Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

1101W-01 | TuTh 2:00 - 3:15| Hasenfratz, Bob 

This course will introducing you the Western literary traditions of the Greco-Roman and European medieval worlds. In fact, we will reexamine this Western tradition informed by some global context, reading classical and medieval European epics, lyrics, folktale, myth, drama, etc., beside similar, oppositional, and sometimes inter-related works originating from north Africa, the near east, India, China, and Japan. Instead of revering the classics, sitting before them with an attitude of awe or worship, we have the absolute obligation to interrogate and read them through our contemporary experience and to see how they respond to or are critiqued by other traditions. The great Italian novelist, Italo Calvino, wrote that “The classics are the books that come down to us bearing upon them the traces of readings previous to ours, and bring in their wake the traces they themselves have left on the culture or cultures they have passed through.” Luckily, most of these texts, which have been read for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years by successive generations of readers, can easily stand up to re-reading and re-interpretation. In the course of the semester, we will grapple with The Epic of Gilgamesh about a troubled king seeking eternal life, Aristophanes’s Lysistrata (adapted by Spike Lee in his film Chi-Raq), Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, the lyric poetry of Sappho, Catullus, Sulpicia, and Horace, as well as Homer’s Odyssey. We will survey the lyrics of the troubadours, selections from Dante’s Inferno, and the Conference of the Birds and read Marie de France’s Lais, Chaucer’s bawdy stories, parts of the 1001 Nights from the Syrian version, romances about King Arthur, the poetry of Sufi mystic, Rumi, etc.

You’ll be writing three projects in the course of the semester: 1) Big Questions / Complex Answers, 2) Rewriting History (a creative project), and 3) Trace the Threads, which you’ll draft and then revise as part of this W “writing intensive” course.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

1103W-01 | MWF 9:05 - 9:55| Gallucci, Mary

1103W-02 | Tu 5:00 - 7:30| Pelizzon, V. Penelope

In this course, we’ll spend time with some of the most exciting poetry and prose of the last 500 years. We’ll read works by Turkish, Russian, French, German, Italian, Mexican, American, and English authors. We’ll work chronologically backwards, beginning with recent writers whose historical context is 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. Authors likely to appear on the syllabus include Nazim Hikmet, Marina Tsvetaeva, Gwendolyn Brooks, Paul Celan, Natalia Ginzberg, Charles Baudelaire, Anton Chekhov, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and William Shakespeare. Projects include weekly response writings as well as three revised papers of 5-6 pages each. This is a discussion-centered class, and students will be expected to participate actively and in-person at each meeting.

1103W-03 | MWF 11:15 - 12:05| McFarlane, Margaret

Using romantic comedies (“rom-coms”), this course will explore western literature from the renaissance onward. This course will, chronologically, explore the evolution of romances and “rom-coms”. Starting with Shakespeare. moving through Austen, and ending with contemporary romance, we will read a variety of genres and forms. Our guiding question—“what makes a romantic comedy?” will lead us through time and texts as we investigate the building blocks of this genre—tropes, tags, dialogue, and conventions. Texts we might explore include Much Ado About Nothing, some 18^th century poetry, Pride and Prejudice, love letters and the epistolary form, When Harry Met Sally, and Red White and Royal Blue.

Prerequisites: None

Also offered as: AMST 1201, HIST 1503

1201-01 | MWF 10:10 - 11:00 | Perniciaro, Leon

This course introduces students to key issues of American Studies. We will look at U.S. culture through a variety of techniques and texts from the colonial period to the present day. How do race, Indigeneity, gender, class, and the environment form what we think of as "America?" Our approach will be multi-disciplinary, and our readings will include fiction and poetry, but also prominent scholars of American Studies. Our goal is to think deeply about how U.S. culture came to be and how it continues to be.

1201-02 | TuTh 12:30 - 1:45 | Vials, Chris 

As a basic introduction to the key issues of the field of American Studies, this course will explore such topics as: the role of space in American history; the role of immigration across history; the interplay of the arts with social and political ideas; the place of race, gender, class, and ethnicity now and in the past; patterns of everyday life; and architecture and material culture generally. Students will write brief reaction papers to their readings; midterm and final will be given. Course readings will include such books as these:

James Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten. Anchor 0385483995

William Cronon, Changes in the Land. Hill and Wang 0809016341

John M. Baker, American House Styles. W. W. Norton 0393323250

Frederick Douglass, Narrative. Penguin 0143107305

Sarah Orne Jewett, Country of the Pointed Firs. Signet 0451531442

Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby. Scribner 0743273567

Walker Evans and James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Mariner Books 0618127496

Leslie M. Silko, Ceremony. Penguin 0143104918

Prerequisites: Recommended preparation: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011

1401-01 | MW 11:15 - 12:05 with discussion sections on Friday | Semenza, Gregory

This course focuses on the theory and history of the international horror film, from the silent era through the present day; it also surveys the important sub-genres of horror, including the monster films, paranormal films, slasher films, gialli, and folk horror films, just to mention a few.  Often criticized—sometimes dismissed—as the lowliest of all forms, horror has in fact always been one of the most capacious, formally innovative, and ideologically complex film genres.  The passionate responses it inspires in audiences, from cult-like devotion to outright disgust, raise fascinating questions about why we love (or hate) to be frightened.  How do the things that most terrify us change over time or within different locales?  How do we draw ethical lines (personal, institutional, or national) about what we are willing to depict or watch on film?  What do our individual and collective responses to horror say about us and the world in which we live?

The course schedule is organized into two (somewhat overlapping) sections on Theory and History.  In the Theory section, we’ll pursue topics of special interest--such as the depiction of women in the horror film--in great depth and in relation to multiple films.  In the History section, we’ll work 1) to situate emblematic, groundbreaking, and/or influential films in relation to their specific subgenres and cultural-historical moments; and 2) to trace the development of the genre over time.

Please note that this course is not for the squeamish.  Many of the films contain graphic violence and gore, strong sexual content (including sexual violence), and generally disturbing themes.  I will do my best each week to help you anticipate any unusually graphic content, but please note that, in many ways, disturbing content is precisely the focus of this course.

Assignments include regular reading and screening, participation, a group project, and a midterm and final examination.

1401-02 | MW 1:25 - 2:15 with discussion sections on Friday | Semenza, Gregory

See the description for 1401-01

Prerequisites: None

1503-01 | MWF 10:10 - 11:00 | Labe, Kyle

This course intends to introduce students to the writings of early modern dramatist and poet William Shakespeare. We will focus on Shakespeare’s dramatic corpus, including Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, Troilus and Cressida, Othello, Measure for Measure, and 1 Henry IV. We will also read Shakespeare in conversation with one of his contemporaries, the Caroline dramatist John Ford.

The purpose of the course will be to examine Shakespeare within the context of his time. The assigned texts each engage with some of the most pressing political and religious turmoil of the early modern period in which Shakespeare wrote, namely the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation produced a culture in flux, caught between a past and future order that has stark resonances with today. Including weekly readings, requirements comprise two research projects, short writing assignments, and a midterm and final exam.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2013W-01 | TuTh 3:30-4:45 | Deans, Tom

We’ll review the history of literacy and consider what that means for the future of writing. Drawing on contemporary research in writing studies, we’ll also explore questions of process, genre, audience, persuasion, technology, style, and ethics as those relate to composing for college, work, and civic life. Because AI is changing the way we write, we’ll also do inquiry into Large Language Models. Expect to participate actively in class conversation and do presentations. There will be regular short, informal writing assignments; several individual and small-group conferences; an oral mid-term exam; and several papers. At the end of the semester, you’ll revise earlier work and assemble it in a portfolio. This is the gateway course for the writing minor. 

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

2055WE-01 | MWF 11:15-12:05 | Le, Anh

In this writing-intensive course, we will practice composing in a variety of genres as we examine textual representations of human relationships with various environments. Students from all majors and backgrounds are welcome.

Our approach to the concept of “environment” will be multifaceted: we will explore environments as nonhuman nature and as environments constructed by humans. We will engage with a diverse array of texts that range in form and genre, including climate fiction or “cli-fi”; nonfiction essays; films and podcasts; and nature poetry. Another theme we will be interrogating is the relationships between language and environment. Moreover, we will be centering the perspectives of Indigenous writers, Black writers, and writers of color, such as Robin Wall Kimmerer, Louise Erdrich, Camille T. Dungy, and Octavia E. Butler.

Because our course is heavily discussion-based, my aim is to foster an inclusive, welcoming, and congenial environment; I invite a diverse array of perspectives. Assignments will include weekly journal entries composed during and outside of class, presentations, a final creative project or research paper, and a reflection essay.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2100-01 |TuTh 9:30-10:45 | Hasenfratz, Bob    

We’ll be careening downhill (on an ox-cart running almost out of control) through more than a millennium’s worth of British literature, all in one semester. As we dash from century to century, we’ll sample a fascinating and complex range of poetry, drama, and fiction. Along the way, I want to hear about your genuine reactions to these early texts which have much to reveal about the early construction of gender, race, class, and power as well as vital questions surrounding colonialism and empire, ideas about the environment and resources, technology, literacy, etc. Though I will act as your guide, plan to participate actively in reading and digging into these quite old, quirky, entertaining, and sometimes disturbing texts.

The focus of this class will be on literatures of Britain from approximately 600 CE through to 1800 CE and will take us through the Medieval (or, pre-modern), Renaissance (or, early modern), Restoration, and Eighteenth Century periods. The texts and authors we will read and explore will include Old English riddles and lyrics, Beowulf, the romances of Marie de France, a bit o’ Chaucer, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Julian of Norwich, Thomas Malory, Spenser’s the Fairie Queene, Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus or Shakespeare’s Tempest, the poetry of Amelia Lanyer, Robert Herrick, John Donne, Anne Finch, John Milton, etc., fiction by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift, Aphra Behn’s Oronooko, and the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano.

Writing for this course will include weekly discussion board posts. Twice during the semester (before midterm and then again near the end of classes) I’ll ask you to choose 4 discussion posts from your weekly sets, revise and expand them, and work them into a unified brief essay containing your reactions to and observations on what we’ve read.

2100-02 | TuTh 2:00-3:15 | Biggs, Fred  

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2101-01 | TuTh 12:30 - 1:45 | Burke, Mary 

Also offered as: AMST 2200

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

2200-01 | TuTh 3:30 - 4:45 | Franklin, Wayne    

ENGL/AMST 2200 will examine the early written and oral record of what eventually became the United States. Our readings will be drawn from a variety of sources: recorded Indigenous mythic and historic texts, travel accounts originally written in various European languages (e.g., French, Spanish, Dutch, German, and English), works centered on Indigenous/Euro-American contact and conflict, social history documents of literary value, key political documents, and poetry, early fiction, and autobiography. We also will consider various non-textual analogues (e.g., architecture, art, landscape, material culture, and social, economic, and political institutions) that will be introduced during weekly discussions and lectures. The goal is to achieve a rich understanding of the ways in which peoples of many varied backgrounds, beginning with the Asian-derived indigenous inhabitants of North America to the various immigrant populations from continental Europe and the British Isles and the enslaved Africans they introduced to the Western hemisphere, came to express their views of the land and their experiences on it and with each other. There will be a quiz on each major title. Students will write an 8-10 page paper on our final reading. There will be a midterm exam but no final. We will spend a good deal of time on the writing process in the last part of the course so as to prepare everyone to craft the best possible final paper.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2201-01 | TuTh 2:00-3:15 | Franklin, Wayne 

This course is designed as an introduction to major issues in American literature from the beginnings to 1880. It will be organized thematically and chronologically. There will be two quizzes, a midterm exam, and two papers.

Also offered as: AMST 2207, HIST 2207

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

2207-01 | TuTh 3:30 - 4:45| Phillips, Jerry  

As early as 1783, George Washington spoke of the United States as a “rising empire.” American nationhood was forged around the idea that the United States was an imperium—a ruling power—that was bound to increase in population and territory, all the while increasing its strength, wealth and influence on the world. Thomas Jefferson described the United States as an “empire for liberty”; later American commentators claimed that the United States has a “destiny to perform, a manifest destiny” over Continental America and, ultimately, the rest of the world. The United States was conceived as an exceptional nation, the first universal nation that represented (as Abraham Lincoln put it), “the last best hope of earth.” At stake in the ideal of the American nation was the faith in democratic republicanism as the best form of political governance the world has seen. However, American writers have noted the tensions and contradictions between the reality of American empire and the ideal of American democracy. For example, the spread of the “empire for liberty” throughout the 19^th century also entailed the spread of an empire of slavery. In this course, we will trace the history of the American empire from Constitutional beginnings to the so-called “war on terror.”  Along the way, we will attend to the political and cultural controversies that signify what one scholar has called “the sorrows of empire:” war, race, settler colonialism, and imperialism. Course requirements: two papers and a final examination.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

2210-01 | TuTh 11:00 - 12:15| Simmons, Kali 

An introductory survey of Indigenous oral stories, novels, short fiction, poetry, and multimedia texts. We will discuss the distinctive features of Indigenous-authored works created across different time periods, genres, and tribal contexts. Students will learn to identify key features of Indigenous texts, apply field-specific methods and protocols, and discuss the various factors that influence cross-cultural communication within Indigenous texts.

Course assignments (which are aimed at developing students’ critical thinking, close reading, and communication skills) include in-class group and individual activities, written reading reflections, a take-home midterm, and a flexible final project.

Also offered as: AFRA 2214

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2214-01 | MWF 11:15 - 12:05| Salvant, Shawn   

2214-02 | MWF 10:10 - 11:00| Salvant, Shawn   

Also offered as: AFRA 2214W

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2214W-01 | Th 5:00 - 7:30 | Jones, Briona

Also offered as: AMST 2274W

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2274W-01 | MWF 12:20 - 1:10 |Suprenant, Kelly 

This class will examine representations of disability on the American page, stage, and screen. By examining multiple forms of media (novels, film, television, plays and photography) and engaging with the work of leading contemporary scholars, we will trace the evolution of disability in America, paying special attention to its intersections with race, gender and performance. Course requirements may include weekly short response papers, a recorded podcast discussion, annotated bibliography, and a final conference paper to be presented to the class.

2274W-02| Tu 5:00 - 7:30 |Duane, Anna Mae 

Also offered as: AMST 2276W

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

2276W-01 | TuTh 3:30 - 4:45| Grossman, Leigh 

It’s a bit terrifying but accurate to say that we are living in a golden age of dystopian fiction. Both dystopias and utopias (often two ways of looking at the same thing) have become pervasive across American media, including books, stories, and graphic novels, tabletop and video games, long- and short-form video, and more. In particular the audience has been getting younger—dystopian worlds that used to be geared toward adults are increasingly focused on teenagers and middle-grade readers. This class will look at some of the roots of the current golden age, but the main focus is on what topics lend themselves to utopias and dystopias, and why authors use particular tropes of the field. We will look both at what authors are trying to accomplish, and what readers expect in a satisfying work (and how those things differ for adult and younger audiences). The class will include many key older works, but with a significant focus on current authors who are changing the field (Sarah Pinsker, Rivers Solomon, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Rebecca Roanhorse, etc.). We will also look at some critical writing, and some of the authors you are reading will be guests in the class.

2276W-02 | MW 12:20 -1:10|Hybrid| Dolan Gierer, Emily 

2276W-03 | MW 4:40 - 5:55| Reynolds, Kristen

Technological experimentation and production have accelerated at incredible speed in the last decade. The weaponization of these systems by nation-states and their agents to surveil populations, to silence dissent and thwart protest, and to facilitate acts of war produces what many refer to as a dystopian reality. Yet, oriented against this reality is a powerful speculative practice that envisions technologies that resist these outcomes. As such, this class explores how speculative literature, culture, and design provides roadmaps for creating technologies that move toward a kind of utopianism that secures sustainable, just futures for all. Relying on a combination of utopian and dystopian literature and media (like Dirty Computer, Everything For Everyone, and “Emergency Skin”), scholarly analysis of digital (in)justice, and experimental explorations of speculative technologies, this course asks chiefly how digital technology produces dystopianism and how people can work together to mobilize their imaginations to manifest Alternative Technofutures. Assignments in this course will include reading quizzes and discussion facilitation, but will focus primarily on a series of iterative, short-form (4-5 page) essays wherein students deploy speculative design methods to explore how technology can be mobilized to bring about utopian futures.  

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2301W-01 | MW 2:30 - 3:20 |Hybrid| Sanchez, Lisa 

This course examines English language literature by writers outside of the U.S. and the British Isles. Our focus this semester will be Caribbean writers, including Edwidge Danticat, George Lamming, Julia Alvarez, Jamaica Kincaid, C.L.R. James, and V.S. Naipaul.

Grades determined by in-class writing assignments and class participation.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2401-01 | TuTh 9:30 - 10:45| Cohen, Bruce  

2401-02 | TuTh 3:30 - 4:45 | Cohen, Bruce          

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

2405-01 | MWF 1:25 - 2:15 |Labe, Kyle

Performance is a rarity in the history of human civilization, found in almost every culture at every moment in time. Some might say it is fundamental to human existence. Surveying Western theater and performance, this course will examine the dramatic output from the ancients to the turn into the twentieth century. Our focus will be on the way that the dramatic script comes into meaning with the body in performance. A major feature of this class will explore the role of drama in history and how historical performance practices take on social and cultural meaning. Our investigation of the four-dimensional quality of drama will lead to discussions of texts’ original staging practices and the evolution of drama in tandem with them.

Texts will most likely include Oedipus the King by Sophocles; Agamemnon by Aeschylus; the medieval mystery pageants The Second Shepherds’ Play and Everyman; The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd; Hamlet by William Shakespeare; The Rover by Aphra Behn; Faust, Part 1 by Goethe; Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen; and Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. Including weekly readings, assignments will comprise one research paper, a group staging project, short writing assignments, and a midterm and final exam.

2405-02 | TuTh 9:30 - 10:45 |Winter, Sarah 

Honors Section

This course emphasizes the role of drama as theater – works written to be performed. In contrast to other forms of literature, drama was created as words to be heard and actions to be seen, three-dimensional and experienced in real time. Through intensive reading of major plays from classical Greek drama to the present, and exploration of differing styles of staging and performance, we will study dramatic genres such as tragedy, comedy, the history play, melodrama, one-act plays, epic theater, and theater of the absurd. By viewing videos of plays in performance and attending at least one production on campus, we will gain familiarity with changing theatrical conventions, including costuming, theater architecture, scenic design, lighting, staging, and acting styles from ancient theater to the present. Creative options for in-class activities and coursework will explore how plays were originally staged as well as consider the possibilities for staging them today in new cultural, social, and political contexts and new kinds of media. Assignments will include: a group presentation on the staging and performance of a play, with a short paper; a longer comparative paper on tragedy or comedy, or a rewriting of a scene from a play with a commentary on performance; take-home midterm; final exam; class discussion participation; and a review of an on-campus performance.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2407-01 | MW 11:15 - 12:05 | Hybrid | Sanchez, Lisa 

This course surveys American and other significant writers. Our aim is to analyze the short story as art and artifact. Students will study the history and elements of the short story genre; master the key concepts involved in analysis of the genre; and participate in class discussions and group discussions.

Grades determined by three in-class exams and a class participation grade.

2407-02 | TuTh 2:00-3:15 | Simmons, Kali

Horror Short Fiction

Why do we enjoy horror stories? What can horror teach us?

In this course, we will analyze the formal characteristics of individual horror short stories, infer the values and beliefs expressed by various stories, identify trends and patterns across different works, and consider how horror has been used as a tool to both uphold and challenge the status quo. Assigned primary texts include stories written by notable authors like Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft as well as some of the more obscure voices working in horror.

Course assignments (which are aimed at developing students’ critical thinking, close reading, and communication skills) include in-class group and individual activities, written reading reflections, a take-home midterm, and a flexible final project (creative options available).

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2408-01 | MW 10:10 - 11:00 | Hybrid| Dennigan, Darcie 

Why study modern and postmodern absurdist, Surrealist, Dada-esque, non-naturalistic plays? 1) To be okay with not knowing. As absurdist extraordinaire George Saunders puts it: “Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.” 2) To strengthen your synapses. "Most critics and theatergoers," playwright Maria Irene Fornes once said, "are so used to seeing plays in only one way — What is the dramatic conflict? What are the symbols? — that they go through their entire lives looking for the same things. If they don’t find what they expect, they’re disconcerted." Reading our texts, and staying with the difficulties that each one presents, will be an exercise in intellectual breadth and versatility, and in critical judgment: two of the goals for a UConn Gen Ed course. 3) To engage nonsense in the pursuit of sense. Studying these texts, and their historical, political, and philosophical contexts, will highlight the absurdity of humanity-- and only if we can recognize our absurdity can we celebrate the possibility of non-absurdity! 4) To gather courage to go on with your life. Here comes another year, another semester, another day... "The comic alone is capable of giving us the strength to bear the tragedy of existence." That's Eugene Ionesco. Let's gather strength for this year, and beyond, through our study of theatrical absurdity. This course requires a weekly writing assignment, a scene presentation, a great deal of reading, a live discussion section, a midterm, and a final exam. 

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.

2409-01 | MW 9:05 - 9:55 | Hybrid | Coundouriotis, Eleni

We speak of the present world as a global world. But how did we get here? This course examines novels that span the twentieth century to our present moment and focus on the sensibility of modernity. We will examine the idea that modernity is crisis and engage the major historical upheavals and dislocations of this period such as they influence the themes and form of the modern novel. Fiction writers have tackled these momentous topics in varying ways, sometimes questioning whether crisis is a productive frame for understanding them. They also experiment with style to capture and resist (or recast) the sensibility that things are falling apart or changing too fast. Transformation is a key idea in these novels and applies to individual characters as they come into new self-understanding. The readings for the course are international and reflect the novel’s standing as a form of world literature that circulates broadly (often in translation) beyond its national origins.

The course is reading intensive and the assignments take this into account, placing emphasis on reading journals and what you can learn by tracking your reading experience through the semester. The main writing assignment is a semester-long project of composing an original reading journal that combines a record of your understanding of the course content with a creative exploration (creative nonfiction) of your experience as a reader. The course is offered in a hybrid modality. Our in-person meetings will be discussions.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 

2411W-01 | OA | Cormier, Emily

In this class, we will examine a segment of Popular Literature called dystopian literature.  With selections from 1993 (The Giver), 2000 (Parable of the Sower), 2002 (Feed), and 2017 (The Marrow Thieves) we will attempt to see what unites these novels across decades, and what makes them uniquely responsive to the concerns of their time. These books are also pitched at audiences of different ages, from children (The Giver) to young adults (Feed, The Marrow Thieves) to adults (The Parable of the Sower).  Are the concerns of dystopias similar across readers’ presumed ages/stages?  But most importantly, we’ll pay attention to moments in each one that spark our unique interests as readers. To further this, we will start our class by reading what scholars in the field have been saying about the genre, then we’ll put their ideas into conversation with our own individual curiosity, expertise, and/or cross-disciplinary lens.

The W component of this class will be dedicated to creating a 15-page, 4,500-word writing project, where students use an individualized guiding question as a way of writing about the texts in the class. Students should expect to be graded primarily on writing and revision, but also reading quizzes, and participation in small-group tutorials.

2411W-02 | OA | Cormier, Emily

See description for 2411W-01

2411W-03 | MW 4:40 - 5:55 | Bergan, Mckenzie

Dark Academia and the Campus Novel  

This course will examine the intersections between popular literature and media studies by focusing on campus literature, and in particular, the recently coined “Dark Academia.” Dark Academia is often characterized by the setting of a private school or university and a set of tropes including secret societies, a murder mystery, or secrets of the past come to light. We will use the subcategory of Dark Academia to explore several popular genres, including the gothic, mystery, fantasy, and young adult literature. We will read both popular sources and literary criticism, and theorize together what is at stake in this literary category. We will explore why these depictions of educational institutions are both so popular and so fraught, and understand how a variety of popular genres adapt to the campus setting.   

Assignments for this class include reading responses, class participation, 2 short essays, and 1 longer final paper or creative project.  

Our reading list includes:  

• The Secret History (1992) by Donna Tartt
• If We Were Villains (2017) by M. L. Rio
• Babel (2022) by R. F. Kuang
• Ninth House (2019) by Leigh Bardugo
• The Forest Demands It’s Due (2023) by Kosoko Jackson
• Where Sleeping Girls Lie (2024) Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
• I Have Some Questions for You (2023) by Rebecca Makkai

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011. Not open to students who have passed ENGL 3621 when taught as "The Graphic Novel."

2413-01 | MW 11:15 - 12:05 | Hybrid | Forbes, Sean 

This course explores graphic novels - novels, memoirs, works of journalism, and more. We will consider the genre's history, and its rise in popularity. We will analyze the ways images and text can work together to convey meaning and tell stories. You will learn the vocabulary of graphic storytelling and acquire critical skills necessary to read and understand the medium. Together we will study several classic texts of the graphic novel genre as well as some emerging classics and discuss how these works address historical and contemporary concerns. You will engage with the genre and the specific works by trying your own hand at graphic storytelling through a variety of exercises and assignments.

2413-02 | TuTh 12:30 - 1:45 | Knapp, Kathy

Over the past several decades, critics have come to recognize the value of comics as both an art form and as literature. This course will introduce students to key concepts and a working vocabulary for considering what it means to approach the graphic novel as a hybrid form: what can a graphic novel do that a novel can’t, for instance? And how does narrative shape the way we see? We will read graphic novel criticism alongside a variety of graphic novels and memoirs as we identify the possibilities suggested by a medium that asks us to do several things at once:  we spend more time with and attend more carefully to the page before us as a form of training for developing a new approach to understanding the world around us.

2413-03 | TuTh 3:30 - 4:45 | Knapp, Kathy

See description for 2413-002

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011 

2600-01 | TuTh 9:30 - 10:45| Codr, Ariana

2600-02 | TuTh 11:00 - 12:15| Codr, Ariana

Also offered as: CLCS 2609

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011  Not open for credit to students who have passed AMST/ENGL 3265W when offered as "Fascism and Antifascism in the US."

2609-01 | TuTh 3:30 - 4:45 | Vials, Christopher  

In this course, we will explore the questions: what is fascism?  How is it relevant for thinking about the culture and politics of the world today, and the United States in particular?  And how does fascism differ from other forms of authoritarianism?

As a type of state, fascism was largely destroyed in 1945.  But as an ideology and a set of political movements, it has appeared in countries across the globe, before and after World War II.  As Oxford-based historian Roger Griffin wrote in 1993, “…as a political ideology capable of spawning new movements [fascism] should be treated as a permanent feature of modern political culture.”   After surveying the historical fascisms of Germany, Italy, and Japan, we will turn to the United States, where we will devote much of the remainder of the class to exploring U.S. fascist or fascist-like movements that moved from fringe to mainstream.  We will also discuss the applicability of the concept of fascism for the United States.   Along the way, we will discuss what is has meant to be an antifascist, both in the United States and abroad.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011; open to juniors or higher. Cannot be taken for credit after passing ENGL 3011.  

3013W-01 | MW 1:25 - 2:15 | Hybrid| Booten, Kyle

In this hands-on class, you will publish two things. First, you will create a small book—very small, more like a booklet or even a pamphlet—on a topic of your choosing. Since this is a "W" class, you will write this booklet. But you will also design it, print it, and assemble it (and, if you like, distribute it to interested readers). Course readings will introduce perspectives on publishing and book design, while at-home "lab" assignments will allow you to experiment with different ways of designing a book's layout. No prior experience is assumed.

Next, you will take this print object and reconceive it for the web, translating your booklet into a stand-alone website. Retrofitting a project that began as a booklet in this way will offer an opportunity to reflect upon the different expressive possibilities of print and digital modes of publishing (such as the latter's potential for interactivity). No previous experience building websites is expected; the emphasis will be on design thinking, not on technical aspects.  Readings from this part of the course will largely consist of examples of aesthetically-adventurous website design going back to the 1990s. 

This class will be of particular interest to students interested in writing, publishing, design, and digital media.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011.

This course is only open by instructor consent for students working in the Writing Center

3082-01 | Deans, Tom 

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 . Instructor Consent

3091-01 | Arr. | Fairbanks, Ruth  

Writing Internships provide unique opportunities to apply writing skills and develop practical critical thinking in non-academic settings supervised by professional writers. Internships are recognized as an important experiential aspect of undergraduate education and many employers give preference to applicants with internship experience. English 3091 is open to juniors and seniors in all majors.  Both on-campus and off-campus placements in a broad variety of professional career areas are available.

Excellent writing and communication skills are essential.

Applicants must have at least 3.0 cumulative GPA in the major and at least 54 credits.

This is a variable-credit, permission number course with one to six possible credits depending on specific placement projects.  The course may be repeated for credit with no more than eight credits per placement.

Grading Scale:  Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

See the English Department website link to Writing Internship Program pages for further information and application forms: https://english.uconn.edu/undergraduate/writing-internship-program/

Interested applicants may at any point email questions about the program, application materials, or application process to Ruth.Fairbanks@uconn.edu.  Because internships are in demand, it’s highly recommended that students discuss the ENGL 3091 opportunity with major advisors in advance of the official spring 2025 advising period. Application Timeframe: after applicants have discussed the internship opportunity with major advisors, they should schedule a meeting in weeks 7-11 with Professor Ruth Fairbanks through nexus.uconn.edu and then submit application materials to Professor Fairbanks.

Application materials (internship application, letter of interest, current transcript, and best academic paper) should be electronically submitted prior to the meeting with Professor Ruth Fairbanks. For further information see the link to online internship pages. Placements have included Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, Connecticut Landmarks, Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, Connecticut Writing Project, Globe Pequot Press,The Dodd Research Center and Archive,  New Britain Museum of American Art, Striven Software Public Relations Development, UConn Office of Institutional Equity, UConn Women’s Center, UConn Information Technology, World Poetry Books, WithitGirl online magazine, and Write on Black Girl poetry journal. Other placements are available.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

3120-01 | TuTh 2:00 - 3:15 |Burke, Mary

This course will focus on the ways that earlier myths, literary forms, characters, and themes in Irish literature are revised or adapted during both the Irish Literary Revival at the turn of the twentieth century and after the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. We will examine how Irish writers selected or rejected elements of their country’s past literary and linguistic traditions as a part of the literary, nation-making political project that unfolded in the era before and after independence. We will pay attention to how that which did not align with Irish nationalism may have been excluded. Beginning in the eighteenth century, we’ll move between novels, drama, poetry, and prose (including Irish-language texts in translation) and practice the methods required for writing analyses of these forms.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011

3123W-01 | TuTh 12:30 - 1:45 |Smith, Victoria

What does it mean for a century to end and a new one to begin? Thomas Hardy, in 1900, bemoaned “the Century’s corpse outleant,” but really, that dead body doesn’t do this period justice. There was a lot happening as the 1890s progressed into the twentieth century. Queer writers questioned the boundaries of sex and gender alongside women authors who weighed the freedom of the workplace and the vote against the expectations of the home and the nursery. Photographers tried out their new technology by capturing images of dead bodies, ghosts, and fairies. Technological innovations like the telegraph, new art forms like film, and scientific theories like relativity likely made it feel like voices were detached from bodies, like bodies were detached from time. And then World War I transformed everything: the rise of modern warfare not only traumatized an entire generation but also introduced the sounds of machine guns into a soundscape already buzzing with the clamor of growing cities and the atonal orchestrations of experimental composers.

In this course, we’ll explore some of this period’s most dramatic conflicts and conversations in science, art, politics, and gender in this tumultuous period of cultural history. Our work will be rooted in literature considered both “highbrow” and “lowbrow”  — novels, short stories, poetry, drama, children’s literature, popular magazines — but we’ll branch out into an array of cultural forms, including painting, photography, music, radio drama, and dance, primarily from England but occasionally from the US and across Europe. A selection of creators who may appear on our syllabus: Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Amy Levy, T. S. Eliot, H.D., Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Pablo Picasso, Siegfried Sassoon, Igor Stravinsky, Virginia Woolf, and Pat Barker. In addition to engaged class participation and reading, coursework will include a series of writing assignments building toward a 10- to 12-page research paper.

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

3422-01 | MW 10:10-11:00| Hybrid Online Synchronous | Cormier, Emily

We will read YA books seriously and have fun, challenging, and heady conversation about them.  The syllabus is arranged to help us discuss how the field of Young Adult Literature has changed over time, offering a (nearly) decade-by-decade picture of what the genre has produced since the 1950s. How did early YA books shape how scholars and readers have conceived of YA as a separate genre, and how has the literature changed over the decades? Are the earliest iterations of YA novels still interesting, relevant, and powerful, or have they aged poorly?  We will read novels, poetry, novels-in-verse, and graphic novels.  In addition, we will consider published critical responses to the works we read, as well as historical, social, and biographical contexts.  This is a project-based class with a high reading load and an emphasis on writing from different rhetorical positions.  Expect to read 8-10 novels, and produce 3 substantial projects that showcase your creative and critical thinking.

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011. May not be taken out of sequence after passing ENGL 3505.

3503-01 | TuTh 11:00 - 12:15 | Mahoney, Charles

An intensive study of Shakespeare’s plays across a variety of genres (history, tragedy, comedy, “problem play,” Roman plays, romance) with attention both to many of Shakespeare’s major characters (e.g. Juliet, Hamlet, Richard III, King Lear, Prospero) and to many of the predominant features of his dramatic style, in terms of the architecture of individual plays as well as the components of his technique (such as soliloquies, metatheatricality, dramatic irony, musical and lyric interludes, et cetera). We will also selectively consider criticism of Shakespeare from the eighteenth century (e.g. Samuel Johnson), the nineteenth century (e.g. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Hazlitt, and Anna Jameson), and the twentieth (e.g. A. C. Bradley, T. S. Eliot, Frank Kermode). Plays likely to be considered include Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest. Likely requirements will include regular attendance and active participation, short quizzes, short papers, and a final project.

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

3601-01 | TuTh 9:30 - 10:45 | Biggs, Frederick   

The goal of this course is to improve the students’ writing by explaining key elements of the grammatical structure of English. A collateral benefit is the ability to teach this subject to others. The text, A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar, by Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, and Brett Reynolds, 2^nd ed. (Cambridge: CUP, 2022), provides a detailed account of many of the rules which control the language. It is an essential starting-point for linguists. We focus, however, more narrowly on those which underlie the related syntactic structures most often involved when revising written work. Supported by robust HuskyCT site, the course consists of lectures, self-check exercises, ten preliminary tests, a midterm, and a final. Other assignments include discussion board posts and journal entries on topics such as the dialects of English and the language in the age of AI.

Also offered as LLAS 3232

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

3605-01 | MWF 12:20 - 1:10| Rodriquez, Kenia

Latina/o/x, Latin@, Latine— from Mexican American farmworkers to Puerto Rican poets to Afro-Latinx storytellers, Latinx literature reflects a vast range of histories, identities, and geographies. What do these diverse voices reveal about the expansiveness of Latinidad itself?

This course explores major Latinx authors, texts, and themes from the late 19th century to the present and their engagement with issues of identity, politics, and cultural transformation. Readings span multiple genres, including fiction, poetry, autobiography, and graphic novels, with authors such as María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Gloria Anzaldúa, Elizabeth Acevedo, Gabriel García Márquez, and Gabriel Bá & Fábio Moon."

Also offered as: HEJS 3629

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011; open to sophomores or higher. Not open to students who have passed ENGL 3623 or 3619 taught as Holocaust literature

3629-01 | TuTh 9:30 - 10:45 | Breen, Margaret

It has been 80 years since the end of World War II, during which over 6 million Jews—60% of European Jewry—were murdered. Other groups were also targeted; they include Communists, Jehovah Witnesses, Sinti-Roma, Afro-Germans, homosexuals, Poles, and people with disabilities. That historical event remains an ongoing phenomenon through its resultant cultural production.  The Holocaust lives today even as the events and people connected to it become part of the past.  The literature calls to awareness in our present moment while its history still unfolds.

The subtitle for this course is “Testimony, Memory, Survival, and Legacy,” and accordingly we will read pay special attention to the range of voices who have recorded their experiences and memories of genocidal atrocity. What does it mean to be a survivor? What is the legacy of survivor testimony?  Even as we contemplate the horrors of genocide, hope and endurance will serve as our recurring themes.  We will interrogate the meanings of “altruism,” “rescue,” “resistance” and “humanitarianism” – and “survival” -- at individual and collective levels.  What do studies of “survival” teach us about community and human relationship?

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 examine memoirs across a variety of literary genres, including essays, poetry, and fiction, and in documentary films.  All of these works share an absolute imperative – at times even a compulsion – to tell and witness stories of the Holocaust, whether experienced directly or inherited. 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 readers, viewers, and listeners, we witness the human spirit’s drive to remember and be remembered.

Likely Assignments: Midterm; Museum Project; Group Project; Final Essay or Creative Project

Also offered as: HRTS 3631W

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011; open to sophomores and higher.

The refugee is a foundational figure for humanitarianism. The course will trace the development of humanitarian thought on refugees and migrants through various story-telling strategies that have been adopted by displaced persons and others speaking on their behalf. Because they frequently become stateless, refugees are among the most vulnerable populations. Refugees and migrants occupy highly contentious spaces such as camps, remain in legal limbo for extended periods (sometimes generations), and frequently suffer from trauma, having survived events of extreme violence.

This course focuses on how we tell the stories of refugees and migrants. We will also grapple with the specific characteristics of humanitarian thought (the value of life, the relief of suffering, the protection of civilians in war, etc) and discuss the overlap between humanitarianism and human rights.  Narrative is very important for claiming a legal right to refugee status and for making an asylum application legible. The focus of the course will be on the analysis of narrative modes across different creative and nonfiction media, in text and film.  We will pay close attention to point of view and voice as they are rendered in narrative.

The course is offered in a hybrid modality. Our in-person meetings will be discussions. The asynchronous component of the class is writing intensive.

3631W-01 | MW 10:10 - 11:00 | Hybrid| Coundouriotis, Eleni

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011; open to sophomores and higher. May not be taken for credit after passing ENGL 3623 offered as Rhetoric of Political Discourse

3633W-01 |TuTh 11:00 - 12:15 | Phillips, Jerry

One man’s “terrorist” is another man’s “freedom fighter.”

Does life begin at conception or at birth?

How do we define the concept of slavery? What is the essence of liberty? How do we know what rights are allegedly “natural” and what right are merely civil?

What is a proposition? How may we be convinced of the truth of a proposition?

What is an argument? What does the proof consist of? On what does the proof depend? Will arrangement have anything to do with it?

Rhetoric was famously defined by Aristotle as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” Rhetoric is central to human affairs, because people “attempt to discuss statements and to maintain them, to defend themselves and to attack others.” By nature, people are political animals. Political rhetoric covers all questions concerning the lives of human beings in society. In this course, we will discuss the rhetoric of political discourse in theoretical, historical and contemporary contexts. We will address the intrinsic connection between rhetoric and argument and rhetoric and ethics. We will attend to how literary artists and cultural commentators engage the subject of political rhetoric, with a view to illuminating the great political controversies of their time. We will also consider how political rhetoric plays out in the crucial domain of law. Course requirements: one short paper, a research paper and a final examination.

Prerequisites: ENGL 2701; instructor consent required. May be repeated once for credit.

3701-01 | TuTh 11:00 - 12:15 | Cohen, Bruce 

Poetry and Prose-Poetry

The class will be a poetry and prose-poetry writing workshop. It is designed for students who have a serious and committed interest in writing and discussing poetry have taken 2701. We will be reading and analyzing five books of poems and will be unraveling the craft and esthetic design of the various poets. We will also dissect the differences between poetry & prose poetry. Naturally, students will be required to produce original work and actively participate in the writing workshop. Students will be asked to research outside writers and share work with the class. It is assumed that all students have an active vocabulary and understanding of poetry. The class is by permission only and students will be asked to submit poems for consideration for entrance into the class.

Poetry and Prose-Poetry

Prerequisites: ENGL 2701; instructor consent required. May be repeated once for credit.

3703-01 | MW 12:20 - 1:10 | Hybrid |Litman, Ellen

Fiction

This seminar is designed for upper-level undergraduate students interested in writing fiction, and as such it will require a great deal of writing, reading, and revising. Students will write 2 or 3 original short stories (or novel chapters) and complete a series of exercises. Most pieces will be then revised for the final portfolio (the final project for this class). The students will be required to actively participate in the discussions of the assigned readings and their peers’ work. Some discussions will occur in class, while others will take place on Perusall or HuskyCT. The course texts will consist of craft essays and individual short stories and novel excerpts. For a permission number, please e-mail Professor Litman at ellen.litman@uconn.edu.

Fiction

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; at least 12 credits of 2000-level or above English courses or consent of instructor; open to juniors or higher.

4201W-01 | TuTh 12:30 - 1:45 | Menrisky, Alex

Counterculture Literatures of the American 1960s and 1970s

ENGL 4201W is an intensive capstone study of particular topics in the literature of the United States. In this course, we will study U.S. countercultures of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s through the lens of literature. Topics will include the rise of literary and artistic subcultural movements including but not limited to the beats, new agrarians, and Black arts; major cultural developments and influences such as the back-to-the-land movement, psychedelia, and civil rights; and the recursive relationship between these historical phenomena and broader cultural and critical frameworks, especially postmodernism. Authors we might read include Jack Kerouac, Dianne DiPrima, Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, Huey Newton, Alice Walker, Erica Jong, Edward Abbey, and more. As a W course, this capstone will revolve around both in-depth group discussion of the texts and research-based, individual written engagement with them, including in the form of a midterm and final paper (both of which will undergo peer review and revision).

Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; at least 12 credits of 2000-level or above English courses or consent of instructor; open to juniors or higher.

4203W-01 | TuTh 11:00 - 12:15 | Cutter, Martha

This class will consider the overlap between African American literature and film—not only films that adapt literary texts, but also the ways in which various ideas and images prevalent in African American literature make their way into African American film and are (often) transformed in productive ways. Generally, but not always, the class will pair particular literary texts with particular films. Some of these pairings will include: Black Panther (the comic book, Volume I, 1998-2003) and Black Panther (the 2018 blockbuster hit film); Solomon Northup’s memoir, Twelve Years a Slave (1852) and Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed film 12 Years a Slave (2014); Percival Everett’s novel about stereotypes of African American art and artists Erasure (2001) and the film version of it, American Fiction (directed by Cord Jefferson, 2023); Toni Morrison’s novel about childhood, The Bluest Eye (1970) and Spike Lee’s film about childhood, Crooklyn (1994); Kyle Baker’s graphic novel about Nat Turner, Nat Turner (2008) with Nate Parker’s controversial film about Nat Turner, Birth of a Nation (2016), Toni Morrison’s and Colson Whitehead’s neo-slave narrative novels Beloved (1987) and The Underground Railroad (2016) with neo-slave narrative films such as Jordon Peele’s Get Out (2016) and Juel Taylor’s They Cloned Tyrone (2023). We will also look at works of cinema that have had a profound impact (for better or worse) on African American literature and film, such as W.D. Griffith’s racist screed Birth of a Nation (1915), and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2013).

Note: This class will be student-centered, and students should expect to present material on the films/books, lead discussion, and participate energetically in class on a regular basis. All films will be MUST be watched outside of class. Formal requirements will include: resentations; a short paper; a long paper; Husky CT postings, quizzes, and class participation. There is a lot of reading and film watching, and I expect that students complete it all. Class participation is a requirement for successful completion of this course.

African American Literature and Film