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ELL 121 – Reading and Analysis I
This course aims to develop students’ reading, comprehension, and analytical skills. A wide range of reading materials will be provided to help students identify and understand key concepts and supporting evidence, follow the logic of discussions, identify contrasting viewpoints, and evaluate the validity of arguments. Emphasis will be placed on the effective use of dictionaries and other sources, for the purpose of developing vocabulary as well as for inferring meaning from context; and students will be introduced to various reading techniques to help them understand the structure and organization of written texts. The course provides a range of opportunities for students to improve their writing and speaking skills, and gives special emphasis to grammar, pronunciation, semantics and etymology of words. Reading activities will be integrated with written and oral discussions within and outside of class.
ELL 122 – Reading and Analysis II
As the follow-up to ELL 121, this course focuses on further developing students’ reading, comprehension, and analytical skills. The course engages with advanced-level reading materials, and focuses particularly on literary analysis and criticism to help students identify and understand key concepts and supporting evidence, follow the logic of discussions, identify contrasting viewpoints, and evaluate the validity of arguments. Emphasis will be placed on the effective use of sources, for the purpose of developing vocabulary as well as for inferring meaning from context; and students will be taught various reading techniques that will help them understand the structure and organization of written texts. The course provides a range of opportunities for students to improve their writing and speaking skills, with an emphasis on morphology, etymology, and semantics within the contexts of the history of the English language and literary texts. Reading activities will be integrated with written and oral discussions within and outside of class.
This course is the first of three writing development courses, and it engages with grammatical, linguistic and stylistic issues through short writing exercises and assignments. Coherent organization, logical development of thought, and effective use of language will be highlighted; students will learn to construct well-developed arguments and transition smoothly and logically between sentences and paragraphs, in preparation for writing longer essays in the following writing courses.
ELL 124 – Academic Writing II (prereq. ELL 123)
Following on from ELL 123, this course focuses on developing essay-writing skills. Students are introduced to the academic essay form, and encouraged to write essays in response to specific literary texts. The course prepares students for the writing requirements of literature courses in the following years, and the writing techniques they acquire will be of use to them throughout their education. The students will also be prepared to incorporate research in their writing; this will be developed further in ELL 225.
ELL 125 – Language and Communication
This course has been designed to help students improve their understanding of spoken English and their ability to communicate effectively. Through exposure to a wide range of audiovisual sources, they will have the opportunity to engage with the structure, morphology and phonetics of the language in native contexts, and to acquire competence in listening comprehension and analysis. In addition, they will learn to develop communicative confidence and fluency, and to refine their pronunciation, through class discussions and speaking drills. With the guidance of the instructor and through various assignments, students will also be encouraged to develop their communicative abilities outside of the classroom.
ELL 130 – British Culture and Society
This course provides students with foundational knowledge and perspectives, to enable them to understand and analyze the contexts of works of literature as they relate to cultural, social, and political developments in Britain, and in terms of the country’s relations to empires, colonies, trade, and globalization. The course discusses the structures and functions of institutions such as politics, education, religion, and the family, as well as various multicultural aspects of age, race gender, social class, daily life, customs, and manners.
ELL 131 – Introduction to Literature I
This course introduces first-year students to a range of poetic texts representing a variety of literary genres and periods, as well as to some fundamental concepts and terminology used in the analysis of these kinds of texts, such as form, structure, tone, rhyme scheme, meter, style, genre, “literal” and “figurative” significations, referentiality and intertextuality, and audience functions and interactions. Through various modes of close reading, students will engage with different ways of approaching, understanding, appreciating, and interpreting poetic texts written in or translated into English, in terms of their internal logic and in their relations to other texts, literary, visual, socio-historical, cultural, or critical.
ELL 132 – Introduction to Literature II
This course continues to build on the foundations established in ELL 131. The focus is on introducing students to a range of fictional and dramatic texts representing a variety of genres and periods, as well as to some fundamental concepts and terminology used in the analysis of these kinds of texts, such as structure, plot, themes and motifs, styles and figures, dramatic structure, characterization, point of view, tone, stage directions, dialogue, action, staging and performance, and audience functions and interactions. Through various modes of close reading, students will engage with different ways of approaching, understanding, appreciating, and interpreting fictional and dramatic works written in or translated into English, in terms of their internal logic and in their relations to other texts, literary, visual, socio-historical, cultural, or critical.
Myths are generally stories or tales created to explain, organize, or otherwise come to terms with where things come from, or how and why events occur in the world; and mythology is the study of how these interpretations develop and function in cultural and societal contexts. This course looks at different examples, theories and aspects of mythology; the focus and subjects covered may range from conceptions of supernatural beings, such as the myths of gods and goddesses in Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian, Norse, Celtic, Indian or other cultures, to the mythological contexts of ancient civilizations and cultures of Turkey, to the construction and dissemination of myths and beliefs in contemporary society through literature, film, television, advertising, and other forms of media expression.
ELL 136 – Classical Literature
This course looks at texts in various Western literary traditions and genres from the classical period (roughly 1000 BCE to the fifth century BCE). Texts may range from the epic (Homer, Virgil) to drama (tragedy and comedy in Ancient Greek and Roman theatre) to lyric poetry (e.g Sappho, Pindar, Catullus) to prose (Horace, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius). The course may also look at philosophies (Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus), histories (Hesiod, Herodotus, Plutarch), or scientific texts (the presocratics, Ptolemy, Pliny), or classical art; and consider some of the developments that followed from the creations of the period, such as later reworkings of classical literature and drama through the Renaissance and Enlightenment; versions of classical themes and philosophy that appear in contemporary literature, film, and other media; or analogous and comparable constructions in other cultures.
This course introduces students to some of the issues and practices involved in translation (primarily between Turkish and English), with a view to raising their awareness of the subtleties and nuances of language. Throughout the course, they will be engaged in a comparative study of the source and target languages, particularly from a grammatical and syntactical perspective; and complex sentence structures in both languages will be analyzed and compared on a contextual basis. By the end of the course, students are expected to have gained substantial awareness of the relations between the source and target languages, acquired the ability to rework grammatical structures in both languages, improved their skills in analyzing and synthesizing texts in both languages, and developed the ability to compare and contrast texts in relation to their contexts.
ELL 224 – Literary Translation
This course looks at various ways of translating literary texts (primarily between Turkish and English). Through analyzing the literary and linguistic structures of texts, as well as their content, form, diction, and other stylistic features, students will engage in producing translations in various genres of literature, with special emphasis being placed on translating denotations and connotations of words and phrases in their appropriate contexts, based on their understanding of the historical contexts and evolution of language. The course will also provide perspectives on some of the issues involved in literary translation; in particular, what constitutes a “literary” translation, and the relationship between the creative freedom of the translator and the various types of constraints translations operate under.
ELL 225 – Academic Writing III (prereq. ELL 124 )
A continuation of the prerequisite course ELL 124, this course is designed to develop and reinforce students’ understanding of the processes and skills needed to write substantial, coherent, well-organized, and well-researched academic papers. The focus will be on close reading, notetaking, ordering arguments, citation, and the selection of authoritative sources. As part of the requirements of the course, students will write a research paper on a specified topic, with special attention being paid to structure, format, and the effective use of research.
ELL 233 – Survey of English Literature I
This survey course looks at selected texts of English literature from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. Topics may range from discussions of literary styles, genres, movements and periods, to contemporaneous artistic, philosophical and scientific, historical and cultural developments. The broader aim of the course is to provide students with a sense of the relations between form and content, influence and intertextuality, and texts and contexts, which shape a literary historical tradition.
ELL 234 – Survey of English Literature II
Continuing the trajectory of ELL 233, this survey course looks at selected texts of English literature from the 18th century to the present. Topics may range from discussions of literary styles, genres, movements and periods, to contemporaneous artistic, philosophical and scientific, historical and cultural developments. The broader aim of the course is to provide students with a sense of the relations between form and content, influence and intertextuality, and texts and contexts, which shape a literary historical tradition.
ELL 236 – Interdisciplinary Studies
The study of literature cannot be separated from the study of other disciplines, for various reasons: because texts may be about topics related to other fields; because the field of literary studies engages with oral and written texts, but also with history, politics, music, theater, dance, performance, television and film, artworks, and other cultural objects events, and practices; and because the philosophies, theories, and methods involved in literary interpretation are connected with those in every other discipline. This course introduces students to some of these relations. Topics and texts will vary depending on the semester, and they may cover a range of developments in film, music, drama, art, architecture, philosophy or other forms of literature; trends in political, economic or legal theory; aspects of the history or philosophy of science or technology; or have a thematic focus around concepts such as “modern and postmodern,” “human and post-human,” “belief and knowledge,” “the individual and society,” “freedom and discipline,” or “language and reality.”
This course looks at patterns of social and intellectual development that fall under the general rubric of culture (e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, economic and social status, history, geography, language), and it explores how sign systems operate, as well as the ideologies and structures of power that underlie different kinds of rituals and representation, from words, gestures, graffiti and advertisements, to art, music, fashion, food, and sports. Selected examples from literature and/or the media—film, television, newspapers and magazines, the Internet—will be studied, in order to understand not only their logic and organization, but also the ways in which audience sensibilities shape or are shaped by desires and cultural assumptions. Texts may include primary and critical or theoretical works, films and videos, music, and cultural artifacts; topics may range from historical concepts to current issues such as environmental concerns, demographic changes, social problems, or the effects of technology.
ELL 282 – Medieval and Early Modern Literature
This course looks at some of the diverse textual forms of the medieval period and the Renaissance, from drama, romances, epics and religious sermons to developments in music, visual arts, science and philosophy. From a British literary perspective, the focus may be on works such as Beowulf, Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; liturgical drama or mystery, miracle and morality plays; or on the works of Chaucer, Sidney, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser and Donne. The course may also take a broader, European literary perspective, looking at a range of works in translation such as the lyric poetry of traveling minstrels (the troubadours, the minnesingers); Dante’s Divine Comedy, Boccaccio’s Decameron, and the Roman de la Rose; works by women writers; fairy tales and folk literature; the development of humanistic thought, educational systems and the rise of individualism; the “sonnet tradition,” Petrarch and Italian humanism, Senecan revenge tragedy, comedies, or history plays. Other possible frames of reference might be the ramifications of the printing press (Gutenberg, Caxton); or developments in alchemy, science and medicine (da Vinci, Paracelsus, Vesalius, Brahe, Copernicus, Burton).
ELL 331- Selections from American Literature
This course discusses works chosen from the literatures of the Americas, which may range from the writings of indigenous peoples to current contexts. Rather than engage in a historical survey, it focuses on selected works by poets, writers, and playwrights that reflect a sense of the diversity of American literary contexts, traditions and interests, and also provide perspectives on issues that have shaped present-day discussions and debates, such as race, class, gender, ethnicity, nationalism, versions of “identity politics,” and orientations of belief.
This course provides a sense of the evolution of theatrical performance, from the Medieval period through the Renaissance, Jacobean drama, and the Restoration “comedy of manners” in the British context; it may also look at intercultural developments in this process, or aspects of various other international traditions, such as the French, German, Italian, Nordic and Russian drama. The course examines dramatic conventions and staging techniques, and engages students in critical analyses of particular plays in terms of their form and content; readings may also include critical or theoretical material on various aspects of the drama. Plays are best understood when seen on the stage or screen, and many lectures will include audiovisual excerpts from classic productions.
This course introduces students to a broad range of perspectives on Shakespeare’s dramatic art, poetic creativity and literary significance, through the analysis of selected comedies, history plays, tragedies, romances, and poems. The course looks at the social, cultural and literary contexts of the period, as well as the use of language and development of the drama, and poetic form in such works as the sonnets, Venus and Adonis, and The Rape of Lucrece. It may also explore critical approaches to the works, and consider aspects of Shakespeare which have influenced subsequent writers in various traditions, stage performances and film adaptations, or Shakespearean tropes in the media and popular culture.
ELL 362 – 19th-Century Fiction
This course looks at various works of 19th-century fiction, which may be considered in relation to social, literary and historical contexts, or in terms of current critical and theoretical perspectives and concerns. Depending on the focus of the course in a particular semester, texts to be considered may be selected from or across different cultures and traditions, and from different forms and genres, such as the short story, the novella or the novel; realism or naturalism; adventure, science fiction, fantasy, horror, or detective fiction.
This course looks at some of the texts which reflect the “long Romantic period” (1740-1850), the second half of the 19th century, and the beginnings of modernism. The texts selected will vary depending on the semester and the instructor, from developments in Victorian Britain, to those in France, Germany, Russia or North America. They may include philosophical or theoretical essays, works of visual art, and examples of the various genres of prose and poetry that evolve during the period. Topics may range from conceits of the classical and the neoclassical, and of Enlightenment rationalism and irrationalism, the supernatural and the Gothic, to antiquity, modernity, translation, history, the sublime, the fragment, irony, identity, “literature,” and “criticism.” The course may also include subjects as diverse as the origins and influences of German idealism, the Pre-Raphaelites, fin-de-siècle aesthetics and decadence, or the origins of the avant-garde in art, music and literature.
ELL 381 – 18th-Century Literature
The eighteenth-century, the “Age of Enlightenment,” is a period of conceptual and political revolutions, and presents a rich variety of diverse texts and international interactions in fields from literature, music and philosophy to economics, politics and the natural sciences. This course will enable students to engage with aspects of the local and international significance of these revolutions in thought and society, as well as their implications for developments over the next two centuries and up to the present. From the perspective of English literature, topics covered may range from the mock-heroics and satires of Pope and Swift, the poetry of Gray and Young, the essays of Addison and Steele, and the literary criticism of Samuel Johnson, to the development of the novel by such writers as Defoe, Fielding and Richardson, and the origins of the gothic in Walpole, Radcliffe and Lewis. Other areas of focus might include the arguments of European rationalist philosophers, the evolution of classical musical genres, or developments in science and cross-cultural currents and influences from or in Europe, the Americas, and other regions.
This course provides a foundation for Literary Theory II. The aim of these courses is to give students a clear understanding of some of the issues involved in interpreting literature today, through asking basic questions: What is an author, and how do we recognize a text’s “intention”? What is a text, and how do we locate its meaning? What is its relation to reality, and how do we know what “reality” is? What criteria or standards are there for deciding what a genre or a style is, what good or bad literature is, or high and low literature? How do we separate fiction from non-fiction, and what is the relation between a literary text and history? How does a translation or a performance relate to an original text? What is literature, and why study it? Students will be required to read original, primary, theoretical and critical texts (in English translation), and not rely on second-hand introductions or summaries. Topics and texts will be selected to engage with contemporary (20th and 21st century) issues around these questions, or to provide a sense of the conceptual development of concerns in contemporary theory. The course may take the form of a survey (e.g., from classical Greek and Roman understandings of “literature” and “language,” through medieval and Renaissance interpretive traditions, to neo-classical, Romantic, and Victorian theory), or it may provide a foundation in ideas from these traditions and focus on more recent developments (as described under “Literary Theory II).
This course builds on the foundation provided in Literary Theory I. The aim of these courses is to give students a clear understanding of some of the issues involved in interpreting literature today; and as in the previous course, students will read original, primary, theoretical and critical texts (in English translation, where necessary), and not rely on second-hand introductions or summaries. Topics and texts for this course will vary depending on the semester, and may focus on particular areas of theory, on the works of one or more theorists which have broad implications, on debates around selected critical ideas, or on the conceptual development of issues in contemporary criticism. These may range from foundational concepts in Romanticism and existentialism, through the various perspectives of New Criticism and Russian Formalism, structuralism, psychoanalytic (Freudian, Lacanian) and archetypal criticism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism, Marxisms, post-structuralisms, reader-response and reception theory, New Historicism, feminisms and gender studies, postcolonialisms, to various current tendencies in criticism developing around ideas of performativity, intersectionalism, ideological critique, ecology, technology, and demographic change.
This course provides a contemporary introduction to a vast field of study, to broaden students’ frames of reference and help them develop a realistic international, pluralistic and cosmopolitan approach to literature. It introduces a range of literary texts selected from different cultures and traditions, produced or circulated in English or in translation, and reflecting various perspectives and critical concerns. The course may be taught as a cross-cultural and comparative study; or with a focus on a genre, theme, period or philosophical concept; or from the perspective of broad theoretical concerns such as issues of rights, ethnicity, gender, colonialism and postcolonialism, or globalization.
This course focuses on a wide range of developments in modern drama in various traditions and cultures, from the comedy of manners to the “angry young man” generation, kitchen-sink drama, the theater of the absurd, epic theater, the theater of menace, the theater of cruelty, and postmodern performance. The course guides students in analyzing themes, theatrical conventions and techniques exemplified in individual plays, and setting them in larger contexts. The primary texts considered may be supplemented by critical or theoretical readings, as well as excerpts from stage performances, or film and other media adaptations.
ELL 467 – 20th-Century Fiction
This course looks at a variety of 20th-century works of fiction which reflect aspects of modernism and other aesthetic, stylistic, or philosophical developments that emerged during the first half of the century. The texts, in translation where appropriate, may be selected from various British, European, American, or other traditions, and may include or be supplemented by philosophical or theoretical essays, as well as works from other disciplines such the visual arts. Topics covered may range from experimentation in fiction with style, genre, visual form, typography, or stream-of-consciousness and other kinds of narrative techniques, to issues of gender, class, ethnicity, race, or nationalism that may emerge in the works.
ELL 468 – Contemporary Fiction
This course explores selected works of fiction from the second half of the twentieth century as well as the beginning of the twenty-first. Topics and texts covered may represent a particular national tradition, or reflect broader, international and comparative perspectives, with supplementary material in the form of critical essays, films, or other forms of cultural expression. Through close readings and analyses, the course traces various concerns and engagements opened up in contemporary fiction, ranging from perspectives on the changing roles of literature in society, to conceptions of the “postmodern,” the “postcolonial,” or the “transhuman” and the “posthuman.”
This course focuses on poetic works and perspectives emerging between approximately the end of the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth. Selected texts will be analyzed and discussed in connection with relevant historical and theoretical contexts, as well as in relation to other artistic or broader cultural developments. The course provides various conceptual and analytical perspectives on these works, and an opportunity for students to become familiar with some of the experimental approaches to form, content, and aesthetics that develop during this period, as well as with various conceptions of “modernism.”
This course will explore various features and aspects of contemporary poetry by selected British, Afro-Caribbean, and Asian-British, as well as European and American writers, and works from other traditions that have been written in English or circulated in translation. The topics selected will vary depending on the semester and the instructor, and may range from experimental and visual poetry, to concerns with gender, class, ethnicity, race, or nationalism that arise in the texts. Discussion may be supplemented with readings of philosophical or theoretical essays, and analyses of contemporary or otherwise intertextually related works of visual art.
Departmental Elective Courses
ELL 217 – English for Academic Purposes
This course is designed to help students develop their competence in English to the levels needed for them to fulfil their academic goals. Within this context, it provides a variety of activities integrated with in-class exercises, enabling students to practice and improve on their basic skills in reading, comprehension, speaking, listening, and writing.
ELL 333 – Literature and Media
This course looks at relations between literary texts and other modes of communication, including oral, print, performance, photographic, broadcast, cinematic, and digital media forms and practices. Areas of focus may include visual culture and cyberculture, the history of the media industry, the functions and effects of mass media, institutional contexts, rights and privacy issues, or countercultures, social movements, and protest mechanisms. Course material will include examples of various reflections of literary works in newspapers, magazines, television, film, advertising, the Internet, and other media. These examples will be analysed to provide students with a sense of how meanings, realities and beliefs are reflected and constructed, or shaped and perpetuated, through media images, sounds and texts. Theoretical and analytical perspectives will also be provided, through readings of works by various scholars and critics.
ELL 334 – Literature and Politics
Literary works can be treated, in a very limited, traditional sense, as cultural products which “reflect” the political and material concerns of their writers and audiences during the times when they were produced. This course takes a much broader approach, given that the meanings of texts can be shaped by audiences, and can also shape audiences’ perceptions. Course material may range from literary works to news and media texts. Theoretical frameworks may include the works of such writers as Hegel, Marx, Gramsci, Althusser, Foucault, Barthes, Zizek, Anderson, Butler, among others; the focus of the course will vary depending on to semester, from analyses of ethnicity and nationalism, to discusions of gender, race, class, age, or other rights issues.
ELL 337 – Literature and Sports
This course will focus on various significations of sports and sporting events in literary and other texts. Sports may be considered a textual form, which can be read and analyzed from various perspectives. Themes encapsulating the core values of sports include success, failure, gain, loss, victory, humiliation, hope, disappointment, pride, shame, solidarity, aggression, pain, and satisfaction; and there are many literary works which effectively grasp and reflect such aspects of sports and their power to affect and transform both individuals and society. Focusing on such works, in literary genres such as poetry, fiction, drama and the essay, the course explores some of the challenges and complexities of life, the achievements and disappointments of individuals, and the fluctuating and changing values of societies, as they are played out in sports.
ELL 338 – Literature and Science
This course focuses on ways in which science and technology interact with literature, culture and belief systems. These interactions may be engaged in various ways: for example, the course may look at how literary or philosophical works reflect, thematically or figuratively, contemporaneous developments in science and technology; or it may explore current trends in these fields which have influenced or are influencing such genres as fantasy literature, science fiction, graphic novels, cyberpunk and transhumanist literature, film, and video games; or how they are treated in other forms of popular culture. Alternatively, the course may focus on more general philosophical interactions between science and culture, or relations between systems of knowledge and belief or pseudoscience. Topics covered may range from environmental concerns to human/animal/machine relations, to broader issues around conceptions of science, humanism, knowledge, truth, or reality.
This course looks at the works of selected American playwrights, and also considers them in broader cultural contexts, such as their historical and social circumstances of production and dissemination, their audiences, and their critical reception. The course will look at works by such playwrights as Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, David Mamet, Edward Albee, Lorraine Hansbury, and Lillian Helman; and it will also consider the works in their relation to various theatrical movements, styles, and frameworks such as family drama, open theater, on-, off- and off-off Broadway, the theatre of the absurd, and the theater of cruelty.
ELL 345 – Text and Performance
This course focuses on analyzing selected texts and their adaptation and transformation in various modes of performance, such as theatrical production, dance, music, or film. In the case of dramatic works, this might involve taking a Shakespeare tragedy such as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Titus Andronicus or King Lear, or a modern play like Waiting for Godot, Equus or Ashes to Ashes, and examining stage productions in different periods of time to see how they are modified in different social and historical contexts. Other types of transformations considered might be the relation between oral adaptations of texts and their transcriptions or recordings; or the adaptation of poems, novels or historical documents to oral expression, the opera, ballet, symphony, song, film, or avant-garde performance.
This course will focus on the ways of reading varied forms of non-fictional prose writings, such as essays, letters, biographies, and autobiographies. The experience of reading non-fictional prose may be different from the experience of reading fictional writing. The former, being factual in essence, aims at instructing and persuading as opposed to the latter the primary purpose of which is to delight and move readers through the imaginative representations of reality. By reading works of non-fictional prose, the students will have the opportunity to explore various subjects through an effective use of language. Besides, they can understand the differences between fictional and non-fictional writings by comparing and contrasting the prominent examples of both genres.
ELL 363 – Detective and Crime Fiction
This course explores selected works of crime and detective fiction in terms of their historical contexts, social significance, popularity, or scientific and legal concerns. It may look at the emergence of the detective figure in fiction; survey the historical and geographical development of the genre; or focus on a particular type of crime fiction such as the whodunit, the hard boiled, the cosy, or the noir—or on a type of the detective, such as the armchair detective or the spinster. The structures of the narratives will be analyzed with a focus on the unique ways in which crime fiction provides a critique of modern society, through examining the discourses of nostalgia with which the genre has long been associated, or through contemporary critical and theoretical perspectives.
ELL 364 – Science Fiction and Fantasy
This course looks at selected works of science fiction and fantasy writing, the interrelation of these genres, and their allegorical relations to society. Emphasis will be placed on how works in these genres combine both literary art and scientific or mythological speculation, with a particular focus on twentieth and twenty-first-century developments and forms, ranging from literary and artistic texts to graphic novels, television programs, films, and electronic games. Topics covered may range from AI and space and time travel, to the end of the world, feminist utopias, chaos theory, new worlds and species, ecological disaster and holocaust. Critical perspectives on the genre and specific works will be provided though discussions and through critical and theoretical essays.
As a literary genre, the Gothic may be considered in relation to Romantic sensibilities and fantasy literature, or as a broader aesthetic form that that can be traced from medieval architecture and art to opera, film, and contemporary fashion. This course may focus on works of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century in one or more traditions, such as the British, American, French, German or Russian; or on texts and other productions in a subgenre such as gothic romance, American southern gothic, modern gothic, comic books, film noir and horror films, Gothic rock music, or fashion. Topics covered may range from concepts such as the sublime, the grotesque and the uncanny, to thematic issues such as madness, the carnivalesque, death, eroticism, gender, and violence.
ELL 366 – Comics and Graphic Novels
This course explores comics, graphic novels, and sequential art—what goes into their production, how they work, and how they are read. The focus will be on analyzing and discussing selected twentieth- and twenty-first century comics and graphic novels, to examine how they deal with personal and political conflicts. The course will also engage with related theoretical and critical material, and consider the aesthetics of comics and graphic novels, their cultural contexts and readerships, and how images shape and contribute to the creation of meaning.
The field of “American poetry” is vast, and includes the writings of indigenous peoples and slaves of the northern and southern continents; poetic developments in North America, from the early European colonial settlements to the diverse cultural and linguistic perspectives of contemporary poets; and developments in South America, from expressions of imperial cultures to various modernisms, and new voices in feminism and performance art. These traditions include and have been influenced by African, European, British, and other international poetic traditions and cultures. This course focuses on analyzing and discussing poetic texts selected to illustrate particular aspects of these traditions, in their literary, linguistic, cultural or historical contexts.
The course looks at relations between the mediums of film and literature through various theoretical frameworks, such as issues of fidelity, adaptation and appropriation; verbal and visual representation; and contexts of circulation and reception ranging from print publication to television, to the cinema, to digital media. Course material may include literary texts from classical drama to contemporary popular fiction and film scripts; cinematic representations in various genres from experimental film to recent releases; and reviews or theoretical and critical essays representing aspects of contemporary discussions in media and cultural studies and social, political, scientific, and literary theory.
ELL 434 – Literature and the Environment
The course explores a range of environmental issues, such as the place of the human within nature, ecofeminism and gender, engagements with European philosophy and the biological sciences, critical animal studies, posthumanism and climate change. It may look at the development of ecocriticism from its origins in studies of European pastoral literature up to contemporary literary academic approaches; or focus on current concerns such as environmental damage raised by pollution, wildlife extinction and urban development. Course material may include analytical texts by British, European, American thinkers, works reflecting environmental issues by such writers as Wordsworth, Dickens, Shelley, Carson, DeLillo, Ghosh, Atwood, Martel, Mootoo, and related films such as Nuridsany and Pérennou’s Microcosmos or Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man.
ELL 435 – Literature and the Visual Arts
Designed to discuss encounters between the so-called sister arts (literature and the visual arts), this course looks at relevant critical writings of Plato, Horace, da Vinci, Sidney, G. E. Lessing and the Romantics, and then moves on to discussions of ekphrasis in the 20th century, with reference to poetic and fictional works in various traditions, and the critical engagements of Mitchell, Krieger, Heffernan, and others. In addition to ekphrastic texts, the course may also explore, through the analysis of visual poetry or examining graphic fiction, the ways in which visuality is incorporated in literature; or the reverse, where the visual arts make use of words, as in Cubist and Dada collages, the paintings of Magritte, postmodern word art, and contemporary graffiti art.
ELL 436 – Literature and Music
This course introduces students to various perspectives on the relations between music and literature in selected cultural contexts. The content varies depending on the semester and the instructor: texts analyzed may include recordings of oral narratives, poems, plays, novels, artworks or films; these will be considered as cultural aesthetic artifacts, and examined in terms of how they are adapted to sound through various cultural forms such as chants and incantations, songs or instrumental musical performances; sound poetry and other kinds of oral expression; classical, jazz, rap or popular music; or through voice-overs, electronic music, and sound effects.
ELL 453 – Literature and Psychology
This course looks very briefly at early concepts articulated by Freud and Jung as well as various critiques of their work, and then moves on to more contemporary developments. The primary focus of the course will be in current areas of interest in literary studies, such as cognitive poetics and linguistics; feminist and broader gender studies engagements with Lacanian psychoanalysis; social and behavioral psychology in relation to literature, film, and other communications media; or current conceptions of mind in cognitive science (artifical intelligence and cybernetics in particular), as they relate to science fiction, or more broadly, the art, literature and culture associated with transhumanism.
ELL 458 – Popular Culture and Literature
Products of popular culture are often regarded as alternative to elite, “high-brow” intellectual, classical, or traditionally established products of cultural expression; however, there is constant interaction between these forms. This course focuses on some of the relations between works of “literature” and forms of “popular culture” such as advertising, television, popular music, cyberculture, pulp fiction, graphic novels, movies, video games, sports, and leisure activities, to explore the ways in which literary texts can influence popular culture, and how motifs, themes, myths and tropes of popular culture penetrate the realms of literature. Texts will include film clips, images, sounds and modes of behavior selected from various sources, and class discussion will be supplemented with theoretical and critical readings and analyses.
ELL 459 – Comparative Literature
Comparative literature is concerned with literary and other cultural products and activities across the boundaries of historical periods, languages, nations, cultures and disciplines. This field examines how philosophy, literary theory, the natural sciences, technology, history, politics, psychology, art, music and other fields interact; how norms, borders, categories and distinctions are created, maintained, or subverted; and how world views, individual and group identities, and patterns of behavior, shape and are shaped by forms of thought and language. Texts will be international and cross-disciplinary, and may include literature, film, art, and other media or forms of cultural expression. Areas of focus will be selected from a wide range of possibilities, such as issues of language, representation and textuality, history and historiography, justice and law, social structures, forms of identity (gender, ethnicity and nationalism, race, belief systems), or science and technology.
ELL 460 – Children’s Literature
Works of literature for children and young adults have existed in every period, and such works often overlap with or encompass a wide range of styles and genres. They include songs, nursery rhymes, jokes, mnemonic devices and folk tales in the oral tradition; visual texts such as comics, cartoons, graphic novels and children’s films; performances of plays and dances; fables, fairy tales, fantasies, legends and myths; parables, educational texts; poems, short stories, novels, and dramatic works. Their function has varied across periods and cultures, from promoting religious and moralizing views, to inculcating values, behaviors, traditions and practices; from education to entertainment and pleasure. This course looks at selected texts of children’s literature, focusing on various issues that arise in or around them, such as gender, class, age, racial, ethnic, national or other stereotyping, educational ideologies, religious indoctrination, and censorship, and/or aspects of their language, themes or arguments, styles or genres, audiences or readerships, with reference to theoretical and critical studies in related areas.
Travel literature has a long history, and appears in a wide range of contexts, including religious pilgrimages, political trips in the service of empires, travels with the purpose of exploration, resource identification and mapping, voyages of scientific or anthropological exploration, quests for adventure and achievement, and personal journeys of discovery focused on tourism, cultural exploration, or searches within nature and the self. This kind of writing varies from factual accounts and descriptions to fictions and fantasies; and appears in such diverse forms as histories, personal narratives, accounts of exploration, tales of epic quests and fantastic voyages, postcards, diaries, letters, video and sound recordings, and blogs. This course looks at some of the themes, issues and ideas that emerge in selected works of travel writing, such as definitions of the self, the foreign, and/or the exotic, discovery, exploration, exploitation, cultural conflicts, and tolerance. It also examines, through analyzing various examples, the frequently debated suggestion that travel writing is about the exploration of the writer’s self and the process of travel, as much as about the experiences the destinations offer.
This course concentrates on the works of a single author, their contexts of production and reception, and their implications; the specific author selected will vary depending on the instructor and the semester, and may be a writer, artist, musician, film-maker, scientist, critic, or theorist. The contexts of production of the works may cover the author’s historical period, contemporaries, and cultural circumstances, or interdisciplinary philosophical and aesthetic frameworks; reception contexts may include critical responses to these works, their subsequent effects and influences, or engagements with them by various other authors and audiences.
The term “bibliotherapy” has been defined as the practice of using books to promote mental health, solve personal problems, and become aware of one’s own personality. The course covers the following subjects: Matching the right book at the right time to the right reader. Reading for problem-solving skills, abstract thinking and moral development. The classes take the form of seminars, with the teacher providing analytical tools and fostering discussion. Creativity is also stressed, as students are guided to express their reactions, often in fictional form. The healing powers of literature and its ability to arouse the affective domain in readers are emphasized.
This course focuses on selected works of American novelists, considered in terms of their historical and cultural contexts as well as contemporary philosophical and artistic developments. The course may focus on a particular period, or cover texts from different periods, together with theoretical and critical readings, and in some cases, film or other media adaptations.
This interdisciplinary course explores issues and concerns that have developed around conceptions of gender, sexuality and identity. It looks at how these intersect, and how gender roles serve to shape individual identities, agencies, and structures of power. Selected literary, cinematic, media and other kinds of texts will be analyzed as cultural artefacts which interpret and question how such conceptions are produced, shaped and controlled in different historical and cultural contexts. Course material may also include a range of critical and theoretical perspectives in such areas as feminist, masculinity, queer, and transgender studies; postmodern, postcolonial, psychoanalytical, and cognitive theories; critical race and legal theory; gynocriticism, gendered writing and canon formation; and social and legal activism.