Spring 2016 brings over 100 courses to UC Berkeley students

The English Department is proud to offer over 100 courses to both graduate and undergraduate students this semester.

A quarter of the classes offered this semester are those are designed specifically to meet the University wide Reading and Composition requirement – these course are typically taught by grad students and are taken by Freshman or Sophomore students both inside and outside of the department. One such course, “Black Radical Thought,” is being taught by grad student Ismail Muhammad; this course asks students to consider the origins and concerns of a radical African American intellectual tradition through such texts as Nella Larsen’s Passing and Claudia Rankine’s Citizen* (winner of the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award.)

For undergrads in the department, there is no shortage of interesting classes to choose from.  “Studies in World Literature in English: Postcolonial Sex,” a course being taught by Professor Poulomi Saha, asks students to consider how western conceptualizations of gender and sexuality translate to a postcolonial literary context.  In Professor Eric Falci’s course, “Literature and the Arts: Literature and Music,” students investigate the reciprocally generative relationship between music and literature from the mid-ninteenth century and on.  For students interested in working on their writing, there are 6 different writing courses offered this semester, including a “Short Fiction,” course taught by novelist Joyce Carol Oates.

Graduate students have a variety of courses to choose from this semester, as well. In “Aesthetics and Politics: Kant and Beyond,” a graduate reading course taught by Professor Steven Goldsmith, students are asked to look at the emphasis of aesthetic values in literary theory while considering questions and constructs of its value.  For students interested in a broad historical perspective on Anglo-Saxon literature, Professor Janet Sorensen’s seminar course, “The Later-Eighteenth Century,” covers a wide range of genres from 1740 to the end of the century.

If you’re interesting in learning more about the department’s courses this semester, feel free to read through our complete course offerings.

*Rankine visited the department early last year as a reader in the Holloway Poetry Series. For more information about the series, please visit their website.