ENGLISH 5FA: The Romance and its Readers
What does it mean for a text to be "realistic" or "unrealistic"? Why does it feel natural to us, as readers, to evaluate a book based on its ability to represent "reality"? Then again, why attempt to reproduce the real when you could simply put the book down and walk outside? In this course, we will consider these questions through the lens of "the romance." Though extremely variable across time, the romance emerges time and again as the genre of the unreal or decidedly fictional. Here are the books, we are told, that lead to fantasy and self-delusion. Reexamining such judgments, we will read a selection of "romances" - ranging from saints' lives to lesbian pulp fiction and the contemporary romance novel - while also devoting attention to the romance-reader (as a supposedly deluded and ineffectual participant in reality) to explore the development of the novel as a category and to trouble our understandings of "real" and "unreal" modes of experience and representation. How has the roma
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What does it mean for a text to be "realistic" or "unrealistic"? Why does it feel natural to us, as readers, to evaluate a book based on its ability to represent "reality"? Then again, why attempt to reproduce the real when you could simply put the book down and walk outside? In this course, we will consider these questions through the lens of "the romance." Though extremely variable across time, the romance emerges time and again as the genre of the unreal or decidedly fictional. Here are the books, we are told, that lead to fantasy and self-delusion. Reexamining such judgments, we will read a selection of "romances" - ranging from saints' lives to lesbian pulp fiction and the contemporary romance novel - while also devoting attention to the romance-reader (as a supposedly deluded and ineffectual participant in reality) to explore the development of the novel as a category and to trouble our understandings of "real" and "unreal" modes of experience and representation. How has the romance historically been used to reject, distort, or transform reality? What gender - or other - biases inform the perennial devaluation of the romance as escapist fluff? What might it mean? What insights into literary history and politics emerge? if we take the romance and its readers seriously? (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)
Last offered: Spring 2024
| Units: 5
ENGLISH 5JA: Women Without Men: Experiments in American Literature, 1890-1940
Spinsters, lesbians, workers, writers: women without men have been the object of sexual intrigue and social anxiety throughout the long history of American letters. In this course, we will think about women in American literature who are neither economically nor erotically dependent upon men, or else exhibit resistance to connections (sometimes economically or socially necessary) with men. Focusing on works from the 1890s to 1940s by authors such as Sarah Orne Jewett, Willa Cather, and Nella Larson, we will ask: how have women writers imagined a social and economic life without men? Where, why, and how do the women in these narratives fail to achieve such a life (many of our narratives will end, tragically, in death or suicide)? And what literary moves and experiments have such efforts to circumvent male-dominated worlds (including that of literature itself) engendered? As we explore structures of both platonic and lesbian relationships between women, our critical emphasis will be on f
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Spinsters, lesbians, workers, writers: women without men have been the object of sexual intrigue and social anxiety throughout the long history of American letters. In this course, we will think about women in American literature who are neither economically nor erotically dependent upon men, or else exhibit resistance to connections (sometimes economically or socially necessary) with men. Focusing on works from the 1890s to 1940s by authors such as Sarah Orne Jewett, Willa Cather, and Nella Larson, we will ask: how have women writers imagined a social and economic life without men? Where, why, and how do the women in these narratives fail to achieve such a life (many of our narratives will end, tragically, in death or suicide)? And what literary moves and experiments have such efforts to circumvent male-dominated worlds (including that of literature itself) engendered? As we explore structures of both platonic and lesbian relationships between women, our critical emphasis will be on feminist and queer theories, which students will further employ to analyze questions of class, economics, and narrative form. Students will come away with the ability to conduct independent literary research and produce scholarly writing. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)
Last offered: Spring 2025
| Units: 5
ENGLISH 5KA: Migrants, Natives, or Settlers? Asians in South African Literature
In this course, we will consider questions of diaspora, enslavement, race, and identity from the perspective of Asians in South Africa, a country shaped by settler colonialism, enslavement, indentured labor, and apartheid, in ways both related to and different from the United States and other settler colonial states. Enslaved people in South Africa came from multiple places, including South and Southeast Asia, and after slavery's formal abolition in the British empire, the first ship of Indian indentured laborers arrived in 1860, beginning a flow of both free and unfree Asian migrants. We will study recent fiction that represents the experiences of Asians in South Africa, including Andre Brink's Philida (2012), Joanne Joseph's Children of Sugarcane (2021), and late-apartheid stories by South African Indian authors such as Deena Padayachee and Agnes Sam. As we do so, we'll ask: What literary modes are employed to represent these varied migration experiences? How does such literature con
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In this course, we will consider questions of diaspora, enslavement, race, and identity from the perspective of Asians in South Africa, a country shaped by settler colonialism, enslavement, indentured labor, and apartheid, in ways both related to and different from the United States and other settler colonial states. Enslaved people in South Africa came from multiple places, including South and Southeast Asia, and after slavery's formal abolition in the British empire, the first ship of Indian indentured laborers arrived in 1860, beginning a flow of both free and unfree Asian migrants. We will study recent fiction that represents the experiences of Asians in South Africa, including Andre Brink's Philida (2012), Joanne Joseph's Children of Sugarcane (2021), and late-apartheid stories by South African Indian authors such as Deena Padayachee and Agnes Sam. As we do so, we'll ask: What literary modes are employed to represent these varied migration experiences? How does such literature converge and diverge from the genre conventions of European settler colonists' writing? How do these texts situate newly arrived Asians and their descendants relative to place, history, and belonging in South Africa? To help us think through these questions, we'll engage theoretical frameworks from diaspora studies and settler colonial studies. Brief selections from other South African literature and South African literary criticism will also help us contextualize these works. No previous exposure to South African literature is expected. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)
Last offered: Autumn 2024
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 5SA: Indigeneity Across American Literary Cultures
How did early American writers use representations of Nativeness to convey their own Americanness? How have Native authors written in relation and resistance to this move? And what does the interplay between these modes reveal about the evolution of nation-making across American literary cultures? Staying with this productive tension, this course will proceed in two parts. First, pairing works by early Anglo-American authors like Mary Rowlandson and Lydia Maria Child with readings in Native studies, settler colonial studies, and decolonial theory, we will excavate how canonical texts have naturalized American settlement while also exploring critical approaches that denaturalize those views. From there, we will move to wholly center 20th and 21st century Native voices, from canonized Native writers like Tommy Orange and Leslie Marmon Silko to Native horror satirists Stephen Graham Jones and Morgan Talty, focusing on the various tools and methods through which these authors converse and
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How did early American writers use representations of Nativeness to convey their own Americanness? How have Native authors written in relation and resistance to this move? And what does the interplay between these modes reveal about the evolution of nation-making across American literary cultures? Staying with this productive tension, this course will proceed in two parts. First, pairing works by early Anglo-American authors like Mary Rowlandson and Lydia Maria Child with readings in Native studies, settler colonial studies, and decolonial theory, we will excavate how canonical texts have naturalized American settlement while also exploring critical approaches that denaturalize those views. From there, we will move to wholly center 20th and 21st century Native voices, from canonized Native writers like Tommy Orange and Leslie Marmon Silko to Native horror satirists Stephen Graham Jones and Morgan Talty, focusing on the various tools and methods through which these authors converse and contend with Native appropriation and erasure. Throughout, this course will provide the theoretical grounding to gain a decolonial perspective on American literary history, to engage with complicated questions of American identity formation, and to critically read and analyze texts, Native narratives in their explicit and implicit forms. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Burleson, L. (PI)
ENGLISH 5UA: Queer Monstrosity
What makes a monster? Which peoples, bodies, behaviors, and identities are deemed monstrous at particular moments in history? What does the cultural construction of "monstrosity" tell us about a society's anxieties, taboos, and fears? Are monsters, who symbolize deviations from established conventions and norms, inherently queer figures? And how have LGBTQ+ cultural producers re-appropriated the images and tropes of monstrosity as tools and techniques for self-fashioning? In this course, we will explore how same-sex desire and gender transgression have been represented in Anglophone literature, film, and television through various monster figures, from lesbian vampires and ghoulish hauntings to angels, demons, cyborgs, and serial killers. Students will be exposed to a variety of theoretical schools, including queer and trans theory, monster studies, psychoanalysis, film and media studies, and critical disability theory, in order to develop a shared grammar for describing horror, monstr
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What makes a monster? Which peoples, bodies, behaviors, and identities are deemed monstrous at particular moments in history? What does the cultural construction of "monstrosity" tell us about a society's anxieties, taboos, and fears? Are monsters, who symbolize deviations from established conventions and norms, inherently queer figures? And how have LGBTQ+ cultural producers re-appropriated the images and tropes of monstrosity as tools and techniques for self-fashioning? In this course, we will explore how same-sex desire and gender transgression have been represented in Anglophone literature, film, and television through various monster figures, from lesbian vampires and ghoulish hauntings to angels, demons, cyborgs, and serial killers. Students will be exposed to a variety of theoretical schools, including queer and trans theory, monster studies, psychoanalysis, film and media studies, and critical disability theory, in order to develop a shared grammar for describing horror, monstrosity, uncanniness, abjection, and even queerness itself. Primary texts will range over 200 years of literary, visual, and media history, and might include selections from Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde, Flannery O'Connor, Tony Kushner, and others; films and other media might include The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Little Shop of Horrors, and Jennifer's Body. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact farrahm@stanford.edu.)
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Coduto, S. (PI)
ENGLISH 8B: Page to Stage: The Case of Shakespeare's Richard III
The most gripping of all Shakespeare's history plays, Richard III follows a protagonist who - having killed the king - knocks off his own brother, his two nephews, and his wife on the way to securing the crown. Audiences have found it hard to look away from this work's magnetic, perversely charismatic embodiment of vice. The lead role is demanding (second only to Hamlet and Falstaff in terms of line count), often reserved for the stage and screen's finest actors. Yet this same play is perhaps the only Shakespeare tragedy in which, as Gilles Deleuze of all critics once observed, "the women do battle for themselves." No wonder the most recent screen adaptation drew a star-studded cast from Sophie Okonedo and Judi Dench to Benedict Cumberbatch. This course proceeds through two phases to link the interpretative and performing arts. It brings the capacities of close reading and literary study to bear on a collaborative staging of selections from the play. Participants first focus on the pla
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The most gripping of all Shakespeare's history plays, Richard III follows a protagonist who - having killed the king - knocks off his own brother, his two nephews, and his wife on the way to securing the crown. Audiences have found it hard to look away from this work's magnetic, perversely charismatic embodiment of vice. The lead role is demanding (second only to Hamlet and Falstaff in terms of line count), often reserved for the stage and screen's finest actors. Yet this same play is perhaps the only Shakespeare tragedy in which, as Gilles Deleuze of all critics once observed, "the women do battle for themselves." No wonder the most recent screen adaptation drew a star-studded cast from Sophie Okonedo and Judi Dench to Benedict Cumberbatch. This course proceeds through two phases to link the interpretative and performing arts. It brings the capacities of close reading and literary study to bear on a collaborative staging of selections from the play. Participants first focus on the play-text and the creative openings afforded by Shakespeare's historical interlocutors (Thomas More, History of Richard III; The Mirror for Magistrates [ed. 1563]), modern works of literary criticism, and recent adaptations for screen and stage (including The Hollow Crown series [2016], dir. Dominic Cooke). The second half of this course draws from these insights towards a scaled-down performance of the play to be given at the close of the quarter. Along the way, guest lecturers will lead workshops to enrich our sense of the possibilities of script adaptation, stage direction, and dramatic performance. Students will not be graded on their performance as actors. This remains a literature-forward course; no prior experience in the theater necessary. Students willing to contribute to the final production through non-acting roles (e. g. as publicists, musicians, costume designers, stagehands, extras) are very welcome. Participants should reserve time for THREE additional rehearsal sessions to be held on Mondays at 7:30 pm.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors:
Yu, E. (PI)
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.
Last offered: Winter 2025
| Units: 5
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.
Last offered: Winter 2025
| Units: 3-5
ENGLISH 11C: Introduction to English II: Revolutionary Energies (1640-1820)
This course guides students into a turbulent period of literary history marked on one end by two English revolutions and, on the other, the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
ENGLISH 12C: Introduction to English III: Modern Literature
Survey of the major trends in literary history from 1850 to the present.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP