ENGL 4920 - Honors Seminar II

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Enrollment preference given to: students in the Honors Program in English or related fields. Either ENGL 4910 or ENGL 4920 is required for students pursuing an honors degree in English.

A. Galloway, N. Saccamano.

The purpose of the Honors Seminar is to acquaint students with methods of study and research to help them write their senior Honors Essay. However, all interested students are welcome to enroll. The seminar will require a substantial essay that incorporates literary evidence and critical material effectively, and develops an argument. Topics and instructors vary each semester.

Seminar 101: Archeaology of the Text from Chaucer to Shakespeare

This seminar will explore and write about “works” and “texts,” as well as archives and editions. We will focus on manuscripts, handwriting, books, literacy, printers, editing theory, reception, and related issues (authorship, literary form, and broader cultural history). In one way, this is about un-editing the editions we read, exploring and learning to read ourselves what they are based on, and making new texts as well as learning to read old ones. Final, individual projects will involve a partial “edition” of any work in any period as well as an essay on or some discussion of it. As a class, we will focus on a crucial period of English literature and culture: from Chaucer to Shakespeare; from manuscript-culture to print culture; from medieval to early modern.

Seminar 102: Virginia Woolf