Graduate Courses, MA Program in English, Fall/Summer 2014
Fall 2014
ENGL 5000: Bibliography and Methods of Research
Dr. Major
Tuesday, 4:30-7:30
ENGL 5000 is “An introduction to the graduate program in English, a thorough study of
the principal tools of literary scholarship and a consideration of the objectives of literary
research and the profession of college English teaching” (Austin Peay Graduate Bulletin,
catalog.apsu.edu/index.php?catoid=12)
Course objectives – The tools of scholarship and of your pursuit of your degree include
being able to use some theory to interpret texts, and to work with bibliographic and
research techniques. By the end of the semester, you should
·
know how to plan your degree program
·
develop your skills in academic, scholarly, and bibliographic style and
form
·
develop your researching techniques
·
survey literary theories
·
survey career options for English graduate students.
ENGL 506A: History of the English Language
Dr. Sims
Thursday, 4:30-7:30
Study of the origins, development, and diversity of the English language. In addition to
Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English (the language of Beowulf,
Chaucer, and Shakespeare, respectively), students will look at regional speech and
writing to gain an understanding of how vernacular, previously marginalized voices
influence the evolution of the English language.
ENGL 541B: Seminar in Creative Writing: Fiction
Professor Kitterman
Monday, 4:30-7:30
This writing workshop is designed to develop the student’s fiction writing and editing
skills to a professional level. Students are expected to bring basic skills to the class: the
ability to write good, solid prose, to follow the conventions of dialogue, to have an
understanding of what makes a story a story. Each student will submit three or more
pieces of prose for the other students to read and comment on. Writing in one of the
genres is discouraged (cheesy romance, ray-gun sci fi, giddy-up westerns). There will be
opportunity for revision. Any student interested in working on a creative thesis in prose
should definitely take this course. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor.
ENGL 551C: Special Topics in 18th-Century Literature—
Course Title: “Jane Austen's foremothers: Women Writers of the 18th Century”
Dr. Cannon
Wednesday, 4:30-7:30
Virginia Woolf famously wrote: "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the
tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds." Yet
Jane Austen’s tight grip on the popular imagination has left many earlier women writers
in the shadows. Focusing primarily on fiction, this course traces a long tradition of
women writers from Aphra Behn to Jane Austen, and will also include novels by Eliza
Haywood, Charlotte Lennox, Francis Burney, and Ann Radcliffe. Students should come
to the course with a working knowledge of Pride and Prejudice so that we can explore
how earlier writers shaped Austen’s literary landscape—and perhaps figure out why
Austen remains ever fashionable. We will read extensively, write with abandon, research
with curiosity, delve into the archives, watch movie clips, and slap on Austen tattoos.
ENGL 556B: Seminar in Faulkner
Dr. Ryan
MW 2:30-3:55
This course will focus on the fiction of William Faulkner, the most renowned American
writer of the twentieth century. We will read his first novel Soldier’s Pay and what are
generally considered his major novels: The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying,
Sanctuary, Light in August, Wild Palms (also titled If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem), and
Absalom, Absalom!. We will also look at selections of his short fiction. The class will
have two ten-page papers, an oral report, and a final exam.
ENGL 5400: Teaching English in Secondary School
Dr. Davis
Monday, 4:30-7:30
Surveys practices and issues in secondary English education and includes preparing a
teaching unit, teachng lessons, and learning methods for teaching literature, language,
and composition, visual literacy, speaking and listening. This class requires 30 hours of
field experience with specific requirements.
Summer 2014
Course Title: "Indian Summer": Representations of/by Native Americans in Early
American Literature
Dr. Atkinson
Course number and date/time TBA
If your idea of Early American Literature is Puritanical celibacy, you've got another thing
coming. In this summer course, we will read and discuss Native Americans in Early
American Literature, written by both white EuroAmericans and by Native
Americans. We will focus primarily on representations of the "other" – that is, Native
representations of EuroAmericans (as genocidal hypocrites) and EuroAmerican
representations of Native Americans (as barbarous savages). Some questions we ask will
include: how do first-contact writers like Columbus, John Smith, James Fenimore
Cooper, and Catharine Maria Sedgwick construct the "Indian"? How do Native
Americans like William Apess, Samson Occom, and John Rollin Ridge ("Yellow Bird")
construct whiteness? Ultimately, we will also ask how the "self" is defined in contrast to
the "other" in the high-stakes territorial battles of North America in the 15th-19th
centuries, focusing on 19th C American novels. We will also draw from recent anticolonial, indigenous discourses of theorists like Edward Said, Maureen Konkle, Judith
Butler, and Craig Womack.