Spring 2019
300-Level English Courses
Literature, Pre-1700
EN 330-001 CHAUCER AND MEDIEVAL LIT MWF 10:00-10:50 Cook
In this course we will read Chaucer’s two greatest poems, Troilus and Criseyde and The Canterbury Tales. In the first half of the semester, we will study love, medieval style: We will read selections from Andreas Capellanus’s The Art of Love, Marie de France’s Lais, and finally, the Troilus (the latter in Middle English). Some scholars claim that Western love as we know it was invented in late-medieval Europe. Therefore, while our primary focus will be upon “courtly love” as a historically- and socially-specific phenomenon (these are representations of love produced in and by the “court”), we will also entertain the possibility that certain manifestations of “courtly love” survive in the dating and mating rituals of our own present moment. In the second half of the semester, we will read the Tales (in Middle English with a facing Modern English translation). The tales show that there is no better place than the Chaucer canon to begin the study of English literature, for in the Tales Chaucer consistently foregrounds the question, “What does it mean to tell stories?” Voiced by competing storytellers who span the medieval social spectrum, the stories that follow will give us cause to ponder how the pilgrims’ cultural, political, and personal agendas affect their narratives, what they reveal—intentionally or unintentionally—about themselves in the stories they tell, and how these tales reinforce or defy the status quo.
EN 333-001 SHAKESPEARE TR 3:30-4:45 Fine
This course will introduce students to Shakespeare’s plays and the broader culture out of which they emerged. We will read at least one play from each genre–comedy, tragedy, history, and romance–alongside short, non-canonical works from the time period, such as broadside ballads and letters. Contextualizing Shakespeare in the broader culture creates opportunities to discuss race, gender, and social status in the early modern world.
EN 335-001 MILTON MWF 11:00-11:50 Ainsworth
Milton’s Jesus
An introduction to Milton’s English poetry and its many complexities. Anchored by an intensive investigation of Paradise Lost, Milton’s great epic, this class will address the technical and theoretical aspects of Milton’s writing as well as discussing the underpinnings of its meaning. We’ll master together some of the best and most intimidating poetry ever written. This year’s course topic will be “Milton’s Jesus.” We will think about how Milton engages with and depicts the figure of the Son, both in terms of Jesus as a character and in theological terms. In the process, we’ll engage with some of the deepest and most mysterious aspects of Christianity, as Milton works through them. (Prior knowledge of Christianity, while helpful, is not assumed.) We’ll also be the beneficiaries of The Edifice Project, which I will explain on the first day and also describe in some detail at the end of the syllabus. In effect, this class is designed to take your thinking and ideas seriously outside the bounds of this single semester. For some of you, your work will be preserved for use in future EN 335 classes, just as the work of the last class on Milton, Milton and Poetry (and the previous classes’ topics) will come into play this semester. Over time, groups of EN 335 students can together construct a larger understanding of Milton through collective effort and investigation of specific aspects or questions in Milton’s work. Students from the previous class will pay us a visit over the course of the semester to talk about Milton with you.
Literature, 1700-1900
EN 340-001 AMERICAN LIT TO 1900 MW 3:00-4:15 Smith
Great Texts of Early America
This course will examine early American literature through a cultural lens, examining the ways in which key texts perpetuate and/or challenge certain ideals, beliefs, customs, etc. we have come to associate with American culture. Specifically, we will study the theme of captivity and its prevalence as a literary technique in early American texts. The semester will be divided into three units. In each, we will tackle a particular aspect of the captivity theme. We will also interrogate what makes a text American, what makes it great. The objectives of this course are to introduce you to key texts that have helped shape American literature and culture – however we choose to define “American” – and to provide an avenue through which you can practice writing and talking about literature. Readings will include the works of Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Franklin, Phillis Wheatley, Thomas Jefferson, Anne Bradstreet, Samson Occom, and Janes Fenimore Cooper.
EN 344-001 MAJOR AUTHORS 1660-1900 TR 12:30-1:45 Ulmer
Keats
In this class, we will read Keats’s three published volumes—along with a few other texts—in the context of the Regency political and cultural controversies that the poetry presupposes. Frequent reading quizzes, two longish critical essays, and a final exam.
EN 347-001 ENGLISH LIT DURING ENLIGHTENMENT TR 2:00-3:15 Weiss
Many of the ideas that structure modern society originated in the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement that lasted through much of the eighteenth century. Our own ideas about democracy, education, human psychology, secularism, science, economics, and gender, for example, all had their beginnings in the Enlightenment. This course will cover the way literature in England reflected and participated in these intellectual and ideological shifts through a division into four parts: Science and Philosophy; Nationalism, Global Expansion and the Slave Trade; Faith, Feeling, and the Imagination; and Women and Society. Within each thematic section, we will read fully in the period’s various genres, and we will cover works by male writers of the old canon, and female writers of the new.
Literature, Post-1900
EN 350-001 / AAST 350-001 TOPICS IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIT MW 4:30-5:45 Smith
(Some) Black Lives Matter: African American Literature and Respectability Politics
In this course, we re-examine African American literature from the perspective of respectability politics. First theorized in the early 1990s by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, respectability politics is a form of assimilation defined by the self-policing that occurs when members of an oppressed group seek to model (and condemn those in the group who do not model) the cultural and social mores of a dominant group to promote social and economic equality. Since the election of this country’s first black president in 2008, respectability politics has assumed a newfound significance. Political analysts and cultural critics alike attribute former President Barak Obama’s popularity among black voters to this idea of respectability, and it has been central in how those within the Black community (and outside) have discussed the shooting deaths of unarmed African Americans like Trayvon Martin (2012) and Michael Brown (2014). For the Black community, respectability politics on the one hand promises upward mobility but on the other justifies the oppressive violence done to black bodies. In this course, then, we will examine representations of respectability throughout the course of African American literature beginning with the first texts written by and about black Africans in the 17th century and ending with texts from the 21st century. We will discuss the consequences of writing and reading black bodies through a lens of respectability. Texts will include Sister Souljah’s Coldest Winter Ever, Richard Wright’s Native Son, Frederick Douglass’s slave narrative and some folk literature and 19th century newspapers.
EN 361-001 TOPICS AMERICAN LIT 1945-PRESENT TR 11:00-12:15 White
Modern Family
Tolstoy said “all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This course will examine the idea of family in post-WWII America by reading a selection of the era’s most important fiction and poetry on the subject. As we will see, post-war writers have come back and back to the idea of family as a lens through which to write about ideas of identity, including race, religion, and sexuality. It has also been a shaping force in our contemporary understanding of the individual as both a member of, and a figure apart from, the innumerable groupings that comprise our intimate lives. We will read Philip Roth, Gloria Naylor, Zadie Smith, and Jonathan Franzen, among others.
EN 363-001 TOPICS BRITISH LIT 1945-PRESENT MW 4:30-5:45 Wittman
“GOD SAVE THE QUEEN”
In this course we are off with James Bond and the novel that introduced him: Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale. The premises of that cold war novel confirmed, we leave on a wild flight through a multi-genre tour of Britain’s postwar years. The film series “Seven-Up” will teach us how Margaret Thatcher’s (Reagan “lite”) conservative leadership shaped its adversaries; among others, the Cure, with its goth singer and David Bowie with his bisexual presentation. We will divert to South Africa, a former outpost of the British Empire, to discuss the politics of race and sexuality in Nadine Gordimer’s The Grass is Singing and to compare those politics as they are presented in J. M. Coetzee’s more recent novel Disgrace, all the while considering the legacy of colonialism. We will confront one notable bilingual writer’s take on the postwar mentality in Samuel Beckett’s play Krapp Last Tape. We will revisit the outreach of colonialism on the island of Dominica—another outpost of the British Empire—as we read Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, one of the books that helped launch the evolving study of women’s literature and stood as an example that women writers have a unique tradition—a point we will fruitfully debate all semester as we turn to the tragic playwright Sarah Kate and the commonwealth Canadian writer Ann Carson’s Vox (a poetic lamentation of her brother’s death which comes in a box with reproductions of stanzas dipped in tea). Overall we will learn much about single-writers through close reading but also through exploring broad historical/contextual information. Students will leave the course with an understanding of postwar England and its wide reach, and the plays, films, poems, novels, and songs that it helped mold. Students will understand the general atmosphere of postwar England in a variety of ways. They will also have a particular understanding of the forces that fought against the rather bleak status quo. As the Sex Pistols—preferring anarchy to a seemingly useless monarchy—sang: “God save the Queen, she ain’t no human being.”
EN 365-001 MODERN AMERICAN FICTION TR 11:00-12:15 Bilwakesh
A survey of American fiction (novels and short stories) written in the 20th century.
EN 399-001 HONORS SEMINAR IN ENGLISH M 2:00-4:30 Novak
‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’: The Afterlives of Late Victorian Literature
Designed to prepare departmental honors students for the advanced research and writing required for their future honors theses, this course will focus on late-Victorian fiction and the long afterlife of iconic characters like The Invisible Man, Allan Quartermain, Mina Harker, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dorian Gray—all of whom grew out of British culture at the end of the century—the 1880s and 90s, or the Fin de Siècle. We will explore the function and effect of adaptation—both in the present moment and retroactively in our understanding of these texts. What are the implications of remediating text into other forms? What kinds of cultural literacy do adaptations demand and make possible? Reading novels like Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Island of Dr. Moreau, King Solomon’s Mines among others, we will be exploring the historically specific cultural anxieties and fantasies of a period that saw upheavals in gender roles (what George Gissing referred to as “Sexual Anarchy”), the dramatic emergence of sexual identity as a social category, as well as both the peak of the British Empire and anxiety about its decline. If Evolution and Darwinian thought continued to preoccupy late nineteenth-century culture, so did its obverse, Devolution (what Max Nordau called “Degeneration”) as in in H.G. Wells’s Time Machine. And yet one of the reasons these figures remain so popular (witness Twilight, True Blood, and Penny Dreadful) is that our culture is still obsessed by fin de siècle anxieties: fears of invasion and conversion by foreign Others; fears of our own secret desires or dark halves; and fears of collapsing boundaries between genders or even between animal and human (The Island of Doctor Moreau). Our post-modern present and future is still haunted by fin-de- siècle specters and monsters. Students should expect to engage with a wide variety of texts—from fiction, graphic novels, and short stories to contemporary theory and criticism. Course requirements will include regular participation, a midterm exam, short research assignments throughout the course, a short presentation, and a 15-page paper due during finals week. Total written assignments for the course will be around 25-30 pages.
Pre-Requisites: EN 215 and EN 216 (or EN 219 or EN 220). Registration preference will be given to students enrolled in the English departmental honors program.
Creative Writing
EN 301-001 FICTION TOUR MW 3:00-4:15 Waltman
Close study of the basic principles for composing creative prose. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of prose strategies.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 301-003 FICTION TOUR MW 4:30-5:45 Albano
Close study of the basic principles for composing creative prose. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of prose strategies.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 301-004 FICTION TOUR TR 11:00-12:15 STAFF
Close study of the basic principles for composing creative prose. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of prose strategies.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 301-005 FICTION TOUR TR 2:00-3:15 Rawlings
Intermediate Fiction Writing
Together we will take a brief tour of the short story, with an eye toward understanding how stories work. One assumption that underlies the design of this course is that writers write fiction out of a wide variety of impulses, and that different impulses produce different kinds of writing. We will examine and explore these varying impulses in order to gain experience and to broaden our understanding of the imaginative possibilities for prose writing. As the semester progresses, we will work toward producing and revising a variety of kinds of prose, using small and large group workshops to experiment with giving and receiving constructive feedback on our work.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 303-001 through 002 POETRY TOUR STAFF
Close study of basic principles for composing poetry. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of poetic styles.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 303-003 POETRY TOUR TR 9:30 – 10:45 A McWaters
Close study of basic principles for composing poetry. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of poetic styles.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 303-004 POETRY TOUR TR 11:00–12:15 Weiland
Close study of basic principles for composing poetry. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of poetic styles.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 305-001 CREATIVE NONFICTION TOUR TR 9:30–10:45 Champagne
How do we as writers define creative nonfiction? In short, the answer is “true stories, well told,” but this growing genre offers up many other considerations: how can something factual also be creative, and where do we draw the line between the truth and imagination? By reading as writers, identifying (and experimenting with) genre, and by writing, we will explore several varieties of the creative nonfiction essay, including memoir, lyric essay, and profile. And beyond reading and writing, this course will focus on experiential learning through an innovative “30 Days” project, in which students will research a subculture of their choice for 30 days, immerse for 30 days, and reflect/write for 30 days. The course will culminate in the production of a self-published website, and we’ll discuss other opportunities for publishing as well.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 305-002 CREATIVE NONFICTION TOUR TR 11:00–12:15 Oliu
Close study of basic principles for composing poetry. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of poetic styles.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 307-001 SPECIAL TOPICS IN APPLIED CREATIVE WRITING TBA C Burke
Narrative & Writing As Manipulation
In this course, we will look at how narrative is often the driving force behind our experiences with reality. Sports, albums, politics — we look for narrative is everywhere. We’ll dig into the language of advertising, political campaigns, and even social media in order to determine how story is utilized in the real world by everyone from sports journalists to lawyers. Successful writing is all about audience manipulation, so as we write and curate our own work, we’ll look at how we have been manipulated by the world around us — and we’ll do some manipulating, too. Students will engage with narrative and story as it exists in fiction, yes, but also as it appears in the real world — in our careers, past-times, and everyday experiences. This course should appeal to creative writers with an interest in advertising, marketing, politics, journalism, film, or just about any career that might find an audience.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 307-002 SPECIAL TOPICS IN APPLIED CREATIVE WRITING TBA Sattavara
The Creative Mind at Work
Have you ever wondered what is going on in the brain when you imagine? What is this mysterious “esemplastic power,” as Coleridge called it, and how can we better understand and better harness the imagination whether making art, decorating a house, doing math, fashioning a moral life, planting a garden, cooking a stew, or otherwise moving the world toward elegant solutions? In this course, we’ll tap into the imaginative and artistic process and explore the psychology of creativity. In readings we will learn how philosophers, poets, spiritualists, scientists, and gurus of every stripe have sought to understand the operations and potentials of the imagination, and in our work we will seek to put their theories into practice. We’ll experiment within and beyond familiar forms, not only writing but photography, painting, self-improvement, meditation, music, performance, and more. Novalis called the imagination the seat of the soul, the place where the inner and the outer worlds meet, and by the end of the semester you will possess a framework for understanding creativity as an event that happens inside our bodies as well as new skills in the transformation of genius into practical power.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
Linguistics
EN 320-001 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS TR 9:30-10:45 Popova
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 320-002 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS TR 11:00-12:15 Popova
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 GRAMMAR TR 2:00-3:15 Popova
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 a pedagogical setting. This course is a prerequisite for EN 423, EN 424, EN 425, EN 466.
Methodology
EN 300-001 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH STUDIES MW 3:00-4:15 Cardon
You’ve perhaps read The Great Gatsby, but how would you teach it? Why, do you think, is it so important that nearly every high school requires its students to read it? What do we do with famous works of literature? Why does literature even matter in the Real World? EN 300 is designed primarily for English majors, but also for anyone interested in literary analysis. This class aims to Provide an introduction to methods employed in our discipline for in-depth literary study; Enrich skills in critical reading, writing, and analysis; Introduce a range of critical and theoretical approaches to primary texts; Help students to identify which of these approaches fits their style, their interests, and the nuances of a particular literary work; Enhance students’ ability to close read texts in the form of papers and other assignments; Teach the vocabulary, techniques, and research methods associated with literary analysis. To become more adept at reading and interpreting literary texts, students will begin the course by revisiting a canonical work of literature (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby) and learning about different methods for approaching, analyzing, and writing. From there, students will learn to apply these critical methods to other genres, including poetry, drama, and other texts and media.
EN 300-002 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH STUDIES TR 12:30-1:45 Iheka
This course provides an introduction to reading, thinking, and writing about literature through the practice of close reading, the foundational skill in literary analysis. Our primary concern will be to develop the skills you will need to read closely literary texts across a variety of genres: poetry, short stories, drama, and novels. We will also consider various critical approaches to textual analysis and apply these frameworks to selected works. We will spend the bulk of our class time engaged in collaborative reading, looking closely and critically at specific passages, and paying close attention to how form generates meaning. Students in this class will develop mastery of the tools and techniques of sophisticated literary analysis informed by theoretical knowledge and contextual material.
Rhetoric and Composition
EN 309-001 ADVANCED EXPOSITORY WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 McKnight
Study and practice in methods of exposition, explanation and explication, logic and persuasion, definition and analogy, analysis and evaluation. Enrollment is limited to 15. Writing proficiency within this discipline is required for a passing grade in this course.
EN 313-001 WRITING ACROSS MEDIA TR 2:00 – 3:15 Buck
How often do you stop to think about the medium in which you are communicating? How does a specific medium change the way you write? What does it mean to “read” an image? How does our use of technology shape the way we communicate? What theories inform our relationships with media? In this class, we will explore the intersections between various media: print, film, images, sound, social media, etc. We will develop an approach for understanding and composing multimedia products while attempting to identify (and challenge) the implicit conventions of media. Along the way, we will consider the ways writing (as an object and as a practice) is shaped by these multimedia interactions from both theoretical and practical perspectives. By integrating practical activities with broader theoretical issues, we will work on developing effective strategies for designing multimedia presentations, and through this class, you will create image, audio, remix, and interactive projects.
EN 317-001 WRITING CENTER PRACTICUM TR 11:00 – 12:15 Dayton
This course will introduce you to the principles and practices of Writing Center work. The course is structured as a practicum, in which you will do some reading and reflecting on composition theory, and some hands-on work in the Center, including observations and consultations. This course is required for students who wish to work in the Writing Center. Registration is by permission only; interested students can go to http://www.writingcenter.ua.edu for information on how to apply.
EN 319-001 through 006 TECHNICAL WRITING STAFF
Focuses on principles and practices of technical writing, including audience analysis, organization and planning, information design and style, usability testing, and collaborative writing. Special emphasis will be placed on composing instructions, various kinds of reporting such as investigative and feasibility studies, document design for technical presentations, proposals and collaborative composition.
Prerequisites: EN 101 and EN 102 (or equivalent) and junior standing.
EN 319-003 TECHNICAL WRITING MWF 12:00-12:50 McGee
This class will focus on principles and practices of technical writing, including audience analysis, organization and planning, information design and style, usability testing, and collaborative writing. Writing proficiency within this discipline is required for a passing grade in this course. These concepts highlight the relationship between content (having something to say) and expression (saying something a certain way). ENG 319 emphasizes three themes: (1) understanding implications of technical writing, (2) recognizing contextualized writing and technology practices, and (3) developing strategies to improve our writing skills. English 319 is a writing intensive course with quantitative and technical proponents. Although working with digital communication and technology will be covered in this class, advanced computer literacy skills is not a prerequisite. This class focuses on composing and interpreting writing in various media. This class draws from many influences and many forms of writing such as music, google, professional organizations, and social media platforms. Using a writer’s workshop style, we’ll conduct class by share our writing, ideas, and creations with understanding that receiving regular and productive constructive criticism from each other beneficially contribute to our growth as scholars.
Prerequisites: EN 101 and EN 102 (or equivalent) and junior standing.
Special Topics in Writing or Literature
EN 310-001 SPECIAL TOPICS IN WRITING TR 9:30 – 10:45 Presnall
Creaturely Writing: Animals, Objects, Death, and the Divine
In this class, we will approach rhetoric as an ecology within which human and non-human actors affect each other. This challenges the traditional view that places the knowing human at the center of “the rhetorical situation.” If I speak to a rock and don’t get a response, does that mean it doesn’t affect me, direct my movement? Does it invoke me? Does my cat? If my cat leaves a dead mouse on the step and I interpret it as a gift, have I missed a chance at communication? Rather than starting from a known purpose and thesis and advancing an argument, this class begins by questioning what we know and uses extrahuman relations to promote new thoughts and modes of expression. To explore our own minds, we experiment with creative techniques and technologies, such as mirrors, mandalas, labyrinths, embodied metaphor, and meditation. Writing with animals, objects, the dead, and the divine, we ask how “the human” affects and is affected, responds, and requires response.
EN 311-001 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LITERATURE TR 12:30 – 1:45 Love
This course focuses on the mode of the Gothic in American literature from the 1790s to the present day. We will examine definitions, theories, and variations of the Gothic. A few variations that we will study are: the Southern Gothic, the African American Gothic, and the Gothic in the 21st century. Finally, we will explore how the Gothic mode provides American writers with aesthetic and philosophical approaches to engage issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, and national identity.
Directed Courses
EN 329-001 through 004 DIRECTED STUDIES STAFF
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
400-Level English Courses
Advanced Studies in Literature
EN 400/EN 500 SENIOR SEMINAR S 9:00-5:00 Jolly
The Bible as Literature
This course, The Bible as Literature, is a systematic general introduction to literary forms in the Bible. Emphasis will be placed on recent and respected impartial literary, linguistic, anthropological, sociological, and theological scholarship.
EN 411-001 ADV STUDIES COMPARATIVE/MULTICULTURAL LIT MW 3:00-4:15 Wittman
World Literature
In this course, we will read six critically acclaimed novels from around the world and investigate how literature arrives on the global stage. This course is run as a literary prize-granting committee loosely based on the Nobel Prize committee. Every student is a committee member. In this course, it is the students themselves who come up with their own evaluative criteria. Throughout the semester we will then debate—in class and anonymously—the merits of the six novels using these criteria. On the first day of class, students discuss what foreign language books they have read; on the last day, they debate and decide which of the novels should win the prize. This year we have the unique opportunity to spend classroom time with one of the award-winning writers. Writers might include Ismail Kadare, Haruki Murakami, Jamaica Kincaid, Ornela Vorpsi, Jenny Erpenbeck, Yoko Tawada, and J. M. Coetzee, among others.
EN 422-001 ADV STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE TR 12:30-1:45 White
American Divinity
This class will read intensively in Emily Dickinson, A.R. Ammons, and James Merrill to consider two questions: what is the relationship of the poet’s imagination to the outside world? How have American poets imagined the relationship between the sensual and the spiritual world? The three poets we will read, while entirely different from one another in many ways, are linked by their life-long preoccupation with these questions, and the rich, idiosyncratic myths they invented to answer them: Dickinson finds God, Immortality, and Eternity in her own mind; Ammons attends to science and philosophy as he takes walks in the world, and Merrill learns about the universe from a dishy spirit talking through a home-made ouija board.
EN 422-002 ADV STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE TR 3:30-4:45 Manora
The term American Modernism traditionally refers to a period of both literary innovation and profound ideological disruption. As the American scene underwent a sea change during the decades from 1914 to 1945, Anglo American and African-American/Harlem Renaissance writers captured American Modernism’s dialectic of contradictions, its “apocalyptic sense of crisis and belief in a new beginning.” Through literary analyses and work with recent criticism, we will consider the relationships between order, disorder, place, and identity – notions and constructions of race, class, gender, and “self” – that concerned these writers, while also exploring the historical, social, cultural, and ideological discourses that informed their works. Requirements include active and engaged participation, critical responses, one 4-5 page paper, and a final paper.
EN 422-003 ADV STUDIES IN AMERICAN LIT TR 3:30-4:45 STAFF
Designed for advanced English majors, a special topics course that focuses on issues in American literature. Writing proficiency within this discipline is required for a passing grade in this course.
EN 433-001 ADV STUDIES IN BRITISH LIT MWF 12:00-12:50 Novak
Light Writing: Photography and Victorian Literature
The Victorian period is the first photographic age: Queen Victoria took the throne two years before the invention of the medium and she is the first British monarch whose photographic image circulated widely. The Victorian photographic revolution and its ongoing effects (film and digital media) changed and continue to change the way we relate to our world and to each other. When, in 1839, Louis Daguerre announced the invention of photography, for the first time the world not only saw an image that seemed more “realistic” than drawings or paintings, but one that seemed to have been made entirely by a machine. Along these lines, Henry Fox Talbot, the British inventor of the negative/positive process would call photography “the pencil of nature.” As a technologically produced image without an “author,” photography changed how we understand representation itself and affected artistic forms far beyond the visual arts. After all, the “pencil” in the pencil of nature is not just the drawing pencil but the writing one as well. (“Photography,” literally means “writing/drawing with light”). This course will explore both the literary representation of photography and how literature too up the broader questions that photography posed—questions about truth and deception, authenticity and originality, authorship and agency, and time and memory. How did photography—an art form that was based on infinite reproducibility and wide circulation—affect Victorian theories of identity, and selfhood? How did it affect the way we imagine and see race, gender, and sexuality? We will be reading a wide range of texts, from Victorian prose, poetry, and fiction to twentieth and twenty-first century literary criticism and photographic theory. Authors will/may include Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Hardy, Dion Boucicault, Arthur Conan Doyle, Amy Levy, and Oscar Wilde. Major Assignments will include short research projects, a midterm exam, a course blog, and a final 15 page research project.
EN 444-001 / WS 410 ADV STUDIES LIT CRITICISM & THEORY TR 2:00-3:15 Purvis
“Beyond Pleasure and Danger: Feminist Approaches to Sexual Justice”
Contributors to the revolutionary 1984 anthology, Pleasure and Danger—including Gayle Rubin, Hortense Spillers, Amber Hollibaugh, and other scholars and activists who participated in the notorious 1982 Barnard conference—are alleged to have kicked off the ensuing “sex wars.” Concerned that feminist treatments of sexuality were limited to a critique of pornography, rape culture, and other forms of violence against women, contributors attempted to complicate the issues of BDSM, butch-femme relationships, pornography, and sex work. Course texts include this groundbreaking text, along with the recent special issue of Signs, which revisits this anthology and explores the decades of provocative and divisive debates surrounding sexuality between then and now, as well as other texts that address and exceed the persistent tendency to situate issues of sexuality in terms of either pleasure or danger. Authors, including those in the anthology and special issue, as well as Jane Gerhard, Jennifer C. Nash, and others, establish why issues of sexuality are of vital importance to us. Students will gain a working knowledge of issues of sexuality and sexual justice, practice advanced undergraduate research skills, learn the rudiments of feminist theory, and establish a substantial foundation for further study, including graduate work in this area.
Prerequisites: WS 200: “Introduction to Women’s Studies” (or equivalent) or instructor’s permission. Prerequisites: EN 444: 18 hours of English Study, including 6 hours at the 200 level and 6 hours at the 300 level. Note: Writing proficiency is required for a passing grade in this course.
EN 477-001 ADV STUDIES IN LITERARY GENRES MW 4:30-5:45 Cardon
Literature of the Apocalypse
“You have a mismatched pair of genetic characteristics. Either alone would have been useful, would have aided the survival of your species. But the two together are lethal. It was only a matter of time before they destroyed you.” In this excerpt from Octavia Butler’s novel Dawn, a member of an alien species explains to the human narrator why her species was destined to destroy itself. This novel, like many others in the apocalyptic genre, raises questions about why so many authors incorporate the end of civilization as a tool for utopian (or dystopian) imagining. In this course, we read a series of novels about apocalyptic future, including Butler’s Dawn, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, among others. In many of these texts, authors emphasize the building tension between Western civilization and the natural world; in others, a manifestation of our political, socioeconomic, and ecological anxieties about the future. Students will be responsible for regular short-responses (quizzes), leading one class discussion, writing two essays (a midterm in-class essay and a final research paper), and several shorter assignments to prepare for the research paper (e.g., an abstract and annotated bibliography).
Advanced Studies in Writing
EN 455-001 ADV STUDIES IN WRITING TR 11:00-12:15 Tekobbe
Video Games
In this course, students will investigate video games for their procedural rhetorics, literacy and learning practices, narrative writing, and cultural studies. Students will evaluate the social and cultural aspects of gaming, as well as the technical aspects and how these act on various audiences. Students will design game narratives and report on gaming topics of their own interests.
EN 455-002 ADV STUDIES IN WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 Gardiner
Designed for advanced English majors, this special topics course focuses on the process of writing, with a special emphasis on multimodal composition. This section includes experiential learning opportunities, and students will enhance their research and writing skills as they document and visualize the historical and cultural landscapes of the Great Depression. Texts include Richard Wright’s 12 Million Black Voices and shorter course-pack readings. Course work includes doing family research in Ancestry.com, archival research in the Hoole Special Collections and the Library of Congress photo collections, library and online research, as well as composing in traditional, oral, visual, and digital formats. (For a look at spring 2018’s work, see dirtpoor.as.ua.edu.)
Creative Writing
EN 408-002 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING MW 3:00-4:10 Guthrie
Advanced Poetry Writing: The Long Poem
When we think of the best work by the greatest poets, it’s no wonder we often think of their longer poems. The genre bestows a certain prestige upon its successful practitioner—for good reason. The short lyric poem is challenging enough in its demands for compression, precision, and musicality, yet writers of long poems must also sustain our attention and reward our investment of time—they must extend our curiosity over many pages. In this workshop we’ll focus on longer poetry, from short-long poems (100+ lines) up to book-length poems, reading judiciously within the subgenres—meditation, sequence, collage, verse-novel, etc.—and including great older works by the likes of Whitman, Frost, Stevens, and Bishop, as well as more recent works by Kenneth Koch, Frank Bidart, Anne Carson, Terrence Hayes, and Maggie Nelson, among others. Students will dabble in a variety of subgenres with the aim of developing a penchant for one, culminating in a lengthy final project. Since narrative is typically a vital presence in the long poem, prose writers are especially welcome and should feel at home, even as they reckon with the devices and music of poetry.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-003 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 9:30-10:45 Collum
Criminal Intent (screenwriting)
Crime films such as Silence of the Lambs, The Shawshank Redemption, American History X, The Departed, and A Time to Kill garner such high acclaim because they are complex, engaging, culturally relevant, and thought-provoking. But what makes their characters so remarkably unforgettable, relatable, and complex—or villainous and shady? How do the ethical dilemmas posed in such crime films beckon us to invest in the story? In what ways can a crime film both entertain us and urge us to more closely examine ourselves as well as the lives and motivations of others? In this course, we’ll examine a variety of crime films to identify the key features and strategies—including concept, plot, dialogue, pacing, and description—that make these movies click. Furthermore, we’ll look at the role of crime in concept, plot, and character motivation. As we examine successful films and their screenplays, we will also work through the process of developing, outlining, writing, and revising a full-length feature film. Students will work collaboratively and will present work through in-class workshops and activities. Note: This course requires the purchase of Final Draft 11, which is the industry standard software for screenwriting format and production. These are available at finaldraft.com
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-004 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 11:00-12:15 Kidd
Fantasy Writing (fiction)
If you like to hang out in, explore, and create fantastical realms of gold (as Keats called Homer’s mythical landscape) this course is for you, whether you enjoy the old-school lands of Faerie that fueled the imagination of JRR Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the magic-infused worlds of JK Rowling, Robin McKinley, or Diana Wynne Jones, or whether you prefer the unsettling vision of writers like Neil Gaiman and China Mieville. Students will explore ways that speculative elements enter a text, methods of world building, and elements of social, political, and environmental consciousness that find their ways into fantasy writing. The final project will guide students through researching a suitable journal and preparing a submission to that publication.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-005 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING WF 12:30-1:45 H Staples
Young Adult Lit (fiction/hybrid)
“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice.”—J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
In this course, we will get excited about the 12-18 set, reading and writing young adult fiction. We will discuss the literary possibilities for the genre, and review subgenres, including adventure, contemporary, dystopia, diaries, and historical—while also considering hybridizing strategies such the inclusion of texts, ads, lists, images, and verse. Readings may include S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, M.T. Anderson’s Feed, Julie Bauxbam’s Tell Me Three Things, Jason Reynold’s Long Way Down, and Kevin Waltman’s Slump.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-006 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING W 2:00-4:30 Behn
Writers Writing Together (multi-genre)
In this class we will investigate how writers can work together. Writers in the class will collaborate with one another, practicing a wide variety of approaches to the process. Over the course of the semester, you will write with every other person in the class at least once. We’ll read from the rich history of collaborative writing, drawing inspiration from writer pairs such as Neil Gaiman & Gene Wolfe, Frank O’Hara & Kenneth Koch, Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely, and Ntozake Shange & Ifa Bayeza; and from anthologies such as They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing and Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry. We will also learn about other ways that writers combine their energies: collaboratives such as Lambda Literary Foundation and Cave Canem, writer’s conferences and colonies, and writing groups. The emphasis will be on having fun, trying new things, and supporting one another in our explorations. Weekly collaborative assignments, one short report, and a longer final project.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-007 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING W 2:00-4:30 Felt
Advanced Creative Nonfiction
The Personal is Political: Memoir as Activism
In this course we’ll explore how individual stories can come together to create communities, solidarity, and movements. We’ll look at the intersection of art and activism, discuss self-care practices, and how to get your writing to the audience that needs it. One of our main goals will be to identify holes in the (nonfiction) narratives that most often get told about/by members of your community—and how to expand the parameters of those narratives. We’ll also address the following questions: What can you do with the frustration of not seeing yourself represented on the page? How can you develop confidence in the value of your story? How might expanding your ideas about the boundaries of the self allow for the amplification of voice?
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-008 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 J Staples
The Circadian Narrative (multi-genre)
The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real–the here-and-now. Seize the day. ― Saul Bellow, Seize the Day
This course will focus on the study and writing of circadian narratives, imaginative works that take place over the course of a single day. We will investigate the respective approaches and techniques evident in well-known circadian writings, paying particular attention to the ways in which their authors engage memory, back-story, and forward-moving action to progress novels, verse-novels, stories, and epic poems. Taking inspiration from these formal models, students will each draft, workshop, and revise their own circadian narratives. You will gain experience of writing in multiple genres and ultimately choose one piece to develop more fully for the end of the semester. Texts may include works such as Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Midwinter Day by Bernadette Mayer, Seize the Day by Saul Bellow, excerpts from Ulysses by James Joyce, among others.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-009 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 3:30-4:45 McSpadden
Advanced Fiction Writing: You Are Where You Are
In this class we’ll take a look at the agency of place as it relates to reading and writing short stories. Dorothy Allison says of place, “I grew up among truck drivers and waitresses, and, for me, the place where most stories take place is the place that is no place for most other people. But for me those places are real places, with a population I recognize and can describe, a people I love even if they do not always love me.” This is what she writes. We’ll read a wide selection of short stories set in landscapes both familiar and foreign, and examine how land shapes character, how place drives plot, how place builds people and wears them down, and how place informs desire and facilities change. We’ll not only pay particular attention to the shape of the place, but the language of that place. We will ask of one another what Allison asks of those writers she likes to read: Can you take me somewhere I’ve never been before?
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-010 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 3:30-4:45 Addington
Writing Places (creative nonfiction)
In this course, we will write about places. We will delve into the particular character and culture of places. Whether wilderness or city, bucolic fields or suburban decay, we will work to represent places truthfully and dynamically. In essays both personal and journalistic, we will examine the people who live in those spaces; the environments, flora, fauna, geology, architecture, the refuse of those places. We will pay close attention to the ethics of representing places, to how we choose to depict these places and everything within and around them. We’ll consider our own relationship to places—how places define us and we define places.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-012 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TBA Albano
The Little Magazine (editing/publishing)
This course will examine the origins, evolution, and the present-day landscape of literary journals and small presses, with a special emphasis on print culture, and learn the fundamentals of the editing process, from the acquisition and revision of work through its proofreading and publishing. As part of this process, we will discuss and implement strategies for publishing our own work covering the entire submission process, from identifying suitable journals to writing professional cover letters. As a culminating project we will produce a print edition of the second issue of Call Me [Brackets]—the literary journal started by the fall semester class. This will involve selecting a new theme and aesthetic, and introduce, in addition to the aforementioned skills, the basics of layout, design, and binding while considering essential post-publishing efforts such as distribution and marketing.
Linguistics
EN 423-001 / EN 523 HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANG TR 11:00-12:15 Davies
This course considers questions such as the following: Why does Southern English have to propose “y’all” for a plural “you”? And while we’re at it, what happened to “thou”? What’s the deal with the subjunctive? How did Scandinavian pronouns (they, their, them) creep into English? Why can’t we ask “Have you not heard?” without sounding weird? Since the momentous event in 1066 was called “the Norman Conquest,” why aren’t we speaking French instead of English? Who decided that we can’t say “Ain’t nothin’ like ‘em nowhere” in standardized English? What’s going on with, like, quotatives, “and he was like….!”? Why can’t everybody open their book? How is English being affected by globalization and the internet? The course is an introduction to the external history of the English language along with the study of the accompanying internal changes in structure. It begins by peering back through the mists of history by means of linguistic tools that allow us to reconstruct what the original language in our “family” was like. Then we will track changes in English through its close encounters with other languages (most notably the Celtic languages, Old Norse, and French), through attempts at standardization, through the effects of globalization, to its diverse contemporary forms. For English majors the course should provide a basis for understanding the evolution of English grammar, pronunciation, and spelling as a background for studying literature written in English. The course examines the development of English from two perspectives: its outer history (i.e., the sociohistorical, cultural, and political forces that have helped shape the language) and its inner history (the phonological, grammatical, and lexical changes that have taken place). In addition, it looks at some general principles of language change and relates them to specific developments in English. By the end of the course you should understand why the English language is the way it is and be able to predict how it may change.
Prerequisite(s): EN 320 or EN 321 or ANT 210 or ANT 401 or ANT 450 or FR 361 or IT 361 or SP 361.
EN 425-001 VARIATION IN AMERICAN ENGLISH TR 2:00-3:15 Davies
At the annual conference every year, the American Dialect Society selects a Word of the Year. For 2016, it was “dumpster fire;” for 2017, it was “fake news.” In the year 2000, the ADS declared that the Word of the Twentieth Century was jazz,” and the Word of the Millennium was “she.” Have you ever wondered where words like “okra,” or “bungalow,” or “ketchup,” or “cyberspace” come from? Who creates brand-new words in American English? How do we know the “correct” grammar to use in various forms of writing (an essay for your English literature class versus a text to a friend) and in different contexts for speaking? Do men and women communicate differently? Is it possible to place a person (within the United States or even within Alabama) by accent? Who uses “y’all” versus “you guys”? What is a foreign accent and are some accents more prestigious than others? Under what circumstances do people change the way they speak? Are Southerners more polite than other Americans? If you’ve ever contemplated questions like these, then this course will be of interest to you, especially if you are planning a career that involves language and communication (e.g., majors in English, Communication, Education, Journalism, Communicative Disorders, Marketing, Social Work…..). The course is designed for anyone who would like to understand more about linguistic diversity within what we think of as “American English.” Using films such as My Fair Lady (and American versions of this film such as Pretty Woman), My Cousin Vinny, classic clips by Key and Peele, and other resources that highlight regional, ethnic, and social distinctions, 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 and how they are changing, 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 contribute to a website on Language in Alabama for the citizens of our state.
Ideal Prerequisite(s): an introductory linguistics course (e.g., EN 320 or EN 321 or ANT 210 or ANT 401 or ANT 450 or FR 361 or IT 361 or SP 361. )
Directed Courses
EN 429-001 / 002 DIRECTED READINGS STAFF
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
EN 430-001 / 002 / 003 ENGLISH INTERNSHIP STAFF
An on- or off-campus training position in which students use the skills they have gained as English majors and enhance their employment opportunities after graduation. Interns work approximately 10 hours a week, holding responsible positions with, among others, Alabama Heritage, Alabama Alumni Magazine, and the Tuscaloosa Public Defender’s Office. Apply to the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of English. Please see the departmental website for the application form and further details.
EN 499 HONORS THESIS STAFF
The Honors Thesis in English course is an individualized, directed readings class that culminates in a 30-50 pp. thesis. It is the final required course for the Honors in English program. Each student enrolled will work individually with a faculty mentor.
Prerequisite: EN 399.
Fall 2018
Literature, Pre-1700
EN 332-001: Sixteenth-Century Literature
Ainsworth
TR 2:00-3:15
This course will introduce you to the poetry and prose of the English Renaissance. We will begin with an intensive study of the Elizabethan sonnet, looking at poets including Wyatt, Sidney, Marlowe, Spenser, and Shakespeare. We will spend a substantial portion of the semester reading several books of Spenser’s Faerie Queen. We will also look at segments of several prose works from the period, including Sidney’s Defense of Poesy.
EN 333-001: Shakespeare
Loper
TR 11:00-12:15
This course offers an introduction to the study of Shakespeare’s plays. In addition to reading at least one play from each genre-comedy, tragedy, history, and romance-we will examine the material and cultural conditions of Shakespeare’s England. Students will be asked to consider the ways in which Shakespeare adapted sources for his audiences and, by viewing various film clips, will analyze how contemporary filmmakers adapt Shakespeare. Other topics of conversation will include the authorship debate, various critical approaches to interpreting Shakespeare’s plays, and some reasons for his lasting legacy.
EN 333-002: Shakespeare
Sasser
MW 3:00-4:15
We will be examining why Shakespeare occupies his place at the center of the literary canon. We will begin with Shakespeare’s accomplishments as a poet, both narrative and lyric. We will then move on to his accomplishments in the drama, examining what he did in four categories: comedy, tragedy, history, and romance.
Literature, 1700-1900
EN 340-001: American Literature to 1900
Beidler
TR 8:00-9:15
Early American Poetry
A study of the role and function of the poet in the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Early National eras. Figures include Sandys, Bradstreet, Wigglesworth, Taylor, Cooke, Wheatley, Barlow, Freneau, Bryant, Longfellow, Sigourney, Whitman, Dickinson. Midterm and final exams will test knowledge of key texts, concepts, titles, and terms. Out-of-class assignments will include two short critical papers.
EN 343-001: British Fiction to 1900
Weiss
MW 3:00-4:15
Orphans and Outcasts in the British Novel
The novel emerged and then flourished in England in a time of great social and economic change: the aristocracy was declining, the middle and professional classes were rising, and the value placed on inherited privilege and wealth were being replaced by a new respect for individual merit and upward mobility. Between 1700 and 1900, the British novel was centrally preoccupied with this shift–with documenting, examining, and evaluating the long, slow death of the aristocracy and its replacement by the rising middle class. A central character in the social and economic story the British novel told was the orphan—boy or girl—who had to make his or her way in the world without money, family, or status. Because of their parentless condition, these characters were often outcasts who had to move through life with little assistance or sympathy, often victims of a social environment filled with perils. The class will look at the development of the British novel through the experiences of orphans and outcasts, paying attention to formal elements such as characterization, setting, chronology, dialogue, and narration, as well as to the social and economic experiences of the various protagonists.
EN 348-001: Romantic Literature
Tedeschi
TR 11:00-12:15
This course provides a survey of literature written during the British Romantic period (roughly 1789-1832), a period marked by intense political turmoil, rapid social change, and an evolving literary field. The course considers literature in several genres, including poetry, the novel, and nonfiction prose; introduces many of the period’s most influential authors, including Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Mary and Percy Shelley, and Keats; and provides an introduction to the social, political, and intellectual history of the Romantic period.
EN 349-001: Victorian Literature
Novak
TR 9:30-10:45
Gender equality, racial justice, income inequality, religion, or the crisis in the humanities. These could be today’s top stories in your Newsfeed. But the discussion about these issues began back in the Victorian period, and in many ways we are still arguing about these questions on the very terms and values set by Victorian writers. In essays, novels, and poetry Victorian writers debated the position of women in the public sphere (“the Woman Question”), economic inequality and alienated labor (“The Condition of England Question”), English treatment of colonized subjects, evolution, religious skepticism, and the function of literature. Authors may include George Eliot, Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Charlotte Bronte, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Thomas Carlyle, Christina Rossetti, Oscar Wilde, and others.
Literature, Post-1900
EN 350-001/AAST 350-001: Topics in African-American Literature
Manora
MW 3:00-4:15
20th & 21st Century African American Women’s Literature
This course is a multi-genre study of works by African American women writers in the 20th and 21st centuries. As we move through the tradition, from Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance through the Black Arts Movement to the Contemporary and Postmodern periods, we will focus on issues related to narrative, identity, and subjectivity, as well as the intersections of race, class, and gender, while also considering these works within the context of critical discourses in social, cultural, and literary history. Authors will include Larsen, Hurston, Morrison, Walker, and Naylor. Requirements include active and engaged presence and participation, regular reader responses, one 4-5 page paper, a midterm, and a final paper.
EN 366-001: Twentieth-Century Poetry
White
TR 12:30-1:45
In this course we will read a selection of the most important American and British poets of the twentieth century. The purpose of this course is twofold: first, students will become familiar with poets and poems that have been particularly influential in contemporary poetry. This familiarity will be tested by exams that the class will help to structure. Second, and more importantly, the course will focus on ways to help students understand and articulate their thoughts about complex poetry. To this end, students will write two papers.
EN 367-001: Post-Colonial Writing in English
Iheka
TR 11:00-12:15
The 20th century was marked by the colonial condition which not only altered the invading countries but also the colonized societies disrupted as a consequence of forced contact. Postcolonial literature then is a genre/rubric that accounts for the ensemble of texts that colonized people have produced to articulate their subjectivities, illuminate vectors of colonial oppression, and to demonstrate the manner in which neocolonial forms of exploitation characterize the contemporary age. Focusing on texts from Africa, a continent significantly impacted by the colonial encounter, this course tracks the responses to the colonial moment in literature as well as the strategies African writers employ as they grapple with post-independence realities in their societies. Class readings will draw from the various regions of Sub-Saharan Africa in order to reflect the diversity and complexity of the continent. We will read the works of Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, Mariama Ba, NoViolet Bulawayo, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, among others.
EN 371-001: Tragedy
Deutsch
TR 2:00-3:15
What is tragedy? How does society deal with large-scale catastrophes of a political, religious, idealistic, or organic nature? By giving up? By forging on? What makes a tragic hero or heroine? What is the relationship between tragedy and comedy? These are some of the issues we’ll examine as we look at how an individual or a small group confronts the hostile forces of gods, fates, or even simply social conventions. After examining the classical dramatic tradition, we’ll swiftly move on to tragedies in the American tradition. For this, we’ll take a look at plays that have shaped the American tragic landscape and apply the concept of tragedy to modern American fiction and poetry. For help, we’ll turn to influential definitions and theories of tragedy, particularly those of Hegel, Nietzsche, and Miller.
EN 373-001: Women in Literature
Wittman
TR 12:30-1:45
In this course we will survey novels, short fiction, and prose non-fiction by women writing about the margins of society. Topics will include sexuality, race, mental illness, discrimination, violence, prostitution, and liberation. We will consider works by both British and American writers. Readings may include Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys, Katherine Mansfield, Anaïs Nin, Patricia Highsmith, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Conner, Joan Didion, Doris Lessing, Anne Carson, and Zadie Smith.
Creative Writing
EN 301-001 through 004: Fiction Tour
Various Staff
Close study of the basic principles for composing creative prose. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of prose strategies. Required of all creative writing minors.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 303-001 through 004: Poetry Tour
Various Staff
Close study of basic principles for composing poetry. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of poetic styles. Required of all creative writing minors.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 303-002: Poetry Tour
N. Parker
TR 2:00-3:15
Close study of basic principles for composing poetry. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of poetic styles. Required of all creative writing minors.
Prerequisite: EN 200 (This prerequisite is never waived).
EN 307-001: Special Topics in Applied Creative Writing
Albano
MW 3:00-4:15
Literary Editing and Publishing
This course is an exploration of the field of literary publishing and its professional practices. We will examine the origins, evolution, and the present-day landscape of literary journals and small presses, and learn the fundamentals of the editing process, from the acquisition and revision of work through its proofreading and publishing. We will discuss and implement strategies for publishing our own work covering the entire submission process, from identifying suitable journals to writing professional cover letters. As a culminating project we will make our own limited-run chapbook, which in addition to the aforementioned skills will introduce the basics of layout, design, and binding while considering essential post-publishing efforts such as distribution and marketing.
EN 307-002: Special Topics in Applied Creative Writing
Donaldson
MW 4:30-5:45
Creative Writing for Digital Media
This course will explore digital storytelling from a hands-on point of view. We will cover the emerging field of digital media—including but not limited to electronic literature, hypertext, and multimedia forms of storytelling—and learn to use a range of digital tools, including basic coding skills. The ability to tell a story—and tell it well—is essential to success in almost any career field, but particularly in the creative arts, publishing, marketing, PR, advertising, and business. Suitable for those who know absolutely nothing about the subject and who are looking to add marketable skills to their resumés as well as those who have some experience.
EN 307-003: Special Topics in Applied Creative Writing
Frank
TR 3:30-4:45
Writers in the Schools
In this class you learn best practices for curriculum design and instruction for students of all ages, elementary through high school. Develop your teaching skills, generate fun and innovative lesson plans, and gain practical experience volunteering at one of our WITS onsite programs providing after-school and in-school co-curricular enrichment. Ideal for students considering careers in teaching and arts nonprofits or simply interested in community and youth engagement.
Linguistics
EN 320-001: Introduction to Linguistics
Popova
TR 9:30-10:45
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 Grammar
Worden
TR 2:00-3:15
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 a pedagogical setting. This course is a prerequisite for EN 423, EN 424, EN 425, EN 466.
Methodology
EN 300-001: Introduction to English Studies
Pionke
TR 11:00-12:15
Designed primarily for English majors, especially for those at the early stages of fulfilling the major requirements, this course seeks to acquaint you with the tools, techniques and critical attitude necessary for in-depth literary study. Students majoring in other disciplines are also welcome, of course, and will find their reading, writing and analytical skills enhanced as a result. Our collective approach to the study of literature will focus on close, rather than voluminous, reading and careful analysis in the form of papers and others writing assignments. We will touch on research techniques and the varieties of literary criticism, but will concentrate most of our attention on mastering the vocabulary and techniques of textual analysis. Lest all this sounds frighteningly intimidating or, worse yet, frightfully boring, rest assured that we shall set our shoulders to an attractive wheel indeed, and that our time in and out of the classroom will be spent reading and discussing stories, poems and plays chosen both to instruct and to delight.
EN 300-002: Introduction to English Studies
Cardon
TR 2:00-3:15
You’ve perhaps read The Great Gatsby, but how would you teach it? Why, do you think, is it so important that nearly every high school requires its students to read it? What do we do with famous works of literature? Why does literature even matter in the Real World? EN 300 is designed primarily for English majors, but also for anyone interested in literary analysis. This class aims to
- Provide an introduction to methods employed in our discipline for in-depth literary study;
- Enrich skills in critical reading, writing, and analysis;
- Introduce a range of critical and theoretical approaches to primary texts;
- Help students to identify which of these approaches fits their style, their interests, and the nuances of a particular literary work;
- Enhance students’ ability to close read texts in the form of papers and other assignments;
- Teach the vocabulary, techniques, and research methods associated with literary analysis.
To become more adept at reading and interpreting literary texts, students will begin the course by revisiting a canonical work of literature (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby) and learning about different methods for approaching, analyzing, and writing. From there, students will learn to apply these critical methods to other genres, including poetry, drama, and other texts and media.
Rhetoric and Composition
EN 309-001: Advanced Expository Writing
McKnight
TR 12:30-1:45
English 309, an advanced writing workshop, aims to help student writers who want additional expository writing instruction after English 101 and 102. Class members will analyze their writing strengths and weaknesses, set goals for improving their writing and work on practical writing assignments depending partly on their majors or fields of interest. Students will study and practice advanced techniques of effective expository prose, including explanation, logic and persuasion, analysis, evaluation, and stylistic sophistication.
EN 313-001: Writing Across Media
Branyon
MWF 1:00-1:50
Advanced writing course exploring composition with images, sound, video, and other media while considering theoretical perspectives on rhetorical concepts such as authorship, audience, process, revision, and design.
EN 319-001 through 006: Technical Writing
Various Staff
Focuses on principles and practices of technical writing, including audience analysis, organization and planning, information design and style, usability testing, and collaborative writing. Special emphasis will be placed on composing instructions, various kinds of reporting such as investigative and feasibility studies, document design for technical presentations, proposals and collaborative composition.
Prerequisites: EN 101 and EN 102 (or equivalent) and junior standing.
Directed Courses
EN 329-001 through 004: Directed Studies
Various Staff
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
400-Level Courses
Advanced Studies in Literature
EN 411-001: Advanced Studies in Comparative/Multicultural Literature
Wittman
TR 2:00-3:15
In this course, we will read seven critically acclaimed novels from around the world and investigate how literature arrives on the global stage. This course is run as a literary prizegranting committee loosely based on the Nobel Prize committee. Every student is a committee member. In this course, it is the students themselves who come up with their own evaluative criteria. Throughout the semester we will then debate—in class and anonymously—the merits of the seven novels using these criteria. On the first day of class, students discuss what foreign language books they have read; on the last day, they debate and decide which of the novels should win the prize. This year we have the unique opportunity to spend classroom time with one of the award-winning writers.
EN 422-001: Advanced Studies in American Literature
Beidler
TR 9:30-10:45
Inventing American Modernism, 1865-1918
A study of the rise of American literary modernism between the American Civil War and The Great War—its post-1865 break with traditional social values and beliefs and with inherited forms of literary expression. We will address this in a number of ways: 1) partly as a response to parallel developments in Anglo-European modernist experimentalism in literature and the arts; 2) but also importantly as an independent reaction to particular late 19th and early 20th century developments in American life and culture; 3) and, finally, not only as an integral but perhaps even dominant force in 20th century transatlantic modernism at large. Writers studied will include Whitman, Dickinson, Twain, James, Gilman, Crane, Chopin, Washington/du Bois, Pound/HD, and Eliot.
EN 422-002: Advanced Studies in American Literature
Crank
TR 12:30-1:45
Reading Katrina
Late in the August of 2005, the narrative of the city of New Orleans fundamental changed. Suddenly, with one storm, fantasies of the city’s vibrancy, and its space as tourist mecca were profoundly threatened, flooded, literally and physically, with black bodies, citizens of the city forced from their homes, killed, or rendered homeless, without shelter or food. Hurricane Katrina became a national problem revealing American anxieties over blackness, waste, reconstruction, migration, borders, and, perhaps most crucially, questions over authenticity: What does a rebuilding of an “authentic” New Orleans look like? Who belongs in this rebuilt city? Where will those citizens live in the city? How do we rebuild? Who are we rebuilding for? I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that, for most of the second half of 2005, and for years to come, New Orleans, came to embody the anxieties most of the nation had about the South, its strangeness, its troubling histories, its ecological and economic ruination, its dogged binaries, and its blithely conservative politics completely tone deaf to its citizens. This course examines the cultural and literary discourses surrounding Hurricane Katrina as both an ecological/economic disaster and as a rhetoric for un/re/de-imagining the South in the early decades of the 21st century. We’re going to be looking at race, region, class, waste, global warming, issues of whiteness, media, political discourses, cultural references, and a fair number of films and texts including: SALVAGE THE BONES, LONG DIVISION, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE, graphic novels like BEYOND KATRINA, AD: NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE DELUGE, and DARK WATER, as well as popular renderings of Katrina in the HBO series TREME, and the Beyonce video for FORMATION.
EN 433-001: Advanced Studies in British Literature
Cook
MW 3:00-4:15
The Romance, Then and Now
This course focuses on the origins and development of the romance genre. We will begin with medieval romances and then turn to novels of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century. The aim of the course is to offer a historical perspective on this form of popular fiction. Medieval course readings will include selections from Marie de France’s Lais and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (in modern English translation). Novels will include Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest, Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Scott’s Ivanhoe, and Chesnutt’s The House Behind the Cedars.
EN 433-002: Advanced Studies in British Literature
Pionke
TR 2:00-3:15
This seminar will survey children’s literature in England from the seventeenth-century appearance of Mother Goose through the first “Golden Age” in the nineteenth century. Attentive to the constitutive tension between admonition/instruction on the one hand, and entertainment/wonder on the other, we will reconstruct the protean figure of the child (both gendered and not) who emerges as audience and subject of such texts as the imported fairy tales of Charles Perrault, the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, and the domesticallyproduced Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes and The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. Demonstrating writing proficiency suitable for a senior-level seminar in English will be a required component of this university-designated “W” course.
EN 444-001/WS 410-001: Advanced Studies in Lit Criticism & Theory
Purvis
TR 2:00-3:15
“From Take Back the Night to Slutwalk: Sexual Justice across the Waves”
This course explores the ongoing and complicated relationship between sexual liberation and gender justice, with a focus on feminist responses to sexual violence and the emergence of a radical theory of sexual justice. It asks: What sort of sexual revolution is possible in the absence of gender justice? Longer Course Description: Despite the fact that issues concerning sexuality and bodily integrity are fraught with controversy and comprised of many competing views, feminist commitments to sexual liberation and gender justice persist. By comparing and contrasting challenges to sexual violence across the generations of feminism, this course emphasizes both continuity and points of departure between feminist agendas from the different waves, or generations, of feminisms—each committed to advancing sexual justice in its own way. Students in this course will gain an understanding of the issues surrounding sexual violence and rape culture, develop a working knowledge of the different feminist waves, or generations, and be able to trace feminist responses to sexual violence across the waves of feminism while actively breaking down divisions between these purportedly distinct waves. Students will assess artificial antagonisms, such as that between Sex Positive and Sex Negative Feminists and break down problematic terminology, such as “Sex Wars.” This course will establish an understanding of “sex-positive feminism” and “sexual justice” and provide a strong background for further study/praxis, including some of the rudiments of feminist theory.
Prerequisites: For WS 430: WS 200: “Introduction to Women’s Studies” (or equivalent) or permission of the professor. For EN 444: 18 hours of English Study, including 6 hours at the 200 level and 6 hours at the 300 level. Writing proficiency is required for a passing grade in this course.
Advanced Studies in Writing
EN 455-001: Advanced Studies in Writing
Cardon
TR 11:00-12:15
Global Foodways
Designed for advanced English majors, EN 455 is a special topics course that focuses on the process of writing. Our topic this semester is Global Foodways. The discussions and assignments are framed around the following questions: How do local foodways become a cuisine? Why, when we visit a foreign country, do we find the cuisine so different from the version back home? How do social, geographical, economic, and political factors shape the way a cuisine develops over time? Each student will select a cuisine to research, explore, and write about over the course of the semester, meanwhile contributing to a Global Foodways class website. In addition, students will read, discuss, and analyze a series of texts about food. Most texts will be found in our supplemental reading folder on Blackboard, or Anthony Bourdain’s collection Medium Raw; we will also read Jean Hegland’s Into the Forest, as well as additional materials.
EN 455-002: Advanced Studies in Writing
Presnall
MW 3:00-4:15
The focus of this course is Michel de Montaigne and the Essay. We will discuss the life of Montaigne, his method, the reception of his Essays since first published in 1580, and Montaigne’s influence on major writers, including Shakespeare. We will also practice his method of writing from life to understand our own minds and finish by writing an essay after his style.
EN 455-003: Advanced Studies in Writing
Gardiner
TBA
Academic Integrity ELO
This course offers students an authentic Experiential Learning Opportunity. Working with the A & S Academic Integrity Initiatives Coordinator and the CCS Innovation Team, students will research, develop, write, and edit multimodal scripts, example paragraphs, source-based academic-writing lessons, assessments, and other teaching materials for a multi-unit online Academic Integrity module to be used by incoming UA students in future semesters. Course readings will include James Lang’s Cheating Lessons and articles on plagiarism and other academic integrity issues. In addition to real-life writing responsibilities, the course will also include reflective writing.
Creative Writing
EN 408-001: Advanced Creative Writing
Wells
M 2:00-4:30
Advanced Fiction Workshop
This class is devoted to the reading, writing, and analysis of short fiction. You will build on the prose writing and workshopping skills you’ve developed in previous creative writing courses. You will produce original fiction of your own invention and design and will be expected to read and provide feedback that is both rigorous and generous on the work of your fellow fiction writers.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-002: Advanced Creative Writing
Estes
M 2:00-4:30
Short Forms/Short Books (Multi-Genre)
Short forms—prose poems, flash fictions, micro essays, any brief thing—may play well to abbreviated attention spans, and may well manifest the soul of wit, but they are defined more often than not by their playfulness, an unrestrained capacity for shapeshifting, for strangeness, for subterfuge and surprise. In this course we will risk life and limb to swim amidst shards, fragments, and splinters, a sea of beginnings without endings, of endings without beginnings, of all middles. We will proliferate by division and elaborate by subtraction. And yet there is “the maker’s rage for order,” as Wallace Stevens says, and so we shall craft some small number of our small texts toward the crafting of small books. Chapbooks—so named for the chapmen, or peddlers, who wandered from town to town selling sundry wares to the common people—were quickly made, cheaply bought, but yet for common folks in far flung provinces were the principle medium of cultural exchange. “For many years they carried the work of historians, poets, storytellers, fortune tellers, song writers, clergymen, politicians, biographers, jesters, etc, etc, to the people, and as such, they were useful, entertaining, and instructive, despite their crudeness and their frequent deviation from accuracy and good taste,” according to historian Harry Weiss. So whatever you write, out of that mess of texts you will collect and collate, shuffle and shape your rough-hewn stuff into something finished, worthy, and above all portable.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-003: Advanced Creative Writing
Coryell
MW 3:00-4:15
Novel Workshop (Two-Semester Sequence)
This is part one of a two semester course designed with the goal of completing a draft of a novel. In this class we will deconstruct the novel-writing process, and move from brainstorming ideas all the way to workshopping books-in-progress. No matter the genre you’re looking to write, you’ll find this course an invaluable aid to developing a new or existing project. We will read and discuss a couple of novels in order to help inspire the writing process, and discuss the many challenges of writing longform narrative and strategies for overcoming them. Workshops will occur throughout the semester and novel sections will be turned in regularly. The goal of this course is not to write a perfect, complete text, but rather to learn how to forgive yourself for bad sentences and to do a lot of writing. By the end of the first semester, the goal is to have a partial novel draft completed with a full draft completed by the end of the second semester. We will also talk briefly about the novel publication process.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303.
EN 408-004: Advanced Creative Writing
Oliu
TR 9:30-10:45
Video Game Writing
In less than fifty years, dating from Atari’s release of Pong in 1972, video games and video gaming have revolutionized media consumption in the 21st century and shape the ways we interact with technology in the digital age. From that simplistic table tennis game has arisen whole empires—World of Warcraft is built out of over 5 million lines of code—and a multibillion dollar industry. Video games not only draw stylistic elements from art, literature, and film, but have influenced those art forms in turn, pioneering entirely new forms of storytelling. Whether you are new to gaming or have logged thousands of hours in front of a computer or console, this course will guide you in the writing and designing of your own video game, with special attention to interactive, non-linear (choice-based, open world) narratives— concepts which can be applied in many writing scenarios. As part of studying the art of video games and gameplay, we will read about video games, write about video games, discuss video games, Skype with video game writers, and of course play many kinds of video games.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-005: Advanced Creative Writing
Rawlings
MW 3:00-4:15
Advanced Creative Nonfiction Writing
Telling true stories, and in the process grappling with what “true” means and where meaning resides, can be a thrilling, daunting, and artistically complex act. We will spend this semester experimenting with, drafting, responding to, and revising various forms of creative nonfiction, from memoir to travel writing to profiles to personal/political essays. We will focus on the development of skills particular to these subgenres as well as principles germane to all nonfiction writing. Along the way, we will identify and discuss and practice many of the essential skills of creative writing in general. Studying the structures and techniques of published works will help you discover the most effective and compelling means by which to tell your own stories.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-006: Advanced Creative Writing
Park
TR 12:30-1:45
Documentary Poetics
Like documentary filmmakers, documentary poets employ primary sources (court transcripts, photographs, public records, diagrams, recordings, letters, footage, etc.) to enter (or reenter) traumatic events, to unearth a moment in history, and to even report on their realities. At best, documentary poets respond to, rearrange, embed, and even redact primary sources in order to shed light on the forgotten and the marginalized, working to reinvigorate the poem as a locale for social justice. At worst, a documentary poet can insensitively unbury an event for the purpose of producing content. At either end, the intersection of the document and the poem encourages us to reassess the formal possibilities of a poem (can a poem act as a productive vessel for reportage?) alongside the role of the poet (can a poet be, as Philip Metres posits, a “journalist, historian, [and] agitator”?). This semester, we will read the works of Muriel Rukeyser, C.D. Wright, Jake Adam York, Charles Reznikoff, Susan M. Schultz, Paisley Rekdal, and others in order to investigate how poets use documentary modalities to negotiate questions of truth, presentation, and representation. We will also research and develop our own chapbook-length projects in order to explore how our work can give a voice to the past and/or speak out to the present.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-007: Advanced Creative Writing
Wyatt
TR 2:00-3:15
Online Writing, Writing Online (Various Forms)
As technology and economics transform publishing, online writing has been one way that writers have disrupted, subverted, and revolutionized the industry, cultivating a whole new market of readers. As popular blogger Sufia Tippu writes, “Blogging is hard because of the grind required to stay interesting and relevant.” But it’s not just blogs—writers are also sharing poetry, fiction, and deeply moving essays through their own personal sites as well as online journals and magazines. For this course, we will read books that were born of blogs as well as the blogs that spawned them, such as those by Allie Brosh and Jenny Lawson. Students will develop their own personal style and focus by building their own blogs, but will also explore pieces of literature of many genres that are published online. Students will write pieces and begin the process of submitting to online journals and magazines. We will explore the idea of brevity in writing fiction, poetry, and non-fiction using Twitter, as well as discuss ways to build an author platform online, which might (for starters) include a personal website and an active social media presence.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-008: Advanced Creative Writing
L. Wilson
T 2:00-4:30
The Elegy (Poetry)
“It does many things. It distracts the poet, at least momentarily, from a state of exquisite grief,” Mary Jo Bang says of the elegy, one of the most ancient forms in the poetic tradition, which gave her fifth collection, written in the wake of her son’s death, its name. This form has evolved from mournful verses of Greco-Roman couplets that follow a strict, metered pattern to a more nebulous, all-encompassing term for the mode of writing imbued with complex amalgam of emotions come with loss. This course will focus on the evolution of the elegy form from the 20th-century modern era in the West, dating to Rainer Marie Rilke’s Duino Elegies, to the present day. We will examine critically this form’s masculinist roots and the ways women, people of color, and LGBTQ writers (Bang, Meg Day, Leslie Harrison, Rosebud-Ben Oni, Danez Smith, Mai Der Vang) have pushed the elegy’s boundaries of expressing lament for those lost, praise for the departed, and consolation for those left behind. We will discuss essays on the form by poets and critics alike, including those of Peter Sacks, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Fred Moten, Carl Phillips, and Melissa Zeiger. We will examine poets’ ways of interrogating the divine, questioning belief itself, and finding something (or someone) to live for amid staggering loss as we write through our own personal valence on grief.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-009: Advanced Creative Writing
Staples
TR 2:00-3:15
Creative Thesis and Capstone Seminar (Multi-Genre)
Author Michael Ondaatje describes writing books as “a case of inching ahead on each page and discovering what’s beyond in the darkness, beyond where you’re writing.” This course will support such courageous forays. Students will work both independently under the instructor’s supervision and in a collaborative peer workshop to produce an artist statement and extended literary work or collection in the genre(s) of their choice. In addition to common readings and individualized reading lists, we will explore literary culture and ideas, artist biography, and other works aimed at preparing students for the writing life. Admission is by application and priority will be given to seniors and students in the English Honors Program. Obtain a project application from the Director of Undergraduate Creative Writing (john.estes@ua.edu).
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-010: Advanced Creative Writing
Field
T 3:00-5:00
Feature Film Writing (Screenplay)
Some say there are seven stories we tell over and over. Some say three. But then some say there is only one—the Hero’s Journey. It’s been around since the beginning of civilization and is deeply embedded in our DNA (one of the reasons for its power). When it comes to writing, you know more than you think your know –because you have been hearing stories about and living the hero’s journey since you were born. “Such stories are accurate models of the workings of the human mind, true maps of the psyche,” writes Christopher Vogler, author of the book we will use in class. Students will learn how to find a story that ignites their passion. They will learn three-act structure, what makes dialogue work, and character development (Hint: Don’t look around for a plot. It’s not out there. Plot is character in action). No matter what story you want to tell (romance, comedy, horror, drama), the Hero’s Journey can give you the keys to the kingdom. You will learn to pitch a story and how to find a good agent, but before any of that you must first write a good script, and this class is your first step in writing what will be your calling card.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
Linguistics
EN 423-001/EN 523: History of English
Davies
TR 11:00-12:15
This course considers questions such as the following: Why does Southern English have to propose “y’all” for a plural “you”? And while we’re at it, what happened to “thou”? What’s the deal with the subjunctive? How did Scandinavian pronouns (they, their, them) creep into English? Why can’t we ask “Have you not heard?” without sounding weird? Since the momentous event in 1066 was called “the Norman Conquest,” why aren’t we speaking French instead of English? Who decided that we can’t say “Ain’t nothin’ like ‘em nowhere” in standardized English? What’s going on with, like, quotatives, “and he was like….!”? Why can’t everybody open their book? How is English being affected by globalization and the internet? The course is an introduction to the external history of the English language along with the study of the accompanying internal changes in structure. It begins by peering back through the mists of history by means of linguistic tools that allow us to reconstruct what the original language in our “family” was like. Then we will track changes in English through its close encounters with other languages (most notably the Celtic languages, Old Norse, and French), through attempts at standardization, through the effects of globalization, to its diverse contemporary forms. For English majors the course should provide a basis for understanding the evolution of English grammar, pronunciation, and spelling as a background for studying English literature. The course examines the development of English from two perspectives: its outer history (i.e., the sociohistorical, cultural, and political forces that have helped shape the language) and its inner history (the phonological, grammatical, and lexical changes that have taken place). In addition, it looks at some general principles of language change and relates them to specific developments in English. By the end of the course you should understand why the English language is the way it is and be able to predict how it may change.
Prerequisite(s): EN 320 or EN 321 or ANT 210 or ANT 401 or ANT 450 or FR 361 or IT 361 or SP 361.
EN 424-001/EN 424: Structure of English
Liu
TR 12:30-1:45
This advanced grammar course examines the structure and usage of the English language, including morphology (word formation/structure), syntax (the patterns of sentences), and discourse (the context in which utterances are patterned and made meaningful). We will review both traditional and contemporary approaches to English grammar, such as cognitive grammar, construction grammar, lexico-grammar, pattern grammar, and systemic functional grammar. Through reading, research projects, and discussion, students will attain a solid understanding of the English language’s structure and usage. Writing proficiency within this discipline is required for a passing grade in this course.
Prerequisite(s): EN 320 or EN 321 or ANT 210 or ANT 401 or ANT 450 or FR 361 or IT 361 or SP 361
Directed Courses
EN 429-001/002: Directed Readings
Various Staff
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
EN 430-001/002/003: English Internship
Various Staff
An on- or off-campus training position in which students use the skills they have gained as English majors and enhance their employment opportunities after graduation. Interns work approximately 10 hours a week, holding responsible positions with, among others, Alabama Heritage, Alabama Alumni Magazine, and the Tuscaloosa Public Defender’s Office. Apply to the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of English. Please see the departmental website for the application form and further details.
EN 499: Honors Thesis
Various Staff
The Honors Thesis in English course is an individualized, directed readings class that culminates in a 30-50 pp. thesis. It is the final required course for the Honors in English program. Each student enrolled will work individually with a faculty mentor.
Prerequisite: EN 399.
Summer 2018
Interim
EN 311-001: Special Topics in Literature
Sasser
MTWRF 10:00-1:00
Seuss, Sendak, an Shel
This course explores the life and work of the three most popular and critically celebrated American children’s literature authors: Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, Maurice Sendak, and Shel Silverstein. Far from being sentimental purveyors of cute and innocent children’s books, these authors are politically driven, subversive, and at times even radical. Thus, we will address three major questions surrounding these authors: 1) What specific aspects of mid-twentieth century American culture created them? 2) How have publishers and estate holders worked to sentimentalize these authors, and what effects has that sentimentalization had on the construction of American childhood? and 3) How does a critical understanding of the written and visual aesthetics of these authors fundamentally challenge how readers generally have received these popular texts? Indeed, this interim semester, in the words of Maurice Sendak, is going to be “wild rumpus.”
EN 311-002: Special Topics in Literature
Hodo
MTWRF 9:00-12:00
Use Your Little Grey Cells: Examining the Detective in Print and on the Screen
Since its inception in the 1800s, detective fiction has captivated the minds of readers. From Poe’s Dupin to Christie’s Poirot to the many incarnations of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, readers find themselves drawn into richly woven mysteries where they can attempt to solve the crime alongside their fictional counterparts. This course will explore the characteristics of the detective fiction genre. We will discuss the changing values, attitudes, and portrayals of the detective and their roles in the justice system. We will read a variety of novels and short stories bridging the different eras of the genre (beginnings/Victorian, the Golden Age, Noir, and Modern). There will also be in class viewings of selected episodes from various television series and films such as Double Indemnity, The Mirror Crack’d, CSI and more.
Term I
EN 319-050: Technical Writing
Dayton
MTWRF 10:00-11:45
Focuses on principles and practices of technical writing, including audience analysis, organization and planning, information design and style, usability testing, and collaborative writing. Special emphasis will be placed on composing instructions, various kinds of reporting such as investigative and feasibility studies, document design for technical presentations, proposals and collaborative composition.
EN 329-050: Directed Studies
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
EN 408-050: Adv. Creative Writing
Staples
MTWRF 10:00-11:45
Image and Word
This course will adventure into the territories where the image and the word meet. Our course texts and prompts will include graphic novels; illuminated manuscripts; ekphrastic writings in response to photographs, paintings, and sculpture; poetry comics; emoji poetry; visual poetry; maps—wherein the eyes, ears, and hands work together to, as Blake has it, “cleanse the d☺☺rs ☺f percepti☺n.” Readings will include Songs of Innocence and Experience, William Blake; My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk; I Parrot, Deb Olin Unferth; Let Us Know Praise Famous Men, James Agee and others.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303.
EN 429-050: Directed Readings
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
Term II
EN 319-100: Technical Writing
Buck
MTWRF 10:00-11:45
Focuses on principles and practices of technical writing, including audience analysis, organization and planning, information design and style, usability testing, and collaborative writing. Special emphasis will be placed on composing instructions, various kinds of reporting such as investigative and feasibility studies, document design for technical presentations, proposals and collaborative composition.
EN 329-100: Directed Studies
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
EN 333-100: Shakespeare
Koester
MTWRF 2:00-3:45
This course is a broad introduction to Shakespearean drama, and places primary emphasis on language: most of our time and energy in this course will be devoted to the analysis and interpretation of Shakespeare’s words, and to an appreciation of their pleasures and complexities.
EN 429-100: Directed Readings
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
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Study Abroad
EN 311-800: Special Topics in Literature
Parker
Study Abroad – New Zealand
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments.
EN 311-801: Special Topics in Literature
McNaughton
Study Abroad – Ireland
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments.
EN 311-802: Special Topics in Literature
Iheka
Study Abroad – South Africa
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments.
EN 311-803: Special Topics in Literature
Sasser
Study Abroad – Italy
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments.
EN 311-804: Special Topics in Literature
Selesky
Study Abroad – Oxford
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments.
EN 329-800: Directed Studies
Parker
Study Abroad – New Zealand
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
EN 333-800: Shakespeare
Sasser
Study Abroad – Italy
Introduction to Shakespeare’s plays. Various aspects of Elizabethan life and customs; philosophy and politics; history and psychology are also examined as they relate to the drama.
EN 362-800: Topics in British Literature, 1900-1945
McNaughton
Study Abroad – Ireland
A cross-genre survey of major literary figures, critical movements, historical events, and significant texts within the first half of the twentieth century in Britain. Authors may include Joseph Conrad, Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, and T.S. Eliot.
EN 408-800: Adv. Creative Writing
McNaughton
Study Abroad – Ireland
Special topics in imaginative writing. Focus may be on poetry, fiction, non-fiction or a combination. Students produce imaginative writing and read related texts.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303.
EN 411-800: Adv. Studies in Multi-Cultural Literature
Iheka
Study Abroad – South Africa
Designed for advanced English majors, a special topics course that focuses on issues involving comparative literatures and/or cultural studies.
EN 429-800: Directed Readings
Iheka
Study Abroad – South Africa
Designed for advanced English majors, a special topics course that focuses on issues involving comparative literatures and/or cultural studies.
EN 433-800: Adv. Studies in British Literature
McNaughton
Study Abroad- Ireland
Designed for advanced English majors, a special topics course that focuses on issues in British literature.