Research-oriented and designed for upper-division English majors. Intensive examination of critical approaches, literary theory, or a special topic in literary and cultural studies. Topics vary from semester to semester. Students should consult the department's "Announcement of Classes" for offerings well before the beginning of the semester.

This class addresses an inevitable feature of all poems that don't go on forever, the last line: the position from which the poem’s entire form is, for the first time, apprehended. This focus will require attention to all the formal and thematic principles by which a poem generates itself, deferring then delivering (or thwarting) the sense of an ending. In addition to the question I.A. Richards poses in his essay “How Does a Poem Know When It is Finished?” we’ll ask some versions of the following: Can a poem end without concluding? What comes after the last line of the poem? Why do so many poems close by recalling their beginnings? How have closural strategies in English poetry changed over time? We’ll pair theoretical accounts of closure with test-cases from across the history of poetry in English, acquiring along the way some facility with its prosodies, its use of figures from classical rhetoric (especially figures of repetition), and its major and minor formal environments. While English 100 is a prerequisite for English 190, students who are exempt from this requirement (see https://english.berkeley.edu/undergraduate/the_major) will be able to enroll automatically.

All readings will be drawn from a course reader.

Requisites

• English 100 is prerequisite to English 190.

Repeat Rules