In the autumn term, we will study different approaches to analysing literature in three modules: 1. Post-Colonial approaches, 2. Gender based approaches, and 3. Monster Theory.
Concurrent with practicing literary analysis, we will also work on writing skills.
In the winter, we will apply the concepts and skills learned in the first term to a chronological survey of literature.
- Teacher: Kathleen McConnell
This is an introductory course in English literatures focusing of reading critically, analyzing and writing. Works from varied times and places in several different genres are explored ... medieval poetry, Shakespearean tragedy and contemporary graphic novel, for example.
- Teacher: Ella Jean Allen
I can’t teach inspiration. I can teach the craft of writing: techniques to develop, how to evaluate writing, how to take criticism constructively, how to stand up in front of people and read, etc. We’ll talk about this in class, and then you will apply the ideas in your weekly assignments
The heart of the course is the workshop which develops skills through both critiquing others’ work, and hearing your own work critiqued by your peers. What we critique will be your weekly writing assignments, organized by genres of scripts, prose, poetry, and revision.
Students are expected to participate actively in class. Active participation involves:
1. handing in assignments on time,
2. carefully reading and listening to each-others' contributions in the workshop, and
3. volunteering constructive comments based on careful reading.
- Teacher: Kathleen McConnell
Students will be reading works from several genres, keeping foremost in mind the thematic streams around which this survey course is designed: Religion and crises of faith; England's empire; Industrialism, materialism, and socialism; Class structures and social conventions; Gender, sexuality and "separate spheres"; Art and aesthetics. In so doing, they will be encouraged to think critically about the writings of Victorian Age, and to reconsider their significance beyond conventional understandings of nineteenth-century British literature.
The instructor will urge all students to discover connections across genres in their reading and research materials, and to explore cross-textual examinations of literary works. Assigned readings will include non-fiction prose essays, poetry, short stories, a short novel, a play, and a long novel. At the outset of the semester, the instructor will provide a course syllabus, a complete list of the required readings, and an outline of the proposed weekly schedules for the readings and the written assignments.
- Teacher: Sara Dunton