printer friendly pageENGLISH 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
Instructors:
Cain, B. (PI)
;
Fishkin, S. (PI)
;
Freyberg, D. (PI)
...
more instructors for ENGLISH 124 »
Instructors:
Cain, B. (PI)
;
Fishkin, S. (PI)
;
Freyberg, D. (PI)
;
Kennedy, D. (PI)
;
Shelton, N. (PI)
;
Leonard, D. (TA)
;
Martinez, X. (TA)
ENGLISH 125: Virginia Woolf in the Age of #MeToo (FEMGEN 125V)
How does a groundbreaking first wave feminist theorist and novelistic innovator speak intergenerationally? Everything about #MeToo can be found in Virginia Woolf's works, from gender oppression, to the politics of women's entry into the public sphere, to the struggle of women to be heard and believed. We begin with A Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938), tying them to media coverage of #MeToo, then turn to the identity politics of her fiction and to broader histories of feminism and feminist theory.
Last offered: Spring 2023
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
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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 138E: The Gothic in Literature and Culture (COMPLIT 118, ENGLISH 238E)
This course introduces students to the major features of Gothic narrative, a form that emerges at the same time as the Enlightenment, and that retains its power into our present. Surveying Gothic novels, as well as novellas and short stories with Gothic elements, we will learn about the defining features of the form and investigate its meaning in the cultural imagination. Gothic narratives, the course will suggest, examine the power of irrational forces in a secular age: forces that range from barbaric human practices, to supernatural activity, to the re-enchantment of modern existence. We will also consider the importance for Gothic authors and readers of the relation among narrative. spectacle and the visual arts. Primary works may include Ann Radcliffe's <e>The Italian, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey</e>, Victor Hugo's <e>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</e>, E.T.A. Hoffman's <e>The Sandman</e>, Mary Shelly's <e>Frankenstein</e>, and Edgar Allen Poe's <e>The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym</e>. We may also do a section on vampires, including Bram Stoker's <e>Dracula</e>, and its remake in film by F.W. Murnau and Werner Herzog. Critical selections by Edmund Burke, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, and Terry Castle, among others.
Last offered: Spring 2020
ENGLISH 139C: American Literature and Social Justice (AMSTUD 139C, FEMGEN 139C)
How have American writers tried to expose and illuminate racism and sexism through fiction, creative nonfiction, journalism, and poetry? How have they tried to focus our attention on discrimination and prejudice based on race, gender, ethnicity, class, religion and national origin? What writing strategies can break through apathy and ignorance? What role, if any, can humor play in this process?
Last offered: Winter 2023
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
ENGLISH 140C: Sex and Violence in Jacobean Tragedy
Jacobean tragedy refers to the high-water mark of English tragedy achieved during the reign of James I. Think Othello and Macbeth. During these years (1603-25) Shakespeare and his talented contemporaries unflinchingly examined the role played by lust, violence, political intrigue, revenge ('a wild kind of justice'), and the certitude of death in constituting the meaning of human existence. We will read classic examples of this 'theater of cruelty' by Shakespeare and his rivals and collaborators Thomas Heywood, Thomas Middleton, and John Webster.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Hoxby, B. (PI)
ENGLISH 140D: Environmental Humanities: Finding Our Place on a Changing Planet (BIO 184, SUSTAIN 140)
The rapid degradation of our planet threatens the health and survival of communities and ecosystems around the world. How did we get here? What cultural, philosophical, and ethical challenges underlie the separation of humanity from nature and precipitate unprecedented ecological destruction? How can we make sense of this, and how can we reimagine a more connected future? Through engaging the work of environmental philosophers, cultural ecologists, artists, humanities scholars, Indigenous leaders, and others with land-based knowledge, this course will prompt you to think deeply about humanity's place in the world and explore strategies to change our course. Together, we will explore contrasting cultural paradigms around human-nature relationships and apply learnings to action - including through final projects that involve external audiences in meaningful environmental contemplation or impact.
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-ER
ENGLISH 144B: Contemporary British Fiction: History, Language, Place
How do contemporary British novelists represent dramatic changes in culture, class, demography, generation, economy, gender, race, and national identity following the allied victory in the Second World War (1939-1945)?¿ Focusing on writers born between 1948 and 1975, we examine the structuring of historical consciousness in novels by Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jeanette Winterson, Hanif Kureishi, Julian Barnes, Ali Smith, and Hilary Mantel.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, GER:DB-Hum
Instructors:
Staveley, A. (PI)
ENGLISH 145I: Curating 20th Century U.S. Literature
Throughout the 20th century, writers in the United States of America produced an unprecedentedly large, diverse, and transformative body of literature. Authors, editors, and publishers began anthologizing this material early in the century, often aiming to introduce new communities of writers¿including those marginalized because of their race, gender, or sexuality¿to U.S. readers. As a result, anthologies became important to the lives and literature of a wide range of major 20th century U.S. authors, including EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE, HILDA "H.D." DOOLITTLE., WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, ERNEST HEMINGWAY, JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, LANGSTON HUGHES, ZORA NEAL HURSTON, RICHARD WRIGHT, ALLEN GINSBERG, ADRIENNE RICH, AMIRI BARAKA, FRANK O'HARA, JACK KEROUAC, AUDRE LORDE, CARLOS BULOSAN, FRANK CHIN, GLORIA ANZALDÚA, BERNADETTE MAYER, LESLIE MARMON SILKO, LOUISE ERDRICH, MICHAEL CHABON, CLAUDIA RANKINE AND MANY, MANY MORE., Students in this course will have the opportunity to read all of these authors and others, and in doing so will construct a concrete, comprehensive, and cutting-edge understanding of how U.S. literature developed over the course of the 20th century.
Last offered: Summer 2023
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
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