printer friendly pageENGLISH 1C: Comics: More than Words (DLCL 238, FILMEDIA 38)
This research unit looks at Comics from a transnational, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary perspective. Each quarter we organize a series of lectures, reading sessions, and workshops around a main topic. Some previous topics that we have explored are: Postcolonialism and Decoloniality (Fall 2021), Feminisms (Winter 2022), and Superheroes (Spring 2022). This year we plan on exploring topics such as Mangas (Fall 2022), Computer Science (Winter 2023), and Comic Theory (Spring 2023). We gather three times per quarter on Zoom or in person. To earn the unit, students must attend all events hosted during the quarter, do the readings in advance of the meeting, and participate actively in the discussion.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
20 times
(up to 20 units total)
ENGLISH 1D: Dickens Book Club
Through the academic year, we will read one Dickens novel, one number a week for 19 weeks, as the Victorians would have done as they read the serialized novel over the course of 19 months. The group gets together once a week for an hour and a half to discuss each number, to look carefully at the pattern that the author is weaving, to guess, as the Victorians would have done, what might be coming next, and to investigate the Victorian world Dickens presents. We look carefully at themes, characters, metaphorical patterns, and scenes that form Dickens' literary world, and spend increasing time evaluating the critique that Dickens levels at Victorian life. The weekly gatherings are casual; the discussion is lively and pointed.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 5 units total)
Instructors:
Paulson, L. (PI)
ENGLISH 1G: The Gothic: Transcultural, Multilingual, and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Genre
Description: This course is a research platform for the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study of the Gothic literary and cinematic genres. We consider the Gothic to have rich traditions whose contributions to Queer and LGBTQ+ studies, cultural theory, political economy, bio-ethics, and techno-science, remain under-explored. By looking at the world from the peripheralized standpoints of the monstrous, the abject, the dark, the uncanny, and the tumultuous, the Gothic offers unique though often overlooked critical insights into modern societies. Students enrolled in this course will participate in research activities and reading discussions oriented towards crafting interdisciplinary Gothic syllabi for the future and a cross-cultural Encyclopedia of the Gothic.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
5 times
(up to 5 units total)
ENGLISH 5K: WISE: The Cult of Jack Kerouac (And Other Stories of Literary Celebrity)
This course explores the rise, stakes, and ironies of literary stardom by focusing on one of the Bay Area's most notorious band of celebrity authors: the Beats. To some, Beat politics, styles, and philosophies have seemed dated for decades; and yet Beat writers maintain a weirdly broad staying power. Even now, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg remain pop-cultural touchstones, outsider-intellectual icons, and essential reading for teens and the highly educated. To get to the root of this phenomenon, we will consider what fame meant to literature and vice versa in the post-World War II era - a time when a rapidly changing media ecology, rising consumerism, and intensifying Cold War nationalism made for curious marriages: between avant-garde art and pop culture, between countercultural ambitions and commercial appropriation. Why did the Beats get famous? How did their fame affect the life and work of contemporaries (like the acclaimed but understudied poet Bernadette Mayer) who wrote in the
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This course explores the rise, stakes, and ironies of literary stardom by focusing on one of the Bay Area's most notorious band of celebrity authors: the Beats. To some, Beat politics, styles, and philosophies have seemed dated for decades; and yet Beat writers maintain a weirdly broad staying power. Even now, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg remain pop-cultural touchstones, outsider-intellectual icons, and essential reading for teens and the highly educated. To get to the root of this phenomenon, we will consider what fame meant to literature and vice versa in the post-World War II era - a time when a rapidly changing media ecology, rising consumerism, and intensifying Cold War nationalism made for curious marriages: between avant-garde art and pop culture, between countercultural ambitions and commercial appropriation. Why did the Beats get famous? How did their fame affect the life and work of contemporaries (like the acclaimed but understudied poet Bernadette Mayer) who wrote in their long shadow? What can these dynamics teach us about celebrity and technology today? In answering these questions, we will examine Beat writers in print, on film and TV, in photographs and advertisements, and in the archive. Students will learn to work with a range of genres and forms including some criticism and theory by authors both inside and outside of the literary 'star system.' (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact vbeebe@stanford.edu.)
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Winner, K. (PI)
ENGLISH 5V: WISE: Haunted Daughters: Race, Gender, and the Family in Gothic Fiction
At its heart, the gothic is about the intrusion of the past into the present. It grapples with what happens when the dead haunt the living or past injustices refuse to stay buried. In this course, we will explore the interplay of race, gender, trauma, ancestry, and haunted domestic spaces. Linking a selection of short ghost stories by earlier writers to more recent novels by women authors of color, we will trace permutations of women's gothic writing from 1861 to 2020, focusing especially on how 20th and 21st century women authors of color utilize, subvert, redirect, and interrogate the genre. Assigned novels will include Toni Morrison's classic Beloved, Yangsze Choo's Ghost Bride, and Silvia Morena Garcia's bestselling Mexican Gothic. Earlier texts will include stories by Elizabeth Gaskell, Edith Wharton, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Throughout the course, we will ask: why is the gothic such a powerful outlet for women's voices? How do ghost stories explore themes of intergenerational trauma, cultural oppression, and violence? What does it mean for a home or family to be haunted? What do haunted daughters owe to the ghosts of their cultural or familial pasts?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Douris, S. (PI)
ENGLISH 5W: WISE: Detective Fiction
What do detective stories reveal about the structure of society? What can mystery writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Chester Himes, and Patricia Highsmith teach us about the structure of literature? On the one hand, detectives have special access to the social worlds represented in fiction. As we'll see, solving a crime often means charting a course through the many sub-worlds of urban life, from penthouse to flophouse. The private eye can enter communities that would otherwise be closed to outsiders, social groups set apart by differences like race, class, gender, or sexuality. On the other hand, detective fiction also dramatizes the act of reading itself as a social relationship, at once a contract and a game between author and reader. In exchange for our time and attention, we expect the author to play fair, provide clues, and give us a logically sound and satisfying ending. This course uses detective fiction as an introduction to a structuralist approach to narrative, and as an occasion to discuss the big questions: the relationship between self and society and the pleasures and responsibilities therein.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Lindemann, C. (PI)
ENGLISH 9CA: American Road Trip
From Whitman to Kerouac, Alec Soth to Georgia O'Keeffe, the lure of travel has inspired many American artists to pack up their bags and hit the open road. In this Creative Expressions course we will be exploring the art and literature of the great American road trip, including prose, poetry, films, and photography. We will be reading and writing in a variety of genres, workshopping our own stories, and considering the ways in which our personal journeys have come to inform and define our lives. The course includes a number of campus-wide field trips, and an end-of-quarter road trip down the California coast. NOTE: Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors:
Carlson-Wee, K. (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 9CI: Inspired By Science: A Writing Workshop
How can your interest in science and the environment be enriched by a regular creative practice? How do you begin to write a poem or essay about the wonders of the natural world or the nuances of climate change? What are the tools and strategies available to creative writers, and how can these techniques be used to communicate complex concepts and research to wide-audiences? We begin to answer these questions by drawing inspiration from the rich tradition of scientists who write and writers who integrate science. Emphasizing writing process over finished product, students maintain journals throughout the quarter, responding to daily prompts that encourage both practice and play. Through open-ended and exploratory writing, along with specific exercises to learn the writer's craft students develop a sense of their own style and voice. Note: First priority to undergrads. Students must attend the first class meeting to retain their roster spot.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
Instructors:
Michas-Martin, S. (PI)
ENGLISH 9R: Humanities Research Intensive (CLASSICS 9R, EALC 9R, HISTORY 9R)
Everyone knows that scientists do research, but how do you do research in the humanities? This seven-day course, taught over spring break, will introduce you to the excitement of humanities research, while preparing you to develop an independent summer project or to work as a research assistant for a Stanford professor. Through hands-on experience with archival materials and museum collections, you will learn how to formulate a solid research question; how to gather the evidence that will help you to answer that question; how to write up research results; how to critique the research of your fellow students; how to deliver your results in a public setting; and how to write an effective grant proposal. Students who complete this course become Humanities Research Intensive Fellows and receive post-program mentorship during spring quarter, ongoing opportunities to engage with faculty and advanced undergraduates, and eligibility to apply for additional funding to support follow-up research. Freshmen, sophomores, and qualifying transfer students only. All majors and undeclared students welcome. No prior research experience necessary. Enrollment limited: apply in October at
https://humanexperience.stanford.edu/undergraduates/humanities-research-intensive.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2
Instructors:
Ceserani, G. (PI)
;
Kieschnick, J. (PI)
;
Salseda, R. (PI)
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more instructors for ENGLISH 9R »
Instructors:
Ceserani, G. (PI)
;
Kieschnick, J. (PI)
;
Salseda, R. (PI)
;
Arellano Vences, J. (TA)
;
Previto, M. (TA)
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