Shakespeare II

Students study of seven representative plays (not covered in ENGL 551) of William Shakespeare and a selection of his sonnets. The Shakespearean works are read within the historically specific cultural context in which they were produced. The course pays particular attention to the way in which Shakespeare blurs generic, thematic, and ideological boundaries in his poetic and dramatic works — exploring his fusion of the tragic and the comic, the sacred and the profane, the noble and the plebeian, the fantastic and the historic, and the orthodox and the transgressive. Students also explore the ways in which these richly layered texts affirm or interrogate the dominant cultural values in Elizabethan and Jacobean Britain.

Milton

The major poetic works and selected prose of Milton are read in light of his claim to be the delegated spokesperson for God and Parliament in early-modern England. Milton's works are seen both to reflect the tension and trauma of the Civil War, Interregnum and Restoration, and to participate in shaping a new state and new modes of existence.

Milton

The major poetic works and selected prose of Milton are read in light of his claim to be the delegated spokesperson for God and Parliament in early-modern England. Milton's works are seen both to reflect the tension and trauma of the Civil War, Interregnum and Restoration, and to participate in shaping a new state and new modes of existence.

Renaissance Poetry and Prose

The course examines representative selections of the poetry and prose of the high and late Renaissance period in England, covering a century from about 1580-1680, an era characterized by an impressive range of literary output that has never been rivaled in the western world. Even apart from the work of the most eminent figures— Shakespeare and Milton—this period offers a rich and varied legacy of poetry and impressive essays, treatises, and allegories, by such great literary figures as Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Wroth, Jonson, Bacon, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Browne, Pepys, and Bunyan who, along with other selected authors, are represented in this course. The course also addresses the political, religious, and theological controversies that energized so much of the writing of this dynamic century.

Renaissance Poetry and Prose

The course examines representative selections of the poetry and prose of the high and late Renaissance period in England, covering a century from about 1580-1680, an era characterized by an impressive range of literary output that has never been rivaled in the western world. Even apart from the work of the most eminent figures— Shakespeare and Milton—this period offers a rich and varied legacy of poetry and impressive essays, treatises, and allegories, by such great literary figures as Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Wroth, Jonson, Bacon, Donne, Herbert, Marvell, Browne, Pepys, and Bunyan who, along with other selected authors, are represented in this course. The course also addresses the political, religious, and theological controversies that energized so much of the writing of this dynamic century.

Seventeenth-Century Women's Writing

A survey of women's writing in the seventeenth century which examines the poetry, prose, and dramatic works of literary figures such as Lady Mary Wroth, Aemilia Lanyer, Anne Bradstreet, Katherine Philips, Margaret Cavendish, and Aphra Behn. The writings of these early-modern women are examined in order to understand how they address not only what it is to be a woman in early- modern times, but what it is to be human, an activity which involves the exploration of historical practices, philosophical concepts, political theories, and theological tenets.

Seventeenth-Century Women's Writing

A survey of women's writing in the seventeenth century which examines the poetry, prose, and dramatic works of literary figures such as Lady Mary Wroth, Aemilia Lanyer, Anne Bradstreet, Katherine Philips, Margaret Cavendish, and Aphra Behn. The writings of these early-modern women are examined in order to understand how they address not only what it is to be a woman in early- modern times, but what it is to be human, an activity which involves the exploration of historical practices, philosophical concepts, political theories, and theological tenets.

Eighteenth-Century Literature

A study of the poetry, non-fiction prose, and novels of the major writers of the neoclassical period, including such authors as John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, and Samuel Richardson.

Eighteenth-Century Literature

A study of the poetry, non-fiction prose, and novels of the major writers of the neoclassical period, including such authors as John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, and Samuel Richardson.

Drama to 1642 Excluding Shakespeare

The study of selected dramatic works written in English prior to the closing of the theatres in 1642, including medieval mystery and morality plays and works by Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline playwrights, excluding Shakespeare.

Drama to 1642 Excluding Shakespeare

The study of selected dramatic works written in English prior to the closing of the theatres in 1642, including medieval mystery and morality plays and works by Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline playwrights, excluding Shakespeare.

The Nineteenth-Century Novel

This course offers a study of representative novels and novelists from nineteenth-century Britain. The novel as a genre flourished during this time, as the novel's form was shaped by writers such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontà«, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy.

The Nineteenth-Century Novel

This course offers a study of representative novels and novelists from nineteenth-century Britain. The novel as a genre flourished during this time, as the novel's form was shaped by writers such as Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontà«, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy.

Romantic Poetry and Poetics

A study of the poetry created by the six major poets grouped under the term romantic: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron (George Gordon), Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. The course considers both the poetry and critical theories of these influential authors. Graduate students concentrate on the poetry and criticism of one particular poet.

Romantic Poetry and Poetics

A study of the poetry created by the six major poets grouped under the term romantic: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron (George Gordon), Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats. The course considers both the poetry and critical theories of these influential authors. Graduate students concentrate on the poetry and criticism of one particular poet.

Victorian Poetry and Prose

The study of the poetry and nonfiction prose of British writers during the Victorian era (1837- 1901), including prose authors such as Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, and John Ruskin, and poets such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The course considers these works in the context of Victorian Britain's preoccupation with questions about politics, education, art, science, religion, and the role of women.

Victorian Poetry and Prose

The study of the poetry and nonfiction prose of British writers during the Victorian era (1837- 1901), including prose authors such as Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, and John Ruskin, and poets such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The course considers these works in the context of Victorian Britain's preoccupation with questions about politics, education, art, science, religion, and the role of women.

Studies in Modern British Literature

This course studies representative works in British prose, fiction and poetry that both shape and reflect contemporary British literary sensibilities. It includes a selection of poetry from writers such as W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, D.H. Lawrence, Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney; prose from George Orwell and Virginia Woolf; and novels from A.S. Byatt, Joseph Conrad, John Fowles, David Mitchell and Graham Swift.

Studies in Modern British Literature

This course studies representative works in British prose, fiction and poetry that both shape and reflect contemporary British literary sensibilities. It includes a selection of poetry from writers such as W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, D.H. Lawrence, Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney; prose from George Orwell and Virginia Woolf; and novels from A.S. Byatt, Joseph Conrad, John Fowles, David Mitchell and Graham Swift.

World Literature in English

This course focuses on issues related to post- colonialism and literature through the study of literature written in English by writers from post- colonial nations.

World Literature in English

This course focuses on issues related to post- colonialism and literature through the study of literature written in English by writers from post- colonial nations.

Contemporary Canadian Fiction

A study of representative works of contemporary Canadian fiction and the development of the post- modern, post-colonial, post-national novel. Authors (a minimum of six) may include a selection of Margaret Atwood, Dionne Brand, Timothy Findley, Jack Hodgins, Hugh Hood, Thomas King, Yann Martel, Rohinton Mistry, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Sky Lee, Jane Urquhart, Guy Vanderhaeghe, and Rudy Wiebe.

Contemporary Canadian Fiction

A study of representative works of contemporary Canadian fiction and the development of the post- modern, post-colonial, post-national novel. Authors (a minimum of six) may include a selection of Margaret Atwood, Dionne Brand, Timothy Findley, Jack Hodgins, Hugh Hood, Thomas King, Yann Martel, Rohinton Mistry, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Sky Lee, Jane Urquhart, Guy Vanderhaeghe, and Rudy Wiebe.

Studies in Individual Authors

This course is designed to give students the opportunity of studying for an entire semester the works of up to two significant authors.

Studies in Individual Authors

This course is designed to give students the opportunity of studying for an entire semester the works of up to two significant authors.

Children's Literature

The course examines children's literature from the seventeenth century to the present, analyzing representative texts and changing attitudes toward children and their books. Beginning with early didactic stories and traditional folk and fairy tales, and then moving on to British, American, and Canadian novels, the course focuses on questions of history, philosophy, authorship, readership, and genre. The emphasis is on close critical readings of the texts.

Children's Literature

The course examines children's literature from the seventeenth century to the present, analyzing representative texts and changing attitudes toward children and their books. Beginning with early didactic stories and traditional folk and fairy tales, and then moving on to British, American, and Canadian novels, the course focuses on questions of history, philosophy, authorship, readership, and genre. The emphasis is on close critical readings of the texts.

Fantasy Literature

Examines the long history of fantasy texts by first locating works of George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Madeleine L'Engle within the Anglo-Saxon epic and the Medieval romance literary traditions in English literature, including Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The course also considers how these works have shaped the imagination of creators of modern fantasy as well as the argument that modern fantasy is a response to post-Enlightenment rationalism.

Fantasy Literature

Examines the long history of fantasy texts by first locating works of George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Madeleine L'Engle within the Anglo-Saxon epic and the Medieval romance literary traditions in English literature, including Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The course also considers how these works have shaped the imagination of creators of modern fantasy as well as the argument that modern fantasy is a response to post-Enlightenment rationalism.

The Inklings and Friends

An intensive study of representative works by the famous Inklings-associated authors—the five twentieth-century British writers C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and Dorothy L. Sayers, and their two earlier mentors George MacDonald and G. K. Chesterton. Students will evaluate and articulate the legacy of their diverse literary art and its contribution to Christianity and culture.

Core Seminar: Reading the Signs of the Times: Text and Interpretation

Designed to orient students to the crucial transition from modernist to postmodernist and post-postmodernist models of texts and interpretation, models that depend on changing philosophical views of truth and reality. It examines the main interpretive paradigms in literary studies in order to show how views of reason, language, and textuality continue to shape one's life horizons.

Core Seminar: Reading the Signs of the Times: Text and Interpretation

Designed to orient students to the crucial transition from modernist to postmodernist and post-postmodernist models of texts and interpretation, models that depend on changing philosophical views of truth and reality. It examines the main interpretive paradigms in literary studies in order to show how views of reason, language, and textuality continue to shape one's life horizons.

Special Topics in English Literature

Topics may vary. Courses to date include: - Foundations of Ethical Being - James Baldwin: The Dialectic of Race and Religion - Kierkegaard's Postscript - Life Writing as a Literary Genre: Biography as Identification of Self and Subjectivity - The Poetics of Resistance, Affirmation and Immigrant Voices and the Poetry of Trauma - Studies in George MacDonald - German Romanticism - Gothic Fiction - Poetics of American Literature - Merton and the Solitary Tradition - The Eighteenth-Century Novel - Jane Austen - Identity and Ethics in Communication - Milton and the Romantics - Shakespearean Trauma and the Early- Modern Suffering Self - Studies in the Late-Victorian Fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Special Topics in English Literature

Topics may vary. Courses to date include: - Foundations of Ethical Being - James Baldwin: The Dialectic of Race and Religion - Kierkegaard's Postscript - Life Writing as a Literary Genre: Biography as Identification of Self and Subjectivity - The Poetics of Resistance, Affirmation and Immigrant Voices and the Poetry of Trauma - Studies in George MacDonald - German Romanticism - Gothic Fiction - Poetics of American Literature - Merton and the Solitary Tradition - The Eighteenth-Century Novel - Jane Austen - Identity and Ethics in Communication - Milton and the Romantics - Shakespearean Trauma and the Early- Modern Suffering Self - Studies in the Late-Victorian Fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Bibliography

Under the direction of the student's approved thesis or major research paper advisor, a course of reading and study which leads to the development of both a significant bibliographical essay (or annotated bibliography) and a thesis proposal. The latter includes at least the following: major question(s) to be addressed; significance of the issue(s); methodologies to be used; theories to be addressed and primary sources to be examined.

Bibliography

Under the direction of the student's approved thesis or major research paper advisor, a course of reading and study which leads to the development of both a significant bibliographical essay (or annotated bibliography) and a thesis proposal. The latter includes at least the following: major question(s) to be addressed; significance of the issue(s); methodologies to be used; theories to be addressed and primary sources to be examined.

Thesis

Thesis

Thesis

Thesis

Major Essay

Under the direction of a supervisor, students not writing a thesis will research and write a major paper of approximately 10,000-15,000 words in length.

Major Essay

Under the direction of a supervisor, students not writing a thesis will research and write a major paper of approximately 10,000-15,000 words in length.

Of Paradise and Light: Early Modern Devotional Writing

The study of the literary expression of religious desire, doubt, and despair in early-modern British literature. The aesthetic shaping of spiritual belief and sentiment within specific historical and cultural contexts is investigated in a selection of early-modern works, including those by Anne Vaughan Lock, Robert Southwell, George Herbert, John Donne, Elizabeth Melville, Henry Vaughan, Richard Crashaw, An Collins, Thomas Traherne, John Bunyan, George Fox, and Margaret Fell Fox. Their works are read alongside religious texts central to the Catholic and Protestant traditions, including the Geneva Bible, the Douay-Rheims Bible, the King James Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and Joseph Hall's The Art of Divine Meditation.

Of Paradise and Light: Early Modern Devotional Writing

The study of the literary expression of religious desire, doubt, and despair in early-modern British literature. The aesthetic shaping of spiritual belief and sentiment within specific historical and cultural contexts is investigated in a selection of early-modern works, including those by Anne Vaughan Lock, Robert Southwell, George Herbert, John Donne, Elizabeth Melville, Henry Vaughan, Richard Crashaw, An Collins, Thomas Traherne, John Bunyan, George Fox, and Margaret Fell Fox. Their works are read alongside religious texts central to the Catholic and Protestant traditions, including the Geneva Bible, the Douay-Rheims Bible, the King James Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the Thirty-Nine Articles, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and Joseph Hall's The Art of Divine Meditation.

(Auto)biography as Literary Genre: Self-Identification and Subjectivity

Examines (auto)biographies as literary artifacts, responses to culture, and as texts within which identity is shaped and altered by the intentional acts of their writers. Examines current theories of (auto)biography by including life studies written by individuals whose association with the literary order has its origins in intellectual and cultural spheres. Explores how life writing participates in the construction of identity and engages subjectivity as a narrative strategy. Theorists including Paul Ricoeur, George Steiner, Richard Kearney, and Eva Hoffman are foundational to this study. The reading list includes (auto)biographical writings from authors such as Elie Wiesel, Victor Frankl, Eva Hoffman, Anne Michaels, Michael Ondaatje, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Richard Foster, Frederick Buechner, Annie Dillard, Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis, and other significant (auto)biographers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

(Auto)biography as Literary Genre: Self-Identification and Subjectivity

Examines (auto)biographies as literary artifacts, responses to culture, and as texts within which identity is shaped and altered by the intentional acts of their writers. Examines current theories of (auto)biography by including life studies written by individuals whose association with the literary order has its origins in intellectual and cultural spheres. Explores how life writing participates in the construction of identity and engages subjectivity as a narrative strategy. Theorists including Paul Ricoeur, George Steiner, Richard Kearney, and Eva Hoffman are foundational to this study. The reading list includes (auto)biographical writings from authors such as Elie Wiesel, Victor Frankl, Eva Hoffman, Anne Michaels, Michael Ondaatje, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Richard Foster, Frederick Buechner, Annie Dillard, Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis, and other significant (auto)biographers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Christian Humanism

This course seeks to recover humanism as a central ethos of western culture and its Christian roots in two ways: first, by tracing, as much as possible, the story of humanism and its development from Christian roots to the Renaissance and to Postmodernity and its current “overcoming.” This historical exercise requires a counter narrative to the secularist master narrative that dominates both contemporary secular and Christian ideas of humanism. Secondly, students are encouraged to consider recovering Christian humanism as a possible philosophy of culture that could address the main malaise of our present cultural predicament. For this purpose the course draws on works from eastern and western theologians to establish theologically the theme of humanism as it arises from the Christology of the early church and persists into works of modern Catholic, Protestant, and eastern theology. All of this study provides the student with a deep sense that studying in the humanities may indeed be linked directly to Christology and ecclesiology.

Christian Humanism

This course seeks to recover humanism as a central ethos of western culture and its Christian roots in two ways: first, by tracing, as much as possible, the story of humanism and its development from Christian roots to the Renaissance and to Postmodernity and its current “overcoming.” This historical exercise requires a counter narrative to the secularist master narrative that dominates both contemporary secular and Christian ideas of humanism. Secondly, students are encouraged to consider recovering Christian humanism as a possible philosophy of culture that could address the main malaise of our present cultural predicament. For this purpose the course draws on works from eastern and western theologians to establish theologically the theme of humanism as it arises from the Christology of the early church and persists into works of modern Catholic, Protestant, and eastern theology. All of this study provides the student with a deep sense that studying in the humanities may indeed be linked directly to Christology and ecclesiology.

Religion, Gender, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century Britain

This course provides an intensive study of how the writers of influential nineteenth-century British literary texts (including short and long poems, a novella, novels, and prose non-fiction) chose to portray the intersection of religious faith and gender. This course not only familiarizes students with the most significant nineteenth-century British authors, but also enables a thorough exploration of two of the most prevalent areas of debate in the nineteenth century: gender roles and questions of faith. The course focuses on these texts as literature, taking into consideration genre, literary techniques, and audience, but the course as a whole crosses disciplinary boundaries as students read philosophical and historical writers such as John Stuart Mill and John Ruskin. Students also become familiar with the major theoretical approaches applied to these texts by contemporary literary critics.

Religion, Gender, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century Britain

This course provides an intensive study of how the writers of influential nineteenth-century British literary texts (including short and long poems, a novella, novels, and prose non-fiction) chose to portray the intersection of religious faith and gender. This course not only familiarizes students with the most significant nineteenth-century British authors, but also enables a thorough exploration of two of the most prevalent areas of debate in the nineteenth century: gender roles and questions of faith. The course focuses on these texts as literature, taking into consideration genre, literary techniques, and audience, but the course as a whole crosses disciplinary boundaries as students read philosophical and historical writers such as John Stuart Mill and John Ruskin. Students also become familiar with the major theoretical approaches applied to these texts by contemporary literary critics.