Department of English List of Course Descriptions for Spring 2017

ENGE 390.01: Field Experience (1). Beasley. Students in this class will gain knowledge about and create lesson plans for secondary English classrooms in preparation for Internships I & II. Students will become familiar with state and/or national curriculum standards and learn to write corresponding learning goals, activities, and assessments. Students will write and implement two lessons in the schools, spending approximately ten hours in the field. Students will also learn to write data-based reflections on their own teaching. Course designed primarily for those interested in teaching careers. Should be taken prior to the full-year internship experience in conjunction with EDCO 350, if possible. Grading S/U. HYBRID COURSE (1-2 course meetings plus online and field components) ENGE 519: Adolescent Literature. Prickett. Adolescent Literature focuses on the selection and evaluation of suitable reading material from all literary genres for the young adult, with specific attention to the development and needs of adolescents. Students will complete a number of hands-on individual or group-based projects, which may consist of lesson plans, performances, and responses to issues related to young adult literature. Special attention will be given to gender dynamics in the classroom, working with non-print media, special needs issues, multiculturalism and the canon, censorship, and student-centered curriculum in the teaching of literature. Although Adolescent Literature is designed primarily for students in the English Education track, the course is also suitable for other majors who may be interested in exploring how literature is used in social work, psychology, and other areas that involve working with young adults. Prerequisites: WRIT 101 and HMXP 102; minimum of sophomore status.

ENGL 200.01 African American Trickster Figures (3). Bickford. This course will investigate some of the many permutations of the Trickster Figure found in 19th and 20th century African American literature. Students will investigate the ways in which Tricksters are empowered by double consciousness to play with language in subversive ways and thereby gain the upper hand against their adversaries. Works will include passages from WEB DuBois and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as well as novels, stories, and poetry by Chestnutt, Dunbar, Hughes, Hurston, Ellison, Walker, and Morrison, among others. ENGL 200.02. The Butler Didn't Do It: Detective Fiction (3). Cothran. This course will look at two centuries worth of fictional thefts and murders, as well as a host of quirky, crazy, charming, and brilliant detectives. Specifically, we will be looking at texts by Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Patricia Cornwell, and others. The class will explore the evolution of the detective character as a unique literary type and also get a sense of the historical development of the crime novel. In addition to a paper based on a mystery film, television show, video game, or novel (of your choice) read outside of class, students will be required to take essay tests, a final exam, and will write at least one formal, researched critical essay. Three credits of ENGL 200 may be applied to undergraduate degrees in English (LLAN & SCED).

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ENGL 203.01. Major British Authors. Hiner. This course covers significant and representative British literary works spanning from approximately the late eighth century to the early twentieth century. The goal of this course is to allow students to become familiar with significant British literary works and to place these works within their historical contexts, creating a deeper understanding of how literature both shapes and reflects culture and history. Students will engage in close readings of literary works, will become familiar with literary terms and types of literary criticism, and will learn how to read literary texts within their historical and cultural contexts. Students will take one final exam, will write two short critical essays, will write one research proposal, and will write one researched critical essay. ENGL 203.02. Major British Authors. Hecimovich. English 203 covers significant and representative British literary works spanning from approximately the late eighth century to the early twentieth century. The goal of the course is to allow students to become familiar with significant British literary works and to place these works within their historical contexts, creating a deeper understanding of how literature both shapes and reflects culture and history. Students will engage in close readings of literary works, will become familiar with literary terms and types of literary criticism, and will learn how to read texts in light of their historical and cultural contexts. Along the way we will read a number of the "great works" in the British canon, including Shakespeare's Othello, Milton's Paradise Lost, Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, Keats's famous Odes, Brontë's Jane Eyre and Dickens's Great Expectations. Internet course. ENGL 208: Foundations of World Literature. Campbell. This course is designed to familiarize students with great works of world literature representing the Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance periods and also significant, chronologically comparable works from the Non-Western tradition. Students will engage in discussion, critical thinking, and analytical writing about diverse literary traditions and individual works. In addition to in-class writing, essay tests, and a final exam, students will be required to write at least one formal, researched critical essay. ENGL 211: Major American Authors. Richardson. In his 1782 Letters from an American Farmer, J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur asks the question, “What is an American?” By extension, we will be seeking to explore the question of “What is American Literature?” Organized by historical time periods, the course features major canonical authors from within those periods. We will analyze the authors’ individual works not only for their literary features but also for their connections to various aesthetic movements such as Romanticism and Realism. Students will participate in class discussion as well as complete two tests, a final exam, and a series of writing assignments. ENGL 211. Major American Authors. Jordan. Study of the major periods, literary forms, and issues that characterize American literature, with a consideration of representative major works and authors over the course of American literary history. ENGL 291: Introduction to the English Major. Cothran. This course is designed to familiarize English majors with the methods, terminology, and critical approaches of the discipline. The course helps students to identify important differences between the three tracks within the major and to understand the student’s role in the advising process. The course explains interpretive strategies and contexts such as critical theory, periodicity, and historicity, and covers research strategies, documentation styles, and evaluation of databases and secondary sources. Emphasis is placed on interpreting and understanding written works in multiple genres using a variety of critical approaches. In addition, the course allows students to build a strong resume and to explore the many professional and academic options open to English majors, such as careers, graduate programs, scholarships, internships, clubs, organizations, 2

awards, and peer tutoring opportunities. Students will construct a resume and will write two short (1 – 2 pp) analytical papers, two short (2 – 3 pp) literary analyses, one annotated bibliography, and one analytical/argument essay supported by research (6 pp). Other requirements include a cumulative final exam and one brief oral presentation. ENGL 300: Approaches to Literature. Bickford. This writing intensive course required of all English majors and minors introduces students to the evolving study of literary criticism. The course covers critical approaches from the past and present as well as looks toward possible future developments in criticism. We begin with a study of formalism and then move to detailed examinations of the dominant critical schools of the twentieth century, including reader response, psychoanalysis, structuralism, feminism, New Historicism, deconstruction, gender studies, and postcolonialism. Students choose a primary text on which to base their major written assignments – an annotated bibliography, a review of literature, a casebook, and a critical essay. Other requirements include short essays and a cumulative final. Textbooks support all aspects of the course and are a casebook made up of a primary work and five essays displaying varying critical approaches, an introduction to critical theory, the most current MLA handbook, and a handbook to literature. Note: Writing Intensive Course. Restricted to English majors and minors. Prerequisite: sophomore standing. ENGL 305: Shakespeare. DeRochi. . English 305 surveys eight plays representing the four “modes” of Shakespeare's work (comedy, history, tragedy, and romance). Supplementary readings on Shakespeare's life and times will be assigned in The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare. The requirements include midterm and final examinations, short analytical writings, a longer research paper, as well as a group “drama book project” where students will work together to stage a scene of a play not studied. For the longer paper, students may feel free to pursue an interdisciplinary research paper, especially if they are not majoring in English. ENGL 311: Greek Mythology. Jordan. A survey of Greek mythology and its influence upon all aspects of Greek society and culture. Special emphasis will be placed upon the role of myth in literature. A trip to Greece in early May will be an integral part of the classroom experience. Students who have paid their deposit for the trip will be guaranteed a slot in the class, regardless of your enrollment priority. Please contact Ms. Jordan ([email protected], x 4543) as soon as possible if you wish to enroll. ENGL 317: The Short Story. Hoffman. Acclaimed fiction writer Francine Prose writes, “Everything in the story resonates at its own unique, coherent, and recognizable pitch… As readers, we may feel that after finishing the story we understand something new, something solid. And we recognize the short story (what a short story is) in a visceral, quasi-physiological way; we feel—to paraphrase what Emily Dickinson said about poetry—as if the top of our head had come off.” We will spend the semester reading and discussing the form of short stories that embody Prose’s definition, stories that thrill and challenge us in their brevity and completeness. Our readings will focus on contemporary American short stories written by authors from diverse backgrounds, and we will also study the roots of the genre in the classics and how this gem of a genre is represented throughout the world. Assignments will include reading responses, two exams, and intensive critical or creative writing projects. ENGL 319: The British Novel. Hiner. This course examines the English novel from its nascent development in the 18th century, to its rapid expansion and growth in the 19th century, to its modern and postmodern forms in the 20th century. The course emphasizes the historical and cultural contexts of the novels and their readers; the narrative techniques displayed in the novels; and the scholarly, critical responses to the novels. Students will read, experience, analyze, and engage in critical 3

conversations about British novels that helped to shape the genre and that continue to influence contemporary literature, film, and popular culture, as well as our understanding of human cognition and behavior. ENGL 328. Healing Arts in Medicine. Martin. This class introduces students of any background during the first half of the semester to various expressive arts modalities through research and in-class workshops with guest practitioners of expressive arts. The second half of the semester emphasizes the service learning part of the class: students will engage weekly with adult patients, their families, and staff in expressive arts experiences at local medical institutions. These experiences range from reading to patients and helping them journal to inviting patients to participate in crafts as well as drawing and painting. ENGL 333.01: Global Narratives: The Psychotic Sixties: Introduction to an Era (1). Ghent. The fiftieth anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s and the Summer of Love is an opportunity for students to develop their understanding of the Civil Rights Movement, the Counter-Culture, the Sexual Revolution, the Vietnam War, and other events, ideas, and people of the turbulent decade known as the 1960s. In addition to film and music presentations, students will read and discuss authors Lenny Bruce, Rachel Carson, Bob Dylan, Betty Friedan, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Malcolm X, and others from The Portable Sixties Reader. Requirements of this one-credit, after mid-term course include a creative paper, a critical paper, and a final exam. ENGL 333.02: Global Narratives: The Transgender Experience (1). Beasley. Students will read the frequently banned book, Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin. Kuklin’s nonfiction text chronicles the interviews and photographs of six transgender or gender-neutral young adults. In addition to reading the primary text and analyzing photography, students will view The Danish Girl (historical fiction) and Suits (documentary) detailing a variety of transgender experiences. Requirements of this one-credit, after mid-term course include a creative paper, a critical paper, and a final exam. ENGL 370. Literature and Film. Friedman. A foremost goal of this course is to enhance understanding of film as an art form, especially in its capacity to express dream states and explore alternative realities. Students will examine works from diverse national contexts and perspectives, discerning throughout the intrinsic stylistics emphasized in conjuring dream states, whether discreet dream sequences included in a film or the film itself as a continuous flow of dream. Films by Cocteau, Fellini, Wenders, Bergmann, and others will be considered. Students will contribute typed essays analyzing the films, especially comparing the intentions and signatures of directors from diverse national contexts. A final paper will be due the evening of the final with ideas presented to the group. The paper topic should be approved by the professor and concentrate on pivotal aspects of dream in film and literature. The paper could examine the specific film adaptation of a literary text or on the influence of a literary movement on the oneiric stylistics of a director or directors. Comparisons could be drawn between dream conveying visionary experience in literature and film. One could investigate as well dual talents, novelist/screenwriters, or the screenplay as a literary work subject to inflection as the film is realized. ENGL 491: Departmental Seminar. Koster. This course assesses student mastery of English coursework. Students complete several assessment measures--including content knowledge tests, an essay test, and the Senior Opinionaire. Although the tests are individually graded, students receive an S or U for the course. The results are then summarized anonymously and used to improve instruction in the English 4

Department. Prerequisite: Should be taken in the first semester of the senior year (after the student has completed 90 hours). Internet course. ENGL 512: Middle English Literature Excluding Chaucer. Koster. In this course we will read and enjoy some of the best literature written in English from 1100-1475 C.E., both in translation and the original. No previous experience with Middle English is required; much will be read in "modern" translations. Our focus will be on understanding how gender, class, culture, religion, and history affected the development of English as a literary vehicle. Authors will include Thomas Malory, Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, the Pearl Poet, William Langland, the women of the Paston family, and of course the ever-popular “Anonymous.” We will be not only work face-to-face, but also engage with online texts, films, and other digital resources. Students will submit short weekly assignments (blogs, information hunts, analyses, etc.), take a midterm and a final exam, and write a research paper; graduate students will have additional assignments involving secondary criticism. There will be brownies, and perhaps other baked goods. Prerequisites: CRTW 201 with a C or better and ENGL 203; or MDST 300; or graduate standing. ENGL 529: 20th Century American Fiction and Drama. Bird. ENGL 529: 20th Century American Fiction and Drama. Bird. The 20th Century saw two world wars, the Great Depression, the threat of nuclear annihilation, an enduring Cold War, and the mass murder of millions of innocent people, among other horrors. But it also saw the rise of worker’s rights, women’s rights, Civil Rights, gay rights, youth culture, and environmental awareness, among many other movements. The American fiction writers and dramatists wrote works that reflected these changes and upheavals, and their works also had an effect on American history and culture. In English 529, we will examine writers such as Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison, and possibly others to be determined (email [email protected] if you have a suggestion). All students will take a midterm and a final exam as well as write two short papers and complete one major researched critical essay. Graduate students will also be required to present an annotated bibliography of an author and lead one class discussion. ENGL 530: Grammar in Theory and Practice. Jones. This course reviews traditional grammar with an emphasis on descriptive methodology (how our language functions) and introduces transformational and structuralist grammars. Students will be required to write a "problem" paper or prepare a lesson plan and take at least three exams. Primarily intended for students planning to teach. ENGL 602: Critical Theory. Brownson. This course will be an intensive seminar in critical theory, beginning with an historical survey (from Plato and Aristotle to Freud and Sartre) and culminating in study of 20th and 21st century critical movements (formalist, reader-response, deconstructive, psychoanalytic, feminist, Marxist, New Historicist, postcolonial, gender studies, and so on). The readings will be essential primary texts in the fields of philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, political theory, psychology, economics, history, gender studies, and literary criticism that are foundational to the development of contemporary literary theory. In our discussions, we will rely not only on our careful reading of these important texts but on our knowledge of fiction, poetry, and drama to ground theoretical abstractions in practical application to the study of literature. Students will read, discuss, write short and long papers, 5

and make presentations. This course is intensive and challenging, but covers material essential to advanced literary studies and scholarship and will be an excellent learning experience.

WRIT 307: Fiction Writing. TBA. Students will study the craft of fiction writing. They will read a variety of short fiction, and learn to read like writers. Students will learn the foundational skills of story writing: characterization, plot, point of view, writing strong prose, dialogue, and much more. Students will write many exercises and experiments, which will culminate in drafting at least two complete stories. They will share these stories with the class in workshop. In workshops, students will receive serious editorial feedback that they will use to extensively revise and edit their work. They will also practice editorial skills as they edit their peers’ work. Prerequisite(s): WRIT 101 with a grade of C- or better. WRIT 311. Stiles. Writing Narratives for Tabletop Role-Playing Games. Tabletop game writing combines technical writing with creative non-fiction. In this intro course, students will learn to read, play, and understand one or more open-licensed game systems in order to write publication-quality content: new rules, adventures, and setting material. The skill set will include editing one's own work for publication and learning to playtest submissions. Students will also learn submission etiquette and will be strongly encouraged to submit work to tabletop companies. The course is designed for students who seek opportunities as professional writers. Readings will include The Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5th ed., Kobold Press’s Midgard Campaign Setting, and other texts. No tabletop gaming experience is necessary. WRIT 316: Poetry Writing. Weeks. The focus of this course is on student poetry, which will be discussed and critiqued in a workshop format. In addition to working on class poems, students will read the work of contemporary published poets and will do oral reports on recent collections of poems. A public reading of poems written in the class will be given at the end of the semester. Grades will be based on a portfolio of poems (with revisions) as well as on workshop participation and oral reports. WRIT 350: Introduction to Composition Theory and Pedagogy. Smith. Students in this class will gain knowledge about their own writing process, about theories of composition and rhetoric, and about the teaching of composition in the schools. This is an intensive writing class, so students should be prepared to write on an almost daily basis as well as discuss the readings and participate in small group activities. Students will write in several formats for a variety of purposes; there will be an oral presentation, a midterm, and a final exam. The class is primarily discussion; there are also assignments specifically geared toward teaching writing (for example, teaching a grammar lesson, grading student papers). Notes: This class is designed primarily for students who are considering teaching careers. This course includes a field component with secondary English Language Learners (ELL). WRIT 502: Digital English Studies: Literature, Rhetoric, and Technology. (Formerly Cyber Rhetoric.) Ralston. As the study of literature grows ever more interwoven with technology, how does this affect us as students of literature? This class will examine many of the challenging possibilities now open for literary study and literary theory. This course looks back even as it looks forward, considering how printed texts and reading practices are transformed by the digital, in addition to examining digital media forms such as podcasts, wikis, and mapping technologies. Throughout the course, we will ask the following sorts of questions: How is literature and our reading of it being changed by technology? What influence does the container for a text have on its content? To what degree does immersion in a text depend upon the physicality of its interface? How are evolving technologies helping to enliven (or 6

disengage us from) the materiality of literary texts? We will engage our subjects through discussion of primary and secondary texts but also through our own experiments in building digital artifacts. We will work in unfamiliar media, coming to an understanding of varied interfaces by creating with and for them. Notes: Meets Technology Requirement for ENGL Majors WRIT 507: Short Story Writing. Hoffman. Students will write and workshop at least two complete works of fiction. Students will be required to drastically revise and re-envision their workshop drafts, challenging them to create polished, well-crafted works of literary merit. Along with workshops, students will study advanced-level fiction craft, which they will apply to the drafting and revising of their fiction. The entire class will spend the semester focusing on one specific element of fiction-writing craft and theory, which we will analyze in every work of fiction we read. Students will then each choose additional elements of craft to study and analyze, in order to make themselves expert specialists. Students will read and discuss in class a variety of published contemporary fiction written by diverse authors. Prerequisite: HMXP 102 with a grade of C- or better and WRIT 307, or graduate status. WRIT 516: Poetry Writing. Weeks. The focus of this course, as in WRIT 316, is on student poetry, which will be discussed and critiqued in a workshop format. In addition, students will read and discuss published poems from a variety of sources as well as essays on contemporary poetry and craft. Each student will write a review of a recent collection of poems, which will be presented orally as well as turned in with the portfolio of poems and revisions at the end of the semester. WRIT 566: Writing for Science and Technology. Ralston. This course is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students who will be writing extensively in scientific, medical, and technical fields in their futures and assumes that they have some scientific or technical expertise already. This course fosters skills in preliminary writing, drafting, revision, peer review, and research into scientific literature. It considers the strategic use of visual elements in the presentation of quantitative information. Students will explore and practice the conventions of writing and presentation in their chosen fields and learn to prepare the various kinds of reports, abstracts, reviews, research posters, proposals, and funding requests appropriate to their fields. They are encouraged to link, as directly as they wish, their work in this course to their own professional work in science and/or to other course work in science. Students will engage complexity in terms, concepts, and judgments; exercise self-critique; and cultivate an authoritative voice in the scientific disciplines that offers coherent, meaningful knowledge to a specific, disciplinary audience. Students who wish to enroll in this class are encouraged to consult with the instructor. Note: This course is not recommended to sophomores or to those students who are not yet familiar with professional journals in their intended fields; those students should consider WRIT 366 instead. Prerequisites: CRTW 201 with a C or better; and either ENGL 380 or successful completion of a 200-level or higher course in BIOL, CHEM, CSCI, ENVS, GEOG, GEOL, GRNT, NUTR, MATH, PHYS, PSYC, SCIE, or WELL; or permission of the instructor; or graduate status.

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Tentative Course Listings for Summer 2017 ENGL 203: Major British Authors. Hecimovich. Summer B term. Online. ENGL 208: Foundations of World Literature to 1700. Koster. Summer C term. Online. ENGL 312: African-American Literature. Hecimovich. Summer B term. Online. ENGL 550: Medieval Literature and Film. Koster. Summer C term. Online. WRIT 550: Environmental Rhetoric. Ralston. Summer B term. Online.

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