ENGL 292 - Topics in British Literature

FDR: HL
Credits: 3 in fall or winter, 4 in spring

Spring 2016, ENGL 292-01: Topics in British Literature: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Epic Fantasies from German Philology to Hollywood CGI (4). Tolkien’s epic novels and historical fantasies along with Peter Jackson’s spectacular films have made these texts and, more importantly, the narrative they tell among the most significant cultural events of the 20th and now the 21st centuries. This course focuses upon the original novels and films and frames that dual achievement by looking back to Tolkien’s roots in 19th-century romance fiction and historical philology and ahead to the role played by Jackson’s adaptations in the development of contemporary CGI films and technology. It highlights Tolkien’s achievement in its own terms, in how his fictions transformed major 19th-century historical, scholarly, and romance traditions, and in how it enabled key 21st century cultural, artistic, and technological achievements. (HL) Adams.

Spring 2016, ENGL 292-02: Topics in British Literature: Queered Science (4). We often assume that the sciences are, or should be, objective. In this course, however, we explore how scientific inquiry has always been vibrantly erotic through critical investigations of the science of sexuality and the sexuality of science. Taking an interdisciplinary and historically broad approach, we explore how notions of sex/gender, sexuality, and race have unfolded through scientific frameworks, and examine how queer ideas have transformed such epistemologies in turn. For example, we examine anachronistic and cutting-edge studies of gender and sexuality, discuss how posthuman politics speak to extant queer life forms, and chart how technological innovations have enabled LGBTQ philosophers to imagine decidedly queerer worlds. Course texts may include novels, artifacts, films, and nonfiction science writing. (HL) Alexander.

Fall 2015, ENGL 292-01: Topics in British Literature: Modern British Poetry (3). This course covers poetry from 1870 through the twenty-first century, asking how British poets have pushed the limits of traditional verse. British poets are known for being less innovative than their American and Continental peers. We sample poems by Walt Whitman and William Carlos Williams before asking: what did “experimentation” mean to Gerard Manley Hopkins and Thomas Hardy? And how did Yeats experiment with history in his poems, as opposed to Ezra Pound? We also see how female poets, such as Edith Sitwell and Stevie Smith, developed highly original voices, and we end by sampling the works of more recent poets, including an influx of immigrant writers. (HL) Brodie. Planned Offering: Fall, Winter