ENG 181-002: Writing About Literature (Spring 2010)

Content: Monsters. Grotesque, scary, seductive, fierce, fascinating, or just plain weird, monsters occupy a significant place in the literary imagination. Monsters live on the borders -- of cultural, racial, political, economic, religious, and sexual difference. In this course, we will encounter many different kinds of literary monster, keeping a number of questions in mind. Where are the borders between human and monster? How and when does the monster return, and under what new guise? What can monsters tell us about the desires, hopes, and fears of the cultures from which they emerge? Through our exploration of the monstrous in various literary periods and genres -- from classical and medieval to 20th century literature -- students will develop their skills in summarizing, close reading, literary analysis, critical thinking, argumentation, and research.

Required texts will include: Beowulf, Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, Shakespeare's The Tempest, John Gardner's Grendel, and Diane Hacker's Pocket Style Manual. Other readings will be available on Blackboard and/or course reserve, and may include the following: Ovid, excerpts from Metamorphoses; The Saga of the Volsungs; lais of Marie de France; tales of Hans Christian Andersen; Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's "Monster Culture (Seven Theses);" Hawthorne's "Rappacini's Daughter;" brief articles from snopes.com; Poe's The Cask of Amontillado; and poetry by Keats, Swinburne, Baudelaire, Margaret Atwood, Anne Sexton, and Christina Rossetti.

Particulars: Eight two-page response papers, three longer (4-6 page) analytical assignments, several summaries and exercises, and a final research paper.