211 - 220 of 246 results for: Literary history

What is 'close reading'? This course is a survey and discussion of close reading and its formative role in twentieth century literary criticism and studies. Technique, explication, interpretation, method, practice, judgement: we will discuss various understandings of close reading's tasks, its history, and its implications for how and why we read literature. Readings include foundational texts (I. A. Richards, William Empson, Cleanth Brooks; Jane Gallop, Jonathan Culler, Eve Sedgwick, etc.) and contemporary debates (John Guillory, Jonathan Kramnick, N. Katherine Hayles, etc.).

Monterey Bay supports an amazing diversity of marine life, important fisheries, and coastal agriculture. There is much to explore here, from a submarine canyon that rivals the Grand Canyon in scope to Elkhorn Slough, California's third largest estuary. A day on the Bay can reveal a fleet of purse-seine vessels searching for squid, sport fishermen seeking salmon and halibut, and humpback whales breaching as they feed on anchovies - all within a relatively small area. What are the oceanographic and biological processes that support these creatures and human endeavors? How do they vary in different parts of the Bay? How are these processes linked to the fog that dominates the coastal climate and is critical to local agriculture? We will address these questions through lectures, discussion, and field work using the restored Western Flyer - the ship John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts took to the Gulf of California in 1940, resulting in publication of Sea of Cortez. You will collect oceanographic and biological data at sea using a variety of research instruments, including remotely operated video platforms, echosounder (sonar), water-column profiler, and plankton-imaging microscope. These observations will be related to the processes and trophic webs in the bay, moving all the way from wind to whales. At Elkhorn Slough we will observe sea otters and birds from kayaks. We will analyze water and sediment samples for nutrients and other properties and compare our results to real-time data from moorings in the slough and bay. We will learn about agriculture, the largest economic driver in Monterey County, and its connections to Monterey Bay through fog, nutrient runoff into Elkhorn Slough, and seawater intrusion into critical aquifers. We will also dive into Monterey Bay's rich cultural and literary history in developing a holistic view that will reveal a dynamic ocean from new viewpoints and build teamwork skills that are essential to working at sea.Our base of operation will be Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove. We will make several field trips on land and use the Western Flyer as our at-sea classroom (day trips only -- all nights will be spent on land). We will study spawning squid and feeding whales, carry out an oceanographic transect across the Bay from kelp forest to canyon, and collect data for projects of your own design. You will analyze the data collected and consider experiences formed during our explorations to create individual or team projects. Projects will be presented at a symposium at the end of the program.

This course connects narratives (both public/historical and private) with mapping (both archival and new creations) in order to deepen insight into Berlin, its localities and histories. It will complement cohort field trips while encouraging individual exploration. It will also question method: we'll evaluate central concepts such as narrative, map, place and space, both in the abstract and concretely with reference to Berlin. By creating maps out of literary, historical, cinematic and interview material, we'll strive to become familiar with the lives of ordinary individuals, adding nuance to the broader sweep of political history.

Food is not just fuel for living, but an essential element for building and understanding a culture. Food history will be discussed in its essential lines, moving through narrative, literary and scientific sources, including iconography, to offer examples of document interpretation and an introduction to proper historical work

Talking about love was the main reason humans ever began to speak in the first place. From the moment words were invented, they have been used to interpret and describe, in verse and prose, this powerful and mysterious force, in an attempt to interpret and describe our very selves. Lyric poetry was specifically designed for that, but even when telling stories about war, adventure, or the meaning of life and death, as well as when narrating comic or tragic events, countless writers have often endeavored to answer the question: What is love? By combining close readings of texts with a study of their literary, cultural, and historical context, and by paying attention to individual innovations as well as one's dialogue with tradition (a gendered tradition, that nonetheless stimulates fluid and even queer responses from the Renaissance forward), we will discover Dante's love, a means of damnation or salvation; Petrarch's love, which is sinful distraction, the source of poetry, and a path to glory; Boccaccio's love, so sensual and yet so deeply rooted in the human soul as to cause the greatest joy or the deepest despair; Ariosto's love, a dangerous force that can drive people to madness in a world where, after all, everyone is somehow in love and therefore partly (and delightfully) crazy; Machiavelli's love, which can sharpen one's wits and bring with it great achievements, unless it clouds one's judgement and leads to failure; Aretino's love, so unabashedly physical and graphically explicit as to cause scandal and amazement all over Europe. We will also look at how love is described by Veronica Gambara, Vittoria Colonna, Gaspara Stampa and other women poets of the Renaissance who renewed the lyrical code from within, giving new meanings to old words. We will also listen to the various kinds of love put to music in operas from Don Giovanni to Traviata and Bohème, and we will investigate how love interrelates with history in Manzoni's Promessi sposi and other Romantic historical novels. Finally, we will explore how the previous (male) narratives about love were reconfigured and reinvented by female novelists of the 20th century such as Goliarda Sapienza, Natalia Ginzburg and Elsa Morante, who will lead us to delve into Elena Ferrante's works, where love constantly interplays with friendship, and often confirms that, for better or for worse, appearances can be deceiving. Instructor: L. Degl'Innocenti

This course introduces the classical Chinese literary tradition in translation. In this course, we will explore genres including fiction, poetry, essays, and biographies in relation to three major sets of themes and traditions: 1) the fantastic, the immortal, and the ghostly; 2) the moral, the loyal, and the outlaws; and 3) the romantic, the scholar, and the beauty. These themes and traditions are, however, intertwined in the history of Chinese literature, influencing the consumption pattern of readers of popular literature. Through these themes and traditions, we analyze key issues regarding the formation of literary canon in China and how Han Chinese literati define the relationship between the foreign and the domestic, the Han and the non-Han, male and female, lawful subjects and outlaws in the process of literary canonization. The texts we read for this course will demonstrate Chinese culture as a dynamic, diverse, and hybrid one jointly shaped by domestic traditions and foreign influences. All readings are available in English translations. No prior knowledge of Chinese is assumed.

This course will examine the cultural geography of Spain's landscapedsocial spaces as sites for the development of personal, social, and politicalSpanish cultural identities. Focusing on landscape art, garden design, gardenhistory and the relationship of gardens to literary forms in Madrid and its environs,this course studies the roles of landscape and garden design and the ways thatthese arts represent the cultural and social ideology of their times. Based onmethods from aesthetics, cultural history, literary history, and landscape design,the course introduces students to the major trends that the built landscapes ofSpain have evolved from the early modern to the contemporary era. Madridand its near environs are home to a range of magnificent gardens, includingMadrid's Parque del Buen Retiro with its magnificent Crystal Palace andRosaleda Garden, the Botanic Gardens and grounds of El Prado Museum, theSabatini Gardens and the Campo del Moro near the Royal Palace, the grounds2of the Museo Sorolla, the Parque Madrid Río, running along the banks of theManzanares River, the less-visited but stunning El Capricho Park, the magnificentEl Escorial Gardens, the Aranjuez, and the Generalife summer palace for theNasrid Emirs of the Emirate of Granada in El Andalus. Each of these sites offersextraordinary opportunities for students to learn about the multi-ethnic,complexly layered, religious, political and social history of Spain as represented inits world-renowned gardens and public spaces.

What does it mean to study fantasy in the very city that helped define it? From medieval chronicles to contemporary screen adaptations, Oxford Fantasy in its Natural Habitat explores the long and layered history of the fantasy genre through the lens of place, authorship, and imagination. Rather than beginning with the genre's perceived "founding fathers" Tolkien and Lewis, this seminar traces the genre's evolution from its earliest roots in myth and epic, through medieval romance, Gothic fiction, and early science fiction, to the landmark contributions of Oxford's most iconic fantasists and their successors. Each week introduces a new facet of the genre's development, from haunted castles and enchanted forests to portals, prophecies, and portraits, examining how fantasy has continually reshaped both literature and culture. Alongside critical reading, the course offers an interdisciplinary and experiential approach, combining literary analysis with theology, cultural history, philology, creative writing, and encounters with Oxford's manuscripts, buildings, and landscapes. In doing so, it asks not only how fantasy reflects and reinvents the world, but how it actively shapes it. Human history repeatedly shows that imagination is not a distraction from reality, but a force that deepens our understanding of it, making us better scholars, better storytellers, and better people. This course endeavours to demonstrate that fantasy is no mere escape: it is a return, a reckoning, and a radical way of seeing.

Story of semiotic exploration, its contributions to literary critical theory, Marxist critique and feminist critique, in development of twentieth century thought. Close look at principle authors and circumstances that engendered their writings. Questions about the relationship between thought and environment, and between ideology and action raised by looking at the way twentieth century events influenced thinkers to consider the purposes of language in society, in identity , and in authority.