DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH: COURSE OFFERINGS
Spring, 2011
************************************************************************************************
ENGL 101 ENGLISH COMPOSITION
(Total of 26 sections, see Schedule)
This course will assist you in making responsible and effective
contributions to intellectual discussions in a range of academic and other
cultural settings. You will be challenged to establish a strong foundation
in critical reading, writing, researching, and reflecting. In a variety of
rhetorical situations, you will also demonstrate your ability to express
ideas and to craft and articulate arguments with and for other writers and
readers. English 101 is intended to be taken in conjunction with PHIL
101 and SPCO 101.
ENGL 102, ENGL 105, & ENGL 106 fulfill the
100-level literature core requirement.
ENGL 102, 01, 02 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE
Dr. Pringle
(01) M W F 9:00 - 9:50 a.m.
(02) M W F 10:00 - 10:50 a.m.
This course is focused on the careful, critical reading of several genres.
We will explore a variety of approaches to literature across a range of
American and British works. Plan to regularly attend class ready to
engage the day’s reading, to participate in classroom discussion, to take
frequent quizzes, to write two essays, and to take three in-class exams
covering a range of literary genres.
ENGL 102, 03 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE
Prof. Zeller
(03) T TH 9:25 - 10:40 a.m.
This course will introduce you to the formal study of literary works in
the genres of poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction; this will include
active critical reading and articulation of understanding, through written
and oral media. By semester’s end you should be fairly well-versed in
literary elements and language, as well as in using those elements to
discern meaning; you should also be able to communicate what literature
is and discuss intelligently its usefulness to humanity.
ENGL 105, 01, 03, 05 SECRETS AND SUFFERING
Prof. Roewe
(01) M W F 9:00 - 9:50 a.m.
(03) M W F 11:00 - 11:50 a.m.
(05) M W F 12:00 - 12:50 p.m.
Even secrets with the best of intentions can have unforeseen
consequences, and as readers we are attracted to texts that allow us to be
“in on” a character’s secret. By looking closely at the relationship
between secrets and suffering in literature, students will learn strategies
for analyzing literature, careful and interpretive reading, and
conventions of academic writing.
ENGL 105, 02, 04 LITERATURE AND WAR
Dr. Ranum
(02) M W F 10:00 - 10:50 a.m.
(04) M W F 11:00 - 11:50 a.m.
In “How to Tell a True War Story,” Tim O’Brien’s narrator claims, “A
true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe.” The stories that
we tell ourselves and the images that we create can be visceral in their
impact. In this course we will explore how literature does this, how it
works to represent experience and to form responses. We will read,
discuss, and write about war literature in three major genres (poetry,
drama, and fiction). Assignments will include mid-term and final
exams, formal essays, quizzes, and active participation.
ENGL 105, 06 LOVE, PASSION, AND OBSESSION
Dr. Fowler
(06) M W F 1:10 - 2:00 p.m.
Students in this course will critically examine the elements of fiction,
drama, and poetry through a thematic lens focusing on the dynamic
human emotions of love, passion, and/or obsession in a variety of forms.
Requirements include quizzes, two exams, two essays, and weekly
discussion questions. Active, thoughtful, and mature class participation is
expected.
ENGL 105, 07 BORDERS AND FRONTIERS
Dr. Miller
(07) T TH 9:25 - 10:40 a.m.
Students will study prose, poetry, and drama through a critical
examination that highlights the theme of Borders and Frontiers. We’ll
consider borders with (sometimes) clearly demarcated lines, like those
between nations, and borders with less definition, like those between
cultures, people, or ideas. Requirements: active participation, quizzes and
final exam, two formal papers and a range of informal writing
assignments.
ENGL 105, 08, 09 NATURE AND PLACE
Dr. Easterling
(08) T TH 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
(09) T TH 1:15 - 2:30 p.m.
In this course we’ll further our critical reading, interpreting, and writing
skills through the study of literature engaged significantly with NATURE
and PLACE, two related ideas often seen as essential to human existence,
identity and imagination - how does literature explore and complicate this
connection? Requirements likely to include: three formal papers, at least
one exam, and weekly writing based on readings and some natural
observation. A substantial portion of your grade will be based on active
class participation.
ENGL 105, 10 VISIONARY LITERATURE
Dr. Cooney
(10) T TH 1:15 - 2:30 p.m.
This class will examine how a number of writers discuss the nature of
imagination and the relationship between vision (both literally and
metaphorically) and literature. We will consider, in particular, the degree
to which social and artistic contexts have affected the way we define
“vision.” Writers we will examine include William Blake, Walt
Whitman, Arthur Rimbaud, and Gertrude Stein. Students will likely write
a few short close-reading papers, take a final exam, and participate
actively in class and through Blackboard.
ENGL 105, 11, 12 POWER PLAY AND DIVERSE NARRATIVE
Dr. Mitra
(11) T TH 8:00 - 9:15 a.m.
(12) T TH 9:25 - 10:40 a.m
In this course we will examine the ways in which the narratives we
choose to preserve address, embody, and/or relinquish power. Diverse
narratives must be generated to strengthen understanding and prevent the
dominance of any single story. We will study a variety of narratives as a
class, from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to Chinua Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart. In your papers you will investigate 1. Why these
narratives are critical for both preserving and contesting social beliefs and
stereotypes 2. The telling of the narratives, focusing on structure and
craft and how these relate to the investigation of power. For your second
major project you can either write a critical essay or turn in a creative
project with a critical preface.
ENGL 105, 13, 14 LITERATURE OF QUEST AND ARRIVAL
Dr. Marshall
(13) T TH 9:25 - 10:40 a.m.
(14) T TH 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
In this course we will study prose and poetry that articulate journeys both
literal and figurative–explorations of landscape, cityscape, and the self.
Possible authors include Jack Kerouac, Willa Cather, Rick Moody,
William Faulkner, Elizabeth Bishop, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison,
and Flannery O’Connor. Students will complete two exams, a term paper,
and a reading journal.
All 200-level literature courses require prerequisites:
( ENGL101, ENGL 200, or ENGL 103 H) and
(ENGL 102, ENGL 105, ENGL 106, or ENGL 104 H)
ENGL 200 INTERMEDIATE COMPOSITION
ENGL 101 Composition or written permission from the English Dept.
Chair
Dr. Eliason
M W F 12:00 - 12:50 p.m.
Building upon skills developed in earlier courses that required writing, you
will engage in a deliberate study of the art and craft of writing and give
special emphasis to building a multi-genre portfolio of your original
compositions.
ENGL 201, 01, 02 STUDIES IN POETRY
Prerequisites: ENGL 101 & 100-level literature course
Dr. Cooley
(01) M W F 10:00 - 10:50 a.m.
(02 ) M W F 11:00 - 11:50 a.m.
This course will examine the form and content of poetry from the
Renaissance to the present. Course format includes lecture, discussion,
collaboration, individual and/or group presentations. Along with active
participation, requirements include two or three formal papers, a reading
notebook, informal in-class writing, quizzes and two exams.
ENGL 202, 01, 02 STUDIES IN FICTION
Prerequisites: ENGL 101 & 100-level literature course
Dr. Butterworth
(01) T TH 9:25 - 10:40 a.m.
(02) T TH 10:50 - 12:05 p.m.
Students will study the elements of fiction through an examination of short
stories and novels. Requirements: active participation, mid-term and final
exams, two formal papers, and a range of informal writing assignments.
ENGL 205 STUDIES IN SHAKESPEARE
Prerequisites: ENGL 101 & 100-level literature course
Dr. Butterworth
T TH 2:40 - 3:55 p.m.
This course will quickly examine Shakespeare’s sonnets before focusing
on the drama by surveying histories, comedies, and tragedies. Close
textual analysis and historical context emphasized. 6-7 plays covered.
ENGL 208, 01, 02 LIT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION II
Prerequisites: ENGL 101 & 100-level literature course
Dr. Ciasullo
(01) M W F 10:00 - 10:50 a.m.
(02) M W F 11:00 - 11:50 a.m.
This course will familiarize students with a wide range of literary texts–
essays, short stories, novels, plays, and poems–that represent the
emergence and growth of the western literature tradition from
Renaissance to the present. Readings will include Voltaire’s Candide,
Shelley’s Frankenstein, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and Ibsen’s Hedda
Gabler. Course requirements will include numerous short writing
assignments, two formal essays, a midterm, a final, and active
participation.
ENGL 260, 01, 02/WGST 222 01, 02 CONTEMPORARY
MULTICULTURAL WRITERS
Prerequisites: ENGL 101 & 100-level literature course
Dr. Maucione
(01) M W F 12:00 - 12:50 p.m.
(02) M W F 1:10 - 2:00 p.m.
This course introduces students to the diverse nature of contemporary
literature while helping them develop increasingly complex
understandings of the continually evolving issues connected to national
and international discourses on race and ethnicity as well as gender and
sexuality. We will explore the ways in which literature contributes to
the definition and redefinition of individual and collective identities
from multiple perspectives: local, national, and global; urban and rural;
native and immigrant. Course requirements include formal and informal
papers, group presentations, mid-term exam, journals, and quizzes.
*** UPPER DIVISION OFFERINGS ***
All ENGL 300 and 400 level courses require prerequisites:
(ENGL 101, ENGL 200, or ENGL 103 H) and
(ENGL 102, ENGL 105, ENGL 106, or ENGL 104 H) and
(200-level literature ENGL, excluding writing classes–
ENGL 200 & 204)
ENGL 302 FICTION WRITING
Dr. Cooley
M W 3:10 - 4:25 p.m.
This course focuses on the craft and practice of writing fiction.
Participating in a workshop environment, students will complete weekly
exercises and critique each other’s work in order to gain experience and
skill in the process of writing fiction. In addition, they will produce and
revise at least two polished stories by the end of the semester. We will
also read a number of stories published by established writers and
discuss these in class. Active class participation is required. Fulfills
English Lit Elective or Writing Track Elective requirement.
ENGL 331/WGST 419 RENAISSANCE LITERATURE
Dr. Easterling
T TH 9:25 - 10:40 a.m.
The period of the English Renaissance, now more frequently referred to
as the Early Modern period, was a time of great innovation and
transition politically, culturally, and very much artistically. A time of
such transition is characterized by great energy and also great anxiety:
“What orders society?” is a central question of this period that we’ll use
to guide our reading of the responses to it explored in literary works
ranging from lyric poetry to the King James Bible to Renaissance epic,
and including some significant female voices, both literary and actual
(an important, and anxiety-producing shift in the order of things,
indeed). Major assignments will include two or three essays and at least
one exam. Active class participation is essential and will be graded.
Fulfills British Literature Pre-1660 requirement.
ENGL 360 MODERN DRAMA
Dr. Ranum
M W F 1:10 - 2:00 p.m.
Modern Drama is characterized by revolution, the rejection and
reformation of traditional dramatic modes in the attempt to capture more
precisely the modern human experience. In this course, students will read
a broad sweep of plays from the modern and contemporary eras of drama,
emphasizing the beginnings of dramatic modernism in nineteenth-century
continental Europe (texts to be read in translation), as well as the
development of drama in Britain and America from the late nineteenth
century to the present. Assignments will include mid-term and final
exams, formal essays, other options in critical research and interpretation,
and active participation. Fulfills English Lit Elective requirement.
ENGL 390 WRITING CENTER PRACTICUM
Dr. Eliason
Tutoring four hours per week in the Writing Center after initial training.
May be repeated up to three times for credit.
ENGL 395 THE TEACHING OF WRITING
Dr. Eliason
M W F 11:00 - 11:50 a.m.
You will demonstrate your ability to research and respond to theories and
practices pertaining to composing and to the teaching of writing. This
ability you will acquire, in part, by writing about and discussing
observations of writers in action, by reflecting critically on your own
composing processes, and by reading and responding to writing from a
variety of genres. Key specific learning outcomes include translating
theory into practice and discussing the politics and assessment of
language as applied to written English in a variety of rhetorical settings.
Fulfills Elective requirement. Required for students seeking teacher
certification.
ENGL 406 MULTI-GENRE WRITING:
THE CULTURE OF BINARIES
Dr. Mitra
T 2:40 - 5:00 p.m.
In this course, we will examine contemporary authors who challenge the
common tendency to define works of literature as fiction, nonfiction, and
poetry and, in turn, create a collection of creative work that both examines
and in some ways disrupts the categorization of our culture. Throughout
the semester we will workshop your fiction and nonfiction as a class, and
by the end of the semester you will have a substantial collection of work
for your portfolio. Fulfills Writing Track Elective requirement.
ENGL 446 19TH CENTURY BRITISH NOVEL
Dr. Cooney
T TH 9:25 - 10:40 a.m
This class will consider (and theorize) the themes of violence and terror in
the 19th century novel, particularly as it pertains to personal and group
identity creation. We will be reading works by a number of the most
famous and important writers of the century, including Scott, Dickens,
and Charlotte Bronte, and we will be framing our reading with some of
the crucial works of theory on the subject of violence. Expectations will
include (but might not be limited to) a term paper, a final exam,
blackboard responses, and active class participation. Fulfills British
Literature Post-1660 requirement.
ENGL 455/WGST 380, 01 PLACE, DISPLACEMENT & RACE
Dr. Maucione
M W F 10:00 - 10:50 a.m
This course explores contemporary American literary expressions of the
intersections of race and place and the relationship between American
constructions of race and experiences of displacement. We will interrogate
connections between place/displacement and gender and sexuality.
Applying an urban studies approach for much of the course, we will
examine and juxtapose literary texts that reflect migrations and diasporas
within the United States as well as formations and disruptions of diverse
urban communities. Course requirements include several formal and
informal papers, group presentations, and reading journals. Fulfills
American Literature Post-1900 requirement.
ENGL 464 STUDIES IN 20TH CENTURY POETRY
Dr. Marshall
T TH 1:15 - 2:30 p.m
The 20th Century initiated radical changes in the art of poetry; this course
will examine the historical roots of these changes, “high modernism” as
the crucible of innovation, and the impact such experiments had on the
poetry of the remainder of the century. Possible authors include: Pound,
Eliot, Moore, Stevens, Stein, Williams, HD, Loy, Crane, Bishop, Lowell,
Wright, Plath, and others. Students will take quizzes and exams, as well as
write short essays and a term paper. Fulfills American Literature Post1900 requirement.
ENGL 466, 01 MELVILLE AND HIS WORLD
Dr. Miller
(01) T TH 1:15 - 2:30 p.m.
We will read Herman Melville’s Typee, Moby-Dick, Pierre, “Bartleby,”
“Benito Cereno,” The Confidence Man, and Billy Budd, along with
selected poems, in the context of his physical and intellectual worlds. In
order to understand this context, we’ll trace his three years aboard ship in
the Pacific and, to the extent possible, his decades of intense reading. We
will also follow the general course of Melville criticism since the revival of
the 1920s rescued him from obscurity. Requirements: active participation,
regular quizzes and a final exam, two formal papers (culminating in an
end-of-term research project), and a range of informal writing assignments.
Fulfills American Literature Pre-1900 requirement.
ENGL 466, 02 /WGST 403/ or WGST 499
GENDER, THEORY AND LITERATURE
Dr. Fowler
(02) W 4:10 - 6:40 p.m.
th
Beginning in the 18 C. but focusing largely on 20th C. literature and
gender theory, we will examine representations of gender in texts by
women. Our study will include traditional works as well as texts from less
canonical writers and will explore the works of feminist and queer
theorists as they relate to the texts and themes we will encounter. Sample
works include Millenium Hall, A Room of One’s Own, Cassandra,
Handmaid’s Tale, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and Experiment in
Love. This course will be taught in a seminar format, similar to what you
may encounter in a graduate program–students will be responsible for
active participation and leadership in class discussions. Assignments
include a reading journal, a class presentation, a research paper, exams.
Fulfills English Lit Elective requirement.
ENGL 495 SEMINAR: 1920's
Prerequisite: Senior status or instructor’s permission
Dr. Ciasullo
M 2:10 - 5:00 p.m.
The 1920s - the decade of Modernism-was a period of immense literary
and artistic output in both Great Britain and the U.S. This class will
examine the thematics and the historical/cultural contexts of a wide
range of Anglo-American texts from the 1920s, including literary
classics such as Woolf”s Mrs. Dalloway and Eliot’s The Waste Land;
films such as The Jazz Singer; and popular novels such as Loos’s
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Course requirements include short and
seminar-length essays, a midterm and final, and individual/group
presentations. Fulfills English Lit Elective requirement, One seminar
required for English majors.