Also offered as AFRA 2214

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

2214| TuTh 11:00 - 12:15| Pierrot, Greg

We will be reading poetry, fiction, essays by African American authors from the 18th century (Phyllis Wheatley, Prince Hall) to the 21st (Percival Everett, Evie Shockley). Most of the readings will be drawn from the Norton Anthology of African American Literature. We will read one full novel TBD—most likely recently published.

The material is organized chronologically, and varies between the genres described above.

Written assignments will include short textual annotations, other writing exercises and short (5-8pp) essays on the readings. They may also include in-class quizzes.

In class, we will discuss and analyze the readings for the day. You will be expected to participate in conversations and contribute as we practice getting from reading comprehension to textual analysis and interpretation.

The course is open to anyone who has completed ENGL1007, 1010 or 1011. It is usually taken by sophomores and juniors in a variety of majors including of course English.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

2405| W 6:20 - 8:50|El-Khalfi, Hamid

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

2411W| TuTh 8:00 - 9:15 | Pierrot, Gregory

Genre Benders: Literary Subgenres in African American Literature

We will be reading short stories, novels and graphic novels in detective fiction, science fiction, fantasy and horror literature by the likes of Pauline Hopkins, WEB Du Bois, George Schuyler, Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, Walter Mosley, Barbara Neely, NK Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor, P. Djeli Clark, Janelle Monae, Tananarive Due, Rivers Solomon, Victor LaValle, etc.

We will read a variety of genres and sources: short stories and novels, graphic novels, possibly watch films and listen to music as well. The material will be organized in genre units, with about two weeks of classes dedicated to each genre described above.

Written assignments will include short textual annotations, other writing exercises and short (5-8pp) essays on the readings. They may also include in-class quizzes.

In class, we will discuss and analyze the readings for the day. You will be expected to participate in conversations and contribute as we practice getting from reading comprehension to textual analysis and interpretation.

The course is open to anyone who has completed ENGL1007, 1010 or 1011. It is usually taken by sophomores and juniors in a variety of majors including of course English. No prior knowledge about the material is necessary.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011.

2413W| Sa 10:00-12:30 | Moeckel-Rieke, Hannelore

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

2409| M 3:35 - 6:05| Roden, Fred

What makes an English major?  What can you “do” with that degree?  What does it mean to become a literary critic or a literary historian?

This course will tackle these questions through practical and theoretical examples.  What is the pleasure of the text -- why do we read?  How might we write “critically” – and how can we while maintaining our own voices, given the abundance of sources and media available?  Is there anything new to “say,” and how do we speak in our own words?

English 2600 is intended for the student interested in reading and writing about literature.  Creative writers will find that all criticism is also creative: that the work of literary analysis is also a work of art.  We begin here as we explore what it means to define ourselves by the written word.

We will consider the history of reading and writing, as well as the development of the formal study of literature in the university.  How did specialization in literary studies begin; what does it mean to define that in the English language tradition (whether “Anglophone” literature or works in translation); and what is the range of interests possible for earning an undergraduate degree in this field?

We will pay particular attention to the tension between reading and writing for “pleasure,” training that puts our voices in conversation with other specialists, and what it means to become a “professional” in this field.  We will work closely with the Center for Career Development to understand the variety of positions English majors pursue.  We will emphasize the importance of growing portable skills not solely to apply them, but to live out our passions through a vocation, not only a job.  You will meet UConn English alumni who are pursuing a variety of different paths. 

In English 2600 you’ll answer for yourself the question “what are you going to do with an English major?”  We will practice that art and science of literary criticism as we read classic works of literature, learn how they became classics, and what the profession of literary studies is.  We will partner with the UConn Libraries to strengthen our research skills and citation formats, develop digital proficiency and theoretical breadth, and to recognize -- learn to read and to produce -- the professional writing of our discipline. 

English 2600 will teach you what it means to be an English major, minor, or professional in this field; and to share who you are with peers, colleagues, employers, family, and friends.

Class will proceed as a combination of lecture and discussion.  Expect weekly reading and writing assignments (journal entries or quizzes) from primary (“literature”) and secondary sources (theory and applied criticism).  You will develop an annotated bibliography of scholarly works in your field(s) of interest.  You will write critically about texts of your choice in a term paper and final exam.  You will also find career-related writing opportunities, such as drafting your resume and exploring internships and job opportunities. 

English 2600 is a major Methods requirement and an English minor elective. 

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

2607|TuTh 9:30 - 10:45 |Sarkar, Debapriya

Science Fiction, and Fictions of Science

This course considers the relation of literature and science through a trans-historical study of the genre of science fiction. Focusing on novels, prose fiction, short stories, and films, we explore the relations between real and imagined worlds, the figure of the alien, and the radical communities that include both humans and non-humans. Students will consider how fictions of science formally and thematically expand possibilities of creation, transformation, and even destruction. Our governing questions will include: How does escape into fictional realms alter contours of selfhood, while also challenging socio-political structures such as race, gender, and class? How does fiction shape ideas about power, policy, and change? Can these vibrant worlds of the scientific imagination model collaborations between the “two cultures” of “literature” and “science”?

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

3003W | Th 5:30 - 8:00 | Roden, Fred

"Life Writing"

In this course we will develop our fluency in and practice our facility with a variety of genres that fall under the category of "life writing."  These include (1) memoir, (2) family/community history (genealogy through narrative), (3) oral history (interviews with consenting subjects), and (4) biography.  These are the units of the class, which will be run as a writing workshop.  We will read a range of texts that shape our perspectives on these forms.  We will work through multimedia, including the visual/digital/material as well as the verbal.  We will ultimately consolidate the four specific pieces for a term portfolio. This class involves exchange of ideas and written work as well as presentation of projects-in-process through workshop conversation.

Individual student writing, while self-directed, will be mentored by the instructor and peers to cultivate course goals and interests concerning structure, theme, and purpose.  As a "W" class, you will workshop and revise your creative output for a minimum of 15 pages of graded, drafted material.  Collectively, we will produce more than that quantity (informally) over the course of the semester.

Engl 3003 “Life Writing” presumes no prior expertise or experience in writing creative nonfiction -- only interest.  It is open to any students who have completed the first-year writing requirement or its equivalent.  Those not yet sophomore status should contact Professor Roden at frederick.roden@uconn.edu to discuss preparedness/permission.

This course is an elective for the English major and minor and for the Writing minor.  For English major tracks, Engl 3003W counts for Creative Writing, English Teaching, and Writing & Composition Studies.  For General Education and Common Curriculum, it satisfies a W competency.  For pre-teaching (TCPCG), Engl 3003W satisfies a Composition requirement. 

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

3113W| TuTh 12:30 - 1:45 |Sarkar, Debapriya

Making Selves, Making Worlds: Literatures and Cultures of Early Modernity

This course examines the vibrant literary culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. We will explore works that celebrate the capacity of the individual to shape the self and the world, as well as texts that reveal the mind’s continual struggles to actualize such expansive imaginings. Reading lyric and epic poetry, utopian fiction, and drama, we will grapple with questions of literary form and style, and we will delve into questions of gender, class, race, ability, and sexuality. We will follow writers from the court to the country—and to the country house—and from their pasts to their imagined futures, in order to ask how these creative forays enabled them to traverse linguistic and national boundaries. And we will chart a history of the changing technologies of literary production to uncover different aesthetic, social, and ethical pressures that formed the period we frequently refer to as the “Renaissance” or the “early modern.”

Prerequisites:  ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011. Not open to students who have completed ENGL 3119

3123W| W 12:20 - 2:50| Cramer, Patricia

Course description

The modernist writers of late 19th and early 20th century Britain responded to what they experienced as cataclysmic shifts in cultural norms caused by, e.g., the women’s and homosexual rights movements; World War I; the birth of Freudian psychoanalysis; the rise of the working class and Labor Party; the breakdown of British empire; the rise of technology; the Black American civil rights movement; the competing claims of communism, fascism, socialism, monarchism, capitalism, and democracies. British modernists revolted against Victorian social and literary norms and inaugurated fundamental innovations in literary style and genre.

We will read works by 19th and early 20th century women’s rights activists (e.g., Annie Kenny,  Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst) and look at how late Victorian iconoclasts (Edward Carpenter and Samuel Butler) broke with Victorian morality and inaugurated the experimentalism and passion for truth-telling characteristic of the next generation’s prominent writers.

Early twentieth century writers include Bloomsbury figures Virginia Woolf and Lytton Strachey; Hilda Doolittle and Richard Aldington; William Butler Yeats and Maud Gonne; James Joyce; Gandhi; George Orwell; T. S. Eliot; Rudyard Kipling.

Required books

Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903)

Tim Kendall, Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology  [selections]

Ernest Raymond, Tell England: A Story of a Generation (1922)

Richard Aldington, Death of a Hero  (1929)   [selections]      

Hilda Doolittle, Bid Me to Live (1907/1960)  [selections]          

Virginia Woolf, The Waves (1931)

George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

James Joyce, Dubliners (1914)

As a "W" credit course you will write 15 pages of revised prose. Writing assignments will vary from personal response essays; in-class essays (revised at-home); and standpoint essays (presented in class and revised at-home).

For all writing assignments, you are expected to provide a fresh insight and to write in your own voice, speak on your own terms. Do not repeat what is obvious to most readers, commonly said on the internet or by others. Feel free to disagree with me, other students, the authors we read, if that is your authentic belief or response. Aim to find the words for your actual opinions and ideas and the confidence and skills to defend them well.