English

In this course situated within the general study of Modern American drama, we will examine the work of noted American dramatist Tennessee Williams, and his two near contemporaries William Inge and Edward Albee.

Emphasizing mid Twentieth-century American political, social, and domestic history, we will examine six plays from the post-World War II and Cold War eras that represent dramas of domestic spaces, homecomings, and domestic intrusions.

In the process of our work, we will consider and analyze drama:

1. as a literary genre;
2. as enacted, in performance;
3. as received and written about, in criticism; and
4. as adapted, in cinematic adaptation.

Course requirements will include one in-class presentation, two 4-5 page Dramatic Analysis Papers, an Annotated Bibliography, and a 10-page Research Paper.

English 222 is an introduction to the field of Digital Humanities with an emphasis on how digital processes and products impact the development and study of literature, language, culture, and the other disciplines of the Humanities. We will consider how digital tools and technology impact the study of literature and culture and how digital media reimagines the connection between literature and disciplines such as cultural studies, communication, and film and media studies.

English 222 provides you with the opportunity to develop skills in and to specialize in an emerging and increasingly influential field in English and Cultural Studies. This course directly engages the immediate and long-term challenges and opportunities that digital technologies pose for the history and future of human literary, textual, linguistic, cultural, and scholarly production.

The Victorian era was a great time for literature: the realist novel was in its heyday, writers thought of themselves as actively engaging in the political and philosophical issues of the time and actively used literature to explore many manifestations of these issues. The Victorian period was also a time of tremendous innovation, as new scientific fields and understandings emerged, and new ways of seeing the world shifted religious views, economic and social structures, and literary structures. It was also the height of the British empire. Slavery ends in the colonies in 1833 with the Slavery Abolition Act, but near-slavery conditions were common throughout the colonies and resources were still stripped from colonized locations. Gender norms are both reinforced and resisted, and by the end of the period, the New Woman emerges.

Writers may include: Brontë, Dickens, Eliot, Wilde, Browning, Tennyson, Hardy, Mill, Arnold, Rossetti, Prince, Schreiner, Stevenson, and Collins, along with some smaller excerpts and critical pieces. We will also pay careful attention to narrative structure and the development of narrative techniques. This course can count towards the literature requirement for a period or as a Digital Humanities (DH) course. This course is also eligible for the Women’s and Gender Studies minor.

Students in this course can expect to make one class presentation, write a paper that critiques a scholarly source, write a 10-15-page research paper with an annotated bibliography, complete digital research assignments, and take a mid-term and final exam.