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Ph.D. in Literature
Course Descriptions
Spring 2009
Students must get approval from the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) or the Director for all courses in which they enroll.
Minimum 9 credit hours per semester
Maximum of 15 credit hours per semester
(Language classes do not count
toward the 9 credits)
M = Monday
T = Tuesday
W = Wednesday
R = Thursday
F = Friday
TR = Tuesday & Thursday
There are more courses than this which you may sign up for—these are ones that have been pre-approved.
Spring Courses 2009
Required course: Learning the Profession
All second and third year students must take the following course each semester.
Students in other years are encouraged to take it.
Learning the Profession: Studying, researching, and
teaching literature in a time of globalization
LIT 62001
CRN: 28258 (S/U)
CRN: 28263 (Graded)
Every other Friday from 1:55 – 3:00 pm (1.5 credits)
Professors: Olivier Morel and Joe Buttigieg
Important: The course will be taught next Fall and Spring Semester
This 1.5 credit course focuses on preparing doctoral students for a scholarly career in the humanities. It pursues two goals: share experiences and practical knowledge about the field of literature and literary studies and elaborate a common thought on what literature is in today’s globalized world. With respect to the first goal, we will focus on the technical aspects of preparing for an academic profession in literature: we will share experiences and points of view on such questions as methodology, getting ready for the job market, facing challenges, and taking advantage of opportunities in the academic field; we will also review the various dimensions of the Ph.D. in Literature Program, from requirements to examination procedures. The second goal is to conduct an overall reflection on what defines literature: More than ever before, literature today circulates across national and cultural boundaries, helping reshape relations among peoples. For Edward W. Said, “Weltliteratur transcends national literatures without, at the same time, destroying their individualities.” Milan Kundera has argued for the need “to embrace the larger context of world literature.” The concept of Weltliteratur enables us to supersede national approaches, to examine new relations between Europe and the globe, between antiquity and modernity, between mass culture and elite productions, as David Damrosch explains it. The various forms of displacement that characterize literature today form the basis for continuing theoretical approaches, from “Global literature” (Jameson) to “cosmopolitanism” (Robbins, Brennan, Appiah) to “transnationalism” (Spivak) and the “postcolonial sphere” (Said, Bhabha, Lionnet).
Practicum: Teaching Writing (This course must be taking if you wish to teach FYC)
ENGL 92001
CRN: 21559
John Duffy
F 12:30-2:30
English 92001 prepares graduates students to teach First-Year Composition (FYC) within the argument-centered, civically minded framework supported by the missions of the University Writing Program and the University of Notre Dame. It also introduces graduate students to the contemporary rhetoric and composition theories that support informed writing pedagogy. In sum, English 92001 gives graduate students the knowledge necessary to successfully plan, create, and teach a college-level writing course. It also gives you a theoretically grounded vocabulary with which to discuss and reflect on your teaching, and a pedagogical base you might apply to any course you develop in English studies. In addition to engaging in readings on rhetoric and composition theory and pedagogy, graduate students complete a series of assignments, including a polished preliminary draft of your FYC syllabus, a course theme statement, and a course schedule of activities. You will also observe FYC faculty currently teaching in our Program, and report your observations in an oral presentation.
Introduction to Literary Criticism
LIT 73686
CRN: 28600
Boyer
TR 2:00-3:15
An introduction to twentieth-century literary theory, concentrating on structuralism, post-structuralism, and cultural criticism. We will examine the work of critics such as Ferdinand de Saussure, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Paul de Man, Stuart Hall, Jacques Lacan, and Gayatri Spivak, and Slavoj Zizek, among others.
CLASSICS
Constantine and Julian
LIT 73000
CRN: 28545
Keith Bradley
TR 5:00-6:15
This advanced seminar in ancient history and literature examines the lives and reigns of the fourth-century Roman emperors Constantine and Julian. Constantine was a pivotal figure in world history, the founder of a new dynasty of rulers in a centuries-old empire facing many challenges, and the first Roman emperor to embrace and promote Christianity. His rule changed the complexion of the ancient world. His descendant Julian reigned only for a short time, but he is remembered above all for the concerted effort he made to return Rome to its traditional religious orientation. He failed in his attempt, in part because of his premature death, but as the last pagan emperor of Rome he remains a figure of almost mythological status. The course investigates the principal features of the history of these two rulers, political, military, socio-economic and religious. A principal theme is the question of how historical experience can be recovered. Readings from original sources (in English translation) are studied in conjunction with documentary and iconographic evidence. The course also considers how modern historians, biographers and novelists have recreated these compelling figures.
Classical Greek Tragedy
LIT 73001
CRN: 28530
Isabelle Torrance
MWF 1:55-2:45
This advanced course in literature provides detailed study of the theory and practice of classical Greek tragedy. The structures and sensibilities that inform tragedy are assessed, with special attention to plays written by the three great tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The Greeks’ own responses to tragedy, as represented by Aristophanes, Plato, and Aristotle, are also discussed. The form and function of Greek tragic plays, their place in classical culture, and their distinctive approach to issues of human life are key topics of the course.
Sententia et Sapientia: Latin Wisdom Literature and its Reception
LIT 73002
CRN: 28619
Martin Bloomer
M 4:05-6:35
Latin literature provided an authoritative source of wisdom from antiquity through the middle ages and the early modern era. Commentators sought to explain, amplify, abbreviate, correct, Christianize, and bowdlerize what was for them an authoritative account of the conduct of life and the forms of communication. This course introduces students to this literary culture. Students will learn how these texts were copied and commented upon. Students will be introduced to and and practice bibliographic and paleographical research methods as well as literary criticism and history. Thanks to the support of the Delmas Foundation and the graduate school, during March break, seminar members may conduct research, under the guidance of the instructor, at the Herzog-August-Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. This seminar is intended as a workshop in research methods during which students will learn how to design, prepare, and complete a research project involving manuscript evidence. Some experience with Latin paleography is desirable but not required. Competence in Latin or a basic knowledge of Latin and competence in a Medieval or early modern vernacular language are required.
Ovid
LIT 73003
CRN: 28594
M. Bloomer
MW 1:30-2:45
(Recommended for students with advanced Latin skills)
This advanced course provides an introduction to the poetry of the prolific author Ovid. It explores the creative history of the one writer who can truly be called a poet of the Augustan age through close reading of passages from his love poetry (the Amores and the Ars Amatoria, a handbook on seduction), his great mythological poem, the Metamorphoses, and the poems written after Ovid was exiled by Augustus to a remote spot on the shores of the Black Sea (the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto). Special attention is paid to the contexts in which Ovid composed his works, and current and traditional interpretations of his poetry are considered.
Greek Christian Hymnody
LIT 73004
CRN: 28580
Professor Daniel Sheerin
Fridays 9:30 – 12:00
In this course students will examine Christian hymnody from its antecedents in Hellenic and Semitic hymn forms—e.g., Homeric Hymns, psalms and canticles from the Septuagint—to the emergence of later hymnodic genres, such as the mature troparion, kontakion, and canon. Students should have a sound reading knowledge of Greek (at least four semesters), an acquaintance with Scripture, and a basic knowledge of theology.
Thucydides
LIT 73005
CRN: 28568
C. Baron
TR 3:30-4:45
(Recommended for students with advanced Greek skills)
This advanced course introduces students to the historical writing of Thucydides through close reading and detailed study of the History of the Peloponnesian War. Often considered the most accurate and methodical of the ancient historians, Thucydides brought to Greek history-writing a high level of precision in both language and analysis. His uniquely candid accounts of the history, politics, and social effects of the great war between Athens and Sparta, and the connection between content and literary style are key themes for discussion in the course.
Anselm and His Biographer
CLLA 60129
Professor Stephen Gersh
TR 11:00-12:15
The course will have two aims: 1) to introduce the philosophical work of Anselm of Canterbury, and investigate some of its sources and influences during the Middle Ages, and 2) to pursue Latin readings of works by Anselm of Canterbury himself, and of works by other medieval writers about Anselm (including especially the Vita Anselmi of Eadmer). A knowledge of basic classical Latin will be required.
Medieval Latin Survey
LIT 73629
CRN: 25759
Professor Hildegund Müller
MW 11:45-1:00
The aim of this course is to experience a broad spectrum of Medieval Latin texts. Readings representative of a variety of genres (literary and subliterary), eras, and regions will be selected. Students planning to enroll in this course should be completing Introduction to Christian Latin Texts or they must secure the permission of the instructor. Those with interests in particular text types should inform the instructor well in advance so that he can try to accommodate their interests.
ENGLISH
Old English Biblical Verse
LIT 73663
CRN: 73663
Tom Hall
TR 3:30-4:45
The Anglo-Saxons were the earliest people in western Europe to translate the Bible into their vernacular, and a substantial proportion of surviving Old English Verse consists in biblical translation and paraphrase. The principal focus of the course will be the biblical poems preserved in the so-called 'Junius Manuscript' (Genesis A, Genesis B, Exodus, Daniel), but these and other relevant poems will be studied in the wider context of early medieval biblical exegesis, in particular the contribution made to biblical interpretation by Anglo-Saxon exegetes such as Archbishop Theodore, Bede, Alcuin and Ælfric. Candidates for the course must already have completed English 40212 (Introduction to Old English).
Issues in Contemporary Poetics: Trans-/Multi-/Inter-
LIT 73694
CRN: 28758
Joyelle McSweeney
TR 2:00-3:15
In this course we'll approach modern and contemporary poetics in all its multiplicity, focusing on multigenred, multilingual, multimedia, and translated works, as well as works which undermine conventional 'literary' textuality through performativity, disability, obscenity, materiality, invisibility, and other modalities. Texts will include prose, drama, lyric and critical writings by modern and contemporary global authors such as Kim Hyesoon, Amiri Baraka, Laura Solórzano, Jean Genet, Wole Soyinka, Ariana Reinas, Aase Berg, Lennard Davis, Deleuze and Guattari, Theresa Cha, Don Mee Choi, Antonin Artaud, Harryette Mullen, Heiner Müller, Ishmael Reed, Kathy Acker and Bylex Puma. Media under study will also include video, film, visual and sound art, performance and hypermedia.
Postcolonial Theory
LIT 73693
CRN: 28759
Mary Burgess Smyth
MW 3:00-4:15
This course will survey and critique the main developments, debates and trends
within anticolonial discourse, and post-colonial theory. We will read earlier works by Cesaire, Fanon and Memmi, among others, and will trace later intellectual and theoretical threads in the field in the works of Said, Spivak and Babha. We will begin with Leela Gandhi's Post-Colonial Theory: A Critical Introduction, and will then focus our attention on the major works of the above-mentioned theorists, as well as others.
A strong element to this seminar will be the use, or practice, of post-colonial
theory in literary criticism. As such, we will be reading a number of 20th-century post-colonial novels alongside our theoretical materials. A research paper and regular presentations on our readings, will constitute the written requirements of the course.
Postmodern Narrative
LIT 73692
CRN: 28478
Jim Collins
MW 1:30-2:45
In this course we will begin by focusing on the emergence of postmodernism in the sixties and then trace its evolution through the nineties. Initially, our primary concern will be the conflicted conceptualization of the term, i.e. just what did postmodern mean in terms of a narrative practice and in terms of a "cultural condition". Once we have established some operating definitions, and become familiar with some of the narratives that were first called postmodern (Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49, Scott's Blade Runner, etc.) we will begin to discuss the novels and films which became synonymous with postmodern textuality in the eighties (Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Barnes' A History of the World in 101/2 Chapters, Winterson's Sexing the Cherry, Auster's Moon Palace. etc.) In the last third of the course we will turn to more recent narratives which expand our understanding of the term, particularly in regard to the increasingly complicated relationships between literary, film and television cultures (Ondaatje's The English Patient, Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Wallace's The Girl With Curious Hair, Amis' The Information). In addition to these titles there will be a substantial course packet that will include relevant theoretical material.
Milton
LIT 73806
CRN: 28760
Steve Fallon
TR 3:30-4:45
John Milton is a paradoxical figure: a theological writer constantly at odds with religious establishments, a republican political theorist finally mistrustful of the people, an advocate of both patriarchalist and egalitarian understandings of gender, a celebrant of virginity who matured into one of the great singers of erotic love and sexuality. History has treated Milton paradoxically as well. A radical figure, pushed to the margins in his own time, he has come to be seen by many as the voice of establishment authority. In this course we will study the length and breadth of Milton's career, looking for keys to these paradoxes.
Perhaps more than any other English author, Milton is present in his works; we will pay close attention his self-representations. We will test the possibility that the dissonances in the early self-representations bear fruit in the creative tensions of the mature poetry. We will pay attention to the high level of control Milton exerts over his texts and his readers, and at the same time we will explore what happens when that control slips. Above all, we will also work toward an appreciation of Milton's aesthetic achievements.
We will read widely in Milton's poetry, with special emphasis on the "Nativity Ode," A Mask, "Lycidas," Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. We will study also several of his prose works (e.g., The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, Areopagitica, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, and The Readie and Easie Way). While our focus will be on Milton's texts, we will explore some of the central debates of Milton criticism. Students will complete a series of assignments (bibliography, prospectus, etc.) leading up to completion of a substantial research
essay.
Censorship and Controversy in Middle English Texts
LIT 73695
CRN: 28766
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton
M 3:00-5:00
Fourteenth-century writers operated in a world fraught with political and ecclesiastical controversy, sometimes extending to censorship, yet at the same time, evidence survives of a surprising degree of tolerance for certain radical ideas. This course will examine how the major writers of late medieval England simultaneously negotiated these troubled waters, and earned or exploited tolerances extended by the authorities. English authors to be studied will include Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, Thomas Hoccleve, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and M.N.'s Middle English translation of Marguerite Porete. These texts will be read alongside excerpts from several Latin or Continental writers, which may include Hildegard of Bingen, Joachim of Fiore, Bridget of Sweden, William Ockham, or others, and alongside some anonymous English texts, including political lyrics, Richard the Redeless, Mum and the Sothsegger and Wycliffite writings. Examples from articles of inquisition, statutes, legal defenses, petitions and broadsides may also be used. The aim is to help illuminate how literary writers sought to defend or enlarge their religious or political orthodoxies in response to the challenges of the time. The course will also examine and question modern scholarly trends, especially the recent tendency to use the Wycliffite movement as a popular cultural and theoretical lens through which to understand the phenomenal rise of vernacular literature in Ricardian England. Topics to be discussed will include: reception of visionary writing, attitudes toward women's learning and preaching, controversial religious doctrines (like universal salvation, millenarianism, and intellectual freedom), and political controversies over the Commons' control of royal tyranny, the Rising of 1381, the deposition of Richard II, and the colonial suppression of Irish language and literary culture.
Texts:
The Riverside Chaucer, ed. Larry Benson (or any original language edition); William Langland, Piers Plowman: An New Annotated Edition of the C-text, ed. Derek Pearsall (University of Exeter, 2008): The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. Lynn Staley (Medieval Institute Publications, 1996) - also available on-line; Anne Hudson, Selections from English Wycliffite Writings (Cambridge; repr. U. of Toronto); Women's Writing in Middle English, ed. A. Barratt (Longman's); The Piers Plowman Tradition, ed. Helen Barr (Everyman, 1993)
Optional Texts:
William Langland's Piers Plowman: The C Version, trans. G. Economou (U. of Penn. Press); Medieval English Political Writings, ed. James Dean (Med. Institute Publications) - also available online; Bernard McGinn, Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages (Columbia University Press, second ed., 1998).
Assignments:
One essay-30% (approx. 2500 words)
One seminar-30% (approx. 1500 -2000 words in written form; 10-15 min. orally)
Note: these may be combined to make an essay of about 3500 -4500 words
One review-20% (consists of a preliminary draft for class, emphasizing a summary, no longer than one side of one page, later expanded to a max. of 750-1000 words)
Two workshop assignments-10% x 2 (submitted as handouts for the class, each approx. one side of one page).
Note: a workshop handout can be done as a group project
FRENCH
King Arthur in European Literature
LIT 73699
CRN: 28606
Boulton
MW 1:30 PM-2:45 PM
We will read representative works chosen from the major medieval European literary traditions, including, for example Latin (Geoffrey of Monmouth), English (Lawman, Malory), French (Chrénien de Troyes, the Vulgate Cycle), Spanish (La Tragèdia de Lançalot, Tristán), German (Hartmann von Aue, Gottfried von Strassburg), and Italian (La Tavola Ritonda, Tristan Panciatichiano).
Theater Psychoanalysis
LIT 73687
CRN: 28612
MacKenzie
R 3:30-6:00
In this seminar we will be looking at works by the "holy trinity" of French classical theater (Corneille, Racine and Moliere) through the lens of psychoanalysis theory and thought. Our truck will be with the texts as expressions of issues dear to psychoanalysis, not with the psychography of the authors. Plays will include, but may not be limited to "Le Cid," "Horace," "Andromaque," "Britannicus," "Phèdre," "L'Ecole des femmes," "Tartuffe," "Le Bourgeois gentilhomme." In French or English depending on student preference.
French Literature of the Fin de siècle and the Belle Époque: Decadence, Nihilism, and Renewal
LIT 73688
CRN: 28640
Perry
T 3:30-06:15
Following a period of pessimism accompanied by a cult of artificiality during the literary periods known as Decadence and Symbolism, French literature in the early 20th century witnesses a renewal of creative vitality, particularly with writers impressed by the philosophies of Nietzsche and Bergson. In this course we will examine works of prose and poetry by Baudelaire, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Huysmans, Mallarmé, Rachilde, Barrès, Gide, Proust, Valéry, Noailles, and Colette. We will also study from a theoretically informed perspective the themes and techniques of these authors in relation to the artistic, intellectual, and political background of France at the turn of the century.
GERMAN
Hermeneutics and Literary Theory
GE 90920
Carsten Dutt
TR 3:30-4:45 2/15-4/19 (64 days)
What makes an interpretation of a literary text valid? The reconstruction of what the author meant by his text, intentionalists say. But does one understand enough if one just goes back to what the author had in mind, some anti-intentionalists ask. Both intentionalists and anti-intentionalists claim to derive their respective hermeneutic norms from insights into the nature of textual meaning in general and literary semantics in particular. This seminar will focus on the relationship between the theory and methodology of interpretation and literary theory. We will analyze major contributions by, among others, Hans-Georg Gadamer, E.D. Hirsch, Paul Ricœur, Frank Kermode, Umberto Eco, and Richard Rorty.
Note: Readings in English and German, discussions in English.
IRISH
Towards a World Literature: Irish Literature from Romanticism to Modernism
LIT 73697
CRN: 28768
Luke Gibbons
W 6:00-8:30
This course will examine the process whereby Irish literature in the nineteenth and early twentieth century charted a path from the 'national tale' of romantic fiction to the 'world literature' of both the Literary Revival (associated primarily with W.B. Yeats and J.M. Synge) and the experimental modernism of Joyce. Ireland's ambivalent location as a 'colony within' will be examined with a view to discussing the uneven integration of Irish culture and society into the modern world system. The relationship of Irish romanticism, Gothic literature, poetry and drama to 'proto' modernities will be discussed, i.e. peripheral or vernacular modernisms traveling from the outskirts to the centre rather than the other way around. Particular emphasis will be placed on the relation of Joyce's modernism to the politics of location in an early twentieth-century Ireland on the verge of revolt. The seminar will end by relating these issues to current debates on globalization and Irish culture, as it effects literature, cinema and multi-culturalism in contemporary Ireland
The Feminine in Irish Literary and oral-vernacular tradition
LIT 73698
CRN: 28463
new staff
TR 2:00-3:15
This course addresses issues concerning the representation of the feminine in Irish literary and oral-vernacular tradition. It treats of the historical displacement and re-interpretation of the figure of the autonomous 'otherworld' female in literature and oral narrative. In particular it examines a series of texts from pre-modern oral narrative tradition featuring the figures of 'cailleach'/hag and 'bean feasa'/wise woman with a view to understanding their significance for the 'native' ear. The potential significance of such texts as therapeutic resources for the modern reader is also considered.
ITALIAN
Dante II
LIT 73665
CRN: 22972
Christian Moevs
T/R 12:30–1:45
Dante's Comedy is one of the supreme poetic achievements in Western literature. It is a probing synthesis of the entire Western cultural and philosophical tradition that produced it, a radical experiment in poetics and poetic technique, and a profound exploration of Christian spirituality. Dante I and II are a close study, over two semesters, of the entire Comedy, in its cultural (historical, literary, artistic, philosophical) context. Dante I covers the works that precede the Comedy (Vita Nuova, Convivio, De vulgari eloquentia) and the Inferno, Dante II covers the Purgatorio and Paradiso, along with the Monarchia. These are separate courses, and can be taken independently, though they do form an integrated sequence. The course and all discussion will be conducted in English. Dante's minor works will be read in English translation; all critical articles will be in English. The Comedy will be read in facing-page translation, and we will refer to it in Italian. Acquaintance with Latin or a Romance language is therefore helpful, though not strictly necessary.
Petrarchism in Print
LIT 73689
CEN: 26653
DellaNeva
W 3:00-5:45
This course will examine the phenomenon of Italian and (to a lesser extent) European Petrarchism (as well as anti-Petrarchism) as it relates to print culture. Extensive use will be made of holdings in Special Collections, where some class time will be spent each week. A reading knowledge of Italian is essential.
Modern Italian Novel
LIT 73863
CRN: 28656
Welle
T 3:30-6:00
Italy from the early nineteenth to the mid - twentieth century. Canonical novels as well as some “best sellers” are analyzed in their historical contexts. Themes to be dealt with include: the epistolary novel, the historical novel, the questione della lingua, verismo, the publishing industry and Italian reading public(s); the “romanzo d’appendice;” women writers and new readerships; the novel of social commentary; modernism and the avantgarde; subjectivity and self-reflexivity; European currents and Italian literature under fascism. Authors to be studied will include some mixture of the following: Foscolo. Manzoni, De Amicis, Collodi, Verga, Invernizio, Salgari, D’Annunzio, Pirandello, Aleramo, Palazzeschi, Vivanti, Svevo, Tozzi, and Moravia. Requirements include extensive reading, active participation in the seminar, a number of oral reports and presentations, a research paper.
SPANISH
Spanish American Poetry
LIT 73842
CRN: 28668
Heller
R 12:45-3:15
This course is an in-depth exploration of major Spanish-American poets of the 20th Century, from the avant-garde movement through to the present. We will read selected poems of Huidobro, Neruda, Vallejo, Lezama Lima, Paz, Cardenal, Pacheco, Pizarnik, Morejón, Zurita and others, with particular attention to theories of poetry (poetics) and the historical contexts of the works. We will also read select critical/theoretical texts that will help us develop approaches to the poems. Grades to be determined by participation, a midterm, reaction papers, and final paper.
Hispanic Baroques
LIT 73690
CRN: 28669
Vitulli
F 1:30-4:00
The course will explore the development of baroque culture in the Hispanic world (XVII century) focusing on the cultural relationship between the literature produced in the Iberian Peninsula and in the New World. The class will investigate baroque literature and its relation to the imperial Spanish cultural context, focusing on the constant interplay between the Spanish baroque and its appropriation and re-elaboration in colonial Latin America.
Philosophy & Theology courses must be approved by Professor Buttigieg
Please note: this listing of courses may change
for various reasons.
Courses will be scheduled on the following days:
M = Monday
T = Tuesday
W = Wednesday
R = Thursday
F = Friday
MW = Monday & Wednesday
TR = Tuesday & Thursday
Fall 2002 Courses
Spring 2003 Courses
Fall 2003 Courses
Spring 2004 Courses
Fall 2004 Courses
Spring 2005 Courses
Fall 2005 Courses
Spring 2006 Courses
Fall 2006 Courses
Spring 2007 Courses
Fall 2007 Courses
Spring 2008 Courses
Fall 2008 Courses
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