| FYS I:Brit Fem Writers |
Liberal Arts |
1001 (018) |
Fall 2026 |
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Description
In this writing-intensive course, students will read classic novels, with an emphasis on examining the way these texts shaped ideas about colonization, mental illness, and British cultural dominance. With Charlotte Brontë¿s, Jane Eyre, we¿ll discuss how this classic bildungsroman, with its groundbreaking attack on social class and religious hypocrisy, also reinforced negative racial stereotypes and influenced discriminating attitudes toward people with mental illness. We¿ll read The Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys¿s 1966 rewrite of Jane Eyre from the perspective of Bertha Mason, and how feminist interpretations of the work have, according to the critic C.M. Mardorossian ¿failed¿to do justice to its complex representation of Caribbean racial relations.¿ Students will write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing. In-class activities include peer review, workshopping, and free writing to generate paper topics, including a formal, argument-driven paper.
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Class Number
1493
Credits
3
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| FYS I:Irish Literature |
Liberal Arts |
1001 (035) |
Fall 2026 |
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Description
This course first explores the myths and folktales of pre-Christian Ireland. We read about dolmen and druids, Maeve, Queen of Connacht, Finn MacCool, Deirdre, and Cuichulain. How do battle-hungry, sexually-charged Celts compare to characters in James Joyce's Dubliners' Historical texts (including How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill) examine how the status of women changed after the arrival of Roman (vs. Celtic) Catholicism, the Book of Kells, and the long-term effects of the Great Famine on the Irish character. Contemporary fiction writers studied include, W.B. Yeats, Eavan Boland, Rosemary Mahoney, and postmodern favorite Flann O'Brien, among others, with a focus on the influence of Celtic myths on contemporary Irish life and writing.
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Class Number
1501
Credits
3
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| Cont Narr:Love Art/Hate Artist |
Liberal Arts |
3105 (001) |
Spring 2026 |
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Description
How do the biographical details of an artist's life influence our attitude toward their work? Should an artist's politics?both personal and public?influence our aesthetic response to the artwork itself? Or does a work of art become its own entity, detached from its creator? Perhaps, as the deconstructionists advocate, a text or image only bears an accidental relationship to the author's conscious intentions, and thus the creator is superfluous to the work itself. In this class, we study the lives and works of such artists as Chester Himes, J.D. Salinger, Patricia Highsmith, and Sylvia Plath, to examine why we tolerate some behaviors and abhor others. By reviewing biographies, journals, films, and the primary text or artwork itself, we wrestle with the question, is it possible to love the art when you hate/disapprove of/dislike the life the artist led? Students will write shared discussion pieces, a 8-10-page research paper on an artist of their choice, and participate in team debates.
CONTENT WARNING: The content and discussion in this course will necessarily sometimes engage with issues of human suffering. Much of it will be emotionally and intellectually challenging to engage with, including graphic or intense content that discusses or represents racism, mental illness, and sexual or physical violence.
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Class Number
1483
Credits
3
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| Eur Lit:Race and Gender in British Literature |
Liberal Arts |
3160 (001) |
Spring 2026 |
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Description
In this course, we'll look at classic bildungsroman through the lens of class, gender, and race. Beginning with Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Bronte, we'll examine how nascent ideas about feminism are expressed in the highly patriarchal, aristocratic England of the 1830s. Next, we'll read The Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by Jean Rhys, a 'prequel' to Jane Eyre, which depicts the impact of Emancipation on Jamaica's formerly enslaved population and their former enslavers, with an emphasis on mental health, cultural oppression, and power. Finally, we'll read Annie John (1985) by Jamaica Kincaid, which depicts a young girl coming of age in colonial Antigua as well as the clash of British education and values with Caribbean island beliefs. All three books engage with issues of mental well-being, women's rights, and hierarchies that dispossess girls and women of their power, whether through medicine, religion, or educational institutions. Some of these heroines triumph, others fail, but all the works illuminate how cultural climate and history impact the everyday lives of young women coming of age.
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Class Number
2247
Credits
3
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| Eur Lit:Race and Gender in British Literature |
Liberal Arts |
3160 (001) |
Fall 2026 |
|
Description
In this course, we'll look at classic bildungsroman through the lens of class, gender, and race. Beginning with Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Bronte, we'll examine how nascent ideas about feminism are expressed in the highly patriarchal, aristocratic England of the 1830s. Next, we'll read The Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by Jean Rhys, a 'prequel' to Jane Eyre, which depicts the impact of Emancipation on Jamaica's formerly enslaved population and their former enslavers, with an emphasis on mental health, cultural oppression, and power. Finally, we'll read Annie John (1985) by Jamaica Kincaid, which depicts a young girl coming of age in colonial Antigua as well as the clash of British education and values with Caribbean island beliefs. All three books engage with issues of mental well-being, women's rights, and hierarchies that dispossess girls and women of their power, whether through medicine, religion, or educational institutions. Some of these heroines triumph, others fail, but all the works illuminate how cultural climate and history impact the everyday lives of young women coming of age.
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Class Number
2206
Credits
3
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| LH:The Personal Essay |
Liberal Arts |
3190 (001) |
Fall 2026 |
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Description
Personal essayists, according to Philip Lopate, 'are adept at interrogating their own ignorance. Just as often as they tell us what they know, they ask at the beginning of an exploration of a problem what it is they don't know--and why.' In this course, we'll read many essays, including work from 10th-century Japan (Sei Shonagon), 16th-century France (Montaigne), and 21st-century America (Kiese Laymon). We'll explore the many forms a personal essay can take--lists, letters, traditional narrative--to see how writers explore topics that range from trauma to the quotidian concerns of meal prep. We'll discuss how nonfiction functions as an artform distinct from academic scholarship, yet how research elements can be integrated into the personal essay to add depth to a topic.
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Class Number
1659
Credits
3
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