DETAILED 300- AND 400-LEVEL COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Interim
EN 300-001 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH STUDIES MTWRF 9:00-12:00 Tedeschi
The course introduces English majors and minors to the methods employed in the discipline of English. The course will focus intensively on the techniques of close reading, interpretation, and critical writing. Readings include selections of poetry, novels, and film.
EN 344-001 MAJOR AUTHORS 1660-1900 MTWRF 10:00-1:00 Novak
In our culture, Oscar Wilde has come to stand for so many (sometimes contradictory) things: An icon of homosexuality and of gay martyrdom; of Irish identity; of modernity; of the aesthete; or even of literature itself. Wilde’s life and his position as a cultural icon so often dominates our understanding of his texts that it is sometimes hard to remember him as a writer. This class will offer a survey of Wilde’s writing (plays, poems, fiction, and non-fiction essays) as well as critical, biographical, and theoretical work on Wilde, in order to ask how Wilde himself defines the terms by which he is most often understood—identity and desire, body and text, performance and essence. We will also look at other writers of the 1880s and 90s to contextualize Wilde within a larger British fin-de-siècle culture. Rather than looking for “the real Oscar Wilde” (the title of a book by one of Wilde’s first biographers) we will be exploring what is at stake in our culture’s myths and interpretations of Oscar Wilde.
EN 408-001 Advance Creative Writing MTWRF 1:00-4:00 Estes
HBO’s three-season “The Leftovers,” created by Damon Lindelof (Lost), has been met with universal critical acclaim, and is widely considered to be one of the richest, most complete stories ever to air on television. A tragic tale told comically, a profane religious fable, at once magically real and realistically fantastical, it’s a filter through which one can pass the whole of existence, a library and lifetimes’ worth of questions, and never find oneself sated. In other words, a true work of art. In this course, we will first do a Leftover’s deep dive, exploring its interwoven themes and character arcs, analysing its structure as episodes, seasons, and series, and come to better understand how and why the writers did what they did. Taking due inspiration from the quick of this imaginative achievement—equipped with a better understanding of how television works—the class will do double-duty as a writers room and collaborate to create and plot out our own television series.
Full Summer Term
N/A
Term I
EN 301-050 FICTION WRITING MTWRF 10:00-11:45 Marker
In this course, we will focus heavily on the craft of fiction. We will practice drafting stories with craft in mind, and we will end the semester with a writing workshop.
EN 333-001 SHAKESPEARE MTWRF 11:00 -12:45 McElroy
This course offers a broad introduction to the study of Shakespeare. We will read four plays, drawn from each dramatic genre, plus some poetry, as well as contextual material intended to give you a sense of the culture in which Shakespeare lived and wrote. Our critical tasks will be varied. We will attend closely to Shakespeare’s language, to engage with its occasional difficulty and to take pleasure in its complexity. We will frequently ask ourselves how and for what purposes Shakespeare adapts and challenges his cultural and literary heritage. And we will return to important themes and matters of form. For example, the plays in this course rely thematically and dramatically on the use of “green worlds” – those physical and psychological spaces removed from the main or “normative” action of the plays. The resulting contrasts often encourage us to imagine alternatives to the social and political structures that govern his and our worlds; I hope we will feel provoked and challenged by the ethical questions raised by Shakespeare’s plays.
EN 408-050 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING MTWRF 10:00-11:45 Estes
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 9 hours.
EN 429-050 DIRECTED READINGS TBA TBA
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
Term II
EN 301-100 FICTION WRITING MTWRF 2:00-3:45 Ariail
Study of basic principles of writing fiction. Reading and assigned writing experiments in a broad range of forms.
EN 319-100 TECHNICAL WRITING MTWRF 10:00-11:45 Buck
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 408-100 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING MTWRF 10:00-11:45 Riesen
Music Writing
Study Abroad
EN 333-801 SHAKESPEARE SUMMER II STUDY ABROAD OXFORD Tavares
Shakespeare Live!
EN 363-800/EN 433 TOPICS IN BRIT LIT 1945-PRESENT SUMMER II STUDY ABROAD OXFORD Tavares
Advanced Studies in British Literature
EN 311-800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LITERATURE SUMMER II STUDY ABROAD FRANCE Love
American Writers in France, 1914-1960
EN 311-802 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LITERATURE SUMMER II STUDY ABROAD ITALY Sasser
EN 333-800 SHAKESPEARE SUMMER II STUDY ABROAD ITALY Sasser
EN 311-801 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LITERATURE SUMMER II STUDY ABROAD NORWAY Parker
Adventure Literature
EN 311-803 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LITERATURE INTERIM STUDY ABROAD NEW ZEALAND Parker
Adventure Literature