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Start date: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 |
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End date: Friday, May 9, 2025 |
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Mode of Instruction: In Person |
Course Description:
How does literature change over time? How do earlier writers exercise an influence, for good or ill, over their successors, and how do those later writers grapple with their most powerful forerunners? In this seminar, you will be invited to think in the abstract, theoretically, about these large questions, which have formed a subtext to your work in the major thus far. To focus our discussion, we will concentrate on Romantic and Modern poetry. In the first half, we will read through the major works of William Wordsworth, the most influential English language poet since (at the very least) Milton. Then, in the second half, we will look at how the greatest Modern poets, both British and American, struggled with Wordsworth's legacy – sometimes going so far as to rewrite specific Wordsworth poems, sometimes denying Wordsworth's importance altogether. Modernists will include Yeats, Frost, Eliot, Pound, Moore, Bishop, Stevens and Auden. In the final project, you will have the opportunity to apply our broader conclusions to your work in the major over the last four years. For English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a senior project. For non-seniors, the course can be taken to fulfill the "critical reflection" requirement. |