Instructions "p.1-3"

Concentration Areas

Schedule of Courses

RIA/1B Descriptions

Book List: Shakespeare, W: The Riverside Shakespeare

Course Description: In this course we will examine Shakespearean plays and poems that represent characters "growing up," or making a transition from girlhood to womanhood or from boyhood to manhood (or, in some cases, from girlhood to boyhood to womanhood!). We will begin with Hamlet, and go on to As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV, pt. 1, Henry IV, pt. 2, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, selected Sonnets, and The Winter’s Tale. As we explore representations of youth and adulthood in these texts we will pay careful attention to the historical contexts for Shakespeare’s writing, so that you will learn both how to read Elizabethan dramatic poetry and also how to think about human experiences, including your own, in terms of the cultural circumstances that determine and enable those experiences. Requirements: all the reading, a dictionary assignment, a short paper (with the option to write a sonnet or a short dramatic scene in iambic pentameter), a mid-term, and a final.

24/1
Freshman Seminar: Reading the Dictionary
K. Hanson
Tues. 4-5
201 Wheeler
1 unit

Book List: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed.; Mullen, H.: Sleeping with the Dictionary

Course Description: California poet Harryette Mullen's claim that her recent book of poems, Sleeping with the Dictionary, was partially inspired by The American Heritage Dictionary, is a reminder of what a wealth of information and ideas dictionaries afford beyond the spellings and definitions for which they are most commonly consulted. In this course we will actually read that dictionary's front matter and appendices as well as individual entries, in order to learn how to use the dictionary to explore changes in words' meanings, cognate words in other languages, contested points of correct usage, principles of new word formation, and even the cultural considerations which have made English dictionary-making an enduringly profitable commercial enterprise.

24/2
Freshman Seminar: Shakespearean Comedy
A. Nelson
W 12-1
203 Wheeler
1 unit

Book List: Members of the seminar will be expected to purchase two texts: the New Penguin Shakespeare edition of Twelfth Night, and Much Ado About Nothing.

Course Description: This seminar will investigate the nature of Shakespearean comedy by studying one play in fine detail, and looking at others more briefly. The principal text will be Twelfth Night, a play which involves disguise, cross-dressing, gender-bending, mistaken identities, and misplaced affections. The class will read the entire play through in the first week or two of the semester, then go through the text again scene by scene, character by character. Each participant will be asked to give one "practice" and one formal oral presentation to the rest of the seminar. We will also follow the progress of Much Ado About Nothing-which will be presented in the same semester by English 117T, Shakespeare in the Theater-attending at least one performance and bringing the semester to a close with a discussion of that play and its production.

24/3
Freshman Seminar: Growing Up Chicano
G. Padilla
W 3-5
305 Wheeler
1 unit

This class will meet from January 21 through March 17 only.

Book List: See below

Course Description: We will read a small group of narratives about growing up Chicano. I believe that this is a particularly difficult time for all children as they face sexual pressure, violence, discouraging schools. By focusing on Chicano youth we will glimpse their experience as they come into sexuality and gender identity, the early formations of social identity, as they work through personal aspirations over against familial expectations and peer pressure, and how they see themselves coming into their own lives. We will read some of the best writers on childhood and adolescence: Sandra Cisneros's House on Mango Street and stories from Woman Hollering Creek, Gary Soto's Living up the Street, and Michele Serros's Chicana Falsa and Other Stories of Death, Identity, and Oxnard. And, we will discuss the films "and the earth did not devour him" based on the story by Tomas Rivera, "Mi Vida Loca" directed by Allison Anders, and possibly "Mi Familia" directed by Gregory Nava.

24/4
Freshman Seminar: The English Language
J. Boyd
F 1-2
106 Wheeler
1 unit

Book List: The American Heritage Dictionary (only the editions that contain the Indo-European Appendix); a class reader, available at Copy Central on Bancroft

Course Description: This seminar is about the English language-its structure and its history. We will consider the sounds, the forms, the syntax and the meanings.

24/5
Freshman Seminar: Future, Past, Present
R. Hutson
W 4-5
203 Wheeler
1 unit

Book List: Bellamy, Edward: Looking Backward; Twain, Mark: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Course Description: Bellamy's utopia and Twain's dystopia are both references to the United States at the time of writing, the late 1880s. Just what is the nature of their critiques of the United States and the modern world? Edward Bellamy's LOOKING BACKWARD, published in 1887, became a major political phenomenon at the time. Mark Twain's CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, published in 1889, was popular but was thought to be a satire of England and the premodern world. Why would these authors feel the need to disguise their references to contemporary America with their displacements into the future and into the past? We are in a position to make our own judgments on these matters. Class attendance is expected and required. There will be a short paper (2-5pp) due at the end of the class.

24/6
Freshman Seminar: Reading Poems
M. Breitwieser
M 4-5
228 Dwinelle
1 unit

Book List: No texts; see below

Course Description: We will read poems in the literal sense-read them out loud-and in the metaphorical sense, speculating about their sound and sense: why did these poets make the choices they made? For the first half of the semester, I will bring copies of two or three poems to each session for discussion. After that, members of the class will find, copy, and bring in poems. At the end of the semester, each student will write a five-page essay analyzing a single poem. Attendance and participation are required.

25
English as a Language
K. Hanson
MW 12-2
79 Dwinelle

Note to students: Though the official time of this class is 12-2, on most days it may end by 1:30.

Book List: Wardhaugh, R.: Understanding English Grammar: A Linguistic Perspective; Pinker, S: The Language Instinct

Course Description: In this course we will explore the structure of modern English, including its phonology (sound structure), morphology (word structure), syntax (sentence structure) and semantics (linguistic meaning), as well as some aspects of pragmatics (contextual meaning). The goal will be to try to become conscious of some of the knowledge of our language that as speakers we have unconsciously already. Note that the course will therefore not improve anyone's ability to speak English, but only to speak about it. The focus will be on standard American English, but as one among many varieties of English and many languages throughout the world. No previous background in linguistics is required.

Requirements: Four short tests, a short paper and a final exam.

43B
Introduction to the Writing of Verse
I. Reed
MW 9:30-11
301 Wheeler

Book List: The text will be provided by the instructor.

Course Description: Poetry workshop. This course will include exercises in the techniques of Modern American Poetry. The work of key poets from Imagists to the multi-cultural poets of the 1990’s will be examined and discussed. Student work will be read and criticized. THIS COURSE CAN BE TAKEN ON A PASS/NOT PASS BASIS ONLY. I WON’T MAKE ANY EXCEPTIONS TO THIS.

Admission will be by permission of the instructor, based on photocopies of at least five of your poems, to be submitted, along with an application form, to Prof. Reed’s mailbox in 322 Wheeler Hall BY 4:00 P.M., TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, AT THE LATEST.

Be sure to read the paragraph concerning creative writing courses on page 2 of this Announcement of Classes for further information regarding enrollment in such courses!

45A/1
Literature in English: Through Milton
K. Goodman

Lectures MW 9-10 in 141 McCone, plus one hour of discussion section per week (all sections F 9-10)

Book List: Chaucer, G.: The Canterbury Tales; Spenser, E.: Edmund Spenser's Poetry; Donne, J.: John Donne's Poetry; Milton, J.: Paradise Lost (all Norton Critical Editions)

Recommended Texts: Davis, N. et al.: A Chaucer Glossary; Abrams, M. H.: A Glossary of Literary Terms

Course Description: An introduction to English literary history from the late fourteenth to the late seventeenth centuries, with an emphasis on epic and epic romance. The Canterbury Tales, The Faerie Queene, and Paradise Lost will be our main texts, but we will also look at selected Renaissance lyrics (primarily by John Donne). Among other issues, we will consider poetic, religious, and political authority in relation to historical experience, shifting definitions of place and personhood, wandering quests, and the challenge to didacticism posed by wandering or playful literary form.

45A/2
Literature in English: Through Milton
J. Adelman

Lectures MW 10-11 in 141 McCone, plus one hour of discussion section per week (all sections F 10-11)

Book List: Chaucer, G.: The Canterbury Tales; Milton, J.: Paradise Lost; Spenser, E.:Edmund Spenser’s Poetry

Course Description: This course is an introduction to major works by Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton, with occasional supplements from a class reader. In each case I will ask you to consider both the strangeness and the odd familiarity of these works, so far away from us in time and yet so close to many of our contemporary concerns. I am particularly interested in the power of representational resources available to these authors and now lost to us. My general approach to literature is feminist and psychoanalytic; I hope that you will be able to develop your own approach to these texts in your section meetings and on your papers. Requirements for the course include the writing of three papers, probably a mid-term exam, and definitely a final exam, as well as participation in section meetings.

45B/1
Literature in English: Late-17th through Mid-19th Century
M. Breitwieser

Lectures MW 11-12 in 390 Hearst Mining, plus one hour of discussion section per week (all sections F 11-12)

Book List: Rowlandson, M.: Sovereignty and Goodness of God; Franklin, B.: Autobiography; Swift, J.: Gulliver’s Travels; Austen, J.: Emma; Wordsworth, W. and S.T. Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads and Related Writings; Bronte, E.: Wuthering Heights; Whitman, W.: Leaves of Grass: His Original Edition; Douglass, F. and H. Jacobs: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Course Description: I will lecture on the cataclysmic rise of bourgeois modernity as it registers in English and American literature during the period 1660-1860. I will emphasize the mixture of euphoria, wonder, deprivation, and anxiety that this transformation provokes, and I will concentrate on the Enlightenment and Romanticism as attempts to exploit historical opportunity while compensating for history’s deficiencies. Two five-page essays, a final exam, and regular participation in lecture and discussion section will be required.

45B/2
Literature in English: Late-17th through Mid-19th Century
K. Elliott

Lectures MW 3-4 in 101 Barker, plus one hour of discussion section per week (all sections F 3-4)

Book List: Burney, F.: Evelina; Dickens, C.: Great Expectations; The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. I; Carroll, L.: Alice in Wonderland

Course Description: We touch down at various points in British and American literary history to read coming-of-age/class/gender/race narratives by Burney, Dickens, Franklin, Douglass, and Jacobs; examine literary constructions of society in Congreve, Pope, Byron, Emerson, and Whitman; and explore intersections of religion, psyche, history, and nation in works by these authors as well as Bradstreet, Edwards, Radcliffe, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Tennyson, Arnold, Clough, Christina Rossetti, and Dickinson. The course introduces various approaches to literary criticism as well.

45C/1
Literature in English: Mid-19th Century through the 20th Century
A. Cheng

Lectures MW 12-1 in 60 Evans, plus one hour of discussion section per week (all sections F 12-1)

Book List: Conrad, J.: Heart of Darkness; Woolf, V.: Between the Acts; Faulkner, W.: Light in Augus; Beckett, S.: Company; Ellison, R.: Invisible Man; Morrison, T.: The Bluest Eye; The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry; Course Reader

Course Description: 45C introduces you to British and American fiction and poetry from the late nineteenth through the twentieth century. The course is divided into two sections: "Memory and Nostalgia" and "Aesthetics and Politics." Both sections bring into question some traditional notions about literary modernism. First, we will re-evaluate the newness, the "modernness," of modernity. Although literary modernism is associated with mantras such as Ezra Pound’s "Make it New," we will explore the ways in which modernist writers are haunted by the past, constantly wrangling with problems of inheritance and memory both public and private. Second, we will re-appraise the assumption that modernists tend to be aesthetic formalists who have no interest in politics. We will concentrate on the intimate -- rather than mutually exclusive -- relationship between politics and aesthetics. By the end of the course, we will have developed a map for thinking about the inter-connectedness of nostalgia, aesthetics, and politics.

45C/2
Literature in English: Mid-19th through the 20th Century
M. Rubenstein

Lectures MW 3-4 in 141 McCone, plus one hour of discussion section per week (all sections F 3-4)

Book List: Stoker, B: Dracula; Drieser, T.: Sister Carrie; Woolf, V.: Mrs. Dalloway; Morrison, T.: Song of Solomon; Coetzee, J.M.: Disgrace; a course reader including poetry, drama, and short fiction by O. Wilde, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, S. Beckett, V.S. Naipaul, W.C. Williams, E. Bishop, T.C. Bambara, T. Olsen, J. Diaz, and others

Course Description: We will survey a broad range of literatures in English, paying careful attention to situate our texts in their world-historical and literary-historical contexts. A major preoccupation of the class will be to distinguish between different technologies and techniques of narrative, that is, how stories get told, and how story-telling changes, across an enormously broad swath of time and space. Course requirements include two short papers, a mid-term and a final exam.

R50/1
Freshman-Sophomore Seminar: Translating the Middle Ages
A. Bahr
MWF 11-12
204 Wheeler

Book List: Anon.: Beowulf; Boccaccio, G.: Il Filostrato; Chaucer, G.: Troilus and Criseyde; Chrétien de Troyes: Lancelot; Anon.: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; a course reader, with excerpts from Malory, Henryson, Spenser, Dryden, Tennyson, Morris, and others

Course Description: The word "translate" literally means to move something or someone from one place to another. In this course we will read multiple modern translations of the same textual object (poetic, prose, and comic-book translations of the Old English Beowulf); one medieval translation of another medieval text (Chaucer’s English version of Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato); and various periods’ translations of the medieval cultural phenomenon known as chivalry (looking at Spenser, from the Renaissance; Tennyson and the pre-Raphaelites, from Victorian England; and various contemporary representations of knights, damsels, and shining armor).

No prior knowledge of medieval languages or culture is required or assumed, and all readings will be done primarily through modern English translations. Grappling with the otherness of "the medieval" will be a major theme of the course, however, since it offers parallels to the way that we as students of literature grapple with the otherness of "the literary."

The principal goal of this course is to give further training to English majors and in the skills of close reading, literary analysis, and prose composition, and to introduce them to strategies of research. To that end, students will write three substantial papers, including a primarily research-oriented final paper.

English R50 is intended for people who are planning to be English majors and who have already taken R1A. It satisfies the College’s R1B requirement. It may not be counted as one of the twelve courses required for the English major.

R50/2
Freshman-Sophomore Seminar: The How of Narrative
D. Grausam
TTh 2-3:30
103 Wheeler

Book List: Capote, T: In Cold Blood; Chandler, R: The Long Goodbye; DeLillo, D: White Noise; Morrison, T: The Bluest Eye; Powers, R: Plowing The Dark; Silko, L: Ceremony; a course reader

Course Description: Since this course satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement, our focus will be on expanding and perfecting the ability to critically read, and the skills that translate such a reading experience into strong papers. Less a course on a single genre, time period, or problem, I’ve imagined a course built around an intensive introduction to how one might read narrative. We will be just as concerned with the formal dimensions of a work-how information is conveyed-as we will be with what is conveyed. My goal is that you will leave the class with a new set of tools for reading that will serve you across and beyond the major. The close attention we will bring to how fiction is written will also offer a way into rethinking our own writing, as we attempt to bring crystalline clarity to our writing about opaque texts. As a way of focusing on the power of narrative form, we will be reading works that represent, investigate, circle around, and attempt to process acts of individual and collective violence. Our visceral reaction to trauma offers a deep challenge to an author, and in learning to map the complex ways information is presented to us in these works, as well as in trying to understand the imagined relationship literature bears to injustice, we will hopefully come closer to understanding why we read in the first place.

English R50 is intended for people who are planning to be English majors and who have already taken R1A. It satisfies the College’s R1B requirement. It may not be counted as one of the twelve courses required for the English major.

84
Sophomore Seminar: High Culture/Low Culture
J. Bader
Tues. 2-5
211 Dwinelle
1 unit

Book List: O’Connor, F.: The Complete Stories

Recommended Texts: Allen & Gonzalez: Alfred Hitchcock; Smith, S.: Hitchcock; Rothman, W.:Hitchcock, The Murderous Gaze; Neale, S.: Genre & Hollywood; Durgnat, R.: A Long Hard Look at ‘Psycho’; Cohen, P.: Alfred Hitchcoc; Freedman & Millington, eds.: Hitchcock’s America; Modleski, T.: The Women Who Knew Too Much; Nelson, T.: Kubrick; Quandt, J., ed.: Ichikawa

Course Description: Using film, fiction and cultural events, the course will focus on the work of Hitchcock and his followers to critique the fears and phobias connected to racial, sexual and narrative boundaries, and the stories of Flannery O’Connor for textual analysis.

95
Other Voices: Multicultural Literary Perspectives
G. Padilla

Lectures M 12-1 in 315 Wheeler, plus one hour of discussion section per week (all sections W 12-1)
2 units

Book List: A course reader

Course Description: This course will introduce students to the work currently being undertaken by both Berkeley faculty and local artists in issues of race and class, gender and ethnicity, and the formations of minority discourse. Each week a different scholar or writer will lecture on literary study that reflects cultural and racial concerns. Upper-division undergraduates will lead discussion groups focusing on the methods advocated in the lecture and on various readings. Attendance is required at both the one-hour lecture and the one-hour discussion. Discussion sections will be limited to 15 students. A six- to ten-page term paper will be due the final week of class, and during the semester there will be regular, short, ungraded writing assignments in preparation for the term paper.

This course may not be counted as one of the twelve courses required for the English major. [an error occurred while processing this directive]