Rosemary O'Neill

Introduction to Literature and Language

ENGL 103

Each section of these first-year seminars approaches the study of literature through the exploration of a single theme in texts drawn from a variety of literary genres (such as tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, epic, novel, short story, film and autobiography) and historical periods. Classes are small, offering intensive discussion and close attention to each student's writing. Students in each section are asked to work intensively on composition as part of a rigorous introduction to reading, thinking, speaking and writing about literary texts. During the semester, instructors will assign frequent essays and may also require oral presentations, quizzes, examinations and research projects. This course is not open to juniors and seniors without permission of the department chair. Offered every year.

Introduction to Literature and Language

ENGL 104

Each section of these first-year seminars approaches the study of literature through the exploration of a single theme in texts drawn from a variety of literary genres (such as tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, epic, novel, short story, film and autobiography) and historical periods. Classes are small, offering intensive discussion and close attention to each student's writing. Students in each section are asked to work intensively on composition as part of a rigorous introduction to reading, thinking, speaking and writing about literary texts. During the semester, instructors will assign frequent essays and may also require oral presentations, quizzes, examinations and research projects. This course is not open to juniors and seniors without permission of department chair. Offered every year.

Writing Medieval Women

ENGL 223

We will read the most important works written in Middle English by women, placing these in the context of continental traditions of women's writing. Our readings will range across time, space and genre: from the letters exchanged by history's most famous ill-fated lovers (Abelard and Heloise), to some of the most sophisticated works of theology produced in the Middle Ages (by Julian of Norwich and Hildegard von Bingen), to the first autobiography in English, in which a married mother of 14 travels around the world on pilgrimage, challenging clerics and stirring up trouble along the way (The Book of Margery Kempe). We also will read writing by women in lesser-known genres: purgatory vision letters, parenting manuals, as well as some of the advice and conduct literature written by men that shaped expectations of female behavior. Most texts will be in modern translation, with a few short pieces in Middle English (no previous experience expected). This counts toward the pre-1700 requirement for the major. Open only to first-year and sophomore students. Prerequisite: ENGL 103 or 104.

Chaucer: Canterbury Tales

ENGL 224

Chaucer's final great work (profound, moving, sometimes disturbing, often hilarious) can be considered both a medieval anthology and a framed, self-referential narrative anticipating modern forms and modern questions. Reading in Middle English and exploring the social and historical contexts of Chaucer's fictions, we will pay special attention to Chaucer's preoccupations with the questions of experience and authority, the literary representation of women, the power of art and the status of literature itself. This counts toward the pre-1700 requirement for the major. Open only to first-year and sophomore students. Prerequisite: ENGL 103 or 104.

Tolkien's Middle Ages

ENGL 226

J. R. R. Tolkien was not just a beloved novelist but also a distinguished scholar who edited, translated and analyzed medieval poetry including "Beowulf", "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", and Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." In this course, we will study the literature that gave rise to Tolkien's fiction in order to explore how medieval literature continues to shape contemporary popular culture. In this vein, our reading of medieval texts will pay particular attention to "popular" genres such as purgatory vision narratives, romances and drama. While our reading will primarily focus on the medieval narratives that inspired Tolkien, there will be occasional student-led opportunities to connect this medieval material to Tolkien's own fiction and poetry. This counts toward the pre-1700 requirement for the major. Open only to first-year and sophomore students. Prerequisite: ENGL 103 or 104.

Love, Sex and Desire in Medieval Romance

ENGL 227

From the invention of Valentine's Day, to the notion of love as a sickness, to the articulation of courtship as a game with specific rules, many of our ideas about and expectations for romantic love come to us from medieval literature. Yet in the popular medieval genre of adventure story known as "romance," things do not always go according to love's rules: Men fall in love with other men, women resist getting married, and married women seduce their unsuspecting houseguests. In this course, we will explore the complex messages about love and sex encoded in medieval romances. Our readings will include poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer, the anonymous romances "Roman de Silence" and "Amis and Amiloun", Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun's "Romance of the Rose", and the rules of love offered by both Ovid and Capellanus, and other medieval texts as well as contemporary works of theory and criticism. This counts toward the pre-1700 requirement for the major and the women's and gender studies major/concentration. Open only to first-year and sophomore students. Prerequisite: ENGL 103 or 104.

Chaucer

ENGL 325

With a focus on major works -- "Troilus and Criseyde", "The House of Fame", "The Legend of Good Women" and "The Canterbury Tales" -- we will consider Chaucer in the context of medieval literature and as a writer who anticipates modern questions of gender and authority. Reading in Middle English and exploring the social and historical contexts of Chaucer's fictions, we will pay special attention to Chaucer's preoccupations with the experience of reading, the revisioning of romance, the metamorphosis and translation of texts, and the status of the book itself. This counts toward the pre-1700 requirement for the major. Prerequisite: junior standing or ENGL 210-291 or permission of instructor.

Senior Seminar in Literature

ENGL 410

This seminar will require students to undertake a research paper of their own design, within the context of a course that ranges across genres, literary periods and national borders. Students will study literary works within a variety of critical, historical, cultural and theoretical contexts. All sections of the course will seek to extend the range of interpretive strategies students can use to undertake a major literary research project. Each student will complete a research paper of 15 to 17 pages. Senior English majors pursuing an emphasis in literature are required to take instead ENGL 405. Students pursuing honors will take ENGL 497 rather than ENGL 410. Prerequisite: senior standing and English major or permission of instructor. Offered every year.

Individual Study

ENGL 493

Individual study in English is a privilege reserved for senior majors who want to pursue a course of reading or complete a writing project on a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum. Because individual study is one option in a rich and varied English curriculum, it is intended to supplement, not take the place of, coursework, and it cannot normally be used to fulfill requirements for the major. An IS will earn the student 0.5 units of credit, although in special cases it may be designed to earn 0.25 units. To qualify to enroll in an individual study, a student must identify a member of the English department willing to direct the project. In consultation with that faculty member, the student must write a one-to two page proposal for the IS that the department chair must approve before the IS can go forward. The chair’s approval is required to ensure that no single faculty member becomes overburdened by directing too many IS courses. In the proposal, the student should provide a preliminary bibliography (and/or set of specific problems, goals and tasks) for the course, outline a specific schedule of reading and/or writing assignments, and describe in some detail the methods of assessment (e.g., a short story to be submitted for evaluation biweekly; a thirty-page research paper submitted at course’s end, with rough drafts due at given intervals). Students should also briefly describe any prior coursework that particularly qualifies them for their proposed individual studies. The department expects IS students to meet regularly with their instructors for at least one hour per week, or the equivalent, at the discretion of the instructor. The amount of work submitted for a grade in an IS should approximate at least that required, on average, in 400-level English courses. In the case of group individual studies, a single proposal may be submitted, assuming that all group members will follow the same protocols. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of their proposed individual study well in advance, preferably the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval before the established deadline.

Senior Honors

ENGL 497

This seminar, required for students in the Honors Program, will relate works of criticism and theory to various literary texts, which may include several of those covered on the honors exam. The course seeks to extend the range of interpretive strategies available to the student as he or she begins a major independent project in English literature or creative writing. The course is limited to students with a 3.33 GPA overall, a 3.5 cumulative GPA in English and the intention to become an honors candidate in English. Enrollment limited to senior English majors in the Honors Program; exceptions by permission of the instructor. Undertaken in the fall semester; students register with the Senior Honors form as well as the individual study form. Permission of instructor and department chair required.

ST:Law & Lit of Sexual Assault

WGS 391