Engl 455: Edith Wharton and Her Times

Professor Dale Bauer will be teaching a second eight-week course in the spring. The course fulfills:

The group IV Major Author requirement for English majors,

A course toward the literature requirement for Creative Writing majors,

The African-American, Ethnic Minority, or Women’s Literature Course for Teaching of English Major (as well as your Major Author)

Advanced hours in LAS for ALL majors

 

Please read the course description below:

 

ENGLISH 455:  Edith Wharton and Her Times

Spring 2013, Second 8-week session (March 11-May 1, MWF 10-11:30)

CRN- 59514, section 00U (Room 131 EB)

 

This class will focus on major U.S. author Edith Wharton (1862-1937), whose 19 novels and novellas and 11 short story collections created a career devoted to what one of her biographers calls “the social chronicler of her age.”  We will start with her short stories: some about love and romance (“Roman Fever”), some about personal careers (“The Other Two”), and others about social comedy (“Xingu”). Over the course of the semester, we will read a few of her most famous novels, including The House of Mirth (1905), from her illustrious career.  Many films have been based on her works, and we will be comparing a few of them to the literary works themselves.

 

Assignments for this course will include the following:  short responses to Wharton’s writing, a focused paper on the cultural history (5 pages), a midterm and a final.