printer friendly pageENGLISH 150J: Queer Poetry in America (AMSTUD 150J, FEMGEN 150J)
Some poets are known for portraying alternative sexualities in their poetry. Others seem to cover sexuality up. Can we use a poem to determine whether a poet is gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning? Or do some poets simply defy categorization? What makes a poem queer? Is poetry somehow more or less queer than other literary forms? Even if we can answer these questions, what would they tell us about literature in general? This course will investigate such topics and more by tracking queer poetry in twentieth-century America. We'll start with nineteenth-century figures Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, then move on to Gertrude Stein, Hart Crane, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg, Frank O'Hara, and others. We'll ask what their poetry meant in their own times, as well as what it means to us in our present era of expanding civil rights and changing sexual attitudes.
Last offered: Summer 2017
ENGLISH 151F: Angelheaded Hipsters: Beat Writers of San Francisco and New York (AMSTUD 151F)
Reading of central writers of the Beat movement (Ginsberg, Kerouac, di Prima, Snyder, Whalen) as well as some related writers (Creeley, Gunn, Levertov). Issues explored include NY and SF, Buddhism and leftist politics, poetry and jazz. Some exposure to reading poems to jazz accompaniment. Examination of some of the writers and performers growing out of the Beats: Bob Dylan, rock music, especially from San Francisco, and jazz.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors:
Fields, K. (PI)
ENGLISH 152G: Harlem Renaissance
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: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 152K: Mixed-Race Politics and Culture (AFRICAAM 226, AMSTUD 152K, CSRE 152K)
Today, almost one-third of Americans identify with a racial/ethnic minority group, and more than 9 million Americans identify with multiple races. What are the implications of such diversity for American politics and culture? This course approaches issues of race from an interdisciplinary perspective, employing research in the social sciences and humanities to assess how race shapes perceptions of identity as well as political behavior in 21st-century U.S. Issues surrounding the role of multiculturalism, immigration, acculturation, racial representation, and racial prejudice in American society. Topics include the political and social formation of race; racial representation in the media, arts, and popular culture; the rise and decline of the "one-drop rule" and its effect on political and cultural attachments; the politicization of census categories and the rise of the multiracial movement.
Last offered: Winter 2018
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
ENGLISH 153: Time, Space, and Place: Humanistic Inquiry in a Digital Age
What are the digital humanities? A definition might be: Digital humanities are those pursuits which use digital tools to explore topics of humanistic inquiry. But that definition is rather general. To have a more nuanced understanding of the digital humanities, students will be exposed to a number of its practices, and practitioners. Active engagement by all participants is expected. Students will read and annotate, map and perform digital textual analysis. Ultimately, students will have a better idea of what the digital humanities are, and will be introduced to different ways they can be practiced, opening up possibilities for further exploration.
Last offered: Spring 2017
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 153F: Transatlantic Female Modernists: Making it New with a Difference
How did American and British women writers in the early decades of the last century express their experiences of modernity in fiction and poetry? A major but oscillating critical lens on modernism has focused on questions of gender and sexuality, and how women expressed the experiences of writing as a woman during these years (1910-1940). But other differences and distinctions of race, class, culture, nation, and literary inheritance were also crucial to the endeavor to give voice to a new sense of identity for many of these women. This course aims to uncover what binds as well as what differentiates forms of political, aesthetic, and cultural representation in the works of several key innovators in this period: V. Woolf; Z. Neale Hurston; D. Barnes; K. Mansfield; N. Larson; A. Lowell; H.D.; J. Faust; N. Cunard.
Last offered: Autumn 2017
ENGLISH 154: Mapping the Romantic Imagination
In this course, we will apply spatial humanities techniques to the study of Romantic writing. In the lyric poetry, national tales and Gothic novels of the Romantic period, how did geography, both real and imagined, influence the kinds of writing that were possible? Were there kinds of writing that could only happen in certain kinds of places? Together, using a combination of GIS mapping and geo-location, we will create a digital, annotated map of the Romantic imaginative world.
Last offered: Autumn 2017
ENGLISH 154E: Twentieth-Century Irish Literature
Plays, poems, short stories, and novels. Writers include James Joyce, William Yeats, Mary Lavin, Kate O'Brien,William Trevor, Seamus Heaney, and Samuel Beckett. How the writer can sustain imaginative freedom and literary experiment in the face of a turbulent history.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
Instructors:
Boland, E. (PI)
ENGLISH 154F: Film & Philosophy (COMPLIT 154A, FRENCH 154, ITALIAN 154, PHIL 193C, PHIL 293C)
Issues of authenticity, morality, personal identity, and the value of truth explored through film; philosophical investigation of the filmic medium itself. Screenings to include Blade Runner (Scott), Do The Right Thing (Lee), The Seventh Seal (Bergman), Fight Club (Fincher), La Jetée (Marker), Memento (Nolan), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Kaufman). Taught in English.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Dannenberg, J. (PI)
;
Landy, J. (PI)
;
Kim, H. (TA)
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more instructors for ENGLISH 154F »
Instructors:
Dannenberg, J. (PI)
;
Landy, J. (PI)
;
Kim, H. (TA)
;
Madigan, T. (TA)
;
McDonald, T. (TA)
;
Slabon, T. (TA)
ENGLISH 157H: Creative Writing & Science: The Artful Interpreter (BIOHOPK 157H, BIOHOPK 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 begins with a field trip to Hopkins Marine Station, perched at the edge of the Pacific, where Stanford labs buzz with activity alongside barking seals and crashing waves. Here, in this spectacular setting, we learn to pay attention to our encounters with the natural world and translate sensory experience to the page. Students keep field journals to collect observations and cultivate a reflective practice. In-class writing experiments lead to original nonfiction combining personal narrative and scientific curiosity. Students workshop their projects, receiving supportive feedback from the group. You will develop a more patient and observant eye, improve your ability to articulate scientific concepts, and, hopefully, have a bit of fun along the way.nNOTE: 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
Instructors:
Michas-Martin, S. (PI)
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