Students will consider the autobiography as a powerful social and cultural document, on that is an index to the ways in which people conceive of and recreate history itself.

Seminar-sized course in literary and rehtorical criticism. Organized around themes, it stresses analysis from critical and theoretical perspectives that sharpen understanding of texts, their contexts, and our reading of them.

This course fulfills the Junior-Year Writing Requirement. See the English Department course description guide for various sectional sub-titles and descriptions.

In our complicated world, what will your future look like? We'll gather texts from philosophy, history, and literature to help us wonder thoughtfully about this question. We'll think collectively about each person's possible futures, and we'll think philosophically about our collective futures in the 21st century. We will also host guest speakers who reflect on what a "career" is, for them, in this world.

Nineteenth-century background: the Irish Renaissance; such major figures as Yeats, Synge, Joyce and O'Casey; recent and contemporary writing. (Gen.Ed. AL)

Examination of some of the major poems written in America, England and Ireland from the beginning of World War I to the end of World War II. Poets vary; usually include Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Williams, Eliot, Pound, H.D., Hart, Crane, Langston Hughes, Cummings, Jeffers, and Wilfred Owen. Background lectures in the poetry of Dickinson, Whitman, Hopkins, Hardy, and Robinson.

This course looks at selected plays by significant 20th Century American playwrights, with attention to dramatic form, historical context, influence and innovation. Students read at least one play per week. Requirements include participation in discussion sections, papers, a midterm and final. (Gen.Ed. AL)

The literary influence of the Bible; the most important genres; creation myths, hero tales, erotic poetry, prophecy, short stories, devotional verse, gospels. Avoids the interpretations of the later religions. Various themes from folklore, archeology, and history; what the literature meant to its originators. How certain biblical topics have interested secular artists.

Major works of James Joyce in prose, drama, and lyric poetry, emphasizing Ulysses or Finnegans Wake.

Analysis of problems of form, elements of genre, style and development of themes of stories and poems, written by class members and in class texts. Lecture, discussion, 5 poems, 2 stories, 2 essays. (Gen. Ed. AL)

This course examines the history of incarceration practices in the United States through poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose. We will also consider the perspectives of several academic disciplines; these may include anthropology, history, journalism, legal studies, psychology, and sociology. This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Engl majors.