ENGL 413 - Senior Research and Writing

Credits: 3

Prerequisites: Six credits in English at the 300 level, senior major standing, and instructor consent. Enrollment limited to six. A collaborative group research and writing project for senior majors, conducted in supervising faculty members’ areas of expertise, with directed independent study culminating in a substantial final project. Possible topics include ecocriticism, literature and psychology, material conditions of authorship, and documentary poetics.

Winter 2016, ENGL 413-01: Pulitzer Prize Winning Fiction (3). A study of the history of the Pulitzer Prize and recent winners and finalists in the fiction category. What do recent Pulitzer winners reveal about contemporary trends in fiction? How did the winner in any particular year compare to the other finalists? Why was no award given in 2013? Readings include Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, Diaz’s Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Harding’s Tinkers, possibly Tartt’s Goldfinch, and various other winners and nominees. (HL) Brodie.

Winter 2016, ENGL 413-02: Shakespearean Women (3). Arguably, Shakespeare’s plays raise–more than any other theme–the problem of gender and the relationships between men and women. During the first eight weeks of the term, we focus on four categories of Shakespearean women: daughters, girlfriends, wives, and mothers. These groupings are not mutually exclusive; many plays trace the transition of a character from one category to another. We have a wide range of plays to choose from, including many that are less frequently studied. For daughters: The Tempest, Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear. For girlfriends (for want of a better term): As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Troilus and Cressida. For wives: The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth. For mothers: Hamlet, Coriolanus, and the problem of missing mothers virtually everywhere else! Among the topics we consider are male jealousy and possessiveness, sexualized women, and cross-dressing. To the plays themselves, we add three other dimensions: first, cultural and historical material about the family, marriage, and women’s roles in Elizabeth and Jacobean England; second, theoretical approaches from gender studies and feminist criticism; and third, fascinating women characters from the plays of some of Shakespeare’s fellow playwrights (such as Marlowe, Jonson, and Webster). Students have a wide range of texts from which to choose for their capstone project. (HL) Dobin.

Fall 2015, ENGL 413-01: Senior Research and Writing: Disobedient Texts: Hybrid, Impure, & Bent Genres (3). Hybrid texts combine, transform, and subvert the conventions of narrative sub-genres, breaking down the boundaries between fiction, poetry, memoir, and drama. Many hybrid texts also import/re-vision/transform non-literary discourses from traditional archival resources; within these hybrid texts, word and image combine to create a text that is neither purely written, nor purely visual. This course explores alternative possibilities for literature to express and even bring about change in the worlds they describe. Possible authors include Silko, Miranda, Carson, Howe, Sikelianos, Griffin, Phillips, Wright, Sebald, Yamashita, Danielewski. (HL) Miranda.

Planned Offering: Fall, Winter