SUMMER 2019
Interim
EN 311-001 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LIT MTWRF 10:00 – 1:00 Sasser
Seuss, Sendak, and Shel: How Post-war America Created Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, and Shel Silverstein
This course explores the life and work of the three most popular and critically celebrated American children’s authors of the twentieth century: 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. As we will learn, publishers and legal teams overseeing estates continue to work diligently to keep the biographies and complete works of these authors hidden from the public, and only recently have critics begun to recognize the complexity of these authors, which has in turn generated controversy. In September 2017, for instance, a Massachusetts librarian rejected a gift of several Dr. Seuss books from First Lady Melania Trump on the grounds that the books are racist. Shel Silverstein, long celebrated for the supposed selfless love depicted in The Giving Tree, got his start as an illustrator for Playboy and a popular folk singer of songs such as “Freakin’ at the Freaker’s Ball.” Meanwhile, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are depicts the nightmares of childhood while In the Night Kitchen remains one of the most banned children’s books because of its depiction of nudity. Therefore, this course addresses three major issues surrounding these authors: 1) What are the specific and unique aspects of mid-twentieth American culture that created these three authors? 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?
EN 311-002 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LIT MTWRF 9:00 – 12:00 Hodo
Wizards, Muggles, and Magic: Examining the Literary and Cultural Impact of Harry Potter
September 1st, 1998, is an important date in the lives of many American fantasy lovers. On that day the US edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released and completely changed the landscape of popular fiction. Readers, young and old alike, fell in love with The Boy Who Lived and waited with baited breath for each subsequent novel to be released. Over his 20 year history, Harry Potter has inspired joy, wonder, anger, fear, and protest from fans and haters. In this course, we will read Rowling’s original seven novels and trace Harry’s journey from infant celebrity to adult hero of the wizarding world. We will discuss a variety of topics over the course of our short semester including: racism (both fantastic and real), gender, socioeconomic issues, the role of archetypes in literature, activism, power in politics, and many more.
EN 311-003 Special Topics in Lit MTWRF 1:00 – 4:00
“Context and Memory: The Food Writing of Anthony Bourdain” – A. McWaters
The Smithsonian famously called Anthony Bourdain “the original rock star” of the culinary world, “the Elvis of bad-boy chefs.” After his tragic death in 2018, he leaves behind a body of work that includes eight nonfiction and six fiction titles, as well as articles and essays in publications ranging from The New Yorker to Gourmet magazine. In his travel shows No Reservations (the Travel Channel) and Parts Unknown (CNN), he takes viewers to over 100 countries with his characteristic irreverence, curiosity, and candor. This class will explore Bourdain as a master storyteller interested in social justice, in truth-telling, in championing the underdog — all as stories best told through food culture. We will read parts from his two memoirs, Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw, as well as excerpts from several of his other books. Additionally, we’ll watch episodes of his earliest show, A Cook’s Tour, as well as episodes from No Reservations and Parts Unknown. As Bourdain said of his shows, “ ‘We ask very simple questions: What makes you happy? What do you eat? What do you like to cook? And everywhere in the world we go . . . we get really astonishing answers.’” We will approach Bourdain’s work with his same curiosity and voracious appetite, allowing him to expand our horizons, if not our palates.
Summer Term I
EN 309-050 ADV EXPOSITORY WRITING MTWRF 10:00-11:45 Popova
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 319-100 TECHNICAL WRITING MTWRF 10:00-11:45 Dayton
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 TBA TBA
Prerequisite: Enrollment only by previous arrangement with a specific instructor and with the permission of the director of undergraduate English studies.
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.
Summer Term II
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. 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 TBA TBA
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 MTWRF 2:00-3:45 Koester
This course will examine a selection of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and histories from three different but related perspectives: 1) surveillance and subjectivity, 2) violence and morality, and 3) desire and its objects. These conversations will intersect with modern conversations on gender/sexuality, race, and religion, to name a few. Along the way, we’ll consider the historical conditions in which Shakespeare wrote his works, while also exploring modern interpretations of those works in film and on stage.
EN 429-100 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.
Study Abroad
EN 311-800 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LIT Study Abroad—New Zealand Parker
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments
EN 311-801 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LIT Study Abroad—Ireland McNaughton
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments
EN 311-802 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LIT Study Abroad—South Africa Iheka
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments
EN 311-802 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LIT Study Abroad—Italy Sasser
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments
EN 311-804 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LIT Study Abroad—Oxford Selesky
Topics vary from semester to semester and may include courses offered by other departments.
EN 329-800 DIRECTED STUDIES Study Abroad—New Zealand Parker
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 Study Abroad—Italy Sasser
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 LIT 1900-1945 Study Abroad—Ireland McNaughton
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 Study Abroad—Ireland McNaughton
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 LIT Study Abroad—South Africa Iheka
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 Study Abroad—South Africa Iheka
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 LIT Study Abroad—Ireland Naughton
Designed for advanced English majors, a special topics course that focuses on issues in British literature.
V5
FALL 2019
300-Level English Courses
Literature, Pre-1700
EN 333-001 SHAKESPEARE MWF 11:00-11:50 Ainsworth
“Dying is easy; comedy is hard”
This course will offer an introduction to Shakespeare with a focus on humor in his works. Plays will include A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and The Winter’s Tale. Throughout the semester, we will consider the varying ways in which Shakespeare presents jokes and entertains his audiences, with the aim of generating a deeper understanding of how he uses humor to construct meaning.
EN 333-002 SHAKESPEARE TR 9:30-10:45 Whitver
An introduction to Shakespeare’s plays and poems. Elizabethan customs, politics, history, and philosophies are examined in relation to his works.
EN 334-002 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LIT MWF 2:00-2:50 Koester
This course, a cross-genre survey, explores literature written in English between 1603 and 1660. Authors will likely include John Donne, Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon, John Webster, Lady Mary Wroth, William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, Andrew Marvell, and John Milton. We will approach these authors from a number of perspectives, including historical, aesthetic, and theoretical.
Literature, 1700-1900
EN 343-001 BRITISH FICTION TO 1900 TR 2:00-3:15 Pionke
This course will concentrate on the English novel from its picaresque beginnings in the 1740s through its rise to market dominance by the end of the nineteenth century. Rather than attempting a comprehensive survey of major authors and subgenres over this roughly century-and-a-half of English literary history, we shall read our way through a succession of less conventional fictional rebellions against those forms of the English novel dominant during the eighteenth century, the Romantic period, the Victorian period, and the fin-de siècle. These “anti-novels” bring to surface both the social anxieties that gave rise to the novel in the first place and the aesthetic techniques of characterization, narration, structure, and signification being created by novelists to resolve them. Often pushing the boundaries of respectability, these works also self-consciously feature characters much like themselves—illegitimate children, threatening usurpers, foolish dreamers, dangerous criminals, and decadent aesthetes—which should make for entertaining reading.
EN 348-001 ROMANTIC LITERATURE TR 11:00-12:15 Tedeschi
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; examines many of the period’s most influential authors, including Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Mary and Percy Shelley, and Keats; and introduces the social, political, and intellectual history of the Romantic period.
EN 349-001 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 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 LIT MW 3:00-4:15 Manora
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 Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ntozake Shange, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Claudia Rankine. Requirements include active and engaged presence and participation, regular critical responses, one 4-5 page paper, and a final paper.
EN 362-001 TOPICS IN BRITISH LIT 1900-1945 MW 4:30-5:45 Deutsch
Urban Modernism: London! Paris! Berlin!
Have you ever considered how grand squares, squalid side streets, shops, and rivers affect the mental map created by a novel, a short story, or a poem? This course will examine how glamorous and gritty European capital cities provided key and yet contested sites of commerce, of love, of wealth, and of national politics in the early twentieth century. From urban underbellies filled with spies to upscale boulevards filled with the best luxuries that money can buy, we will consider such sites to explore how a variety of British writers in this period investigated social, religious, political, and economic movements that lead up to and away from two World Wars and changes in the social fabric of a Europe influenced by almost every other continent. We’ll consider works by W. H. Auden, Elizabeth Bowen, Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot, Christopher Isherwood, Mina Loy, and Evelyn Waugh, among others.
EN 366-001 TWENTIETH-CENTURY POETRY TR 12:30-1:45 White
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 TR 11:00-12:15 Iheka
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 manner in which the writings grapple with post-independent realities of the societies they represent. 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, Mariama Ba, NoViolet Bulawayo, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, among others.
Creative Writing
EN 301-001 through 004 FICTION TOUR 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 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 305-003 CREATIVE NONFICTION TOUR TR 11:00-12:15 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 307-001 SPECIAL TOPICS IN APPLIED CREATIVE WRITING MW 3:00 – 4:15 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 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 an online edition of the third issue of Call Me [Brackets]—the literary journal started by last year’s class. 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 307-002 SPECIAL TOPICS IN APPLIED CREATIVE WRITING MW 3:00 – 4:15 Frank
Writers In the Schools
In this class we will discuss 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.
EN 307-003 SPECIAL TOPICS IN APPLIED CREATIVE WRITING TR 2:00 – 3:15 Scarr
Writing Takes Form
This course will introduce students to the world of Book Arts: binding, papermaking, book design, and the democratic multiple. We’ll learn practical skills while also figuring out how Book Arts can be incorporated into our existing writing practices. We’ll start by determining what exactly “Book Arts” is by looking at examples in Special Collections at Hoole Library and reading texts by Joanna Drucker and Keith Smith. From there, we’ll begin to learn basic binding skills, including several adhesive-less bindings. We’ll explore how different book structures, materials, and book layouts can enhance the messages in our writing. We’ll visit a working bindery and typeshop and talk to working artists about their artistic processes. Over the course of the semester, students will create several small books using found text, inkjet printers, and readily available materials. The course will culminate in the creation of an editioned book using the student’s own writing.
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 321-001 LINGUISTIC APPROACHES TO GRAMMAR TR 2:00-3:15 Worden
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 Bilwakesh
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.
EN 300-002 INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH STUDIES TR 2:00-3:15 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 MWF 1:00-1:50 TBA
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 309-002 ADVANCED EXPOSITORY WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 McKnight
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 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 319-001 through 006 TECHNICAL WRITING STAFF
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 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. 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.
Prerequisites: EN 101 and EN 102 (or equivalent) and junior standing.
Special Topics in Writing or Literature
EN 311-001 SPECIAL TOPICS IN LITERATURE TR 8:00-9:15 Hodo
Broken Soldiers, Vigilantes & Freaks:
Examining the Modern Comics Hero in Print & on the Screen
Emerging from the social tensions of WWII, comic book heroes have firmly entrenched themselves as a part of American culture. These heroes’ original purpose was to stand as paragons of virtue and hope for a troubled people; however, the characteristics and motives of these powerful beings have changed over time. In this course, we will explore the characteristics of the modern comic book hero (1970s – present). We will discuss the changing values, attitudes, and portrayals of the hero and what it means to be heroic. Possible graphic novels for the course include Identity Crisis, X-Men, The Walking Dead, Lady Killer, Judge Dredd and others. There will also be in class viewings of selected episodes from various television series adapted from comic books such as Smallville, Luke Cage, The Walking Dead and more.
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 411-001 ADV STUDIES COMPARATIVE/MULTICULTURAL LIT TR 9:30-10:45 Wittman
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. 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 ADV STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE MW 4:30-5:45 Bilwakesh
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 LITERATURE MWF 10:00-10:50 Cook
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 ADV STUDIES IN BRITISH LITERATURE MWF 12:00-12:50 Weiss
Learning by the Book: The Origins of British Children’s Literature
Although books for children were produced soon after printing arrived in England in 1476, it wasn’t until the eighteenth century that children’s literature developed as new form of literature that satisfied a growing market. This course will look at how writing for and about young people conveyed new ideas on education and character development to parents and their children. We will be particularly concerned to see how learning by reading functioned to socialize children, by teaching them how to live as moral members of a larger community. To explore the ways these ideas were conveyed, we will read parts of influential books about how children learn—such as Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Rousseau’s Emile, and the Edgeworths’ Practical Education—and all of a number of books and stories intended to entertain and instruct the child reader. Books for children will include early texts published by John Newbery and religious poems by Isaac Watts; the novels The Governess by Sarah Fielding and Sandford and Merton by Thomas Day; and stories by Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Maria Edgeworth, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Sarah Trimmer. In investigating how the book came to be a primary method through which children learned to live well in society, we will also explore the material and commercial aspects of children’s publishing in the period. Requirements: Several short essays; a 10-12 page seminar paper; a class presentation.
EN 444-001 / WS 410-001 ADV STUDIES LIT CRITICISM & THEORY TR 2:00-3:15 Purvis
Heteronormativity
Heteronormativity asserts that there is only one way to be: Straight. Further, there is only one way to be straight. Whether we identify as straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pan-/poly-/bi-/asexual, or otherwise (fluid/queer), we have something to gain from an interrogation of the workings of heteronormativity, where people are assigned a sex at birth (from a set of two choices) and then expected to perform one of two established sets of “complementary” gender roles based on their supposed “nature.” The perfect alignment of sex, gender, and sexuality is impossible for anyone; and the effects of sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism in the realms of sexuality and gender compromise and threaten everyone (though of course some are more compromised and threatened than others). Through the study of the contributions of early sex-radical feminists, like Gayle Rubin, as well as a host of contemporary feminist, queer, and intersex theorists, this course takes Michael Warner’s definition of “queer”—“resistance to regimes of the normal”—as the starting point for an examination of so-called “straight sex,” or the “many heterosexualities” of which Christine Overall and Lynne Segal speak; the limits of the binary sex and gender and the hetero-/homo binary; the workings of hetero-and homo-normativity; and “sex-positive” practices and politics. It investigates the “surprisingly short history of heterosexuality,” tracing the establishment of a category, “straight,” as well as its “constitutive outside.” It examines both the fear of queer and the need for queer politics in a time where many normative subjects continue to ignore and reify their privilege through entrenched practices and politics, and those on the margins, seduced by inclusion, too often embrace assimilationist agendas and politics, to the detriment of the truly disenfranchised. An assortment of authors, including Cathy Cohen, Hortense Spillers, Hanne Blank, and others highlight the ways in which sexual regimes intersect with those of gender, race, and class oppression and examine the workings of normative sexual discourses, which reward straight, white, gender-normative, able-bodied, middle- and upper-class persons with disproportionate levels of privilege and power. Through this study of key feminist and queer theory texts, students will develop advanced undergraduate research skills and gain a substantial foundation for further study, including graduate work in this area.
Prerequisites: Women’s Studies: WS 200: “Introduction to Women’s Studies” or equivalent; English: 18 hours of English study, 6 at 200-level, 6 at 300-level
EN 488-001 ADV STUDIES IN AFRICAN AMERICAN LIT TR 3:30-4:45 Harris
Ungraspable?: Depictions of Home in African American Literature
EN 488-001 will focus on the contradictory and complex depictions of homes and homespaces in selected African American literary works. Entitled “Ungraspable?: Depictions of Home in African American Literature,” the course will begin with discussions of homespaces during slavery and, after that, will move to Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred. We will explore how neo-slave narratives treat homespaces and will entertain questions about the differences in representations in northern and southern homespaces. From abandoned children, to adult children who won’t leave home, to wives who are emotionally imprisoned in their own homes, to abused children/adolescents, to attempts to escape from the United States to Africa as an ancestral home, the course will provide opportunities to examine the spatial/physical, emotional, psychological, and imaginary dimensions of what writers and characters define as home. Required texts include, in addition to Butler’s Kindred, the following: Alice Childress, Rainbow Jordan; Marita Golden, Migrations of the Heart; Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun; Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye; Suzan-Lori Parks, Topdog/Underdog; Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Wench; Alice Walker, The Color Purple; A. J. Verdelle, The Good Negress; and August Wilson, Fences. Students can anticipate extensive research and writing assignments, oral presentations of research, and joint projects (visual research papers) with other students. Texts to be included in these joint oral projects include Daniel Black, Perfect Peace; Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing; Delores Phillips, The Darkest Child; and Margaret Walker, Jubilee.
Advanced Studies in Writing
EN 455-001 ADV STUDIES IN WRITING TR 11:00-12:15 Tekobbe
Writing For and About Video Games
This seminar focuses on exploring perspectives in video games in popular culture. In this course, students will investigate video games for their procedural rhetorics and mechanics, literacy and learning practices, narrative writing and world-building, and cultural studies. Students will evaluate the social and cultural aspects of gaming, as well as the technical aspects to express how these aspects 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 MW 3:00-4:15 McGee
Broadly, this course, designed for advanced English majors, is a special topics course that focuses on the process of writing. The forms this writing may take include, but are not limited to, film, creative non-fiction, autobiography, and local color. More specifically, this course will focus on theories and applications of voice as it applies to the writing process across various genres and styles of writing. With a particular emphasis on rhetoric and composition, this course will explore and ruminate upon the ways voice is generated in expository, academic, and multimodal writing. As such, this course seeks to answer the following questions:1.What does it mean to write in a particular voice?2.How does voice differ across genre?3.Can writing, or compositions, have a “voice?
Creative Writing
EN 408-001 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING MW 3:00-4:15 Coryell
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 408-002 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING T 2:00-4:30 Estes
Oblique Strategies
“A creative-writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters,” says Theodore Roethke. But this creative-writing class walks a via negativa: it is a no-class doing no-writing for a no-workshop with a no-teacher. This creative-writing class insists on slanting toward truths, that truths are what is made, that what is made frees us from the infinite by building exquisite frames. This creative-writing class prefers holes and gates and anything it can fall through: thus it wants to read, draw, listen, chat, and eat grass. This creative-writing class would rather fake it than make it but cannot decide between counterfeit, forgery, or fraud. In this creative-writing class “creative” is subjunctive and “writing” a metaphor, thus it only aspires and never is: one minute it’s all cave art and moon landing, the next architecture and gardening, the next Claw of Archimedes and Magic-Bullet Theory. This creative-writing class loves candy volcanoes and lego angels; believes in the Fiji Mermaid and Piltdown Man; thinks it is the dark web’s mother. This creative-writing class is interested in mathematics, geology, meteorology, mythology, liturgics, and cooking more than it is creative-writing. This creative-writing class is a prisoner’s dilemma, a Schrödinger’s Cat, a ludic fallacy, a cascading failure, and a triumph over chaos. In this creative-writing class the only thing that matters is your life—saving it, revising it, changing it—and the only real continuous work is the deconstruction and construction of it. This creative-writing class is not for the half-hearted (whole- and broken-hearts welcome).
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-003 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING T 9:30-12:00 Collum
Screenwriting (Suspense/Thrillers)
Successful suspense/thrillers such as Memento, Inception, The Prestige, and Silence of the Lambs pique our interest, tap into our insecurities, and exploit our most primal fears because they are intelligent, thought-provoking, and filled with dangers (both real and imagined). In this course, we’ll examine how good suspense/thrillers simultaneously bring us pleasure, stir apprehension, and sustain uncertainty. Furthermore, we’ll explore how such stories prompt us to more closely examine ourselves and our fears. We’ll read a variety of screenplays in the suspense/thriller genre to examine how concept, suspense, plot, dialogue, and pacing make movies in this genre click. As we examine successful screenplays/films, we will also work through the process of developing, outlining, writing, and revising a full-length feature screenplay (approx. 90-120 pages) in the suspense/thriller genre. Students will work collaboratively and will present work through in-class workshops and activities.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303.
EN 408-004 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 9:30-10:45 Oliu
Writing for Video Games
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, from traditional platformers such as Super Mario Bros 3, puzzle games in the vein of Tetris, as well as extended narratives such as Gone Home and The Stanley Parable.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-006 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING WF 9:30-10:45 H Staples
Capstone Thesis Project
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. In order to give priority to seniors and students in the English Honors Program, application is required; however, anyone with an interest in working on an extended writing project is encouraged to apply! Obtain a project application from the Director of Undergraduate Creative Writing (john.estes@ua.edu). #writethebookyouwanttoread!
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-007 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING MW 3:00-4:15 S McWaters
Advanced Fiction Writing
This course will approach the craft of writing fiction by developing students’ skills in both reading and writing. There will be assigned directed writing exercises as an introduction to the elements of form and craft. In addition, we will read and critique published stories and student manuscripts in a workshop setting. Both a midterm exam and a final reflection paper will be required.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-009 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 Addington
Literary Journalism (Creative Nonfiction)
Literary journalism combines the observational and immersive practices of journalism with the rhetorical and storytelling techniques of fiction. While earlier writers such as James Agee revealed the potential of this combination, it was the emergence of “The New Journalism” in the 1960s and ‘70s, with writers such as Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and University of Alabama alumnus Gay Talese, that literary journalism gained a cultural foothold. Such writers abandoned the sterile objective perspective of “newsworthy subjects” in favor of turning the lens toward less traditional subjects, even the journalists themselves. We will consider the evolution of literary journalism and use its principles to produce our own creative non-fiction. We will immerse ourselves in our communities to find subjects worth sharing with our readers. We will also consider the role that writing has in an increasingly diverse media landscape.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-010 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING T 2:00-4:30 Behn
The Poet’s Toolbox
This is a chance to get up close and personal with how language can be used in poetry, and increase your ability to make varying poetic “moves” that allow your poetry to expand into new realms. We’ll spend about equal time with formal verse (getting familiar with meter, many kinds of rhyme, some fixed forms from English and other languages—and contemporary examples that really change up those forms) and tools that can be used to expand the possibilities of free verse (patterns of repetition and of image-making, figures of speech, rhetorical shapes that whole poems can take, found forms, erasures, uses of the “page,” etc.). You’ll gain a better ear for poetry, and end up with a portfolio of poems that dazzle the reader with all that you can do.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-011 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 12:30-1:45 Wyatt
Writing Trauma (Creative Nonfiction)
Writing about trauma is a crucial way for those who have experienced it to share their story in order to help others and themselves. However, many writers struggle with the best way to write their own harrowing stories. It can be difficult to honor your own journey without causing emotional strife to yourself or isolating others. For this course, we will read creative non-fiction books and essays that have traumatic events at their core. We will read Hunger by Roxane Gay, Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed and others. Students will develop their own personal style and focus by doing a number of writing exercises, but will also explore many readings within the genre to gain a better understanding of writing about trauma. Students will write and workshop pieces of their own work and exchange lively discussion about the class readings. Though many of the subjects will be difficult, students will have a working foundation on how to write about the difficult topics.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
EN 408-012 ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING TR 2:00-3:15 A McWaters
The Graphic Novel
This class will explore the dynamic relationship of visual and verbal via the rapidly growing and increasingly influential world of graphic novels. Beginning with the literary and historic precedents of the genre, we will move through a series of works that show the range of artistic and storytelling approaches to such common cultural themes as sexuality, class, race, violence, religion and politics. With all these resources at hand, we will seek the best expressions of madness and happiness that writing + illustration may hold for the individual writers enrolled. Come as you are, whatever your level of drawing skill, whatever your prior knowledge of comics. This class will be a place to experiment with the form, from weekly visual exercises ranging from collage to self-portraiture, to the eventual collaborative creation of a graphic novel/comic of your own.
Prerequisites: EN 200 and EN 301 and EN 303
Linguistics
EN 424-001 / EN 524 STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH TR 12:30-1:45 Liu
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 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.