Spring '22 Course Descriptions - undergraduate & Progressive m.A. courses - USC Dornsife
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Spring '22
Course Descriptions dornsife.usc.edu/engl
/DornsifeEnglish
@usc_english
undergraduate & Progressive m.A. courses @usc_english
Welcome
Welcome | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
Welcome to the Department of English. For the
Spring 2022 semester, we offer a rich selection of
also check for any holds on their account that will
prevent them from registering at their registration Major programs
introductory and upper-division coursework in appointment time.
B.A. English (Literature)
English and American literature and culture, and
creative writing workshops. Please feel free to speak If you are in Thematic Option, follow the advising B.A. English (Creative Writing)
with any faculty in the English department, with information from both the Department of English B.A. Narrative Studies
one of our undergraduate program coordinators, and your TO advisors. Clearance for registration in
or with Professor William Handley, our Director CORE classes will be handled by the TO office.
of Undergraduate Studies, to help you select the
courses that are right for you. All courses for the Spring 2022 semester in the
ENGL department are 4.0 units.
Minor programs
All Department of English courses are “R” (open English
registration) courses, except for our GE-B courses Narrative Structure
that begin as "R" and then switch to "D," and the
following “D” courses, which always require Early Modern Studies
departmental clearance: ENGL 302, 303, 304, 305,
310, 408, 490, 491, and 492. Departmental clearance
is not required for “R” course registration prior to
the beginning of the semester, but is required for Progressive
“D” course registration. On the first day of classes
all classes will be closed—admission is granted only degree program
by the instructor’s signature and the department
M.A. Literary Editing and
stamp (available in THH 404).
Publishing
Be sure to check the class numbers (e.g., 32734R)
and class hours against the official Spring 2022
Schedule of Classes at classes.usc.edu.
Online undergraduate registration for the Spring How does a manuscript become a book? What role do
2022 semester will begin Wednesday, October editors play? Why are some books adapted into films?
27th, 2021. To check for your registration date
and time, log on to OASIS via MyUSC and then Explore these questions in the 4-unit ENGL -499
Special Topics course, "The Literary Landscape" taught
click on “Permit to Register.” Registration times
by Professor Mullins. See description on page 32.
are assigned by the number of units completed.
Students can and should be advised prior to their
registration appointment times. Students should Photo by Florian Klauer at Unsplash. 2
Contents
Contents | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
Descriptions
General Education courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Foundation seminars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Creative writing workshops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Upper-division seminars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Maymesters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Senior seminars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Progressive M.A. courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Registration resources
Courses that satisfy major and minor requirements. . . . . 42
Courses that require departmental clearance . . . . . . . . . . 44
Contact information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
“The Bard of Avon”
Investigate the legal and political concept of “tyranny” in the works of Shakespeare
and his contemporaries in ENGL-355g “Anglo-American Law and Literature” with
Professor Lemon. See description on page 22.
Image: Illustration from front matter of printing of The Merchant of Venice, 3
American Book Company (1898)
General Education
General Education | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-112LXG ENGL-174G
Data, Denial or Doom?: Reading the Heart: Emotional
Talking about Climate Change Intelligence and the
Sanford Russell, Bea
TTh | 12:30-1:50pm Section: 13112
Humanities
Gustafson, Thomas
MW | 10-11:50am Section: 32613
Glacier melt; agricultural collapse; societies, as well as challenges with
species extinction; global warming: telling climate histories and predict-
the world we live in is indelibly ing climate futures.
shaped by climate change. In this The university upholds itself as a joy and happiness. It will also
course we explore the different kinds Along the way we will ask key ques- place devoted to the study of critical consider the place of emotional
of stories we use to describe this tions: how can we meaningfully thinking, and college curriculums intelligence in such fields as medi-
shaping, from data sets and scientific connect quantitative descriptions always give a pre-eminent place to cine and business and how concepts
reports to popular journalism and of climate change with qualitative courses on the history of Western such as empathy and our responses
post-apocalyptic movies. Although histories? How do global warming’s thought. But where in our education to anger can help us study moments
students will gain basic understand- massive and long-ranging effects do we study and develop emotional of crisis in politics and international
ing of climate systems and climate challenge our sense of scale? What intelligence? Can emotional intel- relations from the Peloponnesian
change mechanisms, the primary new kinds of storytelling do we ligence even be taught? What if the War through the American Revo-
aim of the course is not to provide a need to invent to talk about climate university offered a course where lution and Civil War and 9/11. At
comprehensive overview of climate change, given its complex relation- we had the chance to study not just the heart of the course will be an
science. Rather, we will dive deeply ship between cause and effect and its the head but the heart, not critical attempt to study how and where
into several major problems posed reliance on ongoing processes over thinking but emotional intelligence, we learn forms of intelligence not
by climate change, trying to under- singular events? What is the rela- and where love of knowledge was measured by a SAT test but signifi-
stand how overlapping —and at tionship between microhistories of combined with knowledge about cant for your life including what one
times competing—stories articulate climate change, especially those pro- love? English 174 will be such a author calls such “essential human
and respond to these problems, as duced within different disciplinary course: It will draw upon literature competencies” as “self-awareness,
well as considering how these stories fields, and the overall picture? ranging from the writings of Epi- self-control, and empathy, and the
influence social perceptions and curus and Montaigne to stories by arts of listening, resolving conflict,
actions. Topics include the effects of This course is crosslisted in ENGL James Baldwin and Sandra Cisneros and cooperation.”
and is offered by the BISC depart- and films such as “Groundhog Day”
climate change on extreme weather,
on biodiversity, and on human ment as BISC-112Lxg. to study such emotions as love, jeal-
ousy, anger, fear, hate, compassion,
4
General Education | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-250MGW ENGL-270G
The African Diaspora Studying Narrative
LaBennett, Oneka Sligar, Sara
TTh | 12:30-1:50pm Section: 10372 TTh | 12:30-1:50pm Section: 32650
History, political-economy and aes- This course will provide an intro-
thetics of the African Diaspora with duction to narrative studies, looking
emphasis on Latin America, the across genres and media to ask: What
Caribbean, Europe and Africa. is narrative? Why do we tell and
consume stories? How have theories
This course is crosslisted in ENGL of narrative evolved historically, and
and is offered by the ASE department how can these theories help us better
as AMST-250mgw. understand the stories we love?
Over the course of the semester, we
will examine key narrative elements
such as plot, character, story-worlds
and story-time, extra-diegesis,
conflict, splicing, seriality, and res-
olution. Texts will include short
stories, novels, film, television,
comics, social media, and more, by
authors and creators such as Emily
St. John Mandel, Ling Ma, Bryan
Washington, Damon Lindelof, and
Michaela Coel. Through close-read-
ing and the application of narrative
theory to a variety of texts, students
will build a strong foundation in
narrative studies as an evolving,
interdisciplinary field.
5
General Education | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-285MG ENGL-297G
African American Popular Introduction to the Genre of
Culture Nonfiction
LaBennett, Oneka Freeman, Christopher
TTh | 5-6:50pm Section: 10399 TTh | 3:30-4:50pm Section: 32656
Examines history of popular cul- Nonfiction is writing that’s does; your job, is to be fully engaged
tural forms such as literature, true. Well, sort of. It takes many with our material; to read our mate-
music, dance, theatre, and visual forms—essays, reviews, histories, rial, to think about it, and to come to
arts produced by and about African biographies, memoirs, philosophy, lecture prepared to discuss it, to read
Americans. scientific and sociological studies. it out loud, and to try to interpret it.
But of course, it is also crafted. In this
This course is crosslisted in ENGL course, we will work through many In your discussion sections, your
and is offered by the ASE department forms of nonfiction writing; we instructors will elaborate on lecture
as AMST-285mg. will study the craft and the process, material, but at the same time, they
starting with the end product, the will pursue their own passions about
published work. When you read for writing by working with you on
this class, read as a reader and as a some of their favorite authors. The
writer. Craft, style, form, and content idea is that you’ll get introduction
will all figure into our work. and intermediate take on nonfiction
in lecture and an advanced immer-
We will do all we can to make this sion in section.
class a conversation about nonfic-
tion writing—how it works, how its
forms have changed, how research is
involved, how to read it, how to write
it and write about it. In lecture, we
will cover important writers, move-
ments, forms, theories, and larger
questions about the medium and
the messages. How do texts connect
to their historical moment? To the
past? The future? Whose voices are
included? Whose are absent? My job
is to get you more interested in what
nonfiction writing is and what it 6
General Education | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-299G
Introduction to the Genre of
Poetry
Freeman, Christopher
TTh | 12:30-1:50pm Section: 32670
What can we learn from poetry as we
learn about it? That will be a moti-
vating question of this course. The
English poet William Blake wrote
of “the Bard, who Present, Past, &
Future sees”—our work will take us
to poets of the past and the present,
poets whose work continues to speak
to us across centuries. In this course,
we have the privilege and pleasure
of savoring poetry, contemplating it,
discovering it anew, and finding its
wisdom. We will use an anthology in
lecture for the first ten weeks or so;
after that, we will all be reading the
same two single volumes of poetry
for deep dive “case studies.” In dis-
cussion section, you’ll work on one
or two books of poetry for the first
ten weeks, and your writing will be
essays and poems (yes, you can do
some creative writing!) based on the
readings from lecture and section.
7
Foundation Seminars
Foundation Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-261G ENGL-261G
English Literature to 1800 English Literature to 1800
James, Heather Rollo, David
TTh | 11-12:20pm Section: 32635 TTh | 9:30-10:50am Section: 32636
This is a course in ”hard poets”: communication; learning to do a Through the close analysis of literary
“hard” in the sense that you cannot knockout close reading; and becom- works written in English before 1800,
just walk into a bookstore, pick up ing an even better writer. the course will address: the implica-
a book of their poems, and browse tions of authorship at various times
at will. The language barriers alone in English and Irish history, with a
make that hard. And then there is particular emphasis on the theme
their delight in fruitful ambiguity: and practice of political exclusion;
they play with words, refuse easy the development of literacy and its
formulas, and take pleasure in using initially restrictive force; the rise of
language, meter, and poetic “special empire and the attendant questions
effects” to think through hard ques- of dynastic legitimacy, religious
tions about love, society, religion, determinism, gender empower-
politics, and art. This course is also ment and colonial expansion; urban
about a kind of reading that takes foppery. Texts studied will include:
time, and makes you think about the selections from The Book of Margery
role of time, experience, and re-vi- Kempe and Chaucer’s Canterbury
sion (seeing things again and anew) Tales; Shakespeare’s Macbeth; lyric
in the making and reading of poetry. poetry by Donne, Marvell, and Aeme-
This course is also on four amazing lia Lanyer; Milton’s Paradise Lost;
poets: Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Congreve’s The Way of the World;
Spenser, William Shakespeare and Aphra Behn’s The Rover and Oroo-
John Donne. noko; Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe; and
Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Students
The goals of this course include will write three papers, take a final
— but are not limited to — plac- exam, attend class and participate in
ing poetry in historical context discussion.
while also seeing them as vital
media of thought, experience, and
8
Foundation Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
Photo by Patrick Tomasso at Unsplash.
ENGL-261G ENGL-262G
English Literature to 1800 English Literature since 1800
“The Monstrous in Medieval and Early Modern “Progress in British Literature Since 1800”
Literature” Wright, Erika
Tomaini, Thea MWF | 11-11:50am Section: 32641
TTh | 12:30-1:50pm Section: 32637
This survey examines literary progress. We will explore how key
responses to momentous events, works define and depict progress
This section of English 261 traces the Norton Anthology of English Litera-
ongoing arguments, and hot topics in or are progressive, as they ask us to
development of poetry and drama ture, plus handouts TBA. We will also
Britain from 1800 (and a bit before) consider what we gain and lose when
in England during the centuries look at important source texts and
to roughly the present day. Part one seek to improve, to move forward on
between the First Millennium and backgrounds that influenced these
examines the revolutionary roots our own with or against a commu-
the English Civil War. Specifically, authors and their major works. There
of Romantic poetry, theories about nity. Does the text lament progress?
this course will focus on the concept will be three papers, all 8-10 pages in
the poet’s political and social role, Does it rebel against established tra-
of The Monstrous in these works length.
and the rise of the novel. Part Two ditions and social codes? Does it do
of literature. Students will learn
focuses on the reforming impulses of both? And how? What formal con-
the basics of Monster Theory, and
Victorian writers as they responded ventions help to shape the content
will then discuss how the various
to shifting attitudes about class, of these stories? We will ask ques-
types of monstrosity reflect the
gender, sexuality, and Empire. Part tions such as these throughout the
major social, political, cultural, and
Three builds on the issues raised semester, but ideally we will form
religious issues of the premodern
throughout the 19th century, explor- new questions, as we seek to develop
era. There will be ghosts, faeries,
ing how the uncertainty wrought by a more nuanced understanding of
witches, dragons, hybrid creatures,
two Great Wars and developments in British literature and culture.
and demons; but we will also discuss
technology during the 20th and 21st
how Monster Theory of the medieval
centuries transformed (or not) indi-
and early modern periods describes
vidual and national identity.
persecutory and prejudicial attitudes
of race, class, and gender/sexuality, The texts we study will introduce us
and targets women, immigrants, to a range of viewpoints that seek to
the disabled, Christian sectarians, define what it means to be human—
non-Christians, and non-Europeans. to live and love in a world that,
Major authors and works of poetry depending on one’s experience, is
and drama will include Beowulf, changing too fast or not fast enough.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Spens- In an effort to tease out these com-
er’s The Faerie Queene, Marlowe’s Dr. peting desires and perspectives
Faustus, Shakespeare’s Richard III,
and Milton’s Paradise Lost, among
other texts. Course texts include the
about change, we will organize our
close reading around the concept of 9
Foundation Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-262G ENGL-262G
English Literature since 1800 English Literature since 1800
Schor, Hilary Winslow, Aaron
TTh | 3:30-4:50pm Section: 32642 TTh | 11am-12:20pm Section: 32640
This course focuses on British lit- We will wander from the banks of What is the difference between Vic-
erature from the Romantics to the the River Derwent to the slums of torian Literature and Modernism?
present, and in particular on the London; from the debtors’ prison of What is free indirect discourse? What
way these texts ponder the relation- the Marshalsea to the playing fields is the relationship between great
ship between individuals, society of an English boarding school (no, literature and the historical context
and literature, at a time of immense not Hogwarts, but feel free to think within which it was written? English
cultural change and profound self- of HP!), but our focus throughout 262 will equip you to confidently
doubt. What does it mean to be a will be on individual acts of perceiv- answer these questions. In this
person? Is a person a legal fiction; ing and creating meaning. Who sees; course we will survey major devel-
a citizen with rights; someone who who speaks; whose heart breaks; and opments in English literary history
walks the streets of a crowded city, or who gets to write about it? Texts from 1800 to the present. Organizing
someone who sits alone in a room? will include Jane Austen’s Sense and themes for our readings include: the
What happens when we begin to be Sensibility, Charles Dickens’s Little class system, patriarchy, psychoanal-
able to “make people”? And how does Dorrit, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dallo- ysis, empire, and the relationship
literature begin to answer such com- way, Alison Bechdel’s The Secret to between the individual and society.
plicated questions? The class will Super-Human Strength and Kazuo The syllabus will include authors
encompass the two central goals of Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, as well as such as Jane Austen, Mary Shelley,
any introductory course: we will read the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Bram Stoker, Virginia Woolf, E.M.
through a kind of “survey” of major Browning, Tennyson and Yeats. Forster, Beryl Gilroy, Alan Moore, and
British authors, offering a wide range Andrea Levy.
of voices, but we will also concentrate
on developing the skills of reading
and writing necessary to understand
and to analyze the complexities of
any work of literature. Our focus
throughout will be on the problem
of the self—is there a moment when
“the self” came into being; how is
consciousness depicted in literature;
does “the self ” have a gender (or
does the self get to have sex?) and
what kind of “place” (imaginative as
well as literal) does the self occupy?
10Foundation Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-263G ENGL-263G
American Literature American Literature
Winslow, Aaron Ingram, Kerry
MWF | 12-12:50pm Section: 32646 TTh | 11am-12:20pm Section: 32647
In this course we will study major ENGL-263 covers selected works of
American literary movements, from American writers from the Colonial
colonial-era poetry to 21st-century period to the present day, with an
digital poetics. We’ll also explore cul- emphasis on major representa-
tural histories involving race, slavery tive writers. In this course, we will
and abolition, immigration, class, interpret the aesthetic and thematic
gender, and sexuality. How does liter- aspects of these works, relate the
ature intersect with US history? How works to their historical and literary
has literature been used as a site of contexts, and understand relevant
social struggle and identity creation? criticism. What notions of self and
Finally, alongside canonical classics, identity do we find when studying
we’ll also read marginal and “minor” the diverse range of American texts
literatures, including science fiction, that explore ideas on religion, gov-
fantasy, crime, comics, and the West- ernment, philosophy, and narrative
ern. How have marginal genres—and genre? Where do you find the “truth”
marginalized voices—helped con- articulated in a shared American
struct the American imagination? literature?
11Foundation Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-263G ENGL-263G
American Literature American Literature
Kemp, Anthony Berg, Rick
TTh | 12:30-1:50pm Section: 32648 MWF | 11-11:50am Section: 32645
The collective myths and ideologies transfigure and explain the enigma English 263 is a survey of American fields. Thirdly, there is the wish to
of most cultures precede historical of the self and of the unfinished Literature. As an introduction, the indulge the pleasure one takes from
self-consciousness; that of Amer- errand, America. course intends to develop and extend these works: and ... well the list goes
ica, by contrast, arises in the very the nodding acquaintance that most on.
recent past, and comes into being The goals of the course are that stu- students have with American writers
simultaneously with European dents should understand the works and their works.
modernity. As such, it provides an studied, and their relations to the
extreme and simplified exemplar societal, intellectual, and aesthetic Since it is an introductory course,
of all of the movements and con- movements of the period covered by English 263 is wedded to breadth
flicts of the modern. The course the course: Puritanism, Calvinism, of study. The course is historically
will introduce the student to the theocracy, Enlightenment, Roman- constructed moving from the time
major themes and issues of Ameri- ticism, Transcendentalism, slavery, before the Republic to our own
can literature and culture from the Abolition, Decadence, Modernism, moment. Students will confront a
seventeenth century to the present. Postmodernism. variety of texts and authors, peri-
We will concentrate particularly ods and genres. We will look at how
on attempts to find a new basis for American authors and their works
community, divorced from the Old define and re-define our national
World (the continent of Europe and character. We will look at the many
the continent of the past), and the questions these works raise about
dissatisfaction with and opposition America, about its sense of itself,
to that community that comes with about its place in the world, and
modern subjectivity. The journey about literature – American and oth-
will take us from raw Puritan colo- erwise. We will even look at some of
nies to the repressive sophistication the answers they give.
of Henry James’ and Kate Chopin’s
nineteenth-century salons–worlds The course’s goals are many; first,
of etiquette and porcelain in which there is the simple celebration of
nothing can be said–to the trans- literature’s challenge to doxa and all
gressive experiments of Decadents, the uninformed opinions that rule
Modernists and Postmodernists, all and regulate our everyday. Secondly
united by a restless desire to find there is the desire to offer a founda-
some meaning beyond the obvi-
ous, some transcendence that will
tion for further studies not only in
literature and art, but also in other 12Creative Writing Workshops
Creative Writing Workshops | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-105X ENGL-302
Creative Writing for Non- Writing Narrative
Majors Winslow, Aaron
M | 4:30-6:50pm Section: 32680
Ingram, Kerry
M | 2-4:20pm Section: 32600
The narrative arts have undergone
a profound transformation in
recent years. The written narrative
Stephen King once said that if you We are living in interesting times. is no longer the central mode of
want to be a writer, you must do two There is so much we need to write for prestige storytelling, but exists in
things above all others: read a lot each other. Do you want to join in? dialogue with visual cultures such
and write a lot. That’s what we’ll do as film, comics, and video games as
in this course. In the process, we’ll well as a resurgent audio culture
explore methods and strategies for of podcasts. In a saturated media
a daily writing habit in a safe space environment such as our modern
where you get to express and share. culture, what does it mean, then, to
Broadly speaking, this class will write narrative? In this course, we’ll
allow for all the genres in any com- study examples of a wide variety of
bination: prose and poetry, fiction contemporary narrative forms from
and non-fiction narratives, journ- fiction, non-fiction, comics, video
aling, and free-writing exercises in games, podcasts, and film. You’ll
response. You will also be responding then have the opportunity to practice
in a workshop setting to the writing these narrative techniques through
of your peers. Often, we aren’t super short projects focused on a) fiction;
clear about even our own feelings b) non-fiction; c) writing visual nar-
and observations until we’ve revised ratives; d) audio narrative. Readings
and found the most effective forms will cover a wide range of material
of expression. Reading is an act of and genres such as Ursula Le Guin,
discovery; so is writing. The ambition Kazim Ali, Nathalie Lawhead, Trinh
of this course is to facilitate your
journey as you explore your insights.
T. Minh-ha, Tillie Walden, and The
Magnus Archives.
13Creative Writing Workshops | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-303 ENGL-303
Introduction to Fiction Introduction to Fiction
Writing Writing
Lord, M.G. Segal, Susan
W | 2-4:20pm Section: 32685 Th | 2-4:20pm Section: 32687
You are in this class because you pages. For your final submission, How do you take the vision of the
want to learn how to write short you are required to rewrite at least perfect story that you carry around
fiction. You grasp the importance one in response to your feedback in in your head and get it onto the
of word choice and sentence con- workshop. page? This course addresses that
struction. You want to understand conundrum, as well as the “how do
narration: why it matters who is Although this is not a course spe- they do it?” question that plagues
telling the story that you are writ- cifically on structure, we will look us when we read wonderful work.
ing. You want to learn how to write carefully at structure, which can be We will be studying and practicing
scenes that reveal character. You as important in a short story as it is literary fiction—that is, charac-
want to know the difference between in a screenplay. We will look at how ter-centered stories that do not fit
strong dialogue and inept dialogue. one constructs a graphic novel. You easily into genres and that do not
You are already sensitive to details don’t have to do any drawing. But adhere to formulaic plot tropes.
and gestures. But you want to understanding storytelling through By studying a combination of stu-
improve these aspects of your writ- sequential art may enrich your nar- dent-generated stories and published
ing—which can often be achieved by rative writing skills. By the end of works, we will examine and learn to
reading the work of accomplished this course, you will have expanded integrate the elements of fiction into
storytellers, examining how they your literary skillset through man- our own work. We will also wrestle
realized what they realized, and datory exercises and getting your with the eternal question of how to
using their techniques, when appro- head around a different genre (the show rather than tell what we want
priate, in your own work. graphic novel). to say.
This course will have two com-
ponents: We will read exemplary
published stories and discuss why
and how they work. At times we
will do exercises that are suggested
by what we have read. Then we will
write—and revise—our own sto-
ries. You will be required to write
two original stories—one that is
5 to 10 pages, one that is 7 to 12
14Creative Writing Workshops | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-303 ENGL-304
Introduction to Fiction Introduction to Poetry Writing
Writing “Rag and Boneshop of the Heart”
Irwin, Mark
Ingram, Kerry
M | 2-4:20pm Section: 32689
T | 4:30-6:50pm Section: 32686
Following the classic text, Western
English 303 is a fiction workshop in Wind, as a model, we will examine
which we practice the techniques the craft of poetry writing from
of prose narratives. The emphasis is inspiration through final revision.
on writing first and analyzing next. Form, content, metaphor, and
Thoughts and feelings crafted into image will be discussed, and we will
words become real objects in the carefully examine diction, syntax,
world, gifts we can all share. Expect rhythm, and the line in the works
to exit the class with finished stories of many modern and contempo-
and to formulate specific ideas about rary poets. Members in this class
craft for maintaining your personal will be given a number of writing
momentum. Once you discover the prompts and complete several
right methods for you, beauty and formal exercises that will become
meaning will follow. part of the final portfolio required
for this course. Rewriting will play an
integral part of this workshop, and
revisions of well-known poems also
will be discussed. Additionally, we
will examine the work of award-win-
ning contemporary poets such as
Rick Barot, Anne Carson, Laura
Kasischke, Peter Gizzi, Angie Estes,
Thomas Sayers Ellis, Mary Ruefle,
Yusef Komunyakaa, and Natalie Diaz.
Texts: TBD
13 Younger Contemporary American
Poets. Mark Irwin, ed.
15
Photo by Janko Ferlič on UnsplashCreative Writing Workshops | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-304 ENGL-305
Introduction to Poetry Writing Introduction to Nonfiction
Bendall, Molly
W | 2-4:20pm Section: 32688
Writing
“The Impersonal Art of the Personal Essay – and Vice-
Versa”
In this course we will read and study Dyer, Geoff
a wide range of contemporary poetry
in order to become acquainted with M | 2-4:20pm Section: 32692
many styles, trends, forms, and other
elements of poetry. Students will
write poems exploring some partic-
ular strategies. The class is run as a Both a workshop and a survey of the
workshop so lively and constructive history of the essay, this course will
participation is necessary with atten- use a number of classic examples to
tion to analytical and critical skills. help guide us through the pitfalls
Hopefully, each person will discover and possibilities of the form. How to
ways to perfect and revise his or avoid crossing the line from the per-
her own work. There will always sonal to the willfully self-indulgent?
be lots of room for misbehaving in We know that you are interesting to
poems and other adventurous pur- you but how to make that ‘you’ inter-
suits. Several poems and written esting to everyone else? Conversely,
critiques are required. Poets include how to imbue essays with the stamp
Frank O’Hara, Alberto Rios, Har- of personal testimony without the
ryette Mullen, Jake Skeets, Khadijah support of a participating authorial
Queen, Michelle Brittan Rosado, personality? To help us navigate
Natalie Diaz, and others. 5+ poems, this potentially slippery terrain we
written critiques, class participation will enlist the support of work by
required. William Hazlitt, George Orwell, Joan
Didion, James Baldwin, Nicholson
Baker, Annie Dillard, Jia Tolentino
and others.
16Creative Writing Workshops | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-310 ENGL-402
Editing for Writers Narrative Composition
“Yes, There is Life After an English Degree” Wayland-Smith, Ellen
Segal, Susan Th | 2-4:20pm Section: 32727
T | 4:30-6:50pm Section: 32697
In this class, we will study a range * Prerequisite(s): ENGL-302 or
of contemporary fiction and non- ENGL-305
When working on a piece of writ- fiction narrative forms, including
ing, if you’ve ever selected one word the novella; the biography/profile;
over another, rephrased a question, and the memoir/personal essay. As
erased a phrase or added a comma, we read and discuss representative
you’ve done what professional edi- works by authors such as Leslie
tors do. The goal of this course is to Jamison, James Baldwin, Ocean
harness the skills you already have Vuong, and Maggie Nelson, you will
to quantify and qualify the job of an be invited to try your hand at all
editor in order to improve your own three genres.
writing and help you become a better
analyst of what makes an effective Over the course of the semester, we
piece of writing. Anyone who is curi- will explore such questions as: what
ous about editing as a profession separates nonfiction from fiction,
and/or anyone who is truly invested when so many “fictional” stories are
in what they are writing will benefit in fact drawn from real life (“auto-
from this hands-on approach. This fiction”), and nonfiction writers are
course is designed for writers in all compelled to pack the messiness of
genres—fiction, poetry, journalism, “real life” into neat storylines? What
expository, etc. are the limits, both ethical and aes-
thetic, of narrative storytelling in the
twenty-first century?
Class time will be equally divided
between discussing the readings and
workshopping each other’s writing.
Writing requirements include one
short story; one profile or biographi-
cal sketch; and one nonfiction essay.
The course final is comprised of a
revision of one of your three pieces
in addition to a reflection essay.
17Creative Writing Workshops | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-403 ENGL-404
Nonfiction Writing The Writer in the Community
Nelson, Maggie Sims, Hiram
T | 2-4:20pm Section: 32729 M | 5-7:20pm Section: 32731
This course will focus on literary The Writer in the Community is a
work that derives from the “true” course focused on giving students
rather than from the invented an introduction to the creation and
(though we will of course compli- development of community writing
cate such distinctions along the workshops, and the development
way). We will be reading and exper- of community performance spaces.
imenting with writing nonfiction Students will learn the fundamental
in many different forms, including skills necessary to facilitate poetry
the diaristic, memory writing, jour- workshops that are accessible to
nalistic or opinion pieces, essays, community members in the neigh-
and non-academic scholarship. borhood surrounding USC and
This course is open to students develop a monthly open mic at The
who have completed ENGL 303 or Sims Library of Poetry.
305, or by submission of a writing
sample and subsequent permission
of the instructor. If you require a
prerequisite waiver and hope to
gain acceptance into the course with
a writing sample, please submit a
short piece of nonfiction (under 20
pages) to margarmn@usc.edu, along
with a list of creative writing classes
previously attended.
* Prerequisite(s): ENGL-303 or
ENGL-305
18Creative Writing Workshops | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-405
Fiction Writing
Sligar, Sara
Th | 4:30-6:50pm Section: 32732
Continuation of the fiction work-
shop series. Topics will include
character, setting, dialogue, voice, and
tone, as well as studying structure
on the level of sentence, paragraph,
scene, and story. In addition to
producing your own creative work
during the course, you will practice
close-reading and feedback skills
through workshops and discussions.
* Prerequisite(s): ENGL-303 or
ENGL-305
Photo by Taylor Ann Wright at Unsplash.
19Creative Writing Workshops | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-406 ENGL-408
Poetry Writing Advanced Poetry Writing
Bendall, Molly Journey, Anna
M | 2-4:20pm Section: 32734 Th | 4:30-6:50pm Section: 32738
In this poetry workshop we will In this reading and writing intensive
focus on poetic sequences. We advanced poetry workshop, students
will read poems that are grouped will read six collections of contem-
together because they share a porary American poetry; write and
common theme, strategy, form, or carefully revise five to six poems for
voice. We’ll ponder what happens as inclusion in a final portfolio; and
the poems progress and accumulate. post weekly Blackboard responses
What tensions develop stylistically (two paragraphs or longer) to the
and inside the language when ele- required texts. Admission by appli-
ments keep recurring and evolving? cation only. Prerequisites: ENGL 304
How do poems talk back to one and 406.
another? Students will work on their
own sequences over the course of the * Prerequisite(s): ENGL-406
semester.
We will be reading poems by Jane
Wong, Jessica Goodfellow, Kevin
Goodan, Paige Quinones, others.
7-10 Poems, written critiques, much
reading, and class participation
required.
* Prerequisite(s): ENGL-304
Photo by Pixabay obtained on Pexels.com
20Upper-Division Seminars
Upper-Division Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-352G
Bookpacking
“BOOKPACKING LOS ANGELES - An Immersive
Journey Through the Culture and Literature of L.A.”
Chater, Andrew
Sat | 10am-5:30pm Section: 32850
This 4-unit class offers students a as the characters in the stories, we’ll
unique opportunity to dive deep dig into context and history - and
into USC’s vibrant and extraordinary we’ll reflect on the intersection
home city. between literary landscapes and the
contemporary cultures of LA.
This is an immersive class - meaning
that we’ll travel beyond the class- The class is led by Andrew Chater,
room. Every Saturday for 10 weeks in a contemporary educator and
the Spring Semester, we will meet for award-winning BBC historian who
a seminar on campus in the morning has designed a variety of classes for
- and then, in the afternoon, we will USC students on the ‘Bookpacker’
head out in a minivan and explore a model. Please visit www.bookpack-
different facet of Los Angeles. ers.com for a wealth of content on
bookpacking at USC, and www.
The class is an exercise in ‘Bookpack- andrewchater.com for more infor-
ing’, a cross-humanities experience mation on the class instructor.
using novels as ‘guidebooks’ to places
and people. Over the semester, we The class is accredited for General
will read a variety of classic and Education - all majors welcome.
contemporary LA fiction - from
Raymond Chandler to Joan Didion
- and we’ll explore these fictional
worlds both conceptually and on the
ground. We’ll walk the same streets
21Upper-Division Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-352G ENGL-355G
Bookpacking Anglo-American Law and
“BOOKPACKING AMERICA - Exploring US Regional
Cultures Through Classic and Contemporary Novels”
Literature
“Tyranny and Sovereignty in Shakespeare and his
Chater, Andrew
TTh | 11am-12:20pm Section: 32707
Contemporaries”
Lemon, Rebecca
TTh | 12:30-1:50pm Section: 32709
This class is an exercise in ‘book- literature with a real world applica-
packing,’ an innovative form of tion, this class is for you. All majors
literary adventure in which novels welcome.
serve as portals through which to This course investigates the legal Merchant of Venice, The Tempest,
explore American regional history The class is led by Andrew Chater, and political concept of “tyranny” Richard III, Macbeth, Marlowe’s
and culture. a contemporary educator and in the works of Shakespeare and Doctor Faustus and Jonson’s Vol-
award-winning BBC historian who his contemporaries. From Richard pone in addition to Machiavelli’s
Over the course of the semester, has designed a variety of classes for III to Macbeth, and from Shylock to The Prince and King James VI and
we’ll take a metaphorical road trip USC students on the ‘Bookpacker’ Caliban, Shakespeare exposes the I’s Trew Law of Free Monarchies.
through the different regions of the model. Please visit www.bookpack- workings of the tyrant and inter- Writing requirements include two
USA - New England, the Appalachia, ers.com for a wealth of content on rogates the bondage of service. His essays (6-8 pages) or one longer
the South, the Hispanic Southwest bookpacking at USC, and www. portraits pose questions of agency paper (15-20 pages) and a few short
and so on — and we’ll use one novel andrewchater.com for more infor- and law: when can political subjects responses to our course units.
per region to unpack each region’s mation on the class instructor. rise against a tyrant? Shakespeare’s
culture, past and present. answers resonate with vociferous
debates on resistance and tyran-
The course promises a vibrant over- nicide in the political writings by
view of the myriad facets of the his contemporaries: we will read
American experience, offering an selections from the works of French
important exercise in cultural empa- jurist Jean Bodin, English monarch
thy and understanding - all the more King James I, and Italian political
vital in this age of profound division. theorist Niccolò Machiavelli next
to Shakespeare’s plays with an eye
Offered for both English and GE, the to investigating how early modern
course offers a holistic approach to writers imagined the categories of
the humanities, combining elements tyrant and servant; and how their
of literature, history, geography, writings deepen our understanding
politics and social studies. If you are of the long history of these categories
interested in a course that celebrates in Western legal thought. Readings
will likely include: Shakespeare,
22Upper-Division Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-361G ENGL-362G
Contemporary Prose Contemporary Poetry
“Crime and Punishment” “Poetics of the Grotesque”
Segal, Susan Journey, Anna
TTh | 11am-12:20pm Section: 32711 TTh | 2-3:20pm Section: 32712
In this course we will look at works Our literatures abound with the
in the genre of True Crime: non- grotesque, often as a contrast to
fiction narratives that use the the “normal” and all too frequently
techniques of fiction to tell the story as a way to put down other people
of an act of criminality. The genre or groups of people as somehow
has become increasingly popular “abnormal” or inferior. But the gro-
over the last couple of decades, par- tesque can also act as a powerful
ticularly in America, and we will creative force. In this reading and
explore the possible origins of our writing intensive poetry course,
fascination with crimes of ever-in- we will explore the diverse ways in
creasing magnitude and horror. Is which contemporary poets employ
this fascination a result of our wish grotesquerie in recent American
to escape the less lurid, if nonethe- literature through reading, discuss-
less horrible transgressions of our ing, and responding—both critically
everyday life and our larger culture, and creatively—to three volumes of
or is it perhaps a reflection of what poetry published during the twen-
Professor Thomas Doeherty calls “a ty-first or late twentieth centuries as
culture-wide loss of faith in psycho- well as the critical study Grotesque.
logical or sociological explanations Class time will be devoted to dis-
for criminal deviance and a return cussing the assigned literature and,
to the old Puritan explanation for occasionally, to sharing student
human evil”? By reading a broad response poems. The coursework
range of true crime narratives, we consists of weekly two-paragraph
will examine how a culture’s chang- critical responses on Blackboard,
ing relationship to “real life” crime three papers (4-5 pages each), and
narratives can help us understand three poems (minimum length per
the complex role criminality plays in poem: 20 lines) that employ the gro-
defining a culture. Students should tesque and respond to the assigned
be prepared for a fascinating but readings.
substantial reading load.
23Upper-Division Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-363G ENGL-371G
Contemporary Drama Literary Genres and Film
Mullins, Brighde “The Final Frontier: Science Fiction from Here, There
TTh | 3:30-4:50pm Section: 32713 & Elsewhere”
Berg, Rick
MW | 4:30-5:50pm Section: 32715
This class explores contemporary
writing for the stage. Our aim is to
develop an understanding of the
breadth of contemporary theatrical This course intends to look at the understanding of their history, our
forms, and to develop informed and genre of speculative fiction. But world and to see the other futures
intuitive responses. Playwrights instead of taking the majority of they imagine.
under consideration may include its texts -- films, TV shows, novels,
Caryl Churchill, Suzan Lori Parks, short stories and graphic novels,
Lin Manuel Miranda, and Qui etc. -- from the USA and Britain,
Nguyen. Because theatre is a collab- we will take a number from other
orative form, and draws upon many nations and other cultures. In the
existing energies, we’ll also consider spirit of Sci-Fi, this class intends to
the contributions of designers, actors go beyond the borders of current
and directors. Our time in class will American Sci-Fi films and novels. We
be divided into lecture, discussion, will look at works from other Anglo-
and class visits by theatre practi- phone countries as well as works,
tioners. Students will be expected for instance, from Africa, Eastern
to complete weekly reading, viewing Europe and Russia.
and writing assignments and to
complete a final project of 10-15 pp. The object of the course is clear: to
of creative or critical writing. expand our horizons, to challenge
our understanding, and to get clear
of Hollywood’s domination of the
genre -- (Star Wars, Star Trek, Avatar,
et. al.). The goal is even clearer:
to boldly go to “the margins” and
beyond, to engage with the imagi-
native experiences of other peoples
from all those elsewheres in order to
discover how they present their cul-
ture’s interests, how they reveal their
24Upper-Division Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-372 Hudson full-color facsimile William
Blake: The Complete Illuminated
Literature and Related Arts
Books, and Carolyn Hares-Stryker,
ed., An Anthology of Pre-Rapha-
elite Writings, supplemented by
“Painting and Poetry in the Age of Mechanical several shorter pieces circulated
by the instructor. We will also be
Reproduction” frequent visitors to two online
resources, the William Blake Archive
Russett, Margaret and the Rossetti Archive, and there
TTh | 11am-12:20pm Section: 32716 will be at least one field trip (to the
Clark Library). Class meetings will
combine lecture-presentations on
visual art and social history with
How is literary art like—and unlike— Holman Hunt, and Edward Burne- focused discussion of literary and
visual art? What are the particular Jones, were painters who drew on mixed-media works. Students
capabilities and limitations of the literary themes; some, like Dante will be responsible for five short
two media? This class approaches Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, (2-3 page) response papers, due at
these and other related questions by and William Morris, were painters roughly two-week intervals; at least
way of studying nineteenth-century and designers as well as poets. All one of these will take the form of an
writers who were also visual artists. were intensely concerned with the “illuminated” visual design piece.
The first third of the semester will be role of the artist in a rapidly indus- One response will be expanded into
devoted to the multi-media work of trializing society—concerns most a longer (c. 10-page) research/critical
William Blake: poet, painter, printer, trenchantly addressed by the critic essay, due at the end of the semester.
prophet. The second two-thirds will John Ruskin, and in the utopian There will be no final exam.
address the “school” of painters and aspirations of Morris’s interior
writers loosely affiliated under the design firm. Our last few weeks,
name of the “Pre-Raphaelite Broth- accordingly, will revolve around
erhood,” although several members the problem of art and/as social
were female. The connection is a criticism, with a focus on issues of
natural one, since Blake’s oeuvre, commodification and gender (the
mainly produced between 1790 and models, especially Jane Morris and
1820, provided an initial inspiration Elizabeth Siddal, will be of special
for the later artists, who worked interest here).
mainly in the second half of the
century. Blake was unique among One goal of the class will be to
the Romantic poets in designing, develop a conceptual vocabulary for
“illuminating” and printing his own the different ways in which visual
books. The Pre-Raphaelites, for their and verbal texts “mean.” To this end,
part, wore many hats: some, like we will introduce some specialized
Christina Rossetti, George Meredith, topics and terminology, including
and Algernon Charles Swinburne, ekphrasis, the “sister arts,” narrative
were exclusively writers; some,
like John Everett Millais, William
painting, fetishism, and iconology.
Our main texts will be the Thames &
25Upper-Division Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-392 ENGL-420
Visual and Popular Culture English Literature of the
“Robinson Jeffers, James Turrell, and the Western
Sublime”
Middle Ages (1100–1500)
“The Legacy of Eve”
Martínez Celaya, Enrique
W | 4:30-6:50pm Section: 32725 Rollo, David
MWF | 1-1:50pm Section: 32740
Is there something unique about our The course could be of interest to
understanding of the sublime in the English and Creative Writing majors As a result of early Christian et al., The Book of Margery Kempe;
West? What are the characteristics of and students from Art, American commentaries on the Book of and the anonymous Sir Gawain and
the sublime in an age when specta- Studies, Environmental studies, and Genesis, women were considered The Green Knight.
cle, excess, and technology seem to Philosophy. throughout the medieval period as
be more relevant ideals than nature, sensual agents of deceit who scarcely * Prerequisite(s): ENGL-261
self, and society? How does the evo- deserved the privileges of education
lution of modernism affect poetry, and social autonomy. By the High
art, and our concept of self and the Middle Ages, however, a secular
sublime? Are there alternatives to countercurrent to these views had
disenchantment? These are a few of developed: Representatives of the
the questions we will consider in this male hierarchy that perpetuated
course as we explore the sublime as this tradition and monopolized the
manifested or longed-for in the work prerogatives of knowledge and lit-
of the 20th-century poet Robinson eracy themselves came to be seen
Jeffers and the contemporary artist as the true inheritors of the devil’s
James Turrell. gifts, demonic agents of falsehood
who manipulated their superior
Through an in-depth examination (indeed, largely exclusive) erudition
of Jeffers’s writings and Turrell’s as a device of control. This course will
installations, as well as the work of be a detailed analysis of these two
other poets, artists, critics, and phi- trends as they are manifested in 14th
losophers, we will examine artistic and 15th century English literature,
aspiration, cultural cynicism, the with a particular emphasis on: Geof-
frontier as myth and reality, the frey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales,
landscape as a vehicle for re-en- The Legend of Good Women, and
chantment, the relationship between Troilus and Criseide; Thomas Malory,
art and poetry, migration, self-ban- Le Morte D’Arthur; Margery Kempe
ishment, and redemption. 26Upper-Division Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-422 ENGL-424
English Literature of the 17th English Literature of the
Century Romantic Age (1780–1832)
“The English Witch” Russett, Margaret
Tomaini, Thea TTh | 2-3:20pm Section: 32744
TTh | 9:30-10:50am Section: 32742
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, special attention to texts that either
portray or enact revolutions, whether
This course will focus on the preoc- But to be young was very heaven! in the external world or in the minds
cupation with witches, sorcerers, and of their readers. Not all of them
demonology during the seventeenth -William Wordsworth, The Prelude were written with explicit political
century in England. We will read aims, but all were intended to be
important background materials on Romantic literature was the artistic
something new, and to do something
the history of the witch craze period, expression of an Age of Revolution.
important. They include two novels,
which will include background The revolutions included the Amer-
William Godwin’s Caleb Williams
about the deep misogyny, fear of ican war of independence and the
and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein;
intellectualism, and xenophobia overthrow of the French monarchy,
William Blake’s “illuminated” books
inherent in the concept. We will read the first reform movements for
Songs of Innocence and of Expe-
several “witch plays,” by playwrights women and slaves, and the dra-
rience, Visions of the Daughters
such as Heywood, Jonson, Shake- matic technological and sociological
of Albion, The Marriage of Heaven
speare, and others. We will also read changes we now call the Industrial
and Hell, and America: A Prophecy;
pamphlets and broadsides, and dis- and Commercial revolutions. It
Lord Byron’s “Turkish Tales” and his
cuss their influence on the public for should come as no surprise that
verse play Manfred; Percy Shelley’s
a timely connection to mass media, the literary and art worlds were
activist lyrics and his “lyrical drama”
memes and “fake news” used to revolutionized at the same time.
Prometheus Unbound; John Keats’s
stoke fears in unsettled times. Texts Romanticism was both a mode of
narrative poems Hyperion and The
TBA; broadsides will be available via political action and a radical aes-
Fall of Hyperion; William Word-
the online English Broadside Ballad thetic experiment. Everything was
sworth’s poetic autobiography The
Archive, and several plays will be up for grabs: to whom should works
Prelude; and Wordsworth’s collabo-
available electronically. Students will of literature be addressed, and what
ration with Samuel Taylor Coleridge
write two research papers of 12-15 should they be about? How could
on the 1798 Lyrical Ballads. These
pages. they effect change in the world and
primary texts will be read against
in their readers? What should they
the background of shorter selections
* Prerequisite(s): ENGL-261 even look like?
by the leading social thinkers of the
This course will examine the time, including Mary Wollstonecraft,
relationship between social and aes-
thetic innovation. In it we will pay
Thomas Paine, and Edmund Burke.
* Prerequisite(s): ENGL-262
27Upper-Division Seminars | Spring 2022 Course Descriptions
ENGL-426 in fact, how and why both Eliot and and the macro level (the cultural
Toomer seek spiritual solutions to historical moment that helped create
Modern English Literature
geo-political pressures. the work.)
As counter example, we read another * Prerequisite(s): ENGL-262
(1890–1945) key modernist, H.D., who wrote Paint
It Today, a novel that reads like a
prose poem (written in 1921-1923,
“Modernism Revisited” published in 1992!), whose allu-
sions work with and against both
McCabe, Susan Eliot and Toomer. Her Sea Garden
TTh | 12:30-1:50pm Section: 32746 (1917) and her Notes on Thought and
Vision (1920) will offer some clues
to her particular modernism—her
very pronounced denunciation of
war and heroic masculinity, her
One hundred years ago, in 1922, the ancient spiritual text, The Upa-
love of women that were not mere
there was a publication that would nishads, we will read. He references
“women.”
hold its own in poetry probably for- Wagner’s Tristan & Isolde in his
ever: T.S. Eliot’s post-war The Waste poem’s salvaging, a multi-persona The class then closely reads three
Land, published in 1922, changes poem trying to put civilization back radically different poets who resisted
with each new generation’s reading together. It is as if the poem knew being pinned down, and how these
of it. I start with the premise that each reader needs to put the poem texts endure. How can we reread
Eliot was a brilliant poet, who suf- together even as it falls apart in the these texts in relationship to race,
fered for his art, but tried to use art process. We will read some of his gender, class, sense of history, publi-
as the repository of emotions after important essays—and deflect them cation, and their “private” lives? We
he had anchored them within a through Toomer and H.D., the other will take a long shot at 1922-1923—
larger literary and artistic context. poets of the class. and see if we can find anchors in our
In his famous poem, Eliot relies on present artistic practices and inheri-
numerous literary fragments to rec- We will examine Toomer’s 1923
tances—and making the centenary of
reate the incohesive broken world he Cane, a book than won the biracial
Eliot’s famous poem a talking-board
reckoned with after the desecrations poet fame. But it, like Eliot, works
for the present.
and loss of life in World War I. The through montage, personas, and
poem confesses to calling upon these inventive poetic forms and prose You will be required to read all texts,
fragments to “shore up [his] ruin.” poetry. It is a book that shows “ruin” to ask and research your questions,
Drawing upon multiple phrases in an inventive aesthetic that drew and to give two reports, one on each
from other works, it is a montage upon his traveling in the United poet. This will be an oral presenta-
that ends up invoking “Shanti.” We States from North to the South, find- tion. You will write two short papers,
will read this landmark poem in ing in melodies echoes of a past that and a longer one (10-12 pages) that
great detail, reading two or three key existed in their bitter-sweet anchor engages in either the very micro quo-
references that make their way into in the horrific past of slavery. We will tation level (that is finding just how
this poem. The Tempest is probably examine the struggles Toomer had powerful each poet’s allusions are)
the dominant Shakespeare play Eliot in the reception of his work—and
calls upon, and the poem’s section
“What the Thunder Said” resorts to
28You can also read
