Course Offerings

Examines the major tenets, philosophical perspectives, and critical orientations of literary theory from Plato and Aristotle to the present. Students study critical texts from literary and non-literary disciplines, schools, and voices that have come to impact the Western theoretical canon, including psychoanalysis, Marxism, Russian formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, feminism, queer theory, new historicism, and post-colonialism.

In this course, students practice writing fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry while exploring the boundaries between genres. The workshop format includes guided peer critique of sketches, poems, and full-length works presented in class and discussion and analysis of literary models. In Fall, students concentrate on writing techniques. In Spring, the workshop is theme-driven. May be taken twice for credit.

This course is bilingual in nature and outlines the historical and literary contexts of the Renaissance from a Franco-centric perspective. Students will study texts by a range of Renaissance authors (including Erasmus, Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Louise Labé, Montaigne, Marlowe and Shakespeare) while learning about earlymodern book culture, medicine, cartography, religion, colonization, magic, monsters, witchcraft and plagues. They shall also seek to comprehend how France became dominant in language and literature throughout Europe for centuries to follow.

Courses on different topics in the discipline, enriching the present course offerings. These classes are taught by permanent or visiting faculty.