Fall 2009 Graduate Literature Courses
ENGL 5420.351 Seminar in British Literature of the 17th-C: Literature & Politics, 1625-1660 / Jones
MWF 10:30-11:20 AM. CID 19139
The seminar will investigate the nature of literature composed during the Personal Rule of Charles I (1625-40) as a prelude to the explosion of print that coincides with the outbreak of the English Civil War (1640-48) and continues through the Commonwealth and Protectorate periods (1649-60). Is there any validity to the claim that literary artists compose differently during periods of stability and unrest? Does state-imposed censorship impede or promote creativity? Do conditions of peace and war produce literature of a nationalistic and/or revolutionary nature? Answers to these questions may reside in the poetry, pamphlets, newsbooks, journals, commonplace books, and plays composed during the reign of Charles I and the only period of English history where monarchy was replaced by Parliamentary experimentation and Oliver Cromwell. 2 papers, 1 exam, 1 tutorial.
ENGL 5480.001 Seminar in Modern Literature: The Modern Epic / Walkiewicz
TR 12:30-1:45 PM. CID 13251
The course will focus on four twentieth-century long “poems including history”: Crane’s The Bridge, Pound’s The Cantos, Walcott’s Omeros, and Williams’ Paterson. Placing the works in the larger contexts of modernist and postcolonial poetics as well as the cultural history of the Americas, we will explore the poets’ approaches to historiography and analyze the ways they adapted the “mythic method” to suit their own personal and political concerns. We will also examine such things as the poems’ treatment of gender (including the way they evoke constructions of both masculinity and femininity), as well as their incorporation/appropriation of aspects of non-Western (including Native American) cultures.
ENGL 5630.351 Seminar in Early American Literature: Transatlantic Voyages / Frohock
MWF 9:30-10:20 AM. CID 19134
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the sea voyage narrative flourished as a popular genre. Sea voyage narratives were appealing as a source of the latest information about alluring and exotic places, and the people who traveled into unknown regions, too, could themselves become centers of interest and controversy for their picaresque style, shocking cruelty, and daring engagement with national enemies, particularly Spain. As the Earl of Shaftesbury remarked, by the early 18th century, sea voyage narratives had become “in our present days what books of chivalry were in those of our forefathers”. Our objective in this seminar will be to study examples of this popular genre and to think about what they can tell us about how the Americas were imaginatively conceived and textualized, and to consider how these voyage narratives opened a public dialogue about questions of imperial power, authority, violence, and appropriation. Our reading will cover a number of well known and lesser known voyages; figures of interest include Henry Morgan, William Dampier, Woodes Rogers, Captain Bly, and Captain Cook. Along with primary material, we will study criticism of the voyage narrative and read recent theory about transatlantic approaches to the study of early colonial history and literature. A presentation, seminar paper, and final exam are among the course assignments.
ENGL 5660.351 Seminar in American Literature of the 19th-C: Transcendentalism and Political Engagement: Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, Hawthorne, Douglass / Decker
T 4:30-7:10 PM. CID 19133
This seminar will examine the continuity between American Transcendentalism and political activism in the antebellum period. One critical review, one seminar paper, two class presentations, and final exam.
English Department
College of Arts & Sciences
Oklahoma State University
205 Morrill Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-9474
For Information about English Programs: english.information@okstate.edu
Webmaster: engweb@okstate.edu
