English

Academic Year: 
2017-18
Address: 
22 McCosh Hall
Phone: 
609-258-4224
Website: 
Department of English
Program offerings: 
Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Studies
Sarah Rivett
Graduate Program Administrator
Patricia Guglielmi

Academic department detail

Overview

The aim of the Princeton graduate program in English is to produce well-trained and field-transforming scholars, insightful and imaginative critics, and effective and creative teachers. The Ph.D. program is rigorous but also supportive. It is certainly possible to complete the degree in five years, though the department and Graduate School now offer multiple funding opportunities for research fellowships in year six, should students need an additional year for dissertation completion and for the academic job market or for pursuing other career opportunities should they choose to do so.

While a high-powered research institution, Princeton also maintains a feeling of intimacy. In keeping with the goals of the University at large, the Department of English seeks to cultivate and sustain an extremely diverse, cosmopolitan, and lively intellectual community. Because this is a residential university with a tradition emphasizing teaching as well as research, the faculty is easily accessible to students and committed to their progress.

The faculty of the Department of English is notable for its world-renowned scholarly reputation, commitment to teaching, and accessibility. The faculty showcases wide-ranging interdisciplinary interests as well as a diverse range of critical approaches within the discipline. In addition to offering seminars in every major historical field of concentration, from medieval to contemporary literatures, we offer a wide range of theoretical specializations in fields such as feminist theory, gender and sexuality studies, psychoanalysis, Marxism, postcolonialism, environmental studies, political and social theory, and cultural studies. Students may also take courses in cognate departments such as comparative literature, classics, philosophy, linguistics, history, and art history.

The University offers programs in creative writing, dance, theater, American studies, gender and sexuality, environmental studies, and visual arts. The faculty in creative writing is one of the most outstanding in the country, and includes Jeffrey Eugenides, Jhumpa Lahiri, Paul Muldoon, Joyce Carol Oates, James Richardson, Toni Morrison, and Edmund White.

Courses

Permanent Courses

Courses listed below are graduate-level courses that have been approved by the program’s faculty as well as the Curriculum Subcommittee of the Faculty Committee on the Graduate School as permanent course offerings. Permanent courses may be offered by the department or program on an ongoing basis, depending on curricular needs, scheduling requirements, and student interest. Not listed below are undergraduate courses and one-time-only graduate courses, which may be found for a specific term through the Registrar’s website. Also not listed are graduate-level independent reading and research courses, which may be approved by the Graduate School for individual students.

AAS 522 Publishing Articles in Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (also
COM 522
/
ENG 504
) In this interdisciplinary class, students of race and gender read deeply and broadly in academic journals as a way of learning the debates in their fields and placing their scholarship in relationship to them. Students report each week on the trends in the last five years of any journal of their choice, writing up the articles' arguments and debates, while also revising a paper in relationship to those debates and preparing it for publication. This course enables students to leap forward in their scholarly writing through a better understanding of their fields and the significance of their work to them.
ART 561 Painting and Literature in Nineteenth-Century France and England (also
ENG 549
/
FRE 561
) Course explores the dynamic interplay between painting, poetry, and fiction in 19th-century France and England. The focus is twofold: painters and paintings as protagonists in novels and short stories, and paintings inspired by literature. Themes include problems of narrative, translation, and illustration; changing theories of the relative strengths of painting and literature as artistic media; realism and the importance of descriptive detail; the representation of the artist as a social (or anti-social) actor; the representation of women as artists and models; and the artist's studio as a literary trope.
COM 530 Comparative Poetics of Passing: Race, Ethnicity, Sexuality (also
ENG 520
/
GSS 530
) The expansion of race theory from the Americas into the global scene invites a cross-cultural approach to the fluidity of identity. This seminar investigates fiction and film from the African American, Jewish American, LGBTQ, and Israeli-Palestinian contexts to broadly explore how society constructs and deconstructs race, ethnicity, and gender. It focuses on representations of passing and reverse passing as well as doubled/split identities for a wide-ranging, comparative discussion of the political and the psychological dynamics of identity and selfhood.
COM 535 Contemporary Critical Theories (also
ENG 528
/
GER 536
) Criticism as an applied art and as an autonomous discipline. Exploration of its place in intellectual history and a theoretical analysis of its basic assumptions. [Topics vary each year.]
COM 537 Imaginary Worlds: Early Modern Science Fiction (also
ENG 537
/
HOS 537
) Science fiction (SF) writing may seem a definitively modern phenomenon, but it has a rich and varied history in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this course, we examine early modern SF not only a vehicle for popularizing the new philosophy of the "scientific revolution," but as a space for the interrogation of competing beliefs about the relationships between humankind and the cosmos, knowledge and belief, or public and private living. Through early modern SF, we explore the self-consciously literary and poetic ways in which early modern natural philosophers worked through their ideas. No "two cultures" here.
COM 542 Women and Liberation: Feminist Poetics and Politics in the Americas (1960s to the present) (also
GSS 542
/
SPO 501
/
ENG 542
) This course aims to explore different forms that the question of liberation has taken in writings by women philosophers and poets whose work helped to create cultural and political movements in the U.S. and Latin America. Starting in the 1960s, the course touches upon different philosophical concepts and poetic figures that have shaped the language of women's struggles (intersectionality, black and third world feminism, subalternity and feminist epistemologies, capitalist accumulation and "witch"-hunting, (re)transmission of knowledge).
COM 547 The Renaissance (also
ENG 530
) A study of selected major genres and modes of Renaissance literature, such as pastoral, satire, romance, picaresque, confession, lyric, epic, comedy, and tragedy. Attention is given to important cultural, social, and intellectual currents affecting their development, such as Christian Humanism, Reformation and Counter Reformation, mysticism, neo-Platonism, and skepticism. Representative works from various national literatures are chosen for close analysis.
COM 553 The Eighteenth Century in Europe (also
ENG 546
) A consideration of the primary topoi and defining oppositions of Enlightenment thought. Texts and specific focus vary from year to year.
COM 565 Studies in Forms of Poetry (also
ENG 544
/
FRE 565
/
GER 565
) This seminar explores the intricate relations of poetry to history and memory in the troubled 20th century. Individual poets are closely studied for their intrinsic interest but also for their (known and still to be discovered) connections with each other. The poets are Eugenio Montale, René Char, Paul Celan, and Anne Carson, but other writers will also be called on from time to time. Questions of war and resistance are important, and above all the course attends to what one might think of as the fate of language under pressure.
ENG 511 Special Studies in Medieval Literature Selected problems and topics in the literature of the Middle Ages are studied.
ENG 512 Chaucer I: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales An introduction to the works of Chaucer in the light of late medieval literary techniques. A study of Chaucer's use of traditional form.
ENG 514 Middle English Religious Literature A study of the chief genres of medieval religious literature in the later Middle Ages, with special emphasis given to the poetic formulation of popular Christian doctrine in such works as Piers Plowman and the religious poems of the "Gawain" manuscript.
ENG 522 The Renaissance in England A study of major topics current in the field of English early modern and renaissance studies.
ENG 523 Renaissance Drama A study of development, form, and content in Tudor and Stuart drama.
ENG 525 Shakespeare I An intensive study of the Shakespeare plays, concentrating on one of the major genres.
ENG 531 Milton: Poetry and Revolution A study of major works by Milton in their political and cultural context.
ENG 532 Early 17th Century An examination of some major writers of the period.
ENG 543 The 18th Century A study of the principal writers, with attention given to the social, political, and philosophical backgrounds. Some consideration is given to the chief problems of 18th-century scholarship and to the history of ideas.
ENG 545 Special Studies in the 18th Century A study of major 18th-century writers, genres, and critical issues.
ENG 550 The Romantic Period A study of the major Romantic poets, with some attention given to prose.
ENG 551 Special Problems in Romanticism Selected topics in Romantic studies. Topics include Romanticism and gender, Romantic historicism, Wordsworth and Keats, Romantic drama, among others.
ENG 553 Special Studies in the Nineteenth Century (also
COM 556
) Selected topics and problems in Romantic and Victorian literature.
ENG 555 American Literary Traditions A study of selected major American writers in the context of intellectual, religious, and cultural traditions.
ENG 556 African-American Literature (also
AAS 556
) A survey of African-American narrative and critical traditions in the context of social and cultural change. Attention is also given to the changing status of black literature in the curriculum of American colleges and universities.
ENG 558 American Poetry A study of 20th-century American poetry.
ENG 559 Studies in the American Novel This course examines a range of American texts written over half a century in order to clarify connections between their informing philosophies, narrative strategies, and historical moments.
ENG 563 Poetics A survey of issues in poetic production and reception from antiquity to the present.
ENG 565 The Victorian Novel A study of 19th-century English fiction, emphasizing social contexts, narrative forms, and critical theory.
ENG 566 Studies in the English Novel (also
COM 570
) Selected 20th-century English novelists, considered in terms of critical theory, technique, and form.
ENG 567 Special Studies in Modernism (also
COM 567
) Selected topics and problems in modern literature, culture, and criticism.
ENG 568 Criticism and Theory (also
COM 568
) A study in the major texts in criticism and theory. Authors include Plato, Aristotle, Sidney, Shelley, Derrida, and Foucault, among others. Topics include mimesis, structuralism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and new historicism.
ENG 571 Literary and Cultural Theory A study of the role of culture in literary practice and theory. Topics include postmodernism, post-colonialism, feminism, performance theory, queer theory, and popular cultures, among others.
ENG 572 Introduction to Critical Theory (also
HUM 570
) The ethical, historical, and political dimensions of Jacques Derrida's thought and writings.
ENG 573 Problems in Literary Study (also
COM 573
) An examination of selected issues or texts that offer radical challenges to the profession of literary study today. Intended for students in all periods of specialization.
ENG 574 Literature and Society Selected topics in the relation of literature to social, political, or historical issues.
ENG 581 Seminar in Pedagogy Course will analyze and apply readings on pedagogical theory and method, and discuss particular problems and successes in precepts, methods of leading discussions; obligations and protocols of grading, preparing syllabi and lectures, and writing letters of recommendation. Course members will visit each other's classes and prepare critiques, contribute weekly to a course blog, and prepare a statement of teaching philosophy and teaching portfolio. Required of all graduate students in English teaching as AI's for the first time. Normally taken in Spring Term of third year.
ENG 582 Graduate Writing Seminar While dissertation seminars invite students to map the territory and the stakes of their thesis, and article workshops tailor writing for specific journals, this seminar focuses on the craft of writing. Our premise is that craft and argument are mutually constitutive and our method is deliberative slow motion, tracking words, sentences, paragraphs with care. Each week we read and critique 2-3 paragraphs of each student's prose, on the understanding that they are revised the following week, when we take up the next 2-3 paragraphs. By the end of the term, each student should have a polished article, chapter or talk.
HUM 595 Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (also
MOD 506
/
ENG 594
) In the IHUM tradition, this course is team-taught, often by faculty from two different departments. Courses that fall under this topic are widely cross-listed and intended to attract students from many departments and programs. These topics are the most interdisciplinary of the IHUM offerings, aiming to bring together combinations of art, philosophy, literature, history in theory and practice, criticism, and methods from the qualitative social sciences.
HUM 599 Interpretation (also
ENG 548
/
HOS 589
) The arts of interpretation across the disciplines.