ENGL 294 - Topics in World Literature in English

Credits: (3 credits in fall and winter, 3-4 credits in spring) Prerequisite: Completion of the FW requirement. World literature, taught in English, supported by attention to historical and cultural contexts. Versions of this course may survey several periods or concentrate on a group of works from a short span of time or focus on a cultural phenomenon. Students develop their analytical writing skills through both short papers and a final multisource research paper. May be repeated for degree credit and for the major if the topics are different.

Winter 2021, ENGL 294A-01: Topics in World Literature in English: Jane in the Modern World (3). Prerequisite: Completion of the FDR FW writing requirement. Jane Austen’s work has captivated audiences for 200 years, and an enthusiastic fan culture has sprung up around Dear Jane herself. But what does it mean to read these novels, set among the country houses of the English gentry, in the 21st century? Do her novels represent nostalgia for a romanticized past? Is Austen’s biting satire specific to her time? Or does her sharp observation, especially of gender and class, still resonate today? Looking at Austen’s novels alongside recent adaptations of her work, we will consider how and whether Austen speaks to the experience of 21st-century audiences, not only in the USA and Britain but across the world. (HL) Walle.

Fall 2020, ENGL 294A-01: Topics in World Literature in English: Art and Literature: Speaking Images and Painting Words (3). Prerequisite: Completion of the FDR FW writing requirement. How would some artworks sound if they were poems? What would some poems look like if they were art works? How do writers and artists use and portray rhythm, emotion, pattern, contrast, or balance? Through different historical periods and cultural traditions, we explore the contexts, inspirations, processes, and techniques that inform and connect both aesthetic forms. From Homer’s shield of Achilles to Ann Carson through Keats, Browning, Auden, Ann Sexton, or Sylvia Plath, we discover how visual and textual components mix, compliment, amplify, disrupt, expand, or converse with one another. Moving between the disciplines of semiotics, visual studies, psychology, rhetoric, and literary criticism, we analyze the creative powers that meet at the crossroads of poetry and visual art. (HL) Ruiz. FDR: HL