List of courses, Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw

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List of courses

English Literature English version

ENGLISH LITERATURE

100	Shakespeare	E
	Shakespeare's major plays, critical approaches, performance analysis.
101	English Novel of the 18th Century and the 19th Century	E
	A discussion of major 18th and 19th century English novels (Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, G. Eliot, Hardy).
102	Romantic Poets	PZ
	Interpreting poetry of the first and the second generation of the romantic poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats).
103	The Middle Ages - A Survey	PS
	The course explores a wide range of literary texts starting from the Old English period up to late Middle Ages. It devotes special attention to the question of how literature reflected various cultural phenomena of the time like: chivalry, courtly love, cult of the saints, traveling and pilgrimage, rituals, dreams, magic and the supernatural, allegory, the soul/body dichotomy.
104	A Survey of English Literature of the Renaissance Period	PS
	Overview of the major figures, literary genres, and attitudes of the English Renaissance Period.
107	English Drama form Shakespeare to Shaw	PS
	Overview of major authors and their selected plays
108	Victorian Poetry	PS
	The analysis of the poetry by Browning, Tennyson, Hopkins and Pre-Raphaelits.
109	British Novel of the 1930's	E
	Analysis of selected novels of E. Waugh, G. Greene, A. Huxley, J. Rhys.
110	British Writers of the 1930's	E
	Analysis of selected novels of G. Greene, E. Waugh, C. Day -Lewis, W.H. Auden, L. MacNeice, S.Spender, Ch. Isherwood, T. Rattigan, N. Coward.
111	British Novel after 1945	K
	Interpretations of the novels by I. Murdoch, J. Rhys, Fowles, K. Amis, S. Rushdie, M. Bradbury and others.
112	Introduction to Literary Theory	PS
	Contemporary trends in literary theory.
113	Readings in Post-War British Poetry	E
	A Survey of trends in modern poetry
114	19-th Century Sensational Novel	PS
	Analysis of selected novels of Ch. Dickens, W. Collins, and A.C. Doyle.
115	Dickens and Crime	PS
	The role and significance of crime in the selected novels by Dickens.
116	Medieval Romance	PS
	Chretien de Troyes, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, English alliterative romances. The Course is devoted to the analysis of the romance as a genre of the popular medieval literature. The main issues focused on include the conflict between emotion and duty, as well as the complicated nature of interpersonal relationships.
118	Arthurian Literature	PS
	Overview of the sources and basic texts of the Arthurian Cycle: Geoffrey of Manmouth, Chretien de Troyes, Marie de France, Layamon, Thomas Malory.
119	British War Poetry in the 20th Century	PS
	Poetry of the first World War, poetry of the 30ies, poetry of the second World War.
1000	Poetry and Politics: the 1930's in British Literature	E
	Literature of the 1930's as a reflection of the socio-economic changes and political crises of the period. Issues tackled include: communism, fascism and war.
1001	Metaphysical Poets	E
	A survey of literary and philosophical trends in the XVII century and their reflection in metaphysical poetry.
1002	English Satire	E
	A survey of texts from a chosen period or genre.
1003	The Gothic Novel	PS
	Gothic fiction of the 18th and 19th century (H. Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Mathew Lewis, Mary Shelley, B. Stoken).
1004	The "Roman Catholic" Novel in England	PS
	The emancipation of the Catholic intelligentia. Adherence to the magisterium: Marshall, Chesterton; the doubting Catholics: Green, Waugh; the rebels: Spark, Lodge.
1005	Medieval Allegorical Tradition	E
	The analysis of Roman de la Rose, Pearl, Pierce Plowman and the poems of Chaucer.
1007	Writers and the Cinema	E
	The course explores the relation between literature and cinema. It focuses on the work of writers who made their debut in the interwar period (Scott Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, Isherwood, Greene).
1008	Close reading of a major English text	PS
	A detailed analysis of a chosen major work of English literature
1009	J. R. R. Tolkien	PS
	Critical analysis of the Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion and other texts.
1010	Close Reading of a British Novel and its Film Adaptation	PS
	Narrative techniques in the novel and in the film, close reading of a literary text, comparative analysis of various adaptations.
1011	Secular Song and the Oral Tradition	PS
	History of the oral transmission of the epic and lyric tradition from the Old English song and Beowulf to the Plantagenets.
1012	Chaucer and the fourteenth century	PS
	The course focuses on the literary heritage of G. Chaucer on the background of contemporaneous genre conventions.
1013	Trends in contemporary British Poetry	PS
	Analysis of the major trends in post war British poetry.
1016	English Sonnet of the 16th and 17th century	E
	Analysis of the selected works of Sidney, Wyatt, Spenser, Donne, Shakespeare and Milton focusing on the formal aspects of literary composition. Sonnet cycles.
1017	Contemporary British Short Story	E
	Short stories of British writers of the 1970s - 1990s, among others Ben Okri, Salman Rushdie, John Fowles, J.G. Ballard, Graham Swift, Ian McEwan, Michelle Roberts, Julian Barnes. Their writing as indicative of the contemporary literary fashions in England. Special attention paid to the very form of the short story and to intertextual dialogues between these writers.
1018	British Women Writers of the 20th Century	E
	Novels and stories by Virginia Woolf, Iris Murdoch, Doris Lessing, Jean Rhys, Fay Weldon, Angela Carter. Discussion of the notions of 'femininity', 'feminine\female literature' and their evolution over the century. The question of what it means to be within literary canon analysed against the background of women writing.
1019	Twentieth Century Anglo-Welsh Poetry	PS
	The course consists in a series of close readings of twentieth century Anglo-Welsh poetry, as well as poetic drama and prose, in relation to the geographic, historic and cultural background. Most attention is devoted to Dylan Thomas. The rest of the course discusses R.S. Thomas and contemporary poets.
1020	Robin Hood and Other Outlaws	PS
	The course is devoted to the analysis of various literary forms (story, chronicle, ballad, drama, lyric) and the character of the "rebel" on a wide cultural background.
1021	The Visual and the Written in 19th century	PS
	The aim of the course is to explore the various interpretations of works of 19th century poetry through their juxtaposition with the paintings of the major artists of the period.
200	William Shakespeare	E
	A selection of Shakespeare's plays against a wider background of Elizabethan culture and literature. Re (interpreting) Shakespeare's plays in view of contemporary methodological approaches. Critical and cinematic reception of Shakespeare. Adaptation and intertextuality.
201	18th and 19th century English Novel	E
	An advanced course, dealing with the lesser novelists of XVIII and XIX century (Smollet, Gaskill, Collins, Butler).
202	Geoffrey Chaucer	PS
	Chaucer's major works - Canterbury Tales in particular, discussed in the context of European medieval literature.
203	20th Century British Drama	PZ
	Discussion of the 20th century drama (from B. Shaw, Irish literary revival to E. Bond, H. Pinter and contemporary Irish drama (B. Friel).
204	Dickens and Thackeray	E
	Analysis of five works with special attention devoted to the "social" novels.
205	18th Century English Poetry	E
	Overview of the Augustian and Pre-Romantic poetry.
206	English Poetry of the 17th Century	E
	Discussion of metaphysical poetry, Milton, Rochester in the cultural context of the epoch.
207	Modernist British Novel	PS
	Poetics of the novel in the context of the epoch (Conrad, Ford, Joyce, Woolf, D. Richardson, A. Huxley).
208	British Poetry of the 20th century	E
	Selected work (about 20 pieces) from T.S. Eliot to Seamus Heaney.
210	Realism	PS
	Realism and realistic conventions in British fiction in the 18th, 19th and 20th century.
215	Neoplatonism in English Literature	PS
	The (neo) Platonic doctrine of Plato and Plotinus, Medieval Neoplatonism, the activities of the Florence Academy (M. Ficino) and G. Bruno. Basic ethical and aesthetic assumptions. Magic and occult influences. Neoplatonic inspirations in the works of P. Sidney, W. Shakespeare and E. Spenser.
216	Thomas Stearns Eliot	PS
	Analysis of the author's selected works in the context of the modernist theory and practice.
217	The Cycle of the Holy Grail	PS
	Overview and analysis of the basic texts form the Cycle of the Holy Grail (12th - 14th century).
218	English Medieval Mysticism	PS
	The Cloud of Unknowing, Richard Rolle, Julian Norwich, Walter Hilton and others. Analysis of mystical texts and their influence on the literature.
219	A Narcissistic Novelist - John Fowles	PS
	The aim of the course is to discuss the novelistic oeuvre of John Fowles against the background of contemporary literary theories. The reading list includes all major books by Fowles: The Collector, The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Ebony Tower, The Maggot, Mantissa. Special attention is paid to the notions of metafiction, narcissism and intertextuality as well as to Fowles's fascinations with the theories of Jung, Freud and with existential philosophy.
2001	Renaissance Culture	E
	Humanism and reformation, printing press and Renaissance concept of authorship, new geographical horizons, courtly culture, New Philosophy.
	Wybrane tendencje w literaturze irlandzkiej w języku angielskim od końca XIX wieku do chwili obecnej. Kurs obejmuje zarówno zagadnienia polityczno-społeczne jak i kulturowe.
2004	Drama in Performance	PS
	Analysis of selected film versions of Shakespeare's and Marlowe's plays (e.g. L. Olivier, F. Zeffirelli and K. Branagh).
2005	James Joyce	PS
	The analysis of the novels with particular emphasis on narrative techniques.
2006	Iris Murdoch. Philosophy and Fiction. Ethical and Aesthetic Ideas	PS
	The analysis of selected novels: Under the Net, The Bell, The Black Prince, The Sea the Sea.
2008	Characters and People	PS
	Literary techniques and philosophical and psychological concepts of man (Austen, Ch, Brontë, Dickens, Conrad, Woolf, Golding, Beckett).
2011	Auden and Yeats	PS
	The analysis of selected poems with particular emphasis on the poetic theory and practice.
2012	Philip Larkin	PS
	Discussion of his poetry and essays in the historical context. Larkin's reception in Poland.
2013	Narrative Strategies in the 20th Century British Fiction	E
	Close reading of the novels by James Joyce, Jean Rhys, Angela Carter, Jeannette Winterson, Alan Hollinghurst and Anthony Burgess. Discussion of narrative strategies such as: stream of consciousness, intertextuality, epiphany, multivocalism. The scope of reference includes: Michail Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Umberto Eco.
2014	Semiotics of Renaissance Drama	E
	OGeneral introduction to semiotic theory and semiotics of drama and performance. Elizabethan acting and stage directing. Evolution of dramatic conventions and stage techniques. Semiotics of space, gesture and costume.
2015	Romantic Prose	E
	A survey of the most important novels of the Romantic period (Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Maria Edgeworth Castle Rackrent, Mary Shelley Frankenstein, Sir Walter Scott Waverley) as well as the relevant critical essays from the period.
2016	Literature in Translation	PZ
	An overview of translated literature (from / into Polish and English). The specificity of the translation of drama, poetry and prose. Translation strategies vs. translation analysis. Sample translations.
2017	Literary Translation Theory	E
	An overview of historical and contemporary approaches to translation: translation and rhetoric, Bible translation, Manipulation School, Polysystem Theory, Descriptive Translation Studies, translation and deconstruction.
2018	British Novel since the 1970s	PZ
	The selected novels (8) illustrate varieties of forms - postmodernist, metafiction, intertextuality, feminist (Fowles, Lodge, Julian Barness, Ishiguro, McEwan, A. Carter, Jeanette Winterson).
2020	Post-colonial Theory	PZ
	Cultural difference, the role of allegory in early colonial discourse, the concept of the other, post-colonial theory and translation, race and hybridity.
2021	The English Sonnet from Renaissance to the 20th Century	PZ
	The creation of subjectivity, self-reflexivity and the sonnet, sonnet sequence, the sonnet and gender, the historical development of the genre.
2022	The Pastoral Ideal, Genres, and Mode in English Literary Theory and Practice. Medieval into Modern	PZ
	From medieval literature, Renaissance, 18th century, 19th century, the contemporary ecological and environmental writing.
2023	The Popular and Literary Ballad	PS
	The course is a survey of the ballad genre beginning with the anonymous medieval folk ballads, and continuing with the analysis of the role of the song in Shakespeare, and the Romantic literary ballad, up to contemporary use of the ballad tradition by European and American poets. It also includes elements of the theory of the genre and of oral-formulaic composition.
2026	The English Epic and its Background	E
	The aim of the course is the presentation of the development of the Englis epic in the context of the Western epic tradition.
	English Literature	E
	A survey curse of English literature from Anglo-Saxon to contemporary literature.
	Introduction to Literary Studies	TZ
	Basic concepts and methods of literary text analysis.

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