Antonia Losano
Professor of English and American Literatures
alosano@middlebury.edu
work(802) 443-3242
Fall 2021: Tues/Thurs 11:00-12:00 and by appointment
Axinn Center 303
Antonia Losano joined the English and American Literatures department in 1999. She teaches courses in 19th century literature, literary theory, gender studies, mystery fiction, animals in literature, and the intersections of literature and the visual arts. Her book on women writers and painters in the Victorian era, The Woman Painter in Victorian Literature, was published in 2008; she has also published articles on women travel writers, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and exercise videos. Currently she is working on a book on the history of solitude. She received an M.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Courses
Courses offered in the past four years.
▲ indicates offered in the current term
▹ indicates offered in the upcoming term[s]
CMLT 0700 - Senior Thesis ▹
Senior Thesis
A senior thesis is normally completed over two semesters. During Fall and Winter terms, or Winter and Spring terms, students will write a 35-page (article length) comparative essay, firmly situated in literary analysis. Students are responsible for identifying and arranging to work with their primary language and secondary language readers, and consulting with the program director before completing the CMLT Thesis Declaration form. (Approval required.)
Fall 2017, Winter 2018, Winter 2019, Spring 2019, Winter 2020, Spring 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022
CRWR 0560 - Special Project: Writing ▲ ▹
Special Project: Creative Writing
Approval Required.
Fall 2017, Winter 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Winter 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Winter 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022
CRWR 0701 - Senior Thesis:Creative Writing ▲ ▹
Senior Thesis: Creative Writing
Discussions, workshops, tutorials for those undertaking one-term projects in the writing of fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction.
Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022
ENAM 0103 - Reading Literature ▲
Reading Literature
Please refer to each section for specific course descriptions. CW LIT
Winter 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021
ENAM 0105 / GSFS 0105 - Victoria's Secrets
Victoria's Secrets
Known as the great age of the realist novel and the epitome of staid decorum, the nineteenth century also had its guilty pleasures--mysteries, ghost stories, science fiction, adventure tales, and more--all exposing a wild underside to the Victorian imagination where seeming norms of gendered, racial, and ethnic identity were systematically called into question. In this course we will read both canonical realist novels and their non-traditional counterparts in an attempt to understand the productive interplay between these two seemingly disparate literary traditions. Authors may include: Austen, Dickens, Eliot, Hardy, the Brontës, Wilkie Collins, R.L. Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and others. 3 hrs.lect. EUR LIT
Fall 2017
ENAM 0108 - Animals in Literature
Animals in Literature and Culture
Animals, wrote anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, are good to think with. They are good to write with as well; almost all works of literature include animals, their importance varying from the merely peripheral to the absolutely central. Among other narrative functions, animals serve as essential metaphors for understanding the human animal. In this course we will read a wide variety of fiction, poetry, children's literature, philosophy, science, history, and cultural theory from Ancient Greek sources (in translation) to the present. We will consider theoretical, ethical, religious, psychological, linguistic, and political issues pertaining to animals and their representation in literary texts. lect./disc. EUR LIT
Spring 2020, Spring 2021
ENAM 0205 / CMLT 0205 - Intro:Contemporary Lit. Theory
Introduction to Contemporary Literary Theory
In this course we will introduce several major schools of contemporary literary theory. By reading theoretical texts in close conjunction with works of literature, we will illuminate the ways in which these theoretical stances can produce multiple interpretations of a given literary work. The approaches covered may include New Criticism, Psychoanalysis, Marxism and Cultural Criticism, Race Theory and Multicultural Criticism, Feminism, Post-Colonial Criticism, Queer Studies, Eco-Criticism, Post-Structuralism, and others. These theories will be applied to various works of fiction, poetry, and drama. The goal will be to make students critically aware of the fundamental literary, cultural, political, and moral assumptions underlying every act of interpretation they perform. 3 hrs. lect/disc. EUR LIT
Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2020
ENAM 0500 - Special Project: Lit ▲ ▹
Special Project: Literature
Approval Required.
Winter 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Winter 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Winter 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022
ENAM 0700 - Senior Thesis:Critical Writing ▲ ▹
Senior Thesis: Critical Writing
Individual guidance and seminar (discussions, workshops, tutorials) for those undertaking one-term projects in literary criticism or analysis. All critical thesis writers also take the Senior Thesis Workshop (ENAM 700Z) in either Fall or Spring Term.
Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022
ENAM 1040 - Poems, Poets, Poetry
Poems, Poets, Poetry
Emily Dickinson declared, “if I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” In this introductory class we will encounter hair-raising poems from a wide variety of genres and historical eras in order to examine their structural forms, linguistic audacities, ideological captivities, and personal revelations. We will also read various poets’ meditations on their own craft, from which we will draw our own conclusions about what poems do, should, or might accomplish in the world. Our goal will always be to render poetry accessible, relevant, and enjoyable—to become confident readers of, and informed writers about, the diverse poetic utterance. LIT WTR
Winter 2021
FYSE 1497 - Bibliotherapy
Bibliotherapy: Reading and Writing for Psychological Well-Being
An inscription over the door of a library in Ancient Egypt purportedly read, “Medicine for the Soul,” and the modern practice known as “Bibliotherapy” similarly claims that reading and writing can have powerful psychological benefits. How can reading books improve your mental health? Can writing about trauma help to heal psychic wounds? In this course we will explore contemporary theories of the therapeutic value of literature; readings will include novels, poems, short stories, memoirs, and psychological articles. Students will write analytical essays, research-based essays, and scholarly review articles as well as creative works, which will be shared with classmates in a writing workshop setting. CW LIT
Fall 2017
FYSE 1517 - Animals in Lit and Culture
Animals in Literature and Culture
In this course we will engage with the representation of animals in novels, children’s books, poetry, philosophy, the visual arts, and popular culture to explore the role animals play in our aesthetic, ethical, and emotional lives. We will examine how animals have been represented historically and across various cultures in our attempt to gain insight into the ways humanity uses animals to make meaning for ourselves. CW LIT
Spring 2018
FYSE 1525 - Writer's Decathlon ▲
Writer's Decathlon
One of the best skills a writer can hope to cultivate is flexibility—the ability to write for different audiences, different situations, different media, and with different goals in mind. In this course we will develop our skills as flexible writers by tackling ten different writing exercises, including the op-ed, several sub-genres of the traditional academic paper, personal essays, creative fiction, the persuasive essay, business communications, modern tech-based genres, and more—we may even try our hand at writing an old-fashioned love letter with a quill pen. We will workshop our writings in class regularly, and examples of these various genres will be our course readings. 3 hrs. sem. CW
Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021