Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2648 | TuTh 11:00 - 12:15 | Bedore, Pam 

Have you ever read or written fan fiction about a favorite novel, TV show, movie, or game? Have you ever wondered why fan fiction appeals to so many readers and writers? Is it a new practice that developed in the internet age or does it have a longer history? Is it stealing or paying homage? Is it even ethical? And how do scholars study this phenomenon?

This course considers all of those questions through three major fandoms: Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, and Harry Potter. We’ll read/watch originals and fan responses to these texts as well as read essays that provide a broad swathe of critical approaches to fan studies. For your final project, you’ll engage in a fan community of your choice.

The classroom will be a space of discussion and shared knowledge production. Your assignments will be: 10 weekly response papers, 3 analytical projects, 1 creative project, and 1 final exam.

Please reach out with any questions you might have! No previous knowledge required.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

3318 | TuTh 3:30 - 4:45| Rogers, Lynne 

This class will read a selection of narratives that travel from Africa to Iraq and Lebanon and then to Sri Lanka, from Ireland to Australia and even a Native American reservation, yes a reservation, a third world within another world.  In this myriad of settings, all of the works will focus on the Coming of Age and the protagonist’s process of defining themselves as an adult.  How do you manage to identify yourself when your world is falling apart?  How does a young person respond to the escalation of violence that surrounds them? What happens when your sexual desires and ambitions run contrary to your family’s values?  What are the decisions that a young person must make to change or direct the trajectory of their life?  Yet these questions will be further complicated by the political unrest that these protagonists find themselves facing.  Students should be able to relate to these protagonists as they handle some of the same problems shared by American students and in additionally, get an exploratory look into a different culture and political landscape.  All of these contemporary readings have been written after 1998 and are critically acclaimed. Students will be expected to read @60 pages per class and write 5 short papers of 2 ½ pages using one secondary source.  Some of the novels to be read include The Corpse Washer by Iraqi writer Sinan Antoon, Funny Boy by Sri Lankan writer, Shyam Selvadurai and There There by Native American writer, Tommy Orange.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

4600W | Tu 2:00 - 3:15| Bedore, Pam 

Agatha Christie (1890-1976), one of the “Queens of Crime” of the twentieth century, is a uniquely important figure in the history of crime fiction. She created innovative detective characters and wrote effectively at the intersections of detective fiction and other genres. Moreover, Christie has a fascinating mystery at the center of her own biography: how can we explain her 11-day disappearance in December 1926, a disappearance that led to a massive police search and even to Arthur Conan Doyle’s use of a medium in an attempt to locate her?

We will read several Christie short story collections and novels: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1921), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), The Thirteen Problems (1932), Parker Pyne Investigates (1934), Murder on the Orient Express (1934), And Then There Were None (1939), Curtain (1975), Sleeping Murder (1976), and The Last Séance (collected 2019). In addition, each student will read a biography or monograph on Christie and present its main contributions to the class.

This is a W class and a capstone, so we will delve into the kind of writing and research that professional literary critics do. Students will do lots of informal writing through weekly response papers and online discussion boards. The formal writing will be a 5000-word research paper on a topic in Agatha Christie studies. Students will begin this paper in week 5 and will work through a series of scaffolded writing and research assignments in order to produce a fully revised final product.