English 40H - Spring, 2019

Introductory Topics in Literature (Honors)

Topic: For Honors Program Students only (Topic: Love in the Form of Fiction - RESTRICTED TO UNIVERSITY HONORS PROGRAM STUDENTS ONLY)

Class Information

Instructor: Freeman, Elizabeth
Time: TR 1:40-3:00
Location: 209 Wellman

Description

This course is about the love story: the ways that what we experience as love is shaped by the ways love stories are told. We will read some narrative theory, learning what shapes we expect stories to come in, and some theories of love and romance, learning how Western culture has understood courtship, romance, marriage, and adultery. And of course we’ll read plays and novels from the Early Modern to the contemporary period, view a couple of contemporary films, and maybe even think about song lyrics together—exploring hooking up, chastity, same-sex love, interracial desire, and passionate friendship. You’ll learn to read literature and film closely, for language and for structure, and to understand how our expectations about stories and our expectations about love often cohere, as well as how when love appears in unfamiliar forms, stories may have to change their shape. The course will be reading- and writing-intensive.

Grading

Short Paper: 20%
Long Paper: 30%
Exam: 20%
Participation: 30%

Texts

A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Shakespeare, ISBN 978-0743477543
The Awakening, Chopin, ISBN 978-0486277868
Pride and Prejudice, Austen, ISBN 978-0486284736
Absalom, Absalom! , Faulkner, ISBN 978-067973218
Sula, Morrison, ISBN 978-1400033430
Bridget Jones's Diary (film), On reserve
Moonlight (film) , On reserve