ENGL 461

Spring 2024 Part of Term 1

Part of Term 1
Jan 16-May 1
Advanced Topics in Literature and Culture

Credit: 3 OR 4 hours.

Advanced seminar on any of a variety of topics in literature and culture, including those that bridge traditional historical periods, focus on themes or movements, and cross disciplinary boundaries.

3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. May be repeated with permission of English advising office to a maximum of 6 undergraduate hours if topics vary; Graduate students may repeat if topics vary. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.

ENGL 461 class schedule data for spring 2024
CRN Type Section Time Day Location Instructor Section Details
32225
Lecture-Discussion
2G
9:30AM -10:45AM
TR
36 English Building
Somerville, S
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
01/16/24-05/01/24
Credit:
4 hours
Section Title:
Advanced Topics in Lit Culture
Section Info:
SP24 - ENGL 461 - Advanced Topics in Literature & Culture - Siobhan Somerville - The Art of Research - In this writing-intensive capstone course, students will spend the semester developing a major research project of their own design (such as a research paper, an interactive website, or a connected portfolio of related projects). These projects will use the knowledge and skills gained in previous study as English majors to explore a new research problem unique to each individual student. Our work together will be organized as a collaborative workshop focusing on key practices of writing and research, such as: developing research questions; finding and evaluating primary and secondary sources; drafting and revising; participating in peer review; defining an audience; and crafting a public presentation. Assignments will include shared readings and exercises, as well as research and writing assignments geared toward the development of individual projects. Juniors and Seniors only. Students should have completed English 301 and 350.
Restriction(s):
Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
32223
Lecture-Discussion
2U
9:30AM -10:45AM
TR
36 English Building
Somerville, S
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
01/16/24-05/01/24
Credit:
3 hours
Section Title:
Advanced Topics in Lit Culture
Section Info:
SP24 - ENGL 461 - Advanced Topics in Literature & Culture - Siobhan Somerville - The Art of Research - In this writing-intensive capstone course, students will spend the semester developing a major research project of their own design (such as a research paper, an interactive website, or a connected portfolio of related projects). These projects will use the knowledge and skills gained in previous study as English majors to explore a new research problem unique to each individual student. Our work together will be organized as a collaborative workshop focusing on key practices of writing and research, such as: developing research questions; finding and evaluating primary and secondary sources; drafting and revising; participating in peer review; defining an audience; and crafting a public presentation. Assignments will include shared readings and exercises, as well as research and writing assignments geared toward the development of individual projects. Juniors and Seniors only. Students should have completed English 301 and 350.
Restriction(s):
Not intended for students with Freshman class standing. Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
54511
Lecture-Discussion
AG
2:00PM -2:50PM
MWF
325 Gregory Hall
Courtemanche, E
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
01/16/24-05/01/24
Credit:
4 hours
Section Title:
Advanced Topics in Lit Culture
Section Info:
SP24 - ENGL 461 - Advanced Topics in Lit and Culture - Eleanor Courtemanche - The Scandal of Aestheticism - In the late 19th century, bohemian artists rallied around the slogan of “art for art’s sake” to attack the moral conventions of the Victorian age. This class will examine the Aesthetic Movement in Victorian and early 20th century British literature, ranging from the lingering importance of Keats and Shelley in the poetic works of Tennyson and the pre-Raphaelites to Oscar Wilde’s fusion of aristocratic and queer elegance and Henry James’s theories of the novel. It will also consider some contemporary discussions of aesthetic “autonomy,” the still-controversial declaration that art can transcend its historical context or social utility. Works will include philosophy by Plato, poetry by John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Algernon Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Christina Rossetti, fiction by Oscar Wilde, the New Women, George Du Maurier, and Henry James, and cultural criticism by Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, Queenie Leavis, Sianne Ngai, Linda Dowling, and Dustin Friedman. Assignments for this upper-level class will include at least one long (10 p) research paper.
Restriction(s):
Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
75014
Lecture-Discussion
AU
2:00PM -2:50PM
MWF
325 Gregory Hall
Courtemanche, E
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
01/16/24-05/01/24
Credit:
3 hours
Section Title:
Advanced Topics in Lit Culture
Section Info:
SP24 - ENGL 461 - Advanced Topics in Lit and Culture - Eleanor Courtemanche - The Scandal of Aestheticism - In the late 19th century, bohemian artists rallied around the slogan of “art for art’s sake” to attack the moral conventions of the Victorian age. This class will examine the Aesthetic Movement in Victorian and early 20th century British literature, ranging from the lingering importance of Keats and Shelley in the poetic works of Tennyson and the pre-Raphaelites to Oscar Wilde’s fusion of aristocratic and queer elegance and Henry James’s theories of the novel. It will also consider some contemporary discussions of aesthetic “autonomy,” the still-controversial declaration that art can transcend its historical context or social utility. Works will include philosophy by Plato, poetry by John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Algernon Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Christina Rossetti, fiction by Oscar Wilde, the New Women, George Du Maurier, and Henry James, and cultural criticism by Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, Queenie Leavis, Sianne Ngai, Linda Dowling, and Dustin Friedman. Assignments for this upper-level class will include at least one long (10 p) research paper.
Restriction(s):
Not intended for students with Freshman class standing. Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
58625
Lecture-Discussion
Z1G
12:00PM -12:50PM
MWF
115 English Building
Oh, R
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
01/16/24-05/01/24
Credit:
4 hours
Section Title:
Advanced Topics in Lit Culture
Section Info:
SP24 - ENGL 461 - Advanced Topics in Lit & Culture - Rebecca Oh - Women Writers of Science Fiction - What kinds of worlds do women envision when they write about the future? What endures, changes, or is lost? What do speculative depictions tell us about women’s hopes, desires, and fears for the future? Conversely, how do visions of the future help us better understand the present and the past of feminized experience? What kind of futures are left out? Are some futures unimaginable? We will focus these questions through science fiction and speculative fiction texts by contemporary women writers. By examining both far and near futures we will explore how women science fiction writers have grappled with gender, sex, and sexuality in their imagining of the future, and consider how they have envisioned the possibility of radically different social structures, new kinds of bodies and gender identities, or the consequences of changing reproductive technologies and modes of governing the body. We will spend most of our time with novels though we may also include short stories or films. Authors may include Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, Louise Erdrich, Ada Palmer, and others.
Restriction(s):
Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
58624
Lecture-Discussion
Z1U
12:00PM -12:50PM
MWF
115 English Building
Oh, R
Part of Term:
1
Date Range:
01/16/24-05/01/24
Credit:
3 hours
Section Title:
Advanced Topics in Lit Culture
Section Info:
SP24 - ENGL 461 - Advanced Topics in Lit & Culture - Rebecca Oh - Women Writers of Science Fiction - What kinds of worlds do women envision when they write about the future? What endures, changes, or is lost? What do speculative depictions tell us about women’s hopes, desires, and fears for the future? Conversely, how do visions of the future help us better understand the present and the past of feminized experience? What kind of futures are left out? Are some futures unimaginable? We will focus these questions through science fiction and speculative fiction texts by contemporary women writers. By examining both far and near futures we will explore how women science fiction writers have grappled with gender, sex, and sexuality in their imagining of the future, and consider how they have envisioned the possibility of radically different social structures, new kinds of bodies and gender identities, or the consequences of changing reproductive technologies and modes of governing the body. We will spend most of our time with novels though we may also include short stories or films. Authors may include Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, Louise Erdrich, Ada Palmer, and others.
Restriction(s):
Not intended for students with Freshman class standing. Restricted to Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign.
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