In The Quarry Wood, Martha's father teaches her, 'Scotland is bounded on the South by England...and on the West by Eternity.' This course explores that paradox, tracing the relationship of Scottish literature to European history and the making of Scottish identity, understanding language and form as political actions in the creation of Scotland's national, international, and mythologized identities.

A survey of American literature from the literature of exploration through the major authors of the mid-nineteenth century, with special attention to the formation of an American literary tradition, along with the political, social, and religious context that helped shape the imaginative response of American writers to their culture.

An examination of the gothic--a world of fear, haunting, claustrophobia, paranoia, and monstrosity--in American literature and culture, with an emphasis upon issues of race and gender. Topics include the gothic; gothic sexuality; Southern, Northern, and national gothic; freakishness and grotesquerie; and visual gothic. Focus on fiction, with some film and photography. Authors, filmmakers, and artists may include Alcott, Arbus, Browning, Crane, Dunbar, Dunn, Elmer, Faulkner, Gilman, Hitchcock, Kubrick, McCullers, Morrison, O'Connor, Oates, Parks, Poe, Romero, Turner, and Wood.

This course offers an introduction to the literary works of African Americans from the late-eighteenth century to the present, with an emphasis on poetry and fiction. Beginning with slave narratives and early poetry, we will consider issues of genre, literary traditions, and historical context while gaining experience in reading and analyzing literary texts. We will examine how authors consciously went about creating a literary tradition that mirrored, challenged and created a dialogue with the American canon.

The course will study the literature, politics, and art of the Harlem Renaissance--roughly a period from 1915 to 1940. The New Negro Movement brought together writers, artists, philosophers, musicians, and everyday people from many parts of the United States and the Caribbean to New York City's Harlem. Their efforts to create a distinct African American art resulted in a flowering of art from several different perspectives.

Most people are on the world, not in it.' --John Muir. An introduction to reading and writing about nature, this seminar will attempt an exchange across distinct approaches to observing and describing the world around us. Do lenses of culture, discipline, and gender determine how we see and experience nature, environment, and place? Course work will include reading such authors as N.

This course introduces students to Asian American literature, considering its historical evolution and creative futures. We will cover major developments and debates in the field, including feminist critiques of cultural nationalism; the gender politics of genre; and domestic, transnational, and queer critical frameworks. Readings of primary texts will be supplemented by historical and critical source materials. Authors may include Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Ruth Ozawa, Jessica Hagedorn, Chang-rae Lee, and Jhumpa Lahiri.

This course is designed to offer students a broad historical overview of literary theory as well as exposure to contemporary debates about 'theory' and literary representation. The course is both an exercise in practical criticism and a survey of the Western critical tradition from Plato to Derrida. Beginning with the question of why Plato wished to ban poets from his ideal Republic, the course will go on to consider such topics as the Classic vs.

This course is designed for students committed to moving their writing to the next level. In this class we will read extensively from New Yorker, Slate, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Sunday Magazine and other mainstream publications as we study the impact and the techniques of the best magazine writing in America today. Students will produce their own magazine-length work on topics of their own choosing. These pieces will be distinguished by extensive reporting and research coupled with compelling and original prose.

A study of the language and literature of Anglo-Saxon England (ca. 450-1066 AD) in a series of graduated grammar lessons and readings of Old English poetry and prose. These will include selections from the Bible, the Venerable Bede, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 'The Wanderer,' 'The Dream of the Rood,' 'The Wife's Lament,' and the Exeter Book riddles. We will also learn the 31-character Old English futhorc as it was preserved in 'The Rune Poem' and used to inscribe verses on the Franks Casket and the Ruthwell Cross.