Literature Pre-1850 Spring 2027
ENGL 302: Topics in British Literature Since 1800: Monstrous Expectations
Instructor: Mark Luce
64980 | Th 7:00-10:00 PM | Regnier 154 - EDWARDS
The sun never set on the British Empire… until it did. Their imperial network of crown colonies, protectorates, chartered company territories, princely states and mandates was stitched together with a string of military might, mercantilism, economic coercion, resource extraction, and a healthy dose of arrogance. The Empire cultivated an aura of permanence, but their self-aggrandizing expectations soon led to monstrous results. But for all that English self-regard, we see an undercurrent of crime, cultural fears, colonial oppression, as well as literal and figurative monsters. In this course we will travel from Frankenstein to Bridget Jones as we examine how various class, cultural, individual, and imperial expectations shaped British literature in the last two centuries. Students will read short stories, novels, non-fiction and even newspaper serials as we explore what happens when the most powerful nation on earth loses that distinction.
ENGL 332: Shakespeare
Instructor: Jonathan Lamb
64664 | MW 2:00-3:15 PM | Wescoe 4020
In this course, we will read plays across Shakespeare’s career, including The Merchant of Venice, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, Othello, and The Winter’s Tale. We will study these texts for their formal complexity, for their engagement with ideas in their historical moments and across time, for a sense of Shakespeare’s development as a dramatist and poet, and for an understanding of how such questions work with respect to performance and print publication. The ultimate goal will be to investigate how Shakespeare’s powerful imaginative worlds were created and made public. Our approaches will be as diverse as the works themselves, covering the whole spectrum of critical methodologies and engaging in all kinds of approaches to learning. Preparation, attendance, and participation are absolutely necessary. Written work will include several papers, two exams, and creative projects.
ENGL 520: History of the Book
Instructor: Jonathan Lamb
64668 | MW 3:30-4:45 PM | Spencer Research Library 350
What is, and was, the book? This course explores the history of the book in the West from the invention of the alphabet to the advent of the electronic book, with a particular emphasis on the printed book. We will investigate how changing material, technological, and social forces have shaped the production, circulation, and consumption of books. The class will meet at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, where students will gain hands-on experience with books, ranging from medieval manuscripts to early printed books to nineteenth-century triple-decker novels to twentieth-century fine press titles. We may even smell the books. At a time when the concept of the book is changing, we will explore issues that producers and consumers of books have long confronted, such as the interplay of text and image, access and censorship, innovation and form, and aesthetics and economics. Course readings will include articles and essays on the history of authorship, book production, publication, distribution, and readership. Course requirements will include readings, various hands-on projects, three short, formal papers, and a final project.
ENGL 590: Studies in: The Body and the Novel
Instructor: Colleen Morrissey
65006 | MW 2:00-3:15 PM | Wescoe 4021
This course explores the link between the body and the Anglo-American novel as a narrative form. Drawing upon narrative theory and history, we will investigate how sensation, (dis)ability, pain, desire, and the embodied experience as a whole are both reflected in and constructed by the novel as a powerful cultural force. Beginning with the English-language novel’s early days in the seventeenth century, we will trace the body’s literary permutations up to the twenty-first century through representative works by the likes of Aphra Behn, Bram Stoker, Toni Morrison, and Ottessa Moshfegh. In doing so, we will examine how Anglo-American culture makes moral, spiritual, and societal meaning out of life in a body. Coursework will emphasize discussion and researched analytical writing.
