This course introduces the English major to debates in literary and critical theory. The goal of the course is to reflect on reading strategies, textual practices and language itself. We recommend that this course be taken in the junior year if possible.
MR
10:00-11:15
Theory for English Majors
ENGA 3045-002
Gold M.
This course introduces the English major to debates in literary and critical theory. The goal of the course is to reflect on reading strategies, textual practices and language itself. We recommend that this course be taken in the junior year if possible.
MR
11:30-12:45
Courses Before 1800:
Medieval Literature
ENRU 3100-001
Staff
A survey of Medieval literature.
MR
2:30-3:45
Love and Violence: Arthurian Legend
ENRU 3126-001
Batt C.
This course considers the exhilarating, dynamic and troubling Arthurian legend, in texts from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, from the ‘historian’ Geoffrey of Monmouth, through the Welsh Mabi nogion, and the romances of Chrétien de Troyes, to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Malory (all of which will be read in translation except for Malory). There will be particular emphasis on the place of love, of chivalry as ethical code, and of violence, in Arthurian texts, and on how their representation reflects on relations between the sexes and on the legend’s political and historical importance.
TF
1:00-2:15
Issues in Renaissance Literature
ENRU 3208-001
GoGwilt C.
Discussions of issues such as gender, politics, and sexuality in the works of Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, among others.
MR
4:00-5:15
American Literature to 1870
ENRU 3604-001
Staff
A survey of representative poetry and prose in the early, formative years of American literature.
TF
10:00-11:15
The Bible in English Poetry
ENRU 4135-001
Chase, SJ
This course studies some of the books of the Bible which have been most influential on English literature, together with English poetry and critical texts, from the Middle Ages to the present, which have been influenced by these biblical books. We will study the various English versions of the Bible and their backgrounds, but the focus will be on the Authorized Version (“King James Bible”) of 1611. The course will proceed sequentially through the Bible from Genesis through Revelation. At each class meeting we will discuss a key biblical text alongside a variety of poems, from all periods, inspired by or related to it.
T
Seminar
3:30-5:20
Courses Post-1800:
Age of Romanticism
ENRU 3400-001
Wilson F.
This course covers the broad sweep of British Romanticism, from the 1780s through the 1830s. In any given semester, specific themes may organize the readings, but they are designed to encompass a wide range of poetry, prose, and drama.
MR
2:30-3:45
Victorian Literature
ENLU 3402-001
Staff
This course examines the breadth of Victorian literature and the problems that it responded to and engendered. It focuses on how Victorian writers conceived power, representation, and subjectivity. Readings consist of poetry, essays, and novels by a variety of writers, including James Clarence Mangan, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and a selection of modern critics. Our inquiry will lead us to consider the meaning of empire, as well as questions of gender and sexuality, aesthetics and politics, desire and discipline.
TF
10:00-11:15
Modern British and American Poetry
ENRU 3511-001
Staff
A study of poets in the first half of the 20th century. Some poets to be covered are Yeats, Eliot, Pound, Williams, Stevens, Auden, Owen, Sassoon, and others.
MR
4:00-5:15
James Joyce
ENRU 3532-001
Kerins F.
A survey of Joyce’s fiction, beginning with Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, culminating in a careful reading of Ulysses and a handful of episodes from Finnegan’s Wake. Attention to Joyce’s experiments in language and narrative technique, the politics of Joyce’s styles, and the shifting interpretations of Joyce’s writing.
TF
1:00-2:15
Latino/Latina US Literatures
ENRU 3677-001
Staff
An introduction to Latino/a US prose and poetry.
TF
2:30-3:45
Spy Plots and Conspiracy Theories
GoGwilt C.
This course will examine a variety of spy plots and conspiracy theories, from English Renaissance drama to contemporary American movies. The main aim is to place in comparative historical, cultural, and theoretical context contemporary interest in conspiracy theories, as exemplified in recent spy thrillers, films, and current events.
Recent examples of spy thrillers, such as the Bourne Identity, The Interpreter, and The Manchurian Candidate will be placed in a variety of historical contexts: the Cold War, with such examples as Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, and the James Bond films; the rise of the spy thriller in the early twentieth century, from such works as Kipling’s Kim and Conrad’s The Secret Agent; and against the backdrop of classic prefigurations of espionage and conspiracy theory, in such works as Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
M
2:30-4:20
Female Deviance in the 18th Century
ENRU 4136-001
Kim J.
This course will track the figure of the female deviant as she is presented in works of fiction during the long eighteenth century. How and why does the category of female deviance change during the period? Why did this moment in early modernity devote so much energy to imagining and disciplining the figure of the deviant woman? Do such women represent female power, possibility, and liberation, or do they simply stand for cynical compromises with patriarchal power? Reading works by male and female authors, we'll get to know jilts, prostitutes, upwardly mobile maids, sham artists, romance junkies, and other scandalous women.
T
3:30-5:20
Creative Writing Courses:
Writer's Workshop: Poetry I
ENRU 3052-001
Christiansë Y.
Student manuscripts are the subject of assignments and class discussion, investigating various verse forms.
MR
11:30-12:45
Writing the Short Story
ENRU 3090-001
Staff
We will consider the various elements of the short story form: character, setting, point of view, structure, plot, tone, and the crafting of scenes. We will work toward the student's artistic development, knowledge of the craft, and professionalism in presentation.
MW
1:00-2:15
Translating Literature? Why? How?
ENRU 3099-001
Brant
What does it take to translate a poem or story well? How be true to the original and carry over its aesthetic excitement as well as its meaning? A course for those with a basic knowledge of a language other than English.
TF
2:30-3:45
Cross-Listed Courses:
American Catholic Women Writers
CARU 3359-001
O'Donnell A.
This course will explore American Catholic Women’s imaginative writing of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Students will read poetry, fiction, and memoir written by female Catholic writers of every stamp, including cradle and convert, lay and religious, traditionalist and feminist, lapsed as well as practicing. We will read poems by Josephine Jacobson, Denise Levertov, Madeline DeFrees, and Mary Karr, fiction by Flannery O’Connor, Valerie Sayers, Francine Prose, and Louise Erdrich, and memoir by Mary McCarthy, Dorothy Day, Patricia Hample, and Mary Gordon. As we engage the work of these thoughtful artists, whose books span a century of enormous change in the Church (typified most visibly by Vatican II and its continuing theological, social, and aesthetic ramifications with regard to women), we shall explore the ways in which the forces of faith, culture, and gender shape the Catholic literary imagination.
MR
2:30-3:45
20th Century African-American & African Women Writers
CORU 3691-001
Christiansë Y.
This course introduces a body of literature by African American and African women, as well as writings about such women. We will consider the political, racial, social and other related contexts in which these women write. How, for example, did African American writers of the early 20th Century attempt to define black female identity and how do later 20th Century writers engage this same concern? What concerns are shared in the writings of African American women and women writing in countries such as Senegal? We consider how some African women responded to their countries' independence from external or internal colonialism. We also consider the larger cultural traditions into which African American and African women's writings have been absorbed, or which their writings resist, or change. Our African readings will also consider how gender and racial concerns factor in writings by white African women writers. Does religion (Christianity, Islam) play any role in the way that some writers address their identity as women? Our definition of 'writings' will include novels, poetry, film, autobiography and journalism. Authors include Nella Larsen, Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, Saidiya Hartman, Nawal El Saadawi, Mariama Ba, Antjie Krog, Ingrid de Kok. We will also read Njabulo Ndebele's strange fictional biography of Winne Mandela, The Cry of Winnie Mandela.
MR
2:30-3:45
Fordham College at Lincoln Center
Required Course:
Theory for English Majors
ENLU 3045-001
Kramer L.
This course introduces the English major to debates in literary and critical theory. The goal of the course is to reflect on reading strategies, textual practices and language itself. We recommend that this course be taken in the junior year if possible.
MW
1:00-2:15
Sophomore Literature :
Literature and Society
ENLU 1210-001
Tanksley W.
This section will focus on the changing relationship between the individual and society that has developed in the last century. Themes will include the rising skepticism about the human condition, the sense of alienation raised by modern forms of violence and dehumanization, and the search for a new basis of hope. There will be a strong emphasis on the close examination of novels and films.
T
2:30-5:15
Literature & Society
ENLU 1210-002
Cassuto L.
This double course will combine "Close Reading and Critical Writing" and the Sophomore Literature requirement. This class will satisfy two core requirements at once, and will count as two courses (six credits altogether). As a double course, it will meet across two time slots, and students may expectreading and writing assignments equivalent to two courses.
The theme of the course will be "Captivity and Conflict." We will examine different forms of captivity in literature, ranging from the Indian captivity narratives of the colonial period and early republic, to fugitive slave narratives. We will also consider more figurative forms of captivity, such as narratives of disability (what is it like for someone to feel trapped in his or her own body?), addiction, social living (being trapped in a marriage, for example) and science fiction (does mind control count as captivity?). Throughout the course, we will be questioning the meaning of captivity—and the meaning of freedom.
The goals of the course center not just on deeper understanding of the theme it’s built around, but also on the acquisition and practice of the skills in reading, writing, and thinking that are at the center of the core curriculum. Questions? Contact the instructor at <cassuto@fordham.edu>.
MW
1:00-2:15
Literature & Society
ENLU 1210-003
Tanksley W.
This section will focus on the changing relationship between the individual and society that has developed in the last century. Themes will include the rising skepticism about the human condition, the sense of alienation raised by modern forms of violence and dehumanization, and the search for a new basis of hope. There will be a strong emphasis on the close examination of novels and films.
TF
1:00-2:15
Literature & Society
MVLU 1210-001
Yeager S.
The literature of the medieval period shows us a world where trade and crusade were means of obtaining the valued lands of the Middle East and beyond. In writing about the peoples who inhabited these places, medieval authors populated their narratives with unusual types, from club-wielding giants to irresistible pagan princesses. These depictions show both an attraction and repulsion for that which was considered foreign, or other. In this course, we will explore the literary creation of this other-world, questioning its appearance together with crusade. Through works such as Marco Polo’s Description of the World, Mandeville’s Travels, and selected Canterbury Tales, we will discuss and write about how early travelers conceptualized and documented the world and its inhabitants.
TF
10:00-11:15
Tragedy & Comedy
ENLU 1240-002
Bly M.
This course will study plays written by a wide variety of authors from different periods and countries, with particular attention to rewritten plays. We will read first the original (for example, Euripides's The Bacchae) and then a rewritten version (the South African playwright Wole Soyinka's Bacchae).
TF
11:30-12:45
Tragedy & Comedy
CLLU 1240-001
Theodorakopoulos E.
This course is an introduction to the dramatic literature of Athens and Rome viewed as theatrical performance in a religious setting and as didactic poetry aiming at questioning, as well as reflecting,fundamental assumptions of its audience. Readings include plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plautus, Terence and Seneca, as well as criticism by Plato (Republic, selections) and Aristotle (Poetics).
In the literature of the medieval era, a popular literary character named the Wife of Bath asked what the historical record would have shown had women written more texts. Like the poet Geoffrey Chaucer who created the Wife of Bath, we will ask similar questions in this course, exploring the ways in which the writing of medieval women influenced themselves, their society, and continues to affect our world today. Medieval texts by women writers offer a range of experiences and authors, from the love poetry of Christine de Pisan, to Margery Kempe’s mystical union with the divine, to Heloise’s illicit letters to Abelard. Whether writing for themselves or for others, these women left behind a lively and intriguing account of female experience in the Middle Ages, demonstrating an intense interest in politics, the arts, philosophy and spirituality.
TF
1:00-2:15
Shakespeare, Film & Media
ENLU 3223 001
Bly M.
This course will study Shakespeare’s plays first as texts and then as films. Through close readings of both media, we will try to grasp the ways film differs from dramatic production, and how time and culture are expressed in film. Readings include plays and film theory; requirements will include multimedia class presentations and essays.
T
2:30-5:15
New Wave of Immigrant Fiction
ENLP 3652 001
Stone E.
If you've paid attention to the news, there is much written about immigration, though very little of it comes from the immigrants themselves. But in fact, there is a very rich literature written by immigrants, or the children of immigrants, who have come hereduring the last half century. This course will examine what it means to these authors to come of age with a sense ofbeing American as well as a sense of having deep ties to another culture; we will also contrast the experience of these "new wave" immigrants with those whose families came early in the 20th century. Among the authors we will read are those whose families hail from China (Amy Tan), Cuba (Cristina Garcia), Haiti (Edwidge Danticat), Mexico (Richard Rodriguez), and India (Jhumpa Lahiri). We will also use as texts films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Avalon, and Balseros. This course satisfies the Pluralism Requirement.
MR
10:00-11:15
Contemporary U.S. Women Poets
Frost E.
This course will explore a wide range of voices and approaches among some of the most significant women poets of the last forty years. Readings will include works by poets of diverse backgrounds and a range of “schools” or movements. The first half of the semester will survey the field; the second half will shift to closer investigation of individual volumes by several poets.
MW
1:00-2:15
Cross-Listed Courses:
Lost Illusions
COLU 3216 001
Harris F.
Western civilization over the last century and a half viewed from the perspective of selected literary texts and films. The shift from confidence in the idea of inevitable progress to the more modern mode of uncertainty. Writers include Flaubert, Fontane, Remarque, Sartre, and Tim O’Brien.
TF
11:30-12:45
Contemporary Filmmakers
CMLU 3420 001
Stadler E.
A study of filmmakers of the past ten years, focusing on the work of directors whose films will be presented at the current New York Film Festival. Attendance at festival screenings and press conferences. Special fee for festival tickets.
T
2:30-5:15
From Realism to Modernism
COLU 3431 001
Stadler E.
A study of the 19th and early 20th century novel with particular attention to the development of the genre in the context of issues of representation and narration. Works by Balzac, E. Bronte, Dostoyevsky, Eliot, Flaubert, James, Joyce, Proust.
MW
11:30-12:45
Trauma, Memory, and Interrupted Narrative
COLU 3530-001
Petit-Hall C.
This course will consider what it means to live, write, and create in the aftermath of trauma. Reading texts on the literature of and about trauma and traumatic memory, we will examine various modes of narrative – literary, dramatic, visual, and cultural – identifying connections between theory and practice. Topics for discussion include personal trauma such as rape, abuse, incest, violence, and AIDS, as well as historical trauma such as the Holocaust, racial and political oppression, genocide and war. Through these readings, we will consider the tension between the representation of traumatic memory and the actual experience of the event itself, and the ways in which trauma forces a rethinking of the categories of identity and history. What is the capacity of language to articulate the experience of trauma? What are the ethics of representing trauma in literature, fiction, autobiography and film? How does the creation of these narratives enact and recreate memory? What does the cultural memory of historical trauma reveal about our collective identity? Readings may include: Sigmund Freud, Cathy Caruth, Dori Laub, Shoshana Felman, Marita Sturken, Peggy Phelan, Michael Taussig, Susan Sontag, Kai Erikson, William Haver, Anne Whitehead, Laurie Vickroy, Dorothy Allison, Toni Morrison, Marguerite Duras, Jamaica Kincaid, Kathryn Harrison, Joan Didion, Susan Lori Parks, David Wojnarowicz, Sally Mann, Reza Abdoh, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, AIDS Memorial Quilt.
TF
8:30-9:45
Senior Values:
Modern Drama, Moral Crucible
ENEV-3531-L01
Lamb M.
A study of Ibsen, Chekhov, Shaw, Buchner, Wedekind, and Strindberg from the perspective of the presentation of moral values.
T
6:00-8:45
Writing and Creative Writing Courses:
Journalism Workshop
CMLU-2211/
12/13/14
Stone E.
A practical workshop in writing news, feature, commentary, or sports articles, or doing graphics and layout for The Observer. Students will work as writers or on the layout staff.
T
1:00-2:15
In My Opinion: Writing Editorials
ENEU 3007-L01
Staff
This writing course will focus on getting out your soapbox and climbing on via your creation of compelling and informed op-eds, commentaries and what magazines call “think” pieces.
R
6:00-8:45
Flash Fiction
ENLU 3046-001
Staff
TF
2:30-3:45
Writers' Workshop: Poetry II
ENEU 3052 001
Staff
Advanced work in writing poetry.
T
6:00-8:45
Writers' Workshop: Prose I
ENLU 3054 001
Lamb M.
A course in fiction writing in which studentsdiscuss their own work at each class meeting. Readings of recently published stories as well as examples of well-known writers' use of dialogue, narrators (reliable and unreliable), dreams, irony, etc. Classroom visit by a published author.
MR
4:00-5:15
Advanced Prose Techniques
ENLU 3060 001
Lamb M.
Intensive work in composition, with emphasis on style. Individual students may focus on narrative (fiction or nonfiction), the personal essay or research based article. Concurrent readings of modern and contemporary models in each genre, with discussion of the useful balance of kinds of writing (story-telling, dialogue, description, process, analysis) in such writers as Virginia Woolf, Joan Didion, Denis Johnson, John McPhee, Annie Dillard.
MR
2:30-3:45
Interviews and Profiles
CMLU 3081-001
Belsky
Intensive work in developing and writing profiles, accompanied by readings from Boswell to Mailer. Prerequisite(s): CM 2082 or CM 3084.
W
2:30-5:15
Writing for Magazines
CMLU 3084-001
Aronson A.
Intensive practice in developing ideas into non-fiction pieces intended for general interest or specialized publications. Inquiries, field and library research, interviews, presentation of technical subjects to non-specialists. Students may wish to concentrate on areas in which they have particular interest or expertise. Prerequisite: CM 2082 or CM 3084, or permission of the instructor. Note: Credit will not be given for both this course and CM 4201.
TF
2:30-3:45
The Comic Voice
ENLU 3086-001
Eng A.
In the long tradition of the comic voice, the most notable practitioners have included Jonathan Swift, Addison and Steele, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and James Thurber. Among current writers working in the tradition are Calvin Trillin, Woody Allen, Garrison Keillor, Russell Baker, Fran Leibowitz, and Molly Ivins. Students will write comic essays and columns, read selections from practitioners and comic theorists (such as Bergson and Freud), and consider evolutions in comic taste.
TF
1:00-2:15
Sreenwriting II
CMLU 3409-001
Weinert S.
Analyzing feature screenplays and working towards production of a feature-length screenplay.
W
2:30-5:15
Fordham College of Liberal Studies
Sophomore Literature:
Poetry & Poetics
ENEU 1220-L01
Frost E.
We will investigate a range of poetry in English, exploring uses of imagery, rhythm, voice, tone, and form. Students will write short papers and take exams; you will have the option to write poetry for some short assignments. In addition, a special feature of this class will be our attendance of Poets Out Loud readings held at Fordham, some of which will take place during our scheduled class meeting and which we will attend as a class.
M
6:00-8:45
Litature & Society
ENEP 1240-L01
Lauer K.
Taking as a point of departure Philip Roth's new and controversial novel of a mythical America with a President sympathetic to Fascism, we will study the novel as a vehicle for social change, particularly in the area of civil rights. We will read Roth, Lev Raphael's study of the children of survivors, The German Money, Plum Bun, Passing, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Beloved. The course also features analysis of the sentimental, modern, postmodern, contemporary and genre novel.
R
6:00-8:45
Electives:
Early Modern Science & Literature
ENEU 3327-L01
Boyle F.
John Milton, Isaac Newton, Jonathan Swift, Margaret Cavendish, Robert Boyle, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Aphra Behn, and John Dryden were all alive (some overlapping for only a few years) at the same time. The period of the transformation of modern science is also one of the richest periods in English literature. This course studies the relationship between literature and science in the early modern period.
W
6:00-8:00
Contemporary British Fiction
ENEU 3528-L01
Pitchford N.
This course surveys major issues in British novels from the second half of the twentieth century, with particular emphasis on three interweaving common preoccupations: the changing nature of class relationships in post-World War II Britain; the disintegration of the British Empire and Britain’s resultant development into a multicultural, immigrant nation; and the role of literary fiction in reassessing and rethinking Britain’s place in history. Writers often covered include Salman Rushdie, Angela Carter, and Graham Greene.
W
6:00-8:45
African Literature I
AAEG 3688-L01
Mustafa F.
This course will focus on indigenous language and pre-colonial African (oral) literatures in translation. We will pay attention to the formalities of oral practices, tracing their development from the epics of the west African Empires, through 20th-century and contemporary African film and music. We will also survey the spread of the literary and performative traditions of Kiswahili and other Eastern and Southern African trends.
