English 797(N)

ENGL 797(N): Special Studies in Literature: Growing Up English Lisa MacFarlane

How does literature shape national identity? More specifically, how does literature for young adults subliminally form and mould what it means to be (since we are in Cambridge) English? In this course, designed for those who read young adult fiction, those who teach young adults, and those who are simply themselves young at heart, we’ll read some of the classic works of British children’s fantasy and explore how they shape a) how we understand childhood; b) what it means to be “English” and the role literature plays in fostering that; and c) how children's literature, even when it employs the genre of fantasy, nonetheless shapes an understanding of history, one that is ideologically powerful and that has practical consequences in the world? Texts will be drawn from the following, and more: Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Hobbit, The Golden Compass, fairy tales by Oscar Wilde, George McDonald, and Joan Aiken, and of course, Harry Potter.

This course is available for graduate credit as English 897 (N).

Lisa MacFarlane is Professor of English and American Studies at the University of New Hampshire and Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. She holds a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Among her publications are A Mighty Baptism: Race, Gender and the Creation of American Protestantism (Cornell, 1996); This World Is Not Conclusion: The Spiritual Landscape of Nineteenth-Century New England Fiction (University Press of New England, 1998); an edition of Henry Adams’ 1884 novel Esther (Penguin, 1999), and Trading Gazes: Anglo-American Women Photographers and Native North Americans 1880-1940 (Rutgers, 2003). Her teaching includes a wide range of classes on mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century culture, including ones on photography, women writers, visual and material culture, American realism, and interdisciplinary methods.