ENGLISH MAJOR OFFERINGS
Fall 2015
Fall 2015 course registration begins April 13, 2015. If you are a junior or senior and need to complete your
major requirements, you are strongly advised to register at the first opportunity, or you may find yourself
unable to meet graduation requirements. Please note: ENGW1111/ENGL1111/ENG U111 (or the
equivalent) is a prerequisite for all ENGL courses except ENGL 1400. For the most up-to-date
information about course scheduling, go to myNEU and search the spring course offerings by clicking the
“Schedule of Classes (Fall 2015)” link. Please see the English Department Undergraduate Program
Director, Professor Beth Britt, in 409 Holmes (x 5170) e.britt@neu.edu, if you have any questions.
All registration is now done through the Banner Self Service registration system, accessible through the
myNEU Web Portal. For detailed instructions on how to use this system, go to
http://www.northeastern.edu/registrar/ref-udc-reg-ugd-details.html.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Foundational Courses
(For students entering Fall 2014 or later, take three courses: 1400, 1700, and either 1160 or 1410. For students
entering prior to Fall 2014, take two courses: 1400 and 1700.)
ENGL1400: Introduction to Literary Studies
Leslie
CRN: 13163
Sequence A (11:45- 1:25 MW)
A foundational course required of all English majors. Introduces students to the range of materials, methods, and
theories currently understood to animate and inform literary study. Explores strategies for reading, interpreting, and
theorizing about texts; for conducting research; for developing thinking analytically and writing clearly about complex
ideas; and for entering into written dialogue with scholarship in the field.
ENGL1400: Introduction to Literary Studies
Trousdale
CRN: 13162
Sequence D (9:50- 11:30 TF)
A foundational course for the English major. Introduces the methods and topics of English literary and textual studies,
including allied media (e.g., film, graphic narrative). Explores strategies for reading, interpreting, and theorizing about
texts; for conducting research; for developing skills in thinking analytically and writing clearly about complex ideas;
and for entering into written dialogue with scholarship in the diverse fields that comprise literary studies
ENGL1160: Intro to Rhetoric
Britt
CRN: 13630
Sequence 4 (1:35 – 2:40 MWR)
How do we persuade others to change their minds or take action? How do we come to beliefs about ourselves, each
other, and the world around us? What is the relationship between language and truth, between knowledge and
belief? How do verbal as well as nonverbal symbols—such as images, architecture, clothing, and music—influence
what we do, believe, and think we know? This course explores these questions by examining the work of three
important thinkers—Aristotle (fourth century B.C.E.), Kenneth Burke (20th century), and Judith Butler (20th-21st
century)—who articulate the range and diversity of rhetorical theory. We will read theoretical texts by each of these
authors with an eye toward applying them to examples of rhetoric drawn from modern-day culture. Assignments
include reading quizzes, a mid-term exam, two short papers, and a take-home final.
ENGL1700: Global Literatures to 1500
Blessington
CRN: 15643
Sequence 3 (10:30 – 11:35 MWR)
Readings in Greek, Roman, and biblical literature and beyond: Homer, Virgil, Old and New Testament, and Dante’s
Inferno. The works all writers read. Emphasis upon background to Western culture and imagination: myth, literary
genres and conventions, philosophy, and religion.
Literary Periods
(Students entering Fall 2014 or later take four period course: one in Early
Literatures, one in 17th-18th C. Literatures, one in 19th C. Literatures, and one in
20th-21st C. Literatures. Students entering prior to Fall 2014 take five period
courses: three pre-19th C., one 19th C., and one 20th/21st C.))
Early Literatures
ENGL1600: Introduction to Shakespeare
Leslie
CRN: 14668
Sequence B (2:50-4:30 MW)
An introduction to the four principle genres of Shakespeare’s drama: comedy, tragedy, history, and romance. We will
consider the enduring power of Shakespeare’s work and legacy through close reading of the plays and an
investigation of Shakespeare’s cultural, historical, generic and performance contexts. Short papers and a final exam,
with creative and/or performance options for interested students.
ENGL3605: Medieval Romance and Modern Readers
Kelly
CRN: 17052
Sequence 2:50 -4:30 MW
We will read a variety of medieval romances (all in translation) and survey the development of the medieval
vernacular romance—and the development of “romance”—in its historical and cultural context, and consider
audience, theme, function, and influence. Likely texts: Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale and/or Troilus and Criseyde;
selections from Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Arthur; a few French romances, including excerpts from the legend of
Tristan and Iseult and from the works of Marie de France and Chrétien de Troyes; and short treatises on love,
lovesickness, adultery, marriage customs and laws. We will also examine some of these medieval romances in their
modern versions or retellings as they appear in mainstream literary texts, fantasy, fairy tales (Snow White, for
example), film, and art. In essence, we will study what Denis de Rougemont famously called Love in the Western
World, and consider how the medieval concept of love, desire, and romance has certain continuities and
discontinuities with our own. Requirements: a few very brief response papers and two essays, one due at midterm
and one at the end of the course.
17th-18th Centuries
ENGL2240: 17th Century British Literature
Blessington
CRN: 17034
Sequence E (11:45-1:25 WF)
The seventeenth century in England was a great age of lyric poetry and prose. The poets produced poems that are
still standards and models for modern poets. We shall examine the context and the techniques of such poets as John
Donne, George Herbert, Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, John Dryden and others.
The prose of the era represents a spectrum of experimental styles, Ciceronian, anti-Ciceronian, Baroque, scientific,
personal—a handbook of various ways to write. We shall consider selections from Francis Bacon, Robert Burton,
Thomas Browne, John Bunyon, Samuel Pepys, and others.
ENGL3160: Topics in 17th/18th Century British Literature: Women and the Novel in 18th C Britain
Aljoe
CRN: 15651
Sequence 11:45-1:25 MR
This course will examine novels produced in Britain during the “long eighteenth century” (1688-1832). Framed by
Parliamentary assertions of individual rights--the creation of the constitutional monarchy in 1689 and the Reform Acts
of 1832 (which further limited the power of the monarch), as well as the rise of capitalism and the expansion of
slavery, increased class mobility and industrialization, and changing gender roles--this period is marked by significant
alterations in notions of the self and subject. These changes are manifest in many novels of the period, which not
only had women as primary protagonists, but were also written by women. In addition to considering the development
of the novel as a literary form, we will focus our attention on the relationships between the new genre and 18th
century notions of gender.
Questions to consider will include:
Why are there so many 18th century British novels about female behaviour? What might be the significance of this
seemingly overwhelming concern with female virtue and proper education? What becomes apparent after considering
the rising popularity of the novel form and the simultaneous codification of gender conventions? Texts may include:
Love in Excess, Moll Flanders, Pamela, Secrecy, Sense & Sensibility, Belinda, The Woman of Colour, and Zofloya.
Assignments will include: reading responses, a formal paper or digital/archival assignment, and a group presentation.
19th Century
ENGL2260: Romantic Poetry
Peterfreund
CRN: 17572
Sequence 1:25 - 2:40PM
This course surveys the six canonical male English Romantic poets: William Blake; William Wordsworth; Samuel
Taylor Coleridge; George Gordon, Lord Byron; Percy Bysshe Shelley; and John Keats. The course also
incorporates writing by prominent female poets of the period, such as Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Joanna Baillie,
Felicia Hemans, and Elizabeth Laetitia Landon. All of these poets wrote during the English Romantic Period (17891832), an era of significant social and intellectual change, although this change was not without its turbulence,
confusion and, on too many occasions, its violence. The period was one in which English culture moved beyond
traditional modes of knowledge, social organization, and belief, and into an intellectual, sociopolitical, and religious
milieu in which the only certainty was uncertainty and the only constant was change. We will study the impact of
the era on the individual, and the artistic response of that individual to the era. Students functioning in small work
groups will take responsibility for framing some of the questions we should address in response to our reading.
Grades in this course will be determined on the basis of three five-to-seven-page papers, written on topics chosen
from a list of options.
20th/21st Centuries
ENGL2440: Modern Bestseller
Goshgarian
CRN: 15647
Sequence 1:35-3:15PM TF
"Bestseller" is an artificial category determined solely by numbers of books sold. However, we will explore some
reasons behind the success of recent quality fictional best-selling--i.e., what special fantasies, obsessions, themes,
plot lines, characters, action etc. appeal to popular tastes. The selections will represent a cross-section of
mainstream and genres titles—e.g., thriller, mystery, "literary," etc.--by men and women, some of whom who have
become brand names.
Guest bestselling author(s) will visit class. We will also watch and discuss movies made from the works
studied in the course.
Student writing: announced quizzes; midterm & final take-home essay exams (7-10 pages each). Optional
critical paper (7-10) pages analyzing a bestselling novel not read in the course.
ENGL3200: Topics in 20th/21st Century British Literature: James Joyce’s Ulysses and 20th C. Criticism
Mullen
CRN: 17053
Sequence 9:15 – 10:20 MWR
James Joyce was the most influential English language novelist of the 20th century. This course will be organized
around the close reading of his groundbreaking work Ulysses. We will focus our reading by following a cluster of
three themes: how does Joyce think about and reshape language? How does Joyce understand and engage
history? What role does the body for Joyce? While these will be our primary questions for the course, along the way
we will examine the myriad concerns that appear in this challenging text and the varied critical discussions that have
taken up his writing. Concept and form go hand in hand for Joyce and so the course will also pay careful attention to
Joyce’s style, in particular his development of stream of consciousness and free indirect discourse. Finally, while
Joyce is difficult, he is also one of the great comic writers—our reading of Ulysses will engage this comedy and we
will laugh a lot. Take this course in the fall as a steppingstone to reading Finnegans Wake in the spring capstone!
ENGL3685: From Kafka to Kushner
Lefkovitz
CRN: 17041
Sequence 2:50 – 4:30 MW
Note: This course also satisfies the Diversity requirement for students entering Fall 2014 or later.
Through close reading of selected poems and stories, we will survey Jewish literature from the late Modern (18801948) and contemporary (1948-present) periods. We will consider themes of immigration and cross-cultural
influences and issues of religious, ethnic, and gender identity. With an emphasis on American and European
literatures, the course will begin to define an international Jewish literary canon, considering the work of Yiddish poets
and playwrights, Russian Jewish writers, and such classic modern writers as Kafka, Roth, Malamud, Olsen, and
Paley. Concluding with Wiesel’s literary reflections on the Holocaust, Ginsberg’s poetry of the 60s, and emerging
American novelists, such as Dara Horn and Nicole Krauss, we will look at the intersection of Jewish and host
civilizations and identify themes, concerns, anxieties, aspirations, technical strategies, and stylistic features of a
distinctively Jewish—though multilingual and multicultural—literary tradition.
Comparative
(Take Two Courses. For students entering prior to Fall 2014, this category is called
“Transnational/Transhistorical” on your audit.)
ENGL1502: American Literature to 1865
Davis
CRN: 15642
Sequence 3 (10:30 – 11:35 MWR)
This survey course of American literature from the colonial period up to the Civil War will focus on poetry,
autobiography, and fiction. In considering literary history through the lens of genre—focusing on each in turn—we’ll
be able to weigh different ways of constructing what counts as literature, and how literature speaks in different
contexts—colony, revolution, and nation on the brink of war. We will read: poetry by Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor,
Phyllis Wheatley, Philip Freneau, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman: autobiographies by Mary Rowlandson,
Benjamin Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Jacobs, and Frederick Douglass; and fiction by Susannah Rowson,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville. Assignments will include midterm, final exam.
ENGL2370: The Modern Short Story
TuSmith
CRN: 17036
Sequence 2 (MWR 9:15-10:20)
This course explores a range of American short stories by a diversity of prominent writers from 20th and 21st
centuries. Short story cycles are examined for their artistic aspects (e.g., narrative structure, point of view, visual
imagery, linguistic experimentation, thematic development) within their appropriate socio-historical context.
Requirements include brief weekly responses to readings (posted on Blackboard), textual explications, annotations of
scholarly articles, and a final analytical paper.
ENGL2520: Science Fiction
Goshgarian
CRN: 17039
Sequence 9:50- 11:30 TF
This course traces the development of various science fiction themes, conventions, and approaches from early
human-versus-machine tales to alien encounters. We will examine how SF is a time capsule of ideas about the
relationship between humans and technology, humans and nature, humans and the stars in all their promise and
dangers. From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, through H.G. Wells, through short fiction of the "golden age" (1940s and
50s), to the visions of current authors. Short stories, novels, movies.
Student writing: announced quizzes; midterm & final take-home essay exams (7-10 pages each); optional critical
paper (7-10 page) analyzing some SF work not read in the course.
ENGL2460: Multiethnic Literature of the US
TuSmith
CRN: 17037
Sequence 10:30 – 11:35 MWR
NOTE: This course also satisfies the Diversity requirement for students entering Fall 2014 or later.
This course explores contemporary issues through narrative prose (e.g., short story, novel) by American writers from
distinct ethnic groups (e.g., Native, Asian, African, Latino/a, Jewish, Italian, Irish, Arab), focusing on family as
common ground across cultures. Each work is examined within its socio-historical context as well as its
artistic/formal aspects. Films and taped interviews, in conjunction with other interactive classroom activities,
contribute to collaborative learning. Requirements include substantial reading, brief weekly responses to readings
(posted on Blackboard), a midterm exam, and a final paper.
Theories & Methods
(Take One Course)
ENGL3381: Processes of Writing and Tutoring
Gonso
CRN: 17594
Sequence 9:15-10:20 MWR
Note: This course also fulfills the Experiential Education requirement for English majors.
The purpose of this class is three-fold: It is designed to help students reflect on and improve their writing. It is also
designed to help students explore and understand the complex processes involved in written composition. Finally, it
is designed to prepare students to become writing consultants, whether at the Northeastern Writing Center or at
various educational sites, including community literacy agencies and Boston-area public schools (As part of
participating in an experiential-learning course, students will be required to spend approximately 3-4 hours per week
“experiencing” the act of tutoring writing at partner sites.). As consultants, students will be able to apply the
knowledge they are gaining in the course to help other students improve their writing. To accomplish these goals, we
will (a) examine what researchers and theorists have said about writing, (b) examine what theorists and practitioners
have said about teaching in a conference setting, and (c) observe, examine, and reflect upon our own experience as
writers and tutors. Students will produce in a wide variety of genres, conduct primary research on their tutoring
sessions, respond to readings and reflect on experiences, and present in-class activities on the teaching of writing.
ENGL 3381 satisfies the experiential learning and writing-intensive requirement for English majors and is an elective
option for Rhetoric minors.
ENGL4130: Seminar in Writing Studies: What is Good Writing?
Poe
CRN: 17044
Sequence 10:30 – 11:35 MWR
Do you know good writing when you see it? Who decides what good writing is? How do you teach students to
produce good writing? Is the teaching of good writing an aesthetic ideal, a practical goal, or an imperial project?
In this seminar, we will explore the various technical, aesthetic, and ethical dimensions of determining what makes for
good writing. We will take up issues such as the history of writing assessment (where we get the epistemological
and methodological frameworks we use today), standard setting (how criteria for “goodness” are established), and
ideologies of writing assessment (why various means of evaluating writing have disparate consequences for different
people). Along the way, we will examine specific tests of writing, try various approaches in responding to student
writing, and work with new technologies for evaluation, including automated essay scoring and voice response
technology.
Readings for the course will include Assessing Writing: A Critical Sourcebook, Race and Writing Assessment, as well
as selections from On a Scale: A Social History of Writing Assessment, Cultural Validity in Assessment: Assessing
Linguistic and Cultural Difference, and Very Like a Whale: The Assessment of Writing Programs. Additional articles
from authors such as Fanon and Bourdieu will be available online.
Projects will include (1) a key work project in which you will trace the reception of a text, (2) a review of classroom
grading practices or an analysis of the Northeastern Writing Program assessment data, and (3) a literature review on
a topic of your interest.
LING1150: Introduction to Language and Linguistics
Section
CRN
Sequence
Days & Time
Instructor
1
15356
C
8:00 – 9:40 TF (Honors)
Malhotra
2
10485
6
11:45 – 12:50 TRF
Painter
3
16445
D
9:50 – 11:30 TF
Malhotra
4
10337
F
1:35 – 3:15 TF
Malhotra
5
11847
9:15 – 10:20 MWR
Painter
7
12151
2:50 – 4:30 MW
Cooper
8
12152
3:25 – 4:30 TWF
Painter
9
12153
1:35 – 3:15 TF
Malhotra
Writing
(Students entering Fall 2014 or later take two courses. Students entering prior to
Fall 2014 can take these courses as electives.)
ENGL2710: Style & Editing
Britt
CRN: 15901
Sequence 11:45 – 1:25 MWR
Style is often thought of as the clothes with which we dress our thoughts. Such an understanding tends to separate
what we say from how we say it. Since antiquity, philosophers and others have urged speakers and writers to speak
as plainly as possible to allow the truth of their thoughts to emerge unadulterated by language. Others have argued
that language and thought cannot be so neatly separated, that what we say cannot be disentangled from how we say
it. Drawing on the rhetorical tradition, this course explores the relationship between style and substance through close
attention to choices made at the level of the document, paragraph, sentence, and word. You will develop a
vocabulary for describing the stylistic techniques of other authors, and then you’ll use the practices of imitation to
make these techniques your own. The course will also cover copyediting and proofreading, giving you practice in
achieving the clear style so highly valued today. By the end of the course, you will be able to assess the editing
needs of documents and use copyediting marks, style sheets, and reference materials to edit documents accurately
and consistently. Assignments may include a style blog, tests, short papers, and several editing projects.
ENGL3376: Creative Non-Fiction
Lerner
CRN: 17040
Sequence 9:50 – 11:30 TF
Creative non-fiction is a genre in which writers apply narrative strategies and techniques to factual material. This
course will orient writers within the genre as we address the following questions: What is creative non-fiction? What
makes it different than other approaches to writing about factual material? What does the best creative non-fiction
require of its writers? Over the semester we’ll read and write our way to answers through a variety of non-fiction
forms (for example, narrative essays and narrative journalism, travel and science writing, memoir, editorials). We'll
also consider cross-genre and hybrid forms (for example, non-fiction prose mixed with poetry, audio and graphic nonfiction). Class time will include lectures, discussion of readings, writing exercises, and feedback for peers in a
workshop format. The topics for creative non-fiction writing apply to a wide array of disciplines, including the
humanities, the sciences, and journalism.
ENGL2520: Science Fiction
Goshgarian
CRN: 17039
Sequence 9:50 – 11:30 TF
This course traces the development of various science fiction themes, conventions, and approaches from early
human-versus-machine tales to alien encounters. We will examine how SF is a time capsule of ideas about the
relationship between humans and technology, humans and nature, humans and the stars in all their promise and
dangers. From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, through H.G. Wells, through short fiction of the “golden age” (1940s and
50s), to the visions of current authors. Short stories, novels, movies. Student writing: announced quizzes; midterm &
final take-home essay exams (7-10 pages each); optional original SF story or critical paper (7-10 page) analyzing
some SF work not read in the course.
Diversity
(Students entering Fall 2014 or later take one course, which may double-count for
another requirement. Students entering prior to Fall 2014 can take these courses
as electives or to fulfill other requirements.)
ENGL3685: From Kafka to Kushner
Lefkovitz
CRN: 17041
Sequence 2:50 – 4:30 MW
See course description under 20th/21st C. Period courses, above.
ENGL2460: Multiethnic Literature of the US
TuSmith
CRN: 17037
Sequence 10:30-11:35 MWR
See course description under Comparative courses, above.
Capstone Seminar
(Take One Course)
ENGL4710 Capstone Seminar: Muckraking
Kaplan
CRN: 10584
Sequence E 11:45 – 1:25 WF
This course, on the “long Twentieth Century” of American realism, via muckraking, will consider the American
muckraking tradition, as a literary tradition, with particular attention to the ways in which muckraking writers have
employed rhetorical and realist techniques with an eye to persuasion and audience engagement. Analysis of the
muckraking tradition will also engage methodological issues of rhetoric, close reading, historical context, literary
horizons of expectation, reader response, and disciplinary boundaries and canons, as well as taste and value. We will
attend to changing critical perceptions of muckraking from its early inclusion in influential anthologies to its near total
disappearance from literary courses. Our course will begin with (selections from) the earliest works of American
muckraking, such as Nellie Bly’s “madhouse” exposes (1887), Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives (1890), and
continue with the American muckrakers associated with McClure’s magazine: Upton Sinclair, Ray Stannard Baker,
Lincoln Steffens, and Ida Tarbell. Attention to a second generation of mid-century muckrakers will include activists,
such as Stetson Kennedy (whose undercover investigations of the Klan raised controversy about narrative ethics and
authenticity), Jessica Mitford (who revitalized the tradition as advocacy of working and poor people in books such as
the blockbuster American Way of Death, and Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business) and Rachel Carson
(whose Silent Spring (1962) is widely credited with inaugurating the modern environmental movement). Our reading
will continue with recent works of popular muckraking, such as Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed (2001), Naomi
Klein’s No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (2000), Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation (2001), and Sasha
Abramsky’s, How the Other Half Still Lives, (2013). Muckraking works will be considered in the context of the realist
works with which the muckrakers, as writers, were in conversation, including possible excerpts from Theodore
Dreiser, Jack London, and others. Course requirements will include a short paper, which could be a muckraking work
of creative narrative non-fiction, a critical paper, active participation, and discussion leading.