Antonia Losano
Professor of English and American Literatures
alosano@middlebury.edu
work(802) 443-3242
Spring Term: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 11:00-12:00 and by appointment
Axinn Center at Starr Library 303
Antonia Losano joined the English and American Literatures department in 1999. She teaches courses in 19th century literature, gender studies, mystery fiction, 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, 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
CRWR 0560 - Special Project: Writing ▲ ▹
Special Project: Creative Writing
Approval Required.
Spring 2014, Winter 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Winter 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019
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.
Spring 2014, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019
ENAM 0102 / GSFS 0102 - Gender/Sexuality/Literature
Introduction to Gender, Sexuality and Literature
This course offers an introduction to the ways in which literature reflects, influences, creates, and reveals cultural beliefs about gender and sexuality. We will read a wide range of novels, poems, and plays from a diversity of eras and national traditions; we will also study seminal works in feminist theory, queer studies, and the history of sexuality, from early thinkers to today's cutting-edge theorists. Throughout the course, we will explore the ways in which gender intersects with other crucial cultural issues such as race, nationhood, globalization, and class. 3 hrs. lect./disc. CMP LIT
Spring 2015
ENAM 0103 - Reading Literature
Reading Literature
Please refer to each section for specific course descriptions. CW LIT
Fall 2014, Fall 2016, Spring 2017
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 2014
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
Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018
ENAM 0234 - English Poetry 18-20C
English Poetry, Romantic to Modern (II)
This course offers an intensive survey of innovations and revolutions in English poetry from late-18th century Romantic poetry through Victorian poetry of the 19th century to the advent of Modern poetry in the early 20th century. We will read poems by Wordsworth, Keats, Browning, Tennyson, Bronte, Hardy, Hopkins, Eliot, and many others. Readings will also include critical and theoretical articles on individual writers and on poetry more generally. We will make a close study of poetic form and technique as well as explore a wide range of central literary themes across the period such as gender, sexuality, imperialism, race relations, and war). EUR LIT
Fall 2016
ENAM 0241 - 19th Century Literature
Nineteenth Century British Literature (II)
The 19th century is the era of “peak novel,” for never before or since has the genre exhibited such confidence in its ability to tell the truth about both the teeming world and the private life. But far from merely reflecting social reality, the novelists and poets of the period played an active part in constructing their readers' ideas about gender and sexuality, imperialism and colonialism, class, religion, and technology, insisting that literature be relevant and revelatory in a time of swift and sometimes frightening cultural and intellectual innovation. Works to be covered will include novels by Emily Bronte, Dickens, George Eliot, and Hardy, and the poetry of Tennyson, Browning, and Christina Rossetti. 3 hrs. lect./disc. EUR LIT
Spring 2015
ENAM 0246 - Literature and Social Protest
Books that Changed the World: Literature and Social Protest
Can literature change the world? In this course we will examine a wide range of texts written in response to war, economic and social crises (such as the Great Depression or environmental crises), health crises (the AIDS pandemic, for example), social and political oppression (slavery; racial, gender or sexual discrimination), and other historical events. We will explore the profound impact literature can have on the world and examine the rhetorical strategies writers use to effect real-world social change. Readings will include social theories and historiographies as well as literature. lect./disc LIT
Spring 2014
ENAM 0500 - Special Project: Lit ▲ ▹
Special Project: Literature
Approval Required.
Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Winter 2015, Spring 2015, Winter 2017, Spring 2017, Winter 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019
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.
Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019
ENAM 0710 - Senior Thesis: Critical Writ.
Senior Thesis: Critical Writing
Individual guidance and seminar (discussions, workshops, tutorials) for those undertaking two-term projects in literary criticism or analysis. All critical thesis writers also take the thesis workshop (ENAM 710z) in both Fall and Spring terms.
Spring 2014
ENAM 1030 - Bibliotherapy
Bibliotherapy: Reading and Writing the Psyche
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 as well as creative works, which will be shared with classmates in a writing workshop setting. LIT WTR
Winter 2017
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