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Our classes have general descriptions in the bulletin and on our course pages, available here. Detailed individual descriptions are posted below. We will post additional descriptions as they arrive. You may also contact faculty for more information.
EH 590 Special Topics: “Poetry and the Scientific Revolution, 1660-1800”
Dr. Richard Hillyer
First Summer Session MTWRF 12.40-14.35
I plan for this course to focus on the relations of poetry and science during the long eighteenth century, a period in which the two fields of endeavor were not generally perceived as rivals or deadly enemies. Many of the texts I wish to assign are not readily available in modern editions or anthologies, so the bulk of the reading (perhaps even all of it) will be from a course pack that I will construct and then deliver by email. At this early stage, I only have a sketchy sense of which authors I will include; but I know that I would like to cover Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1665), Thomas Sprat’s History of the Royal Society (1667), some selections from the chemist Robert Boyle, Samuel Butler’s satires against the Royal Society, and some poetry by Alexander Pope (who idolized Sir Isaac Newton), William Blake (who in contrast loathed the same figure), James Thomson, and Erasmus Darwin (an exponent of evolution, like his more famous grandson Charles). For context, I am also likely to assign a chapter about “The Culture of Science” by the late Roy Porter and C.P. Snow’s definitive essay The Two Cultures. I doubt that any of the science content we examine will be overly technical or abstruse: it could not be over your heads without being over my head too. We will certainly be reading some literary figures who long ago lost any place in the canon, reviled as long-winded sentimentalists addicted to poetic diction (sheep reclassified as creatures of the fleecy kind, etc.). Whether these authors warrant reevaluation is of necessity a question we will ponder. The writing component will be a research paper of 15-20 pages, executed over several drafts. Do not fear being unable to find a congenial topic to explore: I am confident that you will quickly see fascinating issues about gender, genre, and other categories emerging from our reading.
EH 577 Studies in Genre: Romanticism and the Supernatural
Dr. Cristopher Hollingsworth
Second Summer Session MTWRF 12.40-14.35
We will investigate Romantic transformations of the Gothic and fairy tale traditions as related loci of historical, aesthetic, and spiritual speculation and experience. Reflecting a view of Romanticism as an international movement that continues to inform contemporary experience and expression, works read may include tales by Kleist and Hoffmann, poems by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Dacre’s Zofloya, fairy tales by the Grimms, Andersen, and Carroll, De Quincey’s Confessions, stories by Irving, Poe, and Gilman, and one contemporary work. I anticipate that evaluation will include short papers, a presentation, and a research component.
EH 599: Thesis
Please see Dr. Harrington if you would like to register for thesis hours and have not already discussed your committee, graduation requirements, etc.
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