ENGLISH (AS) {ENGL}
See English Department website for current descriptions: www.english.upenn.edu
Freshman Seminar 016
See English Department website for current descriptions: www.english.upenn.edu
SM 016. (AFRC016, CINE016, GSOC016, LALS016, SAST016) Topics in Literature. (C) Freshman Seminar. Freshman Seminars under the title "Topics in Literature" will
afford entering students who are considering literary
study as their major the opportunity to explore a
particular and limited subject with a professor whose
current work lies in that area. Topics may range
from the lyric poems of Shakespeare's period to the
ethnic fiction of contemporary America. Small class-size
will insure all students the opportunity to participate
in lively discussions. Students may expect frequent
and extensive writing assignments, but these seminars
are not writing courses; rather, they are intensive
introductions to the serious study of literature.
One of them may be counted toward the English major
and may be applied to a period, genre, or thematic
requirement within the major. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
Intermediate-Level Courses 017-097 See English Department website for current descriptions: www.english.upenn.edu
017.Age of Beowulf. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This
course introduces students to the great Old English
epic Beowulf within the larger context of Anglo-Saxon
culture. We will read the poem in its entirety (after
a crash course on Old English grammar); as we do
so, we will use our experience of the poem to branch
out into such topics as Anglo-Saxon poetics, mythologies
and genealogies, manuscript culture, monastic life,
archeology, legal codes, slavery, and gender relations.
Finally, we will use the poem to think through the
place of Old English in modern American and British
culture, as for example, the way we conceive of the
English language, national identity, and our medieval-saturated
popular culture (romances, films, videogames, etc.). See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
018. Old English. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
This course introduces students to the
powerful and influential corpus of Old
English literature. We will read a wide
variety of texts:short poems such as
THE WONDERER, THE SEAFARER, THE WIFE'S
LAMENT and the passionate religious poem
THE DREAM OF THE ROOD; chronicles such
as THE BATTLE OF MALDON AGAINST THE VIKINGS,THE
OLD TESTAMENT, EXODUS and Bede's CONVERSION
OF THE ENGLISH; and selections from the
greatest of all English epics, BEOWULF.
Readings will be in Old English,and the
first few weeks of the course will be devoted
to mastering Old English prosody, vocabulary,
and grammar (as well as a crash course
on the early history of the English language).
During the last few weeks we may read modern
criticism of Old English poetry, or we
will consider the modern poetic reception
of Old English literature and explore
theories and problems of translation, reading translations of Old English poems by Yeats, Auden, Tolkein,
and Heaney. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current
offerings.
019. History of the English Language. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
This course traces the history of
the English language through English
literaryhistory, from Anglo-Saxon England
to 21st-century America. We will
consider the relationship between different
language systems (e.g., syntax, morphology,
orthography, grammar) and the relation
of those systems to the liteature of
different historial periods. We will
also consider the social and political
events influencing language change,
such as the introduction of Christianity, the Norman Conquest, the printing press, colonialism, educational policies,
and mass media. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
020.Literature Before 1660. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
This course will introduce students
to key works of English literature
written before 1660. It will explore
the major literary genres of this
period, as well as the social and
cultural contexts in which they
were produced. The course will
examine how literature texts articulate
changes in language and form, as
well as in concepts of family,
nation, and community during the medieval and early modern periods. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
021. (CLST321, COML021) Medieval Literature and Culture. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course introduces students to four hundred years of English literary culture,
from approximately 1100 to 1500. This period was marked by major transformations, not only with respect to government,
law, religious practice, intellectural life, England's relation to the Continent (during the 100 Years
War), the organization of society (especially after the Black Death), the circulation of literary texts, and the status of
authors. Topics may include medieval women writers, manuscript production, literatures of revoltd, courtly culture, Crusades,
cross-Channel influences, and religious controversy. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
022.Romance. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
This course will focus on what is arguably the most
extravagant, adventuresome, and fantastical of the
literary genres: the Romance. We will read a number
of medieval and renaissance romance narratives, in
verse and prose, beginning with the Arthurian romances
(Malory's MORTE D'ARTHUR, SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN
KNIGHT) and continuing with as many (and as much)
of the great renaissance romances as time will allow:
Sir Philip Sidney's ARCADIA, Edmund Spenser's THE FAERIE QUEEN, and Lady Mary Wroth's URANIA. See
the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
023.History and Theory of Genre. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
This course will offer students the opportunity
to understand what makes one genre or kind of literature
different from another. Where do their definitions
originate? How does genre affect how a literary work
is written, how it is reproduced, and how it is interpreted?
To what degree have the various genres mutated through
time? Under what circumstances do new genres emerge?
The syllabus will consist of representative works
of a number of literary generes (drama, romance, lyric, satire, epic) as well as some readings, both ancient
and modern, in the theory of genre. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
025.The Age of Chaucer. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
In this class we come to speak as people spoke in England
some six centuries ago: in medieval or 'Middle' English.
We do this by reading the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer,
a great poet who has influenced everyone from William
Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath. Since Middle English takes
some getting used to, class assignments are not heavy:
usually about 800 lines per class. A typical class
might begin by looking at a few of the easier passages
in the Canterbury Tales, proceed to reading the greatest
poem of love in the English language (Chaucer's TROILUS
AND CRISEYDE), before moving on to other contemporary
writers in medieval culture. We will likely compare
representations of medieval Christianty, Judaism,
and Islam, as well as aspects of film adaptation
by Italian filmmaker Pasolini (and perhaps by Chaucer
scholar Terry Jones). We will consider what it might
have been like to live secure in an age of faith;
yet to live insecure, as a dizzying new profusion
of trades and occupations sprang up in unprecedented "divisions
of labor." We will
imagine being a medieval woman, and may visit and handle
medieval manuscripts. Above all, we will enjoy the poetry. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
026.Drama to 1660. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Early drama in English had its roots as much in Christianity
as in Classical antiquity. What grew into the theater
of Shakespeare began as networks of strolling players
and church atuhorities in market towns sponsoring cycles
of "miracle" and "mystery" plays.
This course will introduce students to major dramatic
works of the medieval and early modern periods,
including plays written for the public stage, closet
dramas, masques, mayoral pageants and other kinds
of performances. The course will also pay attention
to the development of different dramatic genres
during these periods, as well as the social and
cultural contexts in which they were produced.
Students thus will explore the history of drama in English through the renaissance to the closing of the theaters in
1641 and their eventual reopening in 1660. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
029. (CLST167, CLST321, COML167) Classical Antiquity and English Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 096]. This course will examine the relationship between early English literature and
that of ancient Greece and Rome. At times will will discuss how classical theories of genre and aesthetics were
appropriate and reinvented in medieval, raniassance, and seventeenth-century texts. What does it mean to call HAMLET
and OEDIPUS THE KING tragedies, or THE FROGS and THE WAY OF THE WORLD comedies? Should we consider the development
of English drama and poetry as an extension of an imposing classcial traditon or as a sustained
and resistant response to it? See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
031. Introduction to Renaissance Literature and Culture. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 030]. This course will survey the cultural history of sixteenth and seventeenth century
England. Interdisciplinary in nature and drawing on the latest methodologies and insights of English studies, we
will explore how aesthetics, politics, social traditions, impacted literature at this vital and turbulent time of English
history. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
032.Renaissance Poetics. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
An introduction to the theory and practice of verse
in England from approximately 1500 to 1700. Primary
concerned with poems by Skelton, Wyatt, Surrey, Gascoigne,
Sidney, Shakespeare, Spenser, Jonson, Donne, Herbert,
Herrick, Marvel, and Milton, this course places special
emphasis on the influence of classical and continental
poetry in Renaissance England, reading English texts
comparatively with texts by Horace, Ovid, Virgil,
Petrarch, and du Bellay. The course also examines
contemporary critical writing about poetics; debates
about the fitness of English to sustain a literture;
early efforts to invent a canon of English poets;
the issue of translation; and the organization and
status of pre modern genres, like pastoral, epigram and elegy. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
033.(RELS015) The Bible As Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 073]. Successive generations have found the Bible to be a text
which requires - even demands - extensive interpretation.
This course explores the Bible as literature, considering
such matters as the artistic arrangement and stylistic
qualities of individual episodes as well as the larger
thematic patterns of both the Old and New Testaments
and the Apocrypha. A good part of the course is spent
looking at the place of the Bible in cultural and
literary history andthe influence of such biblical
figures as Adam and Eve, David, and Susanna on writers
of poetry, drama, and fiction in the English and
American literary traditions. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
034. (CINE138, FNAR034, HIST034) Cultures of The Book. (M) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. [Formerly ENGL 071]. The impact of various technologies (from
writing to various forms of manuscript to print to
electronics) on the way the written word gives shape
to a culture. Emphasis on western cultures from Plato
to the present, but participation by students with
interest or expertise in non-western cultures will
be of great value to the group as a whole. The course
offers an ideal perspective from which students can
consider meta-issues surrounding their own special
interests in a wide variety of fields, as well as
learn to think about the way in which traditional
fields of study are linked by common inherited cultural
practices and constructions. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
038. The Age of Milton. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. The
seventeenth century was a time of revolution and
upheaval, of excesses both puritanical and cavalier.
It saw the execution of one kind and the restoration
of another,a nd surved the English Civil War and
the great Fire and Great Plague of London. This course
explores the literature of this century through the
works of John Milton Milton's major works (selected
sonnets, COMUS, AREOPAGITICA, PARADISE LOST, PARADISE
REGAINED, and SAMSON AGONISTES), and his contemporaries.
We will concentrate on a number of issues that governed
writing in the period, particularly the tension between individual interiority and historial, social
and political activity. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
040.British Poetry 1660 - 1914. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
This course provides students with a survey of British
poetry and poetics from the Restoration to the Modern
period, and usually will include writers ranging from
Aphra Behn and Alexander Pople to Thomas Hardy. The
course may be offered in various fromsn, some coverning
less,and some more historial ground. Most will provide
a sampling of eighteenth-centure, Romantic, and Victorial poets. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
041.18th-Century British Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
An introduction to British literary and cultural
history in the eighteenth century. Typically, this
course will contain materials from the later seventeenth
to the early nineteenth centuries--from the Restoration
and Glorious Revolution through the Englightenment,
the American and French Revolutions, and the Napoloeonic
Wars--though it need not cover the entire period.
We will read plays, poetry and prose in order to
understand the aesthetic, intellectual, social and political issues germane to literary production and achievement in this
period. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
042.18th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
An introduction to poetic practices as they
developed in England, and in English-speaking
Britain and its colonies, between the late seventeenth
and early nineteenth centuries. Typically, this
course will survey poetry on both sides of the
Atlantic, though its geographic focus will vary
with the instructor. Students will focus on
a variety of peotic forms including, through
not restricted to: satire, the ode, panegyric,
pastoral and topographical poetry, lyric poetry.
We will seek to understand poetry as crucial to, and constitutive of, eighteenth-century
aesthetic and cultural practice. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a
description of the current offerings.
043.Early American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 082]. An introduction to the English-language literatures of North America and the
Caribbean from the late 16th century to the early 19th. Works in various genres by Thomas Hariot, John Smith, William
Bradfor, Mary Rowlandson, Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards, Sarah Knight, Franklin, Jefferson, Wheatley, Freneau,
Bryant, Poe, and many others. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
045.(GSOC045) 18th-Century Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
This survey of the novel addresses key questions about
the novel's "rise" in the eighteenth century
on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as attending
to the cultural conditions that attended this new literary
from. How did the concurrent "rise" of the
middle classes and the emergence of an increasingly
female reading public affect the form and preoccupations
of early novels? What role did the institutions like
literary reviews, libraries, and the church play in
the novel's early reception? While reading will vary
from course to course, students should expect to read
such authors as Austen, Behn, Brockden Brown, Burney, Defoe, Fielding, Richardson, Rowlandson,
Rowson, Scott, and Smollett. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
046.Drama from 1660 - 1840. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
This course surveys drama from the Restoration
through the Romantic period, and in so doing explores
arguably the most tumultuous period of Brish and
American Theater history. These years saw the reopening
of the theaters in London in 1660 after their having
been closed through two decades of Civil War and
Puritan rule. They witness the introduction of actresses
to the stage, the development of scenery and the
modern drop-apron stage, the establishment of theatrical
monopolies in 1660 and stringent censorship in 1737,
and the gradual introduction, acceptance, and eventual
celebration of the stage in America. Perhaps most
important, they oversaw some of the best comedies
and farces in the English language, the introduction
of pantomime and the two-show evening, sustained
experimentation with music and spectacle on stage,
and the transformation of tragedy into a star vehicle
of actors and actresses like David Garrick, Sarah Siddons, John Philip Kemble, and Edmund Kean. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
048.Transatlantic Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. A survey of the literatures of the English-speaking Atlantic world, from the
earliest colonial ventures in North America to the cosmopolitan cultures of the 19th-century empire. In prose, poetry, and
drama by a diverse range of writers, the course will trace numerous transatlantic dialogues--on colonialism, aesthetics,
revolution, slavery, imagination, nationalism, and religion--from the British Isles to the Americas to Western
Africa. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
049.Enlightenment and Romanticism. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
A survey of literature from the Enlightenment
to Romanticism, focusing on the interdisciplinary
nature of literary and social change between
1745 and 1848. Students will read the aesthetic,
philosophical, and literary writings from this
century of American, European, and Caribbean
revolutions. While readings will vary from course
to course, students should expect to read such
authors asAnna Barbauld, William Blake, Edmund
Burke, Olaudah Equinao, Henry Fielding, Benjamin
Franklin, Philip Freneau, Margaret Fuller, David
Hume, Thomas Jefferson, Hannah More, Thomas Paine,
Walter Scott, Percy Shelley, Adam Smith, Horace
Walpole, Phillis Wheatley, Helen Maria Williams,
and Mary Wollstonecraft. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
050.The Romantic Period. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course offers an introduction to the literature of the Romantic period
(ca. 1770-1830). Some versions of this course will incorporate European romantic writers, while others will focus exclusively
on Anglo-American romanticism, and survey authors such as Austen, Blake, Brockden Brown, Byron,
Coleridge, Emerson, Irving, Keats, Radcliffe, Scott, Shelley, and Wordsworth. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of
the current offerings.
051.(GSOC051) 19th-Century British Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. In 1815 in the wake of the battle of Waterloo, Great Britain controlled
a staggering quarter of the world's landmass and
half of its gross national product. This course will
begin with the Napoleonic Wars and this Regency aftermath
to survey a century of British literature -- from
Romanticism through the revolutions of 1848 and the
Victorian and Edwardian periods to the beginning
of the first World War. Most versions of this course
will read both novels and poetry, often focusing
on the relation between the two and their function
within nineteenth century culture. Others may incorporate
drama and non-fiction prose. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
052. 19th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 051]. An introduction to British and American poetry and poetics from the early
Romantics to the early Modernists._ Authors may include
Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Hemans, Shelley, Keats,
Byron, Bryant, Tennyson, Poe, Longfellow, the Brownings,
Whitman, Dickinson, the Bront_s, Swinburne, the Rossettis,
Hopkins, Arnold, Dunbar, Hardy, and Robinson. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
053. 19th-Century American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 083]. A consideration of outstanding literary treatments of American culture from
theearly Federalist period to the beginnings of the first World War. We will traverse literary genres, reading
autobiographies and travel accounts as well a fiction and poetry. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
055. (COML055, GSOC055) 19th-Century Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. During the nineteenth century the novel became the dominant literary form of
its day, supplanting poetry and drama on both sides of the Atlantic. In this introduction to the novelists of the period,
we will read the writers who secured the novel's cultural respectability and economic prominence. Likely authors will
include Austen, the Brontes, Collins, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, Thackeray, Scott, and Stowe.
The course will explore the themes, techniques, and styles of the nineteeth-century novel. It will focus not only
on the large structural and thematic patterns and problems within each novel but also on the act of reading as a historically
specific cultural ritual in itself. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
056. Modern Drama. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Selected writings for the stage from the mid-nineteenth century to the present,
encompassing such radical movements as realism and naturalism, symbolism and surrealism, metatheatre, expressionism,
epic theatre, the theatre of the absurd, and post-modernism. Major playwrights include Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov,
Shaw, Pirandello, Brecht, Beckett, Kushner, and Parks. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
057. (AFRC057, LALS057) Literature of the Americas to 1900. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 080]. This course examines U.S.
literature and culture in the context of the global
history of the Americas. Historical moments informing
the course will range from the origins of the Caribbean
slave-and-sugar trade at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 and the U.S.
Mexico and Spanish-American wars. Readings will include
works by authors such as Frances Calder_n de la Barca,
Frederick Douglass, Helen Hunt Jackson, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, Jose Marti, Herman Melville, John Rollin
Ridge, Mar_a Amparo Ruiz de Burton, and Felix Varela. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
058.Irish Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 063]. This course will provide an introduction
to modern Irish literature, focusing on the tension
between Ireland's violent history and its heroic
mythology. This tension leaves its mark not only
on the ravaged landscape, but also on the English
language, which displays its "foreignness" most
strongly in the hands of Irish writers. Readings will
span the genres of poetry, drama, fiction, and history,
and will include works by Sommerville and Ross, Yeats,
George Moore, Joyce, Synge, O'Casey, Beckett, Edna O'Brien, and Brian Friel. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
059.(COML059) Modernisms and Modernities. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This class explores the international emergence of modernism, typically
from the middle of the 19th century to the middle
of the 20th century. We will examine the links between
modernity, the avant-garde, and various national
modernisms that emerged alongside them. Resolutely
transatlantic and open to French, Spanish, Italian,
German, or Russian influences, this course assumes
the very concept of Modernism to necessitate an international
perspective focusing on the new in literature and
the arts -- including film, the theatre, music, and
the visual arts. The philosophies of modernism will
also be surveyed and concise introductions provided
to important thinkers like Marx, Nietzsche, Sorel,
Bergson, Freud, and Benjamin. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
060.Rise of the Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
This course explores the history of the British novel
and the diverse strategieof style, structure, characterization,
and narrative techniques it has deployed since the
late seventeenth century. While works from the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries will form the core of the
reading, some versions of this course will include
twentieth-century works. All will provide students
with the opportunity to test the advantages and limitations
of a variety of critical approaches to the novel
as a genre. Readings may include works by Behn, Swift,
Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Lennox, Smollett, Burney,
Scott, Austen, the Brontes, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy,
Conrad, Joyce, Lawrence, Woolf, Rhys, Greene, Naipaul, Carter, Rushdie, and Coetzee. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
061.(CINE160) 20th-Century British Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course introduces major works in twentieth-century British literature.
We will read across a range of fiction, poetry, plays, and essays, and will consider aesthetic movements such as modernism
as well as historical contexts including the two World Wars, the decline of empire, and racial and sexual conflict.
Authors treated might include: Conrad, Yeats, Joyce, Eliot, Lawrence, Forster, Shaw, Woolf, Auden, Orwell,
Beckett, Achebe, Rhys, Synge, Naipaul, Rushdie, Heaney, and Walcott. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
062.(COML062) 20th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
From abstraction to beat, from socialism to negritude,
from expressionism to ecopoetry, from surrealism to
visual poetry, from collage to digital poetry, the
poetry of the twentieth century has been characterized
by both the varieties of its forms and the range
of its practitioners. This course will offer a broad
overview of many of the major trends and a few minor
eddies in the immensely rich, wonderfully varied,
ideologically and aesthetically charged field. The
course will cover many of the radical poetry movements
and individual innovations, along with the more conventional
and idiosyncratic work, and will provide examples
of political, social, ethnic, and national poetries,
both in the Americas and Europe, and beyond to the
rest of the world. While most of the poetry covered
will be in English, works in translation, and indeed the art of translation, will be an essential component
the course. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current
offerings.
063.(AFRC063) 20th-Century American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 058]. This course surveys American literature across the twentieth-century, considering
its formal innovations in the wake of modernism, the two World Wars, the Cold War and postmodernity. Authors treated
might include: James, Wharton, Eliot, Pound, Faulkner, Hemingway, Rhys, Baldwin, Ginsberg, Plath, Pynchon,
Walcott, and Morrison. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
064. Modern America. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 084]. This course is concerned with American literature and cultural life from the
turn of the century until about 1950. The course emphasizes the period between the two World Wars and emphasizes as well
the intellectual and cultural milieu in which the writers found themselves. Works by the following writers are usually
included: James, Eliot, Frost, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, West, Stevens, DuBois, Williams, Wharton, Stein, West,
Moore, and Hemingway. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
065. (AFST065, COML065) 20th-Century British Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course traces the development of the novel across
the twentieth-century. The course will consider the
formal innovations of the modern novel (challenges
to realism, stream of consciousness, fragmentation,
etc.) in relation to major historical shifts in the period. Authors treated might include: Conrad,
Lawrence, Joyce, Forster, Woolf, Cather, Faulkner,
Hemingway, Achebe, Greene, Rhys, Baldwin, Naipaul,
Pynchon, Rushdie, and Morrison. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
066.(ASAM066) Literature and Law. (M) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. An introduction
not only to representations of the law and legal processes
in literary texts, but also to the theories of reading, representation, and interpretation that form the foundation of both
legal and literary analysis. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
067.20th-Century Literature of the Americas. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course situates major U.S. literary movements of the twentieth century
within the political and cultural histories of the Americas. With this more global context we will survey writing about revolution,
imperialism, social protest, feminism and sexuality, and the influence of the "boom" writers and
magical realism on U.S. culture. Writers might include Willa Cather, Michelle Cliff, Coco Fusco, Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac,
Leslie Marmon Silko, Gabriel Garc_a Marquez, Katherine Anne Porter, and William Carlos Williams. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
069. Poetry and Poetics. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. What
is poetry and what place does it have among literary
forms? What is its relation to culture, history,
and our sense of speakers and audiences? This course
will focus on various problems in poetic practice
and theory, ranging from ancient theories of poetry
in Plato and Aristotle to contemporary problems in
poetics. In some semesters a particular school of
poets may be thefocus; in others a historical issue
of literary transmission, or a problem of poetic
genres, such as lyric, narrative, and dramatic poetry,
may be emphasized. The course will provide a basic
knowledge of scansion in English with some sense
of the historical development of metrics. This course
is a good foundation for those who want to continue to study poetry in literary history and for creative writers concentrating
on poetry. See the English Department's website at
www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current
offerings.
070. (GSOC060, LALS060) Latina/o Literature and Culture. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. A survey of cultural productions by Latinas/os (i.e.
people of Latin American descent who have been raised
in the U.S.) that usually will focus on the twentieth
century, but might at times examine earlier periods
instead. The course will take a culturally and historically
informed approach to a wide range of novels, poems,
plays, and films, and will sometimes include visual
art and music. Writers and artists might include
Am_rico Paredes, Piri Thomas, Cherr_e Moraga, Sandra
Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Junot D_az, Cristina Garc_a,
El Teatro Campesino, John Leguizamo, Carmen Lomas
Garza, the Hernandez Brothers, and Los Tigres del
Norte. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
071. (AFRC071, AFST071) Literatures of Africa and the African Diaspora. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course will serve as an introduction to a particularly rich arena of literature
in English. It will also help students to begin to understand many other racial subtexts underlying the culture wars in
America, where too often, in the full glare of cameras, an anguished voice informs the audience that 'as an African,
I cannot expect justice in this America.' See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
072. (ASAM002) Asian American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. An overview of Asian American literature from its beginnings at the turn of
the twentieth century to the present. This course covers a wide range of Asian American novels, plays, and poems, situating
them in the contexts of American history and minority communities and considering the variety of formal strategies
these different texts take. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
073. 19th-Century Literatures in Dialogue. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. What dialogues have defined and constituted American and other literatures?
This course examines critical intersections between different literatures of the 19th century, addressing
questions of race, ethnicity, and culture. Previous versions of this course have included such titles as "Postbellum/Pre-Harlem" and "Victorian
Literature and Ireland." Our readings will consider a range of literary interactions,
and will take a self-consciously comparative and intertextual approach. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
074. (AFRC085) Contemporary American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 085]. The readings for this course expose the student to a wide range of American
fiction and poetry since World War II, giving considerable attention to recent work. Works may include ALL THE KING'S
MEN by Robert Penn Warren, HERZOG by Saul Bellow, ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac, V by Thomas Pynchon, OF
LOVE AND DUST by Ernest J.Gaines, A FLAG FOR SUNRISE by Robert Stone, THE KILLING GROUD by Mary
Lee Settle, and selected poems by Ginsberg, Plath, and Walcott. Readings vary from term to term. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
L/R 075. (HIST117, HSOC110, STSC110) Science and Literature. (M) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. The separation of scientific and humanistic
inquiry from one another is a fairly modern occurrence,
not more than 100 or 200 years old. In the early
19th century, for example, a student studying "natural
philosophy" at a university would have studied
what we now would recognize as biology, chemistry,
ethics, mathematics, philosophy, and physics, and
would also have been expected to be an accomplished
classicist and well-versed in modern literature.
The tradition of the poet-scientist established with
Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) and John
Keats finds its modern heir in writersas diverse
as Tom Lehrer and William Carlos Williams. This course
will survey both representations of science and the
scientist in literature and the intersections between
scientific and literary writing and inquiry. Sometimes
the course will have a broad thematic and historical
focus; recent offerings of this kind include "Anatomies
of Literature" and "Darwin's Legacy." See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
077. (COML077, SAST124) Literature and Empire. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Since the sixteenth century English has been, among other things,
an imperial language, and ideas about empire and
imperialism have shaped not only many of English
literature's central texts but also the development
of English literary study as a discipline. This course
is an introduction to the way imperial contact and
changing ideas about empire and decolonization have
shaped literature in English from the sixteenth to
the twentieth centuries. We will consider historical
and cultural materials to offer contexts for literary
production of texts from the sixteenth to the twentieth
centuries. The course also will serve as a comprehensive
introduction to the way literary and cultural representations
of Europe have been influenced by changing ideas
about empire and imperialism. Different versions
of the course will vary in the historical and cultural
material they cover as they offer a context for literary
production. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
079.(GRMN263, JWST179, JWST261) Jewish-American Literature. (M) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. From vaudeville comedy to modernist
poetry, from Tin Pan Alley to the postwar novel, from
Yiddish theater to midrashic approaches to literary
interpretation, Jewish American literature and thought
have been central to, and on the cutting edge of,
the fabric of American culture -- high, low, and,
especially, in between. This course will examine
the many facets of Jewish American literature, both
secular and observant, assimilationist and particularist
-- from films such as The Jazz Singer (1927) to the
fiction of Roth and Bellow to the poetry of Bob Dylan
and Adrienne Rich. While we will focus on significant
works of fiction and poetry, we also will read within
the wider world of philosophy, criticism, radio, film, theater, and television that surround them. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
080.(AFRC079) Literatures of Jazz. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
That modernism is steeped as much in the rituals
of race as of innovation is most evident in the emergence
of the music we have come to know as jazz, which
results from collaborations and confrontations taking
place both across and within the color line. In this
course we will look at jazz and the literaryrepresentations
it engendered in order to understand modern American
culture. We will explore a dizzying variety of forms,
including autobiography and album liner notes, biography,
poetry, fiction, and cinema. We'll examine how race,
gender, and class influenced the development of jazz
music, and then will use jazz music to develop critical
approaches to literary form. Students are not required
to have a critical understanding of music. Class
will involve visits from musicians and critics, as
well as field trips to some of Philadelphias most vibrant jazz venues. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
081. (AFRC081, CINE081) African-American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. An introduction to African-American literature, typically ranging across a wide
specturm of moments, methodologies, and ideological postures, from Reconstruction and the Harlem Reanaissance to
the Civil Rights Movement. Most versions of this course will begin in the 19th century; some versions of the
course will concentrate only on the modern period. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
082. (ANTH082) Native-American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. From oral traditions to modern forms, this course surveys the diverse
body of Native American literature through its many
transformations and contexts, from examples of oral
literature to film, poetry, fiction, essays, and
drama. Possible authors include Leslie Marmon Silko,
Sarah Winnemucca, Sherman Alexie, James Welch, N.
Scott Momaday, and Louise Erdrich. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
083. (AFRC083, JWST083) 20th-Century Literatures In Dialogue. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. What dialogues have defined and constituted
American and other literatures? This course examines
critical intersections between different literatures,
addressing questions of race, ethnicity, and culture.
Previous versions of this course have included such
titles as "African-American and Jewish-American
Literature." Our readings will consider a range
of literary interactions, and will take a self-consciously
comparative and intertextual approach. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
084. (AFRC084) Theories of Race and Ethnicity. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. The idea of 'race' broadly defined as the signification of biological
and sociocultural differences as an index of human
superiority or inferiority has played a crucial role
in the literary imagination and is fundamental to
studying most literatures in English This course will examine representations of race in literary practices and in
particular the centrality of such representations
to the historical unfolding of communities and nations.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
086. American Drama. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 076]. Selected writings for the American stage from the nineteenth century to the
present, in relation to American history, culture, other forms of literary expression, and major movements in theatre
aesthetics. Major playwrights include O'Neill, Odets, Hellman, Miller, Williams, Albee, Shepherd, Mamet, Baraka, Wilson,
Kushner, and Parks. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
087. (COML110, HIST246, THAR110) Theatre, History and Cultural I, Classical Athens
to Elizabethan London. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. Fulfills Arts & Letters Distribution
Requirement. This course will explore the forms of
public performance, most specifically theatre, as
they emerge from and give dramatic shape to the dynamic
life of communal, civic and social bodies, from their
antropological origins in ritual and religious ceremonies,
to the rise of great urban centers, to the closing
of the theaters in London in 1642. This course will
focus on development of theatre practice in both
Western and non-Western cultures intersects with
the history of cities, the rise of market economies,
and the emerging forces of national identity. In
addition to examining the history of performance
practices, theatre architecture, scenic conventions
and acting methods, this course will investigate,
where appropriate, social and political history,
the arts, civic ceremonies and the dramaturgic structures
of urban living. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
088.American Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Some versions of this course survey American poetry
from the colonial period to the present, while others
begin with Whitman and Dickinson and move directly
into the 20th century and beyond. Typically studetns
read and discuss the poetry of Williams, Stein, Niedecker,
H.D., Pound, Stevens, Fearing, Rakoksi, McKay, Cullen,
Wilbur, Plath, Rich, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Waldman,
Creeley, Ashberry, O'Hara, Corman, Bernstein, Howe,
Perelman, Silliman, and Retallack. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
089.American Fiction. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Some versions of this course survey the American novel from its beginnings to
the present, focusing on the development of the form, while others concentrate on the development of American
fiction in one or two periods. Readings may include novels by writers such as Brown, Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville,
Wharton, Morrison, Twain, James, Adams, Chopin, Howells, Norris, Whitman, Dreiser, Fitzgerald, Hemingway,
Faulkner, Dos Passos, Ellison, and Nabokov. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
090. (AFRC090, COML090, GSOC090) Gender, Sexuality, and Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course will focus on questions of gender difference and of sexual desire
in a range of literary works, paying special attention to works by women and treatments of same-sex desire. More
fundamentally, the course will introduce students to questions about the relation between identity and representation.
We will attend in particular to intersections between gender, sexuality, race, class, and nation, and will choose from a rich
vein of authors: Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, the Brontes, Christina Rossetti, George
Eliot, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, Gertrude Stein, Zora Neale Hurston, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Nella Larsen,
Radclyffe Hall, Willa Cather, Elizabeth Bishop, Jean Rhys, James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath, Bessie Head, Audre
Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Cherr_e Moraga, Toni Morrison, Michael Cunningham, Dorothy Allison, Jeanette Winterson,
and Leslie Feinberg. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
093. (COML093, GSOC093, LALS093) Introduction to Postcolonial Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. English is a global language
with a distinctly imperial history, and this coursserves
as an essential introduction to literary works produced
in or about the former European colonies. The focus
will be poetry, film, fiction and non fiction and
at least two geographic areas spanning the Americas,
South Asia, the Caribbean and Africa as they reflect
the impact of colonial rule on the cultural representations
of identity, nationalism, race, class and gender. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
094. (COML094) Introduction to Literary Theory. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. This course introduces students to major issues in the history of
literary theory, and provides an excellent foundation
for the English major or minor. Treating the work
of Plato and Aristotle as well as contemporary criticism,
we will consider the fundamental issues that arise
from representation, making meaning, appropriation
and adaptation, categorization and genre, historicity
and genealogy, and historicity and temporality. We
will consider major movements in the history of theory
including the "New" Criticism of the 1920s
and 30s, structuralism and poststructuralism, Marxism and psychoanalysis, feminism, cultural studies, critical
race theory, and queer theory. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
L/R 095. (ARTH107, CINE103) Introduction to Film Theory. (C) This course introduces students to literature's fundamental institutions and
practices, and provides an excellent foundation for
the English major or minor. This means that we will
examine the historical and theoretical origins of
both literature and literary studies, and survey
some of the debates that have defined them. We will
also examine the place of the literary within specific
ideas of "culture" -- including the terms "high," "polite," "mass," and "popular" culture
-- and with the critical methods useful to the study
of mass media like television and film. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
096. (COML096, GSOC096) Theories of Gender and Sexuality. (M) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. What makes men and women different? What is the
nature of desire? This course introduces students
to a long history of speculation about the meaning
and nature of gender and sexuality -- a history fundamental
to literary representation and the business of making
meaning. We will consider theories from Aristophanes
speech in Platos Symposium to recent feminist and
queer theory. Authors treated might include: Plato,
Shakespeare, J. S. Mill, Mary Wollstonecraft, Sigmund
Freud, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, Adrienne
Rich, Audre Lorde, Michel Foucault, Gayle Rubin,
Catherine MacKinnon, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith
Butler, bell hooks, Leo Bersani, Gloria Anzaldua,
David Halperin, Cherr_e Moraga, Donna Haraway, Gayatri
Spivak, Diana Fuss, Rosemary Hennesy, Chandra Tadpole
Mohanty, and Susan Stryker. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
097. (COML111, THAR111) Theatre, History and Cultural II. (M) The idea of "race" -- broadly defined as the signification of biological_and
socio-cultural differences as an index of human superiority
or_inferiority -- has played a crucial role in the
literary imagination and is fundamental to studying
most literatures in English._This course will examine
representations of race in literary practices,_and
in particular the centrality of such representations
to the_historical unfolding of communities and nations.
How_do ideas of race inform and engage with literary
forms and genres in a given historical moment, and
how does literature in turn address the histories
and legacies of_racist practices? We will also analyze
the connections between_questions of race and questions
of "ethnicity": what, for instance, is_the
history of this concept, and what does it mean to
designate a body_of imaginative writing as an "ethnic
literature?" See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
Sector Requirement Courses 100-104 See English Department website for current descriptions: www.english.upenn.edu
L/R 100. (AFRC105, COML100) Introduction to Literary Study. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. This course is ideal for studetns consider the English major or minor, since
it serves as an introduction to the study of literature. We will begin by raising fundamental and exciting questions central
to literary study: What is literature? What has been and is its function? What is the nature of literary value? We
will read a variety of literary genres and critical texts and survey a range of interpretive approaches and methods. The
course combines lecture and discusssion; students will write a series of short interpretive papers. Some versions of
this course will also serve as an introduction to other members of the English faculty, who will visit the class as guest lecturers.
This course is intended to serve as a foundation for students interested in going on to become English majors. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
L/R 101. (AFRC101, GSOC101) Study of an Author. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. This is an introduction to literary
study through the works of a single author--often
Shakespeare, but some versions of this course will
feature other writers. (For offerings in a given
semester, please see the on-line course descriptions
on the English Department website.) We will read
several works and approach them--both in discussion
and in writing-from a range of critical perspectives. The author's relation to his or her time,
to literary history generally, and to the problems
of performance, are likely to be emphasized. Some
versins of this coruse will also serve as an introduction
to other members of the English faculty, who will
visit the class as guest lecturers. This course is
designed for the Generaly Requirement and is ideial
for the student wishing to take an English course
but not necessarily intending to major. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
102. (CINE112, COML245) Study of a Literary Theme. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. This is an introduction to literary
study through the works of a compelling literary
theme. (For offerings in a given semester, please
see the on-line course descriptions on the English
Department website). The theme's function within
specific historical contexts, within literary history
generally, and within contemporary culture, are likely
to be emphasized. Some versions of this course will
also serve as an introduction to other members of
the English faculty, who will visit the class as
guest lecturers. This course is designed for the
General Requirement, and is ideal for the students wishing to take an English course but not necessarily intending to
major. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
103. (CLST141, COML125, NELC180) Study of a Literary Genre. (C) May be counted as a General Requirement Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. An
introduction to literary study through a genre, either
the short story or poetry. Versions of this course
will vary widely in the selection of texts assigned.
Some versions will begin with traditional stories
or poems, including a sampling of works in translation.
Others will focus exclusively on modern and contemporary
American short fiction or poetry. This course is
designed for the General Requirement, and is ideal
for the students wishing to take an English course
but not necessarily intending to major. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
L/R 104. (AFRC106, CINE104, COML104) Study of a Literary Period. (C) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. This is an introduction to literary
study through a survey of works from a specific historical
period. (For offerings in a given semester, please
see the on-line course descriptions on the English
Department website.) Some versions will begin with
traditional stories or poems, including a sampling
of works in translation. Others will focus exclusively
on modern and contemporary American short fiction
or poetry. This course is designed or the General
Requirement, and is ideal for student wishing to
take an English course but not necessarily intending
to major. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
105. (CINE110, COML106, GSOC105) Topics in Literature and Society. (C) Humanities & Social Science Sector. Class of 2010 & beyond. This course offers students an opportunity
to explore the relation between social institutions
and culture, particularly how such institutions structure
contemporary human society. Specific versions of
this course such as "Copyright and Culture," for
example, teach students the specific concepts and
principles of legal and literary analysis while exploring
the history of how discrete interpretive systems
have overlapped in their jurisdictional claims, have
shared specific values while rejecting others, and
have repeatedly come into conflict with one another
over the definition, status, and function of art
and intellectual property. In all its versions, this
course will provide students with specific tools
to understand and evaluate the behavior of human
beings in contemporary cultures. At the same time,
the subject matter of the course will render the conflict between different social institutions
and between their different interpretive methods
its centerpiece. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of our
current offerings.
Creative Writing Courses 010, 111-119, 121, 130, 135, 145, 155-159, 161, 162,
165 See English Department website for current descriptions: www.english.upenn.edu
SM 010. Creative Writing. (C) This course does not satisfy the writing requirement. A course designed to
allow the students to discover their own talents
in several forms of fiction and poetry. Though emphasis
is on practice, classroom work includes discussion
of theory as well as readings in British and American
works. Frequent writing assignments. Reading lists
vary with each section. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 111. (COML115) Experimental Writing Seminar. (C) Students wishing to take this course must submit a writing sample as part of the selection process. May be repeated for credit
with a different instructor. This is a nontraditional "poetry
immersion" workshop. It will be structured around
a series of writing experiments, intensive readings,
art gallery visits, and the prodcution of individual
chapbooks or web sites for each participant, and
performance of participants' works. There will also
be some visits from visiting poets. The emphasis
in the workshop will be on new and innovative approaches
to composition and form, including digital, sound,
and performance, rather than on works emphasizing
narrative or story telling. Permission of the instructor
is required. Send a brief email stating why you wish
to attend the workshop (writing samples not required). See English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 112. Workshop for Fiction Writers. (C) May be repeated for credit with a different instructor. Students wishing to take this course must submit a writing sample as part of the selection
process. This course emphasizes the study and practice of basic techniques of short fiction,
with assignments divided between readings and discussion of student-written material. See English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 113. (AFRC114) Poetry Writing Workshop. (C) Students wishing to take this course must submit a writing sample as part of the selection process. May be repeated for credit with different
instructor. A workshop course in the writing of verse, with seminar and individual discussion
of student work. There will be reading of traditional and contemporary poetry and analysis of the formal elements
of verse. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 114. (THAR114) Playwriting Workshop. (C) Students wishing to take this course must submit a writing sample as part of the selection process. May be repeated for credit with different
instructor. The expressive possibilities and limitations of the stage medium through close
reading of plays of various styles and period, study of the various resources of various types of theater, and original
exercise in dramatic writing. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 115. Workshop for Advanced Fiction Writers. (C) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 112 or the equivalent. This course is not open to freshmen.
Students wishing to take this course must submit
a writing sample as part of the selection process.
May be repeated for credit with a different instructor.
The writing of individually selected projects (a
novel, a group of short stories) with reading assignments
and discussion of student works-in-progress. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 116. (CINE116) Screenwriting Workshop. (C) Students wishing to take this course must submit a writing sample as part of the selection process. May be repeated for credit with a different
instructor. This course will look at the screenplay
as both a literary text and a blue print for production.
Several classic screenplay texts will be critically
analyzed (REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, DOCTOR STRANGELOVE,
PSYCHO, etc.) Students will then embark on writing
their own scripts. We will intensively focus on:
character enhancement, creating "believable" cinematic
dialogue, plot development and story structure, conflict,
pacing, dramatic foreshadowing, the element of surprise,
text and subtext and visual story-telling. Class
attendance is mandatory. Students will submit their
works-in-progress to the workshop for discussion. See English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 117. The Arts and Popular Culture. (C) Students wishing to take this course must submit a writing sample as part of the selection process. May be repeated for credit with a different instructor. This is a workshop-oriented that will concentrate on all aspects of writing
about artistic endeavor, including criticism, reviews, profiles, interviews and essays. For the purposes of this class, the
arts will be interpreted broadly, and students will be able -- and, in fact, encouraged -- to write about both the fine arts
and popular culture. Students will be doing a great deal of writing throughout the course, but the main focus will be a 3000-word
piece about an artist or arts organization in Philadelphia (or another location approved by the instructor)
that will involve extensive reporting, interviews and research. Potential subjects can range from a local band to a
museum, from a theater group to a comedian. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 118. Advanced Poetry Writing Workshop. (C) This workshop is designed for those students who have taken the introductory
workshop ENGL 113 and desire advanced study. Students
wishing to take this course must submit a writing
sample as part of the selection process. May be repeated
for credit with a different instructor.
This workshop is especially valuable for creative writing concentrators in poetry
within the English Major, for those who are working
on longer works, or for those who wish to work on
a series of poems connected by style and subject
matter. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 135. (ENGL435, WRIT135) Creative Non-Fiction Writing. (C) May be repeated for credit with a different instructor. A workshop course in the writing of expository prose. Assignments include informal
as well as formal essays, covering such topics as autobiography, family history, review, interview, analysis
of advertising and popular culture, travel, work, and satire. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings
SM 145. (AFRC145, URBS273) Advanced Non-Fiction Workshop. (C) This course is not open to freshmen. Students wishing to take this course must
submit a writing sample a part of the selection process.
May be repeated for credit with a different instructor.
Writing with a view to publication in the freelance sections of newspapers such
as THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER and THE NEW YORK TIMES,
in magazines such as THE ATLANTIC and THE NEW YORKER,
and in the literary quarterlies and the journals
of opinion. Among the areas likely to be considered
are writing as a public act, issues of taste and
of privacy, questions of ethics and of policy, methods
of research and of checking, excerpting, marketing,
and the realistic understanding of assignments and
of the publishing world. Student papers will be the
basis of weekly editorial sessions, with concentration
on the language: how to render material literate,
how to recognize and dispose of padding and self-indulgence,
how to tighten structure and amplify substance. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 155. Writing in the Documentary Tradition. (C) Candidates for this course are required to submit as soon as possible their
best example of nonfiction prose. A brief interview
with the instructor is required before a permission
to enroll can be granted. This course is not open
to freshmen. This course will function as a workshop, with a select group of students. It's
a course that will honor the spirit and tradition
of "documentary" writing. The word "documentary" has
meant many things over time. Here, it means a kind
of nose-close observation and reportage. It means
a level of being with one's subject matter in a way
that other creative writing courses do not allow
because of their format and structure. In English
155, a student writer at Penn will dare to "hang" with
his topic--a girl's high-school basketball team;
a medical intern in a HUP emergency room; a cleaning
lady doing the graveyard shift in a classroom building;
a food-truck operator crowding the noontime avenues;
a client-patient in the Ronald McDonald House near
campus; a parish priest making his solitary and dreary
and yet redemptive rounds of the sick and the dying
in the hospital--for the entire term. At the term's
end, each writer in the course will have produced
one extended prose work: a documentary piece of high
creative caliber. This is our goal and inspiration.
The piece will be 35 to 40 pages long, at minimum. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 156. Photographs and Stories. (M) Candidates for the course are asked to submit as soon as possible one or two
samples of their best creative nonfiction prose.
Paper copies only, no electronic submissions. Be
sure to include name, phone number, email address,
the last four digits of your social security number.
A new creative writing course built entirely around the use of photographs,
and the crafting of compelling nonfiction narratives
from them. The essential concept will be to employ
photographs as storytelling vehicles. So we will
be using curling, drugstore printed Kodak shots from
our own family albums. We will be using searing and
famous images from history books. We will be taking
things from yesterday's newspaper. We will even be
using pictures that were just made by the workshop
participants outside the campus gates with a disposable
camera from CVS or with their own sophisticated digital Nikon. In all of this, there will be one overriding
aim to achieve memorable, full-bodied stories. To
locate the strange, evocative, storytelling universes
that are sealed inside the four rectangular walls
of photograph. They are always there, if you know
how to look. It's about the quality of your noticing,
the intensity of your seeing. See the English Department's websitee at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 157. Introduction to Journalistic Writing. (C) A course in journalistic writing, introducing the student to the nuts and bolts
of reporting, of finding the story, tracking down
the facts, interviewing sources, using quotes and
dialogue skillfully, editing. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 158. Advanced Journalistic Writing. (C) Nonfiction writing sample a documentary piece, a feature story, profile, etc. will be required. Advanced Journalistic Writing. How to write profiles personal pieces, and third-personal
observational pieces, in ways that hook the average reader with strong emphasis on the best journalistic fact-gathering
methods, including the cultivation of sources, interviewing techniques, and the proper use of secondary
material in the Internet age. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
199. Independent Study in Writing. (C) Interested students must receive permission by the professor and the English Department. Supervised study in writing.
English Research Seminars
See English Department website for current descriptions: www.english.upenn.edu
SM 218. Topics In Old English. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This
seminar explores an aspect of Anglo-Saxon culture
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 219. Topics In The History of The English Language. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 279] Spaces will be reserved for English
majors. This seminar explores an aspect of the History
of the English Language; specific topics will vary
from year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 221. (COML221, COML354, GSOC223, HIST221) Topics In Medieval Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 220]. Spaces will be reserved for
English majors. This seminar explores an aspect of medieval literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. Topics
in the past have included the medieval performance,
medieval women, and medieval law and literature.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 222. (COML222, GSOC221) Topics In Romance. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This
seminar explores an aspect of epic or romance intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 223. (COML333, ITAL333) Topics In Medieval Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This
course explores an aspect of Medieval poetry intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 225. Topics In Chaucer. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of Chaucer's writings intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 226. (CLST227) Topics In Drama to 1660. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This course explores an aspect of drama before 1660 intensively; specific course
topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 229. (CLST296, CLST315, CLST325, CLST360, COML296) Topics In Classicism and
Literature. (M)Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly
ENGL 296]. Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This advanced seminar will examine the classical backgrounds to English poetry,
in particular the Biblical and Greco- Roman antecedents to Renaissance lyric verse and verse drama (such as, preeminently,
Shakespeare). Different versions of this course will have different emphases on Biblical or Hellenist
backgrounds. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 231. (COML230) Topics In Renaissance Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 230]. Spaces will be reserved for
English majors. This course explores an aspect of
renaissance literature intensively; specific topics
will vary from year to year. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 232. Topics In 17th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 231]. Spaces will be reserved for English majors. The works of poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as John
Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan and other, approached through a variety of topics; specific course topics will
vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 234. (HIST411) Topics In The History of the Book. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 297 or 298]. Spaces will be reserved for English
majors. This course explores an aspect of the History of the Book intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 236. (GSOC233, THAR236) Topics In Renaissance Drama. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Prerequisite(s): Pre-requisites THAR 120 or 121 (or
their equivalent). Spaces will be reserved for English
Majors.
Through specialized readings, writing assignments, and in-class acting exercises,
the class will develop methods of interpreting Shakespeare's
plays through theatrical practice. Topics include
Shakespeare's use of soliloquy, two and three person
scenes, the dramatic presentation of narrative source
material, modes of defining and presenting the "worlds" of
the plays, and the use of theatrical practice to
establish authoritative text. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 238. Topics In 17th-Century Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of 17th-century literature
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 241. (ASAM241, COML239, GSOC241) Topics In 18th-Century Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of 18th-century literature
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 242. Topics In 18th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This
course explores an aspect of 18th-century poetry
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 243. Topics In Early American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This course explores an aspect of early American literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 245. (GSOC245, HIST245) Topics In The 18th-Century Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This course explores an aspect of 18th-century novel intensively; specific course
topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 246. Topics In Drama 1660 - 1840. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This course explores an aspect of drama from 1660 to 1840 intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 248. Topics In Transatlantic Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This
course explores an aspect of transatlantic literature
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 250. (HIST491) Topics In Romanticism. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of Romantic literature
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 251. (CINE251, COML249, GSOC250) Topics In 19th-Century Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of 19th-century literature
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 252. Topics In 19th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 251] Spaces will be reserved for English
majors. This course explores an aspect of 19th-century
poetry intensively; specific course topics will vary
from year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 253. (AFRC263, GSOC284) Topics In 19th-Century American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 283] Spaces
will be reserved for English majors. This course explores an aspect of 19th-century American literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 255. (COML261, GSOC255) Topics In The 19th-Century Novel. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of the 19th-century novel
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 256. (AFRC275, COML267, THAR270, THAR274, THAR275) Topics In Modern Drama. (M)Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly
ENGL 271]. Spaces will be reserved for English majors.
This course explores an aspect of Modern drama intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 257. Topics In Irish Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This
course explores an aspect of Irish literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 258. (CLST365) Topics in Irish Literature. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of modern Irish literature
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 259. (COML248, HIST259) Topics In Modernism. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 210] Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This course explores an aspect of literary modernism intensively; specific course
topics will vary from year to year. Past offerings have included seminars on the avant-garde, on the politics of
modernism, and on its role in shaping poetry, music, and the visual arts. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 260. (AFRC262, AFST260, GSOC226, GSOC260, LALS260) Topics In The Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be
reserved for English Majors. This course explores an aspect of the novel intensively, asking how novels work
and what they do to us and for us. Specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 261. (CINE260, COML271, GRMN253, GSOC266, JWST262) Topics In 20th-Century Literature.
(M)Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces
will be reserved for English Majors. The course explores
an aspect of 20th-century literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 262. Topics In 20th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English majors. The course
explores an aspect of 20th-century poetry intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 263. Topics In 20th-Century American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English majors. The course explores an aspect of 20th-century American literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 264. (AFRC266, GSOC274) Topics In Modern American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 284]. Spaces will be
reserved for English majors. This course explores an aspect of Modern American literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary, and have included "American Expatriotism," "The 1930s," and "Intimacy
and Distance: William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, and Richard Wright." See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 265. (COML263, GSOC293) Topics In The 20th-Century Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of the 20th-century novel
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 266. (CINE295) Topics In Law and Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This
course explores an aspect of law and literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 269. (AFRC273) Topics In Poetry and Poetics. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 270]. Spaces will be reserved for
English majors. This course explores an aspect of
poetry and poetics intensively; specific course topics
will vary from year to year. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 270. (COML396, LALS290, ROML396) Topics In Latina/o Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of Latina/o literature
intensively; specific course topics will vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 271. (AFRC283) Topics In the Literature of Africa and the African Diaspora.
(M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved
for English Majors. This course explores an aspect of the literature of Africa and the African Diaspora
intensively; specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 272. (ASAM202, CINE272) Topics In Asian American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English
Majors. This seminar is an advanced-level topics-based
version of ENGL 072, Introduction to Asian American
Literature. The intended audience is junior and senior
English majors and advanced students in Asian studies,
Asian American studies, contemporary U.S. and world
history, ethnic studies, urban studies, etc. Typical
versions of this seminar will include representations
and images of Asians in contemporary U.S. novels
and films; Asian American literature by women; Asian
American film narrative and film aesthetics; studies
in Asian American literature and visual art; Asian
American literature and immigration; Asian American
literature in the context of the literature of exile
and journey; Asian American literature 1929-1945;
Asian American literature, 1945 to the present; Anglophone/South
Asian literature in England, 1970 to the present;
Southeast Asia, Vietnam, and American literature,
1970-1990; etc. Students will typically present research
projects and write several long essays. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 274. (AFRC385, GSOC285, THAR271) Topics In Contemporary American Literature.
(M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 285]. Spaces will be reserved for
English majors. This course explores an aspect of contemporary American literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year
but have included "The Literary History of The
Cold War, 1947-1957" and the "Kelly House
Fellows Seminar." See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 276. (COML265, THAR240) Topics In Theatre History. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. The purpose
of this course is to introduce students to the basic
materials and methods of theatre history and historigraphy,
as applied to a particular topic, organized around
a specific period, national group, or aesthetic issue.
This course is concerned with methodological questions:
how the history of theatre can be documented; how
primary documents, secondary accounts, and historical
and critical analyses can be synthesized; how the
various components of the theatrical event--acting,
scenography, playhouse architecture, audience composition,
the financial and structural organization of the
theatre industry, etc.--relate to one another; and
how the theatre is socially and culturally constructed
as an art form in relation to the politics and culture
of a society in a particular time and place. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 279. (GRMN261, JWST279, NELC159) Topics In Jewish and Jewish-American Literature.
(M) Arts & Letters Sector. All Classes. [Formerly ENGL 287] Spaces will be reserved for
English Majors. This course explores an aspect of Jewish and/or Jewish-American literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 281. (AFRC281, ANTH281, CINE281, COMM281, LALS280) Topics In African-American
Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. In this
advanced seminar, students will be introduced to
a variety of approaches to African American literatures,
and to a wide spectrum of methodologies and ideological
postures (for example, The Black Arts Movement).
The course will present an assortment of emphases,
some of them focused on geography (for example, the
Harlem Renaissance), others focused on genre (autobiography,
poetry or drama), the politics of gender and class,
or a particular grouping of authors. Previous versions
of this course have included "African American
Autobiography," "Backgrounds of African
American Literature," "The Black Narrative" (beginning
with eighteenth century slave narratives and working
toward contemporary literature), as well as seminars
on urban spaces, jazz, migration, oral narratives,
black Christianity, and African-American music. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 282. (ANTH282, CINE282) Topics In Native American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English
Majors. This course explores an aspect of Native-American literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 284. (AFRC286) Topics In Race and Ethnicity. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This course explores an aspect of race and ethnicity intensively; specific course
topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 286. (AFRC289, CINE280, LALS286) Topics In American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English
Majors. This course explores an aspect of American literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary, and have included "American Authors and the Imagined Past" and "American Gothic." See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 288. (AFRC288, COML288) Topics In American Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. Sometimes limiting itself to the works of one or two authors, sometimes focusing
on a particular theme such as "American Poetry and Democratic Culture," this course devotes itself
to the study of twentieth-century American poetry. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 290. (COML290, FOLK240, GSOC290, GSOC293) Topics In Gender, Sexuality, and Literature.
(M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Spaces
will be reserved for English Majors. The advanced
women's studies course in the department, focusing
on a particular aspect of literature by and about
women. Topics might include: "Victorian Literary
Women"; "Women, Politics, and Literature"; "Feminist
Literary Theory"; and similar foci. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 291. (ARTH290, CINE201, CINE392, COMM291, GRMN259) Topics In Film History. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of Film History intensively;
specific course topics vary from year to year. See
the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 292. (ARTH290, CINE115, CINE202, CINE392, THAR273) Topics In Film Studies. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of Film Studies intensively;
specific course topics vary from year to year. See
the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 293. (AFRC293, COML378, LALS293, SAST222, SAST310) Topics In Postcolonial Literature.
(M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Spaces will be reserved for English Majors. This
course explores an aspect of Postcolonial literature
intensively; specific course topics vary from year
to year. See the English Department's website at
www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current
offerings.
SM 294. (ARTH301, COML291) Topics In Literary Theory. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 204] Spaces will be reserved for English
majors. This course explores an aspect of literary
theory intensively; specific course topics vary from
year to year. See the English Department's website
at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the
current offerings.
SM 295. (CINE296, CINE393, COMM393) Topics In Cultural Studies. (M) Spaces will be reserved for English majors. This course explores an aspect
of cultural studies intensively; specific course
topics vary from year to year. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
299. Independent Study in Language and Literature. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Interested students must receive permission by the professor
and the English Department. Supervised reading and
research.
SM 401. (URBS406) Teaching American Studies. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Permission given by the professor. A double-credit course that combines
the study of American cultural with High School teaching.
Each student in the course will complete a standard
list of readings and writing assignments, including
several brief written reports and a fifteen-page
final essay. In addition, each student will be assigned
to an English or social studies teacher at University
City High School and will assist that teacher at
least three hours each week in class. The second
half of English 401 also comprises a list of readings
mainly in urban education, and a number of writing
assignments, including another fifteen-page final
paper. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of current offerings.
The English Honors Program, 311 See English Department website for current descriptions: www.english.upenn.edu
SM 311. The Honors Program. (C) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Students must receive permission from the Director
of English Honors Program. An essay of substantial
length on a literary or linguistic topic, written
under the supervision of a faculty adviser. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of current offerings.
Benjamin Franklin Seminars: See English Department website for current descriptions: www.english.upenn.edu
SM 305. Literary Research and Methods. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. The literary research seminar will introduce English Majors to the variety of
modes of conducting literary research and dealing with literary texts. It is conceived as a seminar that will enhance
the critical and textual skills of any student, as well as acquainting students with electronic research methods. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 318. Topics In Old English. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This seminar explores
an aspect of Anglo-Saxon culture intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 319. Topics In The History of The English Language. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course focuses on some clearly defined aspects of language history, for
example, "The Behavior of Language and Language of Behavior." which examines language taboos, the language of
sexuality and sexism, mutations of meaning, and other subtleties of language. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 321. Topics In Medieval Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This seminar explores an aspect of medieval literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. Topics in the past have included themedieval performance, medieval women, and
medieval law and literature. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 322. Topics In Romance. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This seminar explores
an aspect of epic or romance intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 323. (ITAL333) Topics In Medieval Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of Medieval poetry intensively; specific course
topics will vary from year to year. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
SM 325. Topics In Chaucer. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of Chaucer's writings intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings. SM 326. Topics In Drama to 1660. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of drama before 1660 intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 329. (CLST329, COML329) Topics In Classicism and Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This advanced seminar will examine the classical backgrounds to English poetry,
in particular the Biblical and Greco- Roman antecedents to Renaissance lyric verse and verse drama (such as, preeminently,
Shakespeare). Different versions of this course will have different emphases on Biblical or Hellenist
backgrounds. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 331. Topics In Renaissance Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 330]. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This
course explores an aspect of renaissance literature
intensively; specific topics will vary from year
to year. See the English Department's website at
www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current
offerings.
SM 332. Topics In Renaissance Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 331]. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. The works of poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as John
Donne, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan and others, approached through a variety of topics; specific course topics will
vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 333. Religion in the Modern World. (M)
SM 334. (HIST450) Topics In The History of The Book. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of the History of the Book intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 336. Topics In Renaissance Drama. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. Through specialized readings, writing assignments,
and in-class acting exercises, the class will develop
methods of interpreting Shakespeare's plays through
theatrical practice. Topics include Shakespeare's
use of soliloquy, two and three person scenes, the
dramatic presentation of narrative source material,
modes of defining and presenting the "worlds" of
the plays, and the use of theatrical practice to
establish authoritative text. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 338. Topics In 17th-Century Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of 17th-century literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 341. Topics In 18th-Century Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of 18th-century British literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 342. Topics In 18th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of 18th-century poetry intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 343. Topics In Early American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 382]. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of early American literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 345. (GSOC335) Topics In The 18th Century Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of 18th-century novel intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 346. (THAR240) Topics In Drama, 1660 to 1840. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of drama from 1660 to 1840 intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 348. Topics In Transatlantic Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of transatlantic literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 350. Topics In Romanticism. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of Romantic literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 351. Topics In 19th-Century Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of 19th-century literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 352. Topics In 19th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of 19th-century poetry intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 353. Topics In 19th-Century American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 383]. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of 19th-century American literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 355. Topics In The 19th-Century Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of the 19th-century novel intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 356. (COML332, GSOC371, THAR275) Topics In Modern Drama. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of Modern drama intensively; specific course
topics will vary from year to year. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
SM 358. Topics In Irish Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of Irish literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 359. (COML355) Topics In Modernism. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 310]. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of literary modernism intensively; specific course
topics will vary from year to year. Past offerings have included seminars on the avant-garde, on the politics of
modernism, and on its role in shaping poetry, music, and the visual arts. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 360. (COML361) Topics In The Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly ENGL 375] Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of the novel intensively, asking how novels work
and what they do to us and for us. Specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 361. Topics In 20th-Century Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. The course explores an
aspect of 20th-century literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 362. Topics In 20th-Century Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. The course explores an
aspect of 20th-century poetry intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 363. Topics In 20th-Century American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. The course explores an aspect of 20th-century American literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 364. Topics In Modern American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of Modern American literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary, and have included "American Expatriotism," "The 1930s," and "Intimacy
and Distance: William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, and Richard Wright." See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 365. Topics In The 20th-Century Novel. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of the 20th-century novel intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 366. Topics In Law and Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of law and literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 369. Topics In Poetry and Poetics. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. [Formerly
ENGL 370]. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course
explores an aspect of poetry and poetics intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year.
See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 370. (LALS370) Topics In Latina/o Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of Latina/o literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the
English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 371. (AFRC371) Topics In the Literature of Africa and The African Diaspora.
(M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of the literature of Africa and the African Diaspora
intensively; specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 372. Topics In Asian American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This seminar is an advanced-level topics-based
version of ENGL 072, Introduction to Asian American
Literature. The intended audience is junior and senior
English majors and advanced students in Asian studies,
Asian American studies, contemporary U.S. and world
history, ethnic studies, urban studies, etc. Typical
versions of this seminar will include representations
and images of Asians in contemporary U.S. novels
and films; Asian American literature by women; Asian
American film narrative and film aesthetics; studies
in Asian American literature and visual art; Asian
American literature and immigration; Asian American
literature in the context of the literature of exile
and journey; Asian American literature 1929-1945;
Asian American literature, 1945 to the present; Anglophone/South
Asian literature in England, 1970 to the present;
Southeast Asia, Vietnam, and American literature,
1970-1990; etc. Students will typically present research
projects and write several long essays. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 374. Topics In Contemporary American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of contemporary American literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year but have included "The Literary History of The Cold War, 1947-1957" and
the "Kelly House Fellows Seminar." See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 376. (THAR240) Topics In Theatre History. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. The purpose of this course is to introduce
students to the basic materials and methods of theatre
history and historigraphy, as applied to a particular
topic, organized around a specific period, national
group, or aesthetic issue. This course is concerned
with methodological questions: how the history of
theatre can be documented; how primary documents,
secondary accounts, and historical and critical analyses
can be synthesized; how the various components of
the theatrical event--acting, scenography, playhouse
architecture, audience composition, the financial
and structural organization of the theatre industry,
etc.--relate to one another; and how the theatre
is socially and culturally constructed as an art
form in relation to the politics and culture of a
society in a particular time and place. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 379. Topics In Jewish and Jewish-American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of Jewish and/or Jewish-American literature intensively;
specific course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 381. (AFRC381) Topics In Africian-American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. In this advanced seminar,
students will be introduced to a variety of approaches
to African American literatures, and to a wide spectrum
of methodologies and ideological postures (for example,
The Black Arts Movement). The course will present
an assortment of emphases, some of them focused on
geography (for example, the Harlem Renaissance),
others focused on genre (autobiography, poetry or
drama), the politics of gender and class, or a particular
grouping of authors. Previous versions of this course
have included "African American Autobiography," "Backgrounds
of African American Literature," "The Black
Narrative" (beginning with eighteenth century
slave narratives and working toward contemporary
literature), as well as seminars on urban spaces,
jazz, migration, oral narratives, black Christianity,
and African-American music. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 382. Topics In Native-American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of Native-American literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary from year to year. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 384. Topics In Race and Ethnicity. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin
Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect
of race and ethnicity intensively; specific course
topics will vary from year to year. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
SM 386. Topics In American Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an aspect of American literature intensively; specific
course topics will vary, and have included "American Authors and the Imagined Past" and "American Gothic." See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 388. Topics In American Poetry. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. Sometimes limiting itself to the works of one or two authors, sometimes focusing
on a particular theme such as "American Poetry and Democratic Culture," this course devotes itself
to the study of twentieth-century Americanpoetry. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 390. (CINE308, GSOC390) Topics In Gender, Sexuality, and Literature. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. The advanced women's studies course in the department, focusing on a particularaspect
of literature by and about women. Topics might include: "Victorian Literary Women"; "Women,
Politics, and Literature"; "Feminist Literary Theory";and similar foci. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 391. Topics In Film History. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of Film History intensively; specific course
topics vary from year to year. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 392. (ARTH489, CINE392) Topics In Film Studies. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of Film Studies intensively; specific course
topics vary from year to year. See the English Department's
website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description
of the current offerings.
SM 393. (AFST393, COML392, GSOC393, SAST323) Topics In Postcolonial Literature.
(M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of Postcolonial literature intensively; specific
course topics vary from year to year. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
SM 394. (CLST396, COML360, COML383, ROML390) Topics In Literary Theory. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
[Formerly ENGL 304] Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This
course explores an aspect of literary theory intensively;
specific course topics vary from year to year. See
the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu
for a description of the current offerings.
SM 395. (COML395) Topics In Cultural Studies. (M) Distribution Course in Arts & Letters. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Benjamin Franklin Seminar. This course explores an
aspect of cultural studies intensively; specific
course topics vary from year to year. See the English
Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for
a description of the current offerings.
Graduate-Level Courses 500-598
See English Department website for current descriptions: www.english.upenn.edu
SM 500. Paleography. (M) A survey of the major medieval scripts, from Roman Capitals to Elizabethan Secretary
Hands, with special focus on the study of Latin and
vernacular manuscripts from the 12th-15th centuries
and the aids needed to recover, evaluate, transcribe,
and edit them. Requirements: weekly transcription,
a midterm exam, and a formal description of a manuscript
book in one of the Philadelphia-area libraries.
SM 501. Introduction to Old English Language and Literature. (M) This is an accelerated study of the basic language of Anglo-Saxon England, together
with a critical reading of a variety of texts, both
prose and poetry.
SM 504. (CLST514, COML514) History of the English Language. (M) An introduction to the methods of historical linguistics through a study of
English from its prehistoric origins to the present
day.
SM 505. (CINE500) Electronic Literary Studies Proseminar. (C) This course is designed to introduce advanced undergraduate and graduate students
to the range of new opportunities for literary research
afforded by recent technological innovation.
SM 506. Beowolf. (M) Prerequisite(s): ENGL 501 or its equivalent. The primary focus of this course is a thorough reading of BEOWULF in the original;
we will use the edition by F. Klaeber. In addition to the close textual and critical study of the text, we
will attempt to reconstruct, through reference to related Anglo Saxon history, literature and learning, the world of ideas
and beliefs which gave rise to the poem.
SM 507. Introduction to Middle English. (M) The course aims at giving the student a wide reading experience in Middle English
literature (1100-1400, exclusive of Chaucer). It
will consider the main literary genres, such as romance,
debate, saint's legend, allegory, lyric prose, among
others.
SM 523. (COML523, GSOC523) Medieval Drama. (M) A study of the development of medieval drama from its beginnings to the late
fifteenth century. The course begins with the Latin
liturgical drama, considers important early plays
in French and German, and then concentrates on the
English Corpus Christi cycles and morality plays.
SM 524. (CLST618, COML601) Topics Medieval Studies. (M) This course covers topics in Medieval literature. Its emphasis varies with instructor.
SM 525. (CLST610) Chaucer. (M) An advanced introduction to Chaucer's poetry and Chaucer criticism. Reading
and discussion of the dream visions, Troilus and
Criseyde, and selections from Canterbury Tales, from
the viewpoint of Chaucer's development as a narrative
artist.
SM 531. (COML538) Renaissance Poetry. (M) An advanced introduction to Renaissance poetry, offering varying emphases, but
usually involving some consideration of Shakespeare's
sonnets and of the poetry of Ben Jonson, John Donne,
and Andrew Marvell.
SM 534. Jacobean Drama. (M) An introductory survey of Jacobean drama, usually including some plays by Jonson,
Chapman, Webster, and Beaumont and Fletcher.
SM 535. (COML543) Shakespeare. (M) Readings in the work of Shakespeare and other writers of the period. Specific
texts vary with instructor.
SM 537. (COML537) Renaissance Epic. (M) An introduction to the practice and theory of epic in the early modern period.
Specific texts vary with instructor.
SM 538. (COML546, GSOC538) Major Renaissance Writers. (M) This is a monographic course, which may be on Spenser, Milton, or other major
figures of the period.
SM 539. (COML687, SPAN687) Spenser. (M) A reading of THE FAERIE QUEENE with special reference to the irreducibility
of its allegory to modern critical methodology, and
to its political siting within Spenser's career,
as well as within late Elizabethan culture.
SM 540. (COML542) Topics in 18th Century British Literature. (M) This course covers topics in 18th Century British literature. Its emphasis varies
with instructor.
SM 541. Eighteenth-Century Poetry. (M) An introductory seminar in 18th -Century poetry. Specific texts vary with instructor.
SM 543. Introduction to Eighteenth-Century Literature. (M) Usually offered as a survey of philosophic and political ideas, artistic conventions,
and texts from 1690 to 1800. Typical readings might
be in Swift, Pope, Gay, Boswell, Johnson, Burke,
Gibbon, Chatterton, and Blake. The course has also
been offered in recent years as a close study of
a particular theme or problem in the 18th Century,
such as taht of seduction.
SM 544. Richardson. Careful examination of the work of the most influential European novelist of
the eighteenth century. Our primary focus will be
on Richardson's three novels, PAMELA (parts one and
two), CLARISSA, and primary materials (especially
letters), evidence of Richardson's collaborative
relationships with his readers (especially Aaron
Hill and Lady Bradshaigh), the significant revisions
he made to his novels over the years, and the important
cultural criticism that has emerged around his work
over the past fifteen years.
SM 545. (COML547) Eighteenth-Century Novel. (M) Staff. A survey of the major novelists of the period, often beginning with Defoe and
a few of the writers of amatory fiction in the early decades of the century and then moving on to representative examples
of the celebrated novels by Richardson, Fielding, and others of the mid-century and after.
SM 548. (COML545, FOLK545) English Literature and Culture, 1650-1725. (M) English 548, with its companion, English 549, studies the literature of this
period in the context of the artistic and cultural
milieu of the later seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries. Texts usually include works by Dryden,
Rochester, Swift, Pope, and Defoe.
SM 550. (COML550, GSOC550) Topics in Romanticism. (M) This class explores the cultural context in which the so-called Romantic Movement
prospered, paying special attention to the relationship
between the most notorious popular genres of the
period (gothic fiction and drama) and the poetic
production of both canonical and emerging poets.
SM 551. (COML551) British Romanticism: The First Generation. (M) This course attempts a concentrated survey of the early years -- primarily the
1790's --of the English Romantic period. Specific
texts vary with instructor, but usually include works
from Blake, Coleridge, and Wordsworth.
SM 552. Later British Romanticism. (M) This is a companion course to English 551, and treats Eglish Romanticism of
the early 19th-century. Specific texts vary with
instructor, but generally include works by Wordsworth,
Byron, and the Shelleys.
SM 553. (COML554, GSOC553) British Women Writers. (M) A study of British women writers, often focusing on the women authors who came
into prominence between 1775 and 1825.
SM 555. Victorian Poetry. (M) A study of Victorian Poetry, usually including poems by Tennyson, Browning,
Arnold, Fitzgerald, Rossetti, Swinburne, and Morris.
SM 556. (CINE556, COML557, GSOC556) Topics in 19th-Century British Literature.
(M) This course covers topics in ninteenth-century British Literature, its specific
emphasis varying with the instructor.
SM 558. Topics in 19th-Century American Literature. (M) This course covers topics in 19th-Century American literature, its specific
emphasis varying with the instructor.
SM 563. Topics in 20th-Century British Literature. (M) This course focuses on British modernism and/or postmodernism, with specific
emphases determined by the instructor.
SM 564. (COML564) British Modernism. (M) An introduction to British Literary Modernism. Specific emphasis will depend
on instructor.
SM 567. Postmodern British Fiction. (M) Either a survey of recent British writers (usually novelists) or a more focused
exploration of a particular moment or issue within
British postmodernism, for example that of the emergence
of Black British writing.
SM 568. (ENGL768) Yeats & Joyce. (M) This course counterpoints the artistic careers of William Butler Yeats and James
Joyce. The central texts will be Yeats's C ollected
Poems and Joyce's Dubliners, and Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man.
SM 569. (AFRC569, CINE501, COML569, GSOC569) Topics in 20th-Century American Literature.
(M) This course covers topics in 20th-century literature, its emphasis varying with
instructor.
SM 570. (AFRC570, COML573, URBS570) African-American Literature. (M)
This course treats some important aspect of Afican-American literature and culture.
Some recent versions of the course have focused on
the emergence of African-American women writers,
on the relation between African-American literature
and cultural studies, and on the Harlem Renaissance.
SM 571. (COML501, SPAN682) Literary Theory. (M) This course is usually offered in the fall as a general introduction to literary
and cultural theory, covering a wide range of thinkers
and approaches. It is also sometimes offered in the
spring as a concentrated exploration of a particular
problem or school of thought.
SM 572. (AFRC532, AFRC572, COML575, LALS702, SOCI702) Topics in African Literature.
(M) Wong, Edlie. This course is based on a selection of representative texts written in
English, as well as a few texts in English translation.
It involves, a study of themes relating to social
change and the persistence of cultural traditions,
followed by an attempt at sketching the emergence
of literary tradition by identifying some of the
formal conventions established writers in their use
of old forms and experiments with new.
SM 573. (CINE515, COML570) Topics in Criticism and Theory. (M) This course covers topics in literary criticism and theory.
SM 581. Oscar Wilde. (M) This course focuses on the life and works of Oscar Wilde. An attemp will be
made to recapture the 1890s context of his work by
examining the history of criminal laws against homosexuality,
film, the work of Wilde's contemporaries, and most
centrally the works of Wilde himself.
SM 582. American Literature to 1810. (M) In this course we shall examine the ways various voices--Puritan, Indian, Black,
Female, Enlightened, Democratic-intersect with each other and with the landscape of America to produce the early
literature(s) of America.
SM 583. Topics in 19th-Century American Literature. (M) A survey of 19th-century American literature that usually focuses on a particular
issue or problem, such as: gender and manhood; the
politics of humor; representing the nation.
SM 584. (FOLK575, HSSC575) Environmental Imaginaries. (M) Drawing on theories of worldmaking and ethnographic works on culture and environment,
this seminar will examine the production of Cartesian-based
environmental imaginaries and their alternatives
across a range of genres and practices.
SM 585. Modern American Fiction. (M) This course is a survey of major 20th-century American novels. The course may
also ask how modernism differs from postmodernism
and examine the revision of the American literary
canon currently underway.
SM 587. Major American Modernist. (M) This course generally focuses on a single American modernist author, such as
James, Faulkner, or Williams.
SM 588. (GRMN540) American Literature, 1920-50. (M) An intensive introduction to American literature in the Depression decade. Readings
will include canonical and non-canonical texts.
SM 589. (COML577) Twentieth-Century American Poetry. (M)
SM 590. (COML532, DTCH530) Recent issues in Critical Theory. (M) This course is a critical exploration of recent literary and cultural theory,
usually focusing on one particular movement or school,
such as phenomenology, psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt
School, or deconstruction.
SM 591. (ARTH593, CINE591, COML592, FREN591) Modernism. (M) This course can take up any issue in modernism, but has usually focused on American
modernists. One recent version of the course treated
the work of William Carlos Williams; another dealt
with the relations between modernism, mass culture,
and such quintessentially "modern" experiences
as assembly-line production and "urban shock".
SM 592. (COML585, LALS592) 20th-Century Literature and Theory. (M) This course treats some aspect of literary and cultural politics in the 20th-Century
with emphasis varying by instructor.
SM 595. (COML594, SAST526) Post-Colonial Literature. (M) This course covers topics in Post-Colonial literature with emphasis determined
by the instructor. The primary focus will be on novels
that have been adapted to film.
SM 597. (COML597) Modern Drama. (M) This course will survey several basic approaches to analyzing dramatic literature
and the theatre. The dramatic event will be broken
into each of its Aristotelian components for separate
attention and analysis: Action (plot), Character,
Language, Thought, Music and Spectacle. Several approaches
to analysing the dramatic text will be studied: phenomenological,
social-psychological, semiotic, and others.
700-Level Seminars Open Only to Graduate Students
SM 701. (CLST701) Piers Plowman. (M) This course takes the great kaleidoscopic poem Piers Plowman as its ostensible
subject and point of departure for thinking about
the literary cultures in the late fourteenth and
early fifteenth century, as well as their continuity
with older and indeed later literary and intellectual
discourses.
SM 702. Beowulf. (M) A seminar on the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf in the original, with special attention
to its poetic style and the oral tradition to which
it belongs.
SM 705. (COML526, COML606, GREK602) Interdisciplinary Approches to Literature.
(M) This course will explore one or more interdisciplinary approaches to literature.
Literary relationships to science, art, or music
may provide the focus.
SM 706. Old English. (M) Prerequisite(s): At least one semester of Old English or the equivalent. Readings
selected from the following areas: Wisdom literature,
riddles, Solomon and Saturn; the nature of the transition
from late Old English to Early Middle English Poetry;
religious poetry.
SM 707. (CLST530, COML530) Orality and Literacy. (M) Major lines of study of the subject of literacy are traceable in at least three
disciplines: history of Western literature (especially
classical and medieval studies), anthropology, and
ethnography of education, including education development
in the Third World and psychological and developmental
education theory and practice. The linkages between
oral and literary communicative modes in different
cultures are understudied, from a folklorist's viewpoint.
The overall task of the course is not to isolate
topics of narrowly defined folkloric interest in
the broad field of literacy, but to integrate and
critique the diverse approaches to literacy as a
communicative mode or modes, from the point of view
of folklore as a discipline.
SM 715. (COML714) Middle English Literature. (M) This seminar will study a number of selected Middle English texts in depth.
Attention will be paid to the textual transmission,
sources, language, genre, and structure of the works.
Larger issues, such as the influence of literary
coventions (for example, "courtly love"),
medieval rhetoric, or medieval allegory will be explored
as the chosen texts may require.
SM 725. (COML725) Topics in Chaucer. (M)
SM 729. English Humanism. (M) An examination of the politics and poetics of English humanism in the sixteenth
and early seventeenth centuries. In particular, we
will be measuring the political versatility of humanist
discourse, which could construct a stance of resistance,
underwrite unseemly ambition, or bolster a traditional
vision of order.
SM 730. (COML730, FREN654, GRMN665) Topics in 16th-Century History and Culture.
(M) This is an advanced course treating topics in 16th Century history and culture
particular emphasis varying with instructor.
SM 731. Renaissance Poetry. (M) An advanced seminar in English poetry of the early modern period.
SM 734. Renaissance Drama. (M) This is an advanced course in Renaissance drama which will include plays by
non-Shakespearean dramatists such as Marlowe, Jonson,
and Middleton.
SM 735. (COML637, GSOC735) The Age of Shakespeare. (M) An advanced seminar, usually focused on Shakespeare, treating the literature
and culture of the late 16th- and early 17th-centuries.
SM 736. (COML736) Renaissance Studies. (M) This is an advanced topics course treating some important issues in contemporary
Renaissance studies.
SM 739. Milton. (M) An examination of Milton's major poetry and prose with some emphasis on the
social and political context of his work.
SM 741. Early 18th-Century Poetry and Poetics. (M) This is an advanced course in British poetry and poetics of the first half
of the 18th-Century.
SM 742. Late 18th-Century Poetry and Poetics. (M) This is an advanced course in British poetry and poetics of the second half
of the 18th-Century.
SM 745. Restoration and 18th-Century Fiction. (M) This is an advanced course in the fiction of the Restoration and the 18th-Century,
the period of "The rise of the novel".
SM 748. (COML620, FREN660, GSOC748) Semester in 18th Century Literature. (M) This course varies in its emphases, but in recent years has explored the theory
of narrative both from the point of view of eighteenth-century
novelists and thinkers as well as from the perspective
of contemporary theory. Specific attention is paid
to issues of class, gender, and ideology.
SM 750. (COML750, GSOC750) Romanticism. (M) This course is an advanced seminar on writings of the Romantic period, not restricted
to English Romanticism.
SM 751. (GSOC751) British Women Poets. (M) An advanced seminar in British poetry by women. This course has generally focused
on the period from 1770-1830 when more than 300 women
published at least one volume of poetry.
SM 752. English Romanticism. (M) An advanced seminar on English Romanticism, usually but not always focusing
on poetry.
SM 753. Victorian British Literature. (M) An advanced seminar treating some topics in Victorian British Literature, usually
focusing on non-fiction or on poetry.
SM 754. (COML755) Victorian Fiction. (M) An advanced seminar in Victorian fiction.
SM 755. Literature of the Fin de Siecle. (M) This course treats pre-Raphaelitism, Aestheticism, Decadence, New Woman novels,
or some combination of these late-Victorian cultural
developments.
SM 756. Victorian Poetry and Poetics. (M) Close readings in both the poetry and the critical statements of the period,
in an attempt to define the "inter-period" between
Romantic and High Victorian poetry. Emphasis on the
early careers of Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, and
Clough. Attention will be given to the nature and
role of the poet, the changing functions of poetry,
Aestheticism, Symbolism, and Modernism.
SM 758. Victorian Culture. (M) An advanced seminar treating 19th-Century British culture from an interdisciplinary
perspective.
SM 760. (CINE600) Topics in the Novel. (M) A study of the literary and cultural self-presentations of a decade obsessed
by its own momentourness as the end of a century
and even, perhaps, the end of Time. The class examines
writers' new pride in decadence, the primacy of termination
and death, and the impact of the women's movement
on ficitons, art, poetry, and theater of the 1890's.
SM 761. (COML761) British Modernism. (M) This course treats one or more of the strains of British moderism in fiction,
poetry, or the arts.
SM 765. (COML766) Topics in 20th-Century Literature. (M) An advanced seminar treating a specific topic or issue in 20th-Century Literature
and Culture.
SM 768. (COML768, ENGL568) Joyce. (M) The specific focus within Joyce's oeuvre varies from year to year, but generally
this course covers much of his writing up to Finnegans
Wake.
SM 769. (COML769, GSOC769, PSCI683) Feminist Theory. (M) Specific topic varies. One recent version was subtitled "Queering the Literary",
and focused on the rise of queer studies in the academy,
and on the shift from an ontologically based understanding
of the field to a performative one.
SM 770. (AFRC770, AFRC834, ANTH834, COML773, COMM834) Afro-American Literature.
(M) An advanced seminar in African-American literature and culture.
SM 771. (COML772, LAW 913) Textual Production. (M) This course is based on library work and is intended as a practical introduction
to graduate research. It addresses questions of the
history of the book, of print culture, and of such
catagories as "work", "character",
and "author", as well as of gender and
sexuality, through a detailed study of the (re)production
of Shakespearean texts from the seventeenth to the
twentieth century.
SM 773. (AFRC773, COML767, GSOC773) Modernism. (M) An interdisciplinary and international examination of modernism, usually treating
European as well as British and American modernists.
SM 774. (COML622, SAST774) Postmodernism. (M) An advanced seminar on postmodernist culture. Recently offered as a study of
relationship between poetry and theory in contemporary
culture, with readings in poststructuralist, feminist,
marxist, and postcolonial theory and in poets of
the Black Mountain and Language groups.
SM 775. (AFST775, COML700) African Literature. (M) An advanced seminar in anglophone African literature, possibly including a few
works in translation.
SM 776. (COML607) Topics in 20th-Century Drama. (M) Sometimes taught as a survey of modern and contemporary drama, this course can
also focus on a particular issue such as the politics
of Western theatre, gender and performativity, or
postmodernity in the dramatic arts.
SM 777. Media Studies. (M)
SM 778. (COML778, GRMN580, GSOC778) 20th-Century Aesthetics. (M) This course explores notions that have conditioned 20th century attitudes toward
beauty: among them, ornament, form, fetish, the artifact "women",
the moves to 20th century fiction, art manifestos,
theory, and such phenomena as beauty contests and
art adjudications.
SM 781. (COML771) Earliest American Literature. (M) The earliest American literature predates America and rather than the unfolding
of the new world, its major interest is the expanding
of the old. In such texts as those compiled by Hakluyt
and Purchas, in Thomas Harriot's Briefe and True
Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, and others,
we will trace an emerging American culture that is
not yet "American."
SM 783. Major American Author. (M) A seminar treating any one of the major American Writers. Past versions have
focused on Melville, Whitman, Twain, James, Pound,
Eliot, and others.
SM 785. American Women Writers. (M) This course is sometimes taught as an advanced survey of American women writers,
but may also focus on a particular writer or group
of writers, or on gender issues in American Literature
and culture.
SM 788. Topics in American Poetry. (M) An advanced seminar in American poetry. Specific emphasis varies with instructor.
SM 790. (COML790, GSOC790) Recent Issues in Critical Theory. (M) Course varies with instructor. Recent versions have been "Critical Theory:
Legacies of the Frankfurt School" and "Auteurism
and Artificiality in Film Studies".
SM 795. (COML795) Topics in Poetics. (M) Topics in poetics will vary in its emphasis depending on the instructor.
SM 797. (ARTH793, COML653, COML791, SAST651) Topics in 20th-Century Culture. (M) Usually focusing on non-fictional texts, this course varies in its emphasis
depending on the instructor.
SM 799. (AFRC799, COML798) Topics in American Literature. (M) An advanced topics course in American literature, with the curriculum fixed
by the instructor. Recently offered with a focus
on American Literature of Social Action and Social
Vision.
800-Level For the Preparation of the Ph.D Field Exam and Dissertation Proposal
SM 850. Field List. (C) Students work with an adviser to focus the area of their dissertation research.
They take an examination on the field in the Spring
and develop a dissertation proposal.
Independent Study 998-999
998. Independent Study. (C) Limited to 1 c.u. Open to students who apply to the graduate chair with a written study proposal
approved by the advisor. The minimum requirement
is a long paper. Limited to 1 CU.
999. Independent Reading. (C) Open only to candidates who have completed two semesters of graduate work.
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