The English Department Honors Program offers majors an opportunity to spend their senior year concentrating on a specific course of research or creative endeavor. During the Fall semester, students in the program will participate in a special Honors Seminar limited to about fifteen students. The topic of the seminar itself changes each year. During the following Spring semester, students will pursue an independent research or creative project leading to the composition of an Honors Thesis. This need not relate to the work they do in the seminar, but should allow them to pursue a topic of their own devising. Theses and creative manuscripts in the past have included "Seventeenth-Century Religious Poetry," "Star Wars," "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," "Angela Carter," "Ralph Waldo Emerson and Cultural Critique," "Motion: A Collection of Short Stories," and "Twelve Angry Wimmin: A One-Act Play" that was produced. All junior English majors are invited to apply.

Application forms are available in the English department office, Morey 404.  You may also download the application here or complete the application online.  Completed applications must be returned to the English department no later than Monday, March 31.  If you have any questions whatsoever about the seminar, please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Fall 2008 ENG 396 Honors Seminar: Literature of Confusion

What can prominent English and American writers of the 20th century tell us about a subject that, by definition, resists our understanding? What can we learn from literature about confusion and the intricacies of contradictory thought? How do we make sense of senselessness? These are the main questions we will address as we examine important modern and contemporary works of fiction, poetry, and drama that represent encounters with confusion and enact the struggle to communicate meaning. We'll look at important precedents in the stories of Gogol, Poe and Melville. We'll read novels by Conrad, Woolf, Mann, and Sebald, short fiction by a variety of modern and contemporary writers (including Stein, Baldwin, and Barthelme), the poetry of T.S. Eliot, and plays by ONeill and Beckett. This class is limited to senior English majors who have been accepted into the Honors Program.

CRN: 48458
Days/Time: T 1400 1640
Building/Room: Morey 505
Instructor: Scott, Joanna