Uncommon Arrangements: Love in Modernist Fiction

This seminar will examine the representation of love and relationships in modernist novels published between 1910-1945, a period spanning the two world wars in which a radically new order of gender, sexuality, and class relations coincided with innovations in literary representation. We will look closely at a range of affectionate relationships including: traditional marriage, unconventional domestic arrangements, same-sex couplings, friendship, childlike relationships, and creative attachments of emotional or political necessity. Beginning with some early essays and short stories on the topic of love and romance, we will generate a series of problems and questions in order to ask: Did the sexual frankness of the moderns contribute to cultural stability or disorder? Do unconventional arrangements work? How is romantic experimentation depicted? Can betrayal be channeled into something that strengthens the tie between people? Is it possible that some extraordinary arrangements are more enduring than ordinary marriage? By exploring such questions we will attempt to understand why the topic of love was such an enduring source of cultural fascination for modernist writers.

Taught by Jane Garrity ONLINE during Maymester (May 11 - May 29, 2020).

Off

Students hone their writing skills by closely analyzing the language in literary texts. The course will focus on the nuances of sentence structure and grammar, in order to help students become better writers and readers. Students will learn how to perform research in literary criticism and will write and revise a research paper, as well as a number of other short papers for different audiences. Students will learn and use citation methods within the discipline and will discuss the reasoning behind citational practice.

Taught by Thora Brylowe ONLINE during Augmester (August 3 - 20, 2020).

Off

Augmester

The historical period known as Georgian England runs from 1714-1830. That period encompassed a time of extraordinary change:  Great Britain has by 1800 arguably become the most powerful nation in the world; it had gained an empire in the new world that it then lost with the American Revolution; cities (especially London) grew explosively; the IGeorgian England is a dynamic moment in British history.  It covers the literature, life, and history during the reign of four King Georges (1714-1830).  It was a time of the revival of Greek classicism’s serenity and in contrast a time of explosive revolutions. It begins with conservative ideas and values and ends with radical ones which challenge conventional gender constructions, social hierarchies, slavery, women’s rights, and tyranny. Nature and Poetry reign supreme!

Possible texts include novels by Austen and Mary Shelley and poetry by Finch, Pope, Swift, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley.

Taught by John Stevenson ONLINE during August 3 - August 20, 2020.

Off

Poetry is alive. Poets have written for more than a thousand years and continue to study, write and perform poetry today. Poetry is not meant to wither and die in dusty pages on forgotten shelves. It is meant to be heard, read and voiced—aloud and alive. This course will introduce you to a great variety of poems written and composed in English from the very beginning of the English language until recently, and provide you with tools to help understand them. We will discuss terminology, themes, forms and formal innovation, as well as the many ways that poetry lives in the world now--from sonnets and sestinas to concrete poetry and epic poetry, from slam to Instagram. Representative poets: Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Phillis Wheatley, Sharon Olds, Lucille Clifton, Jamaal May, Joy Harjo, Natalie Diaz, Gabriel Hirsch, Patricia Smith, Myung Mi Kim, Fatimah Ashgar, Kiki Petrosino, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Rupi Kaur, Mark McMorris, TS Eliot, Gertrude Stein, many others.

Taught ONLINE by Khadijah Queen during B-term (July 7 - August 7, 2020).

Off

Sections 001 and 002:

Students hone their writing skills in this course by learning how to analyze sentence structure in several literary texts. They will also practice writing about literature for both academic and general audiences, while using their refined knowledge of syntax to craft their own sentences. At the same time, students will build their research skills, learning how to evaluate academic literary criticism. Two shorter writing assignments, a formal analysis of a poem, and a scholarly literature review, will culminate in two final assignments: a final paper that employs the rhetoric of scholarly literary analysis for an audience of specialists in English literature and a blog post written for a general reading audience. Each of these assignments will be revised and workshopped in class. By the end of the course, students will be able to both analyze and use a variety of syntactical structures and strategies. They will gain an advanced understanding of grammatical structures while also learning how to construct a sustained literary argument for specialists as well as a pithy, enticing argument for readers of the general cultural press. This course meets the upper-division writing requirement.

Reading List: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre; selected poetry.

Taught by Dr. Emily Harrington.

Recommended: Prerequisite completion of lower-division writing requirement.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Gen Ed: Written Communication-Upper

Off

Provides an interdisciplinary study of England in one of its most vibrant cultural and historical periods. Topics include politics, religion, family life, and the ways contemporary authors understood their world.

Taught by Dr. Jillian Heydt-Stevenson.

Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Historical Context
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: British Literature after 1660

Off

Beowulf is much stranger, sadder, and more timely than you think. Experience the poem in its original language, using the skills built in Introduction to Old English (Engl 4003/5003)! Students will produce daily translations, and seminar-style class discussions will involve both linguistic and literary aspects of this enigmatic poem.

Reading List: Beowulf

Taught by Dr. Tiffany Beechy.

Off

Close study of significant 20th-century poetry, drama, and prose works. Readings range from 1920s to the present.

Requisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors) only.
Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

Section 004:

Writers and artists of the last 100 years questioned everything: What is the self?  What is time?  What is literature?  We’ll explore a wide range of works, including novels, poetry, movies, comics, prints, and 3D books to make sense of two key movements: modernism and postmodernism.  We’ll focus in particular on representations of war and the blurring of boundaries between literature and the visual arts, drawing as much as possible on Norlin Library’s Special Collections and the collections of the CU Art Museum. 

Readings: Virginia Woolf (To The Lighthouse), Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland), Charlie Chaplin (Modern Times), and Art Spiegelman (Maus). We’ll also study works by artists Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, René Magritte, Lorna Simpson, Enrique Chagoya, Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer, and many others.

Taught by Dr. Catherine Labio.

Off

This course explores the evolution of hip hop from its roots in the South Bronx to its worldwide influence in the present day--from Kendrick Lamar to Cardi B, Drake to Megan Thee Stallion. We’ll use the tools of close reading and literary analysis to study hip hop’s many forms and themes. Our primary focus will be on rap’s lyric craft, but we’ll also consider rap within the broader context of hip hop’s other basic elements—DJ-ing, breaking, and graffiti. Hip hop’s aesthetic culture is a means to confront race, politics, gender, and sexuality. Through a combination of lecture and discussion, we’ll work together to develop a language for talking about the many cultures of hip hop.

Reading List: Soren Baker, The History of Gangster Rap Kathy Iandoli, God Save the Queens: The Essential History of Women in Hip-Hop Ed Piskor, Hip Hop Family Tree Brian Coleman, Check the Technique Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest

Taught by Dr. Adam Bradley.

Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Human Diversity
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Diversity-U.S. Perspective
Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

Off

Introduces students to the American literary tradition through intensive study of centrally significant texts and genres.

Additional Information: Arts Sci Core Curr: Literature and the Arts
Arts Sci Gen Ed: Distribution-Arts Humanities
Departmental Category: General Literature and Language

Off