This course examines the formation and development of American Modernist poetry and relevant trends by American poets who lived both in the U.S. and Europe between 1914-1950.

Course Description

What do we mean when we refer to the idea of ‘objective reality’? Does it exist or is it obsolete in the context of our postmodern, post-reality world? Can it be represented, and, if yes, how has this happened in literature and the arts? This course will explore the complexity, slipperiness, and elasticity of the terms ‘real’ and ‘realism’ and trace their trajectory from the Age of Reason to our post-truth era with emphasis on the novel. Although realist fiction is undoubtedly committed to a historical particularity, as a form of mimesis realism can never be identical with that which it represents, since its tools, i.e., language/words, can never function as flawless, objective mirrors. The serious artistic treatment of ordinary people and their experience, linear plots, omniscient narrators, and round characters are of course elements associated with a realistic mode of representation. Yet, the British nineteenth-century realist project is not explicit, this course aims to show, and British realist writers seem to exploit narrative techniques in ways that acknowledge the impossibility of a hundred percent objective representation or even question the nature of reality. Although realism has been accused of promoting dominant power structures, in its effort to project a recognizable image of society, we will examine how it can also complicate and question the historical moments it represents.

The aim of the course is to provide a comprehensive account of major qualitative and quantitative changes during the construction of children's phonological system. The course will initially address influential theoretical frameworks which have informed the study of phonological development including the behaviourist, structuralist, generative, cognitive and biological models. It will proceed to a description of the perceptual capacities of the infant and early vocal production. Important methodological issues concerning the experimental procedures adopted in perception and production research for phonological development will be presented. Stages in the development of intentional communication will be examined together with issues concerning the interaction between perception of running speech and production. The course will proceed to a review of studies on later development presenting issues regarding the emergence of the segment, vocabulary growth and prosodic development. Finally, the course will present selected characteristics of phonological disorders and some of the most influential frameworks and experimental studies regarding the acquisition of second language phonology. 

This course studies literary works by women writers with a focus on postmodernity as a cultural phenomenon which has established new theories of authorship, readership and textuality. Through a close reading of texts written by Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson, and Margaret Atwood, among others, this course aims to address questions raised with regard to gender, gender relations, identity, sex, and sexuality. We will explore how women writers question and subvert traditional social norms and roles attached to gender and sexuality, as well as how they represent and/or attempt to reconstruct female subjectivity through the use of earlier myths and fairy tales. A number of important texts in gender theory will also be examined from psychoanalytic and cultural studies perspectives. 

This course is now inactive, but you're welcome to browse.

Ling-2-350: This course examines language in use and its interpretation. Pragmatics is, therefore, of paramount importance in a variety of disciplines: language teaching, language acquisition, adult education, inter-cultural/ethnic communicatioon, anthropology, psychology, translation, media and communication studies, psychiatry, (psychosis, language/speech disorders, autism, etc.), art, political science, legislature, etc. "Pragmatics is a central subject in linguistics and philosophy and an increasingly important topic in fields such as cognitive science, informatics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and pathology." (from Huang's 2012 dictionary of pragmatics, CUP)

This course intends to approach different representations of translation and interpreting in literature and film, which will allow students to discuss the political, cultural and social significance of translation/interpreting in different time periods. Through the works presented in the course, an attempt will be made to situate translation and interpreting in the historical context of each work and identify any changes in their role in time. Some of the authors and directors that will be discussed include Brian Friel, Jhumpa Lahiri, Italo Calvino, Sofia Coppola, Michel Ocelot, and Dennis Villeneuve. Assessment: Final exam. 

Optional research paper on themes/aspects of modernism in the US.

Ling-2-341: This course, as taught by Eliza, is now inactive but you're welcome to browse! Students are directed to the course taught by Dr. Lena Gialabouki

Semantics is a component discipline of linguistics and its subject matter is the study of meaning in language. The course explores both sentence-meaning and lexical-meaning. For full description and learning outcomes, see inside.

Μελέτη των έργων του Σαίξπηρ

Course Description

This module surveys English literature and culture from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. Its aim is to acquaint students with the issues and debates which have informed literary and cultural production in Britain in the last two centuries by examining closely selected literary, theoretical and cultural texts of Romanticism, Victorianism, Modernism and Postmodernism. The study of these texts will be organized around specific sets of concerns (for example, revolution, nation, gender, race, empire, etc.). Through contextual and interactive readings students will be able to follow through transformations in literary representation as these take place in the context of changing historical, cultural, social and political circumstances. Students need to do the required amount of reading within the limits set by the course outline and always before its discussion in class. This will facilitate their contribution to class discussions which will be an essential requirement of this module.

The aim of this course is to show prospective teachers of English as a Foreign Language how they may select and integrate various teaching aids in language teaching.

The course will examine how a wide range of teaching aids, ranging from the board and the overhead projector to video and the internet, can facilitate teaching and enhance learning, making them both more effective, motivating and enjoyable.

Teaching is divided into two parts: a two-hour-long "lecture" during which practical ideas and tips are discussed by the instructor. And a one-hour-long seminar during which they, individually or in teams, can present projects which demonstrate how they can supplement course books with various teaching aids.

Assessment is based on a final written exam. 40% of the final grade may come from the projects presented in class.

Το μάθημα αυτό επικεντρώνεται σε κομβικά κείμενα του δεύτερου μισού του Αμερικανικού 19ου αιώνα. Συγγραφείς όπως ο Χώθορν, ο Μέλβιλ, ο Τουαίην, ο Τζαίημς, ο Κρέιν, η Σοπέν και άλλοι αποτελούν τη βάση του μαθήματος. Αναλύονται σημαντικά μυθιστορήματα και νουβέλες και εξηγείται η παράδοση και συνέχεια του πουριτανισμού, οι φυλετικές σχέσεις στον ύστερο 19ο αιώνα, ο πρωτο-φεμινισμός.

This course examines the emergence of the novel as a literary genre in the eighteenth century. It places the novel within the changing landscape of the period that fostered its development, and explores the ways in which this new form of writing was shaped by, and in turn reflected and responded to alterations in the texture of society and economy (the rise of the middle class), transformations in philosophical thought (empiricism, perception, and human nature), and changes in the means of literary production and dissemination (the rise of print culture and literacy). Textual analysis focuses on works by canonical writers such as Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, in an attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the diverse representatives of the prolific novelistic production of the eighteenth century. These examples offer fertile ground for a discussion of the formal characteristics of the novel, of the themes and concerns it addressed, and of the various subgenres that eighteenth-century novelists explored (e.g. the epistolary novel, the novel of sentiment, satire and parody). The important contribution of female novelists to the eighteenth-century literary production is also taken into account to shed light into the ways women writers reflected on women’s place in society and addressed their own concerns. Classes come to a close with a brief discussion on the legacies and afterlives of the eighteenth-century which foregrounds the impact of the era on the subsequent development of the novel, and the ways in which contemporary fiction returns to and re-imagines this formative period of the genre.

This course focuses on the ways in which literary representations of the human subject reflect diachronically altering ideas regarding concepts such as the individual, identity, and subjectivity. We take into consideration the socio-historical context within which a literary work emerges and is subsequently received and consumed, and examine parameters such as gender, social class, and space, as well as the role of history, narration and art in the constitution, formation, and representation of the subject. Students become familiarized with the critical reading of literary works and their characters, tracing the mechanisms behind the construction of the self and the Other. They also learn to identify the ways in which literature subverts the stereotypical assumptions of any given society and the factors that impede the personal growth and self-determination of the individual. Textual analysis focuses on nineteenth-century texts as well as on works of neo-Victorian and contemporary literature.

Where does the meaning of a text reside and who is responsible for it? Is meaning single or multiple? What is the role of the author and the reader, and how do different readings transform a text? How do literary texts and characters reflect certain ideologies and interact with history? How does literature relate to society and help us understand the world around us? What does the work of thinkers like Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud have to do with literature? This course attempts to answer these questions by approaching literary theory as a valuable tool that helps discover and decipher the complexity of a literary text. Students are introduced to some of the most influential theories (e.g. structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism etc.) that developed during the twentieth century and widely inform the study of literature nowadays too. They familiarize themselves with the key concepts of each strand of critical thought and the ways these shape the process of interpretation through the careful reading of seminal theoretical texts and the practical application of their propositions to a wide range of texts, from short stories and novel extracts to poems, songs, plays, and films.