RockhuRst univeRsity 2012–2014 catalog

The Bear, Spotted Horses, Old Man, As I Lay Dyingand Absalom, Absalom. Prerequisite:EN 1110/1120, or EN 1140, or EN 1150. (LTII)EN 4640. Americans in Paris (3)In this course students examine poetry and fictionof American writers who found community andartistic inspiration in the City of Light during theearly decades of the 20th century, especially in theentourage of Gertrude Stein. She labeled them “ALost Generation.” While such writers as T.S. Eliot,F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John DosPassos, may have felt alienated and dispossessed,they gave American Literature its modern vision.Prerequisite: EN 1110/1120, or EN 1140, orEN 1150. (LTII)EN 4810. Mythology: Literature and Criticism (3)The course begins with a survey of Greek andRoman mythology and considers its influence onliterature along with definitions of mythology.Selected authors are read to familiarize studentswith the use of myth in literary works. Selectedmyths from west to east are examined accordingto modern classifications of mythic themes. Prerequisite:EN 1110/1120, or EN 1140, or EN 1150.(LTII)EN 4820. Literary Theory: Text and Context (3)An intensive upper-division seminar that focuseson techniques derived from historical as well asmid- and late-20th century literary criticism toexamine literary texts and the role that literarytheory has played in our understanding of theconcept of literature, per se. Applying a variety oftheory-based methodologies to selected poems,short stories, and novels, the course introduces thestudent to both the literature and the theoreticalconstructs that have helped form what has becomethe modern institutions of literary culture. Theimpact of such approaches as diverse as traditional,authorial intensions; text-centered analyses; andthe more intense, linguistic focus of recent historywill be combined with applied textual analysistechniques that reveal different, yet not altogetheropposing, insights into a representative sample oftexts as diverse as Andrew Marvel’s “To His CoyMistress,” William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, NathanielHawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” andAlice Walker’s “Everyday Use”, to name a few.Prerequisite: EN 1110/1120, or EN 1140, or EN1150; and junior standing or above. (LTII)EN 4830. Honors Classic to Romantic (3)While comparing views of Neoclassical andRomantic British literature, e.g., regarding humannature, social and political change, truth, imagination,objectivity and subjectivity, the course focuseson major writers of the respective periods: poetslike Dryden and Keats; novelists like Defoe andthe Brontës; dramatists like Sheridan and Shelley;literary theorists like Dryden, Pope, Johnson,Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats. Inaddition, the course takes up issues and events(e.g., the Bloodless Revolution and the FrenchRevolution) which comprise the intellectual contextsof both periods. Prerequisite: EN 1110/1120,or EN 1140, or EN 1150, and honors status orinstructor approval. (LTII)EN 4845. Short Fiction and Metaphor:19th Century America (3)This is an intensive upper-division seminar thatfocuses on metaphor in the short, fictional proseworks (as opposed to the poetry) of American writersduring the nineteenth century. Highlightingfoundation texts that have contributed significantlyto the development of this uniquely Americanprose form, this course will explore a wide range ofwriters that were attempting to broaden the conceptof literature, per se, during this time period.The purpose here is to apply metaphorical theoryand methodologies, from Aristotle to the present,to the fiction of authors such as WashingtonIrving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville.Prerequisite: EN 1110/1120, or EN 1140, orEN 1150 (LTII).EN 4850. Modern Drama (3)This course introduces the student to many of themajor works in the modern theatre, starting withHenrik Ibsen and ending with David Mamet.Response papers approach the problems of casting,directing, or interpreting a play based on thestudent’s knowledge of the author’s intent. Longerpapers explore in more depth with the use ofsecondary sources some problem in one or moreplays that is a theme of twentieth-century drama.Prerequisite: EN 1110/1120, or EN 1140, or EN1150. (LTII)EN 4855. Colonialism and Literature (3)An inquiry into the relationships between Britishliterature and the empire from the 16th tothe 20th centuries, the course will explore worksby writers such as Shakespeare, Swift, Dickens,Kipling, Conrad, Forster, Joyce, and Woolf. Prerequisite:EN 1110/1120, or EN 1140, EN 1150,or equivalent. (LTII)EN 4860. Postcolonialism and Literature (3)Exploring a variety of themes (identity, tradition,change, and cultural values, for example) in the literatureof colonized nations such as Ireland, India,and Nigeria, the course focuses on the global phenomenonof postcolonialism in the works of major20th century writers such as James Joyce, ChinuaAchebe, Salman Rushdie, Wole Soyinka, and AnitaDesai. Prerequisite: EN 1110/1120, or EN 1140,or EN 1150. (LTII, GPR)EN 4880. Poetry of Ecstasy (3)Since Sapho, Lyric poetry by definition celebratesthe emotions. Certain poets intensify the languageand passions of this already avid genre tothe level of ecstacy. This course will examine indetail the works of several modern poets with aview to understanding the techniques they used124