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ENGLISH 5DA: WISE: Poetic Intelligences

In a recent column on A.I. chatbots, Ezra Klein writes that their "'thinking,' for lack of a better word, is utterly inhuman, but we have trained it to present as deeply human" (The New York Times, March 12, 2023). Implicit in Klein's argument is the assumption that we do understand human thinking, or at least how to recognize it, and that A.I. confronts us with something radically different masquerading as the familiar. But perhaps the world has long been populated by different kinds of thinkers. That appears to be the claim of a number of critics working on poetry, who posit that poems are their own kinds of thinking machines, with the ability to represent a speaker's thinking, to facilitate a reader's thinking, to formulate the structure of thinking, or even to think for themselves. In this course, we'll examine such claims by close reading poems from a range of writers while also engaging works of criticism that grapple with these questions from formalist, phenomenological, and philosophical perspectives. We'll ask what it might mean to say that poems think and whether they can help us think about thinking in general, including in the context of recent developments in A.I. technology. We'll also consider our own role as thinkers and writers in a world in which the practices of thinking and writing are changing faster than ever before. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact judithr@stanford.edu.)
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Atkins, J. (PI)

ENGLISH 5EA: WISE: Haunted Reading: Intertextuality, Adaptation, and the Gothic

What makes a narrative "Gothic"? One defining feature is the way the past seeps into the present, whether as ghosts, crumbling castles, or even old letters left behind for future readers. Across centuries, we see these tropes again and again, reimagined so that each new story is different but, at the same time, seems to remember and respond to the Gothic stories that came before it. This course will explore the relationships that Gothic texts have to each other. What can Frankenstein, with its multiple narrators, show us about how narratives pass from person to person? How does the contemporary bestseller Mexican Gothic address the colonial histories beneath older Romantic and Victorian narratives? And why might one turn a ghost story by Henry James from the end of the 19th century into a 21st-century Netflix series? In all of these cases, the Gothic effects of "haunted reading" allow the past's hidden ghosts and monstrous meanings to emerge, visibly changed and seeking attention. As we consider how old reading can influence or even "haunt" the new, we will reflect on our own reading habits in both personal and academic contexts while simultaneously investigating how intertextuality and adaptation relate to our own critical writing and original interpretations. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact judithr@stanford.edu.)
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Monaco, J. (PI)

ENGLISH 9CE: Creative Expression in Writing

Primary focus on giving students a skill set to tap into their own creativity. Opportunities for students to explore their creative strengths, develop a vocabulary with which to discuss their own creativity, and experiment with the craft and adventure of their own writing. Students will come out of the course strengthened in their ability to identify and pursue their own creative interests. For undergrads only. NOTE: For undergraduates only. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE

ENGLISH 9CP: Writing Off the Page: Songwriting, Film, and Spoken Word

With recent blockbuster films like Patterson and major prizes being awarded to artists like Bob Dylan and Kendrick Lamar, the borders of what constitutes traditional literature are shifting. In this Creative Writing course we will be looking at literature `off the page,' in songwriting, spoken word, multi-media, and visual art. We will be workshopping our own creative projects and exploring the boundaries of contemporary literature. Artists we'll be looking at include Iron and Wine, Lil Wayne, Allen Ginsberg, Beyonce, David Lynch, Patti Smith, Mark Strand, Anne Carson, Danez Smith, Bon Iver, and Lou Reed. For undergraduates only. NOTE: Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors: ; Carlson-Wee, K. (PI)

ENGLISH 9SF: Fight the Future: Speculative Fiction and Social Justice

Imagining the future has been one of the most important ways humans have assessed their present. In this salon-style seminar we'll focus on modern speculative fiction as social critique, especially of regimes of patriarchy, racism, and capitalism. The course will be devoted to new and established writers of speculative fiction -- broadly defined and across era and geography -- whose work engages with oppression and freedom, sex, love, and other dynamics of power. We will also devote one night per week to film screenings of classic and contemporary films in the genre. Guest lecturers will discuss the work of authors such as Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Franz Kafka, Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, and others.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II

ENGLISH 10F: Intro to English I: The Natural World in Early English Literary History

The first poem written down in English, composed in the 7th century, is about the creation of Earth; this course surveys British literature from then until the 17th century to explore the wisdom, beauty, mystery, and terror in medieval and early modern representations of nature. While following this tradition of writing about the natural world, we will study its connection to the evolution of English literary forms and the interplay between text and culture in this period. Old English riddles that enigmatize earth and sky; beast fables drawing human morality from animal behavior; the varieties of play between love and nature in sonnets; Elizabethan drama's power to conjure wildernesses onstage.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Ashton, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 11A: Introduction to English II: From Milton to the Romantics

English majors must take class for 5 units. Major moments in English literary history, from John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' to John Keats's 'Hyperion'. The trajectory involves a variety of literary forms, including Augustan satire, the illuminated poetry of William Blake's handcrafted books, the historical novel invented by Sir Walter Scott, the society novel of Jane Austen, and William Wordsworth's epic of psychological and artistic development. Literary texts will be studied in the context of important cultural influences, among them civil war, religious dissent, revolution, commercialization, colonialism, and industrialization.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Hoxby, B. (PI)

ENGLISH 11Q: Art in the Metropolis (ARTSINST 11Q, ARTSTUDI 11Q, FILMEDIA 11Q, MUSIC 11Q, TAPS 11Q)

This seminar is offered in conjunction with the annual "Arts Immersion" trip to New York that takes place over the spring break and is organized by the Stanford Arts Institute (SAI). Enrollment in this course is a requirement for taking part in the spring break trip. The program is designed to provide a group of students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the cultural life of New York City guided by faculty and SAI staff. Students will experience a broad range and variety of art forms (visual arts, theater, opera, dance, etc.) and will meet with prominent arts administrators and practitioners, some of whom are Stanford alumni. In the seminar, we will prepare for the diverse experiences the trip affords and develop individual projects related to particular works of art, exhibitions, and performances that we'll encounter in person during the stay in New York. Class time will be divided between readings, presentations, and one studio based creative project. The urban setting in which the various forms of art are created, presented, and received will form a special point of focus. A principal aim of the seminar will be to develop aesthetic sensibilities through writing critically about the art that interests and engages us and making art. For further details please visit the Stanford Arts Institute website: https://arts.stanford.edu/for-students/academics/arts-immersion/new-york/
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Berlier, T. (PI)

ENGLISH 15N: Wastelands

Have human beings ruined the world? Was it war, or industry, or consumerism, or something else that did it? Beginning with an in-depth exploration of some of the key works of literary modernism, this class will trace the image of the devastated landscape as it develops over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, arriving finally at literary representations of the contemporary zombie apocalypse. Authors to include T.S Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Nathanael West, Willa Cather, Cormac McCarthy, and others.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; McGurl, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 17N: Animal Poems

Animals have always appealed to the human imagination. This course provides basic a rubric for analyzing a variety of animal poems in order (1) to make you better readers of poetry and (2) to examine some of the most pressing philosophical questions that have been raised in the growing field of animal studies. The animals that concern us here are not allegorical-the serpent as evil, the fox as cunning, the dove as a figure for love. Rather, they are creatures that, in their stubborn animality, provoke the imagination of the poet.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Gigante, D. (PI)

ENGLISH 25Q: Queer Stories (FEMGEN 25Q)

Queer Stories is a creative writing class open to any and all students, regardless of how they define their gender or sexuality. The goals of the class are to read widely in the canon of twentieth and twenty-first century queer prose literature, and to write critical and creative work that engages with the styles, modes, and subjects of these writers. As we read and discuss texts, students will consider a variety of questions: How has queer romance, relationships, and sexuality been represented over the years, in both coded and explicit ways? How have writers grappled with representing our evolving sense of gender as a continuum rather than a binary? How have queer writers interrogated or understood the concept of family? How do queer writers handle the question of the "universal" reader to whom, arguably, they might be speaking? (In a 2012 interview with Lambda Literary, book critic Daniel Mendelsohn argues,contentiously, "It is precisely the gay book's ability to be interesting to a straight reader that makes it a great book.") Lastly, students will also create writing of their own that in some way draws upon the aesthetics or sensibilities of the authors we have read. These pieces may be short stories, personal essays, or texts that--in the spirit of queerness--blur or interrogate standard demarcations of genre. The content of this work might grapple with questions of gender and sexuality, but it might instead be queer in its affect, outlook, or style. In both the reading and writing they do in this class, students will engage with work that deviates from literary convention in the lives it represents and the ways in which it represents them.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Labowskie, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 26Q: The Brontes: a Victorian Family and its Marvelous Daughters

Isolated in the moorlands of Yorkshire and raised in evangelical strictness by an eccentric father, the Bronte children imagined stories of personal power and political intrigue, based on the news they read. The eldest of the three sisters, Charlotte, grew up to become a major novelist of the Victorian age. Her younger sister, Emily, became a poet and a novelist of wild genius. The youngest sister, Anne, wrote two arresting novels before her early death. The lone brother, Branwell, squandered his talents -- and much of the family's money -- before his death at thirty-one. In 1847, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte's Withering Heights, and Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey surprised literary London, and voiced an angry, sensual, urgent response to the Victorians' nagging "Woman Question." These eccentric novels register the tedium, the aspirations, and the frustrations of these gifted women. We will consider historical, cultural, and biographical questions, as we study these early novels, the children's juvenilia, and a representative later work. Each student will have the chance to investigate one of these women more deeply, and share their discoveries with the the seminar.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Paulson, L. (PI)

ENGLISH 50: Humanities House Workshop

For student-run workshops and research seminars in Ng House / Humanities House. Open to both residents and non-residents. May be repeated for credit. This course code covers several discrete workshops each quarter; sign up for a particular workshop via the Google Form at https://goo.gl/forms/TRU0AogJP3IHyUmr2.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 1 | Repeatable for credit (up to 99 units total)
Instructors: ; Shanks, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 66: 'A Model Island': Britain in Historical and Cultural Perspective

What's `culture'? There is no such thing as `British culture' as a coherent singular phenomenon, but `culture' can be a useful lens to think about a place, its entanglement with the past and the rest of the world. In this class we can understand how the ideas and social relations that constitute the common-sense fiction of British culture and the very notions of `Britishness', `Englishness', etc. came about historically and are sustained in contemporary contexts. As well as learn how to use `culture' as a heuristic-critical tool to make sense of a particular place's entanglement in history, politics, and cultural production.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 2

ENGLISH 90: Fiction Writing

The elements of fiction writing: narration, description, and dialogue. Students write complete stories and participate in story workshops. Prerequisite: PWR 1 (waived in summer quarter). NOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE

ENGLISH 90FC: First Chapters

Novels only get one chance to make a good first impression. Chapter One is that opportunity, and in this course we'll read, discuss, and analyze a variety of historical and contemporary novels with a particular focus on their opening chapter (and sometimes prologue). We'll study strategies around world-building, characterization, creating the engine of a novel (its voice), and in establishing a lively, complex, and surprising world that a reader can't wait to explore in greater detail.
Terms: Win, Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE
Instructors: ; Kealey, T. (PI)

ENGLISH 90H: Humor Writing Workshop

What makes writing funny? What are we doing when we try to be funny? In this creative writing workshop, you'll exercise your native wit by writing short pieces of humor in a variety of forms. We'll practice writing jokes, parody, satire, sketches, stories, and more, study theories of humor, research practical principles and structures that writers have repeatedly used to make things funny, and enjoy and analyze examples of humor old and new to use as models. In the service of creating and understanding humor, we'll also explore questions about what purposes humor serves, and what relationship humor has with power, culture, and history.
Terms: Win, Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors: ; Porter, E. (PI)

ENGLISH 90L: Latine Stories (CHILATST 90)

This is a course on the craft of fiction writing. We will read published literary short stories by contemporary Latine writers writing in the United States and begin to explore the vast range of fictional techniques employed by these writers. In discussing these published works, we will analyze how the formal elements of story - structure, plot, character, point of view, etc. - function in these pieces, so that students can apply these principles of craft to their own work. Students will write two complete short stories, which will be discussed in a traditional workshop format.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Quade, K. (PI)

ENGLISH 90WM: Writing Mystical, Spiritual, and Altered States: A Workshop

In this writing workshop, we will explore core fiction and nonfiction techniques by engaging with the long literary tradition of writing about mystical, spiritual, and altered states of experience. The logic is simple: if you can write well about what is often called 'indescribable; or 'ineffable,' you can write about almost anything. We will look at how mystical experiences, spiritual searching, loss of faith, drug experiences, pilgrimages, the natural sublime, and even migraines have made for exhilarating subjects by some of our best contemporary writers, including Michael Pollan, Jia Tolentino, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Oliver Sacks, Denis Johnson, Hillary Mantel, Peter Matthiessen, and Annie Dillard. After close readings and discussions, students will write and workshop their own pieces of questioning, exploration, and awe. Students must attend the first class to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE
Instructors: ; Brewer, W. (PI)

ENGLISH 91: Creative Nonfiction

Historical and contemporary as a broad genre including travel and nature writing, memoir, biography, journalism, and the personal essay. Students use creative means to express factual content. Prerequisite: PWR 1 (waived in summer quarter and for SLE students). NOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE

ENGLISH 91A: Asian American Autobiography/W (AMSTUD 91A, ASNAMST 91A, CSRE 91D)

This is a dual purpose class: a writing workshop in which you will generate autobiographical vignettes/essays as well as a reading seminar featuring prose from a wide range of contemporary Asian-American writers. Some of the many questions we will consider are: What exactly is Asian-American memoir? Are there salient subjects and tropes that define the literature? And in what ways do our writerly interactions both resistant and assimilative with a predominantly non-Asian context in turn recreate that context? We'll be working/experimenting with various modes of telling, including personal essay, the epistolary form, verse, and even fictional scenarios. First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Lee, C. (PI)

ENGLISH 91AI: Creative Writing & Science: The Artful Interpreter (OCEANS 157H, OCEANS 257H)

What role does creativity play in the life of a scientist? How has science inspired great literature? How do you write accessibly and expressively about things like whales, DNA or cancer? This course provides a unique opportunity for students to directly engage with marine animals, coastal habitats and environmental concerns of Monterey Bay. As historian Jill Lepore writes of Rachel Carson: "She could not have written Silent Spring if she hadn't, for decades, scrambled down rocks, rolled up her pant legs, and waded into tide pools, thinking about how one thing can change another..." Students will complete and workshop three original nonfiction essays that explore the intersection between personal narrative and scientific curiosity. You will develop a more patient and observant eye and improve your ability to articulate scientific concepts to a general readership. Students must submit a Google Form to request enrollment by December 1st: https://forms.gle/yoPriHjyE1GHrCJh7 If selected for enrollment, students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot. **Course taught in-person only at Hopkins Marine Station.** Please note: Depending on enrollment across the courses offered on Fridays at Hopkins, a university shuttle will be made available or carpool mileage reimbursements will be provided. Carpool reimbursement is subject to specific terms and conditions; class lists will be distributed for this purpose. However, if a university shuttle is provided, carpool reimbursements will not be honored.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors: ; Michas-Martin, S. (PI)

ENGLISH 92: Reading and Writing Poetry

Issues of poetic craft. How elements of form, music, structure, and content work together to create meaning and experience in a poem. Prerequisite: PWR 1. NOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE

ENGLISH 94Q: The Future is Feminine (FEMGEN 94Q)

Gender is one of the great social issues of our time. What does it mean to be female or feminine? How has femininity been defined, performed, punished, or celebrated? Writers are some of our most serious and eloquent investigators of these questions, and in this class we'll read many of our greatest writers on the subject of femininity, as embodied by both men and women, children and adults, protagonists and antagonists. From Virginia Woolf to Ernest Hemingway, from Beloved to Gone Girl (and even "RuPaul's Drag Race"), we'll ask how the feminine is rendered and contested. We'll do so in order to develop a history and a vocabulary of femininity so that we may, in this important time, write our own way in to the conversation. This is first and foremost a creative writing class, and our goals will be to consider in our own work the importance of the feminine across the entire spectrum of gender, sex, and identity. We will also study how we write about femininity, using other writers as models and inspiration. As we engage with these other writers, we will think broadly and bravely, and explore the expressive opportunities inherent in writing. We will explore our own creative practices through readings, prompted exercises, improv, games, collaboration, workshop, and revision, all with an eye toward writing the feminine future.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors: ; Pufahl, S. (PI)

ENGLISH 104D: Stories from the Viking Age

In this course, students read the medieval myths, legends, folklore, travelers' tales, and chronicles that give shape and character to what we now call "the Viking Age" (793-1066 CE). Through our readings of these texts, we will answer the following questions: who were the Vikings? What language did they speak? Who were their gods and what were they like? What stories did they tell, how did these shape their values, and what were their principles of literary art? What did other cultures think of them, and who is responsible for their reputation? Readings?originally in Old English, Old Norse, Latin, Arabic, and more?will be in modern English translation.
Terms: Win | Units: 3
Instructors: ; Ashton, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 105A: Aesthetics and the Audience: Literary Landmarks

In this course, we will consider major landmarks of aesthetic reflection on the meanings of artworks for their audiences, each of which is a landmark of literature in its own right. Authors might include the likes of Plato, Aristotle, Burke, Schiller, Hazlitt, Nietzsche, Woolf, Sontag, Cavell, Irigaray.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Greif, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 106A: Black Mirror: A.I.Activism (AMSTUD 106B, ARTHIST 168A, CSRE 106A, SYMSYS 168A)

Lecture/small group course exploring intersections of STEM, arts and humanities scholarship and practice that engages with, and generated by, exponential technologies. Our course explores the social ethical and artistic implications of artificial intelligence systems with an emphasis on aesthetics, civic society and racial justice, including scholarship on decolonial AI, indigenous AI, disability activism AI, feminist AI and the future of work for creative industries.
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Elam, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 114B: Paradise Lost

Intensive reading of Milton's epic Paradise Lost together with selections from Milton's other poetry and from his prose.
Terms: Win | Units: 4
Instructors: ; Jenkins, N. (PI)

ENGLISH 115: Virtual Italy (ARCHLGY 117, CLASSICS 115, HISTORY 238C, ITALIAN 115)

Classical Italy attracted thousands of travelers throughout the 1700s. Referring to their journey as the "Grand Tour," travelers pursued intellectual passions, promoted careers, and satisfied wanderlust, all while collecting antiquities to fill museums and estates back home. What can computational approaches tell us about who traveled, where and why? We will read travel accounts; experiment with parsing; and visualize historical data. Final projects to form credited contributions to the Grand Tour Project, a cutting-edge digital platform. No prior programming experience necessary.
Terms: Win | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors: ; Ceserani, G. (PI)

ENGLISH 118: Literature and the Brain (COMPLIT 138, COMPLIT 238, ENGLISH 218, FRENCH 118, FRENCH 218, PSYC 126, PSYCH 118F)

How does fiction make us better at reading minds? Why do some TV shows get us to believe two contradictory things at once? And can cognitive biases be a writer's best friend? We'll think about these and other questions in the light of contemporary neuroscience and experimental psychology, with the help of Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison), Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert), season 1 of Westworld (Lisa Joy / Jonathan Nolan), and short readings from writers like Louise Glück, Jorge Luis Borges, Virginia Woolf, and Marcel Proust. We'll also ask what we see when we read; whether the language we speak affects the way we think; and why different people react differently to the same book. Plus: is free will a fiction, or were you just forced to say that?
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ENGLISH 119: Pitching and Publishing in Popular Media (FEMGEN 118)

FOR UNDERGRADUATES ONLY (grad students enroll in 318 in the winter) Most of the time, writing a pitch for a popular outlet just means writing an email. So why be intimidated? This course will outline the procedure for pitching essays and articles to popular media: how to convince an editor, agent, or anyone else that your idea is compelling, relevant, and deliverable. We'll take a holistic approach to self-presentation that includes presenting yourself with confidence, optimizing your social media and web platform, networking effectively, writing excellent queries and pitches, avoiding the slush pile, and perhaps most importantly, persevering through the inevitable self-doubt and rejection.We will focus on distinguishing the language, topics and hooks of popular media writing from those of academic writing, learn how to target and query editors on shortform pieces (personal essays, news stories, etc.), and explore how humanists can effectively self-advocate and get paid for their work.
Terms: Win | Units: 1 | Repeatable 3 times (up to 3 units total)
Instructors: ; Goode, L. (PI)

ENGLISH 124: The American West (AMSTUD 124A, ARTHIST 152, HISTORY 151, POLISCI 124A)

The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North America: its history, physical geography, climate, literature, art, film, institutions, politics, demography, economy, and continuing policy challenges. Students examine themes fundamental to understanding the region: time, space, water, peoples, and boom and bust cycles.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI

ENGLISH 131D: Imagining Adaptive Societies (CSRE 161, CSRE 261, POLISCI 131, POLISCI 331D, SUSTAIN 131, SUSTAIN 231)

The ecological, social, and economic crises of the Anthropocene suggest it is time for us to re-imagine how best to organize our communities, our institutions, and our societies. Despite the clear shortcomings, our society remains stuck in a rut of inaction. During periods of rapid social and economic change, segments of society become gripped by a nostalgia for idealized pasts that never really existed; such nostalgia acts as a powerful force that holds back innovation and contributes to a failure of imagination. How, then, might we imagine alternative social arrangements that could allow us to thrive sustainably in an environment of greater equity? Moshin Hamid reminds us that literature allows us to break from violent nostalgia while imagining better worlds, while Ursula K. Le Guin notes that "imaginative fiction trains people to be aware that there are other ways to do things, other ways to be; that there is not just one civilization, and it is good, and it is the way we have to be." There are - there has to be - other and better ways to be. In this multi-disciplinary class, we turn to speculative fiction as a way of imagining future societies that are adaptable, sustainable, and just and can respond to the major challenges of our age. In addition to reading and discussing a range of novels and short stories, we bring to bear perspectives from climate science, social science, and literary criticism. We will also be hosting several of the authors to talk about their work and ideas.
Terms: Win | Units: 3

ENGLISH 133B: Storytelling and Mythmaking: Modern Odysseys

In 1923, the poet T.S. Eliot wrote an essay in praise of James Joyce's Ulysses' a novel that adapted episodes of Homer's Odyssey into the daily life of twentieth-century Dublin. "It has the importance of a scientific discovery. No one else has built a novel upon such a foundation before: it has never before been necessary, In using the myth, in manipulating a continuous parallel between contemporaneity and antiquity, Mr. Joyce is pursuing a method which others must pursue after him, Instead of the narrative method, we may now use the mythical method. "In this class, as both readers and writers, we will make use of this "mythical method" ourselves, as critical readers and creative writers. Using the same ancient material as a foundation, we'll follow a host of modern writers and critics who have been inspired by Homer to create new stories and to theorize narrative itself. These writers include Joyce, Franz Kafka, Derek Walcott, Junot D¿az, Margaret Atwood, Louise Gl¿ck, and Daniel Mendelsohn.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors: ; Osgood, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 152G: Harlem Renaissance (AFRICAAM 152G, AMSTUD 152G)

Examination of the explosion of African American artistic expression during 1920s and 30s New York known as the Harlem Renaissance. Amiri Baraka once referred to the Renaissance as a kind of "vicious Modernism", as a "BangClash", that impacted and was impacted by political, cultural and aesthetic changes not only in the U.S. but Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Focus on the literature, graphic arts, and the music of the era in this global context.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors: ; Elam, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 160: Poetry and Poetics

Introduction to the reading of poetry, with emphasis on how the sense of poems is shaped through diction, imagery, and technical elements of verse.English majors must take this class for 5 units.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ENGLISH 161: Narrative and Narrative Theory (COMPLIT 161E)

An introduction to stories and storytelling--that is, to narrative. What is narrative? When is narrative fictional and when non-fictional? How is it done, word by word, sentence by sentence? Must it be in prose? Can it be in pictures? How has storytelling changed over time? Focus on various forms, genres, structures, and characteristics of narrative. nEnglish majors must take this class for 5 units.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II

ENGLISH 175: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Embark on an engaging journey through medieval literature with Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales," along with the works of Marie de France and Boethius. This course offers a vibrant exploration of storytelling, featuring interactive discussions, multimedia resources, and creative projects. Discover the rich tapestry of medieval thought, culture, and philosophy through a diverse range of texts. Dive into the world of knights, love, betrayal, and philosophical quests, making connections to contemporary issues. Ideal for anyone interested in the roots of modern literature and storytelling and the fascinating world of medieval society.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Vermeule, B. (PI)

ENGLISH 184F: Literary Text Mining 2: Studies in Cultural Analytics

In this course, students will learn how to apply quantitative and computational methods for analyzing text to questions that are of significance to Literary Studies, and the humanities more broadly. Beginning with a series of readings and discussions on the theoretical implications of using quantitative methods for literary analysis, we will move to in-depth instruction in more advanced methods for computational text analysis, including topic models, word embeddings, and large language models. Students will not only become familiar with training and querying these models, but, more importantly, will gain hands-on experience in how to build these analytical techniques into humanities-based research.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-AQR, WAY-FR
Instructors: ; Algee-Hewitt, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 190: Intermediate Fiction Writing

Intermediate course in the craft and art of fiction writing. Students read a diverse range of short stories and novel excerpts, complete writing exercises, and submit a short and longer story to be workshopped and revised. Prerequisite: 90 or 91. NOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE | Repeatable 2 times (up to 10 units total)

ENGLISH 190F: Fiction into Film

Workshop. For screenwriting students. Story craft, structure, and dialogue. Assignments include short scene creation, character development, and a long story. How fictional works are adapted to screenplays, and how each form uses elements of conflict, time, summary, and scene. Prerequisite: 90.nNOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE

ENGLISH 190L: Levinthal Tutorial in Fiction

Undergraduate writers work individually with visiting Stegner Fellows in fiction. Students design their own curriculum; Stegner Fellows act as writing mentors and advisers. Students will meet once per week with the Stegner Fellow and also four times a quarter in discussions sections with other students and the Levinthal Program Coordinators. Times to be announced upon acceptance. Prerequisites: any course in 90 or 91 series; submitted application and manuscript.
Terms: Win | Units: 5

ENGLISH 190QN: Quantum Narratives

Intermediate course in the craft and art of fiction writing, focusing on speculative fiction.
Terms: Win | Units: 5

ENGLISH 190V: Reading for Writers

Taught by the Stein Visiting Writer. Prerequisite: Introductory prose course.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | Repeatable 4 times (up to 20 units total)
Instructors: ; Kwon, R. (PI)

ENGLISH 190YA: Young Adult Fiction

This is an intermediate course on the art and craft of fiction writing in the young adult genre. We will read widely in the genre. The aim of our reading will be to discover principles of craft, at the sentence level and at the narrative level, that generate powerful and enduring fiction. As we read, we will work to develop a writer's definition of YA. What are the differences between great YA and other great literature? What are the best ways to understand quality in a YA text? Within what bounds, stylistic, ethical, and otherwise, are we working as practitioners of the art form? Students will begin a young adult novel and submit pages from their work to the class on a regular basis. We will convene as a workshop to discuss one another's work.nNOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE

ENGLISH 191: Intermediate Creative Nonfiction

Continuation of ENGLISH 91. Reading a variety of creative essays, completing short writing exercises, and discussing narrative techniques in class. Students submit a short (2-5 page) and a longer (8-20 page) nonfictional work to be workshopped and revised. Prerequisite ENGLISH 90 or ENGLISH 91. NOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE | Repeatable 2 times (up to 10 units total)
Instructors: ; Evans, J. (PI)

ENGLISH 191L: Levinthal Tutorial in Nonfiction

Undergraduate writers work individually with visiting Stegner Fellows in nonfiction. Students design their own curriculum; Stegner Fellows act as writing mentors and advisers. Students will meet once per week with the Stegner Fellow and also four times a quarter in discussions sections with other students and the Levinthal Program Coordinators. Times to be announced upon acceptance. Prerequisites: any course in 90 or 91 series; submitted application and manuscript.
Terms: Win | Units: 5

ENGLISH 192: Intermediate Poetry Writing

Students will examine a diverse range of contemporary poetry. Students write and revise several poems that will develop into a larger poetic project. Prerequisite: 92. NOTE: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Aut, Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE | Repeatable 2 times (up to 10 units total)

ENGLISH 192L: Levinthal Tutorial in Poetry

Undergraduate writers work individually with visiting Stegner Fellows in poetry. Students design their own curriculum; Stegner Fellows act as writing mentors and advisers. Students will meet once per week with the Stegner Fellow and also four times a quarter in discussions sections with other students and the Levinthal Program Coordinators. Times to be announced upon acceptance. Prerequisites: any course in 92 series; submitted application and manuscript.
Terms: Win | Units: 5

ENGLISH 194C: Curricular Practical Training

CPT course required for international students completing degree.Following internship work, students complete a research report outlining work activity, problems investigated, key results and follow-up projects. Meets the requirements for curricular practical training for students on F-1 visas. Student is responsible for arranging own internship and faculty sponsorship.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 1

ENGLISH 197: Seniors Honors Essay

In two quarters.
Terms: Win, Spr | Units: 1-10 | Repeatable for credit
Instructors: ; Staveley, A. (PI)

ENGLISH 218: Literature and the Brain (COMPLIT 138, COMPLIT 238, ENGLISH 118, FRENCH 118, FRENCH 218, PSYC 126, PSYCH 118F)

How does fiction make us better at reading minds? Why do some TV shows get us to believe two contradictory things at once? And can cognitive biases be a writer's best friend? We'll think about these and other questions in the light of contemporary neuroscience and experimental psychology, with the help of Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison), Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert), season 1 of Westworld (Lisa Joy / Jonathan Nolan), and short readings from writers like Louise Glück, Jorge Luis Borges, Virginia Woolf, and Marcel Proust. We'll also ask what we see when we read; whether the language we speak affects the way we think; and why different people react differently to the same book. Plus: is free will a fiction, or were you just forced to say that?
Terms: Win | Units: 3

ENGLISH 250A: Character: Studies in Fictional Being

Of all the components of prose fiction and the novel in particular, the most slippery is character. What kind of personhood is fictional personhood? What is a textual human? Do characters possess individuality or do they form networks or zones? Do these networks and zones extend beyond the boundary between fiction and reality to take in author and readers? If so, how? Are the categories by which we classify character - narrator, protagonist, antagonist, hero/heroine, etc. - adequate as descriptors of their function in a literary text? In this course, we will examine subgenres of the novel that focus on these questions, particularly the bildungsroman, autofiction, and novels in which a central character lacks interiority or self-awareness, and is therefore almost incapable of self-expression. How minimal can a character be? What happens when a first-person narrator, who is also a character, represents his or her altered consciousness? In such cases, who narrates? What resources does the novelist have to negotiate such formal contradictions? And what do we make of doubles, dybbucks, secret sharers, and other uncanny selves? Is character an infinite regression - fictions of fictions of persons? Authors may include Herman Melville, Gustave Flaubert, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Joseph Conrad, Jane Bowles, Cormac McCarthy, J. M. Coetzee, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, Patrick Modiano, Sheila Heti, Rachel Cusk. Theorists may include M. M. Bakhtin, Ian Watt, Erich Auerbach, Dorrit Cohn, Maurice Blanchot, Franco Moretti, Catherine Gallagher, Alex Woloch.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Ruttenburg, N. (PI)

ENGLISH 290: Advanced Fiction Writing

Workshop critique of original short stories or novel. Prerequisite: Intermediate prose workshop.
Terms: Win, Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE | Repeatable 2 times (up to 10 units total)

ENGLISH 313: Performance and Performativity (FEMGEN 313, TAPS 313)

Performance theory through topics including: affect/trauma, embodiment, empathy, theatricality/performativity, specularity/visibility, liveness/disappearance, belonging/abjection, and utopias and dystopias. Readings from Schechner, Phelan, Austin, Butler, Conquergood, Roach, Schneider, Silverman, Caruth, Fanon, Moten, Anzaldúa, Agamben, Freud, and Lacan. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5 | Repeatable for credit
Instructors: ; Phelan, P. (PI)

ENGLISH 318: Pitching and Publishing in Popular Media (DLCL 312, FEMGEN 312F)

FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS (undergraduates enroll in 119) Most of the time, writing a pitch for a popular outlet just means writing an email. So why be intimidated? This course will outline the procedure for pitching essays and articles to popular media: how to convince an editor, agent, or anyone else that your idea is compelling, relevant, and deliverable. We'll take a holistic approach to self-presentation that includes presenting yourself with confidence, optimizing your social media and web platform, networking effectively, writing excellent queries and pitches, avoiding the slush pile, and perhaps most importantly, persevering through the inevitable self-doubt and rejection.We will focus on distinguishing the language, topics and hooks of popular media writing from those of academic writing, learn how to target and query editors on shortform pieces (personal essays, news stories, etc.), and explore how humanists can effectively self-advocate and get paid for their work.
Terms: Win | Units: 1
Instructors: ; Goode, L. (PI)

ENGLISH 319C: Utopian Realism and the Global South

What is Utopia and why does it generate so many different versions of itself, including, most powerfully, negations of itself as dystopia? As a vision of human perfectibility, Utopian literature has from its inception in Thomas More's Utopia (1517) been concerned with the social nature of humanity. It is always therefore political in nature. Almost exactly contemporaneous with the defining moments of the modern era (the conquest of the Americas, Machiavelli and modern politics, the emergence of modern literature in Cervantes, Luther and modern consciousness, printing and the beginning of the modern public sphere), Utopia is also unavoidably a product of the literary and imaginary worlds. Concerned with the development of Utopian and anti-Utopian thinking in the modern world, we will see how issues of science and technology, race and sexuality, freedom and determination, and salvation and apocalypse are embedded in the history of utopian literature and contemporary science fiction. Why did the modern world develop as it did? Can we imagine alternative worlds and histories? As future-oriented thinking, how does utopian literature offer possibilities for a better life? As a forum for future thinking Utopia also offers a platform for thinking anew the working of race and racial formations as well as constructions of gender in the contexts of what has been called "the Subject of Utopia." This course addresses the poetics and generative power of classic Utopian forms to examine how differing aesthetics as well as differing conceptions of history are linked fundamentally to the possibility of reshaping conceptions of race and gender in sustainable future orientations. Concerned with understanding how the traditional forms of the novel are altered in the context of the contemporary drive to represent a new stage in global and hemispheric race relations as well as by the forces of global climate change and the imperatives of decolonization, our readings will investigate how contemporary versions of literary realism change to represent the experiences of the crises of our time and the need to imagine alternative futures.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Saldivar, R. (PI)

ENGLISH 322: Enlightenment and its Shadows: British Literature of the long Eighteenth Century

British literature of the long 18th century
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Vermeule, B. (PI)

ENGLISH 323A: Baroque Tragedy

A study of major theories of the baroque by theorists such as Wolfflin, Croce, and Benjamin together with a close reading of baroque tragedies by Tasso, Milton, Shakespeare, Calderon, Racine, Joseph Simon, and others.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Hoxby, B. (PI)

ENGLISH 360C: History and Theory of the Novel I & II

Can the novel, as genre, be conceptualized or critically synthesized? This course will approach such a daunting question from its two necessary starting-points: fiction and theory. On the one hand, we'll take up several of those major novels that have so often been viewed as aesthetically foundational: most likely Don Quixote, Emma, Madame Bovary and The Brothers Karamazov. On the other hand, we'll read the major theoretical statements of Lukacs (Theory of the Novel, Studies in European Realism, The Historical Novel) and Bakhtin (The Dialogical Imagination, Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics), as well as text-specific criticism. This small group of texts might be seen as both necessary and insufficient to the largest questions of the genre. Our focus will be on closely reading and engaging each text in its inviting and demanding singularity and in building an open, imaginative and wide-ranging dialogue between fictions and theories. (This course might be followed by a class the next year on History and Theory of the Novel: Experiments, extending these questions in a number of further formal, geographic and chronological directions).
Terms: Aut, Win | Units: 5 | Repeatable 2 times (up to 10 units total)

ENGLISH 362E: Toni Morrison: Modernism, Postmodernism, and World Literature

This course will take a close look at Toni Morrison's oeuvre to explore question of Modernism, Postmodernism, and World Literature. Texts to be looked at will include The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Jazz, Paradise, Beloved, Love, and Playing in the Dark, among others.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Quayson, A. (PI)

ENGLISH 389: What was (is?) Modernism?

An introduction to modernism, focusing on the novel. Modernist studies has been eager to explore various axes of expansion, geographic (beyond Europe), temporal (beyond the early twentieth century), and cultural (across the divide between "high" and "low" realms of culture). The class will focus both on familiar modernist such as James, Joyce, Woolf, and Faulkner; we'll also look at case studies of potential forms of expansion (temporal: James Baldwin; geographic: Mulk Raj Anand; and others); secondary sources will focus on recent developments that stretch the boundaries of the field of modernist studies.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Bronstein, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 390: Graduate Fiction Workshop

For Stegner fellows in the writing program. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 3 | Repeatable for credit

ENGLISH 392: Graduate Poetry Workshop

For Stegner fellows in the writing program. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 3 | Repeatable for credit

ENGLISH 394: Independent Study

Preparation for first-year Ph.D. qualifying examination and third year Ph.D. oral exam.
Terms: Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 1-10 | Repeatable for credit

ENGLISH 398L: Literary Lab (COMPLIT 398L)

Gathering and analyzing data, constructing hypotheses and designing experiments to test them, writing programs [if needed], preparing visuals and texts for articles or conferences. Requires a year-long participation in the activities of the Lab.
Terms: Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 2-5 | Repeatable 2 times (up to 10 units total)
Instructors: ; Algee-Hewitt, M. (PI)

ENGLISH 398W: Orals, Publication and Dissertation Workshop

For third- and fourth-year graduate students in English. Strategies for studying for and passing the oral examination, publishing articles, and for writing and researching dissertations and dissertation proposals. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 1 | Repeatable for credit

ENGLISH 399: Thesis

For M.A. students only. Regular meetings with thesis advisors required. To enroll, make an appointment with English student services and provide confirmation of advisor consent.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 1-10 | Repeatable for credit
Instructors: ; Greif, M. (PI)
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