Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

1101| MW 2:30 - 3:20 Hybrid | Brosh, Liora

This course introduces students to the literature of the ancient and Medieval world. We will examine these texts’ meaningful and beautiful visions of life. Through reading ancient texts like the epic The Iliad, parts of the Hebrew Bible, and Greek tragedies, we will explore how the writers of antiquity understood life in terms of their gods. We will examine what they believed about the afterlife and how that also informed their purpose in life. When studying the Middle Ages, we will look at literary explorations of the yearning for love and the constraints of marriage in an age of faith. We will also study how ancient heroes were replaced by chivalric heroes in pursuit of adventure and love. We will read romances like Chretien’s Lancelot: Knight of the Cart and the poems of Marie de France who explored similar themes from the perspective of a woman writer. We will end by reading Dante’s vision of hell and Boccaccio’s assertion of life as the Middle Ages came to an end. Overall, we will learn what the great writers of the past showed us about life, love, and death. The class will be discussion based and include one short literary analysis paper, one analysis of a play we will watch, 5 short quizzes, a final exam and a visit to a museum in New York City. This course is open to anyone interested in reading great books and learning about the past.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2301W-01 | Sa 10:00 - 12:30 | Moeckel-Rieke, Hannelore 

Some of the most exciting literature published in the last decades is written in countries where English is the official language as a result of their colonial past, or by authors who have a mixed cultural and linguistic heritage or belong to a diasporic minority. We will explore the idea of Anglophone literature in an increasingly globalized and "de-centered" world due to migration, a globalized economy, and digital mass media. Postcolonial studies have provided a useful theoretical framework for the analysis of various aspects of literary works produced in this climate that will be introduced in this class to discuss issues like “cultural hybridity,” “performance and identity,” margin” and “center,” postmodernism, and “imaginary communities”. The class will explore various works of postcolonial literature complemented by theoretical texts and other media.

• What authors, genres, or specific books will be assigned?
  • Salman Rushdie, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Nawal El Saadawi, Marjane Satrapi

• How will the material be organized?
  • We will read novels, short stories and essays organized around themes such as gender, identity, decolonization, etc.
• What will be the written assignments?
  • There will be formal as well as informal writing assignments, a research-driven term paper, and a collaborative, multimodal reading log/annotated text
• What will happen in class? (Lectures, class discussion, class presentations, films, trips, etc.)
  • All class and small group class discussions, film clips, short lectures, mini research assignments and student presentations.
• Who normally takes the course? Is it open to anyone, for English majors and advanced students, or are there any recommended prerequisites?
  • Anyone can take this class. We often have students from very different majors, ages language- and learning backgrounds. The different backgrounds of students enrich our perspective.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

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

This course is an introduction to the chief forms and traditions of dramatic literature through the study of a broad range of major works. The course will focus on introducing students to major dramatic works from the Greek times to the present; we will explore major plays in translation from other languages such as Greek, Norwegian, Swedish, French as well as plays written in the English language.  Students will develop critical skills in the conventions of the genre as we consider literary and performance elements of the drama form.

Requirements: Quizzes, two papers, midterm, final, and class participation.

Textbook:

Longman Anthology of Drama and Theater, The: A Global Perspective, Compact Edition, 1st edition

Published by Pearson (December 6, 2001) © 2002

Michael L. Greenwald Texas A&M University

•    Roger Schultz Texas A&M University
• Roberto Dario Pomo

https://www.pearson.com/en-us/subject-catalog/p/longman-anthology-of-drama-and-theater-the-a-global-perspective-compact-edition/P200000002296/9780321088987?utm_source=copystudentlink&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=XXLEGP0423PCOM

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2407 |TUTH 2:00 - 3:15 |Gorkemli, Serkan 

This course is open to students who have completed the first-year writing requirement (English 1007). It fulfills the CA1: Arts & Humanities requirement and counts toward the English major and minor, as well as the Concentration in Creative Writing.

In this course, we will study the theory and history of the short story as a literary form and read its fine examples by significant American and international writers (textbook: The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction edited by Ann Charters). Lectures and class discussions will focus on the literary elements of plot, character, setting, point of view, style, and theme in the assigned short stories, and you will write textual analyses.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2411W |TUTH 12:30 -1:45 | Dunson, Stephanie

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to juniors or higher. 

3111W | M 3:35 - 6:05 | Roden, Fred

What does the “medieval” signify?  English 3111W concerns the search for origins.  We will examine what is called the “beginning” of British literature as we look to the invention of a native literary tradition on English soil.  At the same time, the course is about modernity and postmodernity as we interrogate how we moderns and postmoderns have invented “The Middle Ages”: how we have defined what makes the “premodern”; how we have made – and continue to make – the Middle Ages.

In English 3111W we will read classic, canonical works of medieval British literature from Beowulf to Chaucer and beyond with a keen sense of who we are as readers: anthropologists removed in time and space who attempt to glimpse another culture.  From the Arthurian to the monastic, we will delve into finding meaning in the medieval even as we explore what meaning has been made of the Middle Ages throughout the centuries (and make meaning of that).  In the process, we will be particularly conscious of questions of ethnicity and nationhood, gender and sexuality, violence and feeling.  What did it “feel like” to live in what is called medieval society?  How did the premodern individual “feel”?

The class will be organized chronologically while we focus on recurring themes and topics.  For each class meeting, there will be a reading that you'll submit a journal entry on.  We will spend class time discussing the literature and history studied for the given day.  There will be two formal papers (worked through drafts), an in-class final exam, and a project on "medievalism."  We hope you will be able to join us for a field trip to The Cloisters, the "medieval/-ist" division of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

English 3111W is open to any student who has completed Engl 1007, 1010, or 1011.  You need not be a major or minor, specialist, or an advanced student.

• General Education Requirement:
  • The W version of this course satisfies a Writing Competency requirement
• English Major Requirements:
  • 2008-2016 Plans: Section B.1 (Survey and Period Courses before 1800) or F (Elective Courses) and Distribution Requirement 1
  • 2017-2020 Plans: Section B.1 (British Literature) or F (Elective courses) and Distribution Requirement
  • 2021-2023 Plans: Core Category: Early Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic History or One of Four Additional Courses
    • Meets one requirement for the Literary Histories and Legacies Track

Also offered as HEJS 3401W

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to juniors or higher. 

3220W | TH 5:30-8:00 | Roden, Fred

The first Jews to come to what is now the United States were refugees: fleeing the Inquisition in Brazil, after expulsion/forced conversion had already driven them from Portugal to Amsterdam.  They named their new assembly in New York the “remnants of the Jewish people.”  This was 1654, and ever since, the Jewish story in America has been the American story: one of migrants and displaced persons.  This course will consider the American Jewish experience through lenses of both “race” and “religion.”  From questions of “when Jews became white” to inflections of gender, sexuality, and class, we will explore Jewish identity in a comparative context.  From politics to peoplehood, we will pay particular attention to issues of Jewish diversity.  Drawing on literary and non-literary sources, through guest speakers, cultural events and field trips, the intersectionality we analyze will focus on concepts of “belonging” and “voice,” as well as the impact of Jews on American culture (and vice versa).  Prior experience in Jewish studies or literature is not required.

Our study of Jewish American literature and culture will primarily focus on the 20th-21^st centuries, with first attention given to the colonial period and 19^th century.  We will read non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and drama.  Our class meetings will center on discussion of a set of assigned readings, about which you'll have written a journal entry.  The journal is meant to help you formulate your thoughts.  You'll write two formal papers (each revised): one focused on "becoming" American and the next on "being" American.  Both of these may be comparative, concentrating on some other identity (race, ethnicity, religion, group, etc.) in relation to the Jewish literature we study.  We will hold a field trip to NYC for further study in Jewish American history and culture.  Our class will conclude with a final exam where you'll write your own perspectives on the experiences of immigrants and cultural belonging in this society.

Engl 3220W/HEJS 3401W is open to any student who has completed Engl 1007, 1010, or 1011.  You need not be a major or minor, specialist, or an advanced student.

• General Education Requirements:
  • Content Area One (Arts & Humanities - Literature)
  • Content Area Four (Diversity & Multiculturalism - USA)
  • The W version of this course satisfies a Writing Competency requirement
• English Major Requirements:
  • 2008-2016 Plans: Section B.3 (Multi-Period, Multi-Cultural, & Ethnic-Lit Courses) or F (Elective Courses) and Distribution Requirement 2 (At least one course must concern ethnic or post-colonial literatures in English)
  • 2008-2020 Plans: Optional Concentration
    • Meets the Multicultural Literature requirement for the Concentration in Teaching English
  • 2017-2020 Plans: Section B.2 (American Literature) or F (Elective courses)
  • 2021-2023 Plans: Core Category: Antiracism, Globality, and Embodiment (Group 2) or one of Four Additional Courses
    • Meets one requirement for the Literature, Antiracism, and Social Justice Track
• Meets NEAG’s Secondary Education Multicultural Literature requirement
• Topics of Inquiry: TOI2: Cultural Dimensions of Human Experiences

Also offered as WGSS 3611

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to juniors or higher. 

3611 | TUTH 9:30-10:45  |  Cramer, Patricia

This course will study modern and contemporary works written by women from different countries. We will cover a range of genres and themes: e.g., women and Romantic love; women and violence; women in resistance; mother-daughter relations; girlhood; sisterhood and feminism. Authors include but are not limited to Audre Lorde, Judy Grahn, Adrienne Rich, Rita Mae Brown as founders of second wave U.S. feminism; Ama Ata Aidoo, Changes: A Love Story; Nechama Tec, Dry Tears: Story of a Lost Girlhood (holocaust memoir); and Hanan el-Shaykh, The Story of Zahra together with Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (women caught in civil wars); Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and Katherine Mansfield, selected short stories.