E
N G L I S H D E P A R T M E N T
Undergraduate Course Descriptions–Spring ‘06
*Available electronically on English Home Page at
HTTP://
CURRICULUM CHANGES: In the Fall 2004 term, the
undergraduate curriculum in English was changed. NO
ENGLISH MAJOR REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS
FOLLOWING THE 2004-2006 CATALOG:
Thirty-six hours of English courses distributed as follows:
E N G L I S H D E P A R T M E N T
Undergraduate Course Descriptions–Spring ‘06
*Available electronically on English Home Page at
HTTP:// WWW.AS.UA.EDU/ENGLISH
CURRICULUM CHANGES: In the Fall 2004 term, the undergraduate curriculum in English was changed. NO ONE WILL BE PENALIZED BY THESE CHANGES and generous course substitutions will be made. As of Fall 2000 the course prefix for all English courses has changed from EH to EN.
ENGLISH MAJOR REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE 2004-2006 CATALOG:
Thirty-six hours of English courses distributed as follows:
ENGLISH MAJOR REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE 2000-2002 or 2002-2004 CATALOGS:
Thirty-six hours of English courses, distributed as follows:
ENGLISH MAJOR REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE 1998-2000 AND PRIOR CATALOGS:
Thirty-six hours of English courses, including the following:
ENGLISH MINOR REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE 2004-2006 CATALOG: Twenty-one hours includingEN 205 and EN 206 or EN 209 or EN 210 (or honors equivalents). Twelve hours must be in course numbered above 299, and three of those hours must be in courses numbered above 399.
ENGLISH MINOR REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE 2000-2002 or 2002-2004 CATALOGS: Twenty-one hours including EN 225 and EN 226 or EN 227 (or honors equivalents). Twelve hours must be in courses numbered above 299, and three of those hours must be in courses numbered above 399.
ENGLISH MINOR REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE 1998-2000 AND PRIOR CATALOGS: Twenty-one hours distributed as follows: EH 205 & 206, EH 209 & 210. Six hours must be in courses numbered above 299, and three hours must be in courses numbered above 399.
CREATIVE WRITING MINOR REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE 2004-2006 CATALOG: Eighteen hours, including three hours of EN 200, three hours of EN 301, three hours of EN 303, three to six hours of EN 308, and three to six hours from the following courses: EN 401, EN 403 or EN 410. At least three of the eighteen hours in the minor must be at the 400 level. EN 308, a special topics course which will be different in each incarnation, may be repeated once for credit. Some substitutions are possible (EN 310 for EN 308, for example, or EN 409 for EN 401, EN 403 or EN 410), but all substitutions must be cleared by the Director of Creative Writing, Michael Martone, in 111 Morgan Hall.
CREATIVE WRITING MINOR REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTS FOLLOWING THE 2002-2004 AND PRIOR CATALOGS:Fifteen hours includingthree hours of EN 200, three to nine hours of 300-level creative writing courses and three to nine hours of 400-level creative writing courses. At least two genres must be studied to complete the minor; at least three hours must be at the 400-level. Course offerings no longer exactly reflect the minor as described in the 2002-2004 and prior catalogues; it is recommended that students take EN 200, EN301, EN 303, EN 308 and EN 401 or EN 403 or EN 410 to complete the “old” minor. See the Director of Creative Writing (Michael Martone in 111 Morgan Hall) for official permission (routinely granted) to substitute EN 308 or EN 310 for course work at the 300-level. EN 409 or EN 410 may also be substituted for EN 401 or EN 402. Note: the registrar in your college office will not automatically know these substitutions are legitimate: you must get official permission.
REQUIREMENTS FOR A&S STUDENTS PURSUING A CLASS "B" SECONDARY CERTIFICATE IN ENGLISH: The Arts & Sciences major plus courses prescribed by the College of Education.
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS: The Department of English actively participates in a number of the University’s international programs. English majors are urged to consider the exciting opportunities that study abroad provides. Students can choose to study in England during the summer in our Alabama at Oxford program, or to study for an entire semester in exchange programs at the University of Hull, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Wales at Aberystwyth. For information on all of these programs, please contact the Director of Undergraduate English Studies, Dr. Bill Ulmer, in 107 Morgan Hall.
HONORS IN ENGLISH: Any student with a superior aptitude for and a special interest in literature may apply for admission to the Honors Program in English. The program includes special classes for EN 205 (215), 206 (216), and 209 (219), or 210 (220) and eligibility for the Senior Honors Seminar in Literature (EN 499). English majors who maintain a GPA of 3.5 in English and a 3.3 overall, upon successfully completing the program, will, in addition, be eligible for graduation with "Honors in English." The Honors Seminar (EN 499) is designed in consultation with interested students, who are encouraged to recommend the topic and material that best suit their academic interests.
SCHOLARSHIPS: The English Department awards annually from six to eight scholarships ranging from $1,000 - $2,000 to its best English majors and Creative Writing minors. Applications are available in Morgan Hall, Room 103, and every January.
NOTE: YOU MAY NOT TAKE 200 & 300-LEVEL CREATIVE WRITING
COURSES AT THE SAME TIME.
EN 200-001 INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING MWF 10-10:50 308 MR STAFF
EN 200-002 INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING MWF 11-11:50 308 MR STAFF
EN 200-003 INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING MW 4-5:15 309 MR STAFF
EN 200-004 INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING MW 6-7:15 204 MR STAFF
EN 200-005 INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING TR 9:30-10:45 204 MR STAFF
EN 200-006 INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING TR 11-12:15 308 MR McSWEENEY
EN 200-007 INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 308 MR STAFF
EN 200-008 INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING TR 2-3:15 201 RJ STAFF
EN 200-009 INTRO TO CREATIVE WRITING TR 2-3:15 118 TH STAFF
Study of topics that apply across genres of creative writing and an introduction to genre-specific principles. Assigned reading, writing exercises, and other forms of creative experimentation will develop confidence in analyzing, constructing and discussing poems, stories and other forms of imaginative expression. This course is a required prerequisite to all other creative writing classes.
Prerequisites: EN 101 and 102 (or EN 103 or EN 104)
********************************************************************
En 205 ENGLISH LITERATURE I STAFF
A survey of English literature from the Anglo-Saxon period to 1800, including, for example, work by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton.
Credit available for EN 205 or 225
Prerequisites: EN 101 and 102 (or 103 or EN 104)
********************************************************************
EN 206 ENGLISH LITERATURE II STAFF
A survey of English literature from 1800 to the present , including, for example, work by Wordsworth, Coleridge,
Dickens, Eliot and Yeats.
Credit available for EN 206 or 227
Prerequisites: EN 101 and 102 (or 103 or EN 104)
********************************************************************
EN 209 AMERICAN LITERATURE I STAFF
Survey of American literature from its beginnings to 1865, including, for example, work by Poe, Thoreau, Emerson, Melville, and Whitman.
Credit available for EN 210 or 227
Prerequisites: EN 101 and 102 (or 103 and 104)
******************************************************************
EN 210 AMERICAN LITERATURE II STAFF
Survey of American literature from 1865 to the present, including, for example, work by Twain, Dickinson, Hemingway, Faulkner and Morrison.
Credit available for EN 210 or 227
Prerequisites: EN 101 and 102 (or 103 and EN 104)
********************************************************************
EN 215 HONORS ENGLISH LITERATURE I STAFF
Honors section of EN 205
Credit available for EN 215 or 235
********************************************************************
EN 216 HONORS ENGLISH LITERATURE II STAFF
Honors section of EN 206.
Credit available for 216 or 237
********************************************************************
EN 219 HONORS AMERICAN LITERATURE I STAFF
Honors section of EN 209.
Credit available for EN 219 or 236
********************************************************************
EN 220 HONORS AMERICAN LITERATURE II STAFF
Honors section of EN 210.
Credit available for EN 220 or 237
********************************************************************
EN 207-001 WORLD LITERATURE II MW 3-4:15 306 MR STAFF
Survey of World Literature from the Enlightenment to the Modern Period.
Prerequisites: EN 101 and 102 (or EN 103 or EN 104)
Satisfies Core Curriculum only
***********************************************************************************************
EN 210-009 SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE MWF 9:00 ROOM TBA CROWLEY
FROM 1865 TO THE PRESENT
Necessarily brief treatment of representative American writers since the Civil War. Depth rather than breadth will be emphasized; thus only a few authors will be “covered”.
*************************************************************************************************
EN 249-001 AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE TR 3:30-4:45 131 MR BOLDEN
Survey of African-American literature from its earliest expressions to the present. In order to identify the aesthetics of the African American literary tradition, the course material includes spirituals, slave narratives, poetry, drama, autobiography, fiction, and nonfiction.
*************************************************************************************************
EN 249-002 AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE MWF 11-11:50 307 MR MANORA
Survey of African-American literature from its earliest expressions to the present. In order to identify the aesthetics of the African American literary tradition, the course material includes spirituals, slave narratives, poetry, drama, autobiography, fiction, and nonfiction.
******************************************************************************************
PREREQUISITE FOR ALL 300-LEVEL COURSES (UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED):
COMPLETION OF 6 HOURS OF ENGLISH COURSES
********************************************************************************************
EN 300-001 INTRO. TO ENGLISH STUDIES TR 9:30 131 MR H. WHITE
This course is intended as an introduction to the discipline of Englsih for declared majors. In it, students will pursue an understanding of the fundamental issues of critical reading, interpretation, and writing. Readings will include a selection of texts in the traditional literary categories of poetry, drama, and prose, though we will discuss the applicability of our investigations to other genres and media as well.
Note: Restricted to English majors
******************************************************************************************************
EN 301-001 PROSE TOUR W 7-9:30 304 MR SULLIVAN
EN 301-002 PROSE TOUR TR 11-12:15 307 MR HOADE
******************************************************************************************************
EN 303-001 POETRY TOUR 7-9:30 304 MR STAFF
EN 303-002 POETRY TOUR 11-12:15 204 MR STAFF
********************************************************************************************
EN 300-002 INTRO. TO ENGLISH STUDIES TR 2:00 306 MR WHITING
The course is intended as an introduction to the discipline of English for declared majors. In it, students will pursue an understanding of the fundamental issues of critical reading, interpretation, and writing. Readings will include a selection of texts in the traditional literary categories of poetry, drama, and prose, though we will discuss the applicability of our investigations to other genres and media as well.
Note: Restricted to English majors
*************************************************************************************************
EN 308-001 FORMS OF CREATIVE WRITING TR 11-12:15 MR 304 CROFT
Subvert(ing) the Man
This course will examine forms of writing that use realist texts but in a way that subverts the original form to create new narratives, and also provide social commentary and satire. Forms that we will look at include training/instruction manuals, high school text books, the freshman essay, letters to the editor, fake news shows and documentaries, advertising, graphics, the footnote, and ultimately the short story itself. Beginning with the use of gimmick in writing, then moving on to form, and finally examining complete works that subvert and satirize, we will ask questions like, how does these texts function? What are they saying? Do they even work? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How are they funny? How can we create our own texts that subvert using these and other forms? A possible reading/viewing list may include selections from: George Saunders, Lazlo Toth, Don Delillo, Lorrie Moore, Don Barthelme, Nicholson Baker, Art Spiegelman, Nick Bantock, Joe Wenderoth, Michael Martone, Cindy Sherman, Adbusters, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Ricky Gervais’s The Office, Jon Stewart’s America: The Book, Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries ( Waiting For Guffman, This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show) and Peter Jackson’s Forgotten Silver.
******************************************************************************************************
EN 308-002 FORMS OF CREATIVE WRITING TR 9:30-10:45 MR 308 SANDOR
Ghosts, automata, hauntings. According to Freud, any phenomena which can be described as uncanny “derives its terror not from something externally alien or unknown but—on the contrary—from something strangely familiar which defeats our efforts to separate ourselves from it.” That which is uncanny is neither alive nor dead, real nor unreal, self nor other. It exists in the gray area between these definitions. In this class we will explore the uncanny in texts like ETA Hoffman’s “The Sandman,” Dean Paschal’s “Moriya,” and Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw.” We will analyze these writers’ varied approaches to the uncanny and experiment with these approaches ourselves. Weekly assignments will include analytical and/or creative responses to assign texts, as well as the production of original work.
******************************************************************************************************
EN 308-003 FORMS OF CREATIVE WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 MR 304 PARKER
What Lasts?: The Search for Absolutes After the First World War
Heavyweights Blake and Coleridge still swing Christian after the American and French revolutions, but their offspring look for a different absolute. Shelley sings a hymn to intellectual beauty, Keats to an urn. The Victorians look to tea, cucumber sandwiches and salt tax. Nietzsche declares God dead and calls for an Uber Man to write all-new codes of morality. Conrad journeys into the heart of such a man and finds Kurtz choking on a tusk, mumbling “The horror, the horror.” WWI shatters from soul to continent and T.S. Eliot says in The Wasteland: “These fragments I have shored against my ruins.” Pound says make it new. The Dadaists wonder if there is anything left to say. Hemingway thinks there is not.
In our postpostmodern times is there Truth that transcends the individual? We will begin in the brush with Conrad and plow to the fake plastic trees of Radiohead, looking at the ways good men, bad men, geniuses and idiots have journeyed into the heart of this unsettling question. In our fingerpainting and writing assignments we will search alongside them.
Bring your loud personal beliefs.
******************************************************************************************************
EN 308-004 FORMS OF CREATIVE WRITING W 2-4:30 308 MR McSWEENEY
It goes without saying that when we read writing on a page, we see it, and when we read it aloud, we hear it. But for some writers, playing with these sonic and visual elements is a way to unleash new energy into the text or open up new ground for explorations. In this course we will encounter texts that make unconventional use of vision or sound, from Steve Tomasula’s novel Vas to Cecila Vicuna’s handwritten volume Instant to Jenny Holzer’s projections of poems and ‘truisms’ onto buildings and rivers. We will analyze and try out their methods for ourselves and concoct some experiments of our own. Weekly assignments will include riffs on and responses to assigned texts as well as original and collaborative work; for the final project, you will create a piece that brings into play the visual and/or sonic potential of writing.
******************************************************************************************************
EN 320-001 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS TR 11:00 301 MR SAWALLIS
Introduction to the study of language, including subjects such as language acquisition, variation, and origins. The system of sounds, syntax, and meaning are illustrated in English and other languages.
**************************************************************************************************
320-002 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS TR 11:00 303 MR SHUTTLESWORTH
Introduction to the study of language, including subjects such as language acquisition, variation, and origins. The system of sounds, syntax, and meaning are illustrated in English and other languages.
**************************************************************************************************
EN 321-001 LINGUISTIC APPROACHES TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR TR 9:30 301 MR SAWALLIS
A study of English grammar integrating principles from linguistic theory with structural approaches to grammar. The course includes a focus on the expectations of grammatical usage in different contexts and an understanding of how to apply this knowledge in pedagogical setting.
**************************************************************************************************
EN 321-002 LINGUISTICS APPROACHES TO THE LANGUAGE ARTS MW 4:30-5:45 DAVIES
This class is designed to help educators and educators-in-training to integrate principles from linguistic scholarship with traditional language arts content areas. Increasing language diversity among students in the public school system requires a more sophisticated understanding of linguistic issues among professional teachers. The course offers a framework within which to understand the system underlying the structure of the English language as well as the general nature of language as it is used in various genres. The syllabus includes a focus on the expectations for grammatical usage in different contexts and an understanding of how to apply this knowledge in a pedagogical setting. Applications of linguistics to the teaching of spelling, to the development of writing skills, and to the effective presentation of literature are also included.
*************************************************************************************************
EN 333-001 SHAKESPEARE MWF 12-12:50 303 MR J. BURKE
This course will be a survey of what are generally considered to be Shakespeare’s greatest artistic accomplishments. In other words, we will be examining why he occupies his place at the center of the Western Literary Canon. We will begin with Shakespeare’s accomplishments as a poet, both narrative and lyric. We will then move on his accomplishments in the drama, examining what he did there in four categories: comedy, tragedy, history, and romance.
Students can expect regular reading quizzes, two papers, a mid-term and a final examination. The text for the course will be The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. David Bevington, 5 th ed.
Satisfies Area 1
**************************************************************************************************
EN 333-002 Shakespeare TR 9:30-10:45 306 MR Winston
This is an introduction to Shakespeare's plays as literary texts and as performance scripts. About eight plays will be studied. The emphasis will be on plot, character, structure, language and theme, but attention will also be paid to matters of theatrical convention, staging, genre, historical influence and cultural context. Lectures on background; class discussion of plays.
Requirements: Faithful attendance, regular quizzes, two five-page papers, midterm and final examinations.
Satisfies Area I
*************************************************************************************************
EN 342-001 AMERICAN FICTION TO 1900 TR 8:00 131 MR BEIDLER
A study of American fiction from the revolutionary and classic periods to 1900. Figures emphazised will include Franklin, Rowson, Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Jacobs, Mark Twain, James, Crane, and Chopin. Readings will include short fiction and full-length novels. Texts will be The Penguin Anthology fo American Literature, Volume I and paperback copies of Huckelberry Finn, The Amercian, The Red Badge of Courage, and the Awakening.
Requirements: two short reader-response papers (1-3 pages); one short essay (3-5 pages); midterm; final.
Satisfies Area 1
*************************************************************************************************
EN 349-001 VICTORIAN BRITISH LITERATURE TR 9:30 MR 306 MR PIONKE
This lecture/discussion course seeks to provide upper-division undergraduate English majors with a survey of Victorian British literature. It is designed to accomplish three related goals: 1) to expose students to the three major genres of Victorian literature—poetry, nonfiction prose, and the novel; 2) to introduce students to many of the period’s best-known and most influential practitioners of these three genres; and 3) to encourage students to interpret these authors and their works as participants in and respondents to the historical debates over democracy, industry, science, culture, gender, education and empire that help to define Victorian England. In order to convey the sense in which these debates developed and intermingled as the period progressed, the course is arranged in a roughly chronological order from Carlyle to Wilde. Most weeks begin with a selection of poetry and/or nonfiction prose by one, or at most two, Victorian authors and end with a sizable portion from one of the two novels assigned for the course. This weekly mixing of genres is intended to further reinforce the idea that Victorian authors operated in an intellectually diverse and contextually rich environment, and to give students a discussion-generating variety of genres and opinions with which to engage.
In addition to keeping up the reading, students will engage in periodical in-class writing exercises, write three papers and take a final exam.
Satisfies Area 2
**************************************************************************************************
EN 350-001 TOPICS IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE TR 3:30 131 MR BOLDEN
A cross-genre survey of African-american literature, historical events, and critical movements. Authors may include Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larson, Langston Hughes, and Toni Morrison.
*************************************************************************************************
EN 360-001 TOPICS IN AMERICAN LITERATURE 1900-1945 MWF 10-10:45 131 MR EDDINS
An examination of five major American authors from the first half of the twentieth century, including two poets and three fiction writers. We will analyze in some detail the poetry of Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens and selected short stories by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner.
TEXTS: Paperback collections of the authors listed above.
TESTS/PAPERS: A midterm examination, a final examination and a paper. These will determine the grade.
*************************************************************************************************
EN 364-001 MODERN DRAMA 12:30-1:45 307 MR VOSS
We’ll begin by examining major trends and figures in modern/postmodern drama, then read and discuss selected plays by such influential dramatists as Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, Tom Stoppard, Lillian Hellman, Wendy Wasserstein, Wole Soyinka, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, David Mamet, and Paula Vogel.
Grades will be based on students’ Participation and Short Assignments, Reading and Commentary Notebooks , a Midterm Exam and a Final Exam.
************************************************************************************************
PREREQUISITE FOR ALL 400-LEVEL COURSES (UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED):
COMPLETION OF 12 HOURS OF ENGLISH COURSES
ALL 400-LEVEL COURSES EXCEPT FOR EN 430 (INTERNSHIP) CARRY
THE “W” DESIGNATION IN THE CORE CURRICULUM
*************************************************************************************
EN 400-001 MWF 11:00-12:15 309 MR CROWLEY
SENIOR SEMINAR: SITES OF THE “LOST GENERATION”: HARLEM, PARIS, THE SOUTH
Although the “Lost Generation” is customarily associated with those Americans who expatriated to Paris during the 1920s, the label applies as well to those who stayed home, especially to African Americans who transformed Harlem into “the Culture Capitol” and to the twelve men who took their stand as Southern Agrarians. Representative texts from each group will be studied in depth. No exams; no prerequisites. But several short papers and two longer ones required.
Note: Restricted to English majors.
******************************************************************************************
EN 400-002 TR 12:30 310 MR VORACHEK
Marriage and Its Discontents in Victorian Literature and Culture
In this course we will trace the development of the marriage plot across the nineteenth-century. We will consider the cultural processes and social structures which shaped the marriage plot and which this narrative, in turn, helped influence or even invent. Through literary analyses and work with recent criticism, we will focus on issues of Victorian domesticity including sexuality, courtship, marriage, and its various discontents and alternatives as represented in novels and other Victorian writings. Authors will include Jane Austen, Anne Brontë, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and George Gissing. Requirements include seminar participation, a presentation, one short paper, and one long paper.
Note: Restricted to English majors.
******************************************************************************************
EN 400-003 SENIOR SEMINAR MWF 8-9:15 102 MR ULMER
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Making of English Romanticism
A study of Wordworth and Coleridge’s mutual influence from 1797-1805; we will read many of their most
admired texts. Requirements: reading quizzes, two 10-page papers, comprehensive final exam.
Note: Restricted to English majors
*********************************************************************************************
EN 401-001 ADVANCED FICTION WRITING M 2-4:30 204 MR BERNHEIMER
This class is intended for students with a background in fiction who find themselves frequently “wanting to be writers” but faced with difficulties—existential and practical—in acting upon this desire. Primary texts for this class include your own, and your classmates’, new and original manuscripts. In addition to completing exercises both in class and at home, you will write and revise one story during the semester.
Prerequisites for this class include CW 200 (Introduction to Creative Writing) and CW 301 (Beginning Fiction).
*************************************************************************************************
EN 403-001 ADVANCED POETRY WRITING T 2-4:30 308 MR McSWEENEY
This course will feature the writing and revision of poems as well as regular workshopping, but we will also take up the theme of ‘21 st Century Poetry.’ In 2005, where do you go for poetry? Where can you find it? Our search will take us to books, magazines, websites, readings, and other destinations to get a sense of poetry’s size, shape, and vitality in the contemporary world, both in Tuscaloosa and beyond. Coursework will include writing weekly poems and brief responses as well as comments on your peers’ work. The final project will be a portfolio and reflective essay.
Prerequisites: EN 200, EN 303.
*************************************************************************************************
EN 403-002 ADVANCED POETRY WRITING T 2-4:30 204 MR P. WHITE
Discussion and criticism of original student manuscripts. Assigned writing experiments and in class exercises. Readings from: 250 Poems: A Portable Anthology, edited by Peter Schakel and Jack Ridl.
*************************************************************************************************
EN 409-001/509-001 WRITING FOR FILM R 2:00-4:30 301 MR WOLFE
Writing for Film is an introductory workshop in which students learn how to write screemplays for feature films. No prior knowledge of the craft is required. Participants read and critique scripts of produced films; they also write scenes, and treatments, plus their own screenplays. Enrollment limited.
Note: Undergraduates must seek permission of instuctor before enrolling in this course. Please contact gwolfe@english.as.ua.edu
**************************************************************************************************
EN 422-001 ADVANCED STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE TR 9:30 307 MR VOSS
The American Western narrative is arguably one of America’s most prominent and influential genres, and we will study its general origins and effects as reflected in selected fiction (much of which was adapted to film) and selected films. Among novels and films we may study are Jack Schaefer’s Shane, Walter Van Tilberg Clark’s The Ox-Bow Incident, Charles Portis’s True Grit, Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man, High Noon, The Searchers, The Unforgiven, Pale Rider, and Sergio Leone’s “Spaghetti Westerns.”
Students will write and submit regular edited commentaries, selecting two commentaries for elaboration into major grades. There will also be a midterm and final exam.
*************************************************************************************************
EN 433-001 ADVANCED STUDIES IN BRITISH LIT. MWF 9-9:50 131 MR EDDINS
An examination of major poets of England and Ireland from 1880 to the present. The emphasis is on Yeats and Auden. Various other modern poets are treated at less length (e.g. Thomas Hardy, Gerard Manly Hopkins, D.H. Lawrence, Dylan Thomas, Philip Larkin, and Ted Hughes). Much attention is paid to the reading of individual poems. Lecture and class discussion.
TEXTS: Selected Poems and Two Plays by William Butler Yeats, ed. Rosenthal; Selected Poems of W.H. Auden, ed. Mendelson; Customized Course Packet.
PAPERS and TESTS: One short paper and one term paper; One test and a final examination; also, regular reading quizzes. Final grade: A combination of tests, papers, and the final examination.
*************************************************************************************************
EN 444-001/WS 440 ADV. STUDIES IN LITERARY CRIT./THEORY TR 2:00-3:15 102 MA PURVIS
Feminism and Queer Theory
This course traces queer theory’s genealogy and investigates the relationship between queer theory and feminism. We will begin with an introductory text, which outlines the heterogeneous field of study known as Queer Theory, and continue with an examination of key founding philosophical, psychoanalytic, and critical texts, including the writings of Freud, Foucault, Butler, de Laurentis, and Sedgwick. Our initial investigation will yield a formulation of “queer” as a politically charged concept, which far exceeds the limits of the category “lesbian and gay.” We will then consider feminist arguments surrounding queer theory, including the question of whether queer theory can overcome the androcentrism inherent in its genesis, and those issues surrounding the viability of queer black feminism. Further exploration will focus on the feminist potential of queer theory and assess the possibility that these debates may ultimately mobilize and enhance both feminism and queer theory, as those who partake in their collective critical enterprises strive towards radicality and political efficacy.
******************************************************************************************************
455-001 ADVANCED STUDIES IN WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 303 MR DAYTON
In this advanced writing course, you will conduct original, ethnographic research on a place that interests you. Ethnography is the study of people and cultures. It involves systematic, careful data collection and analysis of human interaction, language patterns, stories, rituals, and artifacts.
All of you, I assume, have done research before. You may have done most of that research in the library (or on the web), looking for published texts that provide the “facts” on a given topic. We’ll consult published texts for our projects this semester, too, but in this class, you will be the researcher and expert on your topic. You will earn how to do fieldwork, visiting sites and making detailed observations on what you see. You will organize and analyze your data, and you will conduct interviews with participants who will help you to understand the culture of the place you’re investigating. You will write up your findings and revise them several times for both content and style.
Because you will need to research a place that you have easy access to, I anticipate that our class will focus on the particular sites and perspectives of the American South. A secondary goal of our class will be to build an archive of research about the South, particularly western Alabama, that we can save in electronic format (i.e., on the web) to share with others.
*******************************************************************
EN 466-002 THE STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH TR 12:30 301 MR SHUTTLESWORTH
This class is an advanced study of various applications of the knowledge of English syntax. Students will learn the rules of English syntax from the perspective of descriptive grammarians, as well as the difference between descriptive and prescriptive standpoints on English syntax. We will explore the notion of one “correct” grammar, explore alternative approaches to grammar including sociolinguistic and discourse-based models, and examine the syntactic system of English in authentic language use from various genres and standard Englishes. In the second part of the semester, we will focus on other aspects of applied English syntax, including the teaching of English syntax to native and non-native speakers.
*******************************************************************
EN 466 -001 American English Dialects (Dialectology) TR 3:30-4:45 303 MR Davies
Using films such as My Fair Lady, My Cousin Vinny, and School Daze, this course will examine variation in American English. We’ll explore differences in accent, vocabulary, grammar, and patterns of language use among people from across the United States. We’ll look at how dialect differences developed, reflect on how language is a part of our identity, and consider the consequences of linguistic stereotyping, both positive and negative. Students will have an opportunity to participate in the updating of Southern words in the Dictionary of American Regional English, and also to contribute to a website on Language in Alabama for the citizens of our state.
Ideal prerequisites: EN 320 or a comparable basic course in linguistics, e.g. in the departments of Modern Language or Anthropology.
*******************************************************************
EN 499-001 Honors Seminar in Literature TR 3:30-4:45 ROOM TBA J. BURKE
The Department of English would like to offer an honors seminar in literature for undergraduates during the spring semester 2006, and we would like our students to participate in the planning for it. We wish to give them a voice in deciding its purpose, in establishing its design, in selecting its subject matter, and even in determining its reading list.
There are numerous possibilities for accommodating the seminar to the legitimate interests of our students, and we believe we can do that without duplicating the Department’s usual course offering. The seminar can be broad in scope, cutting across the ordinary boundaries of periods and nationalities or it can be narrow and intense. One possibility for the upcoming spring semester might be something prompted, for instance, by the national discussion over New Orleans. We could, taking our cues from Lewis Mumford’s The City in History: Its Origin, Its Transformations, Its Prospects, undertake a course that would examine the idea of the city in literature. That might entail, for instance, a consideration of the idea of Troy in Homer and Rome in Vergil, London in Boswell, Paris in Balzac, and/or both cities in Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, and of course there is always the enticing idea of New Orleans in American literature. Another possibility might be an exploration of the idea of the West itself. This would allow us to focus on such keys texts as Vergil’s Aeneid, Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage. Or the course could be an intense study of a single writer, say, Dr. Johnson or Jane Austen or perhaps Iris Murdoch.
All interested students are invited to a meeting on Wednesday, October 19 th, at 4:30 p.m. in 233 Morgan Hall. At that meeting we will discuss all the proposals and make our final choice. This should provide enough time for students registering by computer to adjust their schedules for the spring semester. Any students planning to graduate with “honors in English” must take this course. A student may contact Professor Burke either by e-mail jburke@english.as.ua.edu or by way of a traditional note to be placed in his mailbox in 103 Morgan, or by a flesh-and-blood visit to his office in 233 Morgan during the afternoon hours. If you do plan a visit, it would be best to call ahead (348-8500) to let him know that you are coming since he does on occasion have reason to be elsewhere.
The Department limits the enrollment of this seminar to twelve students to preserve the intimate atmosphere a successful seminar requires. Should there be more requests than seats, students will be admitted to the seminar on the basis of the following priority: (1) students from the English Honors Program approaching graduation; (2) students from the English Honors Program; (3) English majors approaching graduation; (4) English majors; (5) English minors approaching graduation; (6) English minors; (7) others who may be interested and qualified.