ENGL 4910 - Honors Seminar I

Fall. 4 credits.

Enrollment limited to: students in the Honors Program in English or related fields, or by permission of instructor. Seminar 101 may be used as one of three pre-1800 courses required of English majors.

Seminar 101, J. Mann; Seminar 102, F. Bogel.

Seminar  101: Shakespeare and Science

How is the stage like a laboratory? What is the relationship between dramatic and scientific practice in the Renaissance? This course will study Shakespearean drama alongside practices of anatomy, medicine, cartography, ethnography, geometry, experimental science, and early forms of “life science.” We will focus on how Shakespeare negotiates the vexing relationship between art and nature and how his plays represent the body, the physical universe, and the cosmos. We will also trace the development of concepts such as “science,” “technology,” and “invention.” Students will gain an in-depth knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays as well as an understanding of the major developments in English scientific thought before the Enlightenment. Readings will include The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and The Tempest.

Seminar 102: Formalist Analysis of Poetry and Prose

Formalist criticism made its first appearance in England and America in the 1930s and 1940s under the label “The New Criticism.” Since then, its fortunes have fallen and risen several times, and it is currently enjoying a resurgence in several forms. This seminar, focusing on English and American poems and prose works, will explore the possibilities, assumptions, strategies, and limitations of contemporary formalist analysis and its relation to other modes of critical analysis such as psychoanalytic criticism, feminist and gender criticism, and deconstruction. Readings in criticism and theory will combine with intensive critical analysis of poetry and prose. A principal aim of the seminar is to deepen and enrich the interpretive skills that will be put to work in students’ honors theses.