Course Listings for Fall 2004

For updated information see http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/
More information on many courses available at courseworks.columbia.edu

Introductory

1201x. First-Year English: Reinventing Literary History
[For more information see course web site or library research guide]
Close examination of texts and regular writing assignments in composition, designed to help students read critically and write effectively. Sections of the course are grouped in three clusters: I. Legacy of the Mediterranean; II. The Americas; III. Women and Culture. The first cluster features a curriculum of classic texts representing key intellectual moments that have shaped Western culture, as well as excursions to the opera, the theatre, and museums. Offering revisionist responses to the constraints of canonicity, the last two clusters feature curricula that explore the literary history of the Americas and the role of women in culture.—Director and Staff. 3 pts .

1202x. Studies in Writing
Intensive practice in writing, emphasizing drafts, revision, peer response, and individual conferences. Consideration of the conventions of English style, usage, and grammar by means of both informal and formal writing, culminating in expository essays. Recommended for (but not limited to) first-year students and students whose first language is not English. Permission of the instructor required.—Director and Staff.  3pts.  Sec 1. T Th 9:10-10:25; Sec. 2 M W 2:40-3:55;  Sec. 3 T Th 4:10-5:25.  Consult department bulletin board for section times.

Writing

3101x. The Writer's Process: A Seminar in the Teaching of Writing
An exploration of theory and practice in the teaching of writing, designed for students who plan to become Writing Fellows at Barnard. Students will read current theory and consider current research in the writing process, and engage in practical applications in the classroom or in tutoring. 3 pts. 
Application process and permission of the instructor. 

3103x.  Essay Writing
English composition above the first-year level.  Techniques of argument and effective expression. Weekly papers. Individual conferences.  Some sections have a special focus, as described.  Section 3 is offered Autumn semester for students whose first language is not English and who seek an upper-level writing course. 3 pts.

CREATIVE WRITING:   Registration in each course is limited and permission of the instructor required; for courses 3105-3118, submit a writing sample in advance.  File signed departmental registration blanks with the Director of Creative Writing, T. Szell (423 Barnard).  Two creative writing courses may not be taken concurrently.

3105x. Fiction and Personal Narrative
Short stories and other imaginative and personal writing.—T. Szell.  3 pts.  W 2:10-4.

3107x. Introduction to Fiction Writing
Practice in writing short stories and autobiographical narrative, with discussion and close analysis in a workshop setting.—N. Piore.  3 pts.  Th 4:10-6.

3110x. Introduction to Poetry Writing
Varied assignments designed to confront the difficulties and explore the resources of language through imitation, allusion, free association, revision, and other techniques.—S. Hamilton.  3 pts.  M 4:10-6. 

3113x. Introduction to Playwriting
A workshop to provoke and investigate dramatic writing.—E. McLaughlin.  3 pts.  M 4:10-6.

3115x. Story Writing
Advanced work in writing, with emphasis on the short story.  Prerequisite: Some experience in the writing of fiction. —M. Gordon.  3 pts.  Conference hours to be arranged.  T 4:10-6.

3117x. Fiction Writing
Assignments designed to examine form and structure in fiction. Some attention given to the role of the writer in society.—R. Antoni. 3 pts. T 4:10-6.
Students will have already written a substantial body of work.  Prerequisite: Writing sample and interview with the instructor.

You may not apply for more than one writing course at a time or enroll in two creative writing courses simultaneously.  Since screenwriting is considered part of the Film Concentration, you may apply to screenwriting in addition to either a poetry or prose course.  However, you are strongly advised to take only one writing class in any given semester.

3119x. Screenwriting.
A practical workshop in dramatic writing for the screen. Through a series of creative writing exercises, script analysis, and scene work, students explore and develop the basic principles of screenwriting. Either a polished short film script or a preliminary draft of a feature screenplay is the final project. (Preference given to students concentrating in film. Does not count as a course for those concentrating in writing.)—David McKenna.  3 pts.  W 2:10-4

3200x. Film Production.
An exploration of basic narrative tools at the filmmaker's disposal, with a particular emphasis on camera work and editing.  Examines basic cinematic syntax that provides a foundation for storytelling on the screen.—L. Engel.  3 pts. M 1-4.
Prerequisite: ENGL BC 3201 and permission of the instructor.  Sophomore standing.  ENROLLMENT LIMITED TO 12 STUDENTS.  Students must send a one-page application to the instructor via e-mail (lbe1@Columbia.edu) explaining why the student wishes to take the course, the foundation work (whether academic or work-related) in film, video, the arts, etc. the student has had, and any final project the student may have in mind.

3201x. Introduction to Film and Film Theory.
A survey of the history of American and international film and an introduction to film theory, including feminist, psychoanalytic, structuralist, and post-structuralist methodologies. Film contextualized through theory and through the lens of popular culture (advertising, television, music videos) and genre (the Hollywood film, women’s film, action movies, westerns, sci-fi, documentary, “Third World,” and “alternative” film, etc.) Weekly screening.—M. Regan.  3 pts. M 6:10-10.

[Re Film: New at Columbia this semester: CLEN W 3390x. Studies in Narrative - The Road Movie. see below]

Speech

Registration in each course is limited and permission of the department required.

3121x. Uses of Speech
An introduction to effective oral presentation, including interviewing and public speaking. Emphasis on self-presentation, research, organization, and audience analysis. 3 pts.—P. Denison. T Th 10:35-11:50.

Theatre

Registration in each course is limited. Students may sign up for Theatre courses outside the Theatre office, Room 507 Milbank Hall. See Theatre Department course descriptions for Theatre History (THTR 3150, 3151), Drama, Theatre, and Theory (THTR 3166), Modernism and Theatre (THTR 3737), and The History Play (THTR BC 3750).

[For information about studio courses in theatre, go to the Theatre office, 5th floor Milbank.]

Language and Literature

3140x. Seminars on Special Themes. 3 pts. Registration may be limited. Sign up on bulletin boards across from the English Department office, 417 Barnard Hall.

1. Explorations of Black Literature: 1760-1890.
Poetry, prose, fiction, and nonfiction, with special attention to the slave narrative. Includes Wheatley, Douglass, and Jacobs, but emphasis will be on less familiar writers such as Brown, Harper, Walker, Wilson, and Forten. Works by some 18th century precursors will also be considered. —Q. Prettyman. M W 11:00-12:15.

2. Fable and Fantasy.
Selected works by 19th- and 20th-century authors Lewis Carroll, Ursula LeGuin, C.S. Lewis, and others.  Their use of religious and philosophical fable, nonsense, and paradox; their creation of other worlds.—A. Prescott. T Th 11-12:15.

3. The Eighteenth Century Novel.
The eighteenth century in Britain is the age of the rise of the novel.  The course pays special attention to the development of the novel form, oppositions between city and the country, social order, and the construction of gender.  Authors include Burney, Defoe, Edgeworth, Fielding, Goldsmith, and Richardson.—G. Gerzina. T Th 10:35-11:50.

3141x. Major English Texts
A chronological view of the variety of English literature through study of selected writers and their works. Autumn: Beowulf through Johnson. Spring: Romantic poets through the present. Guest lectures by members of the department. —P. Ellsberg. 3 pts. T Th 10:35-11:50

3158x. Medieval Literature
Literatures of the British Isles and their continental connections, from late antiquity to the close of the Middle Ages. Emphasis on issues of cultural transformation, authorship and textuality, and "identity" (individual, social, cultural).—E. Weinstock. 3 pts. T Th 1:10-2:25.

3159x. The English Colloquium
Major writers and literary works of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, examined in terms of leading ideas in those periods. Required of majors in the junior year. 4 pts.

Students may substitute 3 courses—from ENGL 3163-3164, 3165-3169, ENGL 3173-3174, and 3179, or ENTH 3136-3137. This year 3140x: 3, The Eighteenth Century Novel will also count as a substitution. Students may also take 1 colloquium and 2 substitutions. At least one substituted course must cover material before 1660 (i.e. Renaissance) and one material after 1660 but before 1800 (i.e., Restoration or 18th Century). One of these substituted courses will also count toward satisfying the "before 1900" requirement.

I. Imitation and Creation
New ideas of the mind's relation to the world. New perspectives, the emergence of new forms, experimentation with old forms, and the search for an appropriate style.
x: R. Hamilton. W 11-12:50. 

II. Skepticism and Affirmation
The development of modern concepts of subjectivity and authority. The rise of art and the artist. Humanism and education. Rationalism and empiricism. The tension between belief and doubt. The exploration of the limits and the limitless.
x: P. Platt. W 2:10-4.

III. Reason and Imagination [fall syllabus] [spring syllabus]
Humanism, reformation, and revolution: the possibilities of human knowledge; sources of and strategies for secular and spiritual authority; the competing demands of idealism and experience.
x: C. Plotkin. T 4:10-6.

IV. Order and Disorder
The tension, conflicts, and upheavals of an era in the arts, religion, politics, aesthetics, and society.—A. Guibbory
x: W 4:10-6:00.

3163x. Shakespeare I
A critical and historical introduction to Shakespeare's comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances. 3 pts. —P. Platt. M W 9:10-10:25.

3167x. Milton
Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes and selections of Milton’s earlier poetry and prose (defenses of free press, divorce, individual conscience, political and religious liberty) read within the context of religious, political, and cultural history, but with a sense of connection to present issues.—A. Guibbory. 3 pts. T Th 11:00-12:15.

3179x. American Literature to 1800 [web site]
The formation and development of American literary traditions. Writers include Bradford, Shepard, Cotton, Bradstreet, Taylor, Rowlandson, Edwards, Wheatley, Franklin, Woolman, Brown. 3 pts. Not offered in 2004-05.

3180x. American Literature, 1800-1870.
The development of a national literature from the late Republican period through the Civil War. Writers include Irving, Emerson, Poe, Fuller, Thoreau, Douglass, Stowe, Jacobs, Whitman, Dickinson.—M. Vandenburg. 3 pts. T Th 4:10-5:25.

3181x. American Literature, 1871-1945 [library research guide]
American literature in the context of cultural and historical change. Writers include Twain, James, Du Bois, Wharton, Cather, Wister, Faulkner, Hurston.—J. Kassanoff. 3 pts. T Th 10:35-11:50.

3183x. American Literature since 1945
History, memory, family, death, machines, sex and worry are preoccupations of the texts selected for this course. Authors will include: Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Paula Fox, Jonathan Franzen, Toni Morrison, Richard Powers, Ishmael Reed and Phillip Roth. —M. Spiegel. 3 pts. T Th 5:40-6:55.

3184x. House and Home in American Culture [web site]
An interdisciplinary examination of house, home, and family in American life from 1850 to the present. Attention to the interrelation between architectural design, ideologies of family, class identity, racial politics and gender formation.  Historical sites include the plantation, the nomadic dwelling, the mansion, the tenement, the apartment, and the suburb.—J . Kassanoff. 3 points. T Th 2:40-3:55.

3189. Postmodern Literature
Writers since 1945, mostly English and American, and concepts of postmodern culture. Works by Beckett, Borges, Nabokov, Rhys, Barthelme, Pynchon, and others. 3pts—Not offered in 2004-05.

3190x Global Literature in English.
A selective survey of fiction from the ex-colonies, focusing on the colonial encounter, cultural and political decolonization, and belonging and migration in the age of postcolonial imperialism.  Areas covered include Africa (Achebe, Aidoo, Armah, Ngugi); The Arab World (Mahfouz, Munif, Salih, Souief); South Asia (Mistry, Rushdie, Suleri); the Caribbean (Kincaid); and New Zealand (Hulme). 3pts.—B. Abu-Manneh. T Th 2:40-3:55.

3191x. The English Conference  
Enrollment limited: sign up in the Department office.
Special topics presented by visiting scholars in courses that will meet for two to four weeks during each semester. To be taken only for pass/fail. 1 point. To receive credit for this course students must attend all lectures. Information will be available online.

The fall, 2004 Conference will be given by Russell Grigg, Professor of philosophy and psychoanalytic studies at Deakin University, Australia will be giving the course during the weeks of Oct. 4th and Oct. 15th (exact dates TBA). Professor Grigg is a member of the Ecole de la Cause Freudienne and the Australian Centre for Psychoanalysis.  He has translated Lacan's Seminar III: The Psychoses (Routledge, 1993) and Seminar XVII: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2005) and is the author of numerous articles on Lacan and philosophy.

Writing Madness Psychoanalysis will provide the framework for exploring the function of writing for psychotics and the relationship of psychotics to writing. Authors discussed will include Schreber and Joyce, Plath and Frame. Aspects of Aimée, treated by Lacan, and the Papin sisters, discussed by Genet, will be examined if time permits.  M W for two weeks: Oct 4, 6th, 11, and 13th, in 409 Barnard Hall.  Students can add this course until Oct. 6th, which is past the normal Sept. 17th deadline.

3193x. Critical Writing [sample web site]
The purpose of the course is to provide experience in the reading and analysis of texts and some knowledge of conspicuous works of literary criticism. Frequent short papers. Required of all majors before the end of the junior year. Sophomores are encouraged to take it in the Spring Term even before officially declaring their major. Transfer students should plan to take it in the Autumn Term. Registration in each section is limited. Please sign up on the bulletin board between rooms 403 and 405 Barnard Hall.—Members of the Department. 4 pts.

3195x. Modernism
Modernist responses to cultural fragmentation and gender anxiety in the wake of psychoanalysis and world war. Works by Woolf, Joyce, Yeats, Eliot, Stein, Hemingway, H.D., Pound, Lawrence, Barnes, and other Anglo-American writers.—M. Vandenburg. 3 pts. T Th 1:10-2:25.

3198x. Poetry Movements since the 1950’s
Major poetry movements since the 1950’s, including Beat Poetry, Confessional Poetry, the Black Arts Movement, Black Mountain, the Belfast group, and Language Poetry.—S. Hamilton. 3 pts.  MW 1:10-2:25.

3996x. Special Project in Theatre,  Writing, or Critical Interpretation.
Senior majors who are concentrating in Theatre or Writing and have completed two courses in writing or three in theatre will normally take the Special Project in Theatre or Writing (3996x, y) in combination with another course in their special field. This counts in place of one of the Senior Seminars. In certain cases, Independent Study (3999) may be substituted for the Special Project. Permission of the instructor and the chair required.  In rare cases, with the permission of the chair, a special project in conjunction with a course may be taken by other English majors.  Click here for the form to complete.  1 point.

3997x. Senior Seminars: Studies in Literature
Required of all majors, these seminars are designed to deepen knowledge of periods, writers, works, genres, and theories through readings, discussion, oral reports, and at least one significant research paper. Written permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to seniors. 4 pts.

1. Violent Thought
Violent thought from Reformation to Romanticism. How does thought reflect and respond to cultural violence? We will pose this question, and consider answers, reading literature, philosophy, theology, and law. Authors include Montaigne, Shakespeare, Descartes, Bacon, Locke, and Wordsworth.—R. Hamilton. W 2:10-4.

2. Body and Language [syllabus] [library research guide]
Interpretations of the female body and feminine sexuality in relation to issues of pleasure, love, death, and the unconscious in various postmodern literary and theoretical (mainly Lacanian) texts.—M. Jaanus. Th 6:10-8.

3. The Literature of the Middle Passage [web site]
The course will look at the literature that has been produced as a result of the Atlantic Slave Trade. This includes writing from Africa, Britain, and the Americas which reflects the huge changes in history that have occurred as a result of this process of involuntary migration out of Africa. We will study literary texts by Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Du Bois, Conrad, Equiano, and Baldwin, among others.—C. Phillips. T 11:00-12:50.
The application process for acceptance into this class is now closed.  It is anticipated that the costs for the travel to Ghana section for the the seminar will be fully funded by the college.

4. Slavery: A Woman's Experience
Slavery as experienced in the 19th century and as recreated by later authors. Autobiography, prose, fiction, and poetry. Writers include Jacobs, Harper, Kemble, Chestnut, Chesnutt, Cable, Twain, Stowe, Mitchell, Gaines, Morrison.—Q. Prettyman. M 2:10-4.

5. Victorian Poets
Victorian Poets: The Poetics of Loss and Recovery. The focus will be on poems by Tennyson, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Gerard Manley Hopkins, with additional poems by George Meredith, Christina Rossetti, and Matthew Arnold.—A. Prescott. W 4:10-6.

6. Renaissance Love Poetry, Erotic and Devotional
Exploring the 17th-century categories (and relations between) sacred and profane, erotic/sexual and spiritual, and the role of gender, we’ll read Donne’s Songs and Sonnets, Anniversaries, and religious lyrics; Aemelia Lanyer’s Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, and George Herbert’s The Temple.—A. Guibbory. T 4:10-6.

3999x. Independent Study
Senior majors who wish to substitute Independent Study for one of the two required senior seminars should consult the chair. Permission is given rarely and only to students who present a clear and well-defined topic of study, who have a Department sponsor, and who submit their proposals well in advance of the semester in which they will register. There is no independent study for screenwriting or film production. Permission of the Instructor and Department Chair is required. Click here for the form to complete.  4 pts.

Available with Columbia:

CLEN W 3390x. Studies in Narrative - The Road Movie.
This course is taking temporary shelter under the title 'Studies in Narrative,' but its actual subject is a particular narrative genre, the 'road movie.'  The particular question I want to keep asking is how this genre became so knowing, so assured about itself, even at the relatively early stages in its emergence.  As one element of this course, we will begin by looking at some literary precursors: the Odyssey; and early 'picaresque' novel called The Unfortunate Traveller; the satiric and widely traveled Candide; Huckleberry Finn; On the Road; and a contemporary fiction; Jonathan Saffran Foer's Everything is Illuminated.  I assume that most members of the class will have previously read the Odyssey, and so I will ask everyone to show up at the first class having recently refreshed themselves on its contents.
Then, on to film.  Bibliographies and material on film theory will be provided.  We will start with two important precursors, It Happened One Night (Capra, 1934) and Sullivan's Travels (Sturges, 1941).  Then on to a crucial early rendition, in which most elements of the mature road movie are present, but not fully developed, They Live by Night (Ray, 1948).  Then the sublime Badlands (Malik, 1973); followed by Thelma and Louise (Scott, 1991) in which women do the driving; and a film which in my view signals the possible decadence of the genre, Natural Born Killers (Stone, 1994); and finally a film that knits many of our themes together, O Brother (Coen Brothers, 2000).  Members of the seminar will also be encourages to do some freelance viewing, of such films as Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 1967), Easy Rider (Hopper, 1969), Two-Lane Blacktop (Hellman, 1971), and Paris, Texas (Wenders, 1984); I'll have a pool of DVDs available for loan, together with local rental options.
All this will lead up to two 'finished' papers (over and above some short classroom presentations): a 6-8 page paper on one of the literary narratives (or a related narrative) read in the first six weeks, and then a 15 page 'seminar' paper on one of the films we have viewed, or a similar film of your choice, in its enlarged literary/cinematic context.  One of the questions I want to keep asking throughout involves the shifting relations of the transients and the societies they encounter: what is the locus and relative balance of 'good' and 'evil,' criminality and honesty, innocence and experience?  Another question involves the challenge posed to genre criticism by the fact that genres are never 'pure.'  In the case of film, what about the constant tendency of 'road' movies to diversify and merge with various look-alikes, some very different in their core assumptions: gateway movies, heist movies, buddy movies, and the like?
People seeking admission to this course need not have extensive film studies experience, but should be ready to view and discuss movies without checking their brains at the door.  I'll expect you to be no less smart and alert and rigorous about Badlands than about any canonical literary text.  Those seeking admission should send Michael Mallick (mgm3@columbia.edu) a paragraph about reasons for wanting to take the course, class standing, and other possibly relevant considerations - no later than Friday 3 September.  No one should enroll who cannot attend the Tuesday evening screenings.  The class roster will be posted in Philosophy Hall by noon Monday 6 September. - P. Strohm.  4 pts. Class meeting: R 4:10pm-6:00pm, Screenings: T 8:00pm-10:00pm.

ENGL W 3960x. Work and English Culture
A nuanced study of the aesthetic representation of work and culture in the nineteenth-century English imagination, this course will begin by considering how novels employ a Protestant concept of vocation whereby work and salvation are intertwined in methodical worldly engagement.  We will then trace the relationship of these community-centered plots of vocation to the narrative structuring of cultural identities within the English nation: Saxons, Jews, Belgians, Northerners, Bohemians, Gypsies, Vampire, Pirates.  Readings include novels by Scott, Bronte, Dickens, Gaskell, Eliot, Trollope, Du Maurier and Stoker, and works by Disraeli, Aronold, Eliot, Ruskin, Weber and Gilbert and Sullivan.  Note: no formal application or pre-registration is necessary; those interested should attend the first class meeting and register at the beginning of the semester.  But interested students are encouraged to email Prof. Cohen (mlf1@columbia.edu) to give her some idea of the likely turnout. —M. Cohen. 4 pts. F 11:00-12:50.

W4390x. Dickens & the 19th Century.
This course will trace the arc of Dickens’ career, his evolution as a narrative strategist and social visionary, with attention to such nineteenth-century preoccupations as urban life, poverty, crime, detection, bureaucracy, reform, disease, self-help, sentimentality, and the problem of virtue. Dickens’ more intimate concerns, including companionate love, relations between fathers and daughters, generational conflict, female modesty and respectability, will also come under our scrutiny.—M. Spiegel. 3 pts. M W 6:10-7:25.

ENTA W 4724x. Modern Drama
A survey of modern drama from roughly 1870-1960, with particular attention to the foundations of modern theatre in the works of Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, and Shaw.  Other playwrights may include Wilde, Synge, Pirandello, Brecht, Beckett, O'Neill, Williams, and Miller.  We will also discuss the development of modern techniques of acting, directing, theatre architecture, and scene design. —M. Smith. 3 pts. T Th 1:10-2:25.

The Guidelines for Independent Study Projects and the Independent Study Application are also available.

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