Thoughtful viewing of diverse films (in required weekly screenings), along with ample discussion and critical reading and writing, to gain understanding of cinematic expression and of film's capacity to entertain and to exert artistic and social influence. Same as MACS 104.
Introduction to critical analysis of prose fiction. Explores a wide range of short and long fiction across historical periods; examines narrative strategies such as plot, character, and point of view. Special emphasis placed on good literary critical writing. Course is similar to ENGL 103 except for the additional writing component. Credit is not given for both ENGL 109 and ENGL 103. Prerequisite: Completion of campus Composition I general education requirement.
Acquaints students with the rich diversity of British prose, poetry, and drama. As a basic introduction to English literature, the course explores a series of literary texts, often thematically related, which appeal to modern readers and at the same time provide interesting insights into the cultural attitudes and values of the periods which produced them.
American literature speaks in distinctive dialects that pre-date the arrival of European explorers in the Renaissance, range across centuries and continents, and intermingle a rich variety of racial, ethnic, and gendered perspectives. Genres examined in this course might include lyric poems, dystopian novels, horror stories, seduction narratives, slave narratives, political speeches, or postmodern plays. Writers studied might include Walt Whitman, Columbus, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Junot Díaz, Harriet Beecher Stowe, David Foster Wallace, Martin Luther King, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Introduction to the rich traditions of fantasy writing in world literature. While the commercial category of fantasy post-Tolkien will often be the focal point, individual instructors may choose to focus on alternate definitions of the genre: literatures of the fantastic, the uncanny, and the weird; fantasy before the Enlightenment and the advent of realism; fantasy for young adult or child readers; and so on. Same as CWL 119.
Explores the use of medievalism in contemporary popular culture. Instructors may draw from film, television, music, fiction, graphic novels, gaming, and other sources, and they approach the material from a variety of cultural, historical, and aesthetic traditions. The goal of the course will be to understand how the medieval periods of world cultures have been reinvented in modern times, and how modernity has been constructed in relation and in opposition to the medieval imaginary. Same as MDVL 122.
Topics course that varies each semester and by section. The topics offered each semester will be listed in the Class Schedule. Approved for letter and S/U grading. May be repeated.
Introduction to the study of literature in the twenty-first century. This course will expand your sense of what literature is and where it happens, including discussion of old and new literary forms (from novels, poems, and plays to comic books, video games, and films). Along the way, students will explore some of the literary and cultural opportunities (such as author readings, scholarly talks, and performances) available to them on a large public university campus, with two goals in mind: to develop your critical interpretive skills and to acquaint you with the discipline of literary studies as it is being practiced all around us today, both inside and outside the conventional classroom.
Introduction to the diverse literatures and cultures of the global Middle Ages (approximately 500-1500 CE). Students will read works by medieval authors in Modern English translation, with particular attention to placing works in their historical and material contexts. Same as CWL 253 and MDVL 201. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Study in Anglophone and global texts from the period 1600 to 1800, with attention to cultural and historical contexts. Same as CWL 257. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
While Queen Victoria was on the throne (1837-1901), Britain became a world power, but often looked backwards to the lovely worlds of the past. Many of the era’s great literary works reflect this tension between realism and romance: between the realism of being a poor governess and the romance of finding true love in Jane Eyre; the tragedy of losing your best friend and the hope of emotional survival in In Memoriam; the practical work of building a useful device and the fantasy of visiting the dystopian future in The Time Machine. Literature studied in this class will include poetry, prose, drama, and fiction, possibly including works by Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Seacole, Thomas Carlyle, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti, William Morris, Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells, Olive Schreiner, or George Bernard Shaw. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
This course surveys more than a thousand years of British literature from the early Middle Ages through the Renaissance and well into the eighteenth century. But what does "British literature" really mean, especially in the context of an island archipelago populated by multiple nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) and repeatedly subjected to foreign rule (either by violent invasion or dynastic succession)? The range of texts we thus characterize as "early British literature" is staggering, and part of our goal in this course will simply be to appreciate the sheer volume and breadth of written work created in Britain and Ireland between the sixth and eighteenth centuries. We will do this through a necessarily selective sampling of historical periods, languages, and genres. Our authors will range from the famous (e.g., Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton) to the lesser-known (e.g., Marie de France, Lady Mary Wroth, and Eliza Haywood) to the unknown (e.g., the anonymous Beowulf-poet). Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement and ENGL 200.
Study of literature, philosophy, visual and performing arts, social criticism, and popular sciences of the Anglo-American modernist period (approximately 1900-1950), with attention to broad cultural issues. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Representative readings of Shakespeare's drama and poetry in the context of his age, with emphasis on major plays; selections vary from section to section. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Explores the mutual influences of science and literature in some key literary and non-literary texts. Covers scientific texts, literary works, and cultural theory to explore how and why scientific knowledge is intimately linked to literature.
Explores the diversity of poetry in English from 1960 to the present, focusing on various poetic movements (the Beats, confessionals, New York school, ecopoetics, postcolonial poetry, poetry of witness, and spoken word). Poets for consideration include Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Frank O’Hara, Gary Snyder, Derek Walcott, Carolyn Forché, Sharon Olds, Rita Dove, and Mark Doty. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Introduction to the role technological invention has played in history of print media and how literary aesthetics are changing with the advent of new media, such as software, video games, and graphic novels. We will consider material formats, genres, and modes of production along with the cultural, political, and societal implications of different forms and formats. May be repeated in separate terms up to 6 hours.
This large-scale survey course offers students background in a wide range of genres, authors, and texts, focusing on "early American literature," which ranges from pre-Columbian indigenous narratives to nineteenth century novels, poems, and plays. The material studied ranges across multiple centuries and continents, and includes a wide variety of racial, ethnic, and gendered perspectives. Writers may include Christopher Columbus, Anne Bradstreet, Benjamin Franklin, Phillis Wheatley, William Apess, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Harriet Jacobs, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement and ENGL 200.
An introduction to the study of early African American literary and cultural production, ranging from the earliest writings by African descended people in British North America in the eighteenth century to the end of World War I. At each turn, we will situate texts in their cultural and historical contexts, attending not only to the specificity of a particular text's moment, but also to the forces of contingency and tradition at play in the construction of literary, cultural, and political communities. Throughout our discussions we will think about both the "African-ness" and "American-ness" of African American literature as collective and imaginative processes. Early African Americans wrote for a variety of reasons—philosophical, political, pleasurable, instrumental—and protesting slavery and racism was just one (albeit an important one) among many of those reasons. We will read letters, poems, sermons, songs, constitutions and bylaws for religious and civic organizations, stories, and texts that defy easy categorization. Writers may include Phillis Wheatley, David Walker, Maria Stewart, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Frances E.W. Harper, William Wells Brown, W.E.B. Du Bois, Pauline Hopkins, Charles Chesnutt, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Alice Dunbar Nelson, and Ida B. Wells. Same as AFRO 259 and CWL 259. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Historical and critical study of African American literature in its social and cultural context between 1915 and 1980. Same as AFRO 260 and CWL 260. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Introduction to the study of the dominant genres or types U.S. cinema. Examines the elements that constitute genres (such as visual and narrative patterns), the formation and reshaping of genres by filmmakers and the entertainment industry, the social and cultural factors that influence the genre cycles and subgenres, and the landmark works of each genre. The course treats several genres in historical perspective or focus on a single genre. May be repeated in separate terms up to 6 hours if topics vary.
Explores key issues in America cinema during the second half of the twentieth century, connecting central problems of film studies (e.g., authorship, genre, narratology, style, gender analysis, and the spectacle of violence) to moments of major transition in the American film industry (e.g., the Red Scare and the end of the Production Code in the 1950s; the emergence of the New Hollywood and the breakdown of the studio system in the 1960s; and the rise of the mega-blockbuster in the 1970s). Same as MACS 273. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Study of British and American women authors. Same as GWS 280. May be repeated with permission of English advising office to a maximum of 6 hours if topics vary. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Examination of selected postcolonial literature, theory, and film as texts that "write back" to dominant European representations of power, identity, gender and the Other. Postcolonial writers, critics and filmmakers studied may include Franz Fanon, Edward Said, Aime Cesaire, Ousmane Sembene, Chinua Achebe, Michelle Cliff, Mahesweta Devi, Buchi Emecheta, Derek Walcott and Marlene Nourbese-Philip. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Introduction to Asian American literary studies and culture through the reading of major works of literature selected from but not limited to the following American ethnic subgroups: Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Pakistani, and Vietnamese. Same as AAS 286. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Study of selected topics. Approved for both letter and S/U grading. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours. Students may register in more than one section per term. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
Introduction to the critical frameworks and methods that have had the greatest impact on the field of literary studies. Students will read, discuss, and write about numerous theoretical approaches, including (but not limited to) critical race studies, ecocriticism, feminism, Marxism, postcolonialism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and structuralism. No previous background with theory is required. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement; one year of college literature or consent of instructor. For majors only.
Writing-intensive, variable-topic course designed to improve English majors' ability to produce clear, well-organized, analytically sound and persuasively argued essays relevant to English studies. Introduces students to research techniques through the examination of critical texts appropriate to the course topic. Credit is not given for ENGL 300 and ENGL 350. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement; one year of college literature or consent of instructor. For majors only.
Same as AAS 357, AIS 357, GWS 357, and LLS 357. See LLS 357.
Advanced-level work in the field of Writing Studies. Building upon a traditional disciplinary understanding of writing as rhetoric, this course invites students to call upon sociological, anthropological, and/or ideological approaches to the study of writing in order to understand the myriad ways that writing makes meaning(s). See Class Schedule for topics. May be repeated in separate terms to a maximum of 6 hours. Prerequisite: Completion of the Composition I requirement.
Advanced study of selected topics. Approved for both letter and S/U grading. May be repeated in the same or separate terms to a maximum of 6 hours. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
Study of selected topics. Restricted to English and English education majors with a 3.33 average who are working towards the degree with distinction in English or in English education. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 hours. Prerequisite: Enroll in undergraduate advising office.
An open-topic, discussion-oriented seminar aimed at majors who have shown high skill and intensive interest in the area of English studies. May be repeated up to 6 hours in the same term to a maximum of 12 hours. Prerequisite: A 3.33 grade point average or consent of the English Department's Director of Undergraduate Studies. Restricted to English majors.
An introduction to English linguistics with emphasis on the phonetic, syntactic, and semantic structures of English; language variation, standardization, and change; language legislation and linguistic rights; English as a world language; and the study of language in American schools. Same as BTW 402. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours.
Survey of the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. Reading assignments will reflect the generic diversity and historical breadth of Shakespeare's work. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.
Advanced study of poetry and prose written between the reign of Elizabeth I and the late seventeenth century. Authors may include Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson, Mary Wroth, John Donne, Katherine Philips, Andrew Marvell, Margaret Cavendish, and others. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.
From Jane Austen's witty couples to Charles Dickens's haunted reformers and Bram Stoker's aristocratic vampires, the characters, stories, and novels created by British writers in the nineteenth century still fascinate us today. This research class gives students a chance to read deeply in the prose fiction of this period; texts may include William Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone, and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. May be repeated with permission of English advising office to a maximum of 6 undergraduate hours if topics vary; Graduate students may repeat if topics vary. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.
After the Civil War the United States entered a period of accelerating modernization and change. This course addresses how the nation's writers helped build modern America in response to a host of exciting and daunting developments in economics, science, and politics, including the enfranchisement of African Americans, Jim Crow segregation laws, growing income inequality, the rise of unions and anarchist movements, the invention of the automobile and the department store, new sciences such as including Darwinism and psychoanalysis, and American empire-building in places like Hawai'i and the Philippines. Writers studied might include Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Henry James, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Zitkala-Sa, Stephen Crane, William Dean Howells, and Edith Wharton. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.
Intensive study of the work of one or two major authors. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. May be repeated with permission of English advising office to a maximum of 6 undergraduate hours if topics vary. May be repeated for graduate credit if topics vary. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.
Advanced seminar on any of a variety of topics in literature and culture, including those that bridge traditional historical periods, focus on themes or movements, and cross disciplinary boundaries. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. May be repeated with permission of English advising office to a maximum of 6 undergraduate hours if topics vary; Graduate students may repeat if topics vary. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.
From the developing field of "ecocriticism" to new historical examinations of canonical writers such as Thomson, Thoreau, or the "nature poets", to the new field of Science Studies, this advanced seminar examines a range of specialized topics related to literature and the environment. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. May be repeated in separate semesters for graduate credit if topics vary; for undergraduates to a maximum of 6 undergraduate hours if topics vary with permission of the English advising office. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.
Introduces students to the challenges of "turning data into narrative." With a focus on students' professional development as writers, this course emphasizes the research and rhetorical skills required to communicate current scientific research in earth and environmental science through non-fiction narrative forms--the investigative essay, long-form journalism, personal memoir, and op-ed--aimed at a general audience. Same as ESE 477. 3 undergraduate hours. No graduate credit.
Study of the history and theory of written composition. This course explores basic rhetorical principles, various theoretical perspectives in the field of composition/rhetoric, and helps students form practical approaches to the guidance of, response to, and structuring of student writing. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.
Examines the relationship of computer technology to the larger field of writing studies. Topics include a historical overview of computers and other writing technologies; current instructional practices and their relation to various writing theories; research on word processing, computer-mediated communication, and hypermedia; and the computer as a research tool. 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: Junior standing and consent of instructor. Students must have a basic knowledge of word processing.