Sweet Briar College

Sweet Briar CollegePrerequisite: First-year students with permission.Topic will vary by semester. Close reading,various interpretive strategies, and research skillswill be stressed. V.2.Prerequisite: First-year students with permission.How does poetry help people to live theirlives and, in Adrienne Rich’s phrase, to ask theworld’s questions? In particular, how do womenpoets engage the past, challenge received ideas,and shape live traditions for future generations?We will consider many kinds and styles of poemsin their inner workings and cultural contexts aswe explore these and related questions. III.W,V.2, V.5.Prerequisite: Sophomore standing, 3.0 GPA,and permission of the instructor. The courseis a practicum designed to introduce studentsto the theory and practice of peer tutoring inwriting across the disciplines. Students will studycomposition theory and pedagogy and developskills in responding to student writing throughcourse readings, writing assignments, and peertutoring. Theories will be tested through observationand practice.See description listed under “CourseDescriptions–Creative Writing.” Counts as a200-level workshop in creative writing.Prerequisite: First-year students with permission.A study of selected comedies, histories,tragedies, and romances by WilliamShakespeare with attention to the plays’ culturaland literary context. Topics will vary bysemester. Topic for Spring 2011: “The Womenof Shakespeare.” While Shakespeare probablynever worked with female actors, he wrotesome of the best female roles in the history oftheater. This semester, our focus will be playsthat feature these powerful, complex, andcompelling representations of women. May becounted as an elective course toward the minor ingender studies. V.1, V.2.Prerequisite: First-year students with permission.An introductory study of the vocabulary,grammar, and syntax of the Anglo-Saxon language.Because Old English is the linguisticancestor of Modern English, students will learnsome of the foundations of the language theyspeak as they begin translating prose and poetictexts from the 9th-11th centuries. Students willalso consider elements of the Anglo-Saxon cultureand poetics as they translate such poemsas “The Dream of the Rood,” “Judith,” “TheSeafarer,” and portions of “Beowulf.” V.2.Why are film stars so fascinating to us and whatare the pleasures we get from them? In thiscourse we will study the Hollywood star systemand the relationship between performance andstardom. We will examine issues such as the staras commodity, the star as text, and the star asan object of desire. Films to be considered are:“The Godfather,” “Gone with the Wind,” “TheWizard of Oz,” and “Some Like it Hot.” V.6a.Prerequisite: First-year students with permission.We will read banned books from a range ofhistorical periods and will work to understandsociety’s ethical ambivalence towards these texts.We will investigate whether literature’s treatmentof topics like religion, violence, race, andsexuality is dangerous or even harmful, ask howsociety should react to potentially disruptive literature,and work to determine the social valueof these works. III.O, V.2, V.7.Prerequisite: First-year students with permission.This course introduces students to theextraordinary vitality of the contemporary Irishand Scottish literary scenes. We will focus oncompeting visions of Ireland and Scotland andwhat it means to be “Irish” or “Scottish” today,the growing dialogue between the two cultures,and the role of literature in responding to, andat times promoting, social and political change.