ENGL 380 - English Seminar

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2026/27b: Nostalgia. “You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.” In thus instructing her husband-to-be, Mr. Darcy, Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet unwittingly articulates the fundamental principle of a phenomenon that would come to play a crucial role in the reception and ongoing popularity of Austen’s fiction: nostalgia. Coined in 1688 by the Alsatian physician Johannes Hofer to describe the physical effects of extreme homesickness, nostalgia has since evolved into one of the most profound logics of modern culture. In this class, we look back at more than three centuries of nostalgia’s bittersweet history, attempting to understand its unusual cognitive and affective structure, its social and political uses, and the forms of its expression in art and literature. We conclude with a reflection on the place of nostalgia in contemporary culture. Alongside a selection of nostalgic texts by writers and film-makers (including William Blake, Charles Dickens, Evelyn Waugh, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Todd Haynes) we consider theories of nostalgia from (among others) Sigmund Freud, Fredric Jameson, Svetlana Boym, Nicholas Dames, and Susan Stewart. Mark Taylor.

This course satisfies the REGS requirement for the English major.

One 2-hour period.

Course Format: CLS