Biography

“If I loved you less,” confesses one of Jane Austen’s heroes, stumbling through a declaration of love, “I might be able to talk about it more.” In this course, we’ll examine the ways writers have depicted love, a feeling so oversized and relentless that it often feels beyond the scope of language.

We’ll read widely: essays, short stories, poetry, and a novel, sampling the doomed lovers of ancient Greek myths and tales of courtly love from the Middle Ages, as well as reading modern classics from writers including E.M. Forster and James Baldwin, and contemporary works by the likes of Sally Rooney and Ann Patchett. We will not limit ourselves to renderings of romantic love, but also love between friends, siblings, teammates, and—perhaps the most tender of all!—human-pet dynamics. In group discussions, we will pay close attention to the way these writers resist cliché and find ways to make some very well-documented sensations and experiences feel new. Throughout the semester we will respond to these works in writing. There will be opportunities to respond in academic writing, or to take inspiration from these texts and try your hand at writing your own creative nonfiction and fictional love stories.