This course will introduce the principles of psychoanalytic theory and explore its potential as a tool for literary and cultural analysis. We will begin by reading Freud’s Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1910), where he introduces such concepts as the psychical personality (the id, ego, and superego), the unconscious, and repression, as well as his theories about infantile sexuality, the significance of dreams, and neuroses. Throughout the semester, we will also read a number of other important psychoanalytic works that expand upon, revise, and sometimes contradict Freud’s theories.
Our goal will be to apply psychoanalytic theory to a selection of (primarily gothic) literary works by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Henry James, Shirley Jackson, and Stephen King. Course requirements include careful and committed reading, midterm and final project assignments, and weekly study questions. Although the basic requirements will be the same for graduate and undergraduate students, graduate students will be expected to produce more theoretically nuanced and carefully researched (and consequently longer) midterm and final projects.
When we say, “I enjoy books,” we usually mean the contents of books. This course is about a different aspect of the enjoyment of books: books as objects, as material artifacts.
The book is one of the most transformative inventions in human experience, and we’ll spend a semester tracing its fascinating history, from stone inscriptions, through medieval manuscripts, and on into the world of the printing press. We’ll also consider the material substances that make up books: paper, ink, bindings, etc. Students will get to work with rare books in the Reynolds Historical Library, and we’ll hear presentations from librarians, artists, writers, and scholars about books as objects. Assignments will include reading tests, an editing project, and a Biography of a Book in which students trace the publication history of a book of their choosing.
In EH 429, you will explore poems in received and modified forms by master and established poets and write drafts in forms such as syllabics, blank verse, the sonnet, the pantoum, the triolet, the ode, and the folk ballad. In addition, you will write critically about the required texts and poems I will supply you with, and we will workshop your poem drafts during class.
A Nobel laureate, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a regular presence on the New York Times best-seller list, writer Toni Morrison belongs to that special class of novelists whose books garnered both critical acclaim and commercial success. Her works capture black identity through a striking use of magical realism. Often reading as much like poetry as it does prose, Morrison’s fiction manages to capture the most traumatic and ugly in the human condition within language that is stunningly beautiful. Her works will lead us to engaging class discussions about both identity and aesthetics.
In this course, we will read and discuss some of Morrison’s most important novels such as The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), and Beloved (1987). We will read her only work of short fiction, “Recitatif,” and we will read sections from her celebrated works of critical nonfiction.
This class will introduce students to some of the most significant theory that has been published and is being used to read and write about literature. Theories studied will include psychoanalytic theory, Marxist theory, care and disability theory, feminist and gender theory, queer theory, ecocritical theory, animal studies, critical race theory, and postcolonial theory. Together we will look at short pieces of literature and discuss how theories can illuminate texts.
Students will read primary texts by the theorists so that they can learn key terms and concepts from the sources, not from summaries. They will keep a reading journal. Undergraduate students will take three short exams.
This course covers the literary foundation of King Arthur and his knights, from the medieval formulation of these legends to modern adaptations. We will be discussing the historical foundation for the Arthurian “myth” in Roman Britain and then read some of the 12th-century tales that popularized (and sometimes totally invented) ideas about the Round Table, Avalon, the sword Excalibur, and the knights themselves. We'll then turn to translations of the more popular Arthurian legends from across the medieval world, including Old Norse, Dutch, and Hebrew texts and, in our final unit, we will discuss the modern uses of Arthuriana in literature and film, and its continued iconic status in 21st-century pop culture.
Have you ever wondered where English came from? how English is related to languages like Latin or German? why American pronunciations (and spelling!) are different from British English? or why the donkey in Winnie the Pooh was called “Eeyore”?
This course traces the history of English from its ancient past to the present, including the Viking Age, the Shakespearean stage, and the invention of Twitter. We’ll explore not only the changes in the sound, spelling, and use of English over time, but how the language responds to social, political, and technological changes. This course will introduce you to the nature of English in earlier periods and help you gain familiarity with original texts, including works in Old and Middle English. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to recognize characteristics of English in the different stages of its history, pronounce lines of Beowulf like a pro, and weigh in on the ideological stakes of “grammar” and standardization in English today.
"What would you write if you weren't afraid?" asks Mary Karr in her book, On Memoir. This is a memoir class. You will be mining your life's stories to create a memoir. We will be reading personal essays, memoir excerpts, podcasts, and watching films, some based on memoirs, so you will also get to see the possibilities of shaping your life into different narratives. Your memoir may be about a single period in your life or a series of connected stories. Through weekly writing sparks and readings of essays and micro-memoirs, you will discover the stories you want to tell.
This is an advanced course in writing memoirs with explorations into film and spoken word artists. Each week, a new module will be published on Sunday with a piece of music or song, a film, an excerpt of a memoir or personal essay, and a discussion board. We’ll explore different voices in creative nonfiction through our textbook, The Writer's Portable Mentor, by Priscilla Long, and watch clips from filmmakers and how they tell a story on film or focus on a specific memoir. Our objective will be to grasp the techniques and issues of craft in memoir and to practice them in our writing. We’ll be doing “free writes” in the modules to spark ideas, focusing specifically on a memoir, a sense of place, writing in a scene, ethics in researching, reporting, publishing, writing about things and processes, voice, and the writing life. Guest speakers will also drop in from time to time to talk about their work as professional writers.
This class will look at movies from different cultural contexts, both within the United States and internationally. The course will introduce you to a number of films and artists that you may not have encountered before, and we’ll think together about the ways that these movies deal with questions of identity, difference, and belonging. We’ll also practice analyzing movies as works of art and appreciating the nuances of visual storytelling. Filmmakers will likely include Robert Altman, Julie Dash, Spike Lee, Claire Denis, Lynne Ramsay, Pedro Almódovar, Kelly Reichardt, Ciro Guerra, Asghar Farhadi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Alice Rohrwacher, and others.
You are welcome and encouraged to take the course even if you’ve never studied film before! Every week students will view films outside of class and write informal responses. You’ll also learn how to use video editing tools to create your own documentary analysis. Your formal work will include two written essays and a video project.