & Non-Fiction