ENGL 5315 Studies in British Fiction: Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf was an important theorist and practitioner of modernism, as well as a key thinker in feminist theory. While she is too prolific a writer for us to read all of her work in a single summer, we can certainly hit the highlights of her fiction, essays, and ephemeral works. In doing so, we will think about movements of the early 20th century that continue to influence the way literature and culture work.

Requirements fulfilled: British Literature, Period: Later, Genre: Fiction or Non-fiction

ENGL 5317 Studies in Postcolonial Literature: Colonialism and Religion in Postcolonial Literature

Culture is the fundamental means through which humans make sense of the world, and within culture, religion has often played an oversized role in helping humans understand their sense of self, their relations to other people, the various communities they belong to, and their place within the cosmos. Furthermore, religion has also played an extremely important role in conjunction with various political and social movements such as colonialism, nationalism, and civil rights. At times, these movements have used religion to empower or oppress people. At other times, people have used religion to challenge or question them. This course uses literature to examine religion's constrictive or liberatory stance in three broad contexts: a) the role of Christianity in the colonization of Nigeria, b) “weak” (postmodern) religious practices as a response to late 20th century nationalism in South Asia and c) the tense relationship between “strong” Christianity and political conflicts in the United States and Japan.

Requirements fulfilled: CLGT, Period: Later, Genre: Fiction

ENGL 5324 Studies in Twentieth-Century American Literature: 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 texts by Terese Marie Mailhot, Tomás Q. Morín, Lacy M. Johnson, Michael Herr, Alison Bechdel, Bhanu Kapil, Melissa Febos, 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 TikToks.

Students will be expected to complete a short project and class presentation on one of the memoirs, a 5–7 page midterm paper reflecting on and synthesizing two of the memoirs, and a final project based on their own proposal.

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

ENGL 5327 Studies in Multicultural American Literature: Native American Literatures

This course will explore creative and scholarly works in a variety of genres (short stories, novels, film/television, and comics) by Native American authors and artists from the 1970's to today. Among the goals we'll work towards are: Identifying what we mean by “indigenous” and what are some characteristics of indigenous literatures; gaining a more complicated understanding of and appreciation for the diversity and complexity of Native American intellectual and cultural productions; developing a historically-nuanced grasp of some of the major issues, questions, and concerns that run throughout Indian Country today, specifically the relationship between cultural production, federal policies, and contemporary movements toward Native sovereignty and self-determination; consistently work to hone close, critical reading skills applicable to a variety of mediums, forms, genres, and intellectual/professional contexts; develop capacities to engage in thoughtful, critical debate around questions of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, citizenship, and belonging.

Requirements fulfilled: American Literature, Period: Later, Genre: Fiction; LSJE

ENGL 5351 Studies in Film and Literature: New Hollywood Cinema

This course will examine New Hollywood cinema, or the period that roughly spans the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, the course will focus on how film style and narration in New Hollywood cinema register the complex economic, institutional, and demographic changes that were disrupting business inthe film industry. These drastic changes led to a number of critical questions about New Hollywood cinema: How does the cultural status of film as a medium change in this era? How do filmmakers reconsider filmmaking as a type of labor? How does the corporate reorganization of the industry push films to conceive the relationship between money and art in new ways? Assigned films include The Apartment (Wilder, 1960), Easy Rider (Hopper, 1969), Wanda (Loden, 1970), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and Killer of Sheep (Burnett, 1978). Students will be introduced to a broad range of films, texts, and critical methodologies. Requirements for the class include in-class presentations, weekly Blackboard posts, a research proposal, and a final written assignment.

Requirements fulfilled: American Literature, Period: Later, Genre: FMS