Maritime Literature and Culture Writers have long found the sea to be a cause of wonder and reflection.  A mirror for some and a desert for others, the sea has influenced the imaginations of writers throughout history in vastly different ways.  In this course we will read a variety of literary works, both fiction and non-fiction, in which the sea acts as the setting, a body of symbolism, an epistemological challenge, and a reason to reflect on the human relationship to nature.  Readings will be drawn from the Bible, Homer's Odyssey, Old English Poetry, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Kipling, Conrad, Melville, Hemingway, Walcott, O'Brian, and others.

Transforming Identities in Literature This course is designed to develop techniques for reading and writing about literary works through the lens of our chosen theme: the transformation of identities (in terms of race, class, gender, etc.) in literary works.  We will read a range of plays, poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction across temporal and national boundaries, exploring the different critical methods and interpretive tools available to us.  Both the thematic and skill-building arcs of the course will culminate in a reading of Toni Morrison’s novel The Song of Solomon in the context of several different--and sometimes contradictory--critical and theoretical approaches.  Other readings will include Shakespeare’s Othello, Hwang’s M. Butterfly, essays by Virginia Woolf and Durga Chew Bose among others, and short stories by James Joyce, Margaret Atwood, and Octavia Butler.

Contested Grounds:  U.S. Cultures and Environments Throughout the history of the United States, Americans have created a complex set of meanings pertaining to the environments (wild, pastoral, urban, marine) in which they live.  From European-Native contact to the present, Americans’ various identities, cultures, and beliefs about the bio-physical world have shaped the stories they tell about “nature,” stories that sometimes share common ground, but often create conflicting and contested understandings of human-environment relationships.  In this course we will investigate these varied and contested stories from multi-disciplinary perspectives in the humanities—history, literature, and religion--and will include attention to race, class, gender, and environmental justice.

Poetry and the Marine Environment In this course we will read and discuss Anglophone poetry about the sea, from the Old English poem The Seafarer to Derek Walcott’s The Sea is History. Our two main goals will be to investigate how poets imagine the marine environment and to bring multiple interpretive approaches to bear on literary texts from different regions and traditions. These approaches will include formal, contextual, and theoretical methods of inquiry. We will read poems by a diversity of poets, including John Masefield, Rudyard Kipling, Adrienne Rich, Derek Walcott, and Mary Oliver.

Shakespeare on Tyranny Shakespeare wrote a great deal about tyrants and tyranny throughout his career, from the early comedies and history plays to the great tragedies and late romances. Characters whose abuse of power for personal gain wreaks havoc and ultimately leads to their own demise are illustrative and instructive today. In this class we will read and discuss a selection of Shakespeare plays, including Richard III, Julius Caesar, Henry V, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, King Lear, and The Tempest, as well as a selection of historical materials on politics and statecraft. These readings will be supplemented by two modern scholarly books, Tyrant, by the literature scholar Stephen Greenblatt, and On Tyranny, by historian Timothy Snyder. Our main goals will be to hone our critical inquiry skills by close-reading and intensive discussion as well as to strengthen our research and writing skills. Prerequisite: at least one ENGL class. Pre-1800 tag.

Nature Poetry Can a poem reframe the relationship between humans and nature? Poets have posed this and similar questions for centuries. Scholars of literature and the environment, or “ecocritics,” ask it anew with reference to ongoing disasters such as global climate change, mass extinction, and new pandemics. In this course we will develop our ecocritical skills by exploring how poems about the human relationship to the biophysical environment can inspire us to rethink our place in the universe. We will read works by such poets as Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Butler Yeats, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, Elisabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, Mary Oliver, Wendell Berry, Galway Kinnell, Maxine Kumin, Lucia Perillo, and Jorie Graham.

Towards a Poetics of Community Why read literature? One answer: such reading is not individual but communal. It links readers to each other in aesthetic experience, in ethical and hermeneutic debate, and in appreciation for writers and fellow readers. As we read literary texts from different times, cultures, and genres, we will examine how they anticipate, create, or recreate readerly communities, and how these communities in turn help shape the texts as they are experienced. We will also strive to form our own readerly community—one that is as inclusive and as intellectually generous as possible. We will begin with close analysis of poetry in various forms from various historical periods. We will then read dramas by such playwrights as William Shakespeare, Margaret Edson, and/or Lolita Chakrabarti, as well as two works from among such prose writers as Charles Dickens, Emily Brontë, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Marilynne Robinson, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Ian McEwan, Walter Moseley, and Jean Rhys.

Daniel Brayton

Reviews and ratings for Daniel Brayton at Middlebury College.Daniel Brayton teaches Contested Grounds, Maritime Literature & Culture, Reading Literature and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Daniel Brayton good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

This course was really great. The readings are heavy, but that's to be expected in an English course. Classes are driven by discussion, but anchored in Professor Brayton's passion for everything Maritime-related. He is very accommodating and supportive to each student. I recommend it to any student... even if you don't feel passionate about the sea, you will be by the end of the semester!

Dan was an awesome teacher and an engaging lecturer. We had creative freedom within solid essay guidelines. We had a final essay and presentation that was fun and chill. I would defiantly take it again if I could! Allowed for lots of time to ski. 

Class is very lecture heavy, but Professor Brayton is incredibly passionate so I never found it difficult to stay engaged. Not much work outside of reading, you're only really graded on 3 short papers. 