2024-2025 Academic Catalog

Apr 02, 2025

2024-2025 Academic Catalog

ENG 137 - Divided Loyalties in Literature

In this course, we will analyze stories of divided loyalty in literature and pop culture (such as film and television) to better name and process contradictory aspects of human allegiance to things like community (e.g. family, neighborhood, region, race, and the nation), to oneself, to social categories of various kinds (e.g. race, gender, class), or to nonhuman life and the environment. One literary question we will consider: If “genres” constitute social contracts between authors and audiences, how might an author’s-or reader’s-disloyalty to genre conventions work to defamiliarize social and cultural norms and, thereby, encourage new and better ways of living? Some genres we may study include the coming-of-age narrative (a.k.a. the bildungsroman), the racial “passing” narrative, the spy narrative, and the narrative of political intrigue (genres subject to change on a semesterly basis-feel free to contact the instructor for more information).

For English majors, this course satisfies the C-2 requirment.

Prerequisites: IDND 018 or writing placement

Course Designation/Attribute: VE, WE, DI

Anticipated Terms Offered: Approximately once per year.