Deborah Laycock

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 annually in multiple sections.

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 annually in multiple sections.

Early 18th-Century Literature

ENGL 240

We will begin this course by spending several weeks on Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (examining in passing another work of the 18th century inspired by "Gulliver's Travels", "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"). Satire is one of the predominant forms of the 18th century and finds its grotesque complement in the graphic arts. We will study various examples of visual satire — notably the "progress" narratives of William Hogarth. We will examine the emergence of the novel in this period, focusing on its multi-generic character. We will explore the overlapping of categories — history and fiction, travel and novel, news and novels, philosophy and fiction — in works such as Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's epistolary account of her travels to Turkey, Eliza Haywood's spy/masquerade novel "Fantomina", and Susanna Centlivre's play about metamorphosis, "A Bold Stroke for a Wife". Periodical literature first appears in the long 18th century. We will explore the phenomenon of spectatorship in this period in relation to the institution of the masquerade, the science and philosophy of empiricism, and the rise of the penitentiary and systems of surveillance. This counts toward the 1700–1900 requirement. Open only to first-year and sophomore students who have taken ENGL 103 or 104. Offered annually.

The Restoration on Stage and Screen

ENGL 339

This course focuses on the plays of a period (roughly 1660–1720) deemed to be one of the most licentious in history, both morally and politically. We shall examine the ways in which contemporary playwrights and film directors explore and critique not only Restoration society but also modern society through the lens of Restoration plays. Peter Greenaway's "Draughtsman's Contract" (1982), set in 1694, is a brilliant reconstruction of the Restoration's preoccupation with sex and property but it also is a film that reflects on the art of filmmaking, thus taking us into the modern world through the perspective of the 17th-century artist and forcing us to confront the ways in which we see the past. The Restoration period was an important moment of transition in theater history: women (as actors) were introduced to the stage (displacing boys playing women's roles), and female playwrights had a new and influential voice. We will examine the rise of the actress in the Restoration and also in modern plays that attempt to recreate the sexual dynamics of this cultural shift. This counts toward the pre-1700 or the 1700–1900 requirement. Prerequisite: junior or senior standing or ENGL 210– 291 or permission of instructor.

Travel and Tourism in 18th-century British Literature

ENGL 341

In this course, we will concentrate on the literature and discourse of travel in the later 18th century. This is the period of the "grand tour," the rise of tourism and the tourist industry, and the increasing preoccupation of writers with the issue of cultural identity — are human beings everywhere ("from China to Peru") the same, or are there important essential or cultural differences between them? Is there such a thing as national identity and, if so, what attempts can be made to preserve or construct that national identity? What are the relationships of so-called civilized cultures to "primitive" or undeveloped ones? Many travelers in the 18th century embarked on the grand tour to Italy, to examine the origins of a culture the English sought to reconstruct in self-consciously "neoclassical" forms, but travelers also ventured north —to Scandinavia, to the polar regions, to the Celtic fringes of Britain — hoping to find and observe people existing in a state of nature. We will examine how various writers use travel as a "vehicle" to explore such larger issues as the history of human society and notions of progress. We also will study issues of perception — how travelers regarded and transformed what they viewed. In addition to reading 18th-century tour guides, we will study representations of the sublime and picturesque in landscape painting, landscape gardening, and theater design. We also will examine the horror of travel in the 18th century by examining narratives of the slave trade. This counts toward the 1700–1900 requirement. Prerequisite: junior or senior standing or ENGL 210– 291 or permission of instructor.

Canadian Literature and Culture

ENGL 369

In this course we will examine works of modern authors from English- and French-speaking (in translation) Canada, as well as works by native Canadian writers, some who choose to write in either of the two "official" languages. We will consider issues of national identity both within an officially bilingual, multicultural Canada, and within a North American context — Canadians defining themselves in relation to a powerful neighbor to the south. We will thus begin by focusing on Canadian writers, filmmakers and musicians as they characterize that border or "medicine line" along which so many Canadians choose to live, against which so much of Canadian identity is defined, and over which they constantly trespass. In the process, we also will examine the many ways in which Canadians characterize the United States and Americans. We will concentrate on writers (Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Alice Munro, Gabrielle Roy, Leonard Cohen) who have very self-consciously, and from very different perspectives, contributed to the task of defining what constitutes Canadian culture, the Canadian multicultural "mosaic." Some of Canada's most renowned poets also are musicians. We also will hear from them. And, as some of Canada's strongest representations of cultural difference have appeared in the form of films sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada and Telefilm Canada, we will view and study some of these in relation to the literary works we will be reading. This counts toward the post-1900 requirement. Prerequisite: junior or senior standing; or ENGL 210–291; or permission of instructor.

Senior Seminar in Literature

ENGL 410

Offered in several sections, 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 creative writing 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.

Atwood and Ondaatje

ENGL 469

In this course we will examine the works of two of the most internationally recognized Canadian writers: Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje. Both have won the prestigious Booker Prize. Both have had their works translated into a variety of media (film, drama, opera). Their works have come to be emblematic of the Canadian postmodern, and both authors have worked at defining Canadian identity — its mosaic assemblage of subject positions, from colonial to postcolonial. We will read a wide selection of their writings, which engage issues of postmodernism, postcolonialism, the Canadian long poem, the documentary collage and the relationship between history and fiction and between literature and film. This counts toward the post-1900 requirement. Permission of instructor required.

ST: The Gothic Novel

ENGL 491

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 1–2 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 registrar’s deadline.

Senior Honors

ENGL 498

See description for ENGL 497. Undertaken in the spring semester; students register with the Senior Honors form.