Spring 2011 Course Descriptions

Last updated: November 15, 2010 at 4:48 p.m.

For general information on advisement, have a look at the Advisement Guide.

Amst 201 - Topics in American Studies Honors Humanities 220 Humanities 221 Intd 105 - Critical Writing and Reading Intd 210 - Topics in Film Engl 142 - Literary Forms Engl 170 - The Practice of Criticism Engl 200 - College Writing II Engl 201 - Creative Writing Engl 212 - British Literature I Engl 213 - British Literature II Engl 222 - Exploring the Renaissance Engl 235 - American Literature Engl 237 - Voices and Visions Engl 250 - Literature and Existentialism Engl 254 - Introduction to Shakespeare Engl 282 - The Bible as Literature Engl 301/303 - Poetry Writing I and II Engl 302/304 - Fiction Writing I and II Engl 305/307 - Creative Nonfiction Writing I and II Engl 306/406 - Writing for Teachers Engl 318 - Contemporary Black British Literature and Culture Engl 319 - Literary Theory and Criticism Engl 320 - Irish Literature Engl 330 - American Romanticism English 337 - African American Literature Engl 339 - American Ways Engl 355 - Shakespeare II Engl 358 - Major Authors Engl 386 - Modern Drama

Overview: What Counts Where Pre-1700 British: Engl 212, 222, 355 (writing track only), 358 (Drake; see note beneath description) Post-1700 British: Engl 318, 320 American Lit: Engl 235, 237, 330, 337, 339, 358 (Cooper); AmSt 201 Cultural Intersections: Engl 142 (Lima), 237, 318, 337, 339 Shakespeare: Engl 355 Major Authors: Engl 358 Writing/Language: Engl 200, 201, 301/303, 302/304, 305/307, 306/406 Film: Intd 210 Writing Track Genre: Engl 142, 358, 386 Contemporary: Engl 237 (Rutkowski, Gentry), 318, 358 (Cooper) Cultural Intersections: Engl 142 (Lima), 237, 318, 337, 339 Courses You Can Take Twice (under different subtitles) Engl 142, 237, 337, 339, 358 Information on degree requirements BA in English - Literature track BA in English - Writing track BA in Comp Lit BA in Theatre/English Minors in Lit, Writing, Film

Amst 201 - Topics in American Studies

Topics in American Studies - Civil War and Memory (A. Rutkowski, English; J. Behrend, History)

This is a team-taught course with one faculty member from History (Behrend) and one from English (Rutkowski). Rather than being about the American Civil War itself, this course will explore the way the war is remembered long after the battles were over. The course will be organized roughly into two sections: texts and issues from Reconstruction and the late nineteenth-century and in particular the development of the "Lost Cause" mythology in the South. The latter half of the course will look at twentieth-century uses of the Civil War and ideas that still haunt our historical present: Civil War re-enactors, debates over the continuing presence of the Confederate flag, the Civil War historical novels. Because this is an interdisciplinary course, students will read broadly in scholarly and popular history, art history as well as in literary genres such as fiction and poetry.

Honors

Honr 102 - Critical Reading (G. Stelzig)

A detailed and in-depth critical study of four Shakespeare plays — most likely Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, King Lear. This seminar style class will involve close reading, discussion, and extensive writing (at least four critical essays) focused on these plays as literary texts. Students will also team up to make oral presentations focused on textual and critical analysis.

Honr 102 - Critical Reading (R. Herzman)

A detailed and careful reading of a few selected texts, usually not more than two, from major disciplines. This course focuses on close reading and analysis through seminar discussion and extensive writing.

Honr 206 - Honors Seminar: Digital Humanities (P. Schacht)

This seminar will explore the relatively new and rapidly growing field of digital humanities. Digital humanities comprises several closely related areas of methodological innovation and intellectual inquiry: the use of internet-age tools for traditional scholarly projects, such as encyclopedias and archives; the theory and practice of art that is "born digital" (that is, created with and communicated through digital media, not just stored on a server); and the investigation of digital technology's impact on a wide range of cultural conceptions and practices, such as creativity, authorship, copyright, communication, and friendship.

Humanities 220

Western Humanities I (T. Greenfield) - 2 sections

The course description is identical with that of the college's course description for this general education course. Readings include excerpts from the Bible, Homer, Thucydides, Sophocles, Aristotle, Livinius, Seneca (possibly), St. Augustine, Shakespeare, among others.

Western Humanities I (R. Herzman)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Western Humanities I (R. Doggett)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Western Humanities I (B. Harrison)

The course description is identical with that of the college's course description for this core course. Readings may include readings from the Bible and by Plato, Sophocles, Thucydides, Livy, De Pizan, Shakespeare, and others.

Western Humanities I (C. Hertrick)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Western Humanities I (C. Faurot)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Humanities 221

Western Humanities II (K. Cooper)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Western Humanities II (A. Rutkowski)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Western Humanities II (C. Woidat)

From the Undergraduate Bulletin: "The Humanities Program is designed to be the center of the College’s General Education program and of liberal education in this College. The two courses which make up the Humanities requirement approach the subject of moral and political values using the methods of the three Humanities disciplines: literature, history, and philosophy. The goal of these courses is to acquaint our students with the major Western value systems by examining the basic readings from philosophical and literary points of view, and in a historical context. Western Humanities II is a search for moral, social and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered."

Texts: Locke, Second Treatise of Government; Voltaire, Candide; Franklin, The Autobiography; American History Documents; Shelley, Frankenstein; Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; Thoreau, Walden; Ward, Great Short Stories by American Women;Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto; Gilman, Herland; Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents; Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, Volumes I & II; DeLillo, White Noise; materials on myCourses

Western Humanities II (W. Kennison)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Western Humanities II (M. Lima)

Humn II is the study of moral, social, and political alternatives and meanings embodied in the institutions, cultures, and literatures of western civilization from the seventeenth century to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the periods covered. The Triangle Trade is at the core of my version of history.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

1. The ability to read major texts from the Western European tradition carefully and critically, and to understand the different generic conventions, assumptions, and ideologies behind the writing of political philosophy, history, and literature.
2. The ability to think critically about moral, social, and political arguments in the Western intellectual tradition, evaluating the logic of these arguments and relating them to their historical and cultural context.
3. The ability to write sustained, coherent, analytical, and persuasive arguments, following the conventions of Standard English.
4. The oral ability to present individual ideas to the class and persuasively discuss the complexity of the texts and the histories under discussion and, consequently, their different interpretations.

Required Texts: Aphra Behn, Oroonoko or, The Royal Slave (1688); Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1690); Rousseau, A Discourse on Inequality (1755); Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen (1791). (handout); American History Documents (packet); Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1816); Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854); The Marx-Engels Reader (Norton); Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1902); Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (1930); Joan Anim-Addo. Imoinda: or She Who Will Lose Her Name. A Play for twelve voices in three acts (Mango Publishing, 2008; REQUIRED FILMS: The Terrible Transformation; 1933, the Master Race; Life and Debt

Western Humanities II (E. Gillin)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Western Humanities II (C. Beltz-Hosek)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Western Humanities II (J. Eddy) - 2 sections

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Western Humanities II (M. Gillin)

A search for moral, social, and political alternatives and meaning embodied in the institutions, culture, and literature of Western Civilization from 1600 to the present. The course is factual as well as conceptual, including a narrative history of the period covered. A list of specific texts assigned for this section is available at the Master Schedule page.

Intd 105 - Critical Writing and Reading

The Woman Writer (C. Beltz-Hosek)

This course centers on writings by notable 19th-20th century female authors, which students will examine from a feminist critical perspective. With each text we will explore how the author approaches the domestic sphere, sexual agency in patriarchal culture, and the transcendental power of creative expression. Works by Emily Brontë, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf will be thoughtfully analyzed in conjunction with seminal sociopolitical literature by Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir.

Women and Work in Fiction and Non-Fiction (E. Herzman)

The focus of the course is working women and their stories. Looking at works of non-fiction, fiction, and film, we will try to figure out what women have found important and valuable in their jobs, careers, and professions in the last 100 or so years in the U.S. Why do women choose the work they do and how do they find meaning in what they do? These are the questions we should keep in mind as we read and write this semester. As this is primarily a writing course, a considerable portion of the work will focus on the construction of effective argumentative essays.

Octavia Butler's Parables (B. McCoy)

Writing Seminar is a course focusing on a specific topic while emphasizing writing practice and instruction, potentially taught by any member of the college faculty. Because this is primarily a course in writing, reading assignments will be briefer than in traditional topic courses, and students will prove their understanding of the subject matter through writing compositions rather than taking examinations.

This particular section will explore science fiction writer Octavia Butler’s novel The Parable of the Sower and its sequel, The Parable of the Talents. Taking place in a future America that has slowly lapsed into political, environmental, and religious chaos, these novels follow the rise to power of Lauren Oya Olamina, a young black woman from California. In response to the destruction around her, Olamina develops a new religion, Earthseed, a religion based on the principle that "God is Change." As Olamina’s followers grow in number, the novels raise important questions about power, celebrity, religious fundamentalisms, race (especially white supremacy), class, gender, corporate slavery, and mobility.

Texts: Butler, Parable of the Sower; Butler, Parable of the Talents; Graff/Birkenstein, They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing.

Hypocrisy: The Virtuous Vice (G. Paku)

The Writing Seminar is a course focusing on a specific topic while emphasizing writing practice and instruction, potentially taught by any member of the college faculty. Because this is primarily a course in writing, reading assignments will be briefer than in traditional topic courses, and students will prove their understanding of the subject matter through writing compositions rather than by taking examinations.

This particular section will ask you to focus on the issue of hypocrisy. "Hypocrisy," claimed la Rochefoucauld, "is the tribute that vice pays to virtue." We’ll put our own pressure on the morality of hypocrisy by considering the effects of servitude in Ben Jonson's Volpone. Those pressures are reconceptualized and given different generic form in Kazuo Ishiguro's recent Remains of the Day. We'll refine our thinking in the process of writing and rewriting, assembling evidence and structuring arguments of appropriate scope and complexity. After looking at some contemporary claims of hypocrisy from Newsweek, The Economist, and the Democrat and Chronicle, we'll turn to the complicated figure of Chaucer's Pardoner. This section will also include a research paper on an aspect of liberal arts education.

We'll Always Have Paris (A. Lutkus)

This introductory writing seminar has Paris as its subject and object. Most of the readings will be American writers' reactions to and reflections on the city of Paris. Adam Gopnik's anthology Americans in Paris contains most of the texts we will read, among them Fitzgerald, Stein and H.B. Stowe. Students will also consider paintings and photographs of Paris by French artists and study the recent French film "Paris." The course looks at legends about and impressions of Paris and aims to gain some sense of what Parisians themselves think about and hope for their city.

Looking On Darknes (S.Symington)

In this course, we will explore the views of darkness in Western literature. Major texts are Othello, Heart of Darkness, and Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark. Other readings include biblical texts, travel writing by V.S. Naipal, and stories by Hawthorne, Stephen Crane and Barbara Kingsolver. Students will be asked to reflect on the authors' application of darkness as a cultural symbol and literary device, and to express in writing of their own the roots and ramifications of our hate-love relationship to The Dark.

Intd 210 - Topics in Film

Topics in Film: The Language of Moving Pictures (S. Symington)

Exploration of various aspects of film from specific personages to focuses such as cinem history, specific genres, and cross-cultural studies.
Counts toward: Film

Engl 142 - Literary Forms

Serial Killers (J. Walker)

For decades I’ve taught mysteries/thrillers in the Spring semester, having fun with a class filled with non-majors (and a few English people) who want credit for reading something gruesome. When I ask at the end of the class what changes I could make, the answer is always "more blood, more gore, more fear."

OK, here’s an all-blood, all-gore, all sleep-with-the-light-on bunch of novels and films about the most twisted criminals our culture has produced. We will read about the slaughter of children, of college students, and of that staple, beautiful young women; about killers who kill for sex, for aesthetics, for genetics, for religion; about murders set in New Orleans, London, Portland, Oxford, NYC, San Francisco, and Tokyo. We’ll have at least two video texts. I’ve chosen some of my favorites already, but after people register, I’ll put up a survey so the class can choose a few things on the reading list.

There will be a book review, a team project, and a final exam. The frame for the class is this: why do we want more blood, more gore, more fear?

Counts toward: Genre (writing track)

The Neo-Slave Narrative (M. Lima)

Since the last decades of the twentieth century, many writers across the African Diaspora have attempted to recover elements of the narrative structure and thematic configuration of slave narratives. The main reason for this seemingly widespread desire to rewrite a genre that officially lost its usefulness with the abolition of slavery is their will to re-affirm the historical value of the original slave narrative and to (re)imagine the subjectivity of the enslaved. For a long time slave narratives were considered unreliable as a historical source mainly due to the nature of history writing itself (top down) and ideological differences (to put it mildly). However, as more slave narratives were being discovered and republished (mostly late sixties and seventies in the United States), the rewriting of such stories has become central to a contemporary effort to re-imagine that history from the point of view of the subaltern. More importantly perhaps, neo-slave narratives still need to be written to expose systemic inequality and the unjust treatment of black peoples across the African Diaspora.

Probable reading list: Octavia Butler's Kindred (1979); Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) Caryl Phillips's Crossing the River (1994); Louise Meriwether's Fragments of the Ark (1994); Fred D'Aguiar's The Longest Memory (1994); Valerie Mason-John’s Borrowed Body (2005); Andrea Levy’s The Long Song (2010)

Assignments and Grading: This course is non-graded until the very end of the semester. Your final grade will depend upon active and engaged class participation, including occasional quizzes (25%), and progress in writing critically about the genre: a midterm essay (20%), a final paper (30%), and a final exam (25%) will be assessed.

Counts toward: Cultural Intersections, Contemporary (writing track), Genre (writing track)

Science Fiction (T. Metzger)

This course will use science fiction novels, short stories and one film to analyze various social issues: crime and punishment, gender roles, technology and social control, the cult of personality, altered states of consciousness, the perils of progress, and racial conflict.

Two major papers will make up 75% of students' grades. In-class writing, quizzes and class participation will make up the other 25%.

Counts toward: Genre (writing track)

Engl 170 - The Practice of Criticism

The Practice of Criticism (G. Stelzig)

This course is an introduction to the analysis and interpretation of literary texts. In classroom discussion and short papers, students in this section will undertake close critical reading of works from several different genres (fiction, drama, poetry, autobiography). Some of the readings will be selected from The Norton Introduction to Literature (Portable Edition). Other readings will include Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory. Students will write three critical essays, including one requiring the use of secondary sources (cited according to the MLA style). There will also be a 50-minute test and a final exam. The class will make up the poetry reading list (selected from Norton).

The Practice of Criticism (G. Paku)

English 170 is an introductory course in literary analysis for English majors. We will consider possible responses to the big questions students of literature should ask: why do we read literature, and what sort of factors determine whether a text is "literary"? We will discuss some of the ways we can approach a literary text, and see what it looks like in practice to choose one emphasis over another. We will pay particular attention to the idea of "close reading," and will practice this fundamental literary skill on a number of texts from a variety of historical periods and from a variety of genres including prose fiction, poetry, and drama. We will also spend time on the form of analytical essays as the primary vehicle for conveying our thoughts: relevant issues include what constitutes an appropriate argument, what constitutes literary evidence, how we structure an analysis, and what sort of research we incorporate. Online technology will allow you to exchange ideas and practice approaches with English 170 students beyond your own section.

The Practice of Criticism (B. Harrison)

This course, a major requirement, is an introduction to literary analysis, with special attention devoted to literary genre and media. We will concentrate on the critical close reading of texts, often focusing on clusters of works that present similar, adapted material; in so doing, we will consider the differences between works, genres, and medias, as well as the literary value we assign to said differences. Among our class texts are the following: The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms; Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories; and The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood.

The Practice of Criticism (R. Doggett)

This is an introductory course in literary analysis for English majors, one that's designed to provide you with a foundation in literary studies before you move on to upper division courses. In the first part of the semester, we will consider the various answers provided by literary theorists to the basic and increasingly pressing questions: Why read literature? What is the value of literature and literary study? What place does it have in the university and in the culture at large? Later in the semester, we will meditate on the following questions: What is literature? Who determines that a text is literature? How and what is the function of a literary canon? The final part of the semester will be devoted to questions about how we read: What are the interpretive strategies that have been brought to bear on literature in the 20th century? How do they work? What are their objectives and implications?

In addition to focusing on these larger theoretical issues, the course will also offer practical guidance in the study of literature. Thus, part of the semester is devoted to "close reading," an approach to literary analysis that underpins nearly all of the other approaches that we will discuss, from New Criticism to feminist analysis. Moreover, we will spend a bit of time covering the nuts and bolts of writing about literature, from selecting a topic, to conducting research, to formulating and proving an interpretation. Finally, we will often practice literary analysis by focusing on a few primary texts, including novels and a substantial helping of poetry.

Engl 200 - College Writing II

College Writing II (T. Metzger)

This course is a writing workshop designed to give students many opportunities to practice their critical thinking and writing skills. Frequent writing required.

Counts toward: Writing

Engl 201 - Creative Writing

Creative Writing (C. Perri)

This course is an intermediate workshop in the manufacture and maintenance of creative nonfiction, poetry, and short fiction. Our intent is not only to become sharper writers, readers, and critics of these literary genres, but to better understand the choices we make on and off the page. Students will draft, edit, and revise creative essays, poems, and short stories of their own design, completing a final project in the genre of their choice. All students are expected to present their work to the class for feedback, and in turn offer copious written and verbal commentary on the work of their peers. There will be extensive reading in each of the aforementioned genres, critical response essays, numerous in-class writing exercises, and frequent reading aloud. Required Texts: Barbara Drake's Writing Poetry (Second Edition), Anne Lamont's Bird by Bird, and The Best American Short Stories 2005 (Michael Chabon, Ed).

Counts toward: Writing

Creative Writing (C. Faurot)

An intermediate-level writing workshop involving assignments in various literary forms. Class discussions will focus on student work as well as work by published authors.

Counts toward: Writing

Engl 212 - British Literature I

British Literature I (G. Drake)

This course will survey the major currents of British literature through the year 1660 — yes, Old English poetry, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich, Sidney, and Milton, among others. But the course will also consider and critique the English domination of English literature by looking at the contributions of Ireland and Scottish culture. Each student will also memorize and perform (in class) an assigned passage of poetry or drama. A final presentation on a paper on this passage will substitute for the final exam. Our two texts will include the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Eighth Edition, Vol. 1, and Tales of the Elders of Ireland.

Counts toward: Pre-1700 British

Engl 213 - British Literature II

British Literature II (B. Harrison)

The three centuries of literature we will read are often the most familiar to 20th-century readers, and these writers and works have had immense influence on our understanding of what literature is and how it is produced. The chronologically ordered course will read works from the following major periods: Neo-Classical, Romantic, Victorian, Modernist, and the so-called Contemporary. We'll consider how each of these periods have helped to construct our own idea of cultural modernity. Our four literary texts will be: The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise Volume B; Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray; Lawrence's Aaron's Rod, and Greene's Brighton Rock.

Counts toward: Post-1700 British

Engl 222 - EXPLORING the Renaissance

Milton's Biblical Poetry (J. Walker)

In Paradise Lost Milton takes Genesis 1--3 and combines the creation narratives with the epics of Homer, Virgil, Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser and the politics of the English Revolution to give us a poem that rips the top off conventional notions of right and wrong, of crime and punishment, of gender equity (he’s makes the Fall Adam’s fault, not Eve’s), of personal responsibility.

When he wrote Samson Agonistes he was a blind failed revolutionary living in virtual exile writing about a blinded failed Hebrew hero who turned himself into a suicide bomber to get even. Milton takes the horror of the narrative in the Book of Judges and uses the paradigm of Greek tragedy to foreground what Sophocles calls "the razor’s edge of fate," that fascinating moment of Aristotelian choice when the hero as the power to chose between glory and responsibility, between individual flash-bang greatness and humiliating personal failure for the good of society. Milton unrolls the rich tapestry of Western thought, wipes his feet on it, and brutally demands: what’s the point?

Even more amazingly, he gives us some answers, answers he expects us to challenge.

We will follow Milton from his exquisite early poetry to his arrogant re-writing of Genesis to the dark humiliation of a hero who chooses the wrong act for the [right/wrong] reason. There will be a midterm project, a paper on Paradise Lost or Samson and a final, as well as a big hunk of the grade for arguing. Milton is all about the arguing.

Counts toward: Pre-1700 British

Engl 235 - American Literature

American Literature (K. Cooper)

By the end of this chronologically ordered course, hopefully you will be asking yourself more complex questions about works of "American" literature. Why, for example, have writers been so anxious to define what is American? The various literary texts on the syllabus, therefore, will be read not just formally but with an eye toward the cultural circumstances that produced them. In addition to this historical context, we also will be looking at certain recurring issues in American life: religious “errand”; racial politics; class, ethnicity, and assimilation; nature and the physical environment; technology and industrialization; gender roles; American self-definition. Please note: this section of Engl 235 will be built around a smaller number of complete texts, including Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick; the reading load may be somewhat heavier than is typical for a 200-level course.

Counts toward: American Lit

Engl 237 - Voices and Visions

Hurricane Stories (B. McCoy)

This course will ask all students to consider New Orleans, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans culture (including black cultures), and "race," including whiteness and white privilege. All Engl 237 American Voices classes explore diversity in America's literary traditions, focusing on the perspective of once-marginalized American writers. The literature will be studied in the context of such factors as class, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, and/or sexual preference. Why do I copy verbatim this section from the Bulletin? Some are perplexed when they take an American Voices class and find that they are being asked to think critically about both difference (including “race”) and formalist terms of literary study. If you’re not ready to explore such intersections as those linking race, mobility, and storytelling, and/or if you’re not willing to perhaps return to territory that you believe you’ve already ‘covered,‘ drop the class now. This class most likely will do all of those things.

Additionally, this class is not designed solely for English majors (indeed, 237s are often populated largely by folks from other disciplines), nor is it designed solely for first- or fifth-year students. Any feelings of disciplinary anxiety/superiority should be checked at the door.

This particular section of Engl 237 will examine the narrative (storytelling) purposes that hurricanes, cyclones, and other "tempests" have served in literature, film, song, news, and popular culture. During the semester, you will explore how storms disrupt, create, and affirm (these are not the only options, of course) narratives about desire, race, mobility, virtue, and space, to name just a few possibilities. Perhaps most important, you will attend carefully to the process of how you think and read.

Texts: Patricia Smith, The Blood Dazzler; William Shakespeare, The Tempest; Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God; Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality; Dave Eggers, Zeitoun (new addition to syllabus).

Counts toward: American Lit, Cultural Intersections

Asian American Literature (A. Rutkowski)

The category "Asian American" is an odd one — it puts together groups with vastly different languages, cultures and histories. But for better or worse, this term has come to be the accepted way of referring to the millions of Americans who are of Asian descent, and writers from these communities have been a vibrant force in twentieth-century American literature, especially in the last thirty years or so. Our course will be divided among three sorts of narratives: immigration narratives, narratives of second-generation identity construction, and narratives emphasizing global or postcolonial perspectives. We'll draw heavily upon Chinese and Japanese American literature — the core of this subspecialty since its founding — and lightly upon texts from the still-forming Filipino, Korean, and South Asian diasporic literature. We'll ask how gender, class, generation, and national/ancestral histories inflect each author's stories, and how these texts use and re-envision existing literary codes and conventions to talk, implicitly, about issues that are not strictly literary.

Counts toward: American Lit, Cultural Intersections, Contemporary (writing track)

Hip-Hop Culture and Contemporary American Literature

We will explore hip hop's history and coming of age through fictional works by hip hop generation writers. Our focus is identity. How do hip hop and its members define themselves? What labels, ideals, codes, and morals do they uphold and why? What labels do others assign to them and why? Where and how do these labels originate? We will consider the ways that commercialization (among other factors) has transformed hip hop over the years; however, it will be important not to lose ourselves in debates about the authenticity and aesthetic value of "underground" vs. "popular" rap and maintain an understanding of the scope of the culture as well as insight into the racial, political, and social factors that make the claims on both sides of the rap argument so urgent. We will discuss those factors as we study hip hop’s history. We will also talk about issues that were pressing for America's black diaspora long before the 1970's (slavery, legal rights, colonization, etc.) and why those issues still have a prevalent place in hip hop dialogue. Over the course of the semester, we will investigate hip hop’s complexity and how it is manifested in contemporary literature's form, content, and characters.

Counts toward: American Lit, Cultural Intersections, Contemporary (writing track)

Engl 250 - Literature and Existentialism

Literature and Existentialism (K. Asher)

The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with some of the 19th- and 20th-century philosophers that may be grouped in the category of existentialists. In addition, we will look at literary works that portray themes brought up by the philosophers. This is especially appropriate in the case of existentialism, since it stresses the ongoing struggle of an individual to affirm his/her true self, something literature is especially valuable in recording. The issues of choice, freedom, and authenticity will be major concerns. By the end of the course, we should be able to arrive at a general definition of existentialism on the basis of in-depth and careful reading of our various authors. I should mention that much of the philosophy, especially Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, is quite dense, so make sure you’re willing to work through this if you enroll. The grade consists of two 5-6 page essays and a final exam, all worth 30% each. The remaining 10% will be based on participation. Since I plan to run the class largely as a seminar, everyone should have ample opportunity to join in the discussions.

Engl 254 - Introduction to Shakespeare

Introduction to Shakespeare (J. Walker)

We will look at the way Shakespeare twisted his own culture’s social conventions and then look at the various ways our culture has twisted the plays to suit our own political, religious, gender-based, materialist agendas.

• Romeo and Juliet as it is taught in American high schools has virtually nothing to do with Shakespeare’s text. Why?
• Is it possible to teach/produce/watch Merchant of Venice as it is written in a post-Holocaust world?
• Is the misogynist plot of Much Ado made bearable – or even attractive – by the wit of the dialogue? By the beauty of Kenneth Branagh’s movie?
• Is it possible – or even desirable – to separate Othello from his racial identity?
• With the tragically bad leader Richard II, has the playwright made a hero so unsympathetic that his redemption is impossible? If so, why are we taught to forgive Hamlet all his mistakes?
• If the hero of the play is Cleopatra, not Antony, how can that be a bad thing when a woman is on the throne of England? Was it possible for a woman to exercise power outside of the frame of a comedy without frightening the audience? Is it possible now?
• Is nationalism a sufficient reason to go to war, even if we win?
• If there is no commonly held definition of morality in a culture, how do the characters in King Lear know what constitutes right action? How do we know today?

We will use both the printed texts of the plays and a variety of films as we think through these and other questions. There will be a short paper, a team project, and a final exam.

Engl 254 does not meet the Shakespeare requirement for majors.

Engl 282 - The Bible as Literature

The Bible as Literature (G. Drake)

Unlike any other text in the Western world, the Bible has affected the way we thank, write, talk, act, read, argue, and any number of verbs mentionable or unmentionable. What we’ll consider in this course is the status of the Bible as a literary work in its own right — and, of course, in the way it has influenced later texts. (Please note: we will all be reading from the same edition and translation of the Bible, which will be listed at http://books.geneseo.edu.) We will also read The Koran, which derives from and reinterprets both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and the modern Norwegian novel A Time for Everything by Karl Knausgard, chock-full of angels, Renaissance intrigue, and a retelling of the Cain and Abel story from Genesis.

Engl 301/303 - Poetry Writing I and II

Poetry Writing I and II (C. Woidat)

This is an advanced course for students who have a strong interest in writing poetry and would like to engage in a wider exploration of the genre's forms and techniques. Throughout the semester, students will work on developing a critical vocabulary and understanding of elements of poetry that will enable them to become more sophisticated writers and readers of poetry. The course is designed upon the premise that writing poetry is hard work when undertaken seriously and requires more than pure inspiration. On a weekly basis, students will be expected to submit poems, practice techniques through writing exercises, read and respond to poetry by contemporary writers, and critique the work of their peers. At the end of the semester, students will create a final portfolio of revised poems and give a reading of their work.

Counts toward: Writing
See note above on advanced writing workshops.

Engl 302/304 - Fiction Writing I and II

Fiction Writing I and II (K. Gentry)

This is an advanced course for those with a sincere and serious interest in writing literary fiction. This is not a course for students interested in writing genre fiction such as science fiction, mystery, horror, gothic, Western, romance, fanfiction, etc. I say this not to discourage you from exploring those genres of writing on your own time, but to warn you before you begin work on a piece that I won't accept for this class. If you are sketchy about where your work stands, please ask because even if you've completed it and submitted it for workshop if I deem it genre fiction I will pull it and it will not be workshopped. Over the course of this semester you will further explore the elements of fiction presented in the introductory course by reading and discussing work by contemporary writers and your peers, completing writing exercises, and writing two short stories, one of which you will revise for the final portfolio. With that said, this is also not the class for you if your intentions are to get feedback on your novel. It is ineffective for the class to read a story that has no resolution and offers the author a built-in defense against criticism ("It doesn’t make sense because I forgot to tell you that her house caught fire in 1987 in chapter four," or "I can’t tell you if she takes the job until the next chapter." Unless your novel is comprised of autonomous chapters, continue to pursue that endeavor on your personal time. If you are serious about writing, love reading, have a desire to understand why writers do what they do, are willing to spend frustrating hours in front of blank space, face workshop with open ears, a closed mouth, and a humble heart, courageous enough to "kill your little darlings," curious enough to confront what you do not understand and be unflinchingly honest about the things you do understand, this is the course for you. 12 Short Stories and Their Making, ed. Paul Mendelbaum.

Counts toward: Writing
See note above on advanced writing workshops.

Engl 305/307 - Creative Nonfiction Writing I and II

Creative Nonfiction Writing I and II (K. Gentry)

In this advanced writing course, we will explore creative non-fiction, considering the various ways to move non-fiction beyond a stale recounting of facts to pieces that inform, inquire, inspire, and entertain. Through workshops, writing exercises, assigned readings, reading responses, and class discussion, you will become a stronger writer, able to intelligently discuss, question, and analyze the work in (and elements of) the genre to gain a better understanding of the choices writers make, why, and apply that knowledge to your work.

Counts toward: Writing
See note above on advanced writing workshops.

Engl 306/406 - Writing for Teachers

Writing for Teachers (M. Gillin)

This course offers writing instruction to advanced undergraudates who intend to teach. Students read writing theory, review English grammar, and write a series of essays over the course of the term.

Counts toward: Writing

Engl 318 - Contemporary Black British Literature and Culture

Contemporary Black British Literature and Culture (M. Lima)

Due to successive waves of "immigration" by commonwealth peoples since the end of WWII, London has become one of the most multicultural cities in the EU. Notice that Black in Britain includes not only descendants of the African Diaspora (although African presence can be traced as far back as the invading Roman army), but of "Asians" in all the historical complexity of the former British Empire. Black Britons have been creating art and literature that — among other things — explore the complexity of being both black and British. Andrea Levy, one of the authors on our syllabus, expresses such apparent contradiction as follows: "If English doesn't define me, redefine English."

Our course, then, is a study of Black British literature, film, and culture from 1948 to the present. These cultural texts will be reviewed in relation to larger socio-historical contexts. Unlike writers of the first wave of post-colonial migrants to Britain, such as Sam Selvon, who have lived the contradictions of being Black and British, a younger generation finds itself less conflicted as it attempts to (re)create identities within a more global paradigm.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Students will understand the complex interactions of gender, sexuality, religion, race, and class permeating the cultures within Britain today.
2. Students will understand the various negotiations Black British writers make when they choose to write within/against traditionally western generic conventions.
3. Students will demonstrate the oral ability to present their individual ideas to the class and persuasively discuss the complexity of the texts and cultures under discussion and, consequently, their different interpretations.
4. Students will demonstrate the ability to develop research skills, including the ability to search data bases, evaluate published materials, and incorporate information gleaned from articles of literary criticism, source texts, and works of historical/social background into their final research paper. This essay will also demonstrate their ability to write sustained, coherent, analytical, and persuasive arguments, following the conventions of Standard English.

Probable Reading List: Bernardine Evaristo. The Emperor’s Baby; Sam Selvon, Lonely Londoners; Andrea Levy, Small Island; Joan Anim-Addo, Imoinda: or She Who Will Lose Her Name. A Play for twelve voices in three acts (Mango Publishing, 2008); Hanif Kureishi, The Black Album; Kwame Dawes, Ed. Red: Contemporary Black British Poetry. London: Peepal Tree Press, 2010 ISBN : 9781845231293; all readings in mycourses; Required Films: Injustice; My Son the Fanatic; Imoinda, the School of the Arts world premiere performance of the opera.

Assignments and Portfolio Grading: You must complete all written work to pass the course. You are also responsible for all readings -- whether or not we have time to fully discuss them. Your final grade will depend upon attendance, active and engaged participation, including the oral presentation of your research argument (25%) and progress in writing critically: a critical essay (25%), a research paper (35%), and a final exam (15%) will be assessed.

Counts toward: Post-1700 British, Cultural Intersections, Contemporary (writing track)

Engl 319 - Literary Theory and Criticism

Literary Theory and Criticism (K. Asher)

This course is intended to familiarize students with a number of the major literary theories of the 20th century. Each week we will look at a different theory. After reading several foundational texts of a given theory, we will conclude by looking at a practical application of that theory. The class will be run as a seminar, so come prepared to discuss. The material is often extremely dense and is ideally suited to those who are thinking about graduate school, though others are certainly welcome and have done well in the past.

Engl 320 - Irish Literature

Irish Literature (R. Doggett)

This course will provide an intensive introduction to twentieth-century Irish poetry. We will begin with W.B. Yeats, whose verse had a tremendous influence on the direction of modern poetry in Ireland, England, and the United States. We will then briefly examine some of the main poets from mid century, including Patrick Kavanagh and Thomas Kinsella, before devoting the second half of the semester to contemporary Irish poetry, much of which engages with sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. Some of the contemporary poets we will examine include Paul Muldoon, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Mebh McGuckian, John Montague, Eavan Boland, Michael Longley, and Seamus Heaney.

Counts toward: Post-1700 British

Engl 330 - American Romanticism

American Romanticism (E. Gillin)

In the years before the Civil War, writers in the United States captured both the vital spirit of the young republic and its already troubling contradictions. Students in Engl 330 will read a number of works from this energetic and restless period, learning how American authors addressed issues ranging from popular government to slavery and from the natural environment to women's rights even as they discovered their own distinctly "American" voice in literature. Possible readings include: Ralph Waldo Emerson, selected essays and poems; The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (Edgar Allan Poe); Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; Woman in the Nineteenth Century (Margaret Fuller): Walden (Henry David Thoreau): The Blithedale Romance (Nathaniel Hawthorne); short fiction by Herman Melville; Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman); Hospital Sketches (Louisa May Alcott)

Counts toward: American Lit

English 337 - African American Literature

African American Literature (B. McCoy)

African American Literature is "A study of works by representative African-American writers from the mid-19th century to the present in their cultural and social contexts. The course will cover a variety of genres." As you will see, we will be shifting that description in some places, fulfilling it some places, challenging it in some places. What you need to understand from the beginning:

• This is a 300-level English course, which requires at least 15 pages of writing. Some of that writing will take place on myCourses — this writing is no less important than that found in papers. This writing will also include writing about scholarly and theoretical material that is often seen as "subordinate" to "the literature." At the same time, close reading techniques are indispensable to you, as are college standards of evidence and support for claims made.
• This is a course intended for but not limited to English majors. Some of what we will be doing, then, may be discipline-specific, which can be strange if one is not familiar with the theories, conventions, and practices of English majors. But because African American studies seeks both to be interdisciplinary and question disciplinary boundaries, some of what we do can be strange if one is familiar with the theories, conventions, and practices of English majors.
• This is a course that cannot be, should not be, and, indeed, is not about learning about "people of African descent" as objects of study. It’s also not a course about "suffering," "hardships" or "plight," even though many readers insist on using such terms as the only interpretive lenses for literature written by human beings of both black African and American descent. This is a course that requires a relational approach to the literature, the subject matters (of which there are many), and our class community.

Texts:

• Liggins Hill, Patricia, ed. Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Tradition. The first response paper asks that you become familiar with this anthology, both the works of art contained within and the paratextual material that expresses the anthology’s purpose and design. The more familiar you are with the breadth of art contained within the book’s covers, the better prepared to back up your claims with support, evidence, and example you will be.
• Eglash, Ron. African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design. Yes, this is a math book. However, a book such as this one has become necessary because of the skepticism and doubt that students have expressed towards many of the claims made in this class. (There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with such expressions; indeed, they are indispensable tools for responsible inquiry. What I am interested in here are the patterns created by when such expressions are made and when they are not.) By the time we get to Douglass, you will have learned about the historical repetition in which the above expressions participate.
• Everett, Percival. Erasure. This is a novel.
• Parks, Suzan-Lori. The America Play: And Other Works. Formally difficult, but astoundingly beautiful — and hauntingly so.

Counts toward: American Lit, Cultural Intersections

Engl 339 - American Ways

Plotting Women (C. Woidat)

This course focuses upon American women's fiction from the late 1700s to late 1800s, examining the development of sensational plots and subversive female characters with attention to the cultural, social, and political concerns of the early republic and expanding nation. We will concentrate mainly upon novels, with readings that include narratives of seduction, madcap adventures, captivity, economic reversals, ghosts, violence, and revenge. The course will foreground gender issues as we examine thematic and formal elements of the texts, situating them in relation to various genres and traditions---romantic, sentimental, gothic, etc. Probable texts include: Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette; Tabitha Tenney, Female Quixotism; Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Hope Leslie; Elizabeth Oakes Smith, The Western Captive; Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Harriet Wilson, Our Nig; Fanny Fern, Ruth Hall and Other Writings; E. D.E.N. Southworth, The Hidden Hand; Louisa May Alcott, Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott.

Counts toward: American Lit, Cultural Intersections

Engl 355 - Shakespeare II

Shakespeare II (G. Stelzig)

An introduction to and survey of Shakespeare the poet-dramatist through reading, study, and discussion of a representative sampling (in chronological order) of nine plays from different categories: comedy, history, tragedy, romance.Students will write two critical papers (a shorter one, and a longer one requiring the use of secondary sources); there will also be an hour test and a final exam. Class participation will include student panel presentations (one on each play). We will consider the plays both as literary texts and as dramatic performances.

Counts toward: Shakespeare

Shakespeare I (R. Herzman)

A course which parallels Engl 354 in offering a critical study of selected additional plays, including histories, comedies, tragedies, and romances such as 1 Henry IV, As You Like It, Macbeth, and The Winter's Tale.

Counts toward: Shakespeare

Engl 358 - Major Authors

Major Authors: Don DeLillo (K. Cooper)

For admirers of Don DeLillo, his novels are amongst the most ambitious, complex, and prescient fictions of postmodern America; numerous younger authors have cited his distinctive work as an important influence. For others, DeLillo's subterranean explorations of — for example — the Cold War, the Kennedy assassination, terrorism, and global capital amount to "acts of literary vandalism and bad citizenship." To which the novelist has replied: "That’s exactly what we ought to do. We ought to be bad citizens. We ought to, in the sense that we’re writing against what power represents, and often what government represents, and what the corporation dictates, and what consumer consciousness has come to mean. In that sense, if we’re bad citizens, we’re doing our job." This course considers DeLillo’s work through a variety of theoretical and cultural contexts, presupposing your willingness to engage with often challenging material. Among the texts likely to be assigned are Players, The Names, White Noise, Libra, Underworld, Cosmopolis, and Point Omega.

Counts toward: Major Authors, American Lit

Major Authors: Malory and Legends of King Arthur (G. Drake)

The legends of King Arthur have multiplied and spread across hundreds of years, scores of languages, and many different genres. Yet the pivot of all of this Arthurian activity — for the English-language literary tradition, at least — is Sir Thomas Malory's fifteenth-century compilation, Le Morte Darthur. In this seminar course, we will read a biography of Malory and then intertwine discussions of some of Malory's major sources with a complete reading of Malory's own work. We will conclude with a dip into Tennyson's Idylls of the King and a very recent pastiche of Arthuriana, the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Since this is a seminar course, small groups or pairs of students will be responsible for one-hour discussion leadership and brief presentations on critical works about Malory and the Arthurian tradition. Some probable texts: Our main text will be the Norton edition of Le Morte Darthur, supplemented by Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain and the anonymous Old French Quest of the Holy Grail.

Counts toward: Major Authors, Pre-1700 British (if another 358 is used for Major Authors)

Engl 386 - Modern Drama

Modern Drama (T. Greenfield)

Survey of plays and selected critical essays from what is generally considered the modern period (Late 19th century to WW II) of primarily European plays. Likely authors are Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shaw, Pirandello, Brecht, O'Casey, Williams, Ionesco, Beckett.
This course is required for the BA in Theatre/English.