All Course Levels Descriptions
ENGL 1500-100: Masterpieces of British Literature
Instructor: Professor Scarlet Bowen
Call No. 45767
A Term: June 1-July 2
MTWRF 9:15-10:50 — HLMS 251
This course introduces students to some of the best of what has been thought and written in British literature from the Middle Ages through the present. The course will strengthen your historical understanding as we discover how art, society, and politics all mutually influence one another. A particluar theme of the course will be an exploration of literary value—how authors and ages defined or challenged what is "literary" and what forces stimulated changes in aesthetic values. In this way, the course also acts as a history of ideas in which we can trace conversations and the references among authors across time, even within our contemporary culture. We will study such authors as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Behn, Swift, Mary Shelley, Prince, Coleridge, Dickens, Woolf, Eliot, Walcott and Rushdie.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Scarlet.Bowen@colorado.edu.
ENGL 2000: Literary Analysis
Instructor: Professor Lori Emerson
Call No. 42383
Maymester: May 11-May 29
MTWRF 9:00-12:15 — HLMS 259
Prereq: Restricted to ENGL Majors
If poetry is conventionally understood as the voice of memory, an intense representation of experience, then we can think of this introductory course as exploring the depth and breadth of personal, cultural, and national experience over six centuries. By looking at both canonical and non-canonical poetic texts, we will study the lyrical, narrative, meditative, and dramatic poems of the sixteenth century and how they evolve into poems of the twentieth and twenty-first century—many of which are clearly non-narrative and anti-lyric. In this way we will first establish a grammar and a vocabulary which we can use to engage with both form and content of these poems, asking ourselves what the form of the poem is (if it has one at all), why the poet chose it, what the content of the poem is (if we can locate any content at all), and—the more intriguing question—how the form reflects the content and what socio-historic circumstances might have contributed to this particular poetic expression. To help answer these questions, we will consider how and why poets embrace or reject formal strategies of rhythm, meter, lines, stanzas, the use of blank verse, couplet verse, sestinas, sonnets, and free verse. Also under consideration will be how poets, both well-known and marginal, canonized and experimental, express such so-called age-old themes such as love, loss, desire, disappointment and the theme of language itself. This broad-reaching survey of English-language poetry and poetic theory, then, will provide a range of tools to help us think about how and why poems have been used to represent experience; it will also help us to see how and why experience has been felt and conceived of in the western world.
In addition to the Anthology of Modern American Poetry (AMAP) and the Handbook of Poetic Forms (HPF), we will use the following electronic resources to supplement our reading (especially of twentieth-century and twenty-first century poets): Electronic Poetry Center (http://epc.buffalo.edu), PENNSound (http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/), and Ubuweb (http://www.ubu.com).
Please contact the instructor for further information: Lori.Emerson@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3000-100: Shakespeare for Non-Majors
Instructor: Professor Richelle Munkhoff
Call No. 45455
A Term: June 1-July 2
MTWRF 9:15-10:50 — HALE 240
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
“Shakespeare” is many things: a man writing in a specific historical time and place, drawing on particular literary traditions and social customs; a businessman interested in and conscious of precise audiences and venues; a collection of texts that have come down to us over four centuries influenced by a series of printing and editorial practices, as well as by changing conventions of staging and production; and, most familiarly, an icon recognized around the globe often as a figure of individual genius, but one infinitely malleable, adaptable to different settings, contexts, media. In this course we will explore these various avenues, and especially the last, to understand why Shakespeare remains important long after most of his contemporaries have slipped from popular cultural memory. This class will be primarily discussion-based examinations of the Shakespeare’s language as poetry, but since his words were meant to be enacted on stage, we will also be considering issues of performance throughout the course. Texts will likely include: Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, Taming of the Shrew, and The Tempest.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Richelle.Munkhoff@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3000-102: Virtual Shakespeare, 1564-2009+
Instructor: Professor R L Widmann
Call No. 45455
A Term: Jun 1-July 2
Online
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR
Virtual Shakespeare, which has been offered since 1998, is going completely on-line in summer A session 2009 at UCB. In this section, we will work on-line in
order to study Shakespeare, his text, our own audience reception of Shakespeare, and the history of Shakespeare.
This course is designed to increase our pleasure and understanding in reading and viewing Shakespeare. We will consider his position as a cultural icon, as a
product of the theatre machinery of his time, and as a central figure in the educational systems in Britain and the USA.
We will also examine how we, as early 21st c. audiences, viewers, readers, critics, can use our contemporary understandings in order to inform our readings of
Shakespeare in the new millenium. We will hope and expect to increase our critical skills in seeing live theatre and understanding it as a vehicle for purposes in
addition to those of entertainment.
The instructors assume that students enrolling have a good working knowledge of dramatic structures and principles and an understanding of how plays work as
printed texts and how they work as literature on a stage, in production. We will use a variety of critical approaches to Shakespeare.
You are expected to view a full-length Shakespeare production outside of class for each of the Shakespeare plays we study. And viewing Shakespeare in Love
is also required. There are many film and video versions available for viewing at Norlin Library and through rentals at local video stores and through netflix.
Please contact the instructor for further information: r.widmann@colorado.edu
ENGL 3060-001: Verbal Riddim: Modern and Contemporary Writing from the Caribbean
Instructor: Professor Marcia Douglas
Maymester: May 11-May 29
MTWRF 9-12:15 — CHEM 133
This course will examine modern and contemporary poetry and prose from the Caribbean and its Diaspora. Focusing on a range of texts, we will explore the ways in which a history of colonialism and creolization of language and culture have impacted the literature of the region. We will particularly focus on “the history of the voice” in the Caribbean and the various approaches to navigating the complexity of its linguistic space. Readings will range from the 1920’s to the present and will include Jamaica Kincaid, Junot Diaz, Kamau Braithwaite, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Patrick Chamoiseau and Marlene Nourbese Philip.
Please Contact the instructor for further information: Marcia.Douglas@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3377-001: Border Identities: Mexicanos, Pochos, Pachucos, and Chicano/as
Instructor: Professor John Escobedo
Call No. 42396
Maymester: May 11-May 29
MTWRF 9:00-12:15 — HUMN 335
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR STANDING.
The working theme for this course, “Border Identities,” examines the evolving identities Mexicans have attained in the U.S. since the Mexican American War. As such, this course will present a body of texts that illustrates the development of Mexican American literary traditions that reflect the unstable, fluid, and unpredictable manifestations of border identities in the North American southwest. Throughout the course, we will review sensational literature, performance art, film, poetry, short stories, and novels to explore lo Mexicano, los Pochos y Pachucos, and Chicano/a identity.
Short reading list:
George Lippard, Legends of Mexico
Americo Paredes, With a Pistol in His Hand
Tomas Rivera, And the Earth did Devour Him
Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek
Jovita Gonzalez, Caballero
Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, The Squatter and the Don
Gloria Anzaldua, The Borderlands
Guillermo Gomez-Pena, The New World Border
Richard Rodriguez, Brown
Rafael Perez-Torres, Mestizaje: Critical Uses of Race in Chicano Culture
ENGL 3543-100: Chaucer, Dream Visions, and Troilus and Cressida
Instructor: Professor William Kuskin
Call No. 45583
A Term: June 1-July 2
MTWRF 2:30-4:05 — HLMS 245
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
Geoffrey Chaucer is the oldest continuously read poet in the canon of English literature. He is most famously known for the Canterbury Tales, a legacy that casts
him largely as a humorist and has thus overshadowed his broader importance as a poet and philosopher.
English 3543 looks to Chaucer's major works outside the Canterbury Tales: his translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose,
his dream visions, and finally his long romance, Troilus and Criseyde.
Reading list:
Boethius. Consolation of Philosophy
Chaucer, Geoffrey. Riverside Chaucer
Dante, Alighieri. Dante's Inferno
Macrobius, The Dream of Scipio
Coursework will include four in-class exams and a project. The course requires no previous training in Middle English, but it does demand a willingness to learn.
Please feel free to contact Professor Kuskin with questions at William.Kuskin@colorado.edu.
ENGL 3856-001: The Art of Truth: Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction
Instructor: Professor John-Michael Rivera
Call No. 42399
Maymester: May 11-May 29
MTWRF 9:00-12:15 — CHEM 145
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
In this course we will study a genre that has become tremendously popular in the literary market—creative nonfiction. We will begin be reading broadly in the area of nonfiction, studying creative non-fiction mostly, and, in doing so, we will explore how this genre uses fictive and poetic techniques in its aesthetic pursuit to represent the truth. Most of the course will run like a workshop, and we will work on our own creative projects and hold workshops throughout the summer. By the end of the summer, I want you all to not only be aware of the traditions and models of creative nonfiction but also become writers who are actively engaged in exploring the aesthetic limits and possibilities of writing the truth.
Please feel free to contact Professor Rivera with questions at John-Michael.Rivera@colorado.edu
ENGL 3856-003: The Graphic Novel (Intensive Seminar Format)
Instructor: Professor William Kuskin
Call No. 45587
Maymester: May 11-May 29
MTWRF 12:15-3:30 — LIBR N424B
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
Its evident when you walk into Borders or scan the movie listings: the comic book has arrived.
The comic book developed as an independent literary form in the 1930s and early 1940s and has been a favorite of adolescent enthusiasts and cult devotees ever since.
Recently, it has entered into a process of transformation, moving from a species of pulp fiction on the margins of childrens literature to an autonomous genre, one
Will Eisner labeled the graphic novel. This transformation has been noted in such literary venues as the New York Times and the New Yorker, as well as in an
increasing number of university classrooms and bookstore shelves.
English 3856 presents an overview of comics history and a survey of the major graphic novels in circulation today. Its governing question is simple: by what terms
can we discuss comic books as a literary art? Behind this question lies one of form. For the graphic novel makes a unique appeal to the magic of the book: jointly
pictorial and textual it represents the human condition through both words and images.
Tentative reading list includes:
Able, Jessica and Matt Madden. Drawing Words and Writing Pictures
Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home
Eisner, Will. The Dreamer
Herriman, George. Krazy Kat
McCay, Windsor. Little Nemo
Millar, Mark and Bryan Hitch. Ultimates 1, Vol 1 & 2
Miller, Frank. Sin City: The Long Goodbye
Miller, Frank. The Dark Knight Returns
Moore, Alan. Watchman
Sacco, Joe. Palestine
Spiegelman, Art. Maus I & II
Tomine, Adrian. Summer Blond
Ware, Chris. Quimby The Mouse
NOTE: All Books Will Be Available at Time Warp Comics (3105 28th Street, Boulder CO)
They have been set aside for this course at a 25% discount off cover price. Please ask at counter.
The course will include three ninety-minute exams and a comics project. As a Maymester course, it will be an intensive seminar-style discussion; please be prepared
to talk. Finally, as the literature is essentially engaged with contemporary cultural issues, it is not for the faint of heart.
Please feel free to contact Professor Kuskin with questions at William.Kuskin@colorado.edu.
ENGL 4038-001: The Literature of Exile
Instructor: Professor Nan Goodman
Call No. 45774
Maymester: May 11-May 29
MTWRF 12:15-3:30 — HLMS 229
Prereq: JR/SR ENGL/HUMN Majors
This course will ask what it means to be put into exile, to be forcibly thrown out of or to voluntarily remove oneself from a country. We will begin with the exile of the Puritans to the New World in the seventeenth century and then explore the many banishments they themselves imposed on individuals who threatened their commonwealth. We will also address more modern versions of exile and what it means to write from the perspective of the outsider. Readings will include texts from the 17th to the 21st century as well as theoretical materials by Edward Said, Perre Bourdieu, and Peter Goodrich.
Please feel free to contact Professor Goodman with questions at Nan.Goodman@colorado.edu.
English 4655-100: The Literature of Migration
Instructor: Professor Nan Goodman
Call No. 45768
Maymester: May 11-May 29
MTWRF: 9:15-10:50 — HLMS 245
Prereq: SOPH/JR/SR Standing
This course will explore the nature of personal and territorial identities in the context of migration. We will read texts having to do with migrations of all kinds and at all periods of history, from the Great Migration of the Puritans to the New World in the seventeenth century, to the migration of the freed slaves to the north after the Civil War, to the experiences of more recently exiled Bangladeshi and Iranians in Europe. Texts will include: Thomas Morton’s New English Canaan, Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, George Bishop’s New England Judged by the Spirit of the Lord, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Roger Williams’s The Bloody Tenet, Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Sport of the Gods, and W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants.
Please feel free to contact Professor Goodman with questions at Nan.Goodman@colorado.edu.
ENGL 5529-100: Poetry of the 50's/60's
Instructor: Professor Sidney Goldfarb
Call No. 45459
A Term: June 1-July 2
TR 9-1:10 — LIBR N424B
Prereq: Graduate Standing in ENGL
This class will discuss several innovative movements in American Poetry from the early 50's to the early 70's. We will initially look at some samples of the dominant modes of Poetry at the start of the Cold War and after, frequently referred to, not completely accurately, as Confessional Poetry or Academic Poetry, in the works of poets such as Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop. We will then focus on a range of poets who wrote somewhat in reaction to such poetry, as an attempt to reestablish a connection to the experimental modes in American Poetry in the 20's and after, and to set out in completely original directions. These poets are associated, for the most part, with several American Poetic Movements of the time period, including Black Mountain School, San Francisco Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, New York School, The Beats, Radical Political and Feminist Poetry. Poets to be discussed include Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Frank O'Hara, Muriel Rukeyser, Denise Levertov, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Gary Snyder, Adrienne Rich, Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Ed Dorn, Victor Hernandez Cruz, George Oppen. Requirements: brief papers for each class, a class presentation, a term project.
Please contact the instructor for further information: Sidney.Goldfarb@colorado.edu.