Genre
Genre courses address a single literary/cinematic genre or “kind.”-- such as tragedy, autobiography, lyric, romance, etc.-- with the purpose of teaching students to read and perform critical, formal analyses of literary, cinematic, and cultural texts. These courses help prepare students for the backbone of our curriculum: the Foundations of the English Major sequence (ENG 301-2-3).
12046
In this class, we’ll explore different forms of life-writing: biography, autobiography, and memoir. We will begin with several short pieces and consider ‘life writing’ as a form. We’ll read extracts from Hermione Lee’s Biography: A Short Introduction and Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir. We’ll read... (read more)
16205
This course examines the pithy praise appearing on book jackets and other product packaging. Blurbs are quick descriptions. They encourage consumption and a culture of evaluating texts for their artistry and importance. How far back in time does blurbing go? How big can a blurb be before it... (read more)
42281
Testimonio is a form of lifewriting whose narrator is a “real” protagonist, or witness, of the events he/she recounts. One of the defining features of a testimonio is its overt concern with issues of social justice, embodying the mantra of “the personal is political.” In this course we will read... (read more)
33621
In this class, we’ll explore different forms of life-writing: biography, autobiography and memoir. We will begin with several short pieces and consider ‘life writing’ as a form. We’ll read extracts from Hermione Lee’s Biography: A Short Introduction and Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir... (read more)
33622
This course will ground our ongoing experience of the COVID-19 crisis in the literature of plague and pandemic stretching back four centuries. We will begin with contemporary fiction about imaginary pandemics of apocalyptic proportions, including Ling Ma’s Severance and Emily St. John... (read more)
35660
Instructor: Stefanie Lethbridge
The gothic is a form which turns the forbidden into fictions of terror; it enables societies to talk about the taboo. Throughout its history, the gothic has explored the terrors of religious excess, the fears of scientific invention, the fascination with the... (read more)
22443
This course explores the genre of the “lyric” through various genres and media, from Shakespeare’s sonnets to contemporary music and film. We will read and discuss lyric poetry -- ballads, sonnets, odes -- and we’ll consider how “lyrical” effects are present in prose, even in a novel such as... (read more)
22444
In this class, we’ll explore different forms of life-writing: biography, autobiography, and memoir. We will begin with several short pieces and consider ‘life writing’ as a form. We’ll read extracts from Hermione Lee’s Biography: A Short Introduction and Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir... (read more)
12332
This course will survey the history of stories about the creation of artificial humans, while thinking about conventions of the genre, its particular uses and adaptations, and how it intersects with other genres. We’ll look at the desires expressed by this genre: most of all, the desire to... (read more)
17034
Testimonio is a form of lifewriting whose narrator is a “real” protagonist, or witness, of the events he/she recounts. Although lifewriting can be located in several different literary categories, one of the defining features of a testimonio, as (re)defined in the 1960’s and 1970’s, is its overt... (read more)
32033
Though the slave narrative genre reached its peak in the mid-19th century, this mode of autobiography has a history that stretches from the 1700s to the present across numerous oceans, islands, and continents. We will take seriously the historical origins of the slave narrative, while also... (read more)
35697
This course will ground our ongoing experience of the COVID-19 crisis in the literature of plague and pandemic stretching back four centuries. We will begin with contemporary fiction by Carmen Maria Machado (“Inventory”), Ling Ma (Severance), and Emily St John Mandell (Station... (read more)
35698
This course is an introduction to the genre of comedy. It surveys examples of comedy across a long historical range—from classical Greece to contemporary America—and a breadth of media forms, including drama, novel, film, and stand-up. Among other questions, we’ll ask: why is comedy so difficult... (read more)
22045
Genre courses focus on particular genres and forms crucial for the study of English, American, and Anglophone literature and culture and are aimed primarily at English majors. This course on tragedy traces the historical development and transformation of the genre and places strong emphasis on... (read more)
22046
This course will survey the long history of stories about the creation of artificial people. We’ll look at the desires expressed by this genre, most of all, the desire to perfect or eliminate what is most human. Familiar questions – can robots feel? can we tell who is a robot? what traits are... (read more)
26361
In this class we’ll consider life-writing as a form, focusing on auto/biography and memoir. We’ll read a selection of life stories by modernist writers, including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf and Jean Rhys, and explore how they present... (read more)
12462
Captivity Narrative was the earliest popular genre in American literature, in the seventeenth century. Its roots go back to the Old Testament stories of Moses, Daniel and Jonah, and these archetypes have influenced centuries of confrontations between people of different faiths and cultures, and... (read more)
17920
Captivity Narrative was the earliest popular genre in American literature, in the seventeenth century. Its roots go back to the Old Testament stories of Moses, Daniel and Jonah, and these archetypes have influenced centuries of confrontations between people of different faiths and cultures, and... (read more)
32136
Since antiquity, for a variety of reasons, people have left home and hit the road. Journeys have always been a part of life, and travel writing has... (read more)
22223
Though signifying idealized notions of love in popular parlance, romance is about more than the transcendent power and emotional magic... (read more)
26544
This course is an introduction to the genre of comedy. It surveys examples of comedy across a long historical range—from classical... (read more)
12106
This course will introduce students to the genre of testimonial literary discourse, or testimonio: an authentic narrative, told... (read more)
16422
Though the slave narrative genre reached its peak in the mid-19... (read more)
16423
This course examines the pithy praise appearing on book jackets and other product packaging. Blurbs are quick descriptions. They... (read more)
42463
This course will introduce students to the genre of testimonial literary discourse, or testimonio: an authentic narrative, told... (read more)
31967
This genre course revolves around key figures of fantasy literature such as magic, mythical beasts, supernatural powers, bodily transformation, portals,... (read more)
31968
Though the slave narrative genre reached its peak in the mid-19th century, this mode of autobiography has a history that stretches from the 1700s to the... (read more)
22779
Comedy as a genre has long been associated with low forms of pleasure, whether the delight we take in bodily functions and malfunctions, shameful and... (read more)
16070
Since remote antiquity, for all sorts of reasons, people of many kinds have left home and hit the road. Journeys have always been a part of life, and travel writing has a long and varied history. We will read a wide range of travel accounts while asking what shared features define travel writing... (read more)
16947
Time travel through the history of the science fiction genre from the early modern era to the current moment as we learn about how Sci Fi came to be what is arguably the most socially engaged form of fiction. We'll consider Sci Fi that draws on the hard sciences, on the social sciences, and... (read more)
32008
This course will survey the long history of stories about the creation of artificial men and women. We’ll look at the desires expressed by this genre, most of all, the desire to perfect or eliminate what is most human. Familiar questions – can robots feel? can we tell who is a robot? – will be... (read more)
32009
Genre courses focus on particular genres and forms crucial for the study of English, American, and Anglophone literature and culture and are aimed primarily at English majors. This course on tragedy traces the historical development and transformation of the genre and places strong emphasis on... (read more)
22724
This course will examine the development of autobiography as a literary genre from the spiritual narratives of medieval women mystics to the graphic memoirs of twenty-first century writers. Along the way we will consider a range of autobiographical forms, including slave narrative, immigrant... (read more)
26809
From the Early Modern lyric poetry of Shakespeare and Donne through the “lyrical ballads,” songs, and odes of British Romanticism and the American lyrical experiments of Dickinson and Whitman and the work of modernist and post-modernist lyric poets to the “lyrics” of our contemporary popular... (read more)