Daniel Birkholz

E 314L  l  4-Texts and Contexts-HONORS

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #: 34340

Semester:  Fall 2020

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisites:  One of the following: E 303C (or 603A), RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 303C (or 603A).

Description:  An introduction to contemporary literary study, with a focus on close textual analysis, genre, and methodology. Works will be considered in their social and historical contexts, but also in terms of their evolving critical contexts (i.e., from multiple, sometimes conflicting, theoretical perspectives). Expect considerable attention to the writing process in all its steps.

Upon completion of the course, students will have gained a solid grasp of various seminal texts, chosen from across a broad sweep of history. Even more importantly, students will acquire a set of critical tools (writing, reading, research, and analytical skills) that will enable them to approach classic or emerging texts in new and original ways. No prior experience with literary study is expected, but student engagement, enthusiasm, and self-direction are highly desirable.

Texts:  The Song of Songs; Sappho, Poems and Fragments; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer; Wycherley, The Country Wife; Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest; Conan Doyle, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Kipling, Kim; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Reed, Mumbo Jumbo; Course Packet (selections from Sedgwick, Frye, Eagleton, Bahktin, Said, etc.).

Requirements & Grading:  Assignment specifics to be distributed & discussed; percentages approximate and subject to change.

Three 5+ pp. papers (plus required drafts for first two; required 1-page prospectus for all three), 25% each; In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, peer feedback, citizenship), 25%; On-time Attendance (every absence beg. w/#4 will reduce ICP grade; NC at #9), Required; On-time Completion of Reading & Writing Assignments, Required.

E 348T  l  JRR Tolkien

[previously offered as E349S]

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #: 34965

Semester:  Fall 2020

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisite:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  An in-depth study of the key figure in the history of English medieval-fantasy writing.  JRR Tolkien is widely regarded as the single most influential writer in this genre, but he does not exist in a vacuum.  His work displays majors debts to Victorian precursors; it connects crucially with the projects of his contemporaries, most famously the Oxford-based “Inklings”; and it simply would not have been possible without Tolkien’s lifelong immersion in the medieval English and Norse literary tradition it was his profession to study and teach.  Tolkien’s influence on subsequent writers can hardly be overstated—and even more profound has been his impact in such areas of popular culture as fantasy film; historical re-enactment; and game-design.

In this course we’ll read Tolkien’s major Middle Earth works, along with certain others; consider his influences and sources; view clips from Peter Jackson’s films; engage with a sampling of Tolkien-inspired popular culture; and do our best to understand these texts in the context of their times as well as from the perspective of various critical approaches.  Expect lots of reading; animated discussion; open-ended writing prompts; and an opportunity to pursue some unusual lines of analysis and research.  No prior experience with the author or with “medievalist” literary study, film, or popular culture is expected, but student engagement and enthusiasm are highly desirable.

Key Texts:  J.R.R. Tolkien:  The Hobbit (Houghton Mifflin); The Fellowship of the Ring (Houghton Mifflin); , The Two Towers (Houghton Mifflin); The Return of the King (Houghton Mifflin); The Monsters & the Critics and Other Essays (Harper Collins).

Peter Jackson (dir.):  The Lord of the Rings (2001; 2002; 2003); The Hobbit (2012; 2013; 2014)

Grading & Requirements:  New Inklings Portfolio Project ((prompt-based bi-weekly writing & peer feedback), 60%; Take-Home Integrative Essay (essay prompt + workshop reflection; distributed at last class), 20%; In-Class Performance ((preparation, discussion, engagement, heroism, citizenship), 20%; On-time Attendance (every absence beg. w/#3 will reduce ICP grade; NC at #6), Required.

E 352K l Arthurian Literature and Film

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  35560

Semester:  Spring 2020

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisite: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: A survey of the major Arthurian narratives from their origins in the Middle Ages to the present in various textual (prose, poetry, drama) and visual (illustration, film, graphic) forms.

Texts required for purchase: Marie Borroff, tr., Sir Gawain & the Green Knight (Norton: 978-0393930252); Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur(Oxford World Classics:978-0-19-953734-1); Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Penguin: 978-0140430646)

Texts available on Canvas:  Chrétien de Troyes, “Lancelot, or, The Knight of the Cart”; T.C. Kennedy, tr., “Poems about Love, Women & Sex from B.L. Harley 2253”; William Morris, The Defense of Guenevere & Other Poems[selections]; Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King[selections]; Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon [selections]; Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave[selections]; T.H. White, The Once and Future King[“The Ill-Made Knight”]; Barr & Boland, Camelot 3000 [graphic novel; selections]; Neal Gaiman, “Chivalry”

Requirements & Grading: Medieval Film Paper (rough draft; revision; final draft), 25%; Take-Home Essay Exam (integrative essay prompts distributed on final class day), 25%; Final Examination (  short answer; passage ID; reading facts; devious matching), 25%; In-Class Performance (preparation, discussion, engagement, peer feedback, citizenship), 25%; On-time Attendance (every absence beginning w/#3 will reduce ICP grade; NC at #5), Required

Allassignmentsmust be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

E 379R l 2-Fiction and Medievalism

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  35685

Semester:  Spring 2020

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: Umberto Eco has said that every generation produces its own version of the Middle Ages.  By examining selected works of fiction (and some literary criticism, poetry, visual arts, and film), this course will explore how the category of ‘the medieval’ has been constructed (and its imagery activated) in post-medieval settings from the eighteenth century onwards.  Special attention will be paid to Victorian England and the twentieth century.

Texts(subject to change):  William Morris, The Wood Beyond the World; Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; Matthew Lewis, The Monk; Italo Calvino, The Non-Existent Knight; Barry Unsworth, Morality Play; Jill Paton Walsh, Knowledge of Angels; Norman Cantor, Inventing the Middle Ages; Mark Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing about Film.

Requirements & Grading: Grading will be determined by performance on two short essays (4 pp. each) and 1major seminar paper (8+ pp; significant research and revision of draft versions required, as per writing flag guidelines) as well as by in-class performance, preparation, discussion, engagement, attendance, reading checks, and peer feedback.  Each absence beginning with #4 will reduce in-class portion of grade; no passing grade is possible with 9+ absences.  Papers approx.80%; in-class performance approx. 20%.

* Disability Accommodation:  The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request apt academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.  For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).

E 349S  l  JRR Tolkien

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  35070

Semester:  Fall 2019

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisite:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: An in-depth study of the key figure in the history of English medieval-fantasy writing.  JRR Tolkien is widely regarded as the single most influential writer in this genre, but he does not exist in a vacuum.  His work displays majors debts to Victorian precursors; it connects crucially with the projects of his contemporaries, most famously the Oxford-based “Inklings”; and it simply would not have been possible without Tolkien’s lifelong immersion in the medieval English and Norse literary tradition it was his profession to study and teach.  Tolkien’s influence on subsequent writers can hardly be overstated—and even more profound has been his impact in such areas of popular culture as fantasy film; historical re-enactment; and game-design.

In this course we’ll read Tolkien’s major Middle Earth works, along with certain others; consider his influences and sources; view clips from Peter Jackson’s films; engage with a sampling of Tolkien-inspired popular culture; and do our best to understand these texts in the context of their times as well as from the perspective of various critical approaches.  Expect lots of reading; animated discussion; open-ended writing prompts; and an opportunity to pursue some unusual lines of analysis and research.  No prior experience with the author or with “medievalist” literary study, film, or popular culture is expected, but student engagement and enthusiasm are highly desirable.

Key Texts: J.R.R. Tolkien:  The Hobbit (Houghton Mifflin); The Fellowship of the Ring (Houghton Mifflin); , The Two Towers (Houghton Mifflin); The Return of the King (Houghton Mifflin); The Monsters & the Critics and Other Essays(Harper Collins).

Peter Jackson (dir.):  The Lord of the Rings(2001; 2002; 2003); The Hobbit(2012; 2013; 2014)

Grading and Requirements: New Inklings Portfolio Project (periodic writing responses & peer feedback), 25%; Middle Earth Reading Exam (short answer; passage ID; reading facts; devious matching), 25%; Take-Home Integrative Essay (essay prompts distributed in class), 25%; In-Class Performance (preparation, discussion, engagement, citizenship), 25%; On-time Attendance (every absence beg. w/#4 will reduce ICP grade; NC at #7), Required.

E 352V  l  Viking Literature

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  35115

Semester:  Fall 2019

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: A seminar that doubles as an introduction to medieval literary study, with a focus, first, on the epic Anglo-Saxon masterpiece Beowulf(in Nobel-winning poet Seamus Heaney’s celebrated translation); next, on some classics of Icelandic family-feud saga-literature; and finally, on surviving shards of Old Norse mythological (Eddic and skaldic) poetry—by turns heroic, mischievous, and formally intricate.  Leaving the Middle Ages, we will end the course by looking at modern and contemporary takes on Viking culture, from museum exhibits to historical reenactment, from postmodern fiction to popular film, from graphic novel to digital gaming.  No prior experience with medieval literary study is expected, but student engagement and enthusiasm are highly desirable.  There will be research, but of the kind one is excited to do.

Texts: Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Norton; tr. Heaney); Hrafnkel’s Saga & Other Stories(Penguin, tr. Palsson); The Saga of the People of Laxardal (Penguin; tr. Kunz); Egil’s Saga(Penguin; tr. Scudder); Gisli Sursson’s Saga (Penguin; tr. Regal & Quinn); Njal’s Saga(Penguin; tr. Cook); The Vinland Sagas(Penguin; tr. Kunz); Snorri Sturluson, Edda[a.k.a. The Prose Edda] (Everyman; tr. Faulk); The Poetic Edda: A Book of Viking Lore (Texas; tr. Hollander); Supplemental Course Packet (Canvas).

Requirements & Grading: Viking Britain Paper (4-6 pp.), 25%; Saga Paper (7-8+ pp.), 40%; Viking Inheritance Research Project (oral presentation + handout), 15%; In-Class Performance (discussion, engagement, preparation, research, writing process work), 20%; On-time Attendance, Required (every absence beginning with #4 will reduce in-class performance grade); On-time Completion of Reading, Writing & Feedback Assignments, Required.

All assignmentsmust be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

E s352K  l  Arthurian Literature and Film-GBR

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #: 80800

Semester: Summer 2019, Oxford Summer Program, second term

Cross-lists: n/a

Prerequisite: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: A survey of the major Arthurian narratives from their origins in the Middle Ages to the present in various textual (prose, poetry, drama) and visual (illustration, film, graphic) forms.

Texts required for purchase:  Marie Borroff, tr., Sir Gawain & the Green Knight (Norton: 978-0393930252); Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur(Oxford World Classics:978-0-19-953734-1); Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Penguin: 978-0140430646)

Texts available on Canvas:  T.C. Kennedy, tr., “Poems about Love, Women & Sex from B.L. Harley 2253”; William Morris, The Defense of Guenevere & Other Poems[selections]; Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King[selections]; Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon [selections]; Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave[selections]; Barr & Boland, Camelot 3000 [graphic novel; selections]; Neal Gaiman, “Chivalry”

Requirements & Grading: Medieval Encounters” Reading & Critical Reflection Journal (2 entries/week) 60%; “Arthurian Film-Fest” Presentation, Scene Analysis (1 page), & Response (1 page) 20%;In-Class Performance (preparation, discussion, engagement, excursions, citizenship) 20%;On-time Attendance (every absence beg. w/#3 will reduce ICP grade; NC at #5) Required

All assignments must be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #: 35564

Semester:  Spring 2019

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction: No

Prerequisite:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: An in-depth study of the key figure in the history of English medieval-fantasy writing.  JRR Tolkien is widely regarded as the single most influential writer in this genre, but he does not exist in a vacuum.  His work displays majors debts to Victorian precursors; it connects crucially with the projects of his contemporaries, most famously the Oxford-based “Inklings”; and it simply would not have been possible without Tolkien’s lifelong immersion in the medieval English and Norse literary tradition it was his profession to study and teach.  Tolkien’s influence on subsequent writers can hardly be overstated—and even more profound has been his impact in such areas of popular culture as fantasy film; historical re-enactment; and game-design.

In this course we’ll read Tolkien’s major Middle Earth works, along with certain others; consider his influences and sources; view clips from Peter Jackson’s films; engage with a sampling of Tolkien-inspired popular culture; and do our best to understand these texts in the context of their times as well as from the perspective of various critical approaches.  Expect lots of reading; animated discussion; open-ended writing prompts; and an opportunity to pursue some unusual lines of analysis and research.  No prior experience with the author or with “medievalist” literary study, film, or popular culture is expected, but student engagement and enthusiasm are highly desirable.

Key Texts: 

J.R.R. Tolkien:  The Hobbit (Houghton Mifflin); The Fellowship of the Ring (Houghton Mifflin); , The Two Towers (Houghton Mifflin); The Return of the King (Houghton Mifflin); The Monsters & the Critics and Other Essays(Harper Collins).

Peter Jackson (dir.):  The Lord of the Rings(2001; 2002; 2003); The Hobbit(2012; 2013; 2014)

Grading and Requirements: New Inklings Portfolio Project (periodic writing responses & peer feedback), 25%; Middle Earth Reading Exam (short answer; passage ID; reading facts; devious matching), 25%; Take-Home Integrative Essay (essay prompts distributed in class), 25%; In-Class Performance (preparation, discussion, engagement, citizenship), 25%; On-time Attendance (every absence beg. w/#4 will reduce ICP grade; NC at #7), Required.

This seminar will examine early English dramatic practice via an approach that is text-based but also interdisciplinary—not to mention conceptually expansive. This means considering not only medieval ‘plays’ themselves, but also social performance (e.g., occasions of heightened role-playing) in a broader sense: the performance of community and/or identity, of social manners and political standing, of gender, discipline, devotion, and more.

On a first level, we will analyze how and to what ends medieval subjects themselves (performers and audiences alike) make meaning through dramatic activity. But more than simply seeking to recover some supposedly authentic version of the medieval past, we will also ask what exactly it means to ‘perform the medieval’ in various modern and contemporary contexts (scholarly, artistic, popular, & otherwise). We shall push beyond the usual activity of scholarly ‘reconstruction’ (however responsible) to consider what is involved in any attempt to ‘get medieval’—in this case to engage with an early English dramatic/performative inheritance--and style. Ultimately, we shall look to produce re-stagings of the medieval that are sound (if by definition, never authoritative) in their textual and historical precision, yet open to the (recursive) intellectual and creative influences of both past and present.

Seminar participants NEED NOT be medieval/early modern specialists, or drama/performance specialists, or practicing literary scholars; cross-period, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Research opportunities will be tailored so as to fit, challenge and extend individual scholarly trajectories, within the context of our shared inquiry. Most texts will be in English (with glosses for Middle English [easy to pick up, don’t worry] and translations for a few in French or Latin).

REQUIREMENTS: A Seminar Paper, which shall include: project prospectus; substantial outside research; rough draft; active peer-review of colleagues’ work; revision; and professional polishing. Short ‘article analysis’ and/or ‘literature review’ assignments are likely, as build-up to the term project. Semi-formal oral presentation duties may occasionally be assigned.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE: A major component of the course will involve the conception, planning, research, drafting, revising, and polishing of the seminar paper, ideally to be put to some professional end. A certain amount of proactive self-direction (especially in terms of research agenda) will be expected of all seminar participants, as will a willingness to meet draft/revision deadlines and peer-feedback obligations.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  35780

Semester:  Fall 2018

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  A writing-flag seminar that doubles as an introduction to medieval literary study, with a focus, first, on the epic Anglo-Saxon masterpiece Beowulf (in Nobel-winning poet Seamus Heaney’s celebrated translation); next, on some classics of Icelandic family-feud saga-literature; and finally, on surviving shards of Old Norse mythological (Eddic and skaldic) poetry—by turns heroic, mischievous, and formally intricate.  Leaving the Middle Ages, we will end the course by looking at modern and contemporary takes on Viking culture, from museum exhibits to historical reenactment, from postmodern fiction to popular film, from graphic novel to digital gaming.  No prior experience with medieval literary study is expected, but student engagement and enthusiasm are highly desirable.  There will be research, but of the kind one is excited to do.

Texts:  Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Norton; tr. Heaney); Hrafnkel’s Saga & Other Stories (Penguin, tr. Palsson); The Saga of the People of Laxardal (Penguin; tr. Kunz); Egil’s Saga (Penguin; tr. Scudder); Gisli Sursson’s Saga (Penguin; tr. Regal & Quinn); Njal’s Saga (Penguin; tr. Cook); The Vinland Sagas (Penguin; tr. Kunz); Snorri Sturluson, Edda [a.k.a. The Prose Edda] (Everyman; tr. Faulk); The Poetic Edda: A Book of Viking Lore (Texas; tr. Hollander); Supplemental Course Packet (Canvas).

Requirements & Grading:  Viking Britain Paper (4-6 pp.), 25%; Saga Paper (7-8+ pp.), 40%; Viking Inheritance Research Project (oral presentation + handout), 15%; In-Class Performance (discussion, engagement, preparation, research, writing process work), 20%; On-time Attendance, Required (every absence beginning with #4 will reduce in-class performance grade); On-time Completion of Reading, Writing & Feedback Assignments, Required.

All assignments must be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  81440

Semester:  Summer 2018, second term

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisite:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  A survey of the major Arthurian narratives from their origins in the Middle Ages to the present in various textual (prose, poetry, drama) and visual (illustration, film, graphic) forms.

Texts required for purchase:  Marie Borroff, tr., Sir Gawain & the Green Knight (Norton: 978-0393930252); Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur (Oxford World Classics: 978-0-19-953734-1); Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Penguin: 978-0140430646)

Texts available on Canvas:  Chrétien de Troyes, “Lancelot, or, The Knight of the Cart”; T.C. Kennedy, tr., “Poems about Love, Women & Sex from B.L. Harley 2253”; William Morris, The Defense of Guenevere & Other Poems [selections]; Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King [selections]; Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon [selections]; Mary Stewart, The Crystal Cave [selections]; T.H. White, The Once and Future King [“The Ill-Made Knight”]; Barr & Boland, Camelot 3000 [graphic novel; selections]; Neal Gaiman, “Chivalry”

Requirements & Grading:  Medieval Film Paper (rough draft; revision; final draft), 25%; Take-Home Essay Exam (integrative essay prompts distributed on final class day), 25%; Final Examination (  short answer; passage ID; reading facts; devious matching), 25%; In-Class Performance (preparation, discussion, engagement, peer feedback, citizenship), 25%; On-time Attendance (every absence beginning w/#3 will reduce ICP grade; NC at #5), Required

All assignments must be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  34960

Semester:  Fall 2017

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  English Honors; Plan I Honors

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: E 303C (or 603A), RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 303C (or 603A).

Description:  This course is designed to prepare students for the English major.  We will read, discuss, and write about a collection of texts in several complementary ways: we will consider the text of each work, its literary and historical contexts, and the cultural contests in which it has participated.

When we consider the text of each work, we will examine stylistic and aesthetic elements (e.g., the author's use of character, setting, imagery, language patterns, and even sentence syntax) and how those elements contribute to the work's broader themes and apparent purposes.

In considering each work's relationship to its literary and historical context, we will read a number of historical documents as well as shorter literary works from the period in which the work was written.  Some questions we'll ask:  what kinds of historical knowledge does the work assume its reader to have? How was the work in question shaped by—and how did it shape—historically specific events, issues, and literary trends?

Finally, we will consider how each of the central works has fared since its publication—that is, how it has been valued and devalued in various cultural "contests."  For whom has it been especially important?  When has it been considered "great literature"?  By what criteria has it been judged since its first publication?  Does the work have any social, intellectual, or aesthetic value at present?

Texts:  The Song of Songs; Sappho, Poems and Fragments; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer; Wycherley, The Country Wife; Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest; Conan Doyle, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Kipling, Kim; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Reed, Mumbo Jumbo; Course Packet (selections from Sedgwick, Frye, Eagleton, Bahktin, Said, etc.).

Requirements & Grading:  Assignment specifics to be distributed & discussed; percentages approximate and subject to change.

Three 5-7+ pp. papers (plus required drafts for first two; required 1-page prospectus for all three), 25% each; In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, peer feedback), 25%; Attendance (repeated absences will affect grade), Required; On-time Completion of Reading & Writing Assignments, Required.

Please Note: All assignments must be completed satisfactorily in order for you to receive any passing grade for the course.

Digital, Celluloid and Performative Medievalisms 

The goal of this seminar is to provide curious and self-directed graduate students with exposure to critical and theoretical materials they will need in order to compete (and maybe even thrive) in a new market for early literary study, one which will increasingly prize (and even require) expertise in popular culture and new media methodologies that previously were dismissed as “not real scholarship.”

There was a time when the study of “medievalism” (post-medieval-period responses to, constructions of, and creative engagements with the era known as the Middle Ages) was roundly denigrated, but nowadays the study of medievalism and of medieval studies proper go hand-in-hand. Recognition that we constitute (and continually reconstitute) the object of our historical scholarly study has become de rigueur. And if contemporary medieval studies has ANY growth areas (which, thankfully, it seems to), these cluster overwhelmingly under the rubrics of digital medievalism (from high-scholarly “digital humanities” projects to the high-dollar-sign industry of gaming); celluloid medievalism (production of films on medieval or medieval-esque fantasy subjects has ALWAYS been strong, and remains robust); and performative medievalism. Despite what some may assume to be the perceived dominance of filmic and digital platforms for engaging with the medieval past, this last category, of role-playing in its many forms--D&D-style, costuming/cosplay, Med/Ren festivals, historical theme-parks, educational and recreational reenactments, Medieval Times dinner theatres, standard medieval themed drama, and the like--remains a tenacious socio-cultural counterbalancing form.

Students who come prepared to give as much they get will emerge from the course equipped to study these important historical and contemporary phenomena productively--on both on high culture and popular culture sides--and, depending on degrees of interest and technical/digital expertise, may also make space to develop their portfolio on the digital-humanities side. Please note that significant initiative will be expected from seminar participants, as well as flexibility on all fronts. Expect a joint-learning partnership where we approach these important, burgeoning fields together. (That is to say: you are welcome to go there, but I am not the person who is going to teach you coding, or who’ll provide hands-on technical facility with emergent digital platforms…)

REQUIREMENTS:

• semi-formal response papers and/or discussion leading responsibility on 2-3 occasions

• close reading sub-essays, followed by preliminary research and project proposals for each of our main units, on filmic medievalism; performative medievalism; and digital medievalism (high/archival-academic and low/popular realms), respectively

• seminar paper (15+ pp?) that develops one of these “seed project” proposals into a full-blown, research-oriented, theoretically engaged, text-centered semester-concluding essay

Seminar participants NEED NOT be medievalist, but proactive self-direction (esp. in terms of research agenda) will be expected of all, as will a willingness to meet draft/revision deadlines & peer-feedback obligations. Readings will be based, in part, on negotiation with seminar members.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  35430

Semester:  Spring 2017

Cross-lists:  LAH 350

Restrictions:  English Honors; Liberal Arts Honors

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  An in-depth study of two key figures in the early history of English medieval-fantasy writing, with opportunties for individualized, cross-disciplinary research.  Tolkien is widely regarded as the single most influential writer in this genre, full stop; and he himself acknowledged his debts to his “Arts & Crafts” precursor Morris, a gifted polymath and major figure in a variety of cultural forms (from poetry, fiction, translation, and medieval scholarship, to architecture, design, printing, handicrafts, and politics).  We’ll read multiple works by both writers and do our best to understand them in the context of their times as well as from the perspective of various critical approaches arising since.  Expect lots of reading; engaged discussion; and unusual research.  No prior experience with the authors or “medievalist” literary study is expected, but student engagement and enthusiasm are highly desirable.

Texts:  J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (Houghton Mifflin), The Fellowship of the Ring (Houghton Mifflin), The Two Towers (Houghton Mifflin), The Return of the King (Houghton Mifflin), The Monsters & the Critics and Other Essays (Harper Collins).

William Morris’s The Wood Beyond the World (Inkling Books), News from Nowhere & Other Writings (Penguin Classics), The Defence of Guenevere & Other Poems, The House of the Wulfings (Inkling Books).

Requirements & Requirements:  (assignment specifics discussed in class; percentages approximate & subject to change)

Morris Paper (5-7+ pp.; prospectus, draft, revision), 20%; Morris Research Presentation (handouts/visual aids; synopsis; bibliography),20%; Tolkien Research Paper & Presentation (8-10+ pp.; prospectus, draft, revision), 40%; In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, process work), 20%; On-time Attendance (note: every absence beginning with #4 will reduce grade), Required; On-time Completion of Reading, Writing, Research, & Feedback Assignments, Required.

All assignments must be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

E s350E  l  Getting Chivalric: The Once and Future Middle Ages—GBR

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  82125

Semester:  Summer 2016, second term

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions: Oxford Summer Program participants

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  Every generation produces its own version of the Middle Ages.  Using literature, film, and popular culture, this course examines how the conventions of medieval courtly love and chivalric romance have been utilized—often parodied—from the 14th century to the 21st.  We will move from classics like Sir Gawain & the Green Knight and Malory's Le Morte Darthur, through 19th-century romanticism and pragmatism, to the early British fantasists (Tolkien, TH White), feminist neo-paganists (The Mists of Avalon), and beyond (Neil Gaiman; Camelot 3000; Monty Python & the Holy Grail).  Show-stoppers to include Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court; some unspeakably bawdy medieval fabliaux; and our very own Arthurian film fest.  Camelot has become difficult to find, but expect excursions to sites such as Stonehenge; Cornwall’s Tintagel Castle (where King Arthur was conceived); Glastonbury Abbey (where he’s buried); and Avalon Tor (inside of which he’s still living).  Class will probably not be held at The Eagle & Child, the Oxford pub where Tolkien, Lewis & the Inklings met on Mondays between the wars…

Requirements & Grading:  “Medieval Encounters” Reading & Critical Reflection Journal, 40%; “Post-Medieval Medievalism” Oral Research Presentation (w/1-p. synopsis), 20%; “Arthurian Film Fest” clip-presentation and response (2 pp), 20%; In-Class Performance (preparation, discussion, engagement, citizenship), 20%; On-time Attendance (every absence beg. w/#3 reduces ICP grade; NC at #5), Required.

E 350E  l  Viking Literature

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  34620

Semester:  Spring 2016

Cross-lists:  n/a

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: A writing-flag seminar that doubles as an introduction to medieval literary study, with a focus, first, on the epic Anglo-Saxon masterpiece Beowulf (in Nobel-winning poet Seamus Heaney’s celebrated translation); next, on some classics of Icelandic family-feud saga-literature; and finally, on surviving shards of Old Norse mythological (Eddic and skaldic) poetry—by turns heroic, mischievous, and formally intricate. Leaving the Middle Ages, we will end the course by looking at modern and contemporary takes on Viking culture, from museum exhibits to historical reenactment, from postmodern fiction to popular film, from graphic novel to digital gaming.No prior experience with medieval literary study is expected, but student engagement and enthusiasm are highly desirable. There will be research, but of the kind one is excited to do.

Texts: Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Norton; tr. Heaney); Hrafnkel’s Saga & Other Stories (Penguin, tr. Palsson); The Saga of the People of Laxardal (Penguin; tr. Kunz); Egil’s Saga (Penguin; tr. Scudder); Gisli Sursson’s Saga (Penguin; tr. Regal & Quinn); Njal’s Saga (Penguin; tr. Cook); The Vinland Sagas (Penguin; tr. Kunz); Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda (Penguin; tr. Byock); The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore (Penguin; tr. Orchard); Supplemental Course Packet.

Requirements & Grading: (specifics discussed in class; percentages approximate & subject to change)

Viking Britain Paper (4-6 pp.), 25%; Saga Paper (6-8+ pp.), 35%; Viking Inheritance Research Project (2 pp. + oral presentation), 20%; In-Class Performance (discussion, engagement, preparation, research, writing process work), 20%; On-time Attendance, Required (note: every absence beginning with #4 will reduce in-class performance grade); On-time Completion of Reading, Writing & Feedback Assignments, Required.

All assignments must be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

E 314L  l  4-Texts and Contexts-HONORS

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  33855

Semester:  Fall 2015

Cross-lists:  n/a

Flags:  Writing

Restrictions:  English Honors; Plan I Honors

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: One of the following: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: This course is designed to prepare students for the English major. We will read, discuss, and write about a collection of texts in several complementary ways: we will consider the text of each work, its literary and historical contexts, and the cultural contests in which it has participated.

When we consider the text of each work, we will examine stylistic and aesthetic elements (e.g., the author's use of character, setting, imagery, language patterns, and even sentence syntax) and how those elements contribute to the work's broader themes and apparent purposes.

In considering each work's relationship to its literary and historical context, we will read a number of historical documents as well as shorter literary works from the period in which the work was written. Some questions we'll ask: what kinds of historical knowledge does the work assume its reader to have? How was the work in question been shaped by—and how did it shape—historically specific events, issues, and literary trends?

Finally, we will consider how each of the central works has fared since its publication—that is, how it has been valued and devalued in various cultural "contests." For whom has it been especially important? When has it been considered "great literature"? By what criteria has it been judged since its first publication? Does the work have any social, intellectual, or aesthetic value at present?

Texts: The Song of Songs; Sappho, Poems and Fragments; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer; Wycherley, The Country Wife; Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest; Conan Doyle, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Kipling, Kim; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Reed, Mumbo Jumbo; Course Packet (selections from Sedgwick, Frye, Eagleton, Bahktin, Said, etc.).

Requirements & Grading: Assignment specifics to be distributed & discussed; percentages approximate and subject to change.

Three 5-7+ pp. papers (plus required drafts for first two; required 1-page prospectus for all three), 25% each; In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, peer feedback), 25%; Attendance (repeated absences will affect grade), Required; On-time Completion of Reading & Writing Assignments, Required.

Please Note: All assignments must be completed satisfactorily in order for you to receive any passing grade for the course.

E 316L  l  British Literature

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  33935-33940

Semester:  Fall 2015

Cross-lists:  n/a

Flags:  Global Cultures; Writing

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: One of the following: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: A survey of outstanding literary texts from medieval through modern England. Works will be considered in their social, historical, and evolving critical contexts.Students should expect hands-on, high-intensity, active engagement with our texts in every class session.Upon completion of the course, students will have gained an introductory grasp of English literary history and detailed knowledge of a handful of its seminal texts. More importantly, students will acquire a set of critical tools (writing, reading, research, and analytical skills) that will enable them to approach all texts (classic or popular) texts in new and original ways. No prior experience with literary study is expected, but student engagement, enthusiasm, and risk-taking are highly desirable.

Please note: As this is both a writing-flag variant of 316L, and a dynamic, interactive, workshop-based course, students should expect to 1/demonstrate their completion of reading assignments during in-class discussions and group-activities; and 2/further engage with assigned texts through informal, semi-formal, and formal writing exercises, both during class and in between classes. All writing process work (such as drafting, peer feedback, and revision) is required.

Please also note: In order to assure our focus, no screens will be allowed in class—whether phones, tablets, or laptops—unless arranged in advance through Student Disability Services.

Texts: Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Norton; trans. Seamus Heaney); Sir Gawain & the Green Knight (Norton; trans. Marie Boroff); William Shakespeare, Hamlet (Signet Classics); Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Norton); Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (Harcourt); Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana (Penguin Classics); plus a Supplemental Course Packet (featuring bawdy medieval fabliaux, along with short poems by Donne, Herrick, Marvell, Queen Elizabeth I, Wordsworth, Keats, Eliot, Larkin, and more).

Requirements & Grading: (assignment specifics discussed in class; percentages approximate & subject to change)

Old English Paper (3-4 pp)

15%

Middle English Paper (5-7 pp; outside research required)

25%

Shakespeare Group Production Paper (4-5 pages per student)

20%

Final Exam

20%

In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, process work)

20%

On-time Attendance (every absence beginning w/#3 will reduce grade; NC at #5)

Required

On-time Completion of Reading, Writing & Feedback Assignments

Required

All assignments must be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

Literatures of the 100 Years War: England and France in the Late Middle Ages

From the Norman Conquest (1066) through the end of the Middle Ages (c.1485) and beyond, England and France were politically, culturally, and—not least—linguistically interlaced. The two realms’ special and intense relationship took all manner of forms, including the literary. There is also the matter of a hundred-plus years of diplomatic skirmishing and military hostility (beginning c.1330s), during which each country tended to define itself against the other while becoming ever more culturally interconnected. Because scholarly accounts of medieval literature traditionally get split between Departments of French and Departments of English, only intermittently have their texts and traditions been studied in the sustained comparative context they require.

One chief goal of the seminar will be to provide students—from whatever disciplinary or sub-period “home”—with a working survey of major French medieval texts, culled from across the genres and authors prominent in the period. Another aspect of the course will be to examine texts and literary attitudes that are specifically Anglo-Norman, as distinct from (if necessarily related to) their Middle English, Old French, Occitan, and Latin analogues. The literature of Anglo-Norman England has been overlooked by scholars of Middle English and Old French alike, especially as literary-historical projects have dovetailed with nationalist cultural agendas. A third goal of the seminar will be to examine those texts in Middle English, Old French, and Anglo-Norman that together constitute a “Literature of the 100 Years War”—how, we will ask, did such documents result from or play a role in the famously roiling cultural and political relations between two late-medieval superpowers?

Seminar participants NEED NOT be medieval specialists, French language or English literature specialists, or even practicing literary historians; cross-period, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, especially as this period is notable (especially in England and France) for how it hosts multiple language and literary traditions. Research opportunities will be tailored so as to fit, challenge and extend individual scholarly trajectories, within the context of our shared inquiry. Wherever possible, texts will typically be offered in both original language and modern English translation, the latter to help inform (not replace) analysis of the former.

REQUIREMENTS: A Seminar Paper, which shall include: project prospectus; substantial outside research; rough draft; active peer-review of colleagues’ work; revision; and professional polishing. Short ‘textual analysis’ and/or ‘critical review’ assignments are also likely, as build-up to the term project/seminar paper. Semi-formal oral presentation duties may occasionally be assigned (e.g. student research on primary texts or scholarly materials which didn’t make it onto our syllabus.) Reading list to be distributed in due course.

PLEASE NOTE: A certain amount of proactive self-direction (esp. in terms of research agenda) will be expected of all participants, as will a willingness to meet draft/revision deadlines & peer-feedback obligations.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  35090

Semester:  Fall 2014

Cross-lists:  n/a

Flags:  Writing

Restrictions:  English Honors, Plan I Honors

Prerequisites: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: This course is designed to prepare students for the English major. We will read, discuss, and write about a collection of texts in several complementary ways: we will consider the text of each work, its literary and historical contexts, and the cultural contests in which it has participated.

When we consider the text of each work, we will examine stylistic and aesthetic elements (e.g., the author's use of character, setting, imagery, language patterns, and even sentence syntax) and how those elements contribute to the work's broader themes and apparent purposes.

In considering each work's relationship to its literary and historical context, we will read a number of historical documents as well as shorter literary works from the period in which the work was written. Some questions we'll ask: what kinds of historical knowledge does the work assume its reader to have? How was the work in question been shaped by—and how did it shape—historically specific events, issues, and literary trends?

Finally, we will consider how each of the central works has fared since its publication—that is, how it has been valued and devalued in various cultural "contests." For whom has it been especially important? When has it been considered "great literature"? By what criteria has it been judged since its first publication? Does the work have any social, intellectual, or aesthetic value at present?

Texts: The Song of Songs; Sappho, Poems and Fragments; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer; Wycherley, The Country Wife; Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest; Conan Doyle, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Kipling, Kim; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Reed, Mumbo Jumbo; Course Packet (selections from Sedgwick, Frye, Eagleton, Bahktin, Said, etc.).

Requirements & Grading: Assignment specifics to be distributed & discussed; percentages approximate and subject to change.

Three 5-7+ pp. papers (plus required drafts for first two; required 1-page prospectus for all three), 25% each; In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, peer feedback), 25%; Attendance (repeated absences will affect grade), Required; On-time Completion of Reading & Writing Assignments, Required.

Please Note: All assignments must be completed satisfactorily in order for you to receive any passing grade for the course.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  36015

Semester:  Fall 2014

Cross-lists:  n/a

Flags:  Independent Inquiry; Writing; Global Cultures

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Six semester hours of upper-division coursework in English.

Description: Umberto Eco has said that every generation produces its own version of the Middle Ages. By examining selected works of fiction (and some literary criticism, poetry, visual arts, and film), this course will explore how the category of ‘the medieval’ has been constructed (and its imagery activated) in post-medieval settings from the eighteenth century onwards. Special attention will be paid to Victorian England and the twentieth century.

Texts (subject to change)

William Morris, The Wood Beyond the World

Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

Matthew Lewis, The Monk

Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Italo Calvino, The Non-Existent Knight

Barry Unsworth, Morality Play

Jill Paton Walsh, Knowledge of Angels

Norman Cantor, Inventing the Middle Ages

Mark Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing about Film.

Requirements & Grading: Grading will be determined by performance on two short essays (4 pp. each) and 1major seminar paper (8+ pp; significant research and revision of draft versions required, as per writing flag guidelines) as well as by in-class performance, preparation, discussion, engagement, attendance, reading checks, and peer feedback. Each absence beginning with #4 will reduce in-class portion of grade; no passing grade is possible with 9+ absences. Papers approx. 80%; in-class performance approx. 20%.

* Disability Accommodation: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request apt academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).

Instructor:  Birkholz, D

Unique #:  35930

Semester:  Spring 2014

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: A survey of outstanding literary texts from medieval Scandinavia and Viking Britain, read in the (shifting) context of their various audiences from composition to the present day. Attention will be given to multiple critical perspectives, as well as to the insights provided by anthropology; social and political history; the visual arts and material culture; manuscript culture; oral and documentary traditions; and to some extent 19th- and 20th-century medievalism (i.e. how the medieval past has been constructed and used, and to what ends). No prior experience with the Middle Ages or literary study expected; however, student engagement and enthusiasm highly desirable.

Texts: Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Norton; tr. Heaney); Hrafnkel’s Saga & Other Stories (Penguin, tr. Palsson); Laxdaela Saga (Penguin; tr. Magnusson & Palsson); Three Icelandic Outlaw Sagas (Everyman; tr. Faulkes & Johnston); Njal’s Saga (Penguin; tr. Magnusson & Palsson); The Vinland Sagas (Penguin; tr. Magnusson & Palsson); Snorri Sturluson, Edda (Everyman; tr. Faulkes; a.k.a. Prose Edda or Younger Edda); The Poetic Edda (U Texas Press; tr. Hollander; a.k.a. Elder Edda); William Morris, The House of the Wulfings (Inkling); Supplemental Course Packet.

Requirements & Grading: (assignment specifics discussed in class; percentages approximate & subject to change)

Old English Paper (5+ pp.), 25%; Saga Paper (6-8+ pp.), 30%; Medievalism Paper & Presentation (5+ pp.), 25%; In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, process work), 20%; On-time Attendance (note: every absence beginning with #4 will reduce grade), Required; On-time Completion of Reading, Writing & Feedback Assignments, Required.

 All assignments must be completed satisfactorily  to receive any passing grade for the course.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D            Areas:  n/a

Unique #:  35015            Flags:  Writing

Semester:  Fall 2013            Restrictions:  English Honors, Plan I Honors

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  n/a

Prerequisites: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: This course is designed to prepare students for the English major. We will read, discuss, and write about a collection of texts in several complementary ways: we will consider the text of each work, its literary and historical contexts, and the cultural contests in which it has participated.

When we consider the text of each work, we will examine stylistic and aesthetic elements (e.g., the author's use of character, setting, imagery, language patterns, and even sentence syntax) and how those elements contribute to the work's broader themes and apparent purposes.

In considering each work's relationship to its literary and historical context, we will read a number of historical documents as well as shorter literary works from the period in which the work was written. Some questions we'll ask: what kinds of historical knowledge does the work assume its reader to have? How was the work in question been shaped by—and how did it shape—historically specific events, issues, and literary trends?

Finally, we will consider how each of the central works has fared since its publication—that is, how it has been valued and devalued in various cultural "contests." For whom has it been especially important? When has it been considered "great literature"? By what criteria has it been judged since its first publication? Does the work have any social, intellectual, or aesthetic value at present?

Texts: The Song of Songs; Sappho, Poems and Fragments; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer; Wycherley, The Country Wife; Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest; Conan Doyle, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Kipling, Kim; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Reed, Mumbo Jumbo; Course Packet (selections from Sedgwick, Frye, Eagleton, Bahktin, Said, etc.).

Requirements & Grading: Assignment specifics to be distributed & discussed; percentages approximate and subject to change.

Three 5-7+ pp. papers (plus required drafts for first two; required 1-page prospectus for all three), 25% each; In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, peer feedback), 25%; Attendance (repeated absences will affect grade), Required; On-time Completion of Reading & Writing Assignments, Required.

Please Note: All assignments must be completed satisfactorily in order for you to receive any passing grade for the course.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D Areas:  III / D

Unique #:  83760 Flags:  n/a

Semester:  Summer 2013, second session Restrictions:  Oxford Summer Program participants

Cross-lists:  n/a Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: Umberto Eco has said that every generation produces its own version of the Middle Ages. The great bulk of such ‘medievalism’ engages directly with the highly-codified concept of chivalry, along with its sexual/spiritual conjoint, courtly love. Using fiction, film, and popular culture, this course will examine how the meanings and conventions of ‘chivalric romance’ have been understood and explored—often challenged or parodied—from the 14th century to the 21st. We will move from exemplars like Chretien de Troyes, Sir Gawain & the Green Knight and Malory's Le Morte Darthur, through William Morris' Arts & Crafts romanticism, to the earnest Oxford fantasists (Tolkien, Lewis), feminist neo-paganists (Bradley's The Mists of Avalon), and beyond (graphic novels like Camelot 3000; a serious look at Monty Python & the Holy Grail?; contemporary role-playing and digital-medieval gaming cultures). Show-stoppers to include Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court, Italo Calvino's The Non-Existent Knight; and rare, unspeakably bawdy medieval fabliaux (“The Knight Who Could Make ****s Talk”; “The Three Ladies Who Found a ****”).

Camelot has become difficult to find, but expect excursions to classic sites such as Ludlow Castle; Hereford Cathedral (with its chained library and map of the world); the Tower of London; and more, from forgotten villages to cobbled town alleys to manuscript archives. Class will probably not be held at The Eagle & Child, the Oxford pub where Tolkien, Lewis & the Inklings met on Mondays between the wars…

Requirements & Grading: “Medieval Encounters” Reading & Critical Reflection Journal, 50%; “Post-Medieval Medievalism” Oral Research Presentation (w/1-p. synopsis), 25%; In-Class Performance (preparation, discussion, engagement, citizenship), 25%; On-time Attendance (every absence beg w/#3 reduces ICP grade; NC at #5), Required.

Excluding Chaucer: the Alliterative Fourteenth Century

Each year the MLA annual meeting authorizes half-a-dozen paper-sessions (not including ‘special sessions’) on medieval English literature. Half of these treat the work of Geoffrey Chaucer, while the others cluster together under the awkward rubric of “Middle English Literature Excluding Chaucer”. While trying hard to avoid simple-minded, oppositional stances (e.g., metropolitan vs regional; mercantile vs baronial; sophisticated vs parochial), this seminar will survey fourteenth-century literary England’s canonical and semi-canonical alliterative alternatives to Chaucerian hegemony. Key texts will include William Langland’s Piers Plowman and The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript (especially Sir Gawain & the Green Knight & Pearl), supplemented as space permits by less famous alliterative works, as well as relevant literary-historical; critical/methodological; and non-literary materials.

Seminar participants NEED NOT be medieval specialists, or British literature specialists, or even practicing literary historians; cross-period, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, especially as this century is notable (notwithstanding the eventual advent of London/Chaucerian English) for how it hosts multiple language and literary traditions. Research opportunities will be tailored so as to fit, challenge and extend individual scholarly trajectories, within the context of our shared inquiry.

A note on language: Middle English alliterative texts are initially a bit harder to pick up than Chaucer (whose dialect more closely resembles our own), but don’t let anxiety on this front scare you off the course or material, as the linguistic and poetic richness on offer (and your improved ear down the road) will more than compensate for that period of usage, pronunciation and vocabulary adjustment.

REQUIREMENTS: A Seminar Paper, which shall include: project prospectus; substantial outside research; rough draft; active peer-review of colleagues’ work; revision; and professional polishing. Short ‘textual analysis’ and/or ‘critical review’ assignments are also likely, as build-up to the term project/seminar paper. Semi-formal oral presentation duties may occasionally be assigned.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE: A major component of the course will involve the conception, planning, research, drafting, revising, and polishing of the seminar paper, ideally to be put to some professional end. A certain amount of proactive self-direction (especially in terms of research agenda) will be expected of all seminar participants, as will a willingness to meet draft/revision deadlines and peer-feedback obligations.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D            Areas:  n/a

Unique #:  34680            Flags:  Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  English Honors, Plan I Honors

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  n/a

Prerequisites: E 603A, RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 603A.

Description: This course is designed to prepare students for the English major. We will read, discuss, and write about a collection of texts in several complementary ways: we will consider the text of each work, its literary and historical contexts, and the cultural contests in which it has participated.

When we consider the text of each work, we will examine stylistic and aesthetic elements (e.g., the author's use of character, setting, imagery, language patterns, and even sentence syntax) and how those elements contribute to the work's broader themes and apparent purposes.

In considering each work's relationship to its literary and historical context, we will read a number of historical documents as well as shorter literary works from the period in which the work was written. Some questions we'll ask: what kinds of historical knowledge does the work assume its reader to have? How was the work in question been shaped by—and how did it shape—historically specific events, issues, and literary trends?

Finally, we will consider how each of the central works has fared since its publication—that is, how it has been valued and devalued in various cultural "contests." For whom has it been especially important? When has it been considered "great literature"? By what criteria has it been judged since its first publication? Does the work have any social, intellectual, or aesthetic value at present?

Texts: The Song of Songs; Sappho, Poems and Fragments; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer; Wycherley, The Country Wife; Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest; Conan Doyle, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Kipling, Kim; Achebe, Things Fall Apart; Reed, Mumbo Jumbo; Course Packet (selections from Sedgwick, Frye, Eagleton, Bahktin, Said, etc.).

Requirements & Grading: Assignment specifics to be distributed & discussed; percentages approximate and subject to change.

Three 5-7+ pp. papers (plus required drafts for first two; required 1-page prospectus for all three), 25% each; In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, peer feedback), 25%; Attendance (repeated absences will affect grade), Required; On-time Completion of Reading & Writing Assignments, Required.

Please Note: All assignments must be completed satisfactorily in order for you to receive any passing grade for the course.

Instructor:  Birkholz, D            Areas:  I / D

Unique #:  35650            Flags:  Global cultures, Writing

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  n/a            Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: An introduction to Chaucer’s narrative and poetic art, as shown in a selection from the dream poems, Troilus and Criseyde, and the Canterbury Tales. Three lecture hours a week for one semester. Prerequisite: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Our selections from the Chaucerian canon will be augmented by other landmark texts, by contemporaries and (as possible) later inheritors. Works will be considered in their social and historical contexts, but also in terms of their evolving critical contexts (that is, from multiple, and sometimes conflicting, theoretical perspectives).

By course’s end, students will have gained a working grasp of late-medieval English literary history and its seminal texts. Just as importantly, students will acquire a set of critical tools (writing, reading, research, and analysis) enabling them to approach classic texts in new and original ways. No prior experience with early literary study is expected, but student engagement, enthusiasm, and self-direction are highly desirable.

Texts:  Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (ed. Kolve & Olson; Norton); The Gawain Poet: Complete Words (tr. Borroff; Norton); The Canterbury Tales: 15th-Century Continuations and Additions (ed Bowers; TEAMS).

Grading & Requirements: (assignment specifics discussed in class; percentages approximate & subject to change)

Gawain-Poet Paper (4-6+ pp.; prospectus, revision, some research): 30%

Chaucer Research Project (8-10+ pp; prospectus, revision, considerable research): 40%

In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, recitation, daily process work): 30%

On-time Attendance (every absence beginning w/#4 will reduce grade; NC at #9), Required

On-time Completion of Reading, Writing & Feedback Assignments, Required

All assignments must be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

Prerequisites: Enrollment in or completion of at least one Honors section of an English course, admission to the English Honors Program, and consent of the honors adviser. Enrollment restricted by department.

Description: According to the Honors Thesis Manual, a thesis is “a sustained examination of a central idea or question, developed in a professional and mature manner under the guidance of a faculty supervisor and a second reader.” That sounds easy enough, but how does one get there from here? This course offers something of a roadmap. Over the course of the term we will examine literary criticism from the “inside out” and hone skills essential to a successful honors thesis.

Along the way, we will address a number of questions, both practical—How do I use the MLA Bibliography? What’s the difference between a footnote and an endnote?—and theoretical—What does it mean to make an argument about literature? Who has authority in an act of interpretation? This course will: first and foremost prepare students to write an honors thesis; interrogate methods of literary and cultural interpretation; consider what it means to make literary arguments and conduct literary research; help students to improve their research, critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

Texts: Required Core Texts: William Shakespeare, The Tempest, eds. Peter Hulme and William H. Sherman (Norton, 2003) #978-0-393-97819-3; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, ed. J. Paul Hunter (W.W. Norton, 1996). #978-0393964585.

Required Secondary Texts: Wayne Booth, et al, The Craft of Research (Third Edition) (University Of Chicago Press, 2008). #978-0226065663; Marjorie Garber, A Manifesto for Literary Studies (University of Washington Press, 2003). #978-0295983448; Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Norton, 2005). # 978-0393924091.

Optional Supplemtentary Text: Eviatar Zerubavel, The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, & Books (Harvard, 1999) #0-674-13586-5

Requirements & Grading: (assignment logistics, rationales, and approaches will be discussed at length during class)

Final Thesis Prospectus (4-6 pp.) & Annotated Bibliography (20-25+ items)            40%

Writing Sample (15-20 pp. section or sections of your actual thesis)            30%

In-Class Performance (quality & consistency of discussion; preparation; engagement;

informal writing; writing-process & bibliography tasks; peer feedback; Symposium)            30%

On-time Attendance (note: every absence beginning with #4 will reduce grade; NC at #9)            Required

On-time Completion of Reading, Writing-Process, Research, & Peer Feedback Assignments            Required

 Plus/minus grades will be assigned for the final grade of the course. The university does not recognize the grade of A+. Evaluation percentages approximate & subject to minor change.

From Conquest to Plague

The focal points of medieval English literary study have traditionally, and for good canonical reason, resided in the Anglo-Saxon period (Beowulf especially) and the late fourteenth century (Chaucer, The Gawain-poet, Langland, et al.). In recent years, however, the fifteenth century has taken on increasing critical importance, with the advent to full canonical status of The Book of Margery Kempe (Gower is also on the rise), along with growing attention to vernacular devotional cultures; book history and reception studies; and hot-button theoretical issues such as nationalism and periodization (still focused obsessively on the question of a medieval/Renaissance “divide” or continuum). One result of the subfield’s general trend toward late-medieval texts and contexts has been that the “lost centuries” of medieval English literary history—the long “barren” period between late tenth- and late fourteenth- century vernacular flowerings—threaten to become even less critically relevant than they already are. It may be we’re due for a “market correction” in which early literary cultures come into prominence; but in any case, the distinct literary cultures of this doubly-marginalized period (literary medievalism’s own dark, abject, and fallow place) offer rich opportunity for groundbreaking work.

Seminar participants NEED NOT be medieval specialists, or British literature specialists, or even practicing literary historians; cross-period, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, ESPECIALLY as these centuries are notable for how they host multiple language and literary traditions. Research opportunities will be tailored so as to fit, challenge and extend individual scholarly trajectories, within the context of our shared inquiry.

COURSE READINGS will cluster around thematic issues such as trilingualism; anthology culture; literary topographies; documentary culture; the medieval “short form”; Anglo-Saxon afterlives & Anglo-Norman attitudes; visual history; and more.

In addition to the works contained in key manuscript anthologies such as Digby 86, Harley 2253, and the Auchinleck Manuscript, our syllabus will include (selections from) the following: Ancrene Wisse & the Katherine-Group; The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Layamon’s Brut; Gerald of Wales’ History & Topography of Ireland; The South-English Legendary; Wright, Political Songs of England; Westrem, The Hereford Map; Crone, Early Maps of the British Isles; Orm’s Ormulum; Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record; and selected examples from vernacular lyric; insular romance; fabliaux; debate; and more.

Please Note: A major component of the course will involve the conception, planning, research, drafting, revising, and polishing of the seminar paper, ideally to be put to some professional end. A certain amount of proactive self-direction (especially in terms of research agenda) will be expected of all seminar participants, as will a willingness to meet draft/revision deadlines and peer-feedback obligations.

E 379R (Topic: Fiction and Medievalism) and 379S (embedded topic: Fiction and Medievalism) may not both be counted.

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Course Description: Umberto Eco has said that every generation produces its own version of the Middle Ages. By examining selected works of fiction (and some literary criticism, poetry, visual arts, and film), this course will explore how the category of ‘the medieval’ has been constructed (and its imagery activated) in post-medieval settings from the eighteenth century onwards. Special attention will be paid to Victorian England and the twentieth century.

Texts (subject to change)

William Morris, The Wood Beyond the World

Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

Clara Reeves, The Old English Baron OR Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto

Matthew Lewis, The Monk

Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Italo Calvino, The Non-Existent Knight

Barry Unsworth, Morality Play

Jill Paton Walsh, Knowledge of Angels

Norman Cantor, Inventing the Middle Ages

Mark Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing about Film.

Grading: Grading will be determined by performance on two short essays (4-5 pp. each) and 1major seminar paper (8-10+ pp; significant research and revision of draft versions required, as per writing flag guidelines) as well as by in-class performance, preparation, discussion, engagement, attendance, reading checks, and peer feedback. Each absence beginning with #4 will reduce in-class portion of grade; no passing grade is possible with 9+ absences. Papers approx. 80%; in-class performance approx. 20%.

* Disability Accommodation: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request apt academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).

Performing Medieval Culture

This seminar will examine early English dramatic practice via an approach that is text-based but also interdisciplinary—not to mention conceptually expansive. This means considering not only medieval ‘plays’ themselves, but also social performance (i.e., occasions of heightened role-playing) in a broader sense: the performance of community and/or identity, of social manners and political standing, of gender, discipline, devotion, and more.

On a first level, we will analyze how and to what ends medieval subjects themselves (performers and audiences alike) make meaning through dramatic activity. But more than simply seeking to recover some supposedly authentic version of the medieval past, we will also ask what exactly it means to ‘perform the medieval’ in a contemporary context. In other words, we shall push beyond the usual activity of scholarly ‘reconstruction’ (however responsible) to consider what is involved in any attempt to ‘get medieval’—in this case to engage with an early English dramatic inheritance. Ultimately, we shall look to produce re-stagings of the medieval that are authoritative in their textual and historical precision, yet open to the creative influences of both past and present.

Seminar participants NEED NOT be medieval/early modern specialists, or drama/performance specialists, or practicing literary scholars; cross-period, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Research opportunities will be tailored so as to fit, challenge and extend individual scholarly trajectories, within the context of our shared inquiry.

READINGS: [selections/editions subject to change]

Supplemental Packets A & B (Speedway Copying/478-3334)

Bevington (ed.), Medieval Drama [liturgical selections; Croxton Play of the Sacrament; etc]

Cawley (ed.), Medieval Miracle Plays (Everyman)

Bruster & Rasmussen (ed.), Everyman and Mankind (Arden)

Beadle (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre

Mandel (ed.), Five Comedies of Medieval France [packet]

Boroff (trans.) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Norton)

Windeatt (ed.) The Book of Margery Kempe (Penguin)

Unsworth, Morality Play [a novel] (Norton)

John Russell, The Boke of Nurture [packet]

plus one or more of Shakespeare’s ‘Medieval’ Plays

REQUIREMENTS: A Seminar Paper, which shall include: project prospectus; substantial outside research; rough draft; active peer-review of colleagues’ work; revision; and professional polishing. Short ‘article analysis’ and/or ‘literature review’ assignments are also likely, as build-up to the term project/seminar paper. Semi-formal oral presentation duties may occasionally be assigned.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE: A major component of the course will involve the conception, planning, research, drafting, revising, and polishing of the seminar paper, ideally to be put to some professional end. A certain amount of proactive self-direction (especially in terms of research agenda) will be expected of all seminar participants, as will a willingness to meet draft/revision deadlines and peer-feedback obligations.

E 379N (Topic: British Literature: Beginnings to Renaissance) may not also be counted.

Course Description: A survey of outstanding literary texts from Anglo-Saxon, Medieval, Renaissance, and early 17^th-century England. Works will be considered in their social and historical contexts, but also in terms of their evolving critical contexts (that is, from multiple, and sometimes conflicting, theoretical perspectives). Major texts will likely include: Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; Sir Gawain & the Green Knight; The Book of Margery Kempe; Shakespeare’s Hamlet & King Henry IV pt. I; some of Milton’s Paradise Lost; and short selections by Wyatt, Surrey, Marlowe, Raleigh, Herrick, Donne, Marvell, Amelia Lanyer and Queen Elizabeth I, among others. Upon completion of the course, students will have gained a solid grasp of early English literary history and its seminal texts. Just as importantly, students will acquire a set of critical tools (writing, reading, research, and analytical skills) which will enable them to approach classic texts in new and original ways. No prior experience with early literary study is expected, but student engagement, enthusiasm, and self-direction are highly desirable.

Texts: The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1 (8^th edition); Shakespeare, Hamlet and King Henry IV, part one; Supplemental Course Packet.

Grading: Old English Paper (4-6 pp.; some research), 25%; Middle English Paper (6-7 pp; considerable research), 30%; Shakespeare Group Production Paper (approx 5 pages per student), 25%; In-Class Performance (writing, discussion, engagement, preparation, process work), 20%; On-time Attendance (every absence beginning w/#4 will reduce grade; NC at #9), Required; On-time Completion of Reading, Writing & Feedback Assignments, Required.

All assignments must be completed satisfactorily to receive any passing grade for the course.

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.