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Your search for courses · during 25FA, 26WI, 26SP · taught by tburbery · returned 2 results
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ENGL 149 Tolkien and Herbert 6 credits
This course will study the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert, with an emphasis on their best-known texts, Lord of the Rings and Dune. These books are often cited as the highest achievements in their respective genres (fantasy and science fiction), and share intriguing similarities, including the One Ring and Spice/Mélange, the perils of power, environmental concerns, blockbuster film treatments, and obsessive world-building. We will also consider secondary works by each author, including Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, selections from his letters, and Herbert’s Dune Messiah, the sequel to Dune. Critical approaches will include ecocriticism, postcolonialism, and Bloom’s anxiety of influence.
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ENGL 216 Milton and Modernity 6 credits
John Milton wrote what is perhaps the most influential, and arguably greatest, poem in the English language. In this work (Paradise Lost), and indeed throughout his corpus, Milton engaged his literary predecessors extensively, yet he also anticipated modern concerns in striking ways. We will read his major works (“Lycidas,” the sonnets, Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained), as well as prose selections, attending to his use of sources, and to the ways Milton presages debates over free speech and book banning, Darwinism, the multiverse, and AI.