Back Up Course Descriptions | English Advising

Spring 2020

Each semester the faculty for the Department of English provide course descriptions that build upon the University's catalog descriptions. These individually crafted descriptions provide information about variable topics, authors, novels, texts, writing assignments, and whether instructor consent is required to enroll. The details, along with reviewing the advising report, will help students select course options that best meet one's interests and academic requirements. The following list includes Undergraduate courses that are sequenced after the First-Year Writing requirement and will change each semester.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

1103W-01 | Tu 6:00-8:30 | Pelizzon, Penelope

In this course, we’ll spend time with some of the most fabulous poems, stories, novels, and plays of the last 500 years. We’ll read works by Polish, Russian, Turkish, Greek, French, German, Italian, Mexican, American, and English authors. We’ll work roughly chronologically backwards, beginning with some 20th century writers whose historical context is likely to be more familiar, moving in reverse to periods where we’ll call on secondary materials to help ground our understanding of the issues at stake for each writer. Many of our authors will be in translation, and we may spend some time discussing several translations of the same text to consider how different translators in different periods have made varying choices about which elements of a work to carry over into English. Authors likely to appear on the syllabus include Constantine Cavafy, Nazim Hikmet, Gwendolyn Brooks, Paul Celan, Wisława Szymborska, Marina Tsvetaeva, Italo Calvino, Virginia Woolf, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Anton Chekhov, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and William Shakespeare. Projects will likely include weekly short question and reflection writings, three revised papers, an essay midterm, and an essay final.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

1601W-01 | TuTh 12:30-1:45 | Tonry, Kathleen

This course traces an eco-conscious thread through American and British literature. We’ll read fictive works that ask us to consider – with curiosity, reverence, awe, dismay, laughter, and sometimes rage – the relation of humans to the natural world. We’ll use this thread as a guide across several centuries of literature, covering a range of texts including medieval animal fables, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and J.M. Coetzee’s The Lives of Animals. Students will be asked to keep up with a fast-paced set of readings, and are expected to write and revise several short papers, and make regular contributions to class discussion.

1601W-02 | MW 6:10-7:25 | Kryzwda, Steve

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

1701-01 | W 6:00-8:30 | Pelizzon, Penelope

This class is an intensive introduction to writing poetry and creative nonfiction. Over the semester, you’ll write and revise three poems and two nonfiction essays, which we’ll workshop in class. You’ll also hone your skills with weekly craft exercises designed to develop your skills with imagery, diction, figurative language, rhythm, rhyme, voice, setting, and characterization. Meanwhile, we’ll attend regular readings by poets and prose writers, and you’ll write reviews of these events. All along the way, you’ll be reading many fantastic poems and essays by a variety of authors. By the end of the semester, you’ll have a strong foundation in poetic and nonfiction techniques. Be prepared to read avidly, write adventurously, and provide generous feedback to your fellow class authors on their work.

1701-02 | TuTh 9:30-10:45 | Choffel, Julie

This course provides an introduction to the writer’s workshop in poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction. We will approach creative writing as an experimental and often collaborative process. In this class you will be required to read and write daily through new styles and forms; to take unexpected turns and risks in your own writing, to destroy and reconstruct through creative revision, and above all, to contribute to conversations about the results. We will talk and write about what we read and what we write and what happens next. Immersed in this practice, you will create your own works of short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and revise your strongest works for a final portfolio. Additional class requirements include regular attendance, timely completion of assignments, and keeping a writer’s journal.

1701-03 | TuTh 11:00-12:15 | Cohen, Bruce

1701-04 | TuTh 12:30-1:45 | Brush, Julia

1701-05 | TuTh 3:30-4:45 | Davis, Suzanne

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

2001-01 | TuTh 12:30-1:45 | Courtmanche, Jason

Grant Writing will introduce you to the basics of grants and grant writing. It is open to students from all majors. We will explore your research interests, develop a proposal, identify possible sources of funding, review Requests for Proposals (RFPs), review successfully awarded grant proposals, talk with grant writers and other professionals who work in the field, and, finally, write, revise, and ultimately submit a grant proposal.

Students in this course will engage in a lot of hands-on work—conducting research, working in small groups to share ideas, reading grant proposals as mentor texts, drafting and revising the texts of your own proposals, and giving and receiving feedback on your ideas and proposals.

There will be regularly collected and assessed writing assignments specific to each grant, but due dates may vary depending on the deadlines prescribed by the differing RFPs being pursued by members of the class.

In addition to the work of writing a grant, I will expect you to keep a weekly journal in which you write about the process. These journals will be where you take notes, explore ideas, draft your proposals, and reflect upon the process. I will collect and respond to these at key points throughout the course.

Required Text (preliminary):

Hall, Mary and Susan Howlett. Getting Funded: The Complete Guide to Writing Grant Proposals. 4th ed., Continuing Education Press, 2003.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

2100-01 | MWF 11:15-12:05 | Cordon, Joanne

ROAD TRIP!

This class is a tour of prose, drama and poetry from the medieval period through the eighteenth century. The cultures associated with these texts are distant in time, custom and belief, so investigating this literature requires the diligence, sense of humor and open-mindedness of an explorer. Readings are in the Broadview Anthology of British Literature, concise Volume A, 3rd edition. Texts may include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Twelfth Night, and The School for Scandal. Course requirements include class discussion, four quizzes, short essay, midterm and final exam.

2100-02 | TuTh 3:30-4:45 | Gouws, Dennis

This lecture course surveys British literature from the medieval period through the 18th century. Intended to provide preparation for more advanced courses in British literature, ENGL2100 is strongly recommended for English majors. Class participation, three tests, and a final exam determine the grade. The required texts are Greenblatt, Stephen et al. Eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature Volumes A, B, and C. 10th Edition, 2018. This is a group-one general-education course.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

2101-01 | M 5:00-7:30 | Barreca, Regina

This demanding class, designed with ambitious students in mind, includes works by some of the most significant British writers of the previous two centuries. We'll be reading The Good Soldier, Dubliners, Short Stories by Katherine Mansfield, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, The Death of the Heart, The Girls of Slender Means, Asylum and White Teeth. Class participation required; two exams and frequent in-class writings; strict attendance policy.

2101-02 | MWF 9:05-9:55 | Rumbo, Rebecca

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

2203W-01 | TuTh 9:30-10:45 | Goldman, Jane

2203W-02| TuTh 3:30-4:45 | Courtmanche, Jason

Power, Privilege, and Prejudice in Modern and Contemporary American Literature

The abuse of privilege, the arbitrary exercise of power, the stoking of prejudice for personal advantage. Of course I’m describing some of the major themes of The Great Gatsby—or any of the other works we will be reading, discussing, and writing about in this section of American Literature Since 1880.

Building on transactional theories of reading and writing, students will be asked to make connections between literature and the world, and to compose a term paper that interprets some aspect of our contemporary world through the lens(es) of the course texts.

Because this is a W, there will be regular writing work, including response groups and conferences, and the drafting and revising of six 750-word papers (around 4500 words or 15 pages). I expect regular attendance and participation. There will be some brief lectures, but expect mostly discussion and small group work.

Required Texts (a preliminary list):

Faulkner’s Sanctuary, Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Morrison’s Beloved, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

2301W-01 | TuTh 3:30-4:45 | Hogan, Patrick

Colonialism invariably relies on and develops racism. But the contact of colonizers and colonized people also fosters genuine human feeling and guilt in some colonizers, while the entire situation often encourages both shame and anger among the colonized. There are common themes, narrative structures, metaphors, and other aspects of literary practice that recur in relation to these contradictory feelings. On the other hand, there are also some differences, related to the specific histories and cultures of the places, as well as the type of colonialism involved. In this course, we will consider some of the recurring literary features, such as interracial romantic love, and family separation and reunion, as well as some of the more systematic differences.

More specifically, we will look at a couple of prominent works from different sorts of colonialism, some by writers from the colonizer group, others by writers from the colonized group. We will probably begin with the “settler majority” colonies, considering family separation narratives by Margaret Atwood (Canada) and Doris Garimara (Australia). From there, we will turn to a “settler minority” country—South Africa. In this part of the course, we will take up the treatment of interracial romance by J. M. Coetzee, perhaps going on to the appearance of age-grade models of race (e.g., the racist view of Africans as children) as examined by Athol Fugard. The third section will consider “displaced majority” colonies, where the majority of the population is neither ancestrally native to the place nor descended from colonizers. Here, we will consider poetry from a range of Afro-Caribbean writers. Finally, we will consider a couple of works from India, an “occupation” colony with little permanent colonial settlement. (In the unlikely event that there is time, we might briefly consider one work treating either Biafra or Kashmir, thus the category of colonialism by former colonies.)

Coursework will include one or two group presentations, reading, short responses to readings, and class participation, one 6-page paper explicating part of one of the literary works, and one 10-page paper involving cultural or historical research integrated with explication of part of one of the literary works.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

2407-01 | MWF 11:15-12:05 | Rumbo, Rebecca

2407-02 | MWF 4:40-5:55 | Kryzwda, Steve

2407-03 | TuTh 8:00-9:15 | Codr, Dwight

Honors Section

2407-04 | TuTh 12:30-1:45 | Burke, Mary

This course will concentrate on short stories by American and international authors. Students will sample a broad spectrum of short stories illustrating a particular style, era, national tradition, or theme and will learn how to read with careful critical attention. Coursework will consist of a practice essay, a midterm long-format paper, response papers, group discussion, and a final assessment.

2407-05 | TuTh 2:00-3:15 | Mathews, Rebecca

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

2411W-01 | TuTh 5:00-6:15 | Grossman, Leigh

Ursula Le Guin said that JRR Tolkien “removed the apology from fantasy,” meaning that after Tolkien, writers could set their stories in a world distinct from our own without explaining that it was all a dream, or set in a distant past, or some other apology. But world-building has evolved a lot since Tolkien’s day, and many of the underlying theoretical assumptions that seemed so startling in the mid-1960s when the “pirated” edition of Lord of the Rings hit the U.S. market are tied to uncomfortable assumptions about race, gender, and sexuality. The course looks at how the way fantasy writers build secondary worlds has evolved from Tolkien’s day to today’s fantasies, both through primary works and critical essays. Readings will start with classic works by Tolkien and Le Guin, but will mostly focus on current writers such as Guy Gavriel Kay, Michael Swanwick, Sarah Beth Durst, Nnedi Okorafor, and Rebecca Roanhorse.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1011 or 1011 or 2011. Open to English majors, others with instructor's consent.

2600-01 | TuTh 8:00-9:15 | Coundouriotis, Eleni

This gateway course into the major introduces you to the range of activities and types of analysis that define literary study. We will cover topics such as what makes a text literary, the formal conventions of different genres and key concepts of contemporary literary/critical theory. We will also explore different avenues for interdisciplinary and comparative studies. The course does not limit itself to a period or a genre, but uses an eclectic set of texts that open up to a wide range of different approaches. We will engage in close textual analysis throughout the course while also paying attention to how literature engages the world. You will also learn research skills, such as searching appropriate databases, distinguishing scholarly sources from other material, how to handle in-text quotations, and MLA style citations. Assignments include an annotated bibliography, a 5 page paper using a secondary source, a midterm and a final exam.

2600-02 | MWF 10:10-11:00 | Somerset, Fiona

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011. Open to juniors or higher.

3003W-01 | TuTh 3:30-4:45 | Grossman, Leigh

A hands-on approach to writing, the course focuses on composing and revising a longer work in each student's area of interest. Students will be expected to write quickly and effectively, and to learn how to usefully critique other students' work—as well as their own. Each student will set writing goals for an approximately 30,000-word project with the instructor at the beginning of the semester, and will be expected to achieve those goals. Between your project and written critiques, expect to write about 150 pages in standard manuscript format over the course of the semester.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011. Open to juniors or higher.

3120-01 | TuTh 11:00-12:15 | Burke, Mary

This course will situate Irish drama, prose, and poetry up to the mid-twentieth century in its evolving linguistic, historical, social, political, economic and religious contexts. We will read works by some (but not all) of the following: Brian Merriman, G.B. Shaw, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Elizabeth Bowen, and J.M. Synge. A number of Irish films or films on an Irish theme will be screened during the course. The course is predicated on group discussion. Writing: a practice essay, a mid-term paper, and a final exam.

This class fulfills one of the four courses focusing on Irish Literature or Language required for the Concentration in Irish Literature, which is open to English majors.

Also offered as AASI 3212. Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011. Open to juniors or higher.

3212-01 | TuTh 12:30-1:45 | Kim, Na-Rae

By exploring various artistic productions by Asian Americans, this course seeks to grasp central issues and themes for understanding contemporary Asian America, and furthermore, multicultural America. Asian American literary productions exhibit vibrant re-imagination of American history, nation-state, nationalism, citizenship, identity, and difference. This course is not a survey of these works, as Asian Americans are a diverse group of people whose literature reflect multiple backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Instead, our readings and assignments focus on key themes including: racism, stereotypes, gender expectations, migration, representation, and redefining America. Through this course, we consider how even the seemingly most personal relationships expressed in cultural production are rooted in and shaped by historical and social circumstances.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011. Open to juniors or higher.

3218W-01 | M 2:30-5:00 | Makowsky, Veronica

Honors

What is an American? How does ethnicity affect one’s sense of identity? How do class, race, sexuality, gender, generation, and location(s) interact with ethnicity to form or challenge identity or to suggest identities contingent upon context? In addition to these broad questions about ethnicity and identity, this course also considers how movement over time and space (within the US, to the US, from the US, and globally) may lead to unstable or fluid senses of identity. We will read a play, short stories, novels, and autobiographies. The texts encompass Native American works (Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories (excerpts) and Louise Erdrich’s The Round House); African American works (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and August Wilson’s Fences); and works concerning immigrant experiences: a collection of short stories by Anzia Yezierska, Tina DeRosa’s Paper Fish, Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine, Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory, and Noviolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names. Grades will be based on: 1) active participation in daily discussion which usually includes in-class writing assignments based on the day’s assigned reading; 2) 3 short (2 pp.) response papers and their revision; 3) a research paper and its revision (9-10 pp.).

Prerequisite: ENGL 1007 and 1008 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

3318-01 | TuTh 2:00-3:15 | Hogan, Patrick

The literary and cultural traditions of China are vast. Clearly, one cannot cover anything even approximating their range in a single course. In this class, we will focus on a few elements of Chinese tradition, exploring them in greater detail. Specifically, the course will begin with a careful reading of Kongzi (Confucius) with perhaps some reference to Laozi and/or Mengzi. We will then work through some Chinese lyric poems, principally following Cai Zong-qi’s How to Read Chinese Poetry. Some of this poetry extends back to the ancient beginnings of Chinese literary tradition. Following this, we will treat a collection of Yuan drama (13th-14th centuries C.E.), focusing on the relation of the works to historical concerns (e.g., Mongol domination and Chinese national identity). After this, we will consider some prose work. Depending on what is available, this may be the first volume of Cao Xueqin’s Story of the Stone (a.k.a., Dream of the Red Chamber, 18th century) or perhaps some popular story, such as the often-retold tale of “the butterfly lovers,” Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The final section of the course will treat one or two works of Chinese cinema (e.g., Xiaoshuai Wang’s Drifters), considering both their thematic concerns and their formal techniques. Mid-term, final, short written responses to the readings, group work, class presentations.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011. Open to sophomores or higher.

3320-01 | TuTh 11:00-12:15 | Mathews, Rebecca

The objective of this course is to offer a passage to India through a selection of representative literary works and films. It provides an overview of ancient as well as contemporary aspirations of a country that is traditionally recognized as the birthplace of numerous religions, philosophy, and great works of literature. In addition, it is now also emerging as a major player in the global economy. The goal of this course is to examine and understand the seeming paradoxes of a country that celebrates diversity even as it successfully synthesizes varied linguistic, religious, cultural and political forces.

As this course involves discussions, quizzes, presentations and written responses, participation in classroom activities is mandatory. Students are expected to read the assigned literature for each class and be prepared for the activities in class. Course requirements include active participation in discussions and presentations, a mid-term exam, in-class writing and a final essay.

Also offered as WGSS 3611. Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011. Open to juniors or higher.

3611-01 | TuTh 12:30-1:45 | Breen, Margaret

This is an exciting course not only because of the texts we’ll be reading but because of the ones we’ll come away wanting to read. We will be focusing on a selection of significant texts that, written by women during the last ninety years, reflect a variety of cultural contexts. In addition to the novels and essays, we will also be reading and discussing a range of short pieces (short stories, poems, and essays). Our course texts are important because of both the stories they tell (stories regarding alienation, coming-of-age, resilience, resistance, violence, memory, and forgetting) and the ways in which those stories are told (ways regarding narrative technique, point of view, plot construction, metaphor, and so on). Two in-class essay exams, a group presentation, and a 6-8- page essay.

Likely texts include the following:

Virginia Woolf: A Room of One’s Own (1929); Alice Walker: “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” (1972); Nella Larsen: Passing (1929); Nawal El Saadawai: Memoirs from the Women’s Prison (1983); Adrienne Rich: “Notes toward a Politics of Location” (1984); Audre Lorde: “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (1984); Sandra Cisneros: The House on Mango Street (1984); Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987); Dorothy Allison: Bastard Out of Carolina (1992); Judith Butler: “Imitation and Gender Insubordination” (1991); Sarah Waters: Tipping the Velvet (1998); Judith Halberstam: “Introduction,” The Queer Art of Failure (2011); and Casey Plett: Little Fish (2018).

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011. Open to juniors or higher. May be repeated for credit with a change in topic.

3623-01 | Tu 3:30-6:30 | Sibelman, Grae

Holocaust print, theatre, and film.

How do your represent the unimaginable? As daunting of a task as this is, the Holocaust is one of the most dramatized and written about events in history for the amount of time since its passing. In this course we will be examining the means by which authors and directors have attempted to represent the Holocaust. We will discuss what tools were used including choices made in written structure, visual imagery, and the use of language in an attempt to capture the essence of the Holocaust and explore its deeper meaning and societal repercussions. As well as examining both dramatic works and films that depict the Holocaust we will read first-hand accounts and watch documentaries in order to broaden our knowledge of the Holocaust so that we can better reflect upon the statements being made in the representations. We will also be reading a large body of criticism relating both the dramatization of the Holocaust and the Holocaust itself.

Some of the works being studied in the class include; Akropolis by Jerzy Grotowski, Endgame by Samuel Beckett, The Deputy by Rolf Hochhuth, Who Will Carry the World by Charlotte Delbo and Ghetto by Joshua Sobel as well as many others. We will also be examining films including Ida directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, The Pianist directed by Roman Polansky, and Amen directed by Costa-Gavras.

The coursework will include brief quizzes on the reading, turning in mid-term and final papers, as well as preparing a presentation for the class. This will be a discussion based class, and as such, class participation is also considered to be a part of the coursework.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 2011. Open to juniors or higher.

3629-01 | TuTh 2:00-3:15 | Breen, Margaret

What does it mean to create art from the ashes? In studying literature of the Holocaust we will explore how trauma shapes identity and consider the commitment to write: to document the unspeakable. We will engage a variety of genres, including essay, memoir, poetry, fiction, and documentary film. All of these share an absolute imperative – at times even a compulsion – to tell their story. If is true, as Elie Weisel claims, that at Auschwitz not only man died but the idea of man, how do we now conceive of the human? How do we survive? As reader-listeners, we witness the human spirit’s drive to remember and be remembered. One 5-7-page midterm essay; one hourly exam; one 10-page final essay.

Likely texts include the following:

Wiesel’s Night, Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, Tec’s Dry Tears, Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, Delbo’s Auschwitz and After, and Desbois’s Holocaust by Bullets, as well Ida Fink’s short story collection A Scrap of Time. Films/Documentaries: Night and Fog, Shoah, and Weapons of the Spirit.

Spring 2020

Honors Courses

Writing Courses

1000-Level Courses

1012W: Business Writing I

1101W: Classical and Medieval Western Literature

1103W: Renaissance and Modern Western Literature

1201: Introduction to American Studies

1503: Introduction to Shakespeare

1601W: Race, Gender, and the Culture Industry

1616: Major Works of English and American Literature

1616W: Major Works of English and American Literature

1701: Creative Writing I

2000-Level Courses

2001: Introduction to Grant Proposal Writing

2013W: Introduction to Writing Studies

2100: British Literature I

2101: British Literature II

2200: Literature & Culture of North American Before 1800

2201: American Literature to 1880

2201W: American Literature to 1880

2203: American Literature Since 1880

2203W: American Literature Since 1880

2214W: African American Literature

2274W: Disability in American Literature and Culture

2276: American Utopias and Dystopias

2301W: Anglophone Literatures

2305: Modern Japanese Literature

2401: Poetry

2405: Drama

2407: The Short Story

2408: Modern Drama

2409: The Modern Novel

2411: Popular Literature

2411W: Popular Literature

2413: The Graphic Novel

2600: Introduction to Literary Studies

2627: Topics in Literary Studies

2635E: Literature and the Environment

3000-Level Courses

3003W: Advanced Expository Writing

3082: Writing Center Practicum

3091: Writing Internship

3120: Irish Literature in English to 1939

3212: Asian American Literature

3218W: Ethnic Literatures of the United States

3240E: American Nature Writing

3303: Studies in Early Literature in English

3318: Literature and Culture of the Third World

3320: Literature and Culture of India

3420: Children’s Literature

3422: Young Adult Literature

3501: Chaucer

3503: Shakespeare I

3507: Milton

3509: Studies in Individual Writers

3601: The English Language

3605: Latina/o Literature

3611: Women’s Literature 1900 to the Present

3613: Introduction to LGBT Literature

3623: Studies in Literature and Culture

3629: Introduction to Holocaust Literature

3631: Literature, Culture, and Humanitarianism

3640: British Cinema

3701: Creative Writing II

3703: Writing Workshop

3711: Creative Writing for Child and Young Adult Readers

3715E: Nature Writing Workshop

4000-Level Courses

4201W: Advanced Study: American Literature

4203W: Advanced Study: Ethnic Literature

4965W: Advanced Studies in Early Literature in English