Sarah Star

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.

ST: Medieval World Literature

ENGL 291

ST:Race&Religion Medieval Lit

ENGL 391

ST: Race&Religion Medieval Lit

ENGL 391

ST: Drama to 1603

ENGL 391

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.