Welcome to the Spring 2009 senior seminar in Literature at Stockton College. The working title for the seminar is The Sonnet Sequence. As a class we will read four sequences: two from the Renaissance period, one from the nineteenth century, and another from the twentieth century. We are looking for ways to understand our texts as discreet units — sonnets — but also as complete works — sequences. How does meaning shift and play as we change focus between these literary perspectives?

We will be concerned with issues of form, as part of the course is reserved for mastering the structural and evaluative techniques of meter and form. Reading a range of secondary works will provide theoretical frameworks through which we will gain additional understanding. It will be our overall task to learn about the potential avenues of meaning offered by sequences.

Individually, you will choose and analyze a sequence of your own choice, writing a complex, rich, and intelligent thesis that engages with the scholarly debate surrounding your sequence and that clearly explains your own critical understanding.