This courses will be an in-depth exploration of one author. Such a study allows readers to appreciate the unique excellence of a particular author and to illuminate historical context through an exceptionally astute observer. At stake is not only knowledge of the writer, but also an understanding of how a narrow focus can facilitate a broad understanding of history and culture.
This course will focus on the literary presentations of the Nazi Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews, Roma, homosexuals, and others. The literature and films studied will help to understand how genocide altered the historical and cultural landscape of the Western world and how these traumatic events challenged then and now the expressive capabilities of language and images. In this course, the student will analyze and write about texts drawn from a range of genres, including survivor memoirs, fictional narratives, poetry, drama, essays, and film. The approach to the texts will be interdisciplinary. Besides examining their literary and cinematic qualities, we will take into consideration the specific social, political, and philosophical contexts that shaped them. Finally, the course will examine the question of how the Holocaust might challenge our faith, rationality, and received ideas about the characters and virtues of Western culture.
Many readers underestimate the complexity, impact, and importance of children's literature. But the narratives one learns as a child have more effect than any others: they echo for a lifetime. In this course, we will explore books written for children and young adults, from wordless picture books to complex speculative fiction. To reflect the vibrancy of the field of children's literature-as well as the diversity of students that the Education majors will soon teach-we will focus on literature that is multicultural, multilingual, and diverse in myriad ways. The course has five units, each focused on a fundamental aspect of children's literature: adventure, coming of age (bildung), community/friendship, play/imagination, and fantasy/science-fiction. Within each unit, we will read one exemplary novel as a class, and the rest of the texts will be presented by students. Students will have considerable agency in their assignments: each student chooses a 'track' (education, literary critical, or creative writing), and each unit has multiple options for the assignment. Past sections of the course have studied Angie Thomas, Jacqueline Woodson, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Leigh Bardugo, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jessica Love, Vashti Harrison, Grace Lin, Kwame Alexander, Benjamin Sáenz, Matt de la Peña, Soman Chainani, Tomi Adeyemi, JK Rowling, Lewis Carroll, Mo Willems, Jon Klassen, etc.
This course explores the unfolding relationship between literature and film by examining the specific ways in which literary texts have been translated into cinematic texts. The genres examined are selected from: the short story; verse; the novel; the novella; and drama. Attention is focused on the three essential models of cinematic conversion: literal translation; traditional adaptation; and radical transformation. Primary literature is read and analyzed, followed by the viewing and analysis of the film. Some reading of film criticism and theory is included.
This course studies representative writers from the British literary tradition. Rather than a traditional survey of over a millennium of literature, this course selects representative cultural concerns to explore through exemplary, mostly canonical, texts. These writers may include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Behn, Swift, Pope, Wollstonecraft, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Browning, Dickens, Joyce, Lawrence, Foster, Lessing, Mansfield and Woolf.
In this course, students will study fairy tales from across the globe through a variety of critical lenses. This course will focus on the narrative structure of fairy tales and the ways that they deliver powerful messages about cultural values and morals. In looking at the different imaginings of fairy tales from different countries, students will gain an understanding about the impact of fairy tales on cultural identity and the ways this shifts over time. Students will also study retellings and adaptations to evaluate the impact and cultural influences of fairy tales temporally and globally.
In this course, students will study fairy tales from across the globe through a variety of critical lenses. This course will focus on the narrative structure of fairy tales and the ways that they deliver powerful messages about cultural values and morals. In looking at the different imaginings of fairy tales from different countries, students will gain an understanding about the impact of fairy tales on cultural identity and the ways this shifts over time. Students will also study retellings and adaptations to evaluate the impact and cultural influences of fairy tales temporally and globally.