| UNIVERSITY CORE LITERATURE COURSES | |||
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UCCS Learning Objectives for Literature and Performing Arts (LPA)Upon completing these courses, students will be able to: (1) Produce oral and written assessments of literary and cultural texts and/or performances using the language and concepts of the discipline of literary studies. |
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ENGL 2420 —Introduction to British Literature 23 sem. hrs. General Description: Continuation of ENGL 22, following the development of British literature from the late 18th century to the present. Approaches vary with instructor; authors studied are likely to include Austen, the Brontës, G. Eliot, Joyce, Shaw, the Shelleys, Tennyson, Woolf, and Wordsworth. • Professor Colleen Willenbring
Course Description: This course will survey some of the major developments in British literature from 1789 to the present, a period that coincides with the origin and progress of economics as a way of reasoning about the events that shape nations and individual lives. Accordingly, one goal in this class will be to learn about political, social, and literary change in Great Britain during that time period by reading works that explore the kinds of questions that economics has sought to answer about individuals’ experiences in a particular place and time—about poverty and wealth, labor, domestic arrangements, and population. Another goal will be to consider the ways that economics, its narratives and metaphors, may serve as a useful tool for investigating the qualities of texts that are less self-consciously “economic” in their contributions to Great Britain’s artistic tradition. In order to achieve these goals, we will borrow useful concepts from the field of economics (and occasionally law) to supplement our literary methodologies, but technical knowledge of economics is neither a goal nor a prerequisite. Still, students who have an interest in acquiring or employing more technical understanding of economics or law will be encouraged to do so. Readings: Selections from an Anthology of British Literature since 1789, 2 Novels. Assignments: Weekly online discussion posts building toward 2 formal papers, Midterm Exam and Final Exam.
• Professor Donna Foran
Course Description: We will survey English Literature beginning with the major Romantic poets (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron) through Realism and the Victorians (Dickens and the major prose writers—Carlyle and Mill—and the poet Tennyson), touch on the Pre-Raphaelites, including Morris, dramatist Oscar Wilde, and finally shift into Modernism and Postmodernism (Conrad, Greene, Barker and others). Emphasis will be on a New Historical critical approach to the work since it is difficult, and in fact counterproductive, to try to separate England's history from its literature. Readings: Texts include The Norton Survey of English Literature, eighth edition, vols. D, E, and F, and the following novels: Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities; Baroness Emmuska Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel; Pat Barker, Regeneration, and Graham Green, The Quiet American. Assignments: two formal papers, 10 short and informal reaction papers; and 4 tests including the final exam.
• Professor Al Rivero
Course Description:This course is a survey of British Literature from the Romantic period to the present day. We will begin by reading selections from the poems of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley, and then, in the second half of the course, read four novels: Sense and Sensibility, Jane Eyre, Heart of Darkness, and Wide Sargasso Sea. The reading in the first few weeks is relatively light but then rather heavy when we start our work on the novels. Regular attendance and participation in class discussion are required to receive a passing grade in this course. Readings: Selections from poems by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley. Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility;Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre;Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness; Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea. Assignments: One or two oral presentations; one midterm examination; one or two short papers (5pp.); and comprehensive final examination.
• Professor Erik Ankerberg
Course Description: This course will focus on major British writers from the Romantic period to the contemporary period. In addition to studying essential literary elements and theory, we will examine these writers as representative artists of the period and consider the relationships they envision among the study of aesthetics, the artist, and society. We will focus primarily on sharpening our practice of close reading as we look at representative poetry and at least one novel from the past two hundred years of British literature. Assignments: The coursework includes short reflections (1 pg.), 1 essay (6-8 pages) and presentation, and 3 short exams.
• Professor Steve Karian
Course Description: This course will focus on major British poets from the Romantic period to the present. In addition to studying the essential characteristics of the major literary periods of the last two centuries, we will examine these poets’ major poems and statements of poetic theory. We will also learn the skill of “close reading,” which will be of use for analyzing literature from any period. Readings: Major poems from the Romantic period to the present by Wordsworth, Shelley, the Brownings, Yeats, Eliot, and others. Assignments: Class discussion, papers, and exams. |
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ENGL 2520 —Introduction to American Literature 23 sem. hrs. General Description: Continuation of ENGL 32, following the development of American literature from the Civil War to the present. Approaches vary with instructor; authors studied are likely to include Bishop, Cather, Chopin, T.S. Eliot, Ellison, Erdrich, Faulkner, Freeman, Frost, Gilman, Hemingway, Hughes, Hurston, James, Jewett, Morrison, O’Connor, Pound, Stein, Twain, Wharton, and Wright. • Professor Heather Hathaway
Course Description: This class is designed to introduce you to some of the main literary themes and strategies which characterize American writing between the Civil War and the present. Through exploration of a variety of sets of important “pairs” in American literary history, whether they be pairs of authors or entire literary movements, we will consider the concept of intertextuality: the ways in which writers and writings stem from and speak to one another. In so doing, we seek to accomplish two main goals: first, to identify and analyze fundamental elements of literature in order to provide you with the basic skills necessary for further literary study, and second, to examine key works and authors in order to prepare you with foundational knowledge for more advanced courses. Pairs of authors studied will include Whitman and Dickinson, Wharton and James, Washington and DuBois, Frost and Anderson, Eliot and Pound, Hughes and McKay, Faulkner and Porter, Wright and Ellison. We may also read one novel by Toni Morrison.
• Professor Ronald Bieganowski, SJ
Course Description:“What does it mean to be American?” This course will
• Professor Dana Edwards Prodoehl 103 TUTH 11:00-12:15 Fulfills UCCS LPA requirement "The ‘Challenge’ of Literature, in Post-Civil War America” Course Description: To gain a deeper understanding of the last 150 years or so of American literature, we will discuss how authors challenge the world around them: they challenge societal values, they challenge tradition, they challenge previous literary forms, and they challenge each other. And, in doing so, they ask us to challenge: we challenge the works, we challenge each others’ interpretations, and, hopefully, we challenge ourselves. To see how authors use the device of challenge, we will be reading and discussing a broad range of genres: short stories, essays, poetry, drama and excerpts of novels. We will be reading a diverse range of authors including those from the mainstream as well as the periphery. My hope is that you come to understand the complexity of American literature, and how (good) literature is alive, in conversation with the world around it.
• Professor Ronald Bieganowski, SJ
Course Description:“What does it mean to be American?” This course will
• Professor Jodi Melamed
Course Description:We will examine “American literature” not as an object you can simply acquire or learn (like a math equation), but a set of questions that require persistent engagement. These questions include: What ideals, contradictions, ruses, and powers have been attached to the categories of “American” and “American literature” since 1865? How have different social groups used the cultural power of literature to augment their own social power? How have different social groups deployed literary themes and devices to rupture varieties of common sense and to nurture a critical imagination about more ethical human relations? We will work chronologically thorough a series of juxtaposed texts that have been carefully selected to bring out the tensions, contradictions, and harmonies between the literature of different social groups, historical periods, and genres. We will return repeatedly to a series of concepts central to the category of American literature, including democracy, supremacy, community, status, religion, civility, race, gender, nation, empire, and modernity. Our focus will be on producing careful close readings that are as attentive to the rhetorical power of literary works as to their historical and cultural contexts. We will read literature not only with attention to its historical present, but also to think about historicity in more complex ways. Readings: Heath Anthology of American Literature, Toni Morrison, Beloved, Sherman Alexie, Flight Assignments: Two short essays (5-6 pages long), reading journal, midterm and final exams.
• Professor Jodi Melamed
Course Description:We will examine “American literature” not as an object you can simply acquire or learn (like a math equation), but a set of questions that require persistent engagement. These questions include: What ideals, contradictions, ruses, and powers have been attached to the categories of “American” and “American literature” since 1865? How have different social groups used the cultural power of literature to augment their own social power? How have different social groups deployed literary themes and devices to rupture varieties of common sense and to nurture a critical imagination about more ethical human relations? We will work chronologically thorough a series of juxtaposed texts that have been carefully selected to bring out the tensions, contradictions, and harmonies between the literature of different social groups, historical periods, and genres. We will return repeatedly to a series of concepts central to the category of American literature, including democracy, supremacy, community, status, religion, civility, race, gender, nation, empire, and modernity. Our focus will be on producing careful close readings that are as attentive to the rhetorical power of literary works as to their historical and cultural contexts. We will read literature not only with attention to its historical present, but also to think about historicity in more complex ways. Readings: Heath Anthology of American Literature, Toni Morrison, Beloved, Sherman Alexie, Flight Assignments: Two short essays (5-6 pages long), reading journal, midterm and final exams. |
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ENGL 2710: Introduction to Literature; Fiction3 semester hours General Description: An introduction to various types of fiction (e.g., fable, short story, novel) representing a range of cultural perspectives with emphasis on techniques for analyzing the conventions, structure and style of fiction. Offered every term. Prereq: English 1 or equiv. and English 2 or equiv. • Professor Barbara Glore
Course Description: In this class, we will engage in a shared inquiry of literary works that are preoccupied with characters in search of a personal identity and who inhabit a dislocated sense of home. In noting how these characters navigate a variety of unfamiliar settings, we will be attentive to how cultural differences of race, gender, and ethnicity can add to the difficulties of social acclimation--difficulties encountered daily in a diverse landscape of humanity which Aleksandar Hemon asserts is just “what the world is” (The Lazarus Project). Also, as a way of shining a light on our readings, we will explore basic literary theories in order to approach these works through a variety of lenses. Fundamentally, to paraphrase English critic Terry Eagleton, constructing identity can be self-serving, and oftentimes the coping skills required of fictional characters are the same skills required of all of us when dealing with everyday life. In this way, as we explore these works of fiction, we will strive to find meaning in the text so that we may learn more about ourselves, others, and the intersection of the two in the world. Readings: Kafka, Carver, Hemingway, Kesey, Alexie, Lahiri, Oates, and others. Assignments: Class participation; ten short critical responses; two five-page papers; one panel presentation; final essay exam.
• Professor Aesha Adams
Course Description: At a recent Fashion in Fiction conference at the University of Technology Sydney, literary critics took under consideration Roland Barthes’ claim that fashion was not an 'industry' but rather a set of fictions. In this section of Introduction to Fiction, we will enter that conversation and focus on the interesting connections between Fashion and Fiction. In addition to examining how fashion functions in short stories and novels we will also consider questions like: when is fiction considered fashionable? In what ways might the production and consumption of fashion parallel the production and consumption of fiction? In what ways might the portrayal of fashion in literary texts reflect, complicate ,and challenge society’s fictions about gender, race, class, religion, sexuality, etc? Assignments: 1 short position paper, 1 research paper, quizzes, a panel presentation and final exam. Readings: Mainly short stories and some novels.
• Professor Stephen Hartman-Keiser
Course Description: Our primary goal is to encounter and enjoy important works of fiction. Good stories touch us at our truest core, spurring us to reflect on and reassess our lives: what it means to be—and what it means to be responsible for our choices in speaking and acting. Franz Kafka said, “A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.” In this course we will learn to become better axe-wielders. One way we will do this is by looking at the remarkable variation in the English language around the world and how authors use this to build their stories and characters. Upon completion of this course you will be able to:
Readings: Among the authors whose works we will read are: Baldwin, Walker, Chekhov, Oates, and Alexie. Assignments: Oral presentation: Reading and commentary. Critical essays. Two exams.
• Professor Ryan Jerving
Course Description: The course considers what purposes - cultural, economic, biological - are served by the social acts of storytelling and the print publication of stories and novels. And it asks how those purposes might be shifting under the tectonic pressures of our online age. Through looking at narrative structures and conventions, we'll examine how the age-old folk process behind fables and fairytales has been translated into the 21st-century forms of the graphic novel, chick lit, and fan fiction. Through a comparative case study of two American Southern, modernist, Catholic writers, we'll analyze the role of style in exploring and exploding the social fictions of identity, family, community, and mystery. And we'll turn to the global uses of fiction in illuminating the realities of life during wartime and the ways that Iranian, Iraqi, North Korean, and U.S. writers have also used it to construct virtual counter-realities to that life. Readings: Among others, we will read stories, novels, and comics by Zora Neale Hurston, Mark Millar, James Agee, Flannery O'Connor, Richard Powers, and an anthology of writers from the "Axis of Evil." Assignments: One major research paper, two mid-sized analytic papers, weekly online discussion, daily in-class writing, and a class-authored wiki novella.
• Professor Ryan Jerving
Course Description: The course considers what purposes - cultural, economic, biological - are served by the social acts of storytelling and the print publication of stories and novels. And it asks how those purposes might be shifting under the tectonic pressures of our online age. Through looking at narrative structures and conventions, we'll examine how the age-old folk process behind fables and fairytales has been translated into the 21st-century forms of the graphic novel, chick lit, and fan fiction. Through a comparative case study of two American Southern, modernist, Catholic writers, we'll analyze the role of style in exploring and exploding the social fictions of identity, family, community, and mystery. And we'll turn to the global uses of fiction in illuminating the realities of life during wartime and the ways that Iranian, Iraqi, North Korean, and U.S. writers have also used it to construct virtual counter-realities to that life. Readings: Among others, we will read stories, novels, and comics by Zora Neale Hurston, Mark Millar, James Agee, Flannery O'Connor, Richard Powers, and an anthology of writers from the "Axis of Evil." Assignments: One major research paper, two mid-sized analytic papers, weekly online discussion, daily in-class writing, and a class-authored wiki novella.
• Professor Sr. Prochaska
Course Description: This course, Introduction to Fiction 042.1004 examines the literature and perspectives expressed by writers from America, Ireland, England, Spain, Russia, and beyond. The student is invited to explore the multiple landscapes of the imagination which are engaged by writers who present various global cultures and mores. Besides the fiction of Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, and Willa Cather, the works studied by the students include Leo Tolstoy, Joseph Conrad, Franz Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, James Joyce, Isaac Beshavis Singer and others. The vast world of fiction incorporates a marvelous and enriching human journey with its quests and obstacles, its glamorous visions, and its disastrous misfortunes, a journey that we all share. Readings: Besides the fiction of Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, and Willa Cather, the works studied by the students include Leo Tolstoy, Joseph Conrad, Franz Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, James Joyce, Isaac Beshavis Singer and others. Assignments:
• Professor Amara Graf
Course Description: This course introduces students to the broad range of contemporary American fiction. We will explore different types of fiction (short stories and novels) from a variety of cultural (African-American, Latina/o, Asian-American, American Indian) and critical (feminist, gender, post-colonial) perspectives. We will look at how different cultural and historical forces have both constrained and enabled the creative expression of Ethnic American authors. The texts will ask us to consider carefully several themes and narrative strategies; we will examine how authors address issues of nationality, migration, Diaspora, violence, loss, assimilation, language, religion, and desire. We will also discuss how ethnicity and race intersect with other categories of difference, including class, gender, and sexual orientation. By paying proper attention to close textual readings, as well as the historical moments in which these works are occurring, we will develop a sense of the aesthetic and political stakes of Ethnic American literary production. Readings: Short stories and novels by various contemporary American authors including but not limited to Toni Morrison, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Díaz, Gish Jen, Ana Castillo, and Sherman Alexie. Assignments: Several short position papers, quizzes, two medium length papers, an oral presentation and final essay exam.
• Professor Amara Graf
Course Description: This course introduces students to the broad range of contemporary American fiction. We will explore different types of fiction (short stories and novels) from a variety of cultural (African-American, Latina/o, Asian-American, American Indian) and critical (feminist, gender, post-colonial) perspectives. We will look at how different cultural and historical forces have both constrained and enabled the creative expression of Ethnic American authors. The texts will ask us to consider carefully several themes and narrative strategies; we will examine how authors address issues of nationality, migration, Diaspora, violence, loss, assimilation, language, religion, and desire. We will also discuss how ethnicity and race intersect with other categories of difference, including class, gender, and sexual orientation. By paying proper attention to close textual readings, as well as the historical moments in which these works are occurring, we will develop a sense of the aesthetic and political stakes of Ethnic American literary production. Readings: Short stories and novels by various contemporary American authors including but not limited to Toni Morrison, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Díaz, Gish Jen, Ana Castillo, and Sherman Alexie. Assignments: Several short position papers, quizzes, two medium length papers, an oral presentation and final essay |
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ENGL 2720: Introduction to Literature; Drama3 semester hours General Description: An introduction to the forms and principles of drama, often surveying its development from its origins in ancient Greece to the contemporary theater, with emphasis on techniques for analyzing the conventions, structures and styles of dramatic literature. Class will typically read works from a number of centuries and study authors from continental, British and American traditions. Classes usually include at least one play by Shakespeare. Offered every term. Prereq: English 1 or equiv. and English 2 or equiv. • Professor Rebecca Nowacek
Course Description: This course is designed to help you develop your appreciation for drama as a written genre and a living art form, as well as your ability to analyze and make an argument about a play. Towards that end, we will read a series of plays representing the development of the genre. For each play, we will identify and discuss various “problems of interpretation”—that is, questions or puzzles that intelligent readers of good will could legitimately disagree about, making arguments grounded in the text or staging of the play. Viewing and discussing actual performances of these plays will be a key element of our work in this course; there will be required viewings of movies, attendance at local theatrical productions, and some in-class dramatic interpretation. Readings: We will read and discuss at least five plays; I have not made final selections, but the plays will likely include Aeschylus’ Oresteia triology, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Bertholt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, and August Wilson’s Radio Golf. Assignments: Assignments will likely include two formal essays, a midterm exam, a final exam, a creative performance and reflection paper, and regular reading quizzes.
• Professor Rebecca Nowacek
Course Description: This course is designed to help you develop your appreciation for drama as a written genre and a living art form, as well as your ability to analyze and make an argument about a play. Towards that end, we will read a series of plays representing the development of the genre. For each play, we will identify and discuss various “problems of interpretation”—that is, questions or puzzles that intelligent readers of good will could legitimately disagree about, making arguments grounded in the text or staging of the play. Viewing and discussing actual performances of these plays will be a key element of our work in this course; there will be required viewings of movies, attendance at local theatrical productions, and some in-class dramatic interpretation. Readings: We will read and discuss at least five plays; I have not made final selections, but the plays will likely include Aeschylus’ Oresteia triology, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Bertholt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, and August Wilson’s Radio Golf. Assignments: Assignments will likely include two formal essays, a midterm exam, a final exam, a creative performance and reflection paper, and regular reading quizzes.
• Professor Mary Beth Tallon
Course Description: “The Play's the Thing…”
• Professor Mary Beth Tallon
:Course Description: “The Play's the Thing…” |
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ENGL 2730: Introduction to Literature; Poetry3 semester hours General Description: An introduction to poetry from variety of traditions. Emphasis on close reading of poems to learn how formal techniques of verse (e.g., symbolism, metaphor, simile, imagery, persona, meter, rhythm) combine for poetic effect. Offered every term. Prereq: English 1 or equiv. and English 2 or equiv. • Professor John Boly
Course Description: Ever felt completely flummoxed by poetry? Or been intimidated by those things with the ragged right margins that people give each other in times of deep passion, or need, or regret, like forgetting to water the peperomia, or accidentally making the hash out of canned catfood? Well have no fear: this course is the answer to your prayers. You will learn to fathom the thematic depths and acoustic intricacies of even the most abstruse poetry. Through your mastery of the verse patternings of such subtle linguistic features as stress and rhythm, grammar and syntax, diction, imagery, tone, lineation, rhyme, metaphor, and other figurations, you will become an indisputable expert in the unraveling of poetic perplexities. Want to impress your parents, wow your boy/girl friend, and finally get some respect from the dog? Then you have got to take this course.
• Professor Ed DuffY
Course Description: We will use a textbook that explains the elements of poetry such as figurative language, rhythm, syntax, allusion, and so on. But mostly, we’ll introduce ourselves to poetry by reading carefully one poem after another, with an emphasis on twentieth-century examples. Readings: The textbook (and anthology) is Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. Assignments:Class participation--including the reading out loud of poetry--is essential; two papers; two exams and a final.
• Professor Mary Catherine Bodden
Course Description: This Introduction to Poetry course has four aims: 1) to acquaint you with the variety and range of poems by poets from broad perspectives of culture, history, race, gender and sexuality. 2) To become familiar with different forms of poetry: sonnet, blues stanza, ballad, lyric, free verse, terza rima, the villanelle, etc. 3) To develop the your knowledge of literary critical methods enabling you to read and to evaluate what makes good poetry, and 4) to develop skills of critical thinking through writing and close reading of these poems. Critical writing means, that along with analyzing forty-some poems in class, the students themselves undertake a project in which they develop a poem from its single theme and tone to incorporating more sophisticated internal elements (extended metaphor, meter, figures of speech, images, and if they wish, rhyme schemes) as a means of learning through writing. Assignments:Two essay-exams, quizzes, mid-term and final exams, and the poetry writing project.
• Professor Ed Block
Course Description: This survey course is an introduction to reading and understanding poetic genres; examples taken primarily form modern British and American literature. A weekly feature on World Poetry (c. 500 B.C. to the present). Frequent reading aloud. Readings:Textbooks: Kennedy & Gioia Introduction to Poetry, M. H. Abrams ed. Glossary of Literary Terms Assignments:One response paper (1-2 pp.), two analytical papers (3-5, 4-7 pp.), one reflective paper (3-5 pp.). Seven quizzes, one oral presentation, a mid-term and a final. There will also be extra credit poetry journal and memorization options.
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ENGL 2740: Reading Film as Narrative• Professor Diane Hoeveler Horror Films
Course Description: Paraphrasing Aristotle, why do we “like” horror? What pleasures do we derive from reading and watching horror enacted on the screen? The horror genre, as narrative and as film, is frequently ridiculed as adolescent or overly violent, but it has also served an important social function by alerting its consumers to those issues about which their culture has the most anxiety, fear, and angst. Horror literature and film explore the terrain of the taboo for every culture. This course will examine both the history of horror films, as well as the evolving definition of the field: what is horror for different periods and for different cultures? Readings: From Barbara Creed, The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis; Fred Botting, Limits of Horror; films include Nosferatu; Frankenstein; Dracula; The Mummy; Candyman; The Silence of the Lambs; Ringu |
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ENGL 2931: Topics in Literature and Culture: Global English Literatures• Professor Daniel Khalastchi
Course Description: When you pick up a book, what do you hope to find? A tale of Columbian teenage assassins? A father and son preparing for a bar fight in Acapulco? A mysterious plague rifling through an unnamed foreign city whose inhabitants’ only refuge is an aquarium-filled beauty salon? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re in luck. In this introduction to contemporary global literature, we will see these and other equally imaginative stories unfold by reading the work of some of today’s most distinctive world voices, including: Nam Le, Roberto Bolaño, Yiyun Li, Mario Bellatin, Jhumpa Lahiri, J.M. Coetzee, Kevin A. González, Herta Müller, Sana Krasikov, Per Petterson, Daniel Alarcón, and many others. While this class aims to introduce its participants to the styles/themes currently defining the theater of world literature, more importantly our focus will be on what these texts say about the many countries, governments, revolutions, exoduses, and homecomings these writers have endured. In the end, we will ask ourselves how reading about the world, about place and displacement, can teach us to better understand the global experiences shaping the planet we all call home. Readings: Course Texts: The Boat—Nam Le Beauty Salon—Mario Bellatin Last Evenings on Earth—Roberto Bolaño A Thousand Years of Good Prayers—Yiyun Li Unaccustomed Earth—Jhumpa Lahiri Disgrace—J.M. Coetzee Out Stealing Horses—Per Petterson Cultural Studies—Kevin A. González *Additional texts will be provided by the instructor. Assignments: Critical reading/writing assignments, specifically: two extensive analysis papers/creative projects, two essay exams, weekly journals/responses, a group presentation, and a final. |
| Upper Divistion Courses |
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ENGL 3210: Advanced Composition• Professor Aesha Adams-Roberts
Course Description: According to Jacqueline Jones Royster, the essay is “one type of literate action.” In this workshop/discussion course, we will explore the use of essays for sociopolitical action, examining in particular how essayists engage the world around them, at times calling their audiences to action, at times using their personal reflections to challenge our beliefs and behaviors. Because African American women essayists have an interesting and long-standing tradition of using essays for sociopolitical action, we will focus our studies on their essays. You will be asked to write your own essays on topics you choose that range from personal reflection to political advocacy and activism. Along the way we will sharpen our rhetorical decision-making skills, learning how to employ language in ways that will move audiences. At the end of the semester, I hope we will produce a class magazine that includes one piece of writing from each class member. This limited edition publication will be edited and produced by class members. We’ll decide whether you want to do this magazine electronically or on paper. If paper, $10 per person should cover the cost of printing two copies each. We’ll decide soon after Spring Break, then determine production responsibilities, a budget, and a calendar.
ENGL 3220: Writing for the Professions• Professor Ryan Jerving
Course Description: Writing for the Professions teaches skills for communicating in the workplace, in student groups and other volunteer organizations, and in your role as a critically engaged consumer, citizen, and "man or woman for others." Professional communication takes place in concrete, four-dimensional time such that any particular act of writing, speaking, or posting is rarely the last (or the first) word. Therefore, the emphasis in this course is on developing a purpose-driven and reader-centered approach to writing that aims at both short-term practical results and long-term reputation and relationship building. We'll explore the implications of this approach to audience, context, use, purpose, medium, and technology through a hands-on, workshop classroom environment focused on analyzing and producing actual, imperfect, real-world documents. Through direct and asynchronous online collaboration, we'll likewise explore a number of larger issues concerning how professional communication is being reshaped by emerging technologies, globalization, workplace diversity, intellectual property concerns, and the blurring of public/private life (see our class blog, Writing That Works, at http://writingthatworks.wordpress.com). Readings: Our texts will include Paul V. Anderson's Technical Communication (6th ed.), regular online readings concerning issues in professional communication from sources such as the New York Times Jobs site, and a wide range of primary documents (memos, letters, updates, tweets, reports, etc.) that you and your peers will play a large part in discovering and bringing to our attention. Assignments: Group report and presentation proposing alternative approaches to current issues in professional communication; individual report on the communication demands of your intended profession; individual portfolio of routine communication genres; job search portfolio; collaborative class wiki project; weekly blogging and online discussion.
ENGL 4120/5120: Structure of the English Language• Professor Steve Hartmann Keiser 101 MWF 9:00
Course Title & Subtitle: The Structure of the English Language: The Anatomy of English (and the place of English Cosmetology) Course Description: In this course we will look closely at (and be wowed by) the structure of the sounds, words, and sentences of American English. We will apply our analytical skills to develop a working model for representing the knowledge we each have as speakers of English—this will also require a certain amount of memorization of the terms needed to describe language structure. We will consider how some of the conventions of standard edited English are or are not motivated by our model as we work to establish a basis for making informed decisions about style, usage, and grammar pedagogy. Upon completion of this course you will be able to:
Readings: Curzan and Adams 2008. How English Works: a Linguistic Introduction (2nd ed.)Nunberg, Geoffrey. 2001. The way we talk now.Gilman, E. Ward (ed.). 1989. Webster's dictionary of English usage. Assignments: Analytical exercises and quizzes: weekly. Two analysis papers. Two exams. ENGL 4130/5130: History of the English Language• Professor Tim Machan
Course Description:This course examines the history and diversity of the English language. After an introduction to the methods of historical and comparative linguistics, the development of English will be chronologically considered. Much of the course will concentrate on specific historical topics, such as the introduction of writing, the influence of writing and printing on the standardization of English, the spread of English outside England itself, the diversity of English, and the status of English as a world language today. Readings: Barber, The English Language; Mugglestone, “Talking Proper”: The Rise of Accent as a Social Symbol; Crystal, English as a Global Language Assignments: 3 tests, research paper
ENGL 4170/5170: Studies in Language• Professor Mary Catherine Bodden Language, Gender and Power
Course Description: This course is an introduction to the study of language, gender, and the ways that differences in women's and men’s speech reflect and promote dissimilar access to power in their shared culture. The range of linguistic issues in the course draws upon the fact that gender as a construct is related to our various identities (ethnic, age-related, sexual, etc.), to our social stances (competition, friendship) and to emotions (politeness, aggression, etc.). Some grounding in linguistic principles will be our first concern. Chiefly, however, we will examine certain theoretical perspectives on the issues of language and gender and power, e.g., manufacturing identity through language in the media; language and corporate advertising; linguistic constructs of masculinity; girl-talk; “policing male heterosexuality through language”; race/gender/language; establishing status through language; gender strategies in story-telling, etc.
ENGL 4220: Art of Rhetoric• Professor Kris Ratcliffe Literary, Cultural, Political,
Course Description: This semester we will explore the Greek goddess of persuasion, Peitho (translated, “I believe”). Two questions will drive our discussions: (1) What is rhetoric? and (2) How does knowledge of rhetorical theory enhance our abilities both to analyze texts, people, and culture as well as to compose texts? We will begin by reading Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own to identify and define rhetorical concepts and tactics. The remainder of the class will be divided into 5 units: Political Rhetorics, Cultural Rhetorics, Literary Rhetorics, Visual Rhetorics, and Pedagogical Rhetorics. In these units, we will read and discuss classical rhetorical theories (the Sophists, Plato, Aristotle, & Quintilian) and contemporary rhetorical theories (Kenneth Burke, James Berlin, Jackie Royster, Gloria Anzaldùa) in terms of their usefulness (1) for analyzing authors as diverse as William Shakespeare, William Butler Yeats, and Louise Erdrich as well as contemporary cultural artifacts/events like the Little Rock Nine (who will come to campus to accept a Pere Marquette Discovery Award in February) and (2) for composing our own texts. Readings: Rhetorical theories (on library reserve); Virginnia Woolf A Room of One's Own; Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis; Melba Patiloo Beals, Warriors Don't Cry
ENGL 4250/5250: Creative Writing: FICTION• Professor Larry Watson
Course Description: A course in writing fiction, organized as a discussion/workshop. In addition to writing exercises covering the basics of the craft, students will produce 30-40 pages of fiction by the end of the semester. They will also discuss each other’s works and write critical responses to a number of short stories. Readings: Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway and student short stories. Assignments: Exercises in fictional techniques, at least one complete short story, and critical responses to workshop fiction.
ENGL 4260/5260: Creative Writing: POETRY• Professor Ed Block
Course Description: After some initial readings about the writing of poetry -- to get our bearings -- this course will proceed as a “workshop” in the writing of various poetic genres. Besides some opening exercises in perception and description, each week students will be required to bring a poem of theirs to class (haiku, tanka, sonnet, etc.), to be read aloud and commented upon “in workshop.” Along with other assigned exercises (two to three per week), this will yield, by the end of the semester, a portfolio of draft, revised, and finished work. The course will involve a good deal of reading aloud, and (perhaps) some memorization. Because of the “workshop” format – in which everyone is required to participate -- a strict TWO ABSENCE (maximum) policy will be observed. Required texts: Ted Kooser, The Poetry Home Repair Manual; Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook. Other readings will be posted on D2L or be available as ARES reserves. Assignments: As above; weekly exercises and one poem draft to workshop. Portfolios will be graded at the mid-term and at the final. No mid-term or final examination.
ENGL 4310/5310: Studies in Global Literature• Professor John Su
Course Description: In this course, students will engage in a cross-cultural examination of literary texts produced by migrant authors writing in English. Focusing on literary texts produced since the 1948 United Nations declaration on universal human rights, this course will explore the ways in which authors have represented the experiences of migrant workers, including refugee and asylum issues and experiences of incorporation and exclusion. Particular attention will be paid to the critical appropriations of the Western European Enlightenment tradition of universal rights by writers keen to propose alternatives to systems of multiculturalism that have become the dominant mode of incorporating and/or concealing migrants within Western Europe and United States. This course is particularly important for understanding questions of migration because conceptions of migrancy that have circulated in the West historically were heavily influenced by modern art movements. The connection between creativity and notions of migrancy or exile was central to the emergence of Romanticism across Europe, and this conception has continued to shape how migrants are understood to this day. Indeed, the notion of a creative exile or migrant artist has been crucial to the creation of an international tourist industry and the erasure from public consciousness of actual migrants and their human rights issues. Hence, focusing on literary representations by migrant authors can be crucial to transform how students understand migrancy and the importance of thinking about justice rather than creativity or leisure when addressing migration.
ENGL 4410/5410: British Literature to 1500• Professor Mary Catherine Bodden
Course Description: The course offers a brief introduction to both Old English and Middle English Literature. Old English Literature will include Beowulf, AThe Wife=s Lament,@and AThe Wanderer.@ Middle English literature will look at Dante=s Purgatorio (portions of it), Pearl Anonymous, Tristan and Iseult, Gawain and the Green Knight, Malory=s Morte Darthur and, if time, a Sundance Festival award winning film encoded with medieval themes, especially the figure of the Intruder Hero, and the crisis in the transfer of power. We=ll begin by looking at the poetic techniques of Old English poetry, the concept of kingship, the nature of the Intruder Hero, the medieval theory of knowledge, the nature of obsessive love, comedic love, and courtly love. In the second half of the course, we=ll examine the way that both men and women contested the inherited social and political roles which shaped their identities. We will consider the controversial depiction of gender roles, as well. Pearl Anonymous will be read in bi-lingual edition of Middle English and Modern English.
ENGL 4470/5470: Victorian Literature• Professor Christine Krueger
Course Description: This course will investigate how key features of modernity emerged in Britain during the Victorian period (1832-1901). Students will learn to identify the narratives through which Victorians constructed three major features of modernity: liberal democracy, finance capitalism, and global interdependence. These narratives appear in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as other arts, statistics, and technological developments. Through cumulative research projects, students will achieve a critical understanding of the dynamic between human innovation and material conditions in the Victorian period that continue to influence us today. Readings: Approximately 100 pgs reading/week.
ENGL 4530/5530: American Literature from 1865-1914• Professor Amy Blair
Course Description: The period between the end of the Civil War and the beginnings of WWI in Europe was one of profound social, technological, and political changes in the United States. This course will look at a variety of ways American writers reflected and responded to the world of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, addressing the waxing and waning popularity of sentimental literature, the elite enthusiasm for realist literature and the related growth of regional literature, the connection between fiction and the muckraking school of journalism, the explosion of literatures by and about immigrants, African American literary production in the eras of Reconstruction and Jim Crow, and the growth of popular periodicals. By reading works of American literary “realism” in their original contexts, and by reconsidering the boundaries between realism and romance, we will complicate the standard notion of this slice of American literary history, and come to a better understanding of the whole culture of the Gilded Age. Readings: We will be reading short fiction, novels, and nonfiction pieces by authors such as William Dean Howells, Henry James, W. E. B. DuBois, Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton, Charles Chesnutt, Stephen Crane, Thorstein Veblen, and Mary Wilkins Freeman. Assignments: 4 or 5 essays of varying lengths, including analysis of a contemporaneous periodical, analysis of textual variations in different editions of a novel, and some research-based papers. ENGL 4560/5560: The Contemporary Period in American Literature: 1945-present• Professor Milt Bates Vietnam War Literature
Course Description: All wars are the same. Each war is different. These contradictory—or complementary—truths apply to war stories as well as wars. Stories of combat and homecoming from the Vietnam War (1965-1975) resemble those told by Homer and veterans of today’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet they are also distinctive, shaped by the domestic turbulence of the period. The literature of the Vietnam War registers not only the military and political realities of Southeast Asia but also the American Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, the rise of the New Left, the antiwar movement, and the counterculture. Against this background we will read the stories of two combat veterans, an army nurse, a North Vietnamese veteran, and several journalists. Readings: Our readings will include memoirs by Philip Caputo and Lynda Van Devanter, fiction by Tim O’Brien and Bao Ninh, and journalism by Michael Herr and Seymour Hersh. Assignments: Course requirements will include in-class presentations, short written responses, an 8-10 page formal essay, and a final examination.
ENGL 4610/5610: Individual Authors:• Professor Steve Karian Jonathan Swift
Course Description:This course explores the literary career of Jonathan Swift, who remains one of the most controversial and complex writers of eighteenth-century Britain. A severe satirist who staunchly defended the Anglican church, a champion of Irish liberty who loathed his native country, Swift seems to combine extremes in a way that has fascinated and baffled readers for three hundred years. We will attempt to come to grips with this enigmatic figure by studying him within his historical and cultural contexts. In addition to major works such as Gulliver’s Travels and A Tale of a Tub, we will read his writings on politics, religion, Ireland, and women. Readings:Major works in verse and prose by Swift as well as scholarly essays discussing his works. Assignments:Active class participation, brief papers, a formal oral presentation, and a 15-page research paper.
• Professor Amy Blair Wharton and James
Course Description: The literary careers of Henry James and Edith Wharton overlapped, they were constantly compared to one another, they were both expatriates, they took their subjects from the same social milieux, and they were good friends. But Wharton hated the older James’s late works, and James resented the younger Wharton’s popular success. In this course, we will look at the overlaps and the divergences in these authors’ works and lives. The primary focus of this course will be James’s and Wharton’s novel writing, but we will also be delving into their nonfiction prose (including travel narratives and critical writings) and their copious correspondence. We will also chart their careers through the rich transatlantic cultural history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Readings:
ENGL 4630/5630: Shakespeares Major Plays• Professor Ed Duffy
Course Description: We will study the major genres that Shakespeare worked in -- comedy, history play, tragedy, romance -- with three continuing emphases: how individual plays explore, use and transform these genres; how in different ways they hold a dramatic mirror up to (human) nature and the times; the language of the plays. Readings: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; As You Like It; Twelfth Night; Richard II; Henry IV, Part One; Hamlet; King Lear; The Winter’s Tale, The Tempest. Assignments: Three short papers, two exams, and a final.
• Professor Tom Jeffers
Course Description: We will study the following plays :A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV (Part I), Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest--plus selected sonnets. We’ll enliven our appreciation of the plays with clips from eminent performances, and with occasional glimpses of how Shakespeare inspired later painters and opera composers. Readings: Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV (Part I), Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest--plus selected sonnets
ENGL 4640/5640: Milton• Professor John Curran
Course Description: An examination of Milton’s life, times, art and thought, this course concentrates heavily on Paradise Lost. While we will work with specimens of the minor poetry and prose and with Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, our primary task is to wrestle with the problems and questions emanating from Milton’s great epic. Readings: Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes
ENGL 4710/5710: Studies in Genre:• Professor Sarah Wadsworth Children's Literature
Course Description: This course is both a survey of the canon of English and American children’s literature from the eighteenth century to the twentieth century and an introduction to critical and theoretical approaches to the analysis of children’s literature. Supplementing selected classic works of fiction with literary-historical and critical texts, our reading will be guided by the following questions: How do the readings negotiate the divide between the desire to instruct and entertain juvenile readers? Is there a distinct aesthetic of juvenile literature? How do the texts respond to social issues in Britain and North America? How do the readings reflect and accommodate changing notions of children and of childhood? How do the texts construct gender, race, ethnicity, and class? Readings: (books, short stories, etc.): Little Women, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, The Wind in the Willows, Peter Pan, Anne of Green Gables, The Hobbit, Charlotte’s Web, A Wrinkle in Time, and a selection of fairy tales and poems. Assignments: Participants in the course should expect to write two papers of approximately 6-8 pages each, complete four tests, and contribute regularly to class discussions.
ENGL 4800/5800/4996 101: Studies in Literature and Culture:SENIOR EXPERIENCE • Professor Tim Machan Sr Exper Monsters and Marvels
Course Description: European medieval literature is peopled with a variety of other-worldly creatures, whether angels, devils, fairies, or simply mysterious visitors. In this course we will ask about the narrative and ideological roles such figures serve in a variety of genres and traditions, including Latin, Celtic, Norse, and Italian, as well as English. We will consider what qualities make a monster a monster, how marvels and monsters are represented, what social issues are associated with them, and why medieval writers should take such interest in them. Readings: Bede’s Ecclesiastical History; Dante’s Inferno; The Mabinogion; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Pearl; Sir Orfeo; Grettir’s Saga; Eyrbyggja Saga; Mandeville’s Travels; Beowulf; select Anglo-Saxon poetry. Assignments: papers and exams
• Professor John Boly Dystopian Fiction
This course will test that hypothesis by surveying both fictional and factual dystopias, and then inquiring as to how and why they are categorized. Readings:We will read such classics as Zamyatin’s We, Huxley’s Brave New World, Orwell’s 1984, Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, Alten’s The Shell Game, and Crichton’s Next. In addition to these fictional narratives, we will also look at some nonfictional dystopias from the journalism collected in Russ Kick’s anthology, You Are Still Being Lied To. We will not be trying to decide between fact and fiction, but to decide how we go about telling the difference. Assignments:Two essays, two hourlies, and depending on class size, a brief report.
ENGL 4820/5820: Studies in Race and/or Ethnic Literature• Professor Heather Hathaway African Amer Narrative Traditions
Course Description: This course will provide a historical overview of major works of African American literature in order to understand continuities in narrative patterns, literary themes, and relationships between art and politics in African American aesthetics. Writers studied include Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison. Our goal will be to develop a solid foundation on which to build further study in literature by writers of African descent, whether they are writing from within the United States or globally. ENGL 4870/5870/4996 102: Studies in Women and LiteratrueSENIOR EXPERIENCE • Professor Angela Sorby Sr Exper Women Poets
Course Description: American women poets have never confined themselves to the “ivory tower.” Even the famously-reclusive Emily Dickinson was inspired by P.T. Barnum and Gothic horror novels. In this course, then, we will read poems, not as isolated texts, but as cultural performances embedded in the lively fabric of American life. Among other topics, we’ll consider Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s turn-of-the-century self-help empire, Marianne Moore’s baseball fandom, Sylvia Plath’s brief career as a Mademoiselle intern, Gwendolyn Brooks’s street-gang activism, Marilyn Nelson’s children’s picture books, and Denise Duhamel’s Barbie monologues. Readings: Readings will be a mix of poetry, historical documents (i.e. the Chicago Defender), and fiction (i.e. The Bell Jar). Assignments: Class requirements will include participation in frequent in-class activities, a group presentation, a research project, and two papers.
ENGL 4954/5954: Seminar in Writing: FICTION • Professor CJ Hribal
Course Description: “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” So says that great theorist of narrative craft, the filmmaker Mel Brooks. Of course, most of life (and most of the fiction that tries to reflect the complexity of life) falls all along the spectrum between (and including) those two poles. Life is both tragic and comic. Or as the Yiddish proverb has it, “Man plans. God laughs.” This workshop will give students an opportunity to develop narratives that reflect that complexity. To paraphrase the Czech writer Milan Kundera, most people would rather believe a simple lie than a complex truth. This is a course in learning how to write complex truths by making stuff up. In this seminar, which will be run as a workshop, students will develop proficiency with those techniques (many of which they first encountered in ENGL 4250) that will help them do that. They’ll also add additional techniques to their repertoire, examine narratives from technical (as well as critical) viewpoints and develop fluency in discussing fiction writing from the practitioner’s viewpoint, with the ultimate goal of writing better prose and better narratives. Readings: The Story Behind The Story, Barrett and Turchi, eds. + student work Assignments:In addition to a few writing exercises, students will produce 30 pages of prose fiction by semester’s end (and will do significant revision of those pages.) They will also write and present a number of brief craft-oriented responses to the assigned readings and to the work of their peers.
• Professor Larry Watson
Course Description: This workshop course will give students an opportunity to increase their proficiency with the techniques and strategies first encountered in English 4250. In addition, they will examine narratives from a critical and practical point of view, with the goal of writing better narratives. By the end of the semester, they will have written and revised 30-40 pages of prose fiction (along with brief critical responses to the readings). Assignments: Exercises in fictional techniques, at least one complete short story, and critical responses to readings and workshop fiction.
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ENGL 6215: Renaissance LiteratureCOUNTS FOR RENAISSANCE• Professor John Curran
Course Description: This course will examine some of the ways England’s two most prominent epic poets approached the relationship between epic and history. Traditionally, this relationship was conceived as a very close one. With Virgil’s Aeneid as the model, epic was supposed to be history writ large – the story of a nation’s past explained, expanded, dramatized, theorized, and celebrated. Both poets are working with this standard of epic, but both at the same time problematize and complicate it. Our goal is to observe how this is so, and in the process we will consider three ideas of epic “history”: mimesis, the portrayal of a reality outside the poem; topicality, the referencing of issues, especially political ones, from the poets’ times; and teleology, the conception of a specific, linear, and purposeful time continuum with a beginning and an end. Developing a sense of these three ideas and of the relations between them, we will strive for a better understanding of the “great arguments” of The Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost Reading: The Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost ENGL 6300: Studies in the Restoration and 18th Century Literature:COUNTS FOR RESTORATION/18th C • Professor Al Rivero Jane Austen
Course Description: We will read and discuss all of Jane Austen’s novels, from the epistolary Lady Susan to the unfinished Sanditon, in various historical and critical contexts. Reading: Penguin editions of all of Austen's novels. Assignments: One or two oral reports; final essay (15-20pp); class participation and regular attendance
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ENGL 6400: Studies in 19th Century British Literature:COUNTS FOR 19th C British • Professor Christine Krueger Teaching and Scholarship
Course Description: The goal of this course is to enable students to prepare to teach one segment of a standard British survey course. Students will come out of this course with their own sample syllabus, several sample assignments they might give undergraduates, and experience leading discussions of nineteenth-century texts. These exercises will help students who are preparing for M.A. exams in nineteenth-century British literature, and will provide all graduate students with documents and experience they can present to prospective employers. In addition, we will consider research projects that might dovetail with teaching so that you will be able to perform as successful scholar-teachers in the field of nineteenth-century British literature. Reading:. |
ENGL 6500: Studies in 20th Century British Literature:COUNTS FOR 20th C BRITISH • Professor John Su Post Colonial Literature & Theory
Course Description: In this course, we will explore the literatures of former British colonies since the 1950s. At its apex, the British Empire spanned the globe, and its power was not only military and economic but cultural. The challenge facing a writer from one of the former colonies is how to interact with and appropriate British models of culture. For one of the harshest truths to be faced is the impossibility of restoring a pre-colonial purity. From the first moment of the colonial encounter, peoples from Africa, Asia, and the Americas have had to learn to accommodate themselves to the presence of a foreign power. This presence leaves enduring traces even after colonists themselves leave. Yet, the colonial encounter has proven to be a transformative experience for the British colonists as well. Indeed, the very notion of British identity becomes indelibly linked to empire and the colonial project. We will explore the cultural conversations and clashes between the center and periphery of empire as it is recorded by 20th-century novelists. In this high stakes encounter of rewriting the past and imagining the future, our guiding question will be: how can British cultural systems and indigenous beliefs be reconciled? We will investigate how novelists in the colonies create imaginary communities whose formation is not determined by the historical implications of the colonial project. In turn, we will explore how novelists in Britain use the colonies to define British identity. And finally we will see how the re-reading and rewriting of the British historical record by postcolonial authors offers unique insights into the cultures of both Great Britain and its former colonies. |
ENGL 6600: Studies in American Literature for the Beginnings to 1900:COUNTS FOR 19th C AMERICAN • Professor Angela Sorby Transcendentalism
Course Description: Transcendentalists wrote experimental poetry and prose, but they also led experimental lives: founding radical kindergartens, retreating into the woods (or into their bedrooms), supporting revolutionary forces in Europe, and joining communes. In this course, we will read major (and a few minor) Transcendental works by Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller, the Alcotts, Whitman, Dickinson, and others, while examining how they affected--and were affected by--the social world of Jacksonian America. Reading: We'll support our primary texts with David Reynolds's new cultural biography Walking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson; students are encouraged, though not required, to begin reading this text early. Assignments: Requirements will include a class teaching day, a brief research project, and a final seminar paper. |
ENGL 6820: Studies in Modern Critical Literatrue and Theory:• Professor Steve Karian
Course Description:This course is an introduction to literary research methods, bibliography and textual studies, the principles and practices of literary criticism, and literary theory. The primary emphasis will be on acquiring portable research skills for literary study in graduate school and beyond. Aside from the required readings and other assignments, your main focus will be on attaining mastery of the scholarship relevant to a specifically defined area of study. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to use essential research tools, write a grant proposal, understand the problems related to the textual history of a work, understand the main schools of literary theory, communicate ideas in a formal presentation, and conduct a thorough review of scholarship for a research project. Readings:The course readings will cover the history and practice of various approaches to literary study. Assignments:Active class participation, oral presentations, and papers, including a 20-page final paper.
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English Department
