The Future as History: From the most daring visions of better worlds to the most apocalyptic depictions of dystopia, this course examines the arts of the future. In studying the formation of human, nonhuman, inhuman, and posthuman relationships to the future, you will read brilliant sci-fi & fantasy authors, consider how art constructs futures in response to the demands of the present, and develop a new understanding of the history of time and the time of history. The workload includes two essays. Authors assigned may include Octavia Butler, Samuel Delany, N. K. Jemisin, Ursula Le Guin, and China Mièville.

Elective

This course, besides revisiting the traditional narrative elements of spy and detective fiction, considers a selection of the increasing number of late twentieth- and twenty-first-century transnational, diasporic, postcolonial, and minority/ethnic authors from around the world who adapt spy and detective fiction conventions for the purpose of social critique. In focusing on issues related to identity, culture, ethics, human rights, justice, and knowledge construction narrated by these fictions, we will examine carefully, for example, the figure of the spy or detective as outsider to and observer of society as well as, in the works at issue here, frequently an immigrant or cultural or social "other." In the process, we will also engage questions central to reading, interpreting, and comparing fiction in a global context.

Elective

After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, writes Oscar Wilde, even one's own relations. While the domestic sphere is often understood as a refuge from the quarrels and dangers of the perilous outside world, the family home can also be a site of tension, violence, and competition. Literature and cinema show us time and again that some of the most bitter and bloody conflicts unfold in the intimate battleground of hearth and home. This course tracks the seemingly timeless idea of the family in its historical evolution, from patrilineal dynasties to the nuclear family of suburban postwar America. Why do the horrors of home-life shock and fascinate us? What is gained or sacrificed in the name of “family values,” and why is the gothic so closely tied to the domestic? Texts and excerpts include: Medea, The Tempest, Wuthering Heights, The Turn of the Screw, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” The Importance of Being Earnest, The Metamorphosis, Kindred and Psycho, with secondary readings from No Future and Abolish the Family. Students will write three argument-driven essays including a research project on one of our course-texts.

Elective

The Middle Ages were defined by translation, and at the hub of the interlingual and intercultural networks crisscrossing western Eurasia was the Greek-speaking civilization known today as Byzantium. In this class we approach literature of the medieval millennium (roughly the 5th to the 15th century CE) by focusing on the period's truly global best-sellers: works of fiction, mysticism, folktale, romance, and philosophy that were each translated multiple times from one language to another, and that enjoyed massive popularity in each new cultural setting. Instead of being viewed as an incubator of distinct "national" literatures, the medieval period becomes an opportunity to explore literary forms, themes, and universal human concerns that transcended linguistic, religious, and national borders. Texts studied include both works originally written in Greek as well as others that made their way from Persian, Arabic, Syriac, and Georgian into Greek, and then through Greek into other languages of the Near East and Europe. Readings include but are not limited to: Barlaam and Josaphat; The Book of Syntipas the Philosopher ("the Byzantine Sinbad"); the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius; The Alexander Romance; and John Climacus's Ladder of Divine Ascent. Assessments include a short response paper, midterm examination, and a final research paper.

Elective

Hell is good to think with. In this course we approach epic and related traditions through depictions of the underworld and the afterlife. Beginning with Homer's Odyssey, our exploration of the seven titular hells will take us through mythological, philosophical, and religious territory in the worlds of Ancient Greece, Rome, Medieval Christianity and Islam, and beyond. In addition to Homer and Milton's Paradise Lost, readings will include selections from Plato, Vergil's Aeneid, an anonymous Byzantine satire, the Book of Muhammad's Ladder, and Dante's Inferno, and will tackle themes of fate, justice, and divine providence, as well as the various...afterlives of these literary traditions themselves. All readings in English translation; no previous experience required. 

Elective

There is a long history of literature on the Indian subcontinent, and while Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have different histories since partition, their literary history and continued development are intertwined. This course will look at the literature of the region, including works by writers in exile. Writers examined may include Anand, Desai, Hamid, Narayan, Nasrin, and Rushdie.

This course examines twentieth-century Black British writing. We will focus primarily on works written by the 1940s to 1960s Windrush generation-the large, mid-century influx of Caribbean peoples to the United Kingdom (UK)-as well as Asian British authors who are often included under the umbrella of blackness. Reading such authors as Claude McKay, Mulk Raj Anand, Una Marson, George Lamming, Samuel Selvon, V.S. Naipaul, Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith, and Shola von Reinhold, we will explore also the colonial forebears and contemporary afterlives of the Windrush moment. There are a wide variety of often conflicting ways that blackness circulates in Britain, then and now. Both racist and reclaimative evocations of blackness demand our attention. Our course will circulate, then, around two core questions: 1) How do Black British writers' refigure blackness as a positive, empowered force and voice integral to British modernity, and 2) How do we contextualize this vital community of Black voices in Britain within the history of extractive imperialism that was and is buoyed by white supremacist conceptions of blackness in the British popular imagination. Across all the authors we will read, Black Britons succeed in reimagining what home means amidst the racialized environments of (un)belonging-rescuing it from exile, diaspora, and displacement and claiming their place at the heart of the British metropolis and within its literary canon.

Elective

This past August, extensive fragments of two lost plays by the Ancient Greek tragedian Euripides were published for the first time. You will be among the first students—ever—to read and explore them in this class on Ancient Greek Tragedy. In addition to those newly discovered fragments, we read select complete plays of Euripides and his fellow Athenian poet-playwrights, Aeschylus and Sophocles, and devote special attention to key themes including: their literary structure and stagecraft; their original performative context in fifth-century BCE Athens; the history of their transmission and survival; and their reception—that is, how Prometheus Bound for example went from being a script for a play put on one spring day in Athens almost 2500 years ago, to a source of inspiration behind a black comedy series that dropped on a major streaming service this summer. Assessments include one short response paper, a midterm, and a final project. All readings in English translation.

Elective

Ekphrasis is a Greek tradition of poetry in which the poem describes a work of art through language, deeply engaging not only in the intended meaning of the art object, but the underlying sociopolitical contexts of the art object’s making, and the poet’s relationship with the object and its artist. In this class, we will consider ekphrasis as a form of art writing that not only describes art, but interrogates the histories and politics that have gone into the making of an art object. Our readings will include a variety of ekphrastic texts, including poetry, memoirs, personal and lyric essays, academic essays, and theory (Barbara Jane Reyes, Le Thi Diem Thuy, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Fred Moten, Arthur Jafa, Tiana Clark, Sianne Ngai, Barbara Johnson, Sally Wen Mao, Summer Kim Lee). We will also view films, visual art, performance, and digital media (Jon Berger, Caroline Garcia, Rihanna, Kara Walker, Candice Lin, Julie Tolentino). We will pay particular attention to Asian American and postcolonial literature and art, as identitarian genres attuned to the relationship between visual culture and representation.

Throughout this interdisciplinary course, we will ask such questions as: How does art orient itself toward various audiences, and for what purposes? How does art antagonize its audience, or how does it build community? How do we live with art and how does it determine not only the content of our writing, but our lives? How do we see art, and what are the politics of our viewership? How does visual culture manifest in our understanding of ourselves and each other? You will gain insight in visual culture and experience in writing that will serve as the foundation for advanced work in analytic and creative writing on art and politics. Major course assignments will include three analytical essays and weekly discussion posts. Students should expect three to five hours of reading per week (30 pages of academic writing and/or 50 pages of creative writing per session).

Elective

In this innovative course we aim to recognize and appreciate video games as a profound medium for storytelling, comparable to traditional forms of literary art. This course examines the narrative complexities, character development, and the capacity for emotional engagement within video games, offering students a fresh perspective on interactive media as a significant cultural and artistic expression. Throughout this course, we will engage with the works of scholars and artists including Nick Montfort, Ian Cheng, and Laurie Anderson. These figures have made pivotal contributions to our understanding of how narrative functions in the digital age, and their insights will guide our exploration of video games' narrative potential. A central focus of our study will be on the narrative and storytelling techniques unique to video games, emphasizing the role of interactive storytelling and player choice in crafting engaging and multifaceted narratives. Through this lens, we'll explore how video games not only tell stories but also allow players to experience and influence these narratives, creating a dynamic form of storytelling that is both immersive and participatory. Additionally, the course will delve into themes of identity and empathy, considering how video games can serve as a medium for exploring various identities and fostering empathy among players. By participating in interactive narratives, players have the opportunity to experience the world from different perspectives, enhancing their understanding of others and themselves. For the final project, students will have the option to compose an analytical or research paper that delves into a specific aspect of video game literature, or to create a creative project. This could involve designing a detailed game narrative, proposing innovative approaches to interactive storytelling, or even developing a prototype to demonstrate the narrative capabilities of video games. Through a combination of lectures, discussions, and hands-on projects, this course encourages students to critically engage with video games as a narrative medium, expanding their understanding of what constitutes literature in the digital era.

Elective

In an era defined by climate change, pandemics and live-streamed war, this digital language arts course confronts the stark realities of our time. It compels students to decolonize their imaginations and discover new ways of engaging with reality, literature, technology, and the future. We examine how language and literature mediate our relationship with the world and how digital mediums reshape our perceptions of reality and our expectations of the future. Central to this course is the critical examination and creation of digital artifacts that engage with speculative fiction. Students will confront the power of nightmares in speculative horror and explore the promise of alternate utopian visions. These explorations aim to open gateways to potential futures, using innovative literary and digital forms. Through rigorous analysis and creative experimentation, students will develop sophisticated digital artifacts that not only respond to but also critique and reimagine the pressing global crises of our time. Students will engage deeply with the material through extensive reading and weekly discussions that directly influence their creative output. Students will produce creative and critical writing in dialogue with the readings. The semester will culminate in the creation of a collection of digital and written artifacts, laying the groundwork for a rich final project that synthesizes the insights and creative explorations from the course. This course equips students with the tools to critically fabricate narratives that challenge existing paradigms and inspire forward-thinking, enabling them to contribute meaningfully to the discourse on future realities. Artists, writers, and texts include Sun Ra, Sondra Perry, Hito Steyerl, Tabita Rezaire, Gerald Vizenor, Eduardo Viveiros De Castro, Ian Cheng, Sadiya Hartman, Jason Mohaghegh, Larissa Sansour, and selected short stories from "Palestine +100: Stories From a Century After the Nakba" and "Iraq +100: Stories from Another Iraq.

Elective

Since the early Hollywood years, films have played a major role in the way American mainstream culture inscribes queerness: the many and diverse queer communities, identities, and experiences. This course begins with an examination of earlier representations of queerness in Hollywood films, tracing queer cinematic images throughout the early 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. We will screen queer films such as Nazimova's Salome (1922) and The Killing of Sister George (1968) to analyze their representations of queer identity and examine what they signify to us today. Our examination of queer film will address the following questions: What is gay or lesbian film? What is a queer film? What are the ways in which the discourses of race, gender, and sexuality are interrelated and deployed? The latter half of the course also will examine selected films and documentaries from the new emerging queer cinema and a selection of film shorts that are currently running in queer film festivals.

Elective

Taking its cue from Clint Eastwood who proclaimed, As far as I'm concerned, Americans don't have any original art except Western movies and jazz, this course will analyze the Western film as an art form in and of itself. We will discuss Westerns in terms of their specific aesthetic and technological influence on the medium, their cultural expression of a national political unconscious, and their global function as the meta-narrative of space. This course will tackle these discussions through a chronological unfolding of the genre starting with the Edison Company's 1898 Westerns and Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903) through the Golden Age of John Ford and Howard Hawks' films and the reciprocal translation of Akira Kurosawa's epics, and finally, to the variants of the Spaghetti, Revisionist, and genre-bending contemporary and postmodern Westerns of Dennis Hopper, Sam Peckinpah, John Sayles, Jim Jarmusch, Ang Lee, and Wim Wenders. There will be required readings in critical film theory, weekly screenings, analytical essays, and oral presentations.

Elective

Making sense of events by giving them order and verbal articulation is considered a primary task of storytelling; and stories, in order to make sense, also require readers to interpret them. However, in this class, we will study stories in prose, verse, and drama that have been designed—as nonsense literature—to disarticulate and disorder. In a post-Enlightenment context, nonsense holds particular interest as an other to modern conceptions of advancing knowledge and logical mastery. Yet, unlike the post-truth nonsense we encounter these days, literary nonsense identifies its parodic, subversive, negating, and complementary relationship to logic and sense, often emphasizes its sight- and sound-based elements, and provokes its readers to read joyfully, with scrutiny, and reflexively. As we read, we will ask: What do works of nonsense say about literature, its function, and materials? How does nonsense literature challenge processes of sense-making used by both writers and readers? What are the relationships between sense and nonsense? How is each variably understood and defined? We will also gain familiarity with common forms of nonsense-making and contextualize instances of its workings in their respective place and time. Texts may include theory by Sigmund Freud, C.S. Pierce, Roland Barthes, and Gilles Deleuze; poetry, prose, and drama by authors writing firmly in the “nonsense genre” such as Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, as well as others whose work carries features of it like Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Langston Hughes, Marie Hall Ets, Shake Keane, and Carl Sandberg, as well as translations of Sukumar Ray, August Stramm, Kurt Schwitters, Andre Breton, Christian Morgenstern, Velimir Khlebnikov, and Daniil Kharms. Students will write three 5-page papers and maintain a reading journal.

Elective

In this course, students will study horror through different modes—the uncanny, the strange, and the fantastic—that defamiliarize reality and transform the way we perceive the world around us. Through close reading, academic and creative writing, discussions, oral presentations, and a student-created horror festival, students will explore how Latin American writers engage with or challenge the conventions of horror, while examining gender and racial stereotypes, disgust, sensoriality, and the effects of fear on the body. Familiar and seemingly safe spaces and experiences—such as the home, childhood, and the family—can become sites of anxiety, disturbance, and terror, exposing both intimate and collective fears. The course also explores the idea of haunting, understood not simply as the presence of ghosts, but as the return of unresolved political and historical issues: traces of violence, injustice, and loss that continue to shape the present and call for reparation.

Ecohorror emerges as a key strand of contemporary Latin American horror, highlighting how environmental destruction—extractivism, pollution, and agrotoxins—generates new forms of ecological dread. These works imagine worlds in crisis, where nature—animals, rivers, and viruses—acts as a powerful agent of warning, revenge, or resistance, revealing what it means to inhabit a damaged planet. As a final creative project, students will create a “horrific artifact” in the form of a text, installation, video, or soundscape, reflecting on the course themes and experimenting with horror as a mode of critical and aesthetic inquiry. Readings and films might include works by Quiroga, Ocampo, Davila, Enriquez, Schweblin, Freud, Todorov, Lovecraft, Ahmed, Santos, Bastericca et al.

Elective

In this beginning writing course, we will look at contemporary texts that push against the boundaries of traditional literary genres (fiction, poetry, theatre, creative non-fiction, graphic fiction, etc) and blur the lines between those genres as well. Together we will read some of the most exciting contemporary writers who resist our attempts to categorize them. By examining these texts and trying our own creative writing experiments, we will gain a better understanding of what traditional genres are, the techniques they employ, and ways they can be manipulated to create something new.

Elective

Our explorations in this interdisciplinary workshop will center around the interplay of image and text, particularly in film and video. We will tend to the space between words, between images, the movements from one to another, what’s alive in the cracks. How might poetic devices translate to film? How might film theory inspire our writing? What are the myriad ways text, voice and image can layer and entwine?

This workshop is for students interested in practices that live and migrate between moving images and language art. Together we will consider essay films, cinepoetry, video art, installation and live performance. Class time will include screenings, discussions of texts by artists, poets and film theorists, and open-ended prompts for individual and collaborative experiments. No prior experience is necessary, only a desire to engage deeply with films and writing, experiment with new forms and media, and create in thoughtful community.

Elective

The Beginning Poetry Workshop is an elective course introducing students to the art of poetry writing. The course sequentially addresses major commitments of poetry including form/content, sound, line, voice, image, language(s), tradition/convention, experiment, audience, revision, performance, collection, publication, and distribution. Workshop is the heart of the course, animating the practice, discourse, critique, audience, community, and mentorship vital to poets. Every class will also include close reading, discussion of assigned texts, and writing. We will attend public readings, curate and participate in community readings, and welcome poets to our class, when possible. Work can be developed in a range of styles, traditions, and languages. You will leave this class with a collection of workshopped and revised poems, which you will design, self-publish, and distribute in print and/or digital form.

This course is a prerequisite for LAS E421 - Advanced Poetry Workshop in the Spring.

Elective

The playwriting workshop is an introduction to the basic principles of scriptwriting for live performance. Students will examine the form as a storytelling technology, an intervention, an act of embodied vandalism. We will collectively ask: How do you spawn an idea? How do you construct dialogue on the page? Through rhythm, intent, given circumstances? How do we shape that dialogue into character? Narrative? Alongside dramatic action, how do we construct the physical and fictive environments for story to occur? This class intends for the writer to celebrate excess and work from a point of textual abundance. Students will write and write, then take on the roles of sculptor, carpenter, and architect in order to leave the class having developed a single play. Functioning as both a seminar and workshop, the course will introduce students to a variety of play forms by writers including: Aleshea Harris, Reza Abdoh, Guillermo Calderon, Tim Crouch, Sophie Treadwell. We will use these plays to build a toolkit of generative strategies and address writing as a physical task that seeks a three-dimensional home.

Elective

A workshop-style course which combines English with a studio project for students with an interest in children's picture books. Students will learn to develop storytelling skills (imagination, language, plot, character, and voice) and illustration techniques (characterization, setting, page, layout) by studying picture books and completing writing and illustration assignments. For their final projects, students will be expected to produce an original text, sketch dummy, and two to four finished pieces of art. The class will also include an overview of publishing procedures and published writers/illustrators will be invited to share their experiences and critique students' work.

This is a co-requisite course. Students must also register for LLUS 3612 - Picture and Word.

Elective