EN 654.01 Junior Honors Seminar (Spring 2007-2008: 3)
This class, designed to bring together a community of motivated English
majors in an intensive seminar experience during their junior year, will
introduce students to the advanced analysis and research skills necessary
to write an honors thesis in English and/or go on to graduate work in the
field. The class will be structured in a format alternating analysis of
literary and critical/theoretical texts. Through careful close reading,
we will explore a series of six literary works: Shelley¿s Frankenstein,
the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Woolf's To the
Lighthouse, DeLillo's White Noise and Morrison's Beloved. On the second
week addressing each primary text, we will contextualize our analysis within
critical and theoretical paradigms. Assigned readings will include a series
of literary critical articles responding to each text as well as theoretical
essays on narrative, lyric, gender, culture, materiality and race by writers
such as Brooks, Baudrillard, Kristeva, Foucault, Genette and Gilroy. Students
will also be responsible for conducting their own research by identifying
and responding to secondary criticism on selected issues related to each
of the assigned literary texts. Because this class is designed to prepare
students for writing an honors thesis, we will also devote one week of the
semester to discussing the form of the honors thesis proposal. Requirements
for the course will include drafting a thesis proposal, as well as delivering
a short in-class conference style paper and writing a 15-20 page seminar
paper due at the end of the semester. For students preparing to write a
thesis, seminar papers will not be limited to the works studied in class,
but may focus instead on one or more of their proposed thesis texts. Enrollment
in the seminar is by permission only. Priority for the class will be given
to English majors in their Junior year with an average of 3.7 or above in
the major. Interested students should email Professor Tanner (laura.tanner@bc.edu)
by November 8th with a list of classes taken in the major, major GPA, and
a short description of future plans for an honors thesis or graduate work.
Laura Tanner
Last Updated: 10-JAN-08