Director Fall 2009: Professor Morgan Davies, Department of English
Program prerequisites | Course descriptions | Extra costs | Further information | Helpful links
London is the increasingly multicultural metropolis of what has always been a multicultural island. It is also a place with a deep and varied history—a history that can be read in the very fabric of the city. We will be involved in studying and experiencing London in both of these aspects. Through the Study Group’s academic program, we will work on developing a concrete sense of the physical and cultural contexts of British literature, both medieval and modern, and of why these contexts matter; we will also, I hope, come to an understanding of London’s place—cultural, political, and spiritual—within both Britain itself and its former empire. Along the way, we will have the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the rich and vibrant life of one of the world’s great cities. The London Study Group follows the Colgate calendar from the end of August to early December.
Prerequisites
Application to the London Study Group is open to all Colgate students who have completed at least two English courses at the 200 level, or their equivalent, by the end of the academic year 2008-2009. Priority will be given to declared concentrators in English from the class of 2011.
Required courses
All students will take four courses. Three of these courses offer credit in the English Department: English 308Y and 389Y, taught by the director, and English 332Y, taught by a theater specialist resident in London. The fourth course will be a course on the history of London, which will be taught by a specialist resident in London.
English 308Y, Periods in British Literature: The Matter of Britain (taught by the director). What do we mean when we speak of British literature? To ask this question is to enter into the current debate over what constitutes British identity—a debate that has generated much controversy among contemporary British historians and intellectuals, and that has been raised to a new level of urgency by developments in the nationalist movements of Scotland, Wales, and even Cornwall. The roots of this debate extend deep into the Middle Ages, when Britain was a patchwork of different nations, cultures, and languages. In this course we will consider the literary topography of Britain, with special attention to the intersection of nation, language, and identity in the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. Readings will include the work of English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish authors.
English 389Y, Survey of British Fiction (taught by the director). In this course we will be reading a selection of twentieth-century works set primarily in London, with a special emphasis on how the city figures in the experience and consciousness of fictional characters—and their authors—in the half-century since the end of World War Two. I have not yet finally determined the reading list for this course, but authors under consideration include Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Joyce Cary, Doris Lessing, Muriel Spark, Graham Greene, Sam Selvon, Martin Amis, Michael Moorcock, Iain Sinclair, Robert McLiam Wilson, Angela Carter, Geoff Nicholson, and Zadie Smith.
English 332Y, Contemporary London Theater and Culture (instructor to be determined). For this course students will see and study about ten plays currently in production in London; the focus will be not only on what the specific productions can reveal about contemporary London or British theater and culture, but also on what they can reveal about technical and theoretical aspects of contemporary theater more generally.
Field trips and travel
In conjunction with the first of these courses, we will be traveling together on a couple of trips. First, we’ll take a brief excursion to Canterbury, birthplace of English Christianity, where we’ll visit Canterbury Cathedral (the destination of Chaucer’s pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales) and St. Augustine’s Abbey (the first important Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical foundation and the home base for the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons). Later in the term, we’ll head for southwestern England and Wales, where we will spend a week touring a variety of historically and archaeologically important sites—castles, monasteries, hill-forts, and megalithic monuments—which form the backdrop, or even the source, for some of the literature we’ll be reading in English 308Y. This trip will give us the opportunity to consider the relationship between literature and place, and to arrive at a richer understanding of some of the cultural differences (and tensions) that have helped to define the British experience right from the beginning. It will also give us the opportunity to take a break from London’s crowded urban scene and experience some of the most glorious open country in the entire island. Needless to say, London itself has an especially prominent place in the academic program of this study group; in addition to our regular attendance at London theater productions, we will also be visiting together as a part of our coursework a number of sites of historical and literary significance within the city and its environs. Finally, classes will not ordinarily be held on Fridays, so students will be free to take a variety of short trips independent of the larger program.
Classrooms and libraries
Most classes will be held at Florida State University’s London Study Centre, a substantial academic complex in the heart of Bloomsbury just a couple of blocks west of the British Museum, although some class meetings will be held at such locations as the Tate Gallery, Greenwich, the Tower of London, and the British Museum. The Florida State complex also houses a modest library and computer facilities, both of which will be available to students. Privileges at various archives and libraries will be arranged as needed for history and literature projects, but for day-to-day purposes, students should plan to use their local branch libraries and the main library for the borough in which they reside.
Costs
Costs above Colgate’s tuition include room and board, airfare, and necessary out-of-pocket expenses. On the average students can expect to spend $5,500 - $6,500 more than a semester on campus. These increased costs are used in calculating the aid packages of students who receive financial aid, provided this is their first study group experience.
Students who are planning extensive personal travel will need to increase their budget accordingly.
Colgate University has made arrangements with ACORN Management in London to provide flats for students on the London Study Groups. The cost of these flats is included in the above estimate. Students will be responsible for their own meals.
Estimate of Student Expenses London English Study Group
Information sessions and application deadline
Along with the application, academic and administrative references and an interview with the Study Group director will be required. Information sessions will be held on November 13 and November 18 in Lawrence 320 at 11:30 A.M. Application forms are available in the English Department and in the Off-Campus Study office and are due to Tess Jones in the English Department office by December 12, 2008.
Further information
For more information, please contact Professor Morgan Davies.
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