Course Descriptions, Spring 2009

Works of American literature as they reflect and comment upon the evolving identities of women, men, and culture from the mid-19^th Century to the contemporary period. Novels will be supplemented by other readings. Writing assignments: four examinations and frequent quizzes.

Texts: Chopin, The Awakening; Brent, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl; Cather, A Lost Lady; Morrison, The Bluest Eye; Erdrich, Tracks; Oates, Black Water.

1362-001+ (3192). NOVELS IN OUR TIME. 2 TTh. 155 FOSC. Prof. Holahan.
An introductory study of selected twentieth-century novels emphasizing both ideas of modernity and the historical or cultural contexts of catastrophe that generated these ideas. Topics include traditions of family and wealth, representations of world war, new effects of capital and society, war and sensibility, race and the novel, Big D. Writing assignments: quizzes, one short essay, mid-term, final examination.
Texts: James, The Spoils of Poynton; Hemingway, In Our Time; Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; Faulkner, As I Lay Dying; Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider; Ellison, Invisible Man; Heller, Catch 22; DeLillo, Libra; McEwan, Saturday ; Safran-Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

1365-001H#+ (3123). LITERATURE OF MINORITIES. 2 TTh. 115 DALL. Prof. Levy.
The course interrogates from historical and literary perspectives the category of "minority" as a cultural paradox, one that simultaneously asserts and marginalizes identity. Particular attention will be paid to the issue of identity as both self-selected and imposed, as both fixed and flexible, as both local and global. Writing assignments: two essays, mid-term, final examination.
Texts: Ayala, American Chica; Bechdel, Fun Home; Tomine, Shortcomings, Urrea, Devil's Highway; Roth, Goodbye, Columbus; Hegedorn, Charlie Chan is Dead; Ulen, Crystelle Morning, and selected short stories distributed throughout the term.

2302-001 (3370). BUSINESS WRITING. 12:30 TTh. G16 CLEM. Prof. Jackman.

This course introduces students to business and professional communication, including a variety of writing and speaking tasks, and the observation and practice of rhetorical strategies, discourse conventions, and ethical standards associated with workplace culture. The course includes much active learning, which means students will attend events on campus and off and will conduct a detailed field research project at a worksite. The course meets in a computer lab, and may not be counted toward requirements for the English major. Writing assignments: summaries, analyses, evaluations, letters, reports, memoranda, and individual and collaborative research reports, both oral and written.
Texts: Kolin, Successful Writing at Work, 8th ed; Troyka & Hesse, Quick Access, 5th ed.; additional readings posted on Blackboard or distributed in class.

2302-002 (3371). BUSINESS WRITING. 2 TTh. G18 CLEM. Prof. Tongate.

Texts: Kolin, Successful Writing at Work, 8th ed; Troyka & Hesse, Quick Access, 5th ed.; additional readings posted on Blackboard or distributed in class.

2310-001+ (5809). IMAGINATION AND INTERPRETATION. 11 MWF. 101 DALL. Prof. Dickson-Carr.

We will explore major and minor texts in the history of literary wit and satire, with occasional forays into film, television, the internet, and other media. We will study classic examples of wit and satire from ancient cultures as a foundation, then make our way slowly towards the present, where we will look at short stories, novels, The Onion, televised satire, and such films as Bamboozled, Bob Roberts, This is Spinal Tap, and others. Our primary goal will be to discover how wit and satire work; a secondary goal will be to discuss why we might want or need wit and satire, or the functions they play in our social and political discourse. Regular writings, three short papers, quizzes, a midterm, and a final examination will be required.

Texts or excerpts thereof: Beatty, Paul. Slumberland; DeLillo, Don. White Noise; Erasmus. The Praise of Folly, Juvenal; Selected writings, Reed, Ishmael. Japanese by Spring; Ross, Fran. Oreo; Schuyler, George. Black No More; Swift, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World (aka Gulliver’s Travels), “A Modest Proposal,” and “The Battle of the Books.”; Twain, Mark. Pudd’nhead Wilson; Voltaire, Jean-Marie Arouet de. Candide, or Optimism; Vonnegut, Kurt. Breakfast of Champions; Wallace, David Foster. Excerpts from Infinite Jest, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, and other writings; West, Nathanael. The Day of the Locust.

2310-002+ (5810). IMAGINATION AND INTERPRETATION: THE EPIC FOUNDATIONS OF WESTERN LITERATURE. 3:30 TTh. 102 DALL. Prof. Moss.

In addition to famously passionate love affairs, unlimited violence, tantrum-throwing heroes and diabolical villains, ten heaven-sent plagues, and a guided tour of Hell (with a few glimpses of Heaven), the founding narratives of the Western tradition offer the perfect introduction to the art and literature all around us. We will begin with Homer and ancient Greek mythology, march through the Roman poems of empire and decadence, and explore the late medieval dream-visions of Italy and the chivalric romances of Renaissance England, ending in the boudoir of the eighteenth-century high society. We will study Biblical narrative by way of comparison to epic narrative, and will examine offshoots of the epic genre, including satirical mock-epics and excerpts from romance narratives. There will be some coverage of mythology and legend as they appear in the visual arts. Writing assignments: occasional quizzes, four short essays, final examination

Texts: Homer: Iliad and Odyssey; Genesis (with selections from Exodus); Virgil: Aeneid; Ovid: Metamorphoses; Dante: Inferno (with selections from Paradiso); Pope: The Rape of the Lock; excerpts from Spenser’s Faerie Queene and Milton’s Paradise Lost.

2311-001+ (3557) [2305]. POETRY. 3 MW. 343 DALL. Prof. Bozorth.

Introduction to the study of poetry and how it works, examining a wide range of poems by English and American writers. Special attention to writing about literature. Writing assignments: shorter and longer analytical assignments, totaling twenty pages; midterm; final examination.
Texts: Poems, Poets, Poetry, 2d edition, ed. Helen Vendler; Easy Writer, ed. Andrea Lunsford.

2311-002+ (3291) [2305]. POETRY. 3:30 TTh. 156 DALL. Prof. Schwartz.

Introduction to the study of poetry and how it works, examining a wide range of poems by English and American writers. Special attention to writing about literature. Writing assignments: occasional quizzes and 8 short papers; 2 major essays; midterm and final exams.

Texts: Poems, Poets, Poetry, Vendler

2312-001+ (2974) [2306]. FICTION. 12 MWF. 153 DALL. Prof. Crusius.

An introduction to the art of fiction. Emphasis on recent novels and short stories. Special concern with satire, comedy, and humor. Writing assignments: quizzes, three essays, final examination.
Texts: Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn; Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five; Delillo, White Noise; Alexie, Reservation Blues; Proulx, Close Range.

2312-002+ (3437) [2306]. FICTION. 2 TTh. 102 DALL. Prof. Sudan.

An introduction to the genre of fiction with an emphasis on the Gothic novel. The course will combine primary texts with short secondary texts. Writers include Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley, Emily Bronte, Wilkie Collins, and Bram Stoker. Writing assignments: weekly quizzes, two short essays, one longer essay.
Texts: TBA.

2313-001+ (5811) [2307]. DRAMA. 10 MWF. 120 DALL. Prof. Crusius.

Introduction to the study of drama as both literary and theatrical experience. Students will examine dramatic texts and study available video or film versions of the works. Writing assignments: four short essays, mid-term, final examination.

Texts: Duck Soup; Shakespeare, Othello; Ibsen, A Doll’s House; Williams, The Glass Menagerie; Miller, Death of a Salesman; Wilson, Fences; Ives, Sure Thing; Wasserstein, The Heidi Chronicles; selected other texts.

2314-001H+ (3854) [2308]. DOING THINGS WITH POEMS. 11 TTh. 351 DALL. Prof. Spiegelman.

Introduction to the study of poems, poets, and how poetry works, focusing on a wide range of English and American writers. Some attention to matters of literary history. Writing assignments: approximately five short essays, daily paragraphs, final examination if necessary. Students will memorize 100 lines of poetry.

Texts: Vendler, Poems, Poets, Poetry; Hollander, Rhyme's Reason.

2315-001+ (3558). INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDY. 10 MWF. 138 DALL. Prof. Householder.

Introduction to the discipline for beginning English majors, covering methods of literary analysis in selected texts spanning a range of genres and historical periods. Writing assignments: brief weekly exercises, four essays, mid-term, final examination.

Texts: Murfin and Ray, The Bedford Glossary of Literary and Critical Terms; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night; Behn, Oroonoko; James, Daisy Miller; Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth; selected poetry and short stories.

2315-002+ (3559). INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDY. 11 TTh. 357 DALL. Prof. Moss.

Texts: Baldick: Oxford Book of Literary Terms; Shakespeare: Hamlet; Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead; Blake: Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience; Austen: Pride and Prejudice; Wright: Native Son; Eugenides: The Virgin Suicides; selected poetry and short stories.

2315-003+ (3560). INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY STUDY. 2 TTh. 137 DALL. Prof. Ards.

Texts: Harmon and Holman, A Handbook to Literature; Shakespeare, The Tempest; Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities; Willa Cather, My Antonia; William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying; August Wilson, Fences; selected poetry and short stories.

2391-001 (3316). INTRODUCTION TO POETRY WRITING. 11 TTh. 120 DALL. Prof. Myers.
A workshop in which student poetry and directed exercises in basic techniques form the content of the course. Open to everyone, regardless of background and experience in poetry. Emphasis on contemporary poetry. Writing assignments: 12-15 poems, along with journaling and annotations on books read.

Texts: Myers & Weingarten, New American Poets of the 90s; Myers, The Portable Poetry Workshop.

2392-001 (2960). INTRODUCTION TO FICTION WRITING. 9:30 TTh. 137 DALL. Prof. Smith.

A beginning workshop in theory and technique, and writing of fiction. Writing assignments: various class exercises, writing and rewriting short stories.

Texts: Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction, ed. by Cassill and Oates.

2392-002 (3562). INTRODUCTION TO FICTION WRITING. 12:30 TTh. 120 DALL. Prof. Key.

A beginning workshop in the theory and technique of fiction writing. Writing assignments include various in-class exercises and the drafting and revision of short stories.

Text: The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, edited by Cassill and Bausch (longer 7th Ed.).

3310-001 (2698) [3304]. CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO LITERATURE. 3 MW. 106 DALL. Prof. Murfin.
What is literature? How do we read it, and why? What counts as "literature"? How can students make sense of and make use of literary criticism? This course addresses these questions by introducing the linguistic, cultural, and theoretical issues informing contemporary literary discourse, as well as by studying some literary texts and contemporary interpretations of them. Writing assignments: weekly in-class short exercises, one short essay, one longer essay, final examination.

Texts: Brontë, ‘Wuthering Heights’: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism; Conrad, ‘Heart of Darkness’: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism and ‘The Secret Sharer’: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism; Shelley, ‘Frankenstein’: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism.

3310-002 (2699) [3304]. CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO LITERATURE. 9:30 TTh. 351 DALL. Prof. Siraganian.

What is literature? How do we read it, and why? How can students make sense of and use literary criticism? This course introduces linguistic, cultural, and theoretical issues informing contemporary literary discourse and applies a variety of contemporary critical approaches to a few literary texts. Writing assignments: bi-weekly short essays, final essay, final examination.

Texts: Tyson, Critical Theory Today, Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Joyce, "The Dead", Shakespeare, The Tempest, plus additional short stories, essays and poems.

3331-001+ (3606) [3305]. BRITISH LITERARY HISTORY I: CHAUCER TO POPE. 9:30 TTh. 106 HYER. Prof. Rosendale.

Introduction to the major works, genres, writers, issues, and periods of earlier English literature (c. 800-1750), with careful attention to close reading and analysis of texts. We will also attend to the political, religious, and social history in which these texts were written, and to which they responded in complex ways. Authors covered include Chaucer, Langland, Kempe, More, Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Lanyer, Donne, Herbert, Milton, Dryden, Swift, and Pope. Writing assignments: three short essays, mid-term, final examination.

Texts: Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. I (8^th edition).

3346-001+ (2700) [3307]. AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY I. 12 MWF. 115 DALL. Prof. Householder.

This course will explore the literary responses of major American writers from 1775-1900 to questions and problems of individual, group, and national identity emerging in the wake of American political and cultural independence. Central issues will include slavery, the Civil War, immigration, women’s rights, and economic exploitation. Writing assignments: three short essays, various short assignments, midterm and final examination.

Texts: Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Edition (6th edition); Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; Dreiser, Sister Carrie.

3366-001+ (3614) [3307]. AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY II. 9 MWF. 156 DALL. Prof. Dickson-Carr.

We shall study the construction and revision of America and American cultures conducted by some of the most famous authors in modern America. This course is designed to provide an overview of both the historical and cultural information surrounding outstanding American literary works even as we discover the forms American authors have used to express different facets of American life. Our overarching goal will be to construct for ourselves definitions of what it means or has meant, in practical terms, to be an American, whether through the artists we study or our own knowledge and experiences. In the process, we shall continuously engage these texts via careful, close analysis of them as literature and as documents of American culture. Regular writings and quizzes, two short papers, a longer research paper, and a final examination shall be required.

Texts: We will read the following authors and texts, or excerpts thereof: Mark Twain, Pudd’n’head Wilson; Henry James, The American; Willa Cather, My Ántonia; William Faulkner, Absalom! Absalom!; Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust; Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man; Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions; Toni Morrison, Beloved; and Don DeLillo, White Noise. Selected poems and stories by: Langston Hughes; Nikki Giovanni; Robert Frost; e.e. cummings; Wallace Stevens; Leslie Marmon Silko; Sandra Cisneros; Walter Mosley; Zora Neale Hurston.

3367-001 (5812) [3349]. ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE. 10 MWF. 115 DALL. Prof. Satz.

An opportunity to revisit childhood favorites and to make new acquaintances, armed with the techniques of cultural and literary criticism. Examination of children's literature from an ethical perspective, particularly notions of morality and evil, with emphasis upon issues of colonialism, race, ethnicity, gender, and class. Writing assignments: four essays, final examination.

Texts: “Snow White,” accompanied by critical essays; picture books such as Where the Wild Things Are, The Giving Tree, Amazing Grace, Curious George, Babar; chapter books for young children such as Wilder, Little House on the Prairie; White, Charlotte’s Web; Erdrich, Game of Silence; books for young adults such as L’Engle, Wrinkle in Time; Johnson, Toning the Sweep; Kadohata, Kira-Kira;and one adult book, Morrison, The Bluest Eye.

3371-701C (5814) [3357]. JOAN OF ARC: HISTORY, LITERATURE AND FILM. 5:30 W. 156 DALL. Prof. Wheeler.

What can we know about the extraordinary peasant girl, Joan of Arc (ca.

141230 May 1431), who in two years of public life before she was burned at the stake when she was only 19 helped to change the course of European history? She is an infamous as well as richly documented historical figure. In this course on biography and myth-making, we will consider the life and later reception of Joan of Arc through her own trial records and contemporary reports, then through her representation in later literature, art, film, historical writing, and propaganda. Assignments: two papers, in-class debates, final examination.
Texts: OLR (on-line reader); Daniel Hobbins, The Trial of Joan of Arc (2005); Régine Pernoud, Joan of Arc, Herstory (1999); Craig Taylor, Joan of Arc: La Pucelle (2006), Bonnie Wheeler and Charles T. Wood, eds., Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc (1996).

3381-001 (5815) [3317]. SEMIOTICS OF CULTURE. 12:30 TTh. 115 DALL. Prof. Sudan.

This course seeks to disrupt and complicate our relationship to movie-going. While acknowledging that movies are a form of entertainment, a means of escape, and projections of private and public fantasies, we will also examine how film acts as an important public arena for serious political discussion. Films take many forms, and often the most overtly political films, like the most overtly political literature, address limited groups and are not widely disseminated. This course focuses on the ways in which popular Hollywood film acts as a political and ideological emissary: what kinds of messages do we consume in the theater? What defines the parameters of entertainment and escape? Is the fact that movie-going is an intensely public practice at all relevant to a discussion of politics? In the process of re-learning how we watch movies, we will also learn to disrupt our ways of seeing, to hone our analysis of ideological structures, to parse different political and cultural theories and understand their importance to reading texts, and, finally, to complicate our understanding of “meaning.”

Texts: TBA.

3392-001 (2701). INTERMEDIATE FICTION WRITING. 9:30 TTh. 120 DALL. Prof. Key.

An intermediate class in fiction writing that builds on the material covered in ENGL 2392. Writing assignments include various in-class exercises and the drafting and revision of short stories.

Text: The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, edited by Cassill and Bausch (longer 7th Ed.).

4323-701^ (3925) [4324]. CHAUCER: THE CANTERBURY TALES. 5:30 M. 156 DALL. Prof. Wheeler.

Readings of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from perspectives of medieval thought and contemporary criticism. Open to majors and non-majors. Writing assignments: short essays, commentaries, final examination.
Text: Benson, ed., The Riverside Chaucer.

4332-001^ (3926) [4331]. STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN BRITISH LITERATURE. 12:30 TTh. 105 DALL. Prof. Rosendale.
William Shakespeare wasn’t the only game in town in Renaissance England; even without him, it was a period of extraordinary (some would say unparalleled) achievement in drama. This course will survey a dozen or so plays by Kyd, Marlowe, Jonson, Dekker, Marston, Ford, Beaumont, Webster, and other remarkable playwrights of this era (c. 1580-1635) to more fully understand its range of dramatic productivity—to get, in other words, a sense of what’s left out and lost in the Shakespeare-only version of Renaissance drama. We will also engage with recent criticism as a way of sharpening and deepening our own encounters with these bloody, funny, provocative texts. Writing assignments: presentation, two mid-length writing projects, final examination.
Texts: TBA.

4333-001^ (3927) [4332]. SHAKESPEARE. 11 TTh. 138 DALL. Prof. Holahan.

Close reading of the major tragedies along with representative later comedies, problem plays, and romances. Reading will be supplemented by the viewing of videotaped performances. Writing assignments: three essays, quizzes, mid-term, final examination.
Text: Greenblatt, ed., The Norton Shakespeare.

4343-001# (5822) [4362]. BRITISH LITERATURE IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and George Eliot . 11 MWF. 106 DALL. Prof. Satz.

A consideration of the works of three major nineteenth century novelists against the background of history, gender constraints, and philosophical considerations Assignments: four papers of varying lengths, mid-term and final.

Texts: Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Austen, Emma; Bronte, Jane Eyre; Bronte, Villette; Eliot, Middlemarch; and Eliot, Mill on the Floss

4343-701 (5823) [4342]. BRITISH LITERATURE IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: VICTORIAN POETS AND THEIR ROMANTIC PRECURSORS. 5:30 W. 138 DALL. Prof. Murfin.

A consideration of the ways in which Victorian poets implicitly (and sometime explicitly) responded to and revised the world-view and works of their Romantic precursors. Because this is a course not just in transitions and transformations but also in poetic revisionism, Romantic texts will be read alongside Victorian ones, e.g., writings by Wordsworth and Arnold, Keats and Tennyson, and Shelley and Browning will be read in tandem. (Other Victorian writers briefly studied in this fashion will include Emily Brontë, Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Swinburne, and Hardy.) Concurrent consideration of Romantic and Victorian odes, sonnets, elegies, quest romances, nature poems and even “bird” poems (Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” Shelley’s “To a Skylark,” Arnold’s “Philomela,” Swinburne’s “Itylus,” Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush” and “Shelley’s Skylark”) will allow for insights into changing poetic strategies, styles, concepts, and consciousness.

4360-001 (3929) [4373]. STUDIES IN MODERN & CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICAN POETRY FROM 1900-1945. 3:30 TTh. 137 DALL. Prof. Siraganian.

Do modern poems have meaning, and if so, how do we value them? How do readers relate to poems, and how do poems relate to a transforming world? This intensive study of American poetry from the first half of the twentieth century examines these questions, paying special attention to the fascinating – and sometimes contested – concept of modernism in the age of modernity. We will study poetry (and, occasionally, some short prose) in relation to the philosophical, political and cultural transformations of this exciting and tumultuous period, a time that included the Jazz Age, the Great Depression and two world wars. Authors studied include Eliot, Pound, Loy, Frost, Stein, Williams, Stevens, Toomer, Grimké, Moore, Crane and Hughes.

Writing assignments: brief weekly writing exercises, three longer essays, midterm, and final examination.

Texts: The New Anthology of American Poetry, Vol. 2: Modernisms 1900-1950, ed. Axelrod, Roman and Travisano, handouts, and short texts downloaded from Blackboard.

4370-001 (3930) [4373]. SPECIAL TOPICS: FIVE POEMS. 9 TTh. 156 DALL. Prof. Spiegelman.

This is a course designed for people who like to read poems carefully and slowly. Very slowly. The subject will be five poems of medium length: Milton's "Lycidas," Pope's The Rape of the Lock, Wordsworth's Immortality Ode, Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," and Eliot's The Waste Land." We shall spend at least two weeks on each poem and investigate it through various lenses, and employing a range of historical, textual, and critical materials. Students are expected to be familiar with the genre of poetry; some exposure to some of the works above will be helpful, although not mandatory. The class will function like a seminar, that is, students will be expected to contribute critical responses, e-mail postings, and scholarly evaluations every week. Each student will write a short paper on each of the five poems. A longer final paper may also be assigned, depending on how the shorter papers turn out. No exams.

Texts: John Milton, The Complete Poems (Penguin Classics, John Leonard, ed.); Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (Bedford Cultural Edition, Cynthia Wall, ed.); Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (Norton Critical Edition, Michael Moon, ed.); and T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (Norton Critical Edition, Michael North, ed.)

4392-001C (2703). ADVANCED FICTION WRITING. 12:30 TTh. 138 DALL. Prof. Smith.

Advanced Fiction Writing. Advanced course for students seriously interested in writing the short story or novel. Students are required to produce at least 50 pages of polished fiction. Reading quizzes are given over stories from the anthology The Contemporary American Short Story. Prerequisite: ENGL 3392 or permission of instructor.

4397-001 (5844) [4301]. CRAFT OF POETRY. 12:30 TTh. 153 DALL. Prof. Myers.

An intermediate poetry writing course focusing on the study of contemporary poetic technique by way of readings, directed exercises, and free writing. The course will not fulfill English major and minor requirements for 4000-level literature courses, but will fulfill specialization hours for Creative Writing and elective hours for all others. Writing assignments: frequent exercises, a presentation or essay on the technique of a selected poet. Enrollment limit: 15. Prerequisite: ENGL 2391.

Texts: Myers, The Portable Poetry Workshop; Myers and Wojahn, A Profile of American Poetry in the 20th Century.

Right to Know, Nondiscrimination, and other legal statements.