COURSE DESCRIPTION
BOOKLET
DEPARTMENT
OF
ENGLISH
SPRING
2014
Notes:
Former Speaking Intensive courses, except for ENGL400
and ENED450, DO NOT apply to the new oral
communication requirement in the CCC effective
Fall 2012.
All ENGL pedagogy courses have been retitled with ENED as
their prefix.
The new ENED courses count the same as the prior ENGL
courses for English Adolescence Education majors.
EDU419 has been retitled and renumbered to ENED 451.
EDU430 has been retitled and renumbered to ENED 453.
•
•
•
PRE-REQUISITE OR PERMISSION OF INSTRUCTOR:
STUDENTS: You must have the appropriate pre-requisites
for Spring 2014 registration. Check the online listings to see
what the current pre-requisites are -- note that these may be
different from what is listed in the current catalogue.
TO THE STUDENT:
Before selecting a course, consider the following: You might
find it useful to decide what your purpose is in selecting a
course in English: curiosity? knowledge? involvement with
issues? background for major or career? Have you consulted
your advisor? Have you thought of asking for a conference
with the instructor of the course?
Also consider:
It is strongly advised that you take a 200-level introductory
course in literature before taking a 300-level course.
300-level courses are studies that usually require some
research, perhaps an oral report, probably a major paper.
These courses are intended for the serious student, but not
exclusively for English majors.
400-and 500-level courses are for advanced students who are
ready for specialized study and research.
FOR THE MAJOR OR MINORS IN ENGLISH:
See the catalog and/or handouts for requirements.
ENED 101 01
INTRO TO ENGLISH ADOLESCENCE
EDUCATION
1.5 credit course
Description:
In this course, English Adolescence Education majors are
introduced to both their major and their future profession. Between the
Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 semesters, students must complete 25 hours
of observation, divided between a high school and middle school English
classroom. Through journals, a paper, readings, and class
presentations, students will explore topics including teaching literature,
teaching writing, and teaching students from diverse backgrounds, and
meeting different learners’ needs.
Readings:
Nancie Atwell, In the Middle: New Understandings about Writing,
Reading, and Learning; possibly Patrick Finn, Literacy With an Attitude:
Educating Working-Class Kids in Their Own Best Interest.
Exams, Papers:
A journal kept during the field observations, signed forms
documenting the observations, a reflection paper, a group presentation,
and the portfolio for English Adolescence Ed. Majors (begun).
STUDENTS REGISTERING FOR ENED 101 MUST ATTEND A
MEETING ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12 AT 5:00 PM IN THE
ENGLISH READING ROOM, 127 FENTON HALL.
Time Class Meets:
MW 4:30-5:50
Instructor:
H. McEntarfer
1/27-3/12/14
Everyone enrolled in the course must attend.
ENED 103 01
READINGS & OBSERVATIONS IN
ENGLISH ADOLESCENCE EDUCATION
1.5 credit course
Description:
This junior-level course fulfills part of the field-observation
requirements for the English Adolescence Education major and is open
to those students who have successfully completed ENED 101. Between
the Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 semesters, students will arrange to
observe a minimum of 25 hours in both a middle school and a high
school classroom. Class time will then draw on students’ observation
experiences, course readings, and other English pedagogy courses as
together we explore advanced issues in pedagogy. Students will continue
to develop their own sense of the kind of teacher they will be.
Readings:
Keizer, Garrett. No Place But Here: A Teacher’s Vocation in a
Rural Community
Exams, Papers:
Documentation of field experiences; reflection paper based on
field experiences; a micro-teaching session based on No Place But Here;
large- and small-group discussion.
STUDENTS REGISTERING FOR ENED 101 MUST ATTEND A
MEETING ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12 AT 5:45 PM IN THE
ENGLISH READING ROOM, 127 FENTON HALL.
Time Class Meets:
MW 4:30-5:50
Instructor:
H. McEntarfer
3/24-5/7/14
*Everyone enrolled in the course must attend.
ENGL 106 01
THE ENGLISH MAJOR:
INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDIES
Description:
ENGL 106 will provide students with a full semester overview of
the major areas within and current approaches to literary students. It
is required for all students entering the English major (323) and is
designed to open the many different fields of English studies to new
majors and to help students develop a context for the courses they may
have already have taken and will be taking throughout their career as
English majors at Fredonia. Students will gain insight into literary
history, the process of and critical debates concerning canon formation,
and the multiple functions and genres of literature and writing. This
course will also require a significant literary research paper designed to
introduce students to effective modes of library research, strategies for
integrating secondary sources, and important terms and concepts that
are fundamental to literary analysis.
Readings:
A variety of short fiction, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case
of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, introductory critical theory, and literary
scholarship.
Exams, Papers:
Mandatory attendance; two short analytical essay; annotation of
critical scholarship; and a research portfolio containing a topic
statement and description, a sample source summary, an annotated
bibliography, a Says/Does outline, and a final research essay of 10-12
pages.
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
D. Kaplin
9-9:50
ENGL 114 01
ESL: SPOKEN & WRITTEN GRAMMAR
Description:
This course guides English as a second language (ESL) students to
review English grammar through intensive written and oral practices.
The course promotes fluent and accurate as well as appropriate
language use for students who have already studied grammar
extensively, yet still need to refine the ability to produce acceptable
academic English. The course will focus on authentic grammar usage
via corpus-based texts to motivate students to learn how to use the
English language appropriately in speaking and in academic writing. It
will guide students to identify and avoid typical errors appeared in
speaking and writing and gradually to improve their speaking and
writing skills.
Readings:
 Conrad, S., & Biber, D. (2009). Real grammar: A corpus-based
approach to English. New York: Pearson Longman.
(ISBN: 978-0-13-515587-5)
 Additional materials (provided by the instructor)
Exams, Papers:
Mid-term and final written tests, papers, and
oral presentations
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
L. Wang
9-9:50
ENGL 117 01
ESL: ACADEMIC READING/WRITING
Description:
This course helps English as a second language (ESL) students
develop their academic reading and writing skills. The course will focus
on critical thinking, reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar
through various theme-based units to enhance students’ academic
fluency and accuracy and to develop their meta-cognitive awareness of
the text conventions of common academic genres. Students will improve
academic literacy skills and build intercultural awareness.
Readings:
Barton, L., & Sardinas, C. Q. (2009). North star: Reading and writing
(level three) (3rd ed). New York: Pearson Longman.
(ISBN: 978-0-13-613368-1)
Exams, Papers:
Exam, papers and oral presentations
Time Class Meets:
MW
Instructor:
L. Wang
4:30-5:50
ENGL 160 01, 02, 03
VISITING WRITERS PROGRAM
Writing Minors Only
ENGL 160 01
Co-Req:
ENGL 361-01
ENGL 160 02
Co-Req:
ENGL 361-02
ENGL 160 03
Co-Req:
ENGL 460-01
Description:
Attendance and participation in the activities surrounding the
visiting writers during the semester. These classes are attached to the
intermediate and advanced creative writing courses and are part of the
writing minor requirements for the semester. Students must be enrolled
in the co-req 363, 362, or 361 in conjunction with 160.
Readings:
Talk Thai: Adventures of Buddhist Boy by Ira Sukrungruang
This is Not Your City by Caitlin Horrocks
Exams, Papers:
Two examinations of the visiting writers and their work
Time Class Meets:
Select Thursdays 4-5 and 7-8:30
Instructor:
01
02
03
D. Parsons
S. Gerkensmeyer
A. Nezhukumatathil
ENGL 200 01
AMST
INTRO TO AMERICAN STUDIES
Description:
The aim of this course is to introduce you to various
interdisciplinary approaches and perspectives appropriate for
American Studies. This is a course about perspectives and perceptions:
about the continuing process of intercultural encounter, about how
individual, ethnic and national identities come to be constructed and
reconstructed as a result of that process, about how various disciplinary
and critical approaches can inform each other and expand awareness
and finally, how you as a student learn to refine your own perceptions
as a result of expanding your perspective. Historically, we begin before
European settlement, move to the establishment of the colonies; discuss
such issues as slavery and abolition; Indians, including relocation
policies, contact accounts from both sides, and captivity narratives; the
Civil War and its aftermath; industrialization and reconstruction;
modernism, and finally the present. Methodologically, our approaches
will include sources from history, literature, anthropology, and
probably various art and media.
Texts and assignments are still to be determined, but your work will
most likely consist of various short projects and a final exam.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 4 – American History
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
S. McRae
11-12:20
ENGL 205 01, 02
EPIC AND ROMANCE
Description:
In this course, we’ll read a number of texts from the ancient
civilizations of Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, together with modern
literary works from England, France, and the United States. Emphasis
will be placed on the contextualization of these works within their
respective time periods and places; understanding the literary genres to
which they belong; and drawing connections across time between the
stories they tell. A continuing theme throughout the course will be the
“quarrel” between the Ancients and the Moderns, i.e. how do modern
writers relate to their predecessors of the distant past?
Readings: (subject to change)
David Damrosch (ed.) The Longman Anthology of World Literature
Volume A: The Ancient World (Pearson Longman)
Voltaire. Candide (Penguin)
Mary Shelley. Frankenstein (Signet)
Thomas Pynchon. The Crying of Lot 49 (Harper Perennial)
Exams, Papers:
Students will be evaluated via active participation; weekly
participation on the Angel discussion forum; a research paper; and
possibly a midterm exam.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
B. Vanwesenbeeck
10-10:50
ENGL 205 03, 04, 05, 06
EPIC AND ROMANCE
Description:
We will read seminal works from various different time periods
and geographies. The course aims at introducing students to several
genres (romance, traditional epics, gothic novel, etc.) and familiarizing
them with the historical and cultural context for these texts. Lectureintensive.
Exams, Papers:
2 exams, final exam, homework
(library research required)
Reading List:
The Epic of Gilgamesh, ancient Mesopotamia
Laila and Majnun, Medieval Persia
The Sigh, modern Iran
All Quiet on the Western Front, WWI Germany
Collected short stories of Stefan Zweig, twentieth-century Austria
The Castle of Otranto, eighteenth-century Britain
Metamorphoses (Ovid) selections, ancient Rome
Trojan Women, ancient Greece
Lysistrata, ancient Greece
Life and Times of Michael K., twentieth-century South Africa
Coriolanus, early modern England
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
03, 04
05, 06
Instructor:
I. Vanwesenbeeck
TR
TR
9:30-10:50
12:30-1:50
ENGL 207 01, 02, 03, 04
DRAMA AND FILM
Description:
Through the medium of plays and films we will critically examine
the effect and implications of secrets, answering the question, “What
can one live with?” We will read and learn to critically engage plays
from a variety of time periods and playwrights.
Readings:
Mother Courage and Her Children; A Raisin in the Sun; A Doll’s House;
Angels in America; Death of a Salesman; In the Blood; Six Characters in
Search of an Author; Edward II; Oedipus the King; A Streetcar Named
Desire; The Children’s Hour; M. Butterfly.
All texts are subject to change.
Exams, Papers:
1 midterm critical analysis essay, 1 final project, 1 group
presentation, discussion questions, 5 quizzes, and 2 short literary
analyses; mandatory film viewing and class attendance.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
01, 02
03, 04
MWF
MWF
9-9:50
10-10:50
W
5-7:30
Fenton 105
SCREENING:
Instructor:
A. Fearman
ENGL 207 05, 06, 07, 08
DRAMA AND FILM
Description:
We will explore drama from many different cultures and time
periods, from the ancient Greeks to works of a more contemporary
nature. The films we view will also offer the work of a variety of
filmmakers from a diversified selection of countries and time periods.
Readings:
The Bedford Introduction to Drama 5th Edition
Edited by: Lee A. Jacobus
Exams, Papers:
- Participation in Class Discussions
- Response papers
- A Midterm Exam
- One longer paper of analysis/synthesis
- Student led class discussion
- Reading quizzes
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
05, 06:
07, 08:
MWF
MWF
12-12:50
1-1:50
W
5-7:30
McEwen G26
SCREENING:
Instructor:
C. Thomas Craig
ENGL 209-01, 02
NOVELS AND TALES
Description:
This course will offer an introduction into the global tradition of
story telling by reading a variety of novels and tales from Europe and
Africa and from the Renaissance period to the present. Our particular
focus will be on two genres that have traditionally been marginalized
within the history of the novel—the epistolary novel and the nested
narrative—in order to explore one of the leading questions of
contemporary literary criticism: is it possible to feel the “pain of others”
or are our traumatic experiences distinctly our own?
Readings: (subject to change)
J.W.V. Goethe. The Sorrows of young Werther (Dover)
Cervantes. Don Quixote (Harper Perennial; Edith Grossman
translation)
Stefan Zweig. The Royal Game and Other Stories (Holmes&Meier)
Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness (Dover)
Mary Shelley. Frankenstein (Signet Classics)
J.M. Coetzee. Waiting for the Barbarians (1980; Penguin)
Exams, Papers:
quizzes; short papers; midterm exam;
final paper
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
B. Vanwesenbeeck
9-9:50
ENGL 209 03, 04
NOVELS AND TALES
Description:
A study of long and short fiction of several kinds, including myth,
fable, and realistic narrative, from a variety of places and times. The
course will familiarize students with basic approaches to reading,
interpretation, and literary analysis. This section will examine the role
of bodies in these diverse narratives including how language constructs
bodies, the meaning produced by body language and gestures in the
texts, as well as the impact of the body of the author and reader. We will
study the ways literary narratives are filled with bodies in multiple
forms and figures: including bodies that gaze and bodies that are gazed
upon; bodies in motion (working, grasping, pointing, birthing, dancing);
bodies marked by race, class, gender and sexuality; as well as figurative
bodies: bodies of knowledge, social bodies, bodies of evidence, and
national bodies.
Readings:
To Buy: Riders of the Purple Sage, Beloved, Eva Luna, The
Farming of Bones and one novel TBA. Also various online
readings
Exams, Papers:
Blog posts, discussion leading, minipresentation, 3 critical response papers,
final project
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
S. McGee
10-10:50
ENGL 209 05, 06
NOVELS AND TALES
Description:
The course of Novels and Tales offers a study of long and short
fiction of several kinds, including myth, fable, and realistic narrative,
from a variety of places and times, and their relation to their different
cultures. This course will familiarize students with basic approaches to
reading, interpretation, and literary analysis. Another goal of this
course is to improve students’ skill at expressing their observations in
writing.
Readings:
Short Novels of the Masters, Edited with an Introduction by Charles
Neider; Cooper Square Press, 2001.
Exams, Papers:
Critical/analytical essays, one final exam
research paper, additional exercises and papers
as assigned.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
J. Mineeva-Braun
1-1:50
ENGL 209 07, 08
NOVELS AND TALES
Description:
In the English Department, Novels and Tales courses offer a
study of long and short fiction of several kinds, including myth, fable,
and realistic narrative, from a variety of places and times, and their
relation to their different cultures.
Professor Alexander Huang, from George Washington University,
writes that “stories, like people, travel and move around. Stories
connect us to other times and places.” If stories are the medium that ties
times, places, and people together, then stories specifically about home
can reveal differences and commonalities across cultures and time
periods. This section of Novels and Tales will examine global literary
interpretations of the idea of “home,” from the literal structure of a
house, to broader examples such as nation, country, or region.
Concepts associated with home – such as family, friendship, love, life,
and death – will be discussed as well.
Readings:
Readings will include, but not be limited to: Chinua Achebe’s
Things Fall Apart; Pa Chin’s Family; L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz; Witi Ihimaera’s Whale Rider.
Exams, Papers:
Reading quizzes, response papers, and longer essays will be assigned.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
S. Liggins
2-2:50
ENGL 209-09, 10
NOVELS AND TALES
Description:
“For the roots of stories, we must look, not in the clouds but upon the earth,
not in the various aspects of nature but in the daily occurrences and surroundings,
in the current opinions and ideas of savage life.” - Andrew Lang
It has been suggested that there are only seven basic plots (or eight, or tendepending upon whom you ask, but you get the picture). Storytellers tell, retell,
augment and refine these plots. As scholars, we develop a richer understanding of
literature when we explore these origins and permutations. This section of Novels
and Tales will focus on fairy tales and works based on the themes of these
surprisingly dark stories.
Instructional Methods and Activities
Methods and activities for instruction will include, but not be limited to, close
reading, lecture, and class discussion.
Textbooks (required):
-My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales
 Publisher: Penguin Books; Original edition (September 28, 2010)
 ISBN-10: 014311784X ISBN-13: 978-0143117841
-The Annotated Brothers Grimm (The Bicentennial Edition) Tatar, Ed.


Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; The Bicentennial Edition (October
15, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0393088863 ISBN-13: 978-0393088861
-The Robber Bridegroom. Welty, Eudora
 Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; 1st edition (November 8, 1978)
 ISBN-10: 0156768070 ISBN-13: 978-0156768078
 Note: a Kindle version is also available
-Shame. Rushdie, Salman
 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks; Reprint edition (March 11,
2008)
 ISBN-10: 0812976703 ISBN-13: 978-0812976700
Other texts will be provided as handouts or as Google Docs
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
K. Benson
12-12:50
ENGL 211 01, 02, 03, 04
WORLD POETRY
Description:
We will read, recite, and write poetry. In some cases, we will
trace the evolution of poetic verse forms from around the world and
across the centuries. Ancient poetry and literary criticism will
foreground our semester examination of poetry as both cultural artifact
and personal expression. Discussion of traditional forms will include
the ode and sonnet, whose migrations from Ancient Greece and
Medieval Italy throughout the world, and their eventual transformation
into politically charged and global contemporary practices we will
follow. Additionally, study of both Eastern and Western poetics
(through a comparison of figurative-based verse) will focus on
renowned poets Kahlil Gibran and Wislawa Szymborska. Discussions of
contemporary verse from current texts and periodicals provides the
denouement for our trip “around the world and through the ages… in
15 weeks”.
Readings: (subject to change)
Handouts provided by instructor and/or available via ANGEL.
Hirsch, Edward. How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry
Washburn, Katharine and Major, John S Editors. World Poetry:
An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time
Oliver, Mary. A Poetry Handbook.
Gibran, Kahlil. The Prophet
*Poetry book of student choice, costing no more than $15.00
Exams, Papers:
Final paper and minor projects require students to read, write,
examine, memorize, recite, theorize and discuss poetry.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
01, 02:
03, 04:
Instructor:
K. Moore
TR
TR
8-9:20
9:30-10:50
ENGL 211-05, 06
WORLD POETRY
Description:
Our focus will be on using poetry to honor the dead. We will
critically examine poems from a variety of nationalities, ethnicities, and
time periods. We will begin the semester with close readings, learning
how to critically examine poetry. We will then engage literary criticism
to further our understanding of poetry.
Readings:
Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies, edited by Sandra M.
Gilbert; handouts and readings on Angel.
Exams, Papers:
1 midterm critical analysis, 1 short literary analysis, 1 final
project on a poet of one's choice, 1 group presentation, original poem(s),
and discussion questions; mandatory class attendance.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 7 - Humanities
Core course in English major
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
A. Fearman
12-12:50
ENGL 216-01
SCIENCE FICTION
Description:
Historical and generic survey of science fiction through representative works
and major authors; examination of its relationships with other types of
literature. This section focuses on major science fiction conventions, subgenres, and
themes in short story anthologies, short story collections, and short story-esque
novels from around the world and from a range of time periods. This structure
allows us to compare many different authors' narrative strategies, themes, and
visions (formalist criticism), consider developments in the genre and subgenres and
relations to other genres, modes, and media (intertextual criticism), explore
relations between the works and the time periods in which they were written
(historicist criticism), and relate the works to contemporary social/political issues
(cultural criticism). Further, it allows us to practice going beyond disciplinary
approaches (science fiction as a specialization within English studies) and even
interdisciplinary inquiries (science fiction studies as a cultural studies field
combining literature with history, sociology, the sciences, and so on) and begin
working toward a trans disciplinary approach to examining the stakes of science
fiction.
For earlier (quite different) versions of this course, please see:
http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/sf3/
http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/sf2/
http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/engl216s05/
Readings:
Two or more short story anthologies chosen from among Science
Fiction: Stories and Contexts (ed. Heather Masri), The Secret History of Science
Fiction (eds. James Patrick Kelly and John Kessell), Dark Matter: A Century of
Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (ed. Sheree Renee Thomas), and So
Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy (eds. Nalo
Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan). Single-author texts may include Ted Chiang’s
Stories of Your Life and Others, Samuel Delany’s Aye, and Gomorrah, and Other
Stories, Toh Enjoe’s Self-Reference Engine, Maureen McHugh’s China Mountain
Zhang, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, and/or Patrick Somerville’s The Universe in
Miniature in Miniature.
Exams, Papers:
Attendance/Preparation/Participation (15%), Online Participation (15%), two
Critical Essays (40%), Final Research Project (30%).
CCC Fulfilled:
Part 5
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
B. Simon
3:30-4:50
ENGL 242-01
ETHN
WGST
AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURE
Description:
This course examines the various literary productions of
American Indian writers and storytellers, including traditional tales,
novels, poems, and memoirs. In examining this literature, particular
attention will be paid to how social constructions of gender and
sexuality impact conceptions of indigenous American identities, both
historically and at present. In addition to the literary texts listed below,
we will also consider some recent works of feminist and queer theory
dealing with indigenous identities.
Readings:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
Trickster: A Graphic Collection, Matt Dembicki, ed.
Tracks, Louise Erdrich
The Last Report On the Miracles at Little No Horse, Louise Erdrich
Crazy Brave, Joy Harjo
She Had Some Horses, Joy Harjo
North American Indians: A Very Short Introduction, Theda Perdue and
Michael D. Green
Itch Like Crazy, Wendy Rose
Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko
The Heartsong of Charging Elk, James Welch
Drowning in Fire, Craig S. Womack
Exams, Papers:
Assignments will include: response papers, a reading observation
journal, a historical context presentation, an interdisciplinary analysis
paper, and a research-based activism project.
Time Class Meets:
TR
12:30-1:50
Instructor:
J. Iovannone
ENGL 260 01, 02, 03, 04,
07, 08, 09, 10
INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING
Description:
ENGL 260 is first in the sequence of creative writing courses, and the
prerequisite for all higher-level creative writing. Conducted in an informal
workshop format, the course provides practical experience in the writing and
evaluation of poetry and short fiction. Basic forms, prosodies, techniques, genres,
and the problems they pose are considered through study of historical and
contemporary examples, and through writing assignments.
In this class, students will form a community in which they learn about
fiction and poetry writing through reading and evaluation of published authors’
work, and through the creation and sharing of their own stories and poems.
Students will study and discuss different forms and genres, drafting and revision
techniques, the far-reaching benefits of writing poems and stories, and the ways by
which authors can manage the challenges they encounter during various stages of
the writing process. By the semester’s end, students will be comfortable discussing
their own and others’ written work, have a better understanding of and
appreciation for craft, and proud of what they themselves have created.
Readings:
Students will read selections from the texts listed below. They will also
purchase and read texts written by the visiting authors brought to our campus by
the Mary Louise White Visiting Writers Series. The instructor will also bring in
supplemental readings.
Texts:
Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, Third Edition, by
Janet Burroway, Longman 2011
The Oxford Book of American Short Stories, edited by Joyce Carol
Oates, Oxford University Press 1992
Exams/Papers:
Students will complete a variety of creative assignments, including a creative
midterm project and a final project involving revision.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 8 - Arts
Time Class Meets:
01, 02: MW
03, 04: MW
07, 08: TR
09, 10: TR
Instructor:
R. Schwab
3-4:20
4:30-5:50
3:30-4:50
5-6:20
ENGL 260 05, 06
INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING
Description:
Designed to introduce you to the techniques and principles of
writing poetry and short fiction. You will learn the elements of craft,
style, and form as well as effective invention, drafting and revision
strategies. You will work on creative exercises in and outside of class
that will give you practice using specific techniques and will provide you
with the foundations of poems and stories. In addition, you will have the
opportunity to "workshop" each other’s creative work; that is, you will
critique and discuss poem and story drafts submitted for class review.
You will also read and analyze the poetry and fiction of published
authors as a way of learning how these writers achieve unity of content
and form. The course will be divided into two units, the first devoted to
poetry and the second to fiction. Class sessions will be conducted
primarily as seminars during which you will share your responses to
assigned readings from the text, your creative exercises, and your poem
and story drafts. Be prepared to write AND read more than you ever
have before.
Readings:
One poetry craft book
One fiction craft book
In Thailand it is Night, Ira Sukrungruang
Rise, L. Annette Binder
Other individual collections or an anthology of poetry and fiction, TBA
Exams, Papers:
At least 10 poems based on class assignments, several short stories
and vignettes, one final 8-10 pg short story.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 8 - Arts
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
A. Nezhukumatathil
2-3:20
ENGL 261 01
LITERARY PUBLISHING
Description:
Introduction to Literary Publishing explores the varied landscape
of contemporary literary publishing. From the rise of self-publishing to
the explosion of small presses and online literary journals, how is the
world of publishing changing? How are certain publishing traditions
still thriving? Students will learn what it is like to work on either side of
the publishing world—as a writer who longs to be published, and as a
publisher who is seeking out quality work.
Readings:
One or two literary publishing texts, as well as a number of
literary journals (both online and in print).
Exams, Papers:
Students will solicit work for and produce The Trident, SUNY
Fredonia’s student-run literary magazine. Students will also produce a
chapbook of their own creative work. Throughout the semester,
students will write response papers pertaining to various topics related
to the field of literary publishing.
Time Class Meets:
MW 4:30-5:50
Instructor:
S. Gerkensmeyer
ENGL 291 01
BIBLE AS LITERATURE
Description:
We will examine the Bible as a literary anthology covering almost
a thousand years. We will consider the Bible’s use of narrative, poetry
and history. Our focus will be on the Bible’s literary qualities and on
the Bible’s influence on art, music, and literature.
Readings:
Extensive excerpts from the Bible.
Exams, Papers:
Weekly response papers, three formal papers.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 5 Western Civ
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
T. Steinberg
2-3:20
ENGL 302 01
LITERARY LANDMARKS - BRITISH
Description:
The five highly influential works of British literature in this
course all feature notorious “bad boys.” Each work engages questions
of ethics and morality and ties those questions to definitions of
manliness and masculinity. So, while we will closely examine each work
and its relationship to the culture that produced it, we will look
specifically at the construction of the male characters in these texts and
what makes them bad guys. Some of the topics we will examine through
these texts are the changing norms for men’s (and gentlemen’s)
behavior, the differences between masculinity and manliness, and the
relationships among manliness, morality, sexual desire, and violence.
Readings:
We will concentrate on the following six primary readings:
William Shakespeare, Richard III
William Wycherley, The Country Wife
Lord Byron, The Corsair
Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
In addition, students will read and present oral summaries of critical
scholarship related to these primary texts.
Exams, Papers:
Mandatory attendance, one group presentation, five two-page thesis
argument papers, and two five-to-seven page comparative essays.
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
D. Kaplin
1-1:50
ENGL 306 01
MIDDLE EASTERN LIT
Description:
This survey course will explore the theme of oppression and
identity in Middle Eastern literatures. Exploration of modern Middle
Eastern Literatures in general but we will also examine ancient texts
and mythologies that inspire and inform these modern texts. There will
be documentary and film screenings.
All readings are in English translation.
Exams, Papers:
2 exams, final exam, one book review, 5-page essay,
unannounced quizzes.
Reading list (tentative):
Oranges in the Sun, Gulf
Feast in the Mirror, Iran
The Story of Zahra, Lebanon
Museum of Innocence, Turkey
Snow, Turkey
The War Works Hard, Iraq
Fatma, Saudi Arabia
Persepolis (complete), Iran
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 6 – Other World Civ
Time Class Meets:
R
Instructor:
I. Vanwesenbeeck
5-7:30
ENGL 310-01
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
Period Course
Description:
We will be examining the literature of the Middle Ages in its
cultural contexts, which means that we will also be looking at the art,
music, philosophy, and history of the Middle Ages. We will read works
about King Arthur, about life after death, and mostly about love.
Readings:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl
Dante, Purgatorio
Marie de France, Lais
Beowulf
Hebrew and Arabic poetry
Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy
Exams, Papers:
Weekly response papers
3 major papers
CCC Fulfilled:
Western Civ
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
T. Steinberg
11-12:20
ENGL 314 01
WOMEN WRITERS
Description:
This section of Women Writers will use Virginia Woolf’s essay A
Room of One’s Own as a guidebook for the class, and read our way
through women’s literary production while thinking about Woolf’s
thesis on what it means to be a woman writer. We will start with the
early women poets she explores, while mixing in American women
writers and poets in particular with whom she would have been less
familiar and less concerned given her focus on fiction. As we shift to the
19th Century, we will look at Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen, and
Charlotte Brontë while considering what Woolf means by “a woman’s
sentence.” In turning to the 20th Century, we will consider how women
writers “interrupt” or “break the sentence.” We will look at Jeanette
Winterson, Julie Dash, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Shara McCallum, as
contemporary women writers, whose works—in Woolf’s words—enable
“the dead poet who was Shakespeare’s Sister” to “put on the body
which she has so often laid down.”
Tentative list of readings:
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
Online selections from Anne Finch, Margaret Cavendish, Aphra Behn,
and Phillis Wheatley
Emily Dickinson, Complete Poems
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry
Julie Dash, Daughters of the Dust
Suzan-Lori Parks, The Red Letter Plays
Shara McCallum, This Strange Land
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 4 - Western Civ
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
A. McCormick
2-3:20
ENGL 321 01
CONTEMPORARY DRAMA
Period Course
Description:
This course will examine contemporary dramatic literature
from the mid-20th century to the present focusing on
understanding the dramatic form and its relation to society. In
what ways does drama facilitate a dialogue about contemporary
issues? Critical analysis of the plays will include exploration of
historical and cultural contexts as well as the theatrical
implications of staging the text.
Some Tentative Plays:
August: Osage County—Tracy Letts, Other Desert Cities—Jon Robin
Baitz, , The Laramie Project—Moises Kaufman, Fat Pig—Neil LaBute,
Doubt—John Patrick Shanley, Love Letters—A.R. Gurney, How I
Learned to Drive—Paula Vogel, Clybourne Park—Bruce Norris
Exams, Papers:
Response papers, research paper/presentation, final project,
active participation
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 11 - Speaking Intensive
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
A. Siegle Drege
12:30-1:50
ENGL 331-01
AMERICAN LITERARY ROOTS
Period Course
Description:
Study of American literary and cultural roots in the 17th and 18th centuries;
special attention to the emergence of myths and realities concerning the American
hero and the American dream, including specific issues such as the rise of slavery,
the role of women, the treatment of the Indian, the power of the Puritans, and the
rhetoric of the Revolution. This section is designed to introduce students to the
analysis of influential authors, works, genres, movements, ideologies, and cultural
narratives in the period known as early American literature. We will read,
contextualize, and compare a wide range of writings from colonial and early
national America, focusing on such genres as exploration narratives, captivity
narratives, promotional literature, travel narratives, poetry, histories, oratory,
autobiographies, and political writings. We will use competing accounts of
American literary roots--ranging from "Puritan origins" to the "rise and fall of
Anglo-America," from the "colonial contest" to "border zones"--to consider what is
at stake in constructing a U.S. literary canon out of transcultural sources.
For earlier versions of this course, please see
http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/engl331f02/
http://www.fredonia.edu/department/english/simon/en331/
Readings:
One or more anthologies on the period: Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner,
eds., The English Literatures of America, 1500-1800; Nina Baym, et al, eds., The
Norton Anthology of American Literature (8th ed.); Carla Mulford, et al, eds., Early
American Writings. One or more longer works from the period: Mary
Rowlandson’s captivity narrative; Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography; Olaudah
Equiano’s or Mary Prince’s slave narrative. One or more literary work from a
later period that looks back on the period: Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet
Letter; Maryse Conde, I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem; Toni Morrison, A Mercy.
Exams, Papers:
Attendance/Preparation/Participation (15%), Online Participation (15%), Critical
Essay (20%); Group Presentation (20%); Final Research Project (30%).
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 4b (American History)
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
B. Simon
2-3:20
ENGL 332-01
AMERICAN ROMANTICISM IN LIT
Period Course
Description:
This course offers a study of romanticism in American literary
history. This section of ENGL 332 focuses on U.S. literature between the
War of 1812 and the Civil War. We will pay attention to relevant
historical contexts, such as state’s rights debates and sectional conflicts,
as well as the burgeoning presence of abolitionist, feminist, and labor
reform movements. To achieve these goals, we will read and analyze a
wide range of texts from multiple perspectives, beginning with the
responses to “manifest destiny” by frontier fiction writers (Cooper and
Sedgwick, for example); moving on to consider the attempts to define
(and revise) American identity by transcendentalists and their friends
(Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller -- Melville, Hawthorne, and Whitman,
too!) as well as by domestic novelists (such as Susan Warner and Fanny
Fern); and culminating with examples of the politically-charged reform
literature leading up to the Civil War (Douglass and Stowe).
Readings:
Specific texts to be determined, but the reading list will include
novels, short stories, polemical and philosophical essays, and poems by
antebellum American authors.
Assignments:
TBD, but likely will include response papers, formal analytical
essays, and a research-based essay. There will likely be an archival
research assignment, as well.
Time Class Meets:
MWF
11-11:50
Instructor:
E. VanDette
ENGL 333-01
ENVIRONMENTAL LITERATURE
Description:
A survey of American environmental writing, chiefly over the past
half century. Focuses on the art of seeing natural places. Includes direct
study and reflection of nature. “The more we can focus our attention on
the works and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall
have for destruction.”—Rachel Carson. Building upon this theme, this
course will trace the development of American environmental ethics:
beliefs about right and wrong uses of, and attitudes toward, the natural
world. Never before have our encounters with the natural world been
imbued with so much peril and so much possibility.
Readings: TBA
Exams, Papers:
2-3 reflective and critical essays, several “field notes” observations
throughout the semester about a pet/plant and our texts, and a final
paper/project at semester’s end
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 4 – American History
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
A. Nezhukumatathil
12:30-1:50
ENGL 342 01
AMST 399
ETHN 389
AFRICAN-AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY:
Description:
This course will be a study of texts that contribute to the field of
African-American autobiography. In particular, we will be reading
autobiographical texts that have depicted, or further developed our
understanding of, historical eras in the United States. From slavery to
contemporary hip-hop culture, we will focus on the literary and cultural
trends exhibited in these texts, as well as on the individual significance
of the text itself. We will also be discussing the relationship between the
text and author to the time period presented in the autobiography.
Readings:
Readings will include, but not be limited to: Solomon Northrup’s
12 Years a Slave; Jay-Z’s Decoded; Barack Obama’s Dreams from my
Father; Melba Pattillo Beals’ Warriors Don’t Cry.
Exams, Papers:
Response papers, reading quizzes, and other assignments.
CCC Fulfilled:
American History B
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
S. Liggins
10-10:50
ENGL 345-01
CRITICAL READINGS
Description:
Critical Reading satisfies a core requirement for English majors
and is elective for all other majors and minors. Within the major, it
provides a focus on helping students develop an awareness of their own
acts of interpretation in reading and an understanding of the strengths
of different approaches to interpretation and criticism.
Assignments:
This is a course that requires substantial reading of philosophical
and critical texts spanning the centuries. Students will have a number of
opportunities to engage with this reading through response papers and
blogs, a midterm exam, group presentations, and a final project.
Readings:
David Richter, The Critical Tradition, 3rd edition plus a literary
selection TBA. Lots of additional materials will also be explored,
including various media texts.
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 11 – Speaking Intensive
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
J. McVicker
11-12:20
ENGL 349 01
WOST/PHIL
THEORIES OF GENDER
Description:
This course introduces students to a broad range of foundational
feminist writings and current theories of gender. The class will have a
multidisciplinary approach and engage the intersections between
gender, race, class, sexuality, nationality and disability as categories of
analysis and sources of oppression and empowerment. Students will
employ the theories to analyze and evaluate the various “texts” they are
engaged with everyday including classroom and discipline specific
content and practices, literary texts, popular media representations, and
campus and community events.
Readings:
Primary text: McCann and Kim, eds. Feminist Theory Reader:
Local and Global Perspectives Additional reading will include take up
issues from disability studies, queer theory, masculinity studies and
theorists working with technology, science and media.
Exams, Papers:
3 response papers, discussion leading, a research presentation on
a topic exploring contemporary feminist/gender issues, attending and
discussing the spring gender conference, a final research project
CCC Fulfilled:
Speaking-Intensive (11)
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
S. McGee
11-11:50
ENED 354 01, 02
LIT FOR THE INTERMEDIATE GRADES*
*Childhood Education, Dual Concentrators, & Middle School Ext. only
Description:
This course focuses on literature for students in the intermediate
grades. Future elementary school teachers will learn strategies for
helping these young readers become confident, capable, lifelong readers.
In the process, they will become more active, responsive, critical readers
themselves.
**Tentative** Readings:
Serafini, The Reading Workshop
MacLachlan, Journey
Codell, Sahara Special
Curtis, The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963
Lin, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon OR Lin, Starry River of the
Sky
Applegate, The One and Only Ivan OR Stead, When You Reach Me
Creech, Heartbeat
Ryan, Esperanza Rising
Choldenko, Al Capone Does My Shirts
Ryan, Becoming Naomi Leon
Palacio, Wonder
**Tentative** Exams, Papers, etc.
Informal In- and Out-of-Class Reading/Writing Activities
Literature Response Logs
Collection of Character Descriptions
Book Group Leader Project
Book Group Evaluations
Self-Selected Novel Portfolio
Serafini/Reading Workshop paper
Time Class Meets:
01
02
MWF
MWF
Instructor:
M. Wendell
8-8:50
11-11:50
ENED 355 01
ADOLESCENT LITERATURE
Description:
This course will involve the study of and written responses to a
variety of texts written by, for, and about adolescents. We will examine
representations of young people from diverse backgrounds in these
works. Students will read adolescent literature representing a broad
span of genres, experiences, cultures, and identities, and will discuss and
prepare to teach that literature. We will examine this literature
through a series of essential questions, several focused on elements of
identity such as race, class, and gender. Students will also discuss,
experience, and reflect on a wide variety of pedagogical methods
relevant to teaching literature in secondary schools.
Readings:
Although this list is not finalized, the readings will likely include:
The Book Thief (Zusak); The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian (Alexie); Monster (Myers); Chanda’s Secrets (Stratton); The
Hunger Games (Creech); The Penderwicks (Birdsall); Persepolis I
(Satrapi); The Giver (Lowry); and choices from sets of books that will
include Boy Meets Boy ( Levithan); Parrotfish (Wittlinger) From the
Notebooks of Melanin Sun (Jacqueline Woodson); American Born
Chinese (Yang); Friends With Boys (Hicks); The Disreputable History of
Frankie Landau-Banks (Lockhart); Thirteen Reasons Why (Asher); and
selected slam poetry.
Exams, Papers:
Responses to each book; one paper; one podcast based on
interviews (working with a partner); 1 mini-lesson, also taught with a
partner.
Time Class Meets:
TR
2-3:20
Instructor:
H. McEntarfer
ENED 357 01, 02
LITERACY, LANGUAGE,
LEARNING THEORY
Description:
Students will examine human language acquisition
(psycholinguistics) and cognitive learning theory; how these theoretical
bases help us to understand how it is people learn to read and write.
Students will explore what is involved in the initial stages of learning to
read and write and move toward an exploration of mature (critical?)
literacy, approaches to teaching reading and writing grades K-12,
cultural literacy, and Whole Language approaches to teaching and
understanding literacy.
Readings:
Courts. Multicultural Literacy: Dialect, Discourse, and Diversity.
Moustafa. Beyond Traditional Phonics
Either
or
1) Goodman. On Reading
2) Routman. Literacy at the Crossroads
A broad range of periodical articles and handouts.
Exams, Papers:
At least one personal essay, 10 annotated bibliographies, reader
response log, class presentation, 3 essay examinations, final research
paper.
Time Class Meets:
TR
2-3:20
Instructor:
S. Johnston
ENED 359 01, 02
TEACHING POETRY IN ELEMENTARY
AND MIDDLE SCHOOL*
*CH/EC English Concentrators & Middle School Ext. only
Description:
In this course future educators will develop competence and
confidence as readers, writers, and teachers of poetry. They will use the
knowledge they gain from class discussions, readings, activities and
projects to develop their own philosophies and strategies for
approaching poetry with elementary and middle school students.
Tentative Readings:
Creech, Love That Dog
Fletcher, Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out
Heard, For the Good of the Earth and Sun: Teaching Poetry
Heard, Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle
School
Creech, Hate That Cat
Exams, Papers:
Informal In- and Out-of-Class Reading/Writing Activities
Poet’s Journal
Original Poetry
Poetry Binder (collected poems)
Poetry Readings/Recitations
Heart Map
Poetry Anthology
Poet Study
Presentation of Poetry Anthology or Poet Study
CCC Fulfilled:
Category 11 – Speaking Intensive
Time Class Meets:
01, 03
02, 04
Instructor:
M. Wendell
MWF
MWF
9-9:50
10-10:50
ENGL 361 01
INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING
CO-REQ
ENGL 160 01
*Portfolios Submission Due: OCTOBER 23, 2013
(pre-requisite for entering this course)
Description:
The class focuses on the creation and evaluation of original
fiction. This is a workshop class, so students will be showcasing their
own work created during this semester. The class will also build on the
knowledge of introductory creative writing and focus in more depth on
form, techniques and problems evident in contemporary creative
writing. Students will do exercises in class and outside of class for
discussion as well as a great deal of reading.
Readings:
This is Not Your City by Caitlin Horrocks
Flash Fiction Forward. Thomas, James and Robert Shapard (eds).
Others TBA
Exams, Papers:
Regular reflections on revision of 2 stories over the course of the
semester.
Written project book reviews.
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
D. Parsons
2-2:50
ENGL 361 02
INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING
CO-REQ ENGL 160 01
*Portfolios Submission Due: OCTOBER 23, 2013
(pre-requisite for entering this course)
Description:
This course will focus more intensely on the concepts that students
began to learn about in Engl. 260 Intro. to Creative Writing. We will
focus on the short story in particular and various issues of craft and
criticism that affect how we read and write short fiction.
This course relies heavily on process learning. Students will learn
hands-on about the concepts and theories of short fiction as they read it
and write their own simultaneously. Through various forms of
workshop, students will learn to both give and receive feedback on the
writing produced in this course. Creative exercises are also an integral
part of this process learning. Students will not only write in response to
exercise prompts, but they will also learn to create their own writing
prompts in order to inspire themselves as well as their classmates.
Readings:
 Method and Madness: The Making of a Story, Alice LaPlante
 New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories from America and
Beyond, Robert Shapard and James Thomas
 Fires of Our Choosing, Eugene Cross
 Various readings posted on our Angel Website
Exams, Papers:
During the course of the semester, students will complete several
writing assignments (both in and out of class), Writing Exercise Journal
entries, and written critiques during workshop periods. At the end of
the semester, students will turn in a portfolio of both revised and new
work.
Time Class Meets:
T
5-7:30
Instructor:
S. Gerkensmeyer
ENGL 363 01
INTERMEDIATE CREATIVE NON-FICTION
Description:
Explores the different modes and styles of contemporary creative
nonfiction today including memoir, the personal essay, the lyric essay,
literary journalism and other forms at the instructor's discretion.
Students will read from many different nonfiction authors and write in
several different modes culminating in a final portfolio of creative
nonfiction. Instruction in the writing process of workshop and revision
will also be reinforced.
Readings:
Talk Thai: Adventures of Buddhist Boy by Ira Sukrungruang
Others tba
Exams, Papers:
Several essays in styles mentioned above. Revision of at least two.
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
D. Parsons
1-1:50
ENGL 365 01
FORM AND THEORY
Description:
As writers, it is imperative that we learn how to perform “close
readings” of various texts in various genres. And we must understand
the issues of form and theory that inform those works, in turn better
understanding our own writing and the decisions that we make when we
create art. This course will consider numerous forms of both poetry
and fiction—from traditional to contemporary and even experimental,
from haiku to spoken word, flash fiction to the novel. Whether or not a
student ultimately ends up identifying him or herself as a writer of a
specific form or genre, it is important to take into consideration how
various forms have shaped literary movements and how they can shape
our own work. This course is designed for writing minors with an
explicit aim to expose students to the various issues of diverse forms in
order to help them discover, hone, and understand their own voices and
aesthetics. This course will also closely scrutinize a few poetry and
fiction collections in their entirety. Not only will we think about how
various issues of form and theory inform these collections, but we will
also consider what kinds of narratives are constructed within each of
these collections as a whole.
Readings:
Will include visiting writers: Eugene Cross’ Fires of Our
Choosing and Eduardo C. Corral’s Slow Lightening. Other texts are
yet to be determined, some of which may include: John Gardner’s The
Art of Fiction, Charles Baxter’s Burning Down the House, Annie Ridley
Crane French and Kathrine Lore Varnes’ An Exaltation of Forms.
Exams, Papers:
Will include both informal response papers and formal research
papers, as well as class presentations.
Time Class Meets:
MW
3-4:20
Instructor:
S. Gerkensmeyer
ENGL 366 01
OPINIONS IN JOURNALISM
Description:
This multi-media opinion-writing course is designed specifically
for English majors, writing minors and journalism majors, though all
students are welcome. The goal is to strengthen students’ ability to
critique professional opinion pieces, craft their own opinion pieces, and
become more sophisticated, critical consumers and producers of media
and information. In a time of profound upheaval in all sectors of
planetary life, the role of opinion in journalism deserves profound
attention.
Assignments:
Writing is the focus, no matter the format. How to write for a
particular audience, using the appropriate medium, will be a vital part
of the course. There will be a semester-long tracking analysis paper,
asking students to follow professional opinion writers and engage in
substantive critique. Students will produce several individual opinion
pieces and also engage in a group opinion assignment.
Readings:
Subscription to the New York Times required as well as a
subscription to Twitter; lots of online reading of professional and
independent opinion writers. One or two primary texts will be required,
TBA.
Time Class Meets:
TR
2-3:20
Instructor:
J. McVicker
ENGL 373 01
ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR EVERYONE
Description:
You already have mastered grammar if you can speak, read, and
write a language: for years you have observed and practiced the
structural rules of that language in the dialect spoken by your family.
But this course will help you learn more about those internalized rules
and about the range of choices available to you when you write and
speak English.
As we will discuss, controversies about grammar abound. Critics
of U.S. education argue that language has deteriorated, that students
cannot write, and that technology has left a generation without the
ability to communicate correctly. To some extent, this kind of thinking
has led to increased public attention on grammar instruction, and
schools are under pressure to have students perform better on
standardized tests. Evidence shows, however, that one learns to write
well by reading extensively, by practicing writing frequently, and by
paying attention to the virtuosity and creativity possible in English
syntax. We will therefore focus on these questions:

What are the formal terms grammarians use to describe
English word classes and
structures (phrases, clauses, and sentences)?

How has English grammar evolved and what remnants of
earlier forms remain?

What is correct? What is incorrect? Why and when does it
matter?

How can writers use their knowledge of grammar to edit
written text, to identify effective practices in others’ writing,
and to strengthen their own?

What are some of the historic and current issues
surrounding grammar and grammar
instruction?

How can punctuation be more effective once one
understands grammatical rules?
To answer these questions, we will read from a number of
sources, including a textbook; engage in Internet, library, and archival
research; do frequent informal writing and exercises; and spend
considerable time discussing examples of language from many sources
We will continue to remind ourselves of a point summarized by
novelist William Somerset Maugham in The Summing Up (1938): “It is
necessary to know grammar, and it is better to write grammatically
than not, but it is well to remember that grammar is common speech
formulated. Usage is the only test.”
Required Texts
1) Berry, Roger. English Grammar: A Resource Book for Students.
London and New York: Routledge, 2012.
2) A handbook on English grammar of your choice (generally
assigned in ENGL 100). [Don’t buy this before learning more in
the first class!]
3) A selected popular or scholarly book about grammar or a related
topic from a list of supplemental readings. {Don’t buy this before
learning more in the first class!]
Exams, Papers:
Learning in this course will be evaluated through regular quizzes
and exercises (in and out of class), postings to a course blog, a book
review presentation, creative project, and final examination. The
instructor welcomes service-learning projects for an additional hour of
course credit (subject to approval).
Time Class Meets:
TR
5-6:20
Instructor:
V. Horvath
ENGL 374 01
WRITING AND SOCIAL CHANGE
Description:
Are you concerned about environmental and social justice issues? Would you
like to put your writing, critical thinking, and educational talents to use helping to
address these issues right here in our local community? If so, then this class is for
you. This interdisciplinary writing-intensive course will use a variety of methods,
materials, and approaches to explore four contemporary sustainability issues:
energy, food and gardens, water, and social justice/community. We will work with
several sustainability community partners, including the Chautauqua County Rural
Ministry’s Gleaning Project, to address local environmental and social justice needs
and to engage in real world writing projects. In addition to literary works and
nonfiction essays, we will analyze a variety of film, Internet, and popular press
sources to explore our topics and to evaluate the effectiveness of different
writing/communication genres in producing social change. In addition to several
field trips, the course will incorporate several panels and visits by faculty members
and local environmental activists. Because this is a service-learning course, you will
be required to participate in several events outside of our regular course meeting
times.
Possible Readings:
Karl Weber, ed., Food Inc.: A Participant Guide: How Industrial Food is Making Us
Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer-And What You Can Do About It
Mark Nowak, Coal Mountain Elementary
Selections from Patricia Klindienst, The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture and
Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic America
Writings by Vandana Shiva, Robert Putnam, Jeff Goodell, John Mohawk, Susan
Casey, Eric Schlosser, David Wann, Winona LaDuke, Michael Pollan, Paul
Hawken, Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben, and others.
Exams, Papers:
Several pieces of public writing (i.e., brief editorials, blogs, newsletters, and
other pieces for public audiences); press releases (some if not all students); a grant
writing project; reading/engagement journal; group publicity/advocacy project for
a local nonprofit organization; lively, engaged participation; and final portfolio.
Time Class Meets:
TR
9:30-10:50
Instructor:
C. Jarvis
ENGL 375 01
WRITING FOR THE PROFESSIONS
Description:
In this course, you will learn how to write for professional
audiences and purposes. You will gain experience researching, writing,
and revising written work in a variety of rhetorical formats (e.g., emails,
memos, letters, reports, self-evaluations). You will also hone your basic
written proficiency by developing awareness of your emerging skills in
areas such as grammar, syntax, and punctuation. Finally, you will
enhance your appreciation of how contextual factors, such as financial
and time constraints, layout, and cross-cultural communication, enter
into effective decisions about how to shape professional documents for
different audiences and different print- or Web-based formats. Since
this is a writing-intensive course, you should be prepared to turn in 2025 pages of written work and to write and revise on a weekly basis.
Readings:
TBD but likely Writing That Works: Communicating Effectively on
the Job (11th ed.); any grammar book published in the past ten years;
and required course readings posted to ANGEL.
Assignments:
TBD, but will include formal and informal professional writing in
multiple genres and for different audience, as well as a formal
presentation.
Time Class Meets:
MW
3-4:20
Instructor:
E. VanDette
ENGL 387 01
AMERICAN FILM: THE 1980’s
* 4 cr. hr. course
Description:
This course focuses on American films of the 1980s, aesthetically,
historically, and culturally. Issues we will discuss include the Reagan
Years (the late Cold War, the rise of conservatism, cultures of
paranoia), blockbusters and alternative films, the postmodern aesthetic,
teen movies, and other relevant topics.
Exams, Papers:
Assignments will include a viewing blog, occasional short essays,
and a final research project on a topic you choose.
Time Class Meets:
T
R
3:30-5:50
3:30-4:30
Instructor:
S. McRae
ENGL 397 01
DISCOURSES OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Period Course
Description:
Lux fiat! Let there be light! The last time this course was offered by the
English Department, George W. Bush was still in office; Facebook was a still largely
unknown entity; and yours truly was still finishing up a dissertation as a graduate
student at the University at Buffalo.
Seven years in the making, then, the very offering of this course is something
of an event; and a unique opportunity for English majors and non-majors of all
stripes to familiarize themselves with some of the most pertinent issues of Western
culture (yes, you can get CCC Western History credit for the course as well).
Here’s why:
The late 18th century, a period better known as the Enlightenment (Lumières
in French; Aukflärung in German) introduced some of the cornerstones of how we
define ourselves as modern individuals. In this course we’ll focus on three
Enlightenment discourses that each have had a lasting influence: that of literature;
political philosophy; and art criticism. This will allow us to address issues that
continue to be relevant today such as the relationship between word and image; the
definition of artistic beauty; the “rise of the novel”; the culture of sentimentalism;
the conception of pedagogy.
Readings: (subject to change)
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Poetry and Painting
Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe
Voltaire. Candide
Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Confessions (we will only read parts of this)
Immanuel Kant. Critique of Judgment
Denis Diderot. Selected Art Criticism
Additional shorter readings by J.W.V. Goethe, Edmund Burke, and others, will be
made available on Angel.
Exams, Papers:
Response papers; midterm exam; final paper
CCC Fulfilled:
Western History
Time Class Meets:
M
Instructor:
B. Vanwesenbeeck
4:30-7
ENGL 399 01
SPECIAL TOPICS:
Writing and Research
Description:
A student-centered, writing-workshop course in which students
understand and practice writing process elements with focus on
primary and secondary research methods in a variety of genres and
forums.
Topics include discipline-specific research methodologies, evaluating
sources, synthesizing and integrating sources, plagiarism
Readings:
A variety of popular and scholarly articles on or incorporating research
Exams, Papers:
A variety of short papers that include research
A student-selected final research project
Time Class Meets:
TR
11-12:20
Instructor:
S. Spangler
ENGL 399 02
LANG
SPECIAL TOPICS:
Magic Realism
Description:
What is Magic Realism? Is it magic? Is it realism? Is there a
definition? Critics of Latin American literature from mid 20th-Century
on have used the term Magic Realism over and over. Yet, there is no
agreement on what the term actually means. Some confuse it with
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, the Supernatural, the Surreal, and the
Uncanny. Students will read, in English translation, exciting works by
authors considered by many to be practitioners of Magic Realism,
starting with Borges. They will also read the views of these writers, as
given in interviews, as to what constitutes Magic Realism. Together, the
class will give opinions as to what category each work they read falls
into. The class will try to arrive at a definition of Magic Realism based
on readings and discussions.
Readings:
Jorge Luis Borges, J.L. Borges: Collected Fictions (Penguin Group)
Carlos Fuentes, Aura (Bilingual Edition) (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux)
Marco Denevi, Secret Ceremony (English translation) or Ceremonia
secreta (Spanish original)
Enrique Jaramillo Levi, The Shadow: Thirteen Stories in Opposition
(Latin American Literary Review Press)
Julio Ricci, Falling Through the Cracks (White Pine Press) (On reserve
at Reed Library)
Clark M. Zlotchew, Varieties of Magic Realism (Academic
Press/Ediciones Nuevos Espacios)
Clark M. Zlotchew, Voices of the River Plate: Interviews with Writers of
Argentina and Uruguay (An Authors Guild Backinprint.com
Edition)
Exams, Papers:
Two Hour-Exams
Final Paper
Several Short Papers (one to two pages)
Time Class Meets:
TR
12:30-1:50
Instructor:
C. Zlotchew
ENGL 400 01
SENIOR SEMINAR
Description:
In the capstone course, students will reflect back upon
their English major, and will polish their skills in critical and close
reading, research-based and other forms of writing, as well as oral
explorations of literature. Students must also enroll in ENGL 401
Portfolio Completion while taking Senior Seminar. In this section, our
theme and slogan is “Keeping It Strange.” We will explore connections
and contrasts between Emily Dickinson and the proliferation of
contemporary movements and genres that trouble the boundaries and
distinctions between fiction and reality, literature and popular
culture: slipstream, interstitial arts, the new weird, and new wave
fabulists. Our goal will be to use these comparisons as a springboard
for students to (1) further develop their skills in critical and close
reading; (2) reflect on their journey through the major; (3) research,
present, and write on a contemporary cultural phenomenon of their
choice; and (4) engage the public through a variety of strategies (Big
Read, blogs, readings)
Readings:
Might include anthologies like Whispers from the
Cotton Tree Root, Conjunctions: 39, The New Wave Fabulists,
Interfictions, The New Weird, and/or Feeling Very Strange; short story
collections like Aimee Bender’s The Color Master and/or Sarah
Gerkensmeyer’s What You Are Now Enjoying; graphic literature like
Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and/or Warren Ellis’s
Planetary, fantasy novels like Lev Grossman’s The Magicians,
Catherynne Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a
Ship of Her Own Making, and/or Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of
the Lane; alternate histories like Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish
Policemen’s Union and/or Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.
Exams, Papers:
Attendance/Preparation/Participation (15%); Online Participation
(15%), Portfolio Exit Paper (15%), Engagement Project (25%),
Research Project (30%).
CCC Fulfilled:
Speaking Intensive/Basic Oral Communication
Time Class Meets:
Instructor:
TR 9:30-10:50
B. Simon
ENGL 400 02
SENIOR SEMINAR
Description:
This capstone course will be both a culmination of your studies as
an English major and an opportunity to branch your interests and skills
in new directions. We’ll have an opportunity to refine and practice
work you’ve already done—traditional in-depth textual study, writing
and revising your own writing. We’ll also explore ways of engaging with
a larger reading and writing public, such as political and cultural blogs,
and internet communities such as fan fiction writers, TV recappers and
commentators, and platforms such as tumbler and twitter. We may
spend some time discussing ways to enter the job market as an English
major (how to write a good resume, how to write a business plan and
such), but probably more time helping you to generate interesting
content, and develop a stronger sense of yourself as a thinker and writer
already engaged with the larger world.
CCC Fulfilled:
Speaking Intensive/Basic Oral Communication
Time Class Meets:
TR
Instructor:
S. McRae
2-3:20
ENGL 412-01
EARLY SHAKESPEARE
Author Course
Description:
Shakespeare was a pretty good writer and wrote some interesting
plays. We’ll be reading eight of them—comedies, histories, and
tragedies. We’ll consider the plays both as literature and as
theater.
Readings:
Comedy of Errors, Taming of the Shrew, Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Richard II, Henry IV part 1, Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of
Venice, As You Like It
Exams, Papers:
Weekly response papers
3 major papers
Time Class Meets:
MW
Instructor:
T. Steinberg
3-4:20
ENGL 427 01
MAJOR WRITERS: Charles Dickens
Author Course
Description:
Dickens was the most popular, most critically acclaimed, and most influential
writer of the Victorian period. He created some of the most memorable and
idiosyncratic characters in fiction while at the same time dramatizing and
vigorously commenting upon the social realities of his day. This course will explore
Dickens’s life, his works, and his relationship to the city and society in which he
lived and about which he wrote. Some of the topics we will take up will be his form
of realism, his use of the fantastic, his methods of storytelling and developing
character, his use of fiction as social critique, and his changing views of institutions
such as family, religion, education, and social class. This course can also serve as an
excellent partner to Fredonia’s Literary London summer program, which will
feature a separate course on Dickens (the readings for that course will be different,
except for the biography which is required in both courses).
*** These novels are rich, witty, and enthralling, but they are also huge, so the
reading load in this course will always approach and often exceed 200 pages per
week (for a total of more than 3000 pages). Think twice about this course if you
have other heavy reading courses scheduled this semester. ***
Readings:
Short fiction selections
Editorials and satires from Household Words and All the Year Round
Fred Kaplan’s biography of Dickens
Portions from The Pickwick Papers
Oliver Twist
Dombey and Son
David Copperfield
A Tale of Two Cities
Portions from Our Mutual Friend
Exams, Papers:
Mandatory attendance, one class presentation analyzing short fiction, five two-page
thesis arguments, one four-to-six page comparative essay, one ten-to-twelve page
research project.
Time Class Meets:
MWF
Instructor:
D. Kaplin
2-2:50
ENED 452 01
INQUIRIES IN STUDENT TEACHING
Description:
This course serves as a complement to student teaching
experiences in English Adolescence Education and examines
professional issues that arise in classrooms with emphasis on learnerinitiated and shaped professional development.
Readings:
Student-determined readings from current professional journals
Exams, Papers:
Teaching journal entries posted throughout the semester
Completion of the EdTPA
Presentation of a teaching inquiry along with supporting artifact(s)
A reflection on your presentation and action plan/research proposal
An appropriate “report” of your teaching inquiry. Some possibilities
include a conference paper, professional development seminar
materials, a newsletter or a film.
Time Class Meets:
W
4:30-7
Instructor:
S. Johnston
ENGL 455 01
WRITING TUTORS
CO-REQ: ENGL 456
ENGL 456 01
ESL TUTORING
CO-REQ: ENGL 455
*Enrollment requires permission of the instructor,
Dr. KimMarie Cole
Description:
In these two courses, we will examine the theories and practices of
tutoring individual writers on their work. We will consider both the
needs of native English speakers and English Language Learners. The
focus will be on writing in a number of disciplines. In addition you will
experience all the roles in the tutoring process: observer, co-tutor, a
tutee and a tutor.
Readings:
Articles and papers that will distributed during the semester.
A tutoring handbook
Assessment:
Reader’s notes, annotated bibliography, formal essays, reflective pieces
on tutoring practice
Time Class Meets:
MW
Instructor:
K. Cole
3-4:20
ENGL 460 01
ADVANCED POETRY WRITING
CO-REQ
ENGL 160 02
Description:
This advanced workshop will provide students with an intense,
critical discussion of student work and readings in contemporary
poetry. The orientation of the course will push students past their
creative norms, and by semester’s end, students will have created and
arranged a polished body of work (10pgs.) known as a chapbook.
Readings:
In Thailand it is Night, Ira Sukrungruang, a poetics/craft
anthology, and other individual collections of poetry, TBA
Exams, Papers:
In addition to the poetry chapbook, students will write one
review of a contemporary individual collection of poetry,
and write one critical essay of poetics involving outside
research.
Time Class Meets:
T
5-7:30
Instructor:
A. Nezhukumatathil
ENGL 520 01
GRAD SEMINAR -- LIT & CULTURE:
Gender, Lit, and Media
Description:
Paulo Freire says that we must learn to “read the word and the
world.” This course will aim to develop that dual lens: to read gender
more critically in literature and media, as well as in the world around
us. Students will examine a range of literary and media texts through a
gendered lens, as well as critical works that have addressed these texts.
We will explore issues including the representation of gendered
identities; how the texts construct, maintain, or challenge gendered
norms; and how gender and sexuality intersect with other elements of
identity in these texts and in the world. The course will offer a global
focus and will consider how the constructions of gendered identities in
media and literature inform one another.
Texts:
To be determined, but will likely include many from this list:
 Allison Bechdel, Fun Home
 James Baldwin, Another Country
 Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
 Louise Erdrich, The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse
and The Roundhouse
 Shani Mootoo, Cerius Blooms at Night
 Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
 Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues
 Media texts TBA
Exams, Papers:
Participation, student-led discussions, short critical analyses, and
a final paper.
Time Class Meets:
R
5-7:30
Instructor:
H. McEntarfer
ENGL 514 01
CREATIVE NON-FICTION
Description:
An exploration of the different subgenres of creative nonfiction,
including the lyric essay, the personal essay, the nature essay, literary
journalism, memoir, and others. The course will chart the course of the
essay in the contemporary period as well, with readings from
contemporary writers and at least one anthology. Students will practice
the craft they study.
Readings:
Talk Thai: Adventures of Buddhist Boy by Ira Sukrungruang
Things That Are by Amy Leach
The Lost Origins of the Essay ed. by John D’Agata and/or
The Art of the Personal Essay ed. by Philip Lopate
Exams, Papers:
Midterm and final projects combining creative and critical explorations.
Time Class Meets:
W
5-7:30
Instructor:
D. Parsons
ENGL 590 02
SPECIAL TOPICS:
Professional Writing & Communication
Description:
This elective course for international graduate students in all
disciplines provides a seminar-styled workshop environment for
independent student research including targeted practice in the written
and spoken skills that will support strong presentation of original
work. These skills could include focused work in disciplinary and
cultural conventions related to developing, organizing and documenting
research. This course will focus on the special topics of research writing
and communication for an academic and professional community. By
the end of the semester, students will present their research in both oral
and written forms to an audience of their peers.
Readings:
 Swales, J. M. & Feak, C. B. (2012). Academic writing for graduate
students: Essential tasks and skills (3rd ed.). Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan.
 Other selected articles and reading materials (provided by the
instructor)
Exams, Papers:
No exams but papers
CCC Fulfilled:
This is an elective course for international
graduate students
Time Class Meets:
MW 3-4:20
Instructor:
L. Wang
ENGL 695 01
GRAD SEMINAR IN PROFESSIONAL STUDY
Capstone in English Studies
Description:
This course is the capstone for the graduate program, focusing on
the current state of English studies. The course facilitates the transition
from graduate student to scholar-teacher and helps candidates prepare
to take their place in the profession.
Readings:
TBA
Exams, Papers:
TBA
Time Class Meets:
T
Instructor:
S. Liggins
5-7:30