Graduate English Course Descriptions
Summer and Fall 2014
Summer I
English 5314.501: Writing Software Documentation
TH 6:30-9:50pm; Online
#51278
Instructor: Pinfan Zhu
Description: English 5314 develops students’ expertise in the management and
production of writing for both print and online media that supports the efficient and
effective use of software in its intended environment. Major genres include software and
hardware manuals such as tutorials, procedures, and reference. Students will learn how
to manage projects, and how to address issues of user analysis, text design, graphics
design, task orientation, and translation. Class activities will include exercises and
presentations focused on student project work. The course is online, but we do meet twice
through the semester: one at the beginning when I give you the course introduction and
the other at the end of the semester when you give a presentation of your semester
project.
Goals: Apply important theories, principles of software documentation, as well as skills
to creating and evaluating effective and efficient software documentation for both online
and print media.
Specific objectives include:
·
How to create task-oriented user manuals
·
How to create effective tutorials, procedures, and reference
·
How to choose and analyze your users
·
How to plan and write your document
·
How to get useful reviews
·
How to conduct usability test
·
How to edit language, graphics, and page layout
·
How to create index
Books: Textbook: Writing Software Documentation: A Task-oriented Approach, 2nd
ed. by Thomas T. Barker. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2003. ISBN 1: 0-321-10328-9
Format: Primarily discussion, with brief background lectures, and students’ oral
reports
Evaluation: Three short documentation projects, one semester documentation,
exercises, and mid-term exam.
Email: pz10@txstate.edu.
Office: FH 142 Office hours: TH 3:00-5:50pm, and by appointment
English 5324.501: Studies in Literary Genre
Topic: Literature and Music
MW 5:30-9:50pm; FH 376
#52017
Instructor: Paul Cohen
Description: We will study a wide range of the complex connections between these two
intimately related arts, including musical literature, literary music, and literature and
music together. Highlights will include modern musical settings of William Blake’s
Songs of Innocence and of Experience (folk-style, classical, rock, avant-garde, tango, and
more); a postmodern jazz novel by Nathaniel Mackey, winner of the 2006 National Book
Award; Richard Powers’ 2014 novel on the social and philosophical implications of
music; and a unit on the songs of Bob Dylan. We will also, time permitting, draw
examples from artists as diverse as the troubadours, John Coltrane, Gertrude Stein,
Hector Berlioz, Paul Celan, Jean Marais, Tom Phillips, Robert Browning, Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte, Tom Stoppard, Richard Strauss, W.H. Auden,
Eddie Jefferson, James Joyce, Paddy Moloney, and Robert Burns.
Books: William Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience; Nathaniel Mackey: Atet
A.D.; Richard Powers: Orfeo
Format: Lecture, discussion, multimedia.
Evaluation: Two papers and two examinations.
Office: FH 358 Spring office hours: M 1:00-3:00, TTh 3:30-4:30, and by appointment
Summer II
5314.571 Specializations in Technical Communication:
Topic: Writing for the Government
MW 6:30-9:50PM; FH 253
#52795
Instructor: Dr. Miriam F. Williams
Description: This course introduces students to technical communication theories and
practices used to produce persuasive government documents. Students will engage in
individual and collaborative writing exercises that simulate the invention processes used
to create reports, policy memorandums, policy handbooks, regulations, legislative impact
statements, responses to public comments, and government websites. Students will also
examine real-life case studies that demonstrate the importance of writing effective
government documents.
Goals: To acquaint students with the various genres of technical communication used in
government and nonprofit organizations, specifically in public policy writing and
development.
Book2: Allison, Libby and Miriam F. Williams. Writing for the Government. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon/Longman Publishers. October 2007
The 911 Commission Report (see free online option below)
Scholarly journal and/or web articles: Students will also be assigned readings from






Plain Language.Gov: Improving Communication from the Federal
Government to the Public at http://www.plainlanguage.gov/,
The Texas Register:
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/formandstyle/index.shtml ,
The 911 Commission Report: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html ,
Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger
Disaster
http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogerscommission/table-of-contents.html , and
Usability.gov: http://www.usability.gov/ , and
Scholarly journal articles in Technical Communication and Rhetoric.
Format: The first and last class meetings will be held in San Marcos, Flowers 253.
Other meetings will take place in the Adobe Connect Online Classroom. Students will
also use the TRACS discussion forum to post responses to assigned readings.
Evaluation:
Policy Project I: (Plain Language Editing Exercise) 20%
Policy Project II (Policy Handbook): 20%
Policy Project III: (Policy Memorandum): 20%
Policy Project IV: (Agency Website Evaluation): 20%
Readings Responses 20%
English 5332.751: Studies in American Prose
Topic: The Fiction of John Updike
MW 5:30-9:50pm; FH 376
#52018
Instructor: Allan Chavkin
Description: This course focuses on the fiction of John Updike. We will study the texts
in their historical and cultural contexts.
Goals: In order to appreciate the literary art of this writer, students will study selected
stories and Rabbit, Run and occasionally will compare some of Updike’s stories to film
adaptations.
Books: John Updike, Rabbit, Run
John Updike, The Early Stories: 1953-1975
Format: primarily discussion, with mini-lectures on background material by instructor
and students' oral presentations.
Evaluation: Midterm, Final, Oral Presentation & Participation.
Email: Chavkin@txstate.edu
Fall 2014
ENG 5301.001: Literary Scholarship
M 6:30-9:20 pm; FH 253
#10697
Instructor: Allan Chavkin
Course Description: An introduction to scholarly resources, methods, theories, and
responsibilities that guide the study and interpretation of literature in English.
Goals: 1. To become proficient in analyzing intellectual problems and expressing one's
ideas in both written and oral communication.
2. To increase one's understanding of “theory” and to become knowledgeable about
traditional and recent approaches to the study of literature.
3. To become aware of the controversial issues in the profession.
4. To become familiar with key critical and literary terms.
5. To study the characteristics of the various genres, including film.
Required Texts: Archibald, William. The Innocents: A New Play.
Bellow, Saul. The Adventures of Augie March
Erdrich, Louise. Shadow Tag
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw, edited by Peter Beidler, “Case Studies in
Contemporary Criticism” (Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press)
Sexton, Anne. Selected poems
Tanizaki, Junichiro. The Key
Format: Primarily discussion, with some oral presentations
Evaluation:
1. Midterm, a take-home exam: (counts 25% of the grade)
2. Final Exam: (counts 25% of the grade)
3. Oral Presentations: (counts 25% of the grade)
4. Participation: (counts 25% of the grade)
For More Information: contact Allan Chavkin.
Office: FH 239, Email: chavkin@txstate.edu
ENG 5302.001 Media Studies
Topic: Mind, Memory, Madness and Meditation in Film
M 6:30-9:20 pm; FH G04
#19236
Instructor: Rebecca Bell-Metereau
Description: Our analysis of filmic depiction of the mind, memory, madness, and
meditative states will focus on historical, sociological, and psychological approaches to
the study of film texts.
Goals: Students apply theoretical and critical approaches to the analysis of film as a
medium, a cultural artifact, and an expression of personal and cultural psychology.
Tentative film list: Spellbound (1945), Anastasia (1956), Blade Runner (1982),
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Overboard (1987), Total Recall (1990), La Jetee
(1962), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), Memento (2000), A
Beautiful Mind (2001), Bourne franchise, Goodbye Lenin (2003), The Memory of a Killer
(2003), Finding Nemo (2003), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Cache
(2005), Away From Her (2007), Dream House (2011).
Texts: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything,
Joshua Foer, available online
Memory and popular film [electronic resource] / edited by Paul Grainge. Ebook available
through Alkek Library website. Paperback, Manchester: New York: Manchester
University Press, Palgrave, 2003
The trauma of history: flashbacks upon flashbacks.
Full text available through Alkek Library website
Turim, Maureen. Screen, Summer 2001, Vol. 42 Issue 2.
“Persuasive Visions: Film and Memory,” Jessica Silbey
Other selected short readings on TRACS
Format: Discussion, interactive work, student reports, and research paper
Evaluation: Brief responses to films, readings, student writings (20%); oral presentation
to class (20%); proposal & annotated bibliography (20%); final research paper (40%)
Email: rb12@txstate.edu
Office: FH335 Hours: 1:30-3:30 TR, W 2-3
ENG 5310.001 Social Media and Techno-Cultural Change
T 6:30-9:20 pm; FH 120
#19237
Instructor: Deb Balzhiser
Description: What happens when Facebook adds photo albums, Wikipedia adopts a "No
Original Research" policy, and users demand privacy, as examples? This is an opportune
time to study technocultural change and the transition from print to digital culture by
focusing on social media because social media are increasingly ubiquitous, the first
decade of social media recently ended, cultural uses of social media are currently
shifting, and the speed of change is increasingly exponential. During this course, we will
study change, communication, attitudes, social practices, and (at least four or) five of the
most used social media during 2011: Blogspot, Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, and
another, probably Google Maps. While they change quickly, we will look at them in slow
motion because details of techno-cultural change may otherwise go unnoticed or seem
insignificant.
To accomplish course goals, students will examine popular and scholarly publications
and forums to see how they respond to and shape social media. They will collect artifacts
such as news stories, screen shots, blogs, and listservs to demonstrate the feature changes
of select social media and to develop timelines based on their findings. Using timelines
created by the class, students will then write microhistories of social media changes and
write a research paper—a macrohistory of social media in and across time.
This course is organized so that students are potential contributors and authors in a
multimedia, scholarly publication that focuses on relationships between culture and
technology design—technocultural change—during the first decade of social media—
2001-2011 (yes, that is longer than a decade). During this course, students have the
opportunity to participate in crowdsourcing timelines and artifacts for a manuscript on the
course topic, and, thus, becoming a contributor to a scholarly work. Based on their course
work, students may be invited to participate as authors in a manuscript on the course
topic.
Goals: During the course, students will develop their understandings of mediated culture.
They will gain abilities to see themselves and others as actors in the ecology of media and
to extrapolate about outcomes of particular media design and policy choices. While doing
so, students will sharpen their research skills and analytical abilities, particularly
historical analyses and material semiotic analyses of changes to features of social media
themselves. Students will further gain an understanding of expectations of scholarly
publication and they will write mediated texts in which they must consider the medium as
part of the message.
Books: Required: Burgess and Green's YouTube (15); Rettberg's Blogging (20); Bolter
and Grusin's Remediation (20); Van Dijck's The Culture of Connectivity (20); Ong's
Orality and Literacy 30th Anniversary Edition (30); other articles and chapters as
assigned, including excerpts from Jenkins's Convergence Culture (introduction and
conclusion) and works by McCluhan. Recommended: Baron's Always On (15), Murthy's
Twitter. Helpful but not required: Law and Hassard's Actor Network Theory
(38); Latour's Reassembling the Social (25); Mandiberg's The Social Media Reader;
Tapscott and Williams's Wikinomics.
Format: About seventy percent of class time will be spent in discussion and activities.
Additional time will be spent participating in workshops and sharing each other's work.
Evaluation: At the time these descriptions were due, this course was still being
developed; therefore, the exact distribution of grades is not finalized; however, it is likely
that students will be evaluated on the following: collection of
artifacts, timelines, annotated bibliography and/or literature review, reading and research
logs and/or homework, short media analyses [probably 2], sharing individual and group
work in writing and in presentations, class activities, long research paper, and presence. It
is most likely that these will be approximately 10% each.
Email: dbalzhiser@txstate.edu
Office: FH 141 Office hours: None, on leave
ENG 5310.002 Writing Across Cultures
Th 6:30-9:20pm; Hybrid/ARR
#19869
Instructor: Pinfan Zhu
English 5310 prepares students with contrastive rhetoric theories, applied linguistic
theories, and intercultural communication theories so that they can write effectively for
the cross-cultural audiences. Specifically, they will understand different rhetorical
patterns used in different cultures, important cultural models to understand cultural
differences, and language differences at different levels such as the semantic, syntactic,
and cultural. The course is an online course that meets possibly twice a week online on
Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Class discussions, small projects, reading responses,
and lectures are the main forms in which the class is conducted. Students will write
analytic papers that focus on solving semantic, syntactic, textual, and cultural problems to
be coped with in writing across cultures. After taking the course, students can act as
cultural consultant that gives advice on writing, revising, and critiquing texts aimed at
cross-cultural audiences. The course is writing intensive, so students need to be mentally
prepared for the writing tasks. We meet three times in Round Rock: First class day, Midterm Exam, and final class day.
Required Books:
Mathew McCool. Writing Around the World: A Guide to Write Across Culture, 2009.
Mona Baker. In Other Words 2nd ed. Routledge, 2011.
Goals:
The course has the following objectives that comprise its final goal:
1. Enable students to use contrastive rhetoric theory to write rhetorically effective texts
aimed at cross- cultural audiences.
2. Enable students to use applied linguistic theories to create texts that are semantically,
syntactically, and textually effective for cross-cultural audiences.
3. Enable students to write culturally persuasive writings for cross-cultural audiences
Format: primarily discussions, lectures, and presentations
Evaluation: 20% Web board response
10% Class Participation
40% Four short analytical papers
15% Mid-term Exam
15% Final project (Presentation).
For more information: Contact Dr. Zhu.
Email: pz10@txstate.edu Phone: (512) 245-7665,Office hours: TTH: 11-12, 4-6pm.
ENG 5311.001 Foundations of Technical Communication
Adobe Connect Meetings: 6:30-9:15pm in Adobe Connect Classroom
ON-LINE COURSE; MEETS 08/25 RRHEC;
#10698
Instructor: Dr. Miriam F. Williams
Course Overview: Foundations of Technical Communication is an introduction to
technical communication history, theory, and practice. At the end of the course you will
be able to do the following:

Discuss technical communication history, practices, theories, and research
methods;
 Discuss the relationship between theory and practice in technical communication;
 Negotiate various definitions of technical communication and evaluate the
legitimacy of these definitions;
 Identify common genres of technical communication and sites where this
discourse is disseminated;
 Discuss the contexts in which technical documents are created;
 Identify, critique, and analyze technical communication scholarship;
 Write an annotated bibliography; and
 Write a literature review essay.
Textbook and Other Readings: Central Works in Technical Communication by
Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber. You will also be assigned journal articles
and book chapters each week.
Format: Seminar and online discussions. Synchronous class discussions will be held in
our Adobe Connect classroom; asynchronous discussions will be held in the TRACS
Forum.
Evaluation:
Class Participation: 20%
Reading responses posted to TRACS Forums: 20%
Research Project, Part I. Annotated Bibliography: 20%
Research Project, Part I. Literature Review: 30%
Research Project Part III. Small Group Discussions of Research
Findings: 10%
ENG 5312.001: Editing the Professional Publication
T&Th 3:30 pm-4:50 pm; Brazos Hall 202
#10699
Instructor: William Jensen
Description: This course provides students the opportunity to write, select, and edit
material for publication. Students will work as part of an editorial team on all stages of
the publication process. They will learn how to write and revise book reviews of
publishable quality. They will correspond with authors, evaluate submissions, and learn
the daily operations of two print journals:
Texas Books in Review, which monitors the literary production of books from or about
Texas, and Southwestern American Literature, which showcases contemporary writing
and scholarship concerning the Greater Southwest. This course also offers practical
experience working with desktop publishing software (Adobe InDesign/Photoshop).
Goals: Students will read and vote on submissions to Southwestern American Literature,
line edit selected works, and write two book reviews. With hands on experience, the
students will gain a deeper understanding of what is required to work for a publication.
Books: No books are required, but it is advised that each student owns a copy of The
Chicago Manual of Style. Other reading assignments will be handed out in class or posted
on TRACS.
Format: Primarily discussion, with brief various projects.
Evaluation: This is a pass/fail course
Email: wj13@txstate.edu
Office: Brazos 220 Office hours: MWF 10:00am-3:50pm, TH 2:00pm-3:30pm, and by
appointment
ENG 5312.002: Editing the Professional Publication
Front Porch/MFA Literary Journal
Th 3:30 pm- 6:20 pm; FH 376
#10700
Instructor: Steve Wilson
ENG 5313.001 Digital Media and the Web
W 6:30-9:20pm; FH 120
#18048
Instructor: Dr. Scott A. Mogull
Description: In this course, students will learn to develop digital media from a technical
communication perspective, which emphasizes content and information design.
Additionally, students will learn the basics of website and multimedia production. The
course will include exposure to coding languages, such as HTML, CSS, and DITA, and
multimedia production. Additionally, students will identify, research, and lead
discussions of important and timely topics related to digital communication (such as
search engine optimization, single sourcing, and designing websites for mobile devices).
Goals: Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to (1) apply
principles of information design to communicate technical content in digital media, (b)
critique websites and other digital media from a user-centered approach, and (c) create an
informative or instructional YouTube video.
Required Texts/Readings:
The following textbooks are required for this course:
 Learning Web Design (4th edition) by Robbins (ISBN: 978-1-4493-1927-4)
 Content Everywhere by Wachter-Boettcher (ISBN: 1-933820-87-X)
 DITA Best Practices by Bellamy, Carey, and Schlotfeldt (0132480522)
NOTE: Please purchase print copies of these books so that you can use them alongside
the computer.
Additional technical communication articles and book chapters will be assigned
Format: The general course format includes lecture, seminar, and workshop. It will
combine mini-lectures on background reading information by the instructor, class
discussion of issues in digital communication, and hands-on practice.
Evaluation: The projects and evaluation criteria are:
 HTML, CSS, and DITA coding exercises (25%)
 Informative or instructional YouTube video and leading a seminar
discussion on digital communication issue (50%)
 Short, open-note quizzes that cover readings and class discussions
(25%)
NOTE: Assignments and evaluation criteria are subject to change.
Contact: Email: mogull@txstate.edu
Office & Office Hours (Spring 2014): FH 131 MW 9:30–11:00 am
ENG 5314.001: Specialization in Technical Communication
Topic: Teaching Technical Communication
Fall 2014, T 6:30-9:20 p.m.
Avery Hall 367, Online/Hybrid course, Round Rock
Meets face-to-face: 8/26, 9/16, 10/14, 11/11, 12/2
#10702
Instructor: Libby Allison, Ph.D.
Description: Students will be introduced to theories of technical communication that
underpin effective pedagogy. We will also examine various approaches to teaching
technical communication.
Goals: For students to learn key theories in technical communication and their
application to teaching in this discipline and to become familiar with different approaches
to teaching technical communication whether it is for community colleges, four-year
universities, or graduate classes.
Books and Materials:
Innovative Approaches to Teaching Technical Communication, edited by Tracy
Bridgeford, Karla Saari Kitalong, and Dickie Selfe. Logan, UT: Utah State University P,
2004.
Teaching Technical Communication: Critical Issues for the Classroom by James M.
Dubinsky. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s: 2004.
Technical Communication Today, 4th ed. by Richard Johnson-Sheehan. New York:
Pearson Longman, 2012.
Other articles may be assigned during the semester.
Format: This is a graduate discussion workshop.
Evaluation: Class participation=30 percent
Homework and class assignments=70 percent
Spring Office Hours: T 5-6 p.m. and by appointment in FH 136
For more information: Contact Dr. Libby Allison at lallison@txstate.edu.
ENG 5314.002: Specialization in Technical Communication
Topic: Usability Testing
TH 6:00-9:00pm; FH G06B/ HYBRID COURSE; MEETS 08/28, 09/25, 10/23, 11/20,
12/04 SM, ALL OTHER TIMES ONLINE
#15383
Instructor: Aimee Roundtree
Description: This course explains how to plan, conduct, and analyze usability tests to
understand the way users interact with different artifacts in order to improve products. It
situates user testing within the field of audience analysis, and it covers the principles and
methods of this form of applied research. The course covers concepts of usability
research in the context of relevant literature, as well as best and new practices in the field.
The course also offers hands-on learning experiences in Texas State University's
Usability Research Laboratory. The course requires planning, designing, and conducting
usability tests, then analyzing data and reporting the findings.
Books: Usability Engineering: Process, Products & Examples
Laura Leventhal, Julie Barnes
(ISBN-10: 0131570080; ISBN-13: 9780131570085)
Measuring the User Experience, Second Edition: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting
Usability Metrics
William Albert, Thomas Tullis
(ISBN-10: 0124157815; ISBN-13: 978-0124157811)
Format: Discussions, brief background lectures, workshops, testing sessions, student
presentations
Evaluation: Annotated bibliography, test proposal, testing report, oral presentations
ENG 5315.001: Writing Workshop: Fiction
T 6:30-9:20 pm; FH 252
#10703
For students in the MFA in Creative Writing program only.
Instructor: Jennifer duBois
ENG 5315.002: Writing Workshop: Fiction
T 6:30-9:20 pm, FH 376
#10704
For students in the MFA in Creative Writing program only.
Instructor: Ben Fountain
Goals: To discuss strategies to improve your abilities as a fiction writer.
Books: Student manuscripts; two stories per workshop student required.
Format: Discussion
Attendance: Mandatory/all classes
Written comments to your peers: Mandatory/due the week the story is discussed
Grade: Based on quality of stories submitted, attendance, written comments
ENG 5315.003: Writing Workshop: Poetry
T 6:30-9:20 pm, FH G04
#10705
For students in the MFA in Creative Writing program only.
Instructor: Cecily Parks
Goals: To discuss strategies to improve your abilities as a poet.
Books: Student poems.
Format: Discussion
Attendance: Mandatory/all classes
Written comments to your peers: Mandatory/due the week the story is discussed
Grade: Based on quality of poems submitted, attendance, written comments
ENG 5315.004: Writing Workshop: Poetry
T 6:30-9:20 pm, FH G06B
#10706
For students in the MFA in Creative Writing program only.
Instructor: Steve Wilson
ENG 5317.001 Writing for Presentation and Publication
Th 6:30-9:20pm; FH 257
#15385
Instructor: Dr. Eric Leake
Description: This course focuses upon the revision of existing work for presentation and
publication. Our revision process will be informed through the analysis of publication
venues, consideration of disciplinary questions and conventions, and attention to style in
writing. Much of the course will be conducted in writing workshop format with students
preparing and reviewing drafts for possible submission and publication. Additional
coursework includes the analysis and reporting on possible publication venues and a
review of scholarly conversations and publication practices. Students from all areas of
English studies are encouraged to participate. Students should begin the course with a
previously written draft or project that they wish to continue to develop.
Goals: Students will be able to analyze and determine suitable publishing venues, revise
projects in content and style for specific publication goals and venues, and effectively
review and respond to the writing of others.
Books (tentative): Stylish Academic Writing, Publishing in Rhetoric and Composition,
and supplementary readings based upon student interests.
Format: Writing workshops and course discussions.
Evaluation: Publishing venue analysis, workshop participation, student presentations,
and project revisions.
Email: ewl8@txstate.edu
ENG 5320.001: Form and Theory of Fiction
Th 6:30-9:20pm; FH 253
#18049
For students in the MFA in Creative Writing program only.
Instructor: Debra Monroe
Description: I divide this course in the history of narrative into three units: 1)
Assumptions about Mimesis: Two Traditions; 2) Realism and the Alienated
Consciousness: The Rise of Limited Point of View; 3) Plot Transformations in Three
Centuries. The course therefore covers style (in the unit about mimesis), point of view,
and plot.
Goals: The course goal is to make the students aware that the fiction they’re reading and
writing evolved in part from earlier narrative traditions, that fiction imitates earlier forms
of fiction as much as it imitates reality. Moreover, contemporary fiction is not only
shaped by its imitation of earlier forms but by its rebellion from earlier forms.
Books:
The reading list includes 19 theorists, ranging from Longinus to Roland Barthes, and 7
fiction writers, ranging from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Alice Munro.
Evaluation:
33% proposal for a paper
33% revised and finished paper
34% second paper
The papers will be approximately 10 pages long and apply theory to a contemporary story
or novel that the student selects, analyzing it in terms of its imitation of and rebellion
from earlier forms.
For more information: write to Debra Monrore at dm24
ENG 5321.001 Contemporary Fiction
Topic: James Joyce
M 6:30-9:20pm; FH 257
#10710
Instructor: Michael Hennessy
Description: A study of Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(1916), and Ulysses (1922). The first two books are read largely as preparation for
reading the third.
Goals: To finish Ulysses; to track Joyce’s practice as a fiction writer from his earliest
stories through his completion of Ulysses; to understand and appreciate Joyce’s work in
the context of modern(ist) literature.
Books: Dubliners, ed. Terence Brown (Penguin, 1993); Portrait, ed. Seamus Deane
(Penguin, 2003); Ulysses, ed. Hans Walter Gabler (Random, 1986). The Penguin
editions are preferred; the Gabler text is mandatory. Peter Mahon, Joyce: A Guide for the
Perplexed (Continuum, 2009).
Format: Seminar, with student presentations setting the agenda for discussion.
Evaluation: Four short papers, each presented in class; a conference-length critical
paper; a take-home final on Ulysses
Spring 2014 Office Hours: FH 313, by appointment
Email: hennessy@txstate.edu
ENG 5321.002 Contemporary Fiction
Topic: Postcolonial Fiction and Theory
W 6:30-9:20pm; FH 253
#10711
Instructor: Suparno Banerjee
Description: This course will introduce students to postcolonial fiction and theory. We
will read works from various parts of the former European colonies such as India,
Pakistan, Nigeria, South Africa, and the Caribbean, and examine the various literary,
historical, and socio-political issues they explore—both in fictional and theoretical forms.
We will examine well established works in the postcolonial “canon” as well as
contemporary and experimental writings. We may also watch some films.
Goals: Introduce students to postcolonial studies
Books: Possible readings may include Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Amitav
Ghosh’s The Calcutta Chromosome, J M Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, Jean
Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North, Vandana
Singh’s Of Love and Other Monsters along with theoretical writings by Frantz Fanon,
Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha, Simon Gikandi, Ania Loomba
among others.
Format: Open discussion and lecture
Evaluation: Two class presentations, one short written assignment, and one long written
assignment
Email: sb67@txstate.edu
ENG 5323.001 Biography and Autobiography
Topic: Memoir & the Personal Essay
M 6:30-9:20pm, FH 376
# 10713
Instructor: Tom Grimes
Description: We will read critical material regarding memoir and essays, then discuss
how they engage the reader. You are required to write a 4000 to 5000 word essay.
Books: Christian Wiman: My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, and
Ambition & Survival: Becoming a Poet; Hilton Als: White Girls; Leslie Jamison: The
Empathy Exams.
Evaluation:
50% class participation
50% 4000 to 5000 word essay
Attendance: Please attend all classes. It’s mandatory.
Room/Day/Time: Monday, FH 376
For more information: E-mail tg02@txstate.edu
The Department of English has adopted student learning outcomes for general education
courses in writing and literature and for degree programs in English. These outcomes are
available for your review at http://www.english.txstate.edu. Pull down the Student
Resources menu and go to “Learning Outcomes.”
Week One: Discuss The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick; The Art of Time in
the Memoir by Sven Birkets; essay on essays by Adam Gopnik; To Show and To Tell by
Philip Lopate. Read all handouts before class.
Week Two: Hilton Als, White Girls.
Week Three: Christian Wiman, Ambition & Survival: Becoming a Poet. Seven or eight of
you will submit a 100 to 200 word “essay.” It doesn’t have to be complete; just try to
find a voice for any subject you feel like writing about.
Week Four: Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams. The rest of you will submit a 100 to
200 word “essay.”
Week Five: Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer
Week Six: Hilton Als, White Girls
Week Seven: Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams
Week Eight: Christian Wiman, Ambition & Survival: Becoming a Poet
Week Nine: Hilton Als, White Girls; Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams.
Week Ten: Your Personal Essays
Week Eleven: Your Personal Essays
Week Twelve: Your Personal Essays
Week Thirteen: Your Personal Essays
Week Fourteen: Your Personal Essays
ENG 5324.001 Studies in Literary Genre
Topic: Chicano/a Literature
M 6:30-9:20pm; FH G06B
#10714
Instructor: Jaime Mejía
Description: This graduate seminar will focus on the short story. We will examine
and crtically analyze about ten collections from a wide variety by Chican@s to see
what aesthetic and ideological concerns bring them together or keep them apart.
The collections will range from different historical periods as well as represent
some of the most prominent authors who have distinguished themselves as
Chican@ writers over time. Among the collections we’ll be examining are the
following: Américo Paredes, The Hammon and the Beans and Other Stories; Mario
Suárez, Chicano Sketches: Short Stories; Tomás Rivera, The Harvest; Rudolfo Anaya,
The Man Who Could Fly and Other Stories; Rolando Hinojosa, Fair Gentlemen of
Belken County or The Valley or Klail City; Estela Portillo Trambley, Rain of Scorpions
and Other Stories; Helena Maria Viramontes, The Moths and Other Stories; Sandra
Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories; Denise Chávez, The Last of the
Menu Girls; Alicia Gaspar de Alba, The Mystery of Survival and Other Stories;
Dagoberto Gilb, Woodcuts of Women; Dagoberto Gilb, Before the Beginning, After the
End; Christine Granados, Brides and Sinners in El Chuco; Miguel Muñoz, The Faith
Healer of Olive Avenue; Miguel Muñoz, ZigZagger: Stories; Benjamin Alire Saenz,
Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club; Ray Gonzalez, The Ghost of John
Wayne: and Other Stories; Ray Gonzalez, Mirrors Beneath the Earth: Short Fiction by
Chicano Writers; Rene S. Perez, Along These Highways; Daniel Chacon, Hotel Juarez:
Stories, Rooms and Loops; Richard Yañez, El Paso del Norte: Stories on the Border;
Richard Yañez, Cross Over Water; Stella Pope Duarte, Women Who Live in Coffee
Shops; Patricia Preciado Martin, El Milagro and Other Stories; Rosario Sanmiguel,
Under the Bridge/Bajo el Puente; Sabine R. Ulibarrí Mi Abuela Fumaba Puros/My
Grandmother Smoked Cigars.
Over the summer, I’ll decide which among these we’ll cover; however, besides the
ten collections we’ll cover, students will also be expected to examine two or three
other collections from this tentative list for one of the three papers they’ll be
assigned during the semester.
For more information: contact Dr. Mejía via e-mail at: jm31@txstate.edu
ENG 5327.001: Research Methods in Rhetoric,
Composition, & Technical Communication
M 3:30-6:20pm; ASBN 450-A
#10716
Instructor: Dr. Octavio Pimentel
Description: This course introduces research practices in rhetoric, composition, and
technical communication, focusing in particular on the paradigms/perspectives,
strategies, methods that characterize research in these areas over the last ten years. Most
of this work has been qualitative in nature, so while we will discuss both quantitative and
qualitative research throughout the course, we will focus most of our attention on
qualitative strategies (case studies, ethnographies, oral histories) and methods
(observation, interview, analysis and application), and on the kinds of questions and
theories that motivate and inform such studies.Throughout the course we will focus on
critically evaluating existing research, developing workable research questions of our
own, and choosing the best methods to address the questions we ask.
Required Books:
Creswell, John W. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
Approach 3rd Edition. California: SAGE Publications, 2008.
ISBN-10: 1412965578
Dyson, Anne Hass. On the Case: Approaches to Language and Literacy Research (An
NCRLL Volume). New York: Teachers College Press, 2005.
ISBN-10: 0807745979
Willis, Arlette Ingram; Montavon, Mary; Hunter, Catherine; Hall, Helena; Burkle,
Latanya Burkle; Herrera, Ana. On Critical Conscious Research: Approaches to
Language and Literacy Research (an NCRLL Volume) (Language and Literacy Series
Teachers College Press). New York: Teachers College Press, 2008.
ISBN-10: 0807749060
Goals: to introduce students to qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Format: primarily discussion, with mini-lectures on background material by instructor
and students’ oral reports
Evaluation:
15%-Weekly Blog
10%-Weekly Presentation (1)
5%-CITI (Course in the Protection of Human Research Subjects) Program
Certification
35%-Proposal of Study Paper
25%-Review of Methodology Research Paper
10%-Multimedia Presentation of your proposal of study
For more information: Contact Dr. Octavio Pimentel in FH M23.
Email: Octavio.Pimentel@txstate.edu. Voice Mail: 512.245.3724
Office Hours: MW 9-11AM and by appointment.
ENG 5331.001 Studies in American Poetry
Topic: Gary Snyder
TH 6:30-9:20pm; FH 252
#19238
Instructor: Roger D. Jones
Description: The purpose of the course is to survey and study the poetry and prose of
American environmentalist/poet Gary Snyder. We will particularly focus on ways in
which Snyder’s poetry and prose careers have intertwined and complimented one
another. Emphasis will especially be placed on Snyder’s use of language, the influence
of Zen and anthropology in his work, his relationship with the Beat movement of the
1950s, and the various reasons why William Stafford once described Snyder as “the most
articulate and influential poet of his generation.”
Goals: 1. to study, analyze and understand Snyder’s poetry and prose;
2. to trace the line of Snyder’s career from his inclusion in the Beat
movement of the 1950s to his current status as father of modern
environmentalism;
3. to focus on Snyder’s specific important place in the history of post-WWII
and contemporary American poetry.
Books: The Gary Snyder Reader
Format: lecture, discussion, student reports
Evaluation: 1. a research essay (40%); 2. an in-class discussion of research for the
research essay (20%); 3. final exam (30%); 4. reader-response essays (10%).
E-Mail: RJ03@txstate.edu
Office: M22 Flowers
Office Hours: Tue 3:30-6:30; Thurs. 3:30-5, & by appt.
ENG 5332.001 Studies in American Prose
Topic: Cormac McCarthy
TH 6:30-9:20pm; FH G04
#10717
Instructor: Mark Busby
Description: This course will explore the works of Cormac McCarthy, pursuing his place
in 20th-21st century American literature. Students will read selected novels from
McCarthy’s Southern works, his Southwestern fiction, and his more recent
publications. Students will write a semester paper, lead class discussions on other
McCarthy works including works in the McCarthy archives, and report on scholarly
material about McCarthy.
Goals: The purpose of the course is to lead students to identify McCarthy's major
themes, style, structural devices, and other distinctive characteristics of his
work. Additionally the readings are intended to enhance students’ reading, writing, and
analytical skills.
Books: McCarthy, Cormac. Child of God (1974), Suttree (1979), Blood Meridian, Or the
Evening Redness in the West (1985), All the Pretty Horses (1992), The Crossing
(1994), Cities of the Plain (1998), No Country for Old Men (2005), The Road (2006)
Format: lecture and discussion, students’ oral reports
Evaluation: mid-semester exam (100 points), a take-home final exam (200 points), and a
15-25-page seminar paper (300 points), oral reports
Email: mb13@txstate.edu.
Office: FH 212 Office hours: TTH 3:30-5 pm, and by appointment
Format: Lectures and discussions
For more information, see Mark Busby in Flowers Hall 213, 5-3712
E-mail: mb13@txstate.edu.
ENG 5345.001 Southwestern Studies I
Topic: Defining the Region
T-TH 11:00am-12:20pm; FH 130
#10719
Instructor: William Jensen
Description: This course is the first in a two-course sequence leading to a minor in
Southwestern Studies, designed to examine the richness and diversity of the
Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. The course offers a multicultural focus
by studying the region’s people, institutions, history, and physical and cultural ecology.
An intercultural and interdisciplinary approach increases awareness of and sensitivity to
the diversity of ethnic and cultural traditions in the area. Students will discover what
distinguishes the Southwest from other regions of the United States, as well as its
similarities, physically and culturally. The images, myths, themes, and perceptions of the
region will be examined in light of historical and literary texts.
Goals: To understand and analyze a variety of texts; quote, paraphrase, and summarize
print and/or online sources to support your ideas; use standard procedures of citation and
documentation; discuss in detail various definitions of the American Southwest (and
northern Mexico) as a specific, unique region. Students should be able to address the
themes and qualities of the region.
Books:


The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (available
free online at http://alkek.library.txstate.edu/swwc/cdv/index.html)
Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986 by David Montejano
(University of Texas Press, 1987)

American Indian Myths and Legends edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso
Oritz (Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library 1984)

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
(Vintage International 1992)

Other Readings will be available on E-Reserve
Format: Primarily discussion, with some formal lectures, and various guest speakers.
Evaluation: Two tests, two papers, a final, and a brief but formal presentation.
Email: wj13@txstate.edu
Office: Brazos 220 Office hours: MWF 10:00am-3:50pm, TH 2:00pm-3:30pm, and by
appointment
ENG 5353.001 Studies in Medieval Literature
Topic: Waste Studies
T 6:30-9:20pm; FH 253
#10720
Instructor: Susan Morrison
Description: This class focuses on filth, rubbish, garbage, litter, refuse, and even
excrement: the field I have called Waste Studies. In a world in which material prosperity
and life itself are inevitably linked to pollution and the production of waste, how can we
humans — ourselves sources of waste both bodily and in terms of all that we discard —
understand and cope with waste (garbage, trash, dirt, litter, refuse, excrement)? Has
waste always been viewed in the same way in Western culture or have views changed
over time? How has waste been understood in the various disciplines of the humanities?
From the garbage-filled moats of the Middle Ages to the overflowing landfills of today,
waste has been and continues to be an enduring issue. Waste may not be aesthetically
palatable, but, given that waste has appeared in literature, has been key to historical
documents, has been of concern in philosophical and religious treatises, and has been a
focus for anthropological, environmental and biological research, it has been and
continues to be central to how we see and treat the world and those who inhabit it.
Theoretical and material inquiry in the humanities and sciences has progressively
focused on the subject of waste. The material conditions and processing of excrement
have been increasingly investigated in anthropological, archeological, and theoretical
undertakings all arguing how, in varying ways, we have disciplined our selves with
regard to excrement. Anthropological approaches influentially set up the category of dirt
and its relationship to order and boundaries, reading excrement as impurity and disorder.
Some theoretical texts focus on the development of culture as a rejection or disciplining
of our animal selves as seen in our waste, filth, or dirt. This course focuses on the
disruptive body, capable of political, social and cultural discomfort, and a society
immersed in filth. The tension between private and public stemming from fears of waste
is one focus of this course.
This course explores what the theoretical approach of waste studies might entail
when applied to medieval literature and culture. The origins of our cultural legacy,
sedimented in waste, have had and continue to have repercussions for the Anglophone
canon. Each week places emphasis on the ways waste has been addressed by differing
disciplines and over time in generically diverse texts bookended by those foundational
works of the English canon: Beowulf and Hamlet. While the majority of the works we
examine will be from the medieval period, we stray from this focus — as with Hamlet to
look at pre-medieval works such as Philoctetes (Sophocles) and The Book of Ruth and
look forward to Italo Calvino’s “La Poubelle Agréée” (“The Agreeable Trashcan”) and
Whitman’s Song of Myself.
ETHICAL AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE COURSE
This course considers the body, society, and culture in new ways by borrowing
from those writing on the ethics of waste and garbage to develop a philosophy and
understanding of waste. To understand the ethical aspect of paying attention to waste, the
course is grounded in the philosophy of Emmanuel Lévinas, particularly Humanism of
the Other, where he argues that an openness to the "Other" is a sign of the ethical. Waste
provides us with a reason for acknowledging affinity among all people, one normally
denied. Other core works influencing this course include Zygmunt Bauman’s Wasted
Lives, Gay Hawkins’ The Ethics of Waste, and John Scanlan’s On Garbage, which
varyingly interrogate the moral and ethical history and philosophy behind waste in
Western culture. Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things allows us
to see how things and objects purvey a compelling power. These key theoretical texts are
supplemented by historical, sociological, anthropological, scientific and psychological
works. The reading load is extremely demanding but the payoff is high.
Students will be reading great works of literature that will take a lot of time;
additionally, students will be writing periodic papers. Be prepared to read, think, work,
and participate a lot. This class will allow for debate, engagement, and interdisciplinary
approaches to the work under consideration. Lively and stimulating discussions
guaranteed!
Books: REQUIRED PRIMARY TEXTS
1. Seamus Heaney. Beowulf: A Verse Translation. A Norton Critical Edition. W.W.
Norton & Co.: NY, 2002.
ISBN: 0-393-97580-0
2. Shakespeare, William. (Arden Shakespeare: Third Series). Hamlet. Ann Thompson
and Neil Taylor, eds. London: Methuen & Co., 2006.
ISBN-10: 1904271332; ISBN-13: 978-1904271338
3. Eyrbyggja Saga. Trans. Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards. Penguin Books,
1972/1989.
ISBN-10: 0140445307; ISBN-13: 978-0140445305
4. Riverside Chaucer. You can get the hardback but it’s cheaper to order on line (for
example, through Amazon) the paperback: Oxford University Press, 2008.
ISBN-10: 0199552096; ISBN-13: 978-0199552092.
5. Sophocles. Philoctetes. Trans. Carl Phillips. Oxford: OUP, 2003.
ISBN: 978-0-19-513657-9
REQUIRED THEORETICAL TEXTS
1. Bauman, Zygmunt. Wasted Lives: Modernity and its Outcasts. Cambridge: Polity
Press, 2004.
2. Hawkins, Gay. The Ethics of Waste: How We Relate to Rubbish. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006.
3. Scanlan, John. On Garbage. London: Reaktion Books, 2005.
4. Jane Bennett. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke UP, 2010.
ISBN-13: 978-0822346333
Extra reading material: On Tracs
Evaluation: Final paper: 30%
Short paper with oral component 60% (3 responses altogether; 2-pages
each plus works cited page @20% each)
Class participation/preparation: 10%
You will come to the first day of class having read Beowulf and Hamlet so we can start
discussing right away. Your first paper with report is due the second-class meeting.
E-Mail: morrison@txstate.edu
ENG 5354.001 Studies in Renaissance Literature
Topic: Edmund Spenser
TH 6:30-9:20pm; FH 376
#10721
Instructor: Daniel Lochman
Description: This course focuses on the writings of one of the most prolific writers in
the English language. We examine several of Spenser’s shorter works but concentrate on
The Faerie Queene, including the poetic theory it presupposes; its fusion of genres;
cultural contexts related to religion, philosophy, culture, history, and the visual arts;
Spenser’s idea of literary vocation; poetic and narrative techniques; and its receptions.
Goals: Students learn Spenser’s literary techniques, designs, and attitudes to the
individual, state, and religion, as well as the relationship of these to Elizabethan culture
and early modern views of self and society.
Books: The Faerie Queene; Edmund Spenser: The Shorter Poems; The Cambridge
Companion to Spenser.
Format: Seminar-style presentations, discussion, occasional lectures.
Evaluation: Reports / presentations of critical essays or backgrounds (2) - 20%
Annotated bibliography
- 15%
Close reading / analytic paper (5-8 pages)
- 20%
Longer documented paper (10-12 pages)
- 25%
Final examination: take-home essay
- 20%
Email: Lochman@txstate.edu
Office: FH354 Office Hours: TTh 2:00-3:00 & by appointment
ENG 5364.001 Studies in the Romantic Movement
Topic: Lord Byron and the Byronic Hero
W 6:30-9:20pm; FH 376
#15393
Instructor: Dr. Kitty Ledbetter
Description: Arrogant, self-absorbed, emotionally troubled, sexually seductive,
intellectual, sophisticated, rebellious, jaded, disrespectful, cunning, morally transgressive,
anti-establishment, mysterious, outcast, charismatic: words commonly describing British
Romantic-Era poet Lord Byron (1788-1824). One of Byron’s many lovers, Caroline
Lamb, pronounced him “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” Yet during his brief life
Byron produced a significant body of poetry still respected as among the best in English.
His bad-boy persona continues to influence male and female authors, who replicate,
transform, model, idealize, and explore their own interpretations of the “Byronic Hero.”
This course will investigate various ways that British and American authors of the 19th &
20th centuries demonstrated and adapted Byron’s influence and his legacy.
Goals: To study the poetry of Lord Byron and his influence upon British and American
literature.
Books: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (the 1818 text); John Polidori’s The Vampyre
(1819), modeled on Byron himself; Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847); Bram
Stoker’s Dracula (1897); F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925); Ernest
Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926); Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino
Royale (1953); Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955); and Neil Gaiman’s preliminary
graphic productions in the Sandman series beginning in 1989. Please try to use only the
editions ordered.
Format: Discussion, with some background lectures.
Evaluation: Two well-researched critical essays, 10-12 pages in length, 80%. Class
participation, 10%. Reading quizzes or in-class writing, 10%. The course will require a
heavy reading schedule and class participation. Strict attendance and late policy.
Email: KLedbetter@txstate.edu
Office: FH 242
Office hours: TTh 8-9:20, and by appointment
ENG 5372.001 Practicum in English Studies
8/22/13 Workshop; ARR
#10722
Instructor: Chad Hammett
Description: An introduction to key concepts and practices in the teaching of English
studies. Required for and open only to first-year instructional assistants (IAs) in the
English Department.
Goals: To explore and develop effective teaching practices and to consider the
theoretical assumptions that underpin those practices.
Books: Materials provided on TRACS and the Web.
Format: Workshops; online discussion group; in-service training.
Evaluation: Successful completion based on participation in weekly online discussion
forums; three class observation reports; two written assessments (midterm and final) by
the lead teacher, of the instructional assistant’s performance.
Graduate credit is transcripted but does not count toward degree requirements. ENG
5372 is a credit-only course—no letter grades are assigned.
Spring 14 office hours: Thursdays and Fridays 12:00-2:00
For more information: See Chad Hammett in FH 143 or email at ch34@txstate.edu.
ENG 5382.001 Practicum in Composition
8/19/14 Workshop; T 2:00-4:50, FH G06C (1st 8 weeks)
#10723
Instructor: Nancy Wilson
Description: An introduction to key concepts and practices in the teaching of expository
writing at the college level. Required for and open only to all first-year TAs in the
English Department.
Goals: To develop effective teaching practices and to consider the theoretical
assumptions that underpin those practices.
Books: Glenn and Goldthwaite, The St. Martin’s Guide to Teaching Writing; Johnson,
Teaching Composition 3e; Roen et al., Strategies for Teaching First-Year Composition;
textbooks for English 1310. All textbooks are provided for this course.
Format: Seminar
Evaluation: Successful completion based on participation; three class observation
reports; a presentation or teaching demonstration; a draft philosophy of teaching
composition.
Graduate credit is transcripted, but does not count toward degree requirements, for TAs
who do not already have transcripted credit for ENG 5372. ENG 5382 is a credit-only
course—no letter grades are assigned.
Office: FH 360 Office hours: Th 9:30-11:00am and W 2:00-4:00pm
Email: nw05@txstate.edu
ENG 5383.001 History of Rhetorical Theory
W 6:30-9:20pm; FH 257
#10724
Instructor: Dr. Eric Leake
Description: This course is a survey and introduction to rhetorical theory. We begin with
classical rhetoric and continue through contemporary theories. That is a lot to cover, and
so the course aims to balance historical breadth with some contemporary depth. Our
driving questions throughout the course will be: what is rhetoric and what does rhetoric
do? We will address those questions by considering how rhetoric has developed in
different times and places and how it remains relevant, particularly to composition,
pedagogy, public discourse, and other areas across English studies.
Goals: Students will be able to demonstrate familiarity with key rhetorical figures and
ideas, articulate the historical development of rhetoric, perform rhetorical analysis of a
variety of texts, map rhetoric’s relationship with other fields, and design and complete
graduate-level research in a significant rhetorical issue.
Books (tentative): The Rhetorical Tradition, Ambient Rhetoric, and supplementary
readings.
Format: Class discussions and student presentations.
Evaluation: Weekly responses, student presentations, rhetorical analysis project, seminar
paper.
Email: ewl8@txstate.edu.
ENG 5384.001 Critical Theory
Topic: Spaces of Modernity
F 12:30-3:20pm; FH 253
#19239
Instructor: Robert T. Tally Jr.
Description: The late, great Marshall Berman suggested that while modernity unites
mankind, “it is a paradoxical unity, a unity of disunity: it pours us all into a maelstrom of
perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and
anguish.” Critical theory, in many respects, is the form of analysis and evaluation proper
to the modern condition. In this course, we will examine several key works of critical
theory in relation to what Jürgen Habermas refers to as the “philosophical discourse of
modernity,” but focusing in particular on the attempts to represent the radical
spatiotemporal transformations of modern thought and society. Beginning with Adorno
and Horkheimer’s explication of a dialectic of enlightenment, we will explore three
critical stages of modernity (as well as the shifting organizations of social space proper to
each) by studying significant texts by Michel Foucault, Edward Said, and Fredric
Jameson, before concluding with Berman’s effulgent celebration of the modernist
maelstrom. Passing familiarity with such nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers as
Goethe, Austen, Baudelaire, Marx, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Conrad, Yeats, Faulkner, and
Camus, among others, is most welcome, but not required. In studying these key texts,
students will explore both the protean spaces of modernity and the supple operations of
critical theory and theorists to make sense of them.
Goals: (1) To become familiar with several important works of modern critical theory;
(2) to understand the literary, social, and historical background of these works and their
subjects; and (3) to analyze these works.
Required Books: Adorno & Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment [9780804736336];
Foucault, Discipline and Punish [9780679752554]; Said, Culture and Imperialism
[9780679750543]; Jameson, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
[9788190340328]; and Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air [9780140109627].
Recommended: Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity
[9780262581028].
Format: Seminar (interactive lecture and discussion).
Evaluation: Based on overall contributions, but roughly distributed as follows: three
brief papers (20% each), midterm exam (10%), final exam (20%), and class participation
(10%).
Spring Office Hours: By appointment.
For More Information: Email Professor Tally at robert.tally@txstate.edu
ENG 5389.001 History of Children’s Literature
Topic: Medieval to 1850
T 6:30-9:20pm; FH 257
#18052
Instructor: Marilynn Olson
Description: English 5389 surveys the history of children’s literature from medieval
texts to approximately 1850. It gives a different (and broadening) slant on the literature
studied in these centuries in other courses, while also providing useful background
(Rousseau, Locke) and incongruous and entertaining tales that reveal a great deal about
the way childhood has been historically constructed and the norms that children’s
literature always reveals.
Books: Books are not yet chosen, but will be shortly. A collection of classic fairytales
will be included, but I have not yet decided upon the edition.
ENG 5395.001 Literary Techniques
Topic: First Novel
W 6:30-9:20pm; FH G04
#10726
For students in the MFA in Creative Writing program only.
Instructor: Doug Dorst
More details will be available after Spring Break.
ENG 5395.002 Literary Techniques
Topic: Lorca and Rilke: Demons and Angels
M 6:30-9:20pm; FH G06B
#15396
For students in the MFA in Creative Writing program only.
Instructor: Cyrus Cassells
Description: Using Edward Hirsh’s famous literary study, The Demon and the Angel:
Searching for the Source of Artistic Inspiration, as an able guide, we will explore in
depth the work of two of the 20th century’s greatest and most revered European poets,
Federico García Lorca and Rainer Maria Rilke. As poetic constructs, why do Rilke’s
admonishing angels and Lorca’s uncanny duende remain so compelling?
Objectives: This course provides greater exposure to two great, magnetic European
poets, with an emphasis on the metaphysical and spiritual dimensions of their work. We
will also look at Lorca and Rilke-inspired visual art, film, and theater. Any student
expertise with Spanish and German will be much appreciated in our discussions.
Books: Collected Poems of Lorca; Three Tragedies by Lorca; Selected Poetry of Rainer
Maria Rilke; Letters to a Young Poet; The Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus; The
Demonand The Angel: Searching for the Source of Literary Inspiration by Edward
Hirsch
Format: An end-of-semester research paper of 15-20 pages; weekly critical discussion of
assigned texts; a two-part take-home essay midterm; a three-to-five page testimony; class
presentations
Evaluation: 20% participation (discussion and contribution; testimony, reports); 35%
mid-term essays; 45% research paper