In this interdisciplinary core class, we will study how literature and other media can usher us into a claimed actuality very different from the external world as it is collectively perceived or experienced. At least ...

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The didactic and moral content of English literature often seems in conflict with modern notions of reading as a form of entertainment or imaginative escape. What happens, for instance, if we derive ...

COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this class, we will explore “travel writing” within its changing cultural and historical contexts. Our investigation begins in classical antiquity, with material focused on the westward migration ...

Werewolves, dragons, giants, witches, demons, lepers, anthropophagi (a race of cannibals with eyes in their chests)-the Middle Ages were awash in tales of the monstrous. In this class, we will consider monsters and the ...

This “gateway” course to the English major is an introduction to critical issues in the discipline of literary studies. It is not, strictly speaking, an introduction to the history of literary criticism or a survey of ...

This course focuses on the life and work of John Milton (1608-74), with special attention to Paradise Lost in its literary and historical contexts. We will seek to understand how Milton's religious knowledge illuminates ...

A study of Shakespeare’s principal plays and their adaption into modern and contemporary media, especially film. Emphasis on transnational and non-Anglophone cinema, the idea of a “global” Shakespeare, and the construction ...