This seminar looks at two bestselling nineteenth-century American authors whose works made …
This seminar looks at two bestselling nineteenth-century American authors whose works made the subject of slavery popular among mainstream readers. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain have subsequently become canonized and reviled, embraced and banned by individuals and groups at both ends of the political and cultural spectrum and everywhere in between.
This course investigates relationships between two media, film and literature, studying works …
This course investigates relationships between two media, film and literature, studying works linked across the two media by genre, topic, and style. It aims to sharpen appreciation of major works of cinema and of literary narrative. The course explores how artworks challenge and cross cultural, political and aesthetic boundaries. It includes some attention to theory of narrative. Films to be studied include works by Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, Francis Ford Coppolla, Clint Eastwood, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, and Federico Fellini, among others. Literary works include texts by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Honoré de Balzac, Henry James and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
How do literature, philosophy, film and other arts respond to the profound …
How do literature, philosophy, film and other arts respond to the profound changes in world view and lifestyle that mark the twentieth century? This course considers a broad range of works from different countries, different media, and different genres, in exploring the transition to a decentered “Einsteinian” universe.
Abstract Studies in Mythology is an introductory text for a survey of …
Abstract Studies in Mythology is an introductory text for a survey of myth course. It can be organized chronologically, geographically, or thematically. Included are sections from Frazier's study of myth, The Golden Bough, as well as Dante's Inferno and sections on tricksters and Irish myth. The book focuses on world mythologies and archetypal approaches to the analysis of myth.
Description Text includes sections on responding to literature, Greek myth (including several chapters from Bulfinch), defining myth's functions, Irish myths & legends, the Tao te Ching, American folklore & myth, American horror, comic books, MLA style, and student resources. Prior to my adaptation, this course was created from materials originally developed from an American Literature course at J. Sargent Reynolds Community College. Studies in Mythology is a modified version of the Lumen American Literature II text. The original version of this book was released under a CC-BY license and is copyright by Lumen Learning. In past versions of the course, I have used primary texts such as the Finnish Kalevala, the Homeric Hyms, or contemporary works influenced by mythology such as Gaiman’s Ameican Gods. Along with this OER text, students will be reading the Pinsky translation of Inferno, as well as the Frank Herbert mythology-based novel Dune. Several excellent sites exist on the web and collect images and out-of-copyright myth texts. I include some links to these, but the focus is mostly on the application of students’ analytical skills to the new reading material.
William Butler Yeats occupies a dominant position in the lives and work …
William Butler Yeats occupies a dominant position in the lives and work of the Irish poets who followed him. We will explore some of that poetry, and consider how later poets, especially female poets, tried to come to grips with, or escape from, that dominance. As a seminar, the subject will place special emphasis on student involvement and control. I will ask you to submit one ten-twelve page essay, two shorter (five page) essays, and to accept the role of “leadoff person,” perhaps more than once, That role will demand that you choose from among the assigned readings for that session the poem we should focus upon, and to offer either a provocative articulation of what the poem is about, or a provocative question which the poem confronts, and which we should grapple with, as well.
Do poems think? Recurrent images of the poet as an inspired lunatic, …
Do poems think? Recurrent images of the poet as an inspired lunatic, and of poetry as a fundamentally irrational art, have often fostered an understanding of poets and their work as generally extraneous to the work of the sciences. Yet poets have long reflected upon and have sought to embody in their work the most elementary processes of mind, and have frequently drawn for these representations on the very sciences to which they are thought to stand - and sometimes do genuinely stand - in opposition. Far from representing a mere departure from reason, then, the poem offers an image of the mind at work, an account of how minds work, a tool for eliciting thought in the reader or auditor. Bringing together readings in British poetry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with writings from the emergent sciences of psychology and the physiology of the brain, this interdisciplinary course will explore the ways in which British poets, in years that witnessed the crucial development of these sciences, sought to capture an image of the mind at work. The primary aim of the course is to examine how several prominent genres of British poetry - the lyric, for instance, and the didactic poem - draw from and engage in this period with accounts of cognition within the sciences of psychology, physiology, and medicine. More broadly, the course aims to give undergraduates with some prior experience in the methods and topics of literary study an introduction to interdisciplinary humanistic research.
The landscape we will explore is the troublesome one of the relevance, …
The landscape we will explore is the troublesome one of the relevance, impact, and importance of poetry in a troubled modern world. We will read both poetry and prose by several substantial modern writers, each of whom confronted the question that is the subject’s title.
This course introduces students to some of the most important practitioners of …
This course introduces students to some of the most important practitioners of poetry in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, locating them in their historical and social contexts. We will be emphasizing love poetry or amatory verse, by combining close reading of selected poems with an investigation of the contexts of English verse.
The core of this seminar will be the great sequences of English …
The core of this seminar will be the great sequences of English love sonnets written by William Shakespeare, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, and Mary Wroth. These poems cover an enormous amount of aesthetic and psychological ground: ranging from the utterly subjective to the entirely public or conventional, from licit to forbidden desires, they might also serve as a manual of experimentation with the resources of sound, rhythm, and figuration in poetry. Around these sequences, we will develop several other contexts, using both Renaissance texts and modern accounts: the Petrarchan literary tradition (poems by Francis Petrarch and Sir Thomas Wyatt); the social, political, and ethical uses of love poetry (seduction, getting famous, influencing policy, elevating morals, compensating for failure); other accounts of ideal masculinity and femininity (conduct manuals, theories of gender and anatomy); and the other limits of the late sixteenth century vogue for love poetry: narrative poems, pornographic poems, poems that don’t work.
This course explores variations on the proposition that an adequate recognition of …
This course explores variations on the proposition that an adequate recognition of beauty could, however indirectly, make you a more humane person. Readings extend widely across literary and non-literary genres, including lyric poetry and the novel, philosophical prose and essays.
This week, John is talking about Toni Morrison's novel of friendship, betrayal, …
This week, John is talking about Toni Morrison's novel of friendship, betrayal, and loss, Sula. Sula tells the story of two African American girls, the town where they grew up, the tragic even that was central to their youth, and the very different people they became.
This anthology presents a superb selection of the finest Mexican short stories …
This anthology presents a superb selection of the finest Mexican short stories ever written, and offers a glimpse into a diverse and fascinating culture. Authors include Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Rosario Castellanos, and Carlos Fuentes. The Big Read Reader's Guide deepens your exploration with interviews, booklists, timelines, and historical information. We hope this guide and syllabus allow you to have fun with your students while introducing them to the work of the work of the great Mexican authors included in this anthology.
This course explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on …
This course explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on the social history and context of supernatural beliefs as reflected in key literary and musical works from 1600 to the present. It provides an understanding of the place of ambiguity and the role of interpretation in culture, science and art. Great works of art by Shakespeare, Verdi, Goethe (in translation), Gounod, Henry James and Benjamin Britten are explored, as well as readings from the most recent scholarship on magic and the supernatural.
Supporting ELLs in FYC is organized around five key essays, selected to …
Supporting ELLs in FYC is organized around five key essays, selected to coordinate with the essay styles commonly taught in first-year/first-semester composition courses. This organization is planned to offer instructors the flexibility to best support the pacing of the composition course. There are 2 expository, 1 narrative, and 2 argument essays. Each module includes one essay, with accompanying activities and supporting materials. Expository: Sweet, Sour & Resentful Expository: Why Rituals Are Good Narrative: Prison to Professor Argument: Fake News Argument: Misinformation
Abstract: Authoring America: A Survey of American Literature from Its Beginnings to …
Abstract: Authoring America: A Survey of American Literature from Its Beginnings to 2020 is a five-volume, completely-open anthology that features full text by over 100 authors. From Native American tales of origins to the latest poem read at a presidential inauguration, the selections represent the diverse voices in American literature. This anthology charts the development of the literary production in the United States, highlighting the writers who influenced and authored American letters.
Volume 1 was developed as an adaptation of the textbook "Becoming America: An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution" by Wendy Kurant, developed at the University of Georgia and the Galileo Open Learning Materials program.
Volumes 2-5 were developed as an adaptation of the textbook Writing the Nation a Concise Introduction… by Amy Berke, Robert Bleil, Jordan Cofer and Doug Davis, developed at the University of Georgia and the Galileo Open Learning Materials program. In volumes 4-5, copyrighted materials are linked to the University of Delaware Library's collections. Others using these volumes should check with their librarians to see if these materials are available and can be linked.
Description: Features: Contextualizing introductions to the major literary periods, over 100 historical images, and In-depth biographies of each author.
Survey of British Literature I Readings and Syllabus ENG 204 and ENG …
Survey of British Literature I Readings and Syllabus
ENG 204 and ENG 205 Survey of English Literature
Description The first half of a two-course survey of British literature that includes English 205. English 204 introduces students to British literature from its Anglo-Saxon and Celtic beginnings through the 18th century.
The second half of a two-course survey of British literature that includes English 204. English 205 introduces students to British literature from the 19th century to the present.
Core Outcomes
1. Communication. 2. Community and Environmental Responsibility. 3. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. 4. Cultural Awareness. 5. Professional Competence. 6. Self-Reflection.
Abstract This survey textbook overviews Native American literature from its origins in …
Abstract This survey textbook overviews Native American literature from its origins in poems and creation myths of the continent's hundreds of Native cultures. Texts are organized with major sections on creation myths, fiction, poetry, and nonfiction/memoir. Standing Bear's Land of the Spotted Eagle is included, along with a scattering of non-Native writers for contrast. The text also focuses on experiencing Native literature through Western lenses, since that is the viewpoint through which students necessarily approach the topic. The text adapts Lumen Learning's Introduction to Literature course shell, which operates with a CC-BY license and was provided by Ivy Tech Community College. Most of the texts are available through web or PDF links. The basic Introduction to Literature material is mostly hidden from student views, but is kept in case instructors wish to use it. Description Survey of Native American Literature offers a multi-genre approach to the field of Native American literature. Each section contains several representative voices, with more recent writings linked and older ones included either in full or as excerpts. Texts are organized with major sections on creation myths, fiction, poetry, and nonfiction/memoir. Standing Bear's Land of the Spotted Eagle is included, along with a scattering of non-Native writers for contrast. The text also focuses on experiencing Native literature through Western lenses, since that is the viewpoint through which students necessarily approach the topic.
This is a course on Shakespeare’s career, given at Brandeis University in …
This is a course on Shakespeare’s career, given at Brandeis University in the spring of 2010, by William Flesch. It covers several representative plays from all four genres: comedy, tragedy, history, and romance. We consider both the similarities and differences among those genres, and how his more and more radical experimentations in genre reflect his developing thought, about theater, about time, about life, over the course of his career. In terms of texts, any complete Shakespeare will suffice, including this free version online from MIT. The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, is also recommended.
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