[before 1800]  Exploring the relations between literary form and socioeconomic change, this course examines the rise of the novel in England in the context of the rise of capitalism.  Topics of discussion will include the novels’ portrayals of subjectivity, the representation of female experience, the role of servants in the imaginary worlds of novels by ruling-class authors, and the early novel’s affinity for and relation to criminality.  Novels by Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Burney and Edgeworth.

Fall semester.  Professor Frank.

[before 1800]  Readings in the comedies, histories, and tragedies, with attention to their poetic language, dramatic structure, and power in performance.  Texts and topics will vary by instructor.

Limited to 50 students.  Fall semester:  Professor Emeritus Pritchard.  Spring semester:  Professor Bosman.

A second, advanced workshop for practicing poets. Students will undertake a longer project as well as doing exercises every week exploring technical problems.

Requisite: ENGL 221 or the equivalent. Limited enrollment. Please consult the Creative Writing Center website for information on admission to this course.  Fall semester.  Writer-in-Residence Hall.

“The word ‘suffer,’” Nietzsche writes, is something that we “set up . . .

(Offered as ENGL 275 and BLST 232 [US].)  The focus of this introduction to the study of African American literature and culture will be the complex intertextuality at the heart of the African American expressive tradition.  Tracing some of the tradition’s major formal and thematic concerns means looking for the rhythms and riffs that link different kinds of texts:  literature, film, music, and the spoken word.  While engaging a range of textual experiences, from learning to read silences in narratives of American slavery through coming to understand Afrofuturism a

(Offered as ENGL 274 and  AMST 274.)  In 2013, Amherst College acquired one of the most comprehensive collections of Native American writing in the world–nearly 1,500 books ranging from contemporary fiction and poetry to sermons, political tracts, and tribal histories from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Through this course, we will actively engage the literature of this collection, researching Native American intellectual traditions, regional contexts, political debates, creative adaptation, and movements toward decolonization.

A first course in the critical reading of selected English-language poets, which gives students exposure to significant poets, poetic styles, and literary and cultural contexts for poetry from across the tradition.  Attention will be given to prosody and poetic forms, and to different ways of reading poems.

Limited to 35 students.  Fall semester:  Professor Sofield.  Spring semester:  Professors Nelson and Worsley.

This course explores the unique challenges of experiencing performance through the page.  While this course is not intended as a survey of dramatic literature or theater history, students will be introduced to a variety of drama from across the English-language tradition.  The organizing theme of the course may change slightly from year to year, but the goal will always be to explore a wide array of theoretical and methodological approaches to drama.  Of particular interest will be the relationship of play-reading to other reading practices.  What does a play demand of t

A first course in writing fiction. Emphasis will be on experimentation as well as on developing skill and craft. Workshop (discussion) format.

Limited enrollment. Please consult the Creative Writing Center website for information on admission to this course.  Fall semester:  Visiting Writer Gaige.  Spring semester:  Professor Frank.

A first workshop in the writing of poetry. Class members will read and discuss each others’ work and will study the elements of prosody: the line, stanza forms, meter, free verse, and more. Open to anyone interested in writing poetry and learning about the rudiments of craft. Writing exercises weekly.

Limited enrollment. Please consult the Creative Writing Center website for information on admission to this course.

Fall semester.  Writer-in-Residence Hall.