300-Level English Courses
Literature
Literature, Pre-1700
EN 333-001 SHAKESPEARE MWF 12:00-12:50 Parker
This course offers an introduction to Shakespeare’s plays in the context of early modern beliefs about the supernatural. As fairies, witches, and prophecies wind their way through Shakespeare’s works, they reflect key intersections of early modern social values; we will use these moments as touch points to consider the ways that the plays illuminate English renaissance culture and our own modern world. In addition to reading plays across genres, we will examine a sampling of contemporary poetry and prose as well as documents of historical record. Particular attention will be paid to the plays’ language and structure as we hone our analytical and writing skills.
EN 333-002 SHAKESPEARE TR 12:30-1:45 Tavares
Shakespeare in Community
Designed for majors and minors in English, Theatre, Secondary Education, and MEMES, this course offers an introduction to the study of English Renaissance theatre, including its print, performance, and after-lives. Particular attention will be paid to scansion, the printed book, and playhouses. Reading across genres, the course closely attends to issues of community in terms of nation, identity (gender, race, class), and the work of performance. Through three short essays, explore how the plays define community, interrogate what is held in common, and index the ways in which we divide and withhold, share and collaborate.
EN 333-003 SHAKESPEARE TR 2:00-3:15 Tavares
Shakespeare in Community
Designed for majors and minors in English, Theatre, Secondary Education, and MEMES, this course offers an introduction to the study of English Renaissance theatre, including its print, performance, and after-lives. Particular attention will be paid to scansion, the printed book, and playhouses. Reading across genres, the course closely attends to issues of community in terms of nation, identity (gender, race, class), and the work of performance. Through three short essays, explore how the plays define community, interrogate what is held in common, and index the ways in which we divide and withhold, share and collaborate.
EN 335-001 MILTON MWF 11:00-11:50 Ainsworth
Milton and Revolution
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 semester’s class will take up the question of revolution. Milton himself wrote in support of the Parliamentary forces over the supporters of Charles I before and during the English Civil War, and he wrote multiple defenses of the overthrow of the monarch and his subsequent trial and execution. Underpinning this political writing are a series of claims about the consent of the governed which resonate through Milton’s other works, especially his late, great poems. We will discuss the idea of revolution with reference to past course topics (like “Milton’s Satan,” “Milton’s Jesus” and “Milton and Patriarchy”). How does Milton’s revolutionary zeal relate to his theology? If Paradise Lost argues against Satan’s attempts to overthrow God, does the poem represent a change in Milton’s earlier political thinking (as some of his political opponents believed), or does it reinforce that thinking? We will read Milton’s greatest works, including Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. 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 Patriarchy (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 LITERATURE TO 1900 TR 9:30-10:45 Bilwakesh
American Devils
This is a survey of American Literature to 1900, with a loose focus on the characterization of the devil – in what ways might the language, style, racialization, and aspirations of the devil be generative of a distinctly American literature? Writers and texts may include Shakespeare, The Tempest; Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; Cotton Mather, Wonders of the Invisible World; Louisa May Alcott, A Modern Mephistopheles; George Lippard, The Monks of Monk Hall; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Edgar Allan Poe. We will exceed the bounds of the nineteenth century in order to see the legacy of some of these characters.
EN 347-001 ENGLISH LIT DURING ENLIGHTENMENT TR 12:30-1:45 Weiss
The Enlightenment, which lasted from the late seventeenth to the late eighteenth centuries, was an intellectual movement that dramatically changed how Western Europeans understood nature, society, and the internal workings of the individual. Through a multi-genre survey, this course examines how these new developments were expressed, promulgated, and questioned in British literature of the period. Covering a variety of genres by a diverse selection of authors, the course is divided into smaller units on philosophy and science; nationalism, colonial expansion and slavery; feeling and the imagination; and gender. Pre-requisites: 12 hours in English including 6 hours at the 200 level.
EN 349-001 VICTORIAN LITERATURE MWF 10:00-10:50 Martel
We are Victorians. The very air we breathe bears the residue of coal first burned during the industrial revolution. The democratic institutions now seen as under duress were constituted in the nineteenth century. Our lives depend on global networks first laid down during the “Age of Empire.” The racial-, class-, and gender-hierarchies shaping everyone’s existence solidified throughout the nineteenth century. Yet, we remain Victorians in other, less despairing ways. Like the Victorians, we eagerly consume fictional media week-by-week. Our most popular genres — realism, domestic romance, gothic, science fiction, fantasy — developed their now-recognizable forms across the nineteenth century. Our confidence in writing’s ability to change the world, for better or worse, echoes the Victorians’ faith in the power of the printed word. This class surveys the intersections between these two modes of being Victorian. Studying a wide range of genres and authors from across the Anglophone world, we will ask how literature provides ways of living in and changing a world marked by global processes whose spatial and temporal scales exceed our individual perspectives. Readings will include works by Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Toru Dutt, E Pauline Johnson, and others.
EN 349-002 VICTORIAN LITERATURE TR 9:30-10:45 Novak
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 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Ruskin, John Stuart Mill, George Eliot, Christina Rossetti, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, and Elizabeth Gaskell.
Literature, Post-1900
EN 350-001/AAST 350-001 TOPICS IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN LIT TR 12:30-1:45 Manora
Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now: Journeys and Quests in African American Women’s Literature and Film
“Not all those who wander are lost.” – J. R. R. Tolkien Traditionally, the archetypal Hero’s Journey or Quest has been reserved, in “real life,” for men, and for the male protagonists in literary texts. More than a mere literary motif, the Hero’s Journey is a Grand Narrative that takes a central character from uninitiated and unwilling Everyman to Hero through socially/culturally scripted narrative and experiential spaces through a process of becoming wherein physical mobility mirrors, indeed, sources psychic development. By contrast, the process of becoming for female protagonists has been, more often than not, confined to psychic, relational, and communal spaces. Historically, beginning with their quests for freedom and continuing through the Great Migrations and beyond, African American women have, of necessity and/or by agentic design, defied (or been denied) these gendered imperatives, undertaking in life and literature, The Journey. This class will focus on literary and filmic depictions of the Quest in African American Women’s texts. Using gender, race, and subjectivity as our points of departure, we’ll explore the ways in which African American female/femme protagonists have undertaken their journeys, both literal and figurative, often emerging as the heroes of their own quest narratives. Literary Texts may include Nella Larsen’s Quicksand, Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Toni Morrison’s Sula, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day. Filmic Texts may include Daughters of the Dust, Beasts of the Southern Wild, A Wrinkle in Time and The Princess and the Frog. Requirements include active and engaged participation, critical responses, a short paper, and a final paper.
EN 361-001 TOPICS IN AMERICAN LITERATURE 1945-PRESENT TR 11:00-12:15 Cardon
American Narratives & Counternarratives
Before it was even established as a nation, the U.S. has evolved from the meeting and intersecting of different cultural groups – encounters often characterized by hostility and oppression. And yet, sometimes these cultural clashes have generated empowering coalition building and creativity in the arts and other fields. Since World War II, American literature has grown increasingly multicultural, giving voice to various participants in these crosscultural encounters. Specifically, in this course, we are looking at how these texts, written by individuals belonging to historically marginalized groups, in terms of how they fit with American archetypal narratives (stories that, in a sense, make the U.S. and its national promises “look good”), and how they subvert these archetypal narratives in the form of “counternarratives.” Moreover, we’re going to examine our own responses, why some stories reassure us and keep us comfortable and hopeful, while others make us feel uncomfortable, excluded, or even angry. In this special topics course, we will read novels by authors including Amy Tan, Alice Walker, and Sherman Alexie, among others. These novels explore the tensions, injustices, and occasional triumphs arising from historical moments that brought different ethnic, racial, national, and LGBTQ+ groups together over the past 80 years. We will discuss how these texts both reinforce and subvert American values and promises.
Creative Writing
EN 301-001 FICTION WRITING MW 3:00-4:15 Bingham
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.
EN 301-002 FICTION WRITING TR 9:30-10:45 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.
EN 301-003 FICTION WRITING TR 11:00-12:15 Nkweti
“If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.” ― Chinua Achebe
This course shall explore foundational principles of fiction writing through a review of elements of craft like characterization, plot, perspective, and setting as well as a survey of specialized narrative strategies such as building suspense and the scene vs. exposition balance. This class will feature an eclectic array of readings by wordsmiths such as Octavia Butler, and Karen Russell. We shall examine these exemplar texts to mine strategies that strengthen your personal writing.
Through a rigorous schedule of personal writing, workshops, readings, in-class assignments, and thoughtful discussion; students can expect to become keen and respectful readers, understand elements of craft, as well as develop a consistent writing practice and a bold creative voice. By the end of the course, you shall generate a portfolio of original creative work. Active in-class participation is a must.
EN 301-004 FICTION WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 STAFF
Study of basic principles of writing fiction. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of forms.
EN 301-005 FICTION WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 Beatty
Study of basic principles of writing fiction. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of forms.
EN 301-006 FICTION WRITING TR 3:30-4:45 Marker
Study of basic principles of writing fiction. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of forms.
EN 303-001 POETRY WRITING TR 9:30-10:45 Girardeau
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.
EN 303-002 POETRY WRITING TR 11:00-12:15 Dugat
Together, we will explore the basic principles of poetry, reading and writing across a range of poetic forms. We will learn the terms behind important poetic concepts and apply that knowledge to discuss poems — those written by published poets and one another. We’ll develop confidence in reading, writing, revising and speaking about poetry, and imagine what a poem can do, both in our class and the wider world.
EN 303-003 POETRY WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 STAFF
Study of basic principles of writing poetry. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of poetic forms.
EN 303-004 POETRY WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 Shaw
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.
EN 305-001 CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING MW 4:30-5:45 Davis-Abel
How do we define reality? What is true for one person may not be true for another, and science shows that the way we perceive and remember things is as individualized as our fingerprints. How then do we as writers distinguish what is real – and thus nonfiction – and what is invented? This fine arts, seminar course will aim to answer this question by establishing an understanding of what is and isn’t nonfiction writing. In order to achieve this, we will read works by successful nonfiction authors, we will practice craft through writing prompts and guided discussions, and each student will pursue individual research into one avenue of nonfiction writing that excites them.
EN 305-002 CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING TR 9:30-10:45 Riesen
Study of the basic principles of writing creative nonfiction. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of forms of the genre.
EN 305-003 CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 Riesen
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.
EN 307-001 SPECIAL TOPICS APPLIED CREATIVE WRITING MW 3:00-4:15 Davis-Abel
This course provides students with a survey of podcasting concepts and techniques that are used to tell stories in a new digital landscape. We will study the structure of audio storytelling, the genres encompassed in this media, as well as the mechanics of recording and editing, digital delivery techniques, audio equipment, and digital distribution. Over the course of the semester, we will listen to a variety of podcasts, study their structures, speak with experts in the field, train in equipment and software usage, and ultimately, work together to create a series of podcasts about our interests.
EN 307-002 SPECIAL TOPICS APPLIED CREATIVE WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 Marker
In this course, we will learn both the history of zines and how to plan, craft, and create our own literary zines. We will explore the use of visual elements, such as layout, in storytelling and try our hand at both digital zine creation and making zines by hand. If you’re interested in the design elements of storytelling, this class is for you.
EN 307-003 SPECIAL TOPICS APPLIED CREATIVE WRITING TR 3:30-4:45 Albano
Literary Editing and 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 learning 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 an online edition of the twelfth issue of Call Me [Brackets]—the literary journal started in Fall 2018. This will involve selecting a new theme and aesthetic, and introduce, in addition to the aforementioned skills, the basics of layout and web design, while considering essential post-publishing efforts such as distribution and marketing.
EN 308-001 FORMS OF CREATIVE WRITING TR 11:00-12:15 Pirkle
Discovering Your Voice
In this short-forms class students will examine how voice is established not only in a single work but over the course of a collection of poems and short pieces of writing. The class will be run as both a seminar and workshop, with the underlying question for the semester being: How does a writer’s voice work on a page versus out loud? Writing assignments will encourage the student to play with voice and persona. At the end of the semester, students will submit a final portfolio of original work that consists of a unified, distinct voice.
EN 308-002 FORMS OF CREATIVE WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 Albano
Crime Fiction
Crime writing is one of the most popular, widely read genres in fiction. In this course, we will explore crime fiction in its many guises—suspense, detective fiction (both Golden Age and postmodern), and psychological thrillers. We will examine the “rules” for crafting mysteries, how to apply them in our own writing, and how to subvert them. We will read work from Walter Mosley, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, P.D. James, among many others, and workshop stories of our own invention. Join us, as we wind our way down dark alleys, past London flats, and to stately country manors where seemingly nothing could go wrong.
EN 308-003 FORMS OF CREATIVE WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 Dugat
Songwriting
What makes a song work? How do words and music dance together to form something memorable? How does the context in which a song is written, performed or heard influence how it makes us feel? In this seminar, we will explore these questions and ask many more, drawing upon our own interests and backgrounds to create original songs. No formal musical knowledge or experience is required, though students should expect to regularly engage in the process of writing, recording, revising, discussing, and sharing songs with one another.
EN 308-004 FORMS OF CREATIVE WRITING MW 3:00-4:30 STAFF
Special topics in Creative Writing. Focus may be on poetry, fiction, nonfiction or a combination. Students produce imaginative writing and read related texts. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 hours..
EN 308-005 FORMS OF CREATIVE WRITING MW 4:30-5:45 Ariail
Writing the Weird
In this course, you will explore your weird side. Guided by writers like Franz Kafka, Leonora Carrington, and Brian Evenson (as well as a few visual artists and filmmakers), you will write short stories and poems that defy normative ways of thinking and writing. Get ready to imagine strange, dark things that go against the grain and unsettle the canons of narrative, image, and genre.
EN 398-001 CREATIVE WRITING INTENSIVE SEMINAR M 2:00-4:30 Champagne
Required of students wishing to write an English Honors thesis in Creative Writing. This course is a required for students wishing to write an English Honors creative writing thesis in a subsequent semester. Students should enroll in this course no later than spring of their junior year. Admission to the course is competitive: students should apply to the Undergraduate Creative Writing Program director prior to pre-registration. Additional seats may be open by application to students who have completed at least two creative writing courses. Students will study sustained creative projects such as poetry chapbooks, novellas, story or essay collections, and other long-form works, and plan and begin their own substantial creative writing projects. The course will also include professionalization in the field of creative writing, covering topics such as how to approach publishing and editing, how to submit creative writing for publication, how to apply to graduate school, how to prepare for careers in writing, and how to identify and connect to resources in the field. During the course, students will develop a proposal for their EN 498 project that includes a reading list, project description, and process description
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. Prerequisite for EN 423, EN 424, EN 425, EN 466.
Methodology
EN 300-001 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH STUDIES TR 9:30-10:45 STAFF
An introduction for English majors to the methods employed in the discipline of English. Students will be exposed to the fundamental issues of critical reading, interpretation, and writing, especially to the use of critical methods in the study of primary texts. Readings will include a selection of texts in the traditional categories of poetry, drama, and prose, as well as the genre of the critical essay. There may also be investigations into other genres and media.
Rhetoric and Composition
EN 309-001 ADVANCED EXPOSITORY WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 Carter
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 is required for a passing grade in this course. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper-division student will not earn a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs in other areas of the course.
EN 313-001 WRITING ACROSS MEDIA MWF 2:00-2:50 STAFF
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 317-001 WRITING CENTER PRACTICUM TR 11:00-12:15 Dayton
This course will introduce you to the principles and practice of writing center work through a combination of reading, reflection, and real-world practice. In the first eight weeks, you will reflect on your writing practices and read about various aspects of composing. In the second eight weeks, you will do three hours of supervised consulting per week, and meet once a week in class to discuss your experiences and reflect on what you are learning. This course is required for undergraduates who wish to work in the Writing Center. Registration by permission only; go to www.writingcenter.ua.edu for more information.
EN 319-001-004, 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. Writing proficiency is required for a passing grade in this course. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper-division student will not earn a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs in other areas of the course.
EN 319-005 TECHNICAL WRITING MW 3:00-4:15 Fitzsimmons
Focuses on practical applications of the principles and practices of technical writing for solving everyday professional and civic problems. Topics include audience analysis, design thinking, organization and planning, information design and style, usability testing, accessibility and user-centered design, and collaborative writing. Writing proficiency is required for a passing grade in this course. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper-division student will not earn a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs in other areas of the course.
EN 380-001 LEGAL WRITING MW 6:00-7:15 Milsaps
This course will examine the various ways writing is involved in the legal profession. Subjects may include but are not limited to written legal claims, written materials required during stages of litigation, and how to construct other forms of legal argumentation in writing. The course will include significant writing analysis, grammar reviews, and legal writing exercises. Writing proficiency within this discipline is required for a passing grade in this course. This course’s written assignments require coherent, logical, and carefully edited prose. These assignments will require students to demonstrate higher-level critical thinking skills, such as analysis and synthesis. Student writing will be graded and commented upon and become part of the assigned grade. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper division student in the discipline will not be given a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs other course requirements.
EN 381-001 SCIENCE WRITING TR 11:00-12:15 Kidd
Study the practice and conventions of science writing, and communicating challenging, complex, and nuanced scientific facts to a broader public. We’ll read and analyze some of the best and most influential science writing of our era. Science writing involves ethics, and students should therefore aim to represent scientific data conscientiously. Data regarding race, ethnicity, sexuality, sex, gender, language, and culture often complicate science. Therefore our rigorous discussion of these topics—and more—will benefit student writing. In order to further improve your writing, this class will focus on assessing, revising, and editing your writing. In other words, this course emphasizes the importance of the scientific writing process—not just the final product. We will often spend half of our class time discussing scientific articles and essays, and the other half in small groups, giving feedback on each other’s writing. English majors and non-majors welcome.
EN 381-002 SCIENCE WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 Dugat
How do writers effectively communicate the complexity and nuance of scientific research to a broader public? How do science writers conscientiously consider their audience and subjects in their work? What role and responsibilities does the writer undertake in the discourse of scientific information? Together, we will explore these questions and more, becoming attentive readers of work by contemporary science writers as well as members of our own class community. Students should regularly expect to offer and respond to feedback from one another as we draft and revise our work, developing an engaging voice, fidelity to the scientific process, and attentiveness to the ways in which language influences our relationship with the world (and universe) of which we are part.
EN 381-003 SCIENCE WRITING MW 3:00-4:15 Veronie
Students in this course will study science writing as a subgenre of nonfiction writing that seeks to communicate challenging, complex, and nuanced facts and ideas in clear, engaging prose. Exploring academic articles published in scientific journals and the writing of renowned science writers such as Carl Sagan, Bill Bryson, David Attenborough, and Oliver Sacks, students will learn to evaluate and synthesize the claims of scientists and intellectuals across various domains of inquiry. Students will also learn to identify the common writing conventions of the subgenre to craft their writing to produce data-rich articles that meet the expectations of scientific audiences, as well as informative essays aimed at being accessible and enjoyable to a broad, lay public. Writing proficiency within this discipline is required for a passing grade in this course. This course’s written assignments will require students to demonstrate higher-level critical thinking skills, such as analysis and synthesis. Student writing will be graded and commented upon and become part of the assigned grade. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper division student in the discipline will not be given a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs other course requirements. Prerequisite(s): EN 101 and EN 102, or EN 103.
EN 382-001 BUSINESS WRITING MWF 10:00-10:50 Walters
This course develops the interdisciplinary writing and rhetorical skills necessary to create compelling content and effective strategic communications useful in any type of workplace, whether corporate, nonprofit, or entrepreneurial. Students will learn best-practice and collaborative approaches to an array of situations encountered in the course of doing business—from data-rich analysis to storytelling that moves—tailored to engage both general and industry-specific audiences. Writing proficiency is required for a passing grade in this course. This course’s written assignments require coherent, logical, and carefully edited prose. These assignments will require students to demonstrate higher-level critical thinking skills, such as analysis and synthesis. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper-division student will not earn a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs in other areas of the course.
EN 383-001 BOOK AND PRINT DESIGN TR 2:00-3:15 Smith
An aesthetic and technical course on layout design principles and Adobe Creative Suite software emphasizing computer software and processes for copy-editing, layouts, book design, and the mechanics of book publishing and distribution.
Special Topics in Writing or Literature
EN 310-001 SPECIAL TOPICS IN WRITING TR 9:30-1-:45 Presnall
Mindful Writing
In this class, we approach communication as an ecology within which human and non-human actors affect each other. 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, using extrahuman relations to promote new thoughts and modes of expression. Posthuman theoretical readings complement our discussion of literary essays. We will also integrate the contemplative practice of meditation with journal writing to promote creativity, controlled attention, and meta-cognitive awareness. Students will apply concepts developed through reading and discussion to analysis of literary and cultural texts, develop their own narrative-nonfiction writing projects, and present on their process to the class.
EN 311-001 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LITERATURE TR 11:00-12:15 Veronie
Native American Literature
This course will offer a challenging introduction to the literature of Indigenous authors of various American Indian and First Nations tribes and diaspora of North America. Students will examine works of poetry, short stories, and novels by long-established authors and poets–Louise Erdrich, Simon Ortiz, James Welch, Linda Hogan, and Joy Harjo–as well as emerging authors such as Tanya Tagaq, Billy-Ray Belcourt, and Angeline Boulley, to explore Native understandings of political, cultural, and social contexts. This course will contemplate Native American self-representation and Native-centered perspectives on issues such as tribal sovereignty, Two-Spirit gender and sexuality, individual resistance, settler colonialism, land rights, and stereotyping. Additionally, this course will explore literary responses to genocidal threats such as the writing techniques and devices which Gerald Vizenor has termed “survivance.” This study of Native American literature necessarily covers difficult topics including substance abuse and domestic, sexual, cultural, and ecological violence; however, it also turns to the celebration of survival, continuance of cosmologies and cultures, and the significance of relational worldviews that is gaining mainstream recognition in our current time. EN 311 may be repeated for a maximum of 9 hours. Prerequisite(s): 12 hours in English, including 6 hours at the 200-level.
Directed Courses
EN 329-001 through 002 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 400-001 SENIOR SEMINAR S 9:00am-5:00pm JOLLY
This course, The Bible as Literature, will focus on reading the Bible as literature and is a systematic general introduction to the literary forms of the Bible. Emphasis will be placed on recent and respected impartial literary, linguistic, anthropological, sociological, and theological scholarship. The course will give students a sense of the rich complexity of the Bible and the influences exerted on literature and history by the Bible.
Requirements include critical and thoughtful oral participation and a paper to be presented orally to the class on the day the topic of the paper is discussed.
NOTE: Before coming to the first class, students should have read Genesis.
EN 411-001 ADV STUDIES COMPARATIVE/MULTICULTURAL LIT TR 11:00-12:15 Bilwakesh
Literature of South Asia
This survey begins with a study of literature’s greatest epic, the Mahabharata, and critical discussions of translation, authorship, and accretion. We survey the linguistic and formal diversity of lyrical poetry, with readings translated from Bengali, Urdu, Tamil, Portuguese, and Hindi. We stay focused on our material, but keep in mind the question of how this study may instigate creative production and contribute to our study of other literatures. From the long history of English in India, we read three twentieth-century novels, along with a tortured children’s book and colonial ephemera. Required Texts include Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses; Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things; Rudyard Kipling, Kim; Helen Bannerman, “The Story of Little Black Sambo.” Essays, criticism, fiction, drama, and poetry by Aga Shahid Ali, Chandidas, Luis de Camões, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ghalib, Thomas Macaulay, George Orwell, A.K. Ramanujan, Kabir, Arun Kolatkar, Mirabai, Zadie Smith, Rabindranath Tagore, Sara Suleri. Contexts include visual arts, Pakistani and Indian popular and parallel cinema.
EN 422-001 ADV STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE MW 3:00-4:15 Trout
Modernist American Short Stories
When, in the case of a short story collection by a single author, is the whole greater than the sum of the parts? At what point does the line between short story collection and novel begin to blur? This course will explore these questions through an examination of some of the greatest volumes of American short fiction published during the first half of the twentieth century. We’ll begin with Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919), which influenced an entire generation of American modernists, and then turn to Willa Cather’s Youth and the Bright Medusa (1922), Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time (1925), Langston Hughes’s The Ways of White Folks (1934), and William Faulkner’s Go Down Moses (1942). We’ll also read William March’s Company K (1933), an experimental work comprised of 113 pieces of what we would today call flash fiction. In addition to pushing the boundaries of the short story as a genre and experimenting with new forms of textual interconnectivity, the works we will consider also grapple with themes that are just as important today as they were in the 1910s through the 1940s–namely, war, racism, artistic creativity, sexual freedom, respect for the natural world, and individualism versus conformity. Students will write two papers and complete a midterm examination and a final. As always, a splendid time is guaranteed for all.
EN 433-001 ADV STUDIES IN BRITISH LITERATURE TR 9:30-10:45 Wittman
Modernism and Moods
“Madness is terrific I can assure you, and not to be sniffed at; and in its lava I still find most of the things I write about. It shoots out of one everything shaped, final, not in mere driblets as sanity does.” —Virginia Woolf, Letters In this course we will look at modernist literature (1900-1945) from the American, English, Caribbean, and European traditions, in order to understand the generative nature of “madness.” Why were so many writers ill? What is the relationship between madness and creativity? How, as the manic-depressive Woolf suggests, are mental health episodes generative? Why is madness romanticised? What is the cachet of madness? We will not be retroactively “diagnosing” the writers that we read, but rather trying to understand them from a more meta-level, plunging into their gains and losses as they negotiate mental health challenges of all kinds: psychosis, depression, bipolar disorder, and more. Although madness will be our primary concern, we will devote considerable time to other related issues that come up in the books we read (race, class, nation, fascism, gender identity, and more) and understand why we read them as modernist texts. Writers under discussion include Jean Rhys, Virginia Woolf, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Nella Larsen, and Sarah Kane. This is a W course.
EN 433-002 ADV STUDIES IN BRITISH LITERATURE TR 12:30-1:45 McNaughton
James Joyce Seminar
In this advanced seminar, we will read Dubliners as well as James Joyce’s master novel Ulysses. Frequently topping lists of the twentieth century’s most important books and undoubtedly one of the most influential novels ever written, Ulysses nevertheless is difficult, a novel that rewards careful reading and dedication. The seminar format, therefore, is the perfect way to enjoy this book: together a group of committed students—all with a careful eye to aesthetic pleasure, social critique, and historical context—will open up this astonishing book. In addition, this course will familiarize you with contemporary literary-critical approaches and expose you to new digital archival materials. The professor expects engaged discussion, a series of essays on Joyce’s work, an archival project on one chapter of Ulysses, and a final exam.
EN 444-001/WS 430 ADV STUDIES IN LITERARY CRIT/THEORY TR 2:00-3:15 Jennifer Purvis
EN 444-002/WS 430 ADV STUDIES IN LITERARY CRIT/THEORY TR 11:00-12:15 McNaughton
Clowns, Incels, and Superheroes: Neoliberal Melodrama
Joker (2019) by Todd Phillips is a film about social and personal disintegration. It charts the descent of one individual, Arthur Fleck, into madness, using his fate to reflect on broader patterns of discontent under neoliberalism. We frame this course by reading Joker as an allegory of the sociopathy of capital: of the ways unregulated capitalism drives us crazy. Then, we broaden and deepen this critique. How do democracy and capitalism conflict? When capitalism disempowers the _demos_, why does the backlash so often appear as conspiracy theory, violence, and authoritarian attraction? We will examine psychosexual dimensions of late capital, including incel culture and mother blaming. And we will explore how Joker’s critique of Batman, of superhero melodrama, helps to decode other melodramas that shape policy, media, and economic theory. We draw theoretical readings from cultural studies and film studies; from politics and economics (Adam Smith, Karl Polanyi, Noberto Bobbio, Wendy Brown, Thomas Piketty, Sheldon Wolin); from feminism (Carol Patemen, Nancy Fraser, Amia Srinivasan) and legal theory (Christoph Menke, Katharina Pistor); from incarceration sociology (Angela Davis, Loïc Wacquant) and from media studies (Neil Postman). Everyone will write sophisticated essays on these topics. All are welcome.
EN 488-001 ADV STUDIES IN AFRICAN AMERICAN LIT TR 2:00-3:15 Manora
Portrait of the Artist as a Black Woman: Representations of African American Women/Femme Artists in 20th/21st Century Fiction and Film
“Like any artist with no art form, she became dangerous.” – Toni Morrison’s Sula
In this seminar, we’ll read and screen works of fiction and film written or made by African American women writers and filmmakers to locate the figure of the artist, explore expressions/forms of black female/femme creativity and the relationships between creativity and other aspects of African American women’s subjectivity, including spirituality and sexuality, We’ll also examine the manner in which African American women artists and black female/femme creativity are impacted by the historical moment and the nexus of communal, cultural, social, and political in which they find themselves (or do not). Beginning with works of American Modernism & the Harlem Renaissance, we will move through mid and late 20th century into the 21st century, using issues related to narrative, identity, and subjectivity, as well as intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality as points of departure while also considering these works within the context of critical discourses in social, cultural, and literary history. Works may include Nella Larsen’s Quicksand, Toni Morrison’s Sula, and Kasi Lemon’s Eve’s Bayou. Requirements include active and engaged presence/participation, critical responses, a short paper, and a final paper.
Advanced Studies in Writing
EN 455-001 ADV STUDIES IN WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 Dziuba
Rhetoric and Un/Belonging
This course will consider the question, “What does it mean to belong?” We will approach possible answers via the discursive productions of rhetors who have been historically marginalized in the U.S., with particular focus on Asian Americans. We will analyze primary sources (e.g., speeches, newspaper articles, manifestoes, letters, legal decisions, government records) from the 19th century through the present alongside scholarly works in composition/rhetoric in order to investigate how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, etc. are mutually informing. Assignments will include a literature review, a zine, and a proposal for a digital community archive.
EN 455-002 ADV STUDIES IN WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 Presnall
Posthuman Rhetoric and Postapocalyptic Visions
Using Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven as a central text, this course explores posthuman perspectives on nostalgia, kinship, trauma, survival, and art in the Anthropocene. We will consider the novel’s use of Shakespeare and Star Trek and the novel’s conversation with speculative stories by Isaac Asimov, Octavia Butler, and Annalee Newitz. Throughout the semester, the course will introduce posthuman theoretical concepts, with a focus on the perspectives of Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti. Students will use these concepts as entry points for their analyses of fictional and theoretical speculations, ultimately developing their own research and writing projects.
Creative Writing
EN 408-001 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING MW 2:00-3:315 Brorby
Advanced Creative Writing: Queering the Memoir
In this course we’ll look at a variety of memoirs from the queer community, studying their form, their craft, and if anything, in particular, feels “queer” about how they’re written and constructed.
EN 408-003 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 9:30-10:45 Kidd
Paranormal Romance
Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies! Oh my! This course will explore conventions of the paranormal romance genre. We’ll build our skills in immersive worldbuilding, compelling character invention, and plot development. We’ll look at sample texts from authors like Sarah J. Maas, Ilona Andrews, Robin McKinley, and Kimberly Lemming to see how a page turner is built and how authors get readers so involved in their romantic and fantastic storylines. Students will try their hand at both short stories and pieces of longer works. Please note: This class will require reading and discussing frank portrayals of physical intimacy. Students need to be comfortable engaging with this content in a mature way.
EN 408-004 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR11:00-12:15 Guthrie
Essential Maneuvers
To hold our attention, poets must make something happen in a relatively small space. They must surprise us with a shift in tone here, a reorientation of thought there. They must know how to *turn* a poem. Students in this class will learn how to recognize common and not-so-common turns in great published poetry, focusing on enduring moves like The Mid-course Turn, The Dialectical Argument, The Emblem Structure, and so on. Using these essential maneuvers as models, writers will create brand-new surprising poems and, through structural revision, rejuvenate older, “abandoned” pieces.
EN 408-005 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 Morton
Ecological Writing
In this open-genre course, we will draw on an appreciation of ecology and the environment as we produce a variety of creative works. We will explore a wide range of genres – including personal essays, short fiction, and a variety of poetic forms – alongside discussions concerning conservation, nature, and our place as artists and writers in a biodiverse world. We will engage in regular writing practice and consistent dialogue with each other’s work throughout the semester. Readings will cover poetry, short fiction, and short nonfiction pieces by writers including Annie Dillard, Rick Bass, Basho, Kobayashi Issa, Camille Dungy, and others, as well as ecologically oriented texts, including selections by E.O. Wilson, Joyelle McSweeney, and J. Drew Lanham.
EN 408-006 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 Weiland
Poetry Off the Page
This course will study and experiment with poetry influenced by art (ekphrasis) and work that is normally not consumed in the average poetry anthology (such as song lyrics, Chinese painting, calligraphy, and so forth). Students will write and workshop their original poems and are encouraged to dabble in art forms that, while not specifically “poetry” as it is often defined, are close cousins. Students will do a presentation and, at the end of the semester, turn in a portfolio with revised work, a critical essay, and a reflection essay. (Note: There is no art/music/etc. prerequisite for this class, as its main goal is to write poetry.)
Linguistics
EN 466-001 ADVANCED STUDIES IN LINGUISTICS MW 3:00-4:15 Poole
The interdisciplinary field of ecolinguistics explores the role of language in the life-sustaining interactions of humans, other species, and the physical environment. Ecolinguistics seeks to challenge discourses which normalize and perpetuate ways of being that contribute to ecological degradation. Additionally, ecolinguistics aims to identify and promote discourses which more positively accord with ecological wellbeing, justice, and sustainability. In the course, we will engage with readings from ecolinguistics, environmental communication, critical discourse analysis, human-animal studies, eco-stylistics, and more as we explore various topics (e.g., climate change discourse, representations of animals in media, depictions of place, climate fiction, etc.) and approaches (e.g., corpus-assisted discourse analysis, eco-stylistics, multimodal discourse analysis) with the ultimate aim of producing our own ecolinguistic analyses of texts of ecological relevance.
Composition and Rhetoric
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 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 396.