100-Level Literature Courses

HLI 105    Special Topics in Literature   (3-0-3)
A topical introduction to the study of literature.

HLI 113    Western Literature: Classical Literature   (3-0-3)
Readings in great books of western literature. Representative texts include works by: Homer, Sophocles, and Virgil and readings in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. One section of this course also takes up great books of science such as Vitruvius' Ten Books on Architecture read in conjunction with Virgil's Aeneid.

HLI 114    Western Literature: Middle Ages to the Present   (3-0-3)
Readings will include works from Dante, Racine, Shakespeare, de Lafayette, Austen, Bronte and Kafka.

HLI 115    The English Language: Language of Ideas   (3-0-3)
Examination of the philosophical use of language as it deals with concepts and value judgments.

HLI 116    The English Language: Introduction to Literary Forms   (3-0-3)
Uses of language to convey thought and feeling in a variety of fictional and nonfictional forms.

HLI 117    Colonial and Romantic American Literature   (3-0-3)
A survey of major developments in American literature from 1789 to 1900.

HLI 118    Realist and Modern American Literature   (3-0-3)
A continuation of HLI 117. A survey of major developments in American literature from 1900 to the present.

300,400-Level History Courses

HLI 312    Modern Literature   (3-0-3)
A survey of Modernism in European Literature. The authors to be considered include Rimbaud, Mallarme, Rilke and Mann. Developments in architecture, music and art are provided as well.

HLI 314    Nineteenth Century English Literature: Victorians
A survey of Victorian poets and prose writers: Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Ruskin, Wilde, Rossetti, and Carlyle.

HLI 315    Language, Meaning and Reality   (3-0-3)
The course is a form of argument about meaning that emphasizes two points: 1) the language we have available determines our idea of reality and 2) semantic structures seem to convey their own independent meanings in spite of what speakers of the language may think they intend.

HLI 316    Science Fiction   (3-0-3)
A study of the fiction of science and the science of fiction through the reading of authors from Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) to William Gibson (Neuromancer), the viewing of films such as Metropolis and Dune, and the writing of a piece of science fiction.

HLI 317    The Creative Act   (3-0-3)
A study of twentieth-century literary works concerned with sources of creativity. Works to be considered include Mann's Death in Venice, Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus, and other works.

HLI 319    Ethnicity and Literature   (3-0-3)
Course examines the interrelationship of literary works and the ethnic heritage of their authors and/or the texts themselves.

HLI 321    Literature, Science and Technology   (3-0-3)
This course investigates the views man has expressed about the advent impact of technology and science across recorded history. Questions that might be addressed include: What is the relationship between religion and technology? Has man always viewed technological innovations as positive? What relationship is there between man's vision of utopian society and technology? Readings may include but are not limited to novels, philosophical treatises and the literature of various societies.

HLI 330    Classical Mythology   (3-0-3)
Myths are much more than entertaining stories; they teach much about their cultures. Myths pervade our lives and represent a discrete way of thinking, different from rational logic. In this course, students will see how Western civilization was enriched by Greek and Roman myths. Myths from the ancient Near East also reached the West through the Judeo-Christian tradition. This course provides an introduction to ancient civilizations and their literary, religious, and artistic legacies.

HLI 331    Shakespeare   (3-0-3)
Selected plays by Shakespeare are read and analyzed with the emphasis placed on their success as scripts to be performed in theaters. Students will read a selection of tragedies, comedies, and histories, as well as being introduced to the sonnets and other poems.

HLI 332    Literary Heritage of Russia

HLI 334    Chaucer: A Literary Study   (3-0-3)
Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is read in modern English against a historical background of Chaucer's life and times; "The General Prologue" and the "The Nun's/Priest's Tale" are read in 14th-century English (Middle English). Other readings of the period include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Boccaccio's The Decameron.

HLI 335    Shakespeare in the City   (3-0-3)
During the summer, Shakespeare is presented in parks and parking lots throughout New York City. In this course, we read and discuss plays and then go to see them. We view both traditional and experimental productions. Sometimes we see more than one production of a play, if a number of companies decide to do it.

HLI 336    The Short Story   (3-0-3)
The study of prose fiction in short story form. Texts consist of representative selections of the short story genre that offer a wide variety of techniques and themes. All students will participate in classroom critical analysis.

HLI 337    History of the English Language   (3-0-3)
A study of the Indo-European origins and development of English from Old English Anglo-Saxon to Chaucer's Middle English and the Modern English Period.

HLI 341    Nineteenth Century English Literature: Romanticism   (3-0-3)
Consideration of texts by writers of the romantic movement in England: Blake, Coleridge, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley, Keats and Byron.

HLI 342    Twentieth-Century Drama
A survey of theatrical innovation in modern and contemporary Europe and the United States. Students will analyze dramatic literature and create scenic designs for one or more plays studied in class. Group attendance at a theatrical performance in New York City outside of class time is required.

HLI 344    British Fiction
Readings from the novel's beginnings in England up to contemporary works. Selections include works such as: Defoe-ROBINSON CRUSOE, Richardson-PAMELA, Austen-PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Bronte-WUTHERING HEIGHTS, Dickens-HARD Times,--Woolf-TO THE LIGHTHOUUSE

HLI 345    A Survey of Dramatic Literature

HLI 349    American Poetry to 1900

HLI 352    The American Renaissance in Literature   (3-0-3)
An examination of 19th-century race relations in America from a literary perspective.

HLI 354/357    American Culture   (3-0-3)
An interpretation of American civilization through its literature and cultural forms. The course this semester involves close reading of a few works by some of the giants of American literature since the World War II.

HLI 358    American Poetry: Twentieth Century   (3-0-3)
A study of works of major American poets of the twentieth century including Pound, Eliot, Williams, Moore, Stevens, Lowell, Ashbery and Ginsberg.

HLI 362    British Fiction II: Twentieth Century

HLI 409    Rhetoric and Technical Writing   (3-0-3)
An introduction to classical and modern expository and argumentative writing and speech, as well as an introduction to contemporary technical and science writing.

HLI 410    Medieval Literature   (3-0-3)
This course surveys the work of the medieval period in Europe and includes such works as Beowulf, The Song of Roland, and selections from the works of Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Marie de France and other poets.

HLI 412    Medieval Romance: The Rise of the Individual
This course focuses on the new interest in the individual in society in medieval romance. Works and authors studied include: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chretien de Troyes, and Gottfried von Strassburg. The course follows the adventuring knight on his quests.

HLI 414    Literature and Empire   (3-0-3)
This course examines the role of empire building and its influence on the novel, prose, and poetry of the late nineteenth century. Readings present an overview of both colonial and post-colonial literature against the historical background. This course also examines relevant films to explore how the twentieth and twenty-first centuries portray imperialism.

HLI 416    Arthuriana: The Legend of King Arthur   (3-0-3)
The course covers a variety of literary and historical texts beginning with the earliest chronicle reports of Arthur, king of Britain, and ending with romance material such as the Vulgate Quest for the Holy Grail and The Death of King Arthur. The course explores the birth and development of the Arthurian legend. Was there ever a historical Arthur? Did he arise to save his people? Will he come again as legend has promised? What role does his story play in literature and popular culture? Delving into the mythic past of the British Isles, we will discuss folk-tales, read historical chronicles, and immerse ourselves in some of earliest (and certainly the best) sword and sorcery literature.

HLI 417    English Literature from Beowulf to the Restoration   (3-0-3)
A survey of English literature from its beginnings to the restoration of the monarchy in the seventeenth century.

HLI 418    Literature and Critical Theory   (3-0-3)
The application of contemporary literary theory derived from Heidegger and modern linguistics to the study of postmodern American literature. Students are introduced to various literary theories developed by Barthes, Kristeva, Lacan, Derrida and Foucault, and then asked to apply these theories in considerations of works by such postmodern American writers as Pynchon, Bronk, Gass, Spicer and Ashbery.

HLI 420    America in the Great Depression and the Second World War

HLI 446    English Literature: Restoration (1660) to the Present   (3-0-3)
A survey of English literature from the restoration of the monarchy to the present.

HLI 447    Survey of British Literature   (3-0-3)
A study of major works and authors, including Beowulf, Chaucer, Spenser, Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Wolf.