Professor
Priya Joshi
English 100, Fall 2004
M,W 1:30-3pm, 305 Wheeler
Office Hours: MW 3:15-4:45pm
Office: 451 Wheeler Hall
Phone: 510-642-2377
e-mail: pjoshi@socrates.berkeley.edu
The Course
This is a research intensive junior seminar that explores some of the compulsions
and contradictions inherent in the fabrication of a national culture.
We will begin by posing two questions: who are the "English" who
have named our language, this department, and a vast literature that
has often had little to do with "England"? What is "Englishness"?
This course is an attempt to play with these questions while reading
a collection of bestselling late-19th- and 20th-century works (poems,
essays, and novels mostly) and using the resources of the library and
various kinds of criticism to thicken our inquiry. We will remain attentive
to the myths of "English" preeminence in global cultural
and political economy, even as we observe its post-War decline. And
we will evaluate the extent to which "Englishness" constantly
defined (and redefined) itself alongside and against issues of race,
sexuality, nation, location, class, gender, and empire.
The Requirements
In keeping with the research and methods mandate of English 100, we will
make several class trips to Doe and Bancroft Libraries in order to prepare
to write a major research paper. Class requirements include vigorous
and constructive seminar participation, one graded oral presentation,
2 short
essays (5-7 pages each), and a longer research paper (15 pages) that
is due the last day of class (December 8th). There is no mid-term or
final exam.
Note: Students are required to have completed at least two courses from
the 45A-B-C sequence prior to enrolling in this seminar.
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