English and Cultural Studies

"Cultural Studies offers study in the nature and criticism of culture and the arts—chiefly literature, film, visual art and popular culture. This interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree program fosters inquiry into the social and political conditions in which thought and expression take place. Forms of cultural expression such as films, literature and paintings are thus analysed both as texts and as practices in context" (from the Cultural Studies homepage).                               

English and Cultural Studies are closely related disciplines. Several of our courses focus on or incorporate theories and approaches associated with cultural studies, and some of our faculty publish their research on topics such as film adaptations, fandom, television, and other media. 

Several English courses can be counted towards a major or a minor in Cultural Studies.  A full list of eligible English courses is on the Cultural Studies website.  In 2011-2012, the English Department is offering the following courses that can be counted as credits in the Cultural Studies program:

ENGL 2263: Detective Fiction
Fall term; half unit
Monday and Wednesday 12:30-1:45
Instructor: John Morgenstern

This course is a study of detective fiction as it has developed from its genteel English and hard-boiled American origins into a form able to embrace serious analysis, feminist perspectives, and post-modernist poetics.

From memento mori to monsters, séances to specters, this course will focus on the pervasive influence of the gothic on Victorian literature and culture. This is a huge topic, so our focus will be narrowed to an exploration of the intersections between the gothic and empire with an emphasis on the tensions enacted on bodies: specifically (but not limited to) domestic and "foreign" bodies and bodies that are rendered foreign through their contact with "other" spaces. While we will cover texts, images and cultural practices from throughout the Victorian era, our emphasis will be on the fin-de-siècle (roughly 1870s to 1900).

There will be sustained emphasis on literary theory in this course and a significant part of the course grade will be devoted to in-class discussion. WARNING: because of the nature of this topic, some material on this course could be disturbing to some students.

ENGL 3348:  Contemporary Culture: Representations of 9/11Fall term; half unitTuesday and Thursday 12:05-1:20Instructor: Graham Fraser 

On the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, this course will investigate the aesthetic response to the event.  Course texts will be situated in a theoretical context considering the ethics and aesthetics of writing (or otherwise bearing artistic witness to) disaster or cultural trauma. The course will center on literary representations of the attack, but will unfold from there into explorations of how film, architecture, visual art, music, and the internet strive to represent the 9/11 attacks. We will also consider the culture of commemoration as a form of -- or substitute for -- representation, with special attention to the tenth anniversary observances.

Tentative texts will include DeLillo, Falling Man; Beigbeder Windows on the World; Amis, The Second Plane; Moore, Farenheit 9/11; Speigelman, In the Shadow of No Towers; Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Theoretical readings will be drawn from Blanchot, The Writing of Disaster; Baudrillard, The Spirit of Terrorism; Zizek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real.

ENGL 3363:  Feminisms and their LiteraturesFall-Winter terms; full unitTuesday and Thursday 3:05-4:20Instructor: Rhoda Zuk

This course is a cross-cultural survey of women's writings from 1970 to the present. This course will examine feminism as a plurality and its activity as an international literary movement.  (Also listed under Women's Studies).

ENGL 4408:  Critical Theory

Fall term; half unitMonday and Wednesday 3:05-4:20Instructor: K. Macfarlane 

This course is an overview of literary critical theory in which students will be introduced to the major figures, issues and debates in the field of literary critical theory. Some attention will be paid to the historical underpinnings of contemporary theoretical debates, but our focus will be on the movements of the latter part of the twentieth century.