Vassar College Department of English

II. Intermediate

Prerequisite: open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors with one unit of 100-level work or by permission of the associate chair. Students applying for permission to elect 200-level work must present samples of their writing to the associate chair. Freshmen with AP credit may elect 200-level work after consultation with the department and with the permission of the instructor. First-year students who have completed English 101 may elect 200-level work with permission of the instructor. Intermediate writing courses are not open to freshmen.

205a or b. Composition (1)

Study and practice of various forms of prose and poetry. Reading and writing assignments may include prose fiction, journals, poetry, drama, and essays. The a-term course is open by special permission to sophomores regardless of major, in order of draw numbers, and to juniors and seniors, in order of draw numbers, with priority given to English majors. The b-term course is open by special permission to sophomores, juniors, and seniors, in order of draw numbers, with priority given to English majors. To gain special permission, students must fill out a form in the English department office during pre-registration.

One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.

206a or b. Composition (1)

Open to any student who has taken English 205 or an equivalent course.

Special permission is not required.

One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.

207a or b. Literary Nonfiction (1)

Study and practice of literary nonfiction in various formats. Reading and writing assignments may include personal, informal, and lyric essays, travel and nature writing; and memoirs. Frequent short writing assignments. Mr. Kumar, Ms. Long.

One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.

208b. Literary Nonfiction (1)

Development of the student's abilities as a reader and writer of literary nonfiction, with emphasis on longer forms. Mr. Hsu.

Prerequisite: open to students who have taken any of the other 200-level writing courses in English or by permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour course and individual conferences with the instructor.

209-210. Narrative Writing (1)

Development of the student's abilities as a writer and reader of narrative, with particular emphasis on the short story. Ms. Kane.

Deadline for submission of writing samples is before spring break.

One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.

211-212. Verse Writing (1)

Development of the student's abilities as a writer and reader of poetry. Ms. McGlennen.

Deadline for submission of writing samples is before spring break.

One 2-hour period and individual conferences with the instructor.

[ 213. The English Language ] (1)

Study of the history of English from the fifth century to the present, with special attention to the role of literature in effecting as well as reflecting linguistic change. Treatment of peculiarly literary matters, such as poetic diction, and attention to broader linguistic matters, such as phonology, comparative philology, semantics, and the relationship between language and experience.

Not offered in 2009/10.

215b. Pre-modern Drama: Text and Performance before 1800 (1)

Study of selected dramatic texts and their embodiment both on the page and the stage. Authors, critical and theoretical approaches, dramatic genres, historical coverage, and themes may vary from year to year.

Topic for 2009/10: Pre-Modern Drama: Medieval Drama and the Chester Cycle. Medieval Drama could be considered one of the earliest forms of community theater, and definitely one of the earliest instances of drama for the regular folk. In this class, we examine all of the Chester Cycle, a play cycle of 24 plays produced and acted by various craft guilds of the town of Chester from the fourteenth century into the sixteenth century. Ms. Kim.

[ 216b. Modern Drama: Text and Performance after 1800 ] (1)

Study of modern dramatic texts and their embodiment both on the page and the stage. Authors, critical and theoretical approaches, dramatic genres, historical coverage, and themes may vary from year to year.

Topic for 2009/10b: Twentieth-Century American Drama: Dysfunctional Families. This course explores modern plays that present debacles in the private sphere and its most widely accepted, codified, and institutionalized social manifestation: the family. As a site of incessant conflicts and negotiations between the individual and the other and between the intimate and the public, the family offers an ideal framework and subject matter for commentary on a variety of moral and social issues. Through an overview of twentieth-century American drama, this course pays particular attention to the vestiges of the American Dream in a range of dramatic representations of dysfunctional families. As a survey with a special focus, the course may include plays by Thornton Wilder, Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Lorraine Hansberry, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, August Wilson, David Mamet, Wendy Wasserstein, David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner, and Suzan-Lori Park. Mr. Markus.

Not offered in 2009/10.

217b. Literary Theory and Interpretation (1)

A study of various critical theories and practices ranging from antiquity to the present day. Mr. Sharp.

218b. Literature, Gender, and Sexuality (1)

(Same as Africana Studies 218 and Women's Studies 218.) This course considers matters of gender and sexuality in literary texts, criticism, and theory. The focus varies from year to year, and may include study of a historical period, literary movement, or genre; constructions of masculinity and femininity; sexual identities; or representations of gender in relation to race and class. Ms. Dunbar.

Topic for 2009/10: Black Feminism.

222, 223. Founding of English Literature (1)

These courses offer an introduction to British literary history through an exploration of texts from the eighth through the seventeenth centuries in their literary and cultural contexts. The fall term begins with Old English literature and continues through the death of Queen Elizabeth I (1603). The spring term begins with the establishment of Great Britain and continues through the British Civil War and Puritan Interregnum to the Restoration. Critical issues may include discourses of difference (race, religion, gender, social class); tribal, ethnic, and national identities; exploration and colonization; textual transmission and the rise of print culture; authorship and authority. Both courses address the formation and evolution of the British literary canon, and its significance for contemporary English studies. Ms. Kim, Ms. Dunn.

225a. American Literature, Origins to 1865 (1)

Study of the main developments in American literature from its origins through the Civil War: including Native American traditions, exploration accounts, Puritan writings, captivity and slave narratives, as well as major authors from the eighteenth century (such as Edwards, Franklin, Jefferson, Rowson, and Brown) up to the mid-nineteenth century (Irving, Cooper, Poe, Emerson, Hawthorne, Fuller, Stowe, Thoreau, Douglass, Melville, Whitman, and Dickinson). Mr. Kane.

226b. American Literature, 1865-1925 (1)

Study of the major developments in American literature and culture from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Literary movements such as realism, naturalism, regionalism, and modernism are examined, as well as literatures of ethnicity, race, and gender. Works studied are drawn from such authors as Twain, Howells, James, Jewett, Chestnutt, Chopin, Crane, London, Harte, DuBois, Gilman, Adams, Wharton, Dreiser, Pound, Eliot, Stein, Yezierska, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, O'Neill, Frost, H. D., and Toomer. Mr. Peck.

227a. The Harlem Renaissance and its Precursors (1)

(Same as Africana Studies 227a) This course places the Harlem Renaissance in literary historical perspective as it seeks to answer the following questions: In what ways was "The New Negro" new? How did African American writers of the Harlem Renaissance rework earlier literary forms from the sorrow songs to the sermon and the slave narrative? How do the debates that raged during this period over the contours of a black aesthetic trace their origins to the concerns that attended the entry of African Americans into the literary public sphere in the eighteenth century? Ms. Dunbar.

228b. African American Literature, "Vicious Modernism" and Beyond (1)

(Same as Africana Studies 228b) In the famous phrase of Amiri Baraka, "Harlem is vicious/ Modernism." Beginning with the modernist innovations of African American writers after the Harlem Renaissance, this course ranges from the social protest fiction of the 1940s through the Black Arts Movement to the postmodernist experiments of contemporary African American writers. Ms. Dunbar.

229a. Asian-American Literature, 1946-present (1)

This course considers such topics as memory, identity, liminality, community, and cultural and familial inheritance within Asian-American literary traditions. May consider Asian-American literature in relation to other ethnic literatures. Mr. Hsu.

230a. Latina and Latino Literature in the U.S. (1)

(Same as Latin American and Latino/a Studies 230a) This literature engages a history of conflict, resistance, and mestizaje. For some understanding of this embattled context, we examine transnational migration, exile, assimilation, bilingualism, and political and economic oppression as these variously affect the means and modes of the texts under consideration. At the same time, we emphasize the invented and hybrid nature of Latina and Latino literary and cultural traditions, and investigate the place of those inventions in the larger framework of American intellectual and literary traditions, on the one hand, and pan-Latinidad, on the other. Authors studied may include Americo Paredes, Piri Thomas, Cherrie Moraga, Richard Rodriguez, Michelle Serros, Cristina Garcia, Ana Castillo, and Junot Diaz. Mr. Perez.

231b. Native American Literature (1)

Drawing from a wide range of traditions, this course explores the rich heritage of Native American literature. Material for study may comprise oral traditions (myths, legends, place naming and story telling) as well as contemporary fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Authors may include Zitkala Sa, Black Elk, N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Silko, Louise Erdrich, Simon Ortiz, Sherman Alexie, and Joy Harjo. Ms. McGlennen.

235a. Old English (1)

Introduction to Old English language and literature. Mr. Amodio.

236b. Beowulf (1)

Intensive study of the early English epic in the original language. Mr. Amodio.

Prerequisite: English 235 or demonstrated knowledge of Old English, or permission of the instructor.

237a. Chaucer (1)

The major poetry, including The Canterbury Tales.

Topic for 2009/10: Chaucer: Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. The class examines Chaucer's largest finished poetic work Troilus and Criseyde. We read the sources of the Troilus and Criseyde story, including Benoit de St. Maure's Roman de Troie, Boccaccio's Il Filistrato, and some of the continuations of the story including Henryson's Testament of Creseid and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. We also look at some of Chaucer's dream vision poetry and examine the Kelmscott Chaucer. Ms. Kim

238b. Middle English Literature (1)

Studies in late medieval literature (1250-1500), drawing on the works of the Gawain-poet, Langland, Chaucer, and others. Genres studied may include lyric, romance, drama, allegory, and vision. Mr. Amodio.

240a or b. Shakespeare (1)

Study of some representative comedies, histories, and tragedies. Ms. Dunn, Mr. Foster, Mr. Weedin.

Not open to students who have taken English 241-242.

[ 241-242. Shakespeare ] (1)

(Same as Drama 241-242) Study of a substantial number of the plays, roughly in chronological order, to permit a detailed consideration of the range and variety of Shakespeare's dramatic art. Ms. Dunn.

Not open to students who have taken English 240.

Not offered in 2009/10.

[ 245a. Pride and Prejudice: British Literature from 1640-1745 ] (1)

Study of various authors who were influential in defining the literary culture and the meaning of authorship in the period. Authors may include Aphra Behn, John Dryden, Anne Finch, John Gay, Eliza Haywood, Mary Leapor, Katherine Philips, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Ms. Park.

246b. Sense and Sensibility: British Literature from 1745-1798 (1)

Study of the writers who represented the culmination of neoclassical literature in Great Britain and those who built on, critiqued, or even defined themselves against it. Authors may include Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Edmund Burke, William Beckford, William Cowper, Olaudah Equiano, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Mary Wollstonecraft, Ann Radcliffe, Anne Yearsley, and Hannah More. Ms. Park.

247b. Eighteenth-Century British Novels (1)

Readings vary but include works by such novelists as Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, and Austen. Ms. Park.

248a. The Age of Romanticism, 1789-1832 (1)

Study of British literature in a time of revolution. Authors may include such poets as Blake, Wordsworth, and Keats; essayists such as Burke, Wollstonecraft, Hazlitt, Lamb, and DeQuincey; and novelists such as Edgeworth, Austen, Mary Shelley, and Scott. Mr. Sharp.

[ 249. Victorian Literature: Culture and Anarchy ] (1)

Study of Victorian culture through the prose writers of the period. This course explores the strategies of nineteenth-century writers who struggled to find meaning and order in a changing world. It focuses on such issues as industrialization, the woman question, imperialism, aestheticism, and decadence, paying particular attention to the relationship between literary and social discourses. Authors may include nonfiction prose writers such as Carlyle, Ruskin, Arnold, Pater, and Wilde as well as fiction writers such as Disraeli, Gaskell, Dickens, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, George Eliot, and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Not offered 2009/10.

250a. Victorian Poets: Eminent, Decadent, and Obscure (1)

A study of Romantic impulses and Victorian compromises as expressed in the major poems of Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Swinburne. The second half of the course turns from economies of the aesthetic to material conditions of the literary marketplace and to challenges met and posed by women writers such as Felicia Hemans, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Brontë, Christina Rossetti, Michael Field (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper), and Alice Meynell. Some preliminary study of romantic poetry is strongly recommended. Mr. Kane.

251a. Topics in Black Literatures (1)

(Same as Africana Studies 251) This course considers Black literatures in all their richness and diversity. The focus changes from year to year, and may include study of a historical period, literary movement, or genre. The course may take a comparative, diasporic approach or may examine a single national or regional literature. Ms. Yow.

252b. Writing the Diaspora: Verses/Versus (1)

(Same as Africana Studies 252b) Black American cultural expression is anchored in rhetorical battles and verbal jousts that place one character against another. From sorrow songs to blues, black music has always been a primary means of cultural expression for African Americans, particularly during difficult social periods and transition. Black Americans have used music and particularly rhythmic verse to resist, express, and signify. Nowhere is this more evident than in hip hop culture generally and hip hop music specifically. Mr. Laymon

This semester's Writing the Diaspora class concerns itself with close textual analysis of hip hop texts. Is Imani Perry right in claiming that Hip Hop is Black American music, ot diasporic music? In addition to close textual reading of lyrics, students are asked to create their own hip hop texts that speak to particular artists/texts and/or issues and styles raised.

255a. Nineteenth-Century British Novels (1)

Readings vary but include works by such novelists as Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, the Brontës, Trollope, George Eliot, and Hardy. Ms. Zlotnick.

[ 256a. Modern British and Irish Novels ] (1)

Significant twentieth-century novels from Great Britain and Ireland. Mr. Chang.

Not offered in 2009/10.

[ 257. The Novel in English after 1945 ] (1)

The novel in English as it has developed in Africa, America, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Great Britain, India, Ireland, and elsewhere. Mr. Crawford.

Not offered in 2009/10.

[ 260b. Modern British Literature, 1901-1945 ] (1)

Study of representative modern works of literature in relation to literary modernism. Consideration of cultural crisis and political engagement, with attention to the Great War as a subject of memoir, fiction, and poetry, and to the new voices of the thirties and early forties. Authors may include Hardy, Yeats, Eliot, Lawrence, Woolf, Conrad, Graves, Vera Brittain, Rebecca West, Orwell, and Auden.

Not offered in 2009/10.

261a. Literatures of Ireland (1)

Authors, genres, themes and historical coverage may vary from year to year. Readings may range from the Táin Bó Cuailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley) and other sagas; to Anglo-Irish authors of various periods, including Swift, Goldsmith, Thomas Moore, Maria Edgeworth, George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde; to the writers of the Irish literary revival, including Roger Casement, Lady Gregory, Padraic O'Conaire, Pádraig Mac Piarais, Synge, and Yeats; to modernists Joyce, Beckett, Flann O'Brien, and Elizabeth Bowen; to contemporary Irish poets, novelists, dramatists, and musicians. Ms. Kane.

[ 262b. Postcolonial Literatures ] (1)

Study of contemporary literature written in English from Africa, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent and elsewhere. Readings in various genres by such writers as Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, Janet Frame, Nadine Gordimer, V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Derek Walcott, Patrick White. Some consideration of postcolonial literary theory.

Not offered in 2009/10.

265a or b. Selected Author (1)

Study of the work of a single author. The work may be read in relation to literary predecessors and descendants as well as in relation to the history of the writer's critical and popular reception. This course alternates from year to year with English 365. Mr. Russell, Ms. Zlotnick.

Topic for 2009/10a: Vladimir Nabokov.

Topic for 2009/10b: Jane Austen.

[ 275b. Caribbean Discourse ] (1)

(Same as Africana Studies 275) Study of the work of artists and intellectuals from the Caribbean. Analysis of fiction, non-fiction, and popular cultural forms such as calypso and reggae within their historical contexts. Attention to cultural strategies of resistance to colonial domination and to questions of community formation in the post-colonial era. May include some discussion of post-colonial literary theory and cultural studies.

Not offered 2009/10.

277b. Sea-Changes: Caribbean Rewritings of the British Canon (1)

(Same as Africana Studies 277) From William Shakespeare's The Tempest to James Joyce's Ulysses, the classic texts of the British literary canon have served as points of departure for Caribbean writers seeking to establish a dialogue between a colonial literary tradition and post-colonial national literatures. This course addresses the many re-writings of British texts by Caribbean authors from Roberto Fernandez Retamar's Caliban to Jamaica Kincaid's The Autobiography of My Mother. Among the texts to be discussed are Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, V.S. Naipaul's Guerillas, Micelle Cliff's Abeng and No Telephone to Heaven, Maryse Conde's Windward Heights, and Riosario Ferre's Sweet Diamond Dust. Ms. Yow.

280a. Classics of Modern Children's Literature (1)

This course provides a theoretically informed introduction to some of the most significant and foundational classics of modern children's literature within the Anglophone tradition. The readings encountered within the first several weeks of the course suggest that the perceived canonical traditions of literature written specifically for an audience of younger readers begin early on both to embrace and to question the Romantic and subsequent early Victorian legacies that posited "Childhood" as a privileged social construct - i.e., as a stage that was to be characterized most by its posture of fragile and somehow intangible innocence. The individual authors and works read throughout the term themselves trace a fascinating dialectic between those who would look somehow to perpetuate both such a construct and its implications (e.g. Arthur Ransome, "B.B.", Alison Uttley) on the one hand, and those who would (perhaps) openly disavow those same notions (e.g., Richard Hughes, Natalie Babbitt) on the other. The course thus - in the process of introducing (and perhaps occasionally reintroducing) students to some of the most enjoyed and perennially popular texts for children written in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries - engages in a vital and on-going debate regarding the history and nature of childhood itself, and openly addresses the perception of children and young adults both as the consumers and as the possible constructions of such literature, while also addressing a number of significant issues related to the cultivation of national, cultural, and ethnic identity, generally. Texts may include Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica (1929), Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons (1930), Noel Streatfeild, Circus Shoes (1938), "B.B." [Denys Watkins-Pitchford], Brendon Chase (1944), Noel Langley, The Land of Green Ginger (1936), Alison Uttley, A Traveller in Time (1939), Lucy M. Boston, The Children of Green Knowe (1954), Gillian Avery, The Elephant War (1960), Natalie Babbit, Tuck Everlasting (1975), Robert O'Brien, Z for Zachariah (1975).  Mr.  Mack.

290. Field Work (1/2 or 1)

Prerequisite: 2 units of 200-level work in English, and by permission of the associate chair. 1 unit of credit given only in exceptional cases.

298a or b. Independent Study (1/2 or 1)

Prerequisite: 2 units of 200-level work in English, and by permission of the associate chair. 1 unit of credit given only in exceptional cases.