Required Courses                        

• Senior Thesis/4 credits

Third- and fourth-year students must take this course. Be sure to record this course on the registration form.

• English Writing I/3 credits/Prof. Cecilia Liu

There is no description for this course.   Please feel free to contact the teacher if you have any questions.

• Research and Bibliography/3 credits/Bro. Nicholas Koss

There is no description for this course.  Please feel free to contact the teacher if you have any questions.

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• Selective Readings of Contemporary Literary Theories: Signification, Identity and Culture/3 credits/Dr. Kate Liu

This course is designed for you to achieve three goals:

1) critical reading of both primary and secondary theoretical texts to get a general derstanding of important contemporary literary theories,
2) engagement in theoretical issues (such as text and textuality, canon formation,  interpretation, ideology, discourse, etc.) as they arise from our reading of the primary texts, and
3) analyzing literary texts from different theoretical perspectives with an awareness of the limitations of each.

The possible theoretical schools we can cover are:

Structuralism and Poststructuralism, Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Cultural studies, postmodernism, and postcolonialism.   From them I tentatively choose: Psychoanalysis, Marxism and Cultural Studies.  You are welcome to suggest what you want, and I will consider the theoretical schools to add or drop if more than 2 students require so.

On each school we will spend 3 to 4 weeks, moving from a general introduction, to close  reading of some theoretical texts, to in-class application to some chosen texts, and, finally, to your own application and critique of the theories.

Requirements:

In this course, you will be responsible for:
1) active participation in class and on the internet,
2) a 20-minute report on a theoretical text with an outline ready for online publication,
3) a 40-minute report on how the critics (about 3) use a certain theoretical approach and then a critique,
4) a term paper of both theoretical discussion and literary application.

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• Doris Lessing Seminar/3 credits/Sr. Agathe Bramkamp

Doris Lessing, “a major reader and interpreter of the human condition in the twentieth century” (J. Pickering), has written a great number of novels over a period of more than 50 years, starting with novels of social- realism in the 50s and since then shifting political positions and her practice of writing more than once. She explored the breakdown of all relationships in her vision of a chaotic future, wrote novels of a mystical nature, then speculative psycho-histories, science fiction, documentary fiction and autobiographies. In all her writing, however, she deals with important topics of the times, depicting the constant evolution and often violent movements that shape our world.

We will deal with three novels The Fifth Child (1988), Ben in the World (1998), Sweet Dreams (2002) thoroughly and (time permitting) will also read The Good Terrorist (1985).

We will explore the various topics that are dealt with in these novels such as: the private and the public, identity and role, child and parent, self and other. We will also discuss the problem of human evolution and social revolution. For the novel Sweet Dreams we will have to familiarize ourselves with aspects of the historical and social context in the past 50 years in the West, mainly England.

-This seminar requires active participation in all class discussions.

-Each student will also have to prepare two 30- minute class presentations.

-Students take turns to prepare summaries of all seminar sessions to be presented in the following session, paying attention to theme, major points of discussion, and/or connecting ideas and experiences.

-Students write a final paper of 10-12 pages.

　

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