平特五不中

Description:听This course examines some of the major developments in American literature of the nineteenth century鈥攁n era of rapid and sweeping social, economic, political, technological, and cultural changes, and an era during which the definitions of both 鈥淎merican鈥� and 鈥渓iterature鈥� have been hotly contested.

In particular, this course will examine representative works over the past two centuries that address issues of importance to the African American literary and social landscape. We will pay particular attention to a number of essential questions: How is alienation depicted and what are its effects? What are the ways in which historical consciousness is defined and redefined? How does the literature engage (or fail to engage) the realities of a multiracial, multicultural society? In what ways have race, class, and gender functioned as explanatory (and complicating) discourses for African American culture? What are the pressures involved in self-definition and what is the relationship between the individual and the collective?

This course is intended to offer students an opportunity to focus on African American literature and culture as a particular, individual area of study within the broader framework of American literature. We will explore the interplay of social, cultural, political, and historical influences specific to an African American literary tradition firmly rooted in the nineteenth century. Class readings, writings, and discussions will seek to identify and explore themes and strategies employed by African American writers that, paradoxically perhaps, seem simultaneously to embrace and expand the boundaries of that tradition. The class will explore large questions concerning the social and cultural roots of the aesthetic choices made by writers, the 鈥渉ero,鈥� of the African American novel, the writer鈥檚 relation to the text, and the influence of African American experiences on the composition and narrative intentions of the texts.

Texts (subject to revision):听

• Ralph Waldo Emerson, 鈥淪elf-Reliance鈥�
• Herman Melville, Benito Cereno
• Herman Melville, Billy Budd
• Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Charles Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition
• Nella Larsen, Passing
• Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
• Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

Evaluation:听Unannounced quizzes throughout the semester (10%), oral presentation (20%), midterm essay (30%) and final essay (40%).

Format:听Lecture and discussion

Description:听While the slave narrative has been a central genre of American literature since the nineteenth century, over the last fifty years, a wave of novelists, artists, and filmmakers have repeatedly revived and reimagined the form. This course will explore how the 鈥渘eo-slave narrative,鈥� or 鈥渕eta-slave narrative,鈥� has evolved from the 1970s to the present, tracking the ways in which these portraits of nineteenth-century America illuminate the racial politics of America today. After investigating the roots of the slave narrative as a form, we鈥檒l study its postmodern reincarnations in the irreverent, anachronism-filled, and genre-fied novels of Ishmael Reed and Octavia Butler. Next we鈥檒l examine the genre as it develops a new鈥攁nd newly sincere鈥攁esthetic, looking closely at the work of Toni Morrison alongside the political and literary history of the Reagan era. Juxtaposing Colson Whitehead鈥檚 genre-bending The Underground Railroad with Yaa Gyasi鈥檚 multi-generational saga, Homegoing, we鈥檒l attempt to pin down where the genre stands at present. In the final weeks of the course, we will focus on contemporary narratives of slavery in art and film, from Kara Walker鈥檚 startling silhouette installations to Jordan Peele鈥檚 Get Out. In all, students in this course will develop a deep knowledge of one of contemporary American literature鈥檚 most central genres, as well as an understanding of the fundamentals of genre itself.

罢别虫迟蝉:听

• Frederick Douglass, Excerpts from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
• Harriet Jacobs, Excerpts from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
• Ishmael Reed, Flight to Canada (1976) [Scribner]
• Octavia Butler, Kindred (1979) [Beacon Press]
• Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987) [Vintage International]
• Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad (2016) [Anchor Books]
• Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing (2016) [Vintage]
• Kara Walker, selected works
• Glenn Ligon, selected works
• Jordan Peele, Get Out (2017)

Evaluation (tentative):听Participation (10%); two essays (30% each); final research paper (30%).

Format:听厂别尘颈苍补谤

Prerequisite: No formal prerequisite. Because substantial attention will be paid to poetic and fictional form and style, however, this advanced course鈥檚 interests and discussions will be directed chiefly to English majors who have completed their required Poetics course. The professor鈥檚 training, approaches, and tastes are literary and will necessarily guide discussions, but the expertise of students in other disciplines will be needed as we also work to understand the literary Cohen as a cultural, historical, and musical phenomenon. This course is not open to U1 students. Students not in an English Major, Honours or Joint Honours program should consult the instructor at the email address above for permission to register.

All students wishing to take this course must attend the first class, even if they have not yet been able to register.

Description:听

Leonard Cohen鈥檚 death, announced to the public one day before the election of Donald Trump to the United States Presidency, and following closely on his acclaimed last album You Want It Darker, not to mention his published letter to former lover Marianne Ihlen after her death, which casually predicted the nearness of his own, struck many fans as the final act of consummate grace in a career full of exceptional showmanship and exceptional pursuits of authenticity. Many felt that an essential presence had gone from their lives upon hearing the news. While such emotions are not the stuff of criticism, they might well prompt it; and they are particularly compelling because they imply in each audience member, and in his audience as a whole, a certain reading of Cohen and his works that can be studied, discussed, and written about. If for instance you accepted without qualms my paralleling of the superficially opposite terms 鈥渟howmanship鈥� and 鈥渁uthenticity鈥� above, you鈥檙e probably a Cohen fan, actual or potential. That鈥檚 a reading of Cohen on your part, one that we will find to be consonant with deep themes and concerns in his complete works.

In this course we will read and listen to as many of the works of Leonard Cohen as time permits, with an emphasis on the period up to and including The Future (1992) but also reaching for his last album, You Want It Darker (2016). From seductive song lyrics to the most scandalously hilarious novel, brutal poems, and moving prayers yet published in Canada, Cohen鈥檚 work demands and rewards scrupulous reading, and the bulk of course time will be given to our discussion of its developing vision and technique. This close reading work will help us to separate Cohen as a writer from the 鈥淟eonard Cohen鈥� cultural phenomenon, an important critical task. At the same time, we will hope to chart some of the history of that phenomenon, from its emergence after 1961鈥檚 Spice Box of Earth, his attainment of international celebrity after he turned to performance and recording in 1967, its severe waning through the 1970s and early 1980s, its resurgence and reformation after I鈥檓 Your Man in 1988, and its global expansion after the tours of 2008. We will try to get at the phenomenon鈥檚 premises and machinery by looking at reviews, interviews, and documentaries, and we will read the biographies (Nadel or Simmons) for a glimpse of Cohen鈥檚 experience and manipulation of it. Lecture and discussion will attempt to situate the periods of Cohen鈥檚 work and of his fame in relation to relevant cultural contexts: Beat writing; the poetry of A.M. Klein, Irving Layton, and Michael Ondaatje; the Cold War; cultural representations of the Holocaust; the 1960s and their meanings and outcomes; modernism and post-modernism; the crisis of faith in modernity; neo-conservatism in the 1980s; celebrity and fandom. The professor is certainly not expert in all these areas, so students鈥� ideas, knowledge, and experience will be essential to the course鈥檚 success.

One trigger alert: there will be no further trigger alerts in this course. Cohen鈥檚 writing is often scandalous, sometimes deliberately so, sometimes unthinkingly. Images of violence and death, sometimes misogynistic, sometimes in a Holocaust context, are constant in the earlier works, and they can be treated by the author and his personae with an unremitting indifference, even hilarity. Students who 鈥渓ove Leonard Cohen鈥� when they enter the course are often shocked to find some of his works ethically disturbing. I am deeply interested in ethical questions and literary experience and always encourage their consideration in my classroom. I am aware that some students may have suffered trauma akin to those depicted by Cohen and will find such readings profoundly troubling. I do my best to respect their experience as readers, but I will not do so by trying to deflect in advance a given work鈥檚 content or the ethics of its treatment.

罢别虫迟蝉:听

• Cohen, Leonard. Beautiful Losers. 1966. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1991.
• ---. The Favourite Game. 1964. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1994.
• ---. Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1994.

鈥�Evaluation:听(subject to change: these were the requirements in 2018):

• A short report on a field of cultural history relevant to Cohen鈥檚 career, to be distributed to your classmates, 3 pp. + 2 pp. bibliography. 20%;
• An assignment on the production of Cohen鈥檚 celebrity in various media, 5 pp. 20%;
• A major research paper (12-15 pp.). 50%;
• Par颅tic颅ipa颅t颅ion in discussions. 10%. If you have not taken a course with Professor Trehearne before, please note the following: perfect attendance is expected, and absences will be noted, but this part of your mark assesses active, useful participation in discussion and not attendance. Full attendance through the semester without speaking will earn 0/10. Do not take this class if you are not a comfortable participant in class discussions.

Format:听鈥婰ecture and discussion.听

Description:听This course will introduce students to a range of prominent contemporary Canadian short story writers. It focuses on a group of six authors whose work is diverse, entertaining, weird, and challenging. In examining this short fiction, students will also be introduced to a variety of reading methods and interpretive strategies. At the same time, the stories will prompt discussion about the nature of contemporary fiction, the representation of social and urban landscapes, and shifting ideas about gender, sexuality, race, and ideology. The six authors to be covered include Margaret Atwood, Austin Clarke, Rohinton Mistry, Lisa Moore, Alice Munro, and Heather O鈥橬eill. There will be no exams or lengthy essays; instead, students should be prepared to write a series of online journal entries and two short essays.

罢别虫迟蝉:听A course-pack will be available prior to the start of the course.

Evaluation: Tentative: participation (10%); attendance (10%); two short essays (40%); online journal entries (40%).

Format:听厂别尘颈苍补谤

Average Enrolment: 25 students maximum

Preparation: Students should have taken at least one 200-level and one 300-level course in English; and ideally, will have previous work in poetry.

Description:听Until the 1980s, the canon associated with modern anglophone poetry, established by mid-twentieth-century critical work, was often assumed to consist of the work of major figures such as W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams. This mid-century consensus鈥攏ow problematized but still influential鈥攍argely overlooked many women who had contributed vitally to the development of modern poetry. Yet between 1900 and 1960, many women engaged actively in the effort to revolutionize anglophone poetry: within early twentieth-century literary circles, their work was acclaimed, and they fulfilled pivotal cultural roles. This course focuses on the women that Bonnie Kime Scott has called the 鈥渇orgotten and silenced makers鈥� of modern poetry. We consider how women shaped the development of modern poetry not only as poets, but also as critics, patrons, publishers, and editors. We also engage how recent scholarship has sought to redress the historical record, return them to attention, and acknowledge their contributions.

We open with a range of examples of how women are figured in well-known modern poetry鈥攖o discern some of the roles for and assumptions about women inscribed in poetic work of this period. We then move to the work of poets such as H.D., Gertrude Stein, Amy Lowell, Mina Loy, Marianne Moore, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Stevie Smith, Muriel Rukeyser, Dorothy Livesay, P.K. Page, and Elizabeth Bishop. We also consider the work of women editors of avant-garde magazines, such as Harriet Monroe and Alice Corbin Henderson of Poetry, and Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap of The Little Review: these editors published the work of aspiring, experimental modern poetry when mainstream magazines were refusing it, often helping to launch the careers of many poets now considered dominant among the moderns.

In addition to reckoning closely with their poetry, often involving the many forms of 鈥渄ifficulty鈥� associated with modern poetry, we also engage from a literary-historical angle their contributions to the 鈥渕aking of modern poetry.鈥� We address, for example, H.D.鈥檚 crucial role in the formation of the poetic movement of 鈥淚magism,鈥� as well as her influential critical engagements with Ancient Greek literature; tensions between Amy Lowell and Ezra Pound over command of Imagism as a movement; Millay鈥檚 鈥渋t girl鈥� celebrity; Mina Loy鈥檚 vexed alliance with Italian Futurism and her 鈥淔eminist Manifesto鈥� of 1914; Marianne Moore鈥檚 editorship of The Dial; collaborative relationships between H.D. and Moore, and Moore and Bishop; and Gertrude Stein鈥檚 many connections with the visual arts. We also consider how these women poets engaged the feminisms of their time, often as mediated by the early twentieth-century concept of the 鈥淣ew Woman.鈥�

罢别虫迟蝉:听Readings include poetry by Elizabeth Bishop, H.D., Dorothy Livesay, Amy Lowell, Mina Loy, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marianne Moore, P.K. Page, Muriel Rukeyser, Gertrude Stein, and Stevie Smith; we will also consider work by E.E. Cummings T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and W.B. Yeats.

鈥�Evaluation听(subject to revision):听Brief critical analysis (5-6 pp., 20%);听brief essay (4-5 pp., 25%);听fictional autobiography (4 pp., 15%);听final essay (8 pp., 30%);听participation (10%).

Format:听Lecture听and discussion.

Prerequisite:听At least three prior courses in English literature.

Description:听The听1930s is often evoked for its turmoil: the rise of fascism, the Spanish Civil War, mass observation, mass organization, necessary commitment. This course will survey literature of the 1930s with a focus on novels by authors such as Henry Green, Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Christopher, Isherwood, Virginia Woolf. Some consideration will be given to documentary writing, as exemplified by George Orwell鈥檚 excursions into the form. Certain motifs recur in literature in the decade of the 1930s: dislocation, travel, trains, crowds, demonstrations, fellow-travellers, factories, radios, 鈥渢he common man,鈥� cosmetics, orphans, class affiliation, lost youth, hotels, redecoration, vacations, cinema, soporifics. Narratives of the period respond to social forces and attempt to influence the direction of politics through committed writing. Often those politics required foreign allegiances of alliances. Thus writers of the 1930s bring to bear an international perspective on domestic situations. Literature of this decade allows multiple points of access into political and social milieus, without foregoing analysis of how narratives construct answers to hypothetical questions.

Texts:

• Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies (Penguin)
• Elizabeth Bowen, To the North (Anchor)
• Virginia Woolf, The Waves (Oxford)
• Graham Greene, A Gun for Sale (Penguin)
• Christopher Isherwood, Mr Norris Changes Trains
• George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia (Penguin)
• Henry Green, Party Going (Harvill)

Evaluation: Participation, essays, final exam.

Format:听Lecture and discussion.

Average Enrolment: 30 students

Description:听The multi-billion-dollar self-transformation industry promises to create 鈥渁 new you鈥� and also to make you into the person you were always meant to be. That is straight out of Oprah Winfrey. If Oprah is the leading proponent of the modern ideal of self-transformation, then Shakespeare is the progenitor as well as a key critic of transformational modernity. In this course, we study how Shakespeare became the supreme artist of transformation, and we consider how transformation has become an ideal of modern life. We develop a taxonomy of transformation (e.g., metamorphosis, conversion, metanoia, translation, transversion, kenosis, revolution); we read a number of Western transformational artists and/or thinkers about transformation, including Plato, Paul, Ovid, Augustine, John Donne, and John Lyly; and we also read a selection of recent studies of the plays. From start to finish, our main focus is on six plays by Shakespeare.

罢别虫迟蝉:听(available at Paragraph Books)

• A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream, ed. Peter Holland (Oxford)
• Henry IV, Part One, ed. David Bevington (Oxford)
• Much Ado about Nothing, ed. Sheldon Zitner (Oxford)
• Twelfth Night, ed. Roger Warren and Stanley Wells (Oxford)
• Anthony and Cleopatra, ed. Michael Neill (Oxford)
• The Winter鈥檚 Tale, ed. Stephen Orgel (Oxford)
  Other readings will be provided in electronic form.

Evaluation:听

• Journal 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听35%
• Presentation 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听15%
• Participation 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听15%
• Final paper (12 pages) 35%

Journal:听Your journal is, first of all, for you to do some thinking by writing at each step of the course. But it is also something you do for marks, so you have to write at least a page (about 350 words) about each week鈥檚 readings (and our discussions of the readings). It certainly doesn鈥檛 have to be formal like an essay. After all, it mostly for you and about your thinking, questioning, arguing. But it鈥檚 also going to be read by me, so make it reader-friendly.

Presentation:听You will have five minutes鈥攜ou鈥檒l be on the clock鈥攖o present on the topic you sign up for. You are allowed one slide but no notes. This part of the course is based on the three-minute thesis program, where graduate students compete for prizes in recognition of the clarity, succinctness, value, and appeal of their research. We鈥檒l take the competition out of what we do, but leave in the emphasis on clear, succinct, and engaging accounts of valuable research. We鈥檒l do prep work in advance of the first set of presentations.

Course Paper:听If you want, you can develop your course paper from the work you will have done for your five-minute presentation. Or, if you prefer, you can choose one of the paper topics I will prepare. In either case, your work will need to take account of some of the most important research on the question or argument you鈥檙e developing. What you write does not have to be original work, in the sense that it does not have to be an idea or a view that no one has thought of before. But it does have to be work that you care about, have thought a good deal about, and are keen to share with others. So you could write about, say, Antony and Cleopatra as a rethinking of the sexuality of the self, which is not a new idea, but you could do that with new evidence, with thinking that takes previous work further than it was willing or able to go, and with a conclusion that might shift the perspective from which we see the relationship among theatrical art, sexuality and selfhood in Shakespeare鈥檚 time.

Participation:听Participation requires your presence in class, both body and mind. You have to come to each class with questions, ideas, puzzlement (which you have to speak about), expressions of joy or grief. It is true. It鈥檚 really true: there is no such thing as a stupid question.

Prerequisite: None

Description:听Spenser鈥檚 richly imaginative Faerie Queene is one of the single most widely influential texts in English literature, and constitutes a literary education in itself, since it critically surveys the resources of western culture鈥搃ncluding literature, mythology, iconography, philosophy, and theology--up to its point. Though replete with socio-political resonances, this romantic epic is nonetheless a central exemplar of literary fantasy, romance, and allegory. This course would especially complement study of early modern literature and culture, and particular writers of the period such as Shakespeare and Milton, but would also facilitate study of any literary periods in which Spenser strongly influenced writers, readers, and critics, as he did from around 1580 to 1900. Knowledge of The Faerie Queene thus provides a highly valuable basis for any literary studies within that broad expanse of time. Yet allusions to and borrowings from this poet quite widely appear in twentieth-century literature too. He is one of the great fantasists, and would appeal much to anyone interested in such writings and their development. His poetry is also important for the history of epic, for the history of the sublime in literature in the English language, and for the so-called 鈥渓ine of vision鈥� therein: writers who claim some powers of special insight, such as Milton, Blake, Yeats, Eliot, and Wallace Stevens.

Texts for this course will be available at the Word bookstore, 469 Milton Street, 514-845-5640 (cash only).

Texts:
The Faerie Queene, ed. A. C. Hamilton, 2nd Longmans edition, paperback
Course Reader
(All available at the Word bookstore, 469 Milton Street.)

Evaluation:听4 brief in-class quizzes of 10% each; term paper 50%; class attendance and participation 10%.

Format:听Lectures, discussion.

Description:听H.D. and Ezra Pound, now both read as major figures in early 20C modernist experimental work, also contributed much to the development of the culture supporting modernist literature during its emergence. Both were integral to the Imagist movement in poetry (1912-1917) now thought to have catalyzed much modernist work to follow. Pound became a lionized tastemaker of the 鈥淟ondon scene鈥� in avant-garde verse and served in editorial capacities at several major literary journals 鈥� and H.D. likewise served as editor for influential poetry journals such as The Egoist, helped to build the Poets鈥� Translation Series, and developed a distinctive image-based idiom, inflected by Ancient Greece, that inspired much new work. Their work offers rich sites for learning about a watershed period in Anglophone poetry, when poets were breaking beyond old conventions with paradigm-shifting force.

This course considers the mutually illuminative work of Pound and H.D. as strategy for shedding light on the major representative dimensions of modernist work of this period. Their work will be contextualized by a range of work from other writers 鈥� such as T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, James Joyce, and Marianne Moore. The pairing of H.D. and Pound grows in part out of their having known each other and worked together for many years 鈥� they were engaged in Pennsylvania: after diverging in the States, they again worked together as colleagues in London of the avant-guerre years during the Imagist moment. Starting with their early collections such as Sea Garden and Lustra, we trace the ways their oeuvres stand in rich dialogue, linked by a formative matrix, affinities of form, theme, and a deep 鈥渉istorical sense.鈥�

They also shared (and here is a major course theme) a commitment to thinking about innovation in the arts in tandem with cultural change: their work stands at the nexus of poetic experiment and thought about cultural transformation. H.D.鈥檚 verse addresses questions of coming of age, gender and sexuality, psychic development, and how to reimagine modes of relationship and intentional communities. Pound鈥檚 work, as he begins his major work The Cantos, pursues social critique with regard to imperialist discourse and economics and 鈥� in a topic shared with H.D. 鈥� addresses the problem of how to capture and comment upon the experiences of war 鈥揳nd think toward preventing war in future. This body of socially-oriented poetic thought from these poet-thinkers can help us think newly about later parallel questions and problematics, even those of today.

After 1925, Pound鈥檚 thought was gradually more influenced by the forcefield of Benito Mussolini in Italy: Pound thereafter moved into his period of radical economic thought, involving his notorious sympathy for fascist groups that was increasingly illegible and anathema to his colleagues. The strange development of Pound鈥檚 thought, emerging from an effort toward political engagement, exemplifies how many moderns of this time turned toward conservatism and even authoritarian models of government; we explore what Pound鈥檚 work exposes about what was thought of as a trahison des clercs, a phenomenon prevalent among writers of this generation. H.D., meanwhile, entered what she called her 鈥渓ost period,鈥� during which she worked with Freud and meditated retrospectively on the shattering experiences of WWI, considering how the self and culture scarred by war might move toward healing.

Yet by the 1940s and 1950s, both had emerged with the major achievements of their careers (and of the period)鈥揌.D. turned back to the question of resisting war with her major poem Trilogy, followed by Helen in Egypt which again considered this problem; and Pound, out of conditions psychic and political collapse involving his arrest for treason, wrote The Pisan Cantos, considered by many the most magnificent of his magnum opus. In different ways these late works comment on a world at war, cultural shattering and ways toward regeneration. They also speak to questions of how to approach the long poem as vehicle for addressing topics of cultural moment 鈥� and the adjacent problem of how to remake epic, as the tale of a people, for modern times.

Such modernist work exemplifies efforts to conceptualize cultural transformation through specifically poetic means. It also set the stage for work to come 鈥� even as it marked the edge or end of a modernist era whose faith in harnessing poetic projects for serious thought would not return afterward. We consider their work as a cultural archive to re-open in these times think future-ward about resources and seedbeds for further change.

罢别虫迟蝉:听

• H.D., Sea Garden, other imagist poetry
• Pound, Personae
• Pound, Cantos
• H.D., Collected Poems, including Trilogy
• H.D., Helen in Egypt
• A selection of work by other modernist writers, such as T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, James Joyce, Amy Lowell, Mina Loy, Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, and Virginia Woolf.

Evaluation: Essay-based, TBA

Format: Lecture and discussion.听

Expected Student Preparation: Previous coursework in American Literature before 1900, or in 19th-century British fiction, or permission of instructor. (This course is designed as a participatory seminar for advanced students of literature.)

Description:听Intensive study of a diverse range of shorter prose fictions produced by American authors鈥攎ainly over the course of the long nineteenth century, but culminating in close readings of some of the classic short stories produced in the early twentieth century, and ending with a quick look at some contemporary case studies that develop and test the potential in earlier models. Rather than tracing a singular evolution of the short story mode, we will explore a variety of authors whose works test the possibilities of the short form in very different ways. Each of these writers discovered early on that the short story is not simply a miniaturized novel but operates as a literary vehicle with its own distinctive powers and limitations. After an introductory review of recent scholarly work on the theory of the modern short story, and on the history of its development, we will survey a selection of foundational and influential short fictions that reveal the short story鈥檚 uses in relation to myth, romance, and the fantastic; to uncanny plots about ghosts and haunting; to evocation of suppressed emotional or psychic states; to representation of neglected cultural identities; to the impulses of regionalism; to urban experience; to crime and detection; and to self-reflexive interrogations of fictional form itself. Indeed the short story has often served for thoughtful and ambitious American writers not only as a simple form with which they could begin their literary training but as a privileged site for self-conscious experimentation with new modes of imagery, new subject matter, and new narrative techniques. Though it may sometimes be seen as minor, low-brow, and popularizing, always hidden in the shadow of the high art of the great American novel, the short story in fact frequently functions as a rarefied realm for serious ideological and formal critique鈥攁 testing-ground for the most advanced critical and self-critical thinking by American writers. We will focus on the foundational works of authors selected from the following list: Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Hale, Harris, Harte, Twain, Cable, Chesnutt, Crane, Gilman, Chopin, Jewett, London, James, Wharton, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, Anderson, Porter. More contemporary case studies may include works by authors such as O鈥機onnor, Updike, Salinger, Ford, Baldwin, Diaz, Mukherjee, Lahiri, Paley, and Carver.

Texts听(Course-pack collections of short fiction)

Evaluation听(Tentative): Participation in discussions, 10%; series of one-page textual analyses, 20%; two critical essays, 20% each (or one extended research paper, 40%); take-home final exam, 30%.

Format:听Lecture and seminar discussion.

Average Enrolment: Capped at 25 to 30 students.

Prerequisites: None.

Description:听This course surveys modern and contemporary drama, theatre, and performance art from across the Western hemisphere, with special focus on Latin America, the Hispanophone Caribbean, and US Latina/o communities. As we move geographically through the hemisphere, we will learn about the political, cultural, social, and economic factors informing theatrical production. Thematic concerns will include: theatre against dictatorship in the Southern Cone and beyond; migration and exile; indigeneity; political theatre in the 鈥渂orderlands;鈥� gender and sexuality; populism, protest, and 鈥淭heatre of the Oppressed;鈥� histories of collective creation in the Americas; and expressions of Latina/o North American identities.

Texts听Our syllabus will feature plays and multimedia works by artists including:

• Carmen Aguirre (Chile/Canada)
• Lola Arias (Argentina)
• Sabina Berman (M茅xico)
• Enrique Buenaventura (Colombia)
• N茫o Bustamante (USA)
• Guillermo Calder贸n (Teatro en el Blanco, Chile)
• Carmelita Tropicana (Cuba/USA)
• Migdalia Cruz (Puerto Rico/USA)
• Nilo Cruz (Cuba/USA)
• FOMMA (Fortaleza de la Mujer Maya) (Chiapas, M茅xico)
• Mar铆a Irene Forn茅s (Cuba/USA)
• Coco Fusco (Cuba/USA)
• Griselda Gambaro (Argentina)
• Guillermo G贸mez-Pe帽a (Mexico/USA)
• Astrid Hadad (Mexico)
• LEGOM (Mexico)
• Antonio Machado (Cuba/USA)
• Mujeres Creando (Bolivia)
• Teatro Campesino (USA)
• Teatro L铆nea de Sombra (M茅xico)
• Violeta Luna (M茅xico)
• Teatro Malayerba (Ecuador)
• Teatro Oficina (Brazil)
• Juan Radrig谩n (Chile)
• Jos茅 Rivera (Puerto Rico/USA)
• Jesusa Rodr铆guez and Liliana Felipe (M茅xico/Argentina)
• Guillermo Verdecchia (Argentina/Canada)
• Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani (Peru)

Additionally, we will utilize the following base texts:

• Diana Taylor and Sarah J. Townsend, Eds. Stages of Conflict: A Critical Anthology of Latin American Theatre and Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2008).
• Ana Puga, Ed. Spectacular Bodies, Dangerous Borders. Latin American Theatre Review Books (University of Kansas Press, 2011).
• Secondary sources by scholars including Natalie Alvarez, Francine A鈥橬ess, Gloria Anzald煤a, Alicia Arriz贸n, Stuart Day, May Farnsworth, Jean Graham-Jones, Paola Hern谩ndez, Larry LaFountain-Stokes, Jill Lane, Jos茅 Mu帽oz, Ana Puga, Rossana Reguillo, Ram贸n Rivera-Servera, Leticia Robles, Camilla Stevens, Diana Taylor, and Tamara Underiner.

All texts will be available in English translation.

Evaluation:听Group Presentation: 10%; short response essays: 40%; final analytical/research paper: 30%; in-class participation: 10%; question forum: 10%.

Format:听Lectures and discussions.

Average Enrollment: Capped at 39听students.

Expected student preparation:听No experience necessary.

Description:听This course introduces students to the roles, responsibilities, and procedures of the three key management positions on a live performance鈥檚 production team: Production Manager, Stage Manager, and Technical Director. There will be a required practical component for PM, SM and TD with the Festival of Staged Readings in Moyse Hall, Department of English Director鈥檚 Projects, Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society, Tuesday Night Caf茅 theatre or another approved theatre company. Placements for the practical component will be the responsibility of each student to secure. The composition of the class will vary depending on student emphasis.

The course is organised according to a standard production schedule: from pre-production (e.g,. auditions, securing rights, professional attitude) through rehearsals (e.g., calls and postings, production agreements, dress rehearsal) to public performance (e.g., show reports, backstage supervision, front of house). Skills which may be covered include creating schedules and adapting them as necessary. We will look at overall production schedules, rehearsal schedules and production week schedules. We will take an in-depth look at each day within a production week, exploring what to expect, prepare for and who is responsible for what. We will discuss production meetings and why they are important and how to lead them productively. We will explore navigating conflict situations and how to handle these situations with respect. We will look at the industry standard organizational charts (theatre hierarchy) and each position within this structure. We will touch briefly on different agreements within the theatre industry, such as Equity, and their impact on a production.

Each student will create a production binder specific to their role (as PM, SM, or TD) in their practical component placement, which will be evaluated periodically throughout the semester. To support your theatre management work, the class will:

• create tools for this binder, such as production sections, scene breakdowns and character breakdowns;
• create templates for effective team communication such as agendas, production notes, schedules and using online applications;
• have practical sessions on blocking notation for a scene as well as how to prepare a stage management binder for calling the cues for a production;
• look at the industry protocols and standards for creating a clear and concise record of cues.

Each class will also provide an opportunity to discuss how each student鈥檚 production is progressing in a safe and non-judgemental environment in which support and collaborative solutions to any challenges being experienced can be provided.

Evaluation:听Attendance and participation (15%); production binder (30%); production team assignment (20%); in class projects (15%); journal (20%).

This course will allow students to undertake special projects, frequently involving background readings, performances, and essays.听

Description:

• This course is normally not available to students who are not Majors or Honours students in the Department.
• Intended for advanced and/or specialized work based on an extensive background in Departmental studies.
• Permission must be obtained from the Department before registration.

Application Deadlines:

engl434_application_form.pdf听(Also available in the Students Affairs Office, Arts Building, Room 155)

Description:听Vladimir Nabokov describes writing from personal memory this way: 鈥淐ertain tight parentheses have been opened up and allowed to spill their still active contents鈥� (Speak, Memory). With this evocative quote, Nabokov points to at least three features of the memoir to which we will pay attention. One is the slender focus of the memoir (often only what is contained within the parentheses). Another is the way the material (the 鈥渃ontents鈥�) is remembered and re-worked. And, a third, closely related to the re-working, is the form 鈥� the shape or way the narrative is told. Thus, it is of interest that Nabokov employs a grammatical term (the parenthesis) to emphasize the telling of personal stories. That is, even personal stories are subject to the form, the medium, the narrative 鈥済rammar鈥�: the diary, the letter, the essay, the book-length story, the photograph and film, the poem. We will look at a selection of all of the above with a view to how stories are told as well as what the contents of those stories are. Therefore, the course readings are grouped according to form and not topic/content. But, there is much overlap between the two and among the readings. So, for example, the graphic memoir may contain photographs and will also use theory; Between the World and Me, a book, is also written as a letter and it contains photos.

Further to Nabokov鈥檚 spilling of 鈥渟till active contents鈥�: this suggestion of an involuntary and volcanic rush of memories connotes authenticity, the truth. However, memories by their very nature are unreliable, change and mutate. For Paul Auster, memory is 鈥渢he space in which a thing happens for the second time鈥� (The Invention of Solitude). A performative space is just that 鈥� a recreation 鈥� where nothing is performed the same way twice. Here is Nietzsche: 鈥溾�� I have done that鈥�, says my memory. 鈥業 cannot have done that,鈥� says my pride, and remains inexorable. Eventually 鈥� memory yields鈥� (Beyond Good and Evil). So, what is truth in the recounting of one鈥檚 memoir? How reliable is it and how would the reader know? In the telling of a good story, does it matter?

It is tempting to see the memoir as comprised of 鈥榓uthentic鈥� and unassailable details 鈥� the truth in other words 鈥� as if the traditional idea of the truth were a 鈥渂ourgeois plot against the people鈥� (Ben Yagoda, Memoir: A History). We will resist the urge to read these works as truthful non-fiction and instead read them as if they were fiction, ghostwritten, in a sense, by the author. To that end, we will recall Virginia鈥檚 Woolf鈥檚 take on the writing of memoirs: 鈥渢he things one does not remember are as important; perhaps they are more important鈥� (in Yagoda, Memoir). We could ask, what does each text not say, not reveal, suppress and repress? What is still aching to get out, to slip outside the parentheses, to partake of that spilling of contents? Yet cannot. Auster: 鈥渆ven the facts do not always tell the truth.鈥�

Auster again: 鈥淧laying with words 鈥� [is] not so much a search for the truth as a search for the world as it appears in language. Language is not truth. It is the way we exist in the world. Playing with words is merely to examine the way the mind functions, to mirror a particle of the world as the mind perceives it鈥� As in the meanings of words, things take on meaning only in relationship to each other. 鈥楾wo faces are alike鈥�, writes Pascal. 鈥楴either is funny by itself, but side by side their likeness makes us laugh鈥�. The faces rhyme for the eye, just as two words can rhyme for the ear鈥� It is possible for events in one鈥檚 life to rhyme as well. A young man rents a room in Paris and then discovers that his father has hid out in this same room during the war. If these two events were to be considered separately, there would be little to say about either one of them. The rhyme they create when looked at together alters the reality of each鈥� two (or more) rhyming events set up a connection in the world, adding one more synapse to be routed through the vast plenum of experience.鈥� (The Invention of Solitude.)

We will want to ask what are the rhyming events in the stories we read. To what does the author attach meaning? What does the author believe to be true and how does that truth resonate? What words, images, metaphors are employed? What is the story trying to be told?

In addition, in this we will devote some time to works that highlight the act of writing itself, i.e., in the form of daily (or ad hoc) journals and letters. Here we will ask what it is the writer notices he or she takes notice of. What goes into the on-going writerly project and conception of a life?

Texts:

Books --听 (tentative)

• Maus, Art Spiegelman
• Heart Berries, Terese Marie Mailhot
• I Love Dick, Chris Kraus
• Dear Mister You, Mary Louise Parker
• The Kiss, Kathryn Harrison
• Are You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel
• My Struggle, Karl Ove Knausgaard (selections)
• Hunger, Roxane Gay
• The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson
• Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi CoatesFilm 鈥� Stories We Tell (dir. Sarah Polley, 2012)

Film -听

• Stories听We Tell (dir. Sarah Polley, 2012)

Theoretical essays by: Roland Barthes, Ben Yagoda, Sven Birkerts, Nancy K Miller, Michel Foucault.
Essays by: Steve Martin, Zadie Smith, Jonathan Franzen, David Sedaris, Daphne Merkin, Katha Pollitt.
Autobiographical photography by: Sally Mann, Andres Serrano, Francesca Woodman, Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Annie Leibowitz.

Evaluation听(tentative): 10% participation; 90% weekly short essays (9@ 10% each; 900 words).

Format:听Lecture, presentation of visual material, discussion.

Description:听Popular and influential in the Western world since the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, the Historical Novel played a vital role in the formation and definition of modern national identities. To give students an opportunity to become more deeply acquainted with this genre, every student will design his/her own Historical Novel in response to a series of critical readings and key examples of this literary form. Thus, this course has an academic as well as a creative component. We will read four variations of the genre, along with critical discussions about the intersection between history and fiction. Each student will then design his/her own Historical Novel, using these readings to expand, clarify and polish the plan. Students are certainly not expected to turn in a full-fledged novel at the end of the semester鈥攐nly an outline and sample chapter, accompanied by a detailed discussion of how you would negotiate the genre鈥檚 main strengths and pitfalls.

Texts:

• Ivanhoe听by Sir Walter Scott
• A Tale of Two Cities听by Charles Dickens
• Orlando听by Virginia Woolf
• Avishag听by Yael Lotan
• Critical readings by Georgy Luk谩cs, Michael Ragussis, Harry Shaw, Linda Hutcheon

Evaluation:听15% class participation; 40% ongoing responses to the readings; 25% outline and sample chapter of a potential Historical Novel of your own design; 20% critical explanation accompanying your outline/chapters.

Format:听Lecture and discussion.

Description:听

This course will focus on a main figure in Canadian Inuit literature: Alootook Ipellie.

His work portrays many of the effects of colonialism and his own reactions in the contemporary world. Ipellie is introverted and spiritual in his quest for meaning in a life where he lives in 鈥渢wo worlds鈥� but with 鈥渙ne spirit鈥�. His work reflects what the reality is for many Canadian Inuit.

Ipellie鈥檚 work explores these themes in a variety of formats: cartoons, drawings, political articles, poetry and essays.

Texts:听TBA

Evaluation:听TBA

Format:听Lecture and discussion.

Description:听In her book Woman, Native, Other, Trinh Minh-Ha criticizes of essentialism with which women from the 鈥淭hird World鈥� are treated by the West: with special readings, seminars, and workshops dedicated to the 鈥渘ative woman,鈥� it is as if 鈥渆verywhere we go, we become Someone鈥檚 private zoo.鈥� Trinh鈥檚 outburst highlights the uneasy yet attractive alliances between feminists in the West and those in the rest of the world and between postcolonial studies and gender scholarship. Starting from these convergences, we will discuss the differences between Western feminism and womanism and we will trace the evolution of forms of femininity and masculinity in various colonial and neocolonial contexts, with a focus on Africa. We will talk about the relationship between women and their bodies, ideas of beauty, rebellion and conformity. We will equally explore normative and subversive forms of masculinity, and the role of states in creating willing soldiers. Theoretical readings by Carole Boyce Davies, Nnedi Okorafor, Frantz Fanon, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and bell hooks will help us to think about relations between mothers and daughters; young men and the state; sexuality; violence inscribed on the female body and representations of women.

Required Texts (preliminary):
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Americanah
Ama Ata Aidoo鈥�Our Sister Killjoy
Mark Behr鈥�The Smell of Apples
Tsitsi Dangarembga鈥�Nervous Conditions
Lewis Nkosi鈥�Mating Birds

Films (preliminary):
Faat Kin茅. Dir. Ousmane Semb猫ne
Les Saignantes. Dir. Jean-Pierre Bekolo
Reassemblage. Dir. Trinh T. Minh-ha
U-Carmen eKhayelitsha. Dir. Mark Dornford-May

Coursepack with relevant articles.

Evaluation:听Short paper and/or presentation 20%; Midterm 30%; Final paper 35%; Participation 15%.

Prerequisite: ENGL 342 Introduction to Old English or its equivalent (i.e. an introductory course in Old English).

Description:听贬飞忙迟! This course aims to build on students鈥� knowledge of Old English by engaging in a reading and translation of selected passages from Beowulf, such as the building of Heorot, the fight with the monster Grendel, the attack of Grendel鈥檚 mother and Beowulf鈥檚 journey to their underwater lair, and the last battle with the vengeful dragon. If you鈥檝e read Beowulf in translation, you know what it鈥檚 about 鈥� but there is nothing like the real thing!

The course also aims to advance students鈥� knowledge of Old English grammar and poetic form. We will examine the poetic structure and rhetoric of the text, its heroic theme, the conventions of Anglo-Saxon poetry, and the numerous variations in the editing and translating of this great poem. We will also explore the cultural world of Anglo-Saxon England as it is represented in the text, some related poems (in translation), and some of the debates surrounding its dating and historical context. Classes will be conducted in an informal seminar fashion, as we tackle the translations and interpretations together.

Texts:听Beowulf: An Edition. Ed. Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.

Evaluation:听Translation papers (3), 15% each; final paper 30%; seminar presentation 10%; participation and attendance 15%.

Format:听厂别尘颈苍补谤.

Description:听England in the Middle Ages had its own special brand of religiosity. English people in this period also had much to say about religions, cultures, and practices elsewhere in the known world, both in their own time and from Classical Antiquity. Some of the most complex and controversial depictions of religious difference are found in medieval English chivalric romances and texts that stand in some relation to historical narrative (all primary emphases of this course). The religious experience of English people shared a great deal with that of their contemporaries on the European continent, and so in some very important ways it is misleading to speak of English culture as 鈥渋nsular鈥�. At the same time, there were many developments in England that held little in common with what was happening on the continent, and so it is valid to study English religiosity as involving unique phenomena or developments that took on a particularly English identity. In medieval England we find a variety of representations of Jews and Muslims, though (in the late Middle Ages, at least) few Jews or Muslims could be found living anywhere in England. The impressions and representations would seem, then, to stem from earlier or external textual influences (e.g., the romance tradition, crusading narratives), international communication, or reliance (in the case of the Jews) on older accounts from England. Christianity in England was also a strange beast. In the late Middle Ages we witness the rise of a vibrant lay piety, the first complete translation of the Bible into English, and an academic heresy that spilled over the walls of the university and into the streets. Many of these developments were in turn met by a severe response that was not always consistent with attitudes on the European continent. And yet a variety of voices, many of them reformist, could still be heard in the face of strong opposition. Further, England would eventually become one of the decisive centers of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century and after. These later developments cannot be understood completely without an awareness of late-medieval English religious experience.

Students in this course will study English literary representations of Judaism, Islam, and religious difference in the late Middle English period, from approximately 1300-1500. Most texts will be read in the original Middle English. Prior experience with Middle English is encouraged but not mandatory. Some introduction to the language will be provided and a portion of several classes will be devoted to reading, translating, and transcribing.

Texts:

• The Siege of Jerusalem
• The Book of John Mandeville
• Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prioress鈥� Tale, The Man of Law鈥檚 Tale
• The Alliterative Morte Arthure
• Middle English romances: The Sultan of Babylon, Richard Coer de Lyon, The King of Tars, Bevis of Hampton
• Select texts pertaining to: English heresy, the Bible translation debate, lay devotion, female mysticism and spirituality

Evaluation:听Analytical reading responses, 30%; research proposal, 10%; final research project, 35%; in-class translations, 5%; participation and attendance, 20%.

Format:听Lecture, discussion, workshop.

Expected Preparation: Previous university-level courses in drama and theatre, literature, or cultural studies. Restricted to U2 and U3 students.听

Description:听We will read some of the major dramatic theories concerned with the production, management, or solicitation of feeling in the theatre from the Neoclassical period through the recent turn to neuro-cognitive approaches. The actor and the craft of acting will often be our locus of inquiry, but we will also investigate scenography, dramaturgy, and sound. We鈥檒l ask the following questions, among others: What are the mechanisms by which the stage picture thrills or surprises an audience? What is the relation between an actor鈥檚 emotions and those of the character she portrays? Between emotional expression on stage and emotional response in the audience? How is the mind-body relation conceptualised in different historical periods? How is the science of emotion deployed (or not) in theatrical performance? Do different dramatic genres elicit different kinds of feelings in audiences? In each unit of study, we鈥檒l also read a play to which we might connect the theories. Students will conduct research into topics of special interest and present their findings to the class. Each unit will culminate in a student-led creative praxis session, which puts the theory into practice.

Units may include:
Bharata, Natyashastra
Zeami, Fushikaden (Teachings on Style and the Flower)
Descartes, Passions of the Soul
Diderot, Paradox of the Actor
Sturm und drang
Romanticism
Melodrama
Gertrude Stein, 鈥淧lays鈥�
Musical theatre
Stanislavski technique: feeling and identification
Feminist feeling
Cognitive science approaches to feeling and acting

Texts:听Custom course reader composed of selections from acting theory, reception theory and performance theory; plus Erin Hurley Theatre & Feeling.

Evaluation: Reading journal; group praxis session; discussion prompts; Research Paper.

Format: Lecture, discussion, debates, concept mapping, and practical exercises/explorations.

Prerequisites: ENGL 230 and ENGL 269 and/or permission of the instructor.

Limited enrolment. Permission of instructor required. Admission to the course will be by application and interview. Sign-up sheets for interviews will be posted on the door of Arts 240 the first week of April, 2019. A written application is due two days before your interview - see format below.*

Description: The preparation of the dramatic text for production:听1) script analysis, research, planning, 2) auditions and casting, 3) the rehearsal process (with a strong focus on the actor/director relationship), 4)technical elements, 5) performance.

Texts:听

• The Directors Eye by John Ahart (Meriwether Publishing, 2001).
• The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau (Theatre Communications Group, 2005).
• Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus by Marina Caldarone (Maggie Lloyd-Williams, 2004).

Evaluation: Class participation and attendance; scene rehearsal and performance; metaphor/action board; research; production book (script analysis, and annotated script) and a journal of the entire process (including final reflections); workshop production.

Average听Enrolment: 10 students

*Written Application:
Submit answers to the following questions to myrna.wyatt.selkirk [at] mcgill.ca two days before your interview.
Subject Heading: Directing for the Theatre Class Application. In your application please use both the number and subject for each response:

1. Directing Experience (include scenes and relevant leadership roles):
2. Acting Experience:
3. Improvisation Experience (use your imagination on this, as it may not have been named improvisation, but when have you improvised in a situation or theatrical endeavor):
4. Theatre courses taken at 平特五不中 or elsewhere:
5. Any other relevant experience:
6. What will you bring to this course? Discuss special attributes and personality traits. Talk about your ability as a collaborator.
7. What do you hope to get out of this course?
8. Expected year of graduation and Major(s) and Minor(s):
9. Have you taken ENGL 230? ENGL 269?

Description:听This is not a course about the rom com; nor does it feature texts that rehearse a familiar trajectory of courtship, marriage, kids, divorce. Rather it treats love as an unstoppable, if often thwarted, force and composed of several intangibles such as, yearning, longing, desire, competition, jealousy, among others. Love is not just for an erotic partner or human.听 It is invoked via self-expression (work, art), through consumer objects (houses), loss, boredom, compulsions to repeat. It is always impossible to put into words; therefore, we will look for and analyze the metaphors, themes, motifs, abstract questions that are in play in the texts below:

Knots听by Gunnhild听脴yehaug:听as the title of these interconnected stories suggests, nothing is straightforward; one of the pieces is called 鈥淢eanwhile, on Another Planet鈥�

Trompe l鈥檕eil听by Nancy Reisman: the death of a child has reverberations among those who knew her, and those who family members who did not, for decades.

An American Marriage听by Tayari Jones: a wrongly accused African American man goes to jail and he and his wife try to live out the aftermath

Fire Sermon听by Jamie Quatro: 鈥渁 platonic and spiritual exchange 鈥� gradually transforms into an emotional and erotically charged bond that challenges 鈥� loyalty and morality鈥� (from the cover)

Enigma Variations听by Andre Aciman: gay and straight relationships that map 鈥渢he most inscrutable corners of passion鈥� Yet the dream of love lingers鈥� (from the flyleaf)

Arrival听(dir. Denis Villeneuve):听part sci-fi inter-species communication, it goes to the untranslatability of love

Moonlight听(dir. Barry Jenkins): the film questions, among others, what it is that binds us

Cold War听(dir. Pawel Pawlikowski): harmony and disharmony in a real and metaphoric cold war; a film that invokes and strains borders of all kinds

The Apartment听(dir. Billy Wilder): ambition is intertwined with affection

A short story, TBA.

Methods of evaluation:听
10% 900-word essay on a short story (TBA)
20% weekly responses (500 words) on each text
70% two short essays (2000 words each; each = 35%) on the assigned texts

Format:听Lecture and听discussion.

Description:听This course focuses primarily on the work of female directors since the 1960s who have resisted or rejected classical Hollywood cinematic conventions. By studying the unique and innovative contributions these directors have made to film aesthetics and narrative, we shall also address the relationship between film form and ideology. Our aim is to analyze the complex issues that inevitably arise when women work behind the camera in an industry that has overwhelmingly privileged male directors and in which women have primarily existed 鈥渁s objects to be looked at鈥� in front of the camera. The fact that many of the chosen films focus on female protagonists shall hone our focus on questions of gendered representation. Additionally, this class will introduce students to some of the central debates within feminist film theory. What kind of aesthetic and narrative strategies have women filmmakers used to create alternative fictions and documentations of gender conventions, female pleasure, everyday life, and social experience? How does an audience assess a film made by a woman as explicitly or implicitly feminist? Please note that due to the instructor's expertise, the emphasis is on American and European filmmakers, although a handful of filmmakers working in other regions will also be considered.

Important Notes: Attendance at weekly screenings is mandatory; do not enroll in this course if you cannot make the screening time each week. Furthermore, many of the films we will see this semester have sexually explicit, violent, or other content that may be offensive to some sensibilities. Please consider this fact carefully before you decide to take this class, as we shall not shy away from discussing even the most difficult aspects of these films head on.

Texts:听
听

• Cl茅o from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, France, 1962, 90 minutes)
• Daisies (Vera Chytilova, Czechoslovakia, 1966, 74 minutes)
• Wanda (Barbara Loden, US, 1971, 102 minutes)
• Fuses and Kitch鈥檚 Last Meal (Carolee Schneemann, US, 1965 & 1974)
• Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (Chantal Akerman, Belgium, 1975)
• Love and Anarchy (Lina Wertmuller, Italy, 1973)
• One Way or Another (Sara Gomez, Cuba, 1974)
• Germany Pale Mother (Helma Sanders-Brahms, West Germany, 1980)
• Working Girls (Lizzie Borden, US, 1987)
• Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (Alanis Obomsawin, Canada, 1993)
• Tender Fictions or Nitrate Kisses (Barbara Hammer, US, 1996)
• Fire (Deepa Mehta, Canada/ India, 1996)
• The Apple (Samira Mahkmalbaf, Iran, 1999)
• Fat Girl (脌 Ma Soeur, Catherine Breillat, France, 2001, 83 minutes)

Evaluation: TBA

Format:听TBA

Note: Registration for this class is by application only. Interested students should send me an email with the subject heading 鈥渁pplication to ENGL 484鈥� stating their interest in the course and qualifications. In most cases, students will be expected to have earned a solid 鈥淏鈥� or better in a 300-level film or literature course, but strong students from other fields will be considered. Students interested primarily in fulfilling a degree requirement will be directed elsewhere, as there are many ways to complete requirements. 20 applicants will be admitted. All admitted students are expected to make the course a priority, keeping up with work and attending every seminar meeting.

Description:听This course will test Garrett Stewart鈥檚 recent claim that, in the past few decades, narrative has come to suffer from 鈥減lot exhaustion,鈥� from an inability to render contemporary social forces and lived experience in the form of a coherent, forward-moving story with a satisfying resolution. Homing in on some of the more elaborate plot conceits of recent fiction, we will consider to what extent these narrative strategies confirm our worst dilemmas in the way Stewart suggests, and to what extent they offer new ways of conceptualizing the relations that make up our world. Possible films include, Memento, Primer, and Handmaiden. Possible novels include Life After Life, When We Were Orphans and Fingersmith.

Note: Students must have access to the Netflix series Russian Doll.

Texts: Coursepack of narrative theory.

Evaluation: Film journals 40%; short assignments 10%; term paper 30%; participation 20%.

Format:听厂别尘颈苍补谤

Average Enrolment: 20 students

Description:听Costumes do not exist in a vacuum; they respond to social and political factors specific to the era in which they were created. They are inextricably linked to the art and architecture of their day as they are to the current political and moral beliefs. A micro mini skirt comments on the sexual mores of the 1960鈥檚 as succinctly as any treatise on sexual liberation. We, along with Webster's Dictionary, use the term 鈥渃ostume鈥� to mean a style of clothing, ornaments, and hair used especially during a certain period, in a certain region, or by a certain class or group.

The structure of this class will alternate between one class where the instructor presents costume information, and the following class where a designated group of students will respond with an oral presentation to contextualize the styles of the era. The instructor will present the costume history of each specific era through images, example pieces, and embodied learning (which means volunteers get to try on corsets and walk in hoop skirts in order to understand how the physicality of costumes effect movement). The instructor鈥檚 main lecture tool is a PowerPoint presentation with fashion images drawn directly from each period.

In the next class, students will present their oral projects, which respond to the specific era. Each student in the presentation group will handle one specific topic relating to the era. Topics for presentations include Art, Music and Dance, Science and Technology, Popular Culture, and Historical Context. Additional optional topics include Architecture, Furniture Design, Politics, and Advertising. Each presentation group consists of five students. Each student presents twice during the semester.

By listening to their fellow students鈥� presentations, the class will be able to answer questions such as: What is the common aesthetic between furniture and clothing design of the Victorian era? How does the music of the 1920鈥檚 effect dance, and in turn, clothing styles? How do the political and economic realities of the Great Depression impact fabric usage during the 1930鈥檚? Historical overview of costumes will be enhanced by an inquisitive look at the link between clothing and the culture that created them. The goal is to see the bigger picture of the inter-related nature of different disciplines, and how each impacts the system as a whole. Although this class specifically relates to fashion, it is also a way of seeing and understanding larger cultural, social, historical, and political contexts.

Texts: TBA

Evaluation: TBA

Format:听TBA

Description:听The Digital Humanities is an emerging sub-field within the humanities (particularly the study of literature and culture) that combines traditional humanistic methods, such as close reading and historical analysis, with data science and computational approaches, such as text-mining and statistical analysis. This course offers both an applied and critical introduction to this new field of inquiry and academic study.

The first two-thirds of the class will offer hands-on instruction in basic computer programming and statistical analysis (focusing on Python) for the analysis of literary and cultural texts. The goal will be to train students in popular text-mining methods, such as topic modeling, to study large corpora of cultural material, such as novels, at scale. In this part of the class, no prior training in computer science or statistics is assumed. This part thus doubles as an accessible introduction to computing and statistical science for humanities students. Further, we will also read several recent examples of digital humanist scholarship to see how scholars have begun to use these tools to develop new arguments about literature and history, and potentially to replicate and explore the various methods they use, from the ground-up.

The final part of the class will provide a critical perspective on the use of technology and data in the humanities. What does it mean to quantify literature and art? Should we be skeptical of the increasing incursion of technology and empiricism into the humanities? How do we synthesize humanistic and scientific perspectives on knowledge-making 鈥� is it possible? Here we will read important recent studies that critique the growing ubiquity of data and algorithms in the university as well as society in general. This perspective will allow us to contextualize and critically reflect on the first, 鈥渁pplied鈥� portion of the class.

Texts (sample):

• Katherine Bode, A World of Fiction
• Katherine Hayles, How We Think
• Safiya Noble, Algorithms of Oppression
• Cathy O鈥橬eil, Weapons of Math Destruction
• Andrew Piper, Enumerations
• Roopika Risam, New Digital Worlds
• Ted Underwood, Distant Horizons

Evaluation:听TBA

Format:听TBA

Description:听This course examines the unique formal and aesthetic qualities of the North American graphic novel, with particular emphasis on visual analysis. Considerable attention will therefore be paid to close reading and to the analysis of formal and stylistic elements that distinguish comics as a unique artistic phenomenon. The course does not provide an historical survey of comics, nor does it evince interest in popular genres.

The texts will be chosen based not only on historical impact, verifiable influence or general popularity with readers but also with an eye to comics that experiment and expand the boundaries of the medium.

The course will be organized into approximately four thematic groupings: revisionist narratives within the mainstream, memoirs and confessionals, new journalism, and auteur comix.

Writers and artists to be chosen from may include: Nick Drnaso, Adrian Tomine, Guy Delisle, Debbie Dreschler, James Sturm, Lynda Barry, Ivan Brunetti, Howard Cruse, Eddie Campbell, Art Spiegelman, Julie Doucet, Chester Brown, Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns, Alison Bechdel, David Collier, Ben Katchor, Marjane Satrapi, Rutu Modan, Jason Lutes, Jeff Smith, Joe Sacco, Carla Speed McNeil, David B., Chris Ware, Los Bros. Hernandez, Nick Abadzis, Rick Veitch, Phoebe Gloeckner, Harvey Pekar, R. Crumb, Adrian Tomine, Jack Jackson, Craig Thompson, James Kochalka, Tom Gauld, Ed Piskor, Jeff Lemire, Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki, Kate Beaton, Gene Luen Yang, Faryl Dalrymple, Matt Kindt, Stephen Collins, Sarah Glidden, Will Eisner, Alex Robinson and Scott McCloud.

Texts:听TBA

Evaluation:听One formal analysis: 25%; one mid-term essay: 30%; one final essay: 30%;听class Participation: 15%.

Format:听Group Discussions.

Prerequisites:听By arrangement with individual instructor. Permission must be obtained from the Department before registration.

Description: 听

• This course is normally not available to students who are not Majors or Honours students in the Department.
• Intended for advanced and/or specialized work based on an extensive background in Departmental studies.听

Application Deadlines:

Fall 2019听Term: Monday, September 16, 2019听by 4:00 PM

engl495_496_application_2020.pdf(Also available in the Students Affairs Office, Arts Building, Room 155)

Prerequisites:听By arrangement with individual instructor. Permission must be obtained from the Department before registration.

Description: 听

• This course is normally not available to students who are not Majors or Honours students in the Department.
• Intended for advanced and/or specialized work based on an extensive background in Departmental studies.听

Application Deadlines:

Winter 2020听Term: Monday, January 20, 2020听by 4:00 PM

engl495_496_application_2020.pdf听(Also available in the Students Affairs Office, Arts Building, Room 155)