Spring 2022
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.
1000-Level Courses
1616W: Major Works of English and American Literature
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
1616W | MW 4:40-5:55 | Duni, Michael
During this semester we shall concern ourselves with selected works by both English and American writers. Authors have attempted to share their perceptions of the world and how it works. Consequently, the representations of man and his world according to various writers prove as varied as does each one of our descriptive explanations of our world. We shall examine major authors including Chaucer, Donne, Wordsworth, Emily Bronte, Gaskell, E.M. Forster, Hawthorne, Crane, Tennessee Williams, Michael Chabon, and Justin Torres to encounter each writer’s configuration of the world and what he or she has to say about it. In this way, our understanding of how the world might work and how man may fit into this world will become enhanced, if not further complicated! Beware: You are expected to read voraciously.
I have chosen works that I like and that I believe prove provocative. Provocative in that they offer suggestions about themes in life as well as insights about the characters and the authors of these characters. I feel that these works will say something about each one of us as well. Yes. We read about others to discover truths about ourselves. What might each work say about you?!
Along with our perusals and close examinations of these works, our composition tasks will become effective exercises for the expression of this enhancement or confusion. As authors offer their arguments, you will share your reactions, impressions, and further contributions regarding these literary works and their messages in written responses and academic essays. Writing is a required and crucial component of this course. We shall gather on Mondays and Wednesdays at 4:40 p.m. until 5:55 p.m.
1616W | TuTh 9:30-10:45 | Shea, Thomas
One purpose of English 1616W is to enhance our appreciation of Major Works of British and American Literature, ranging from Shakespeare’s day to the Present. We will energetically explore short stories, novels, poetry, drama, and film. As a “W” course, this class will also help you further develop the critical think skills and the professional writing skills that will distinguish you in your chosen career.
Course grades will be based on class participation (40% of your semester grade), a brief essay, a medium-length Midterm Essay and a slightly longer Final Essay.
USUALLY NO FINAL EXAM.
Permission Numbers or Queries: thomas.shea@uconn.edu
2000-Level Courses
2214W: African American Literature
Also offered as: AFRA 2214W
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
2214W | MWF 10:10-11:00 | Campbell, Scott
The course provides a survey of African American literature from the eighteenth century to the present day, and will include a very wide range of texts and genres. We can’t hope to “cover” this material, but we will make a series of investigations into texts we’ll use as examples, demonstrations, and cases. Our goals will include learning some historical context and developing a vocabulary and set of practices for engaging with African American literature. Along the way, we’ll question, too, the categories and boundaries we’re using to gather and define this work. For example, this version of the course will feature elements of African American rhetoric (forms of speaking and writing), including songs and sermons, as informing what we’re calling “literature.”
The course is discussion-driven, and you will be asked to take responsibility for shaping that discussion, sometimes in the form of HuskyCT posts or rotating leadership of class sessions. There will be three graded projects, each of which will go through a proposal, draft, review, and revision process.
2409: The Modern Novel
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
2409 | TuTh 12:30-1:45 | Shea, Thomas
The purpose of this course is to enhance our appreciation of the Modern Novel as it develops during the 20th – 21st centuries. In April, as the spring sun heats up, we will concentrate on classic novels involving America’s pastime—BASEBALL. We will explore novels such as The Natural, Pulitzer Prize Winner Ironweed, and Bang the Drum Slowly, all of which were turned into movies.
Dunkin’ Donuts Park—Once Again voted “Best Minor League Ballpark” in the entire USA— awaits us a few blocks away. Plan on a research trip to see a Hartford Yard Goats professional baseball game.
Course grades will be based on class participation (40% of your semester grade), a brief essay, a medium-length Midterm Essay and a slightly longer Final Essay.
USUALLY NO FINAL EXAM.
Permission Numbers or Queries: thomas.shea@uconn.edu
2411W: Popular Literature
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
2411W | TuTh 2:00-3:15 | Horn, Jacob
Treating popular literature as a serious arena of study, this course will explore the ways that careful reading of popular texts can provide insight into the cultures that produce them. We will read texts from Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, and Fantasy, alongside academic discussions of these genre, engaging with each text as an example of a broader set that also offers unique claims and content to investigate. Students will be required to participate in regular discussions, contribute to shared documents, and produce two pieces of polished, revised prose as part of our parallel engagement with inquiry-based writing. The final project will be a multimodal composition designed individually by each student.
2600: Introduction to Literary Studies
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011 or 3800; open to English majors, others with instructor consent.
2600 | TuTh 11:00-12:15 | Horn, Jacob
An introduction to Literary Studies in a broad sense, this course treats the study of texts as a style of thinking about and exploring material of all sorts, focusing on a small number of close reading strategies applicable to the printed word and other media, attending to the importance of literary genre, and incorporating literary theory and academic texts into our analyses and discussions. Students will be required to participate in regular discussion, contribute to shared documents, make an individualized, personal contribution to the course, and complete a single long paper on Paul Beatty's The Sellout, relying on the tools we have put together throughout the semester.