Fall 2025
Fall 2025 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
ENGL 202-02
Introduction to Creative Writing
T/TH 11:00 AM -12:15 PM
Robin Mozer
This course offers the opportunity to explore 3 creative genres: poetry, fiction writing, and playwriting, with a bonus bit of creative nonfiction. The course will require regular writing exercises and critical discussion of both published and student work. Students will complete 3 major assignments and workshops. At the end of the class, students will submit a portfolio of revised work from the semester.
Also, in this class, you will read a LOT. Texts will be sourced for free using web sources.
This will be a primarily in-person class, however, we will utilize TEAMS as needed for continuity of instruction.
Students must have completed either ENGL 102 or 105 to enroll in this course. This course also fulfills the Arts & Humanities (AH) requirement.
ENGL 202-01
Introduction to Creative Writing
M/W/F 10:00-10:50 AM
Sarah Strickley
In this class, we’ll experiment in three forms—poems, short stories, and ten-minute plays—while searching for the most potent mode of expression for our talents and ideas. The aim is not necessarily to decide (once and for all) what kind of writers we are, but rather to discover the range of literary tools at our disposal as writers. The course will be comprised of three major components: the craftshop (wherein we’ll read published work and discuss the elements of craft); the workshop (wherein we’ll write poems, stories, and plays and respond to the work of our peers); and the portfolio (wherein we’ll use what we’ve learned in the course to draft and revise a highly polished work of literary art). Students who invest fully in all three portions of the course will emerge from the class with an enhanced understanding of the art forms at hand; a fluency in the language of constructive (and artful) criticism; and a body of creative work about which they can (and should!) be proud.
ENGL 202-50/51
Introduction to Creative Writing
DE
Brian Weinberg
In the online version of ENGL 202: Intro to Creative Writing, participants will have the opportunity to explore the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama, learning the nuts and bolts of craft. The first part of the semester will be a primer in four areas of craft: detail/image, voice/point-of-view, character, and setting. You’ll experiment with these foundational elements in writing exercises, and discuss how published writers apply them in stories, poems, and plays. For the remainder of the semester, you’ll take a closer look at each genre in mini-units and be introduced to the creative writing workshop, in which you’ll read the writing of your classmates and exchange constructive criticism on a discussion board with your instructor closely guiding the discussion. For a final project, you’ll choose between a full-length short story, a series of poems, or a ten-minute play.
English 300-52/53
Introduction to Literature
DE
Nina Jang
In this course, we will examine contemporary youth narratives to explore how power circulates and shapes culture. We will analyze the ideologies behind these narratives and develop critical skills for analyzing various types of writing. Throughout the semester, we will read approximately 5-6 primary texts alongside secondary readings, engage in weekly discussions, and complete three major projects.
English 300-04
Introduction to Literature
T/TH 2:30 - 3:45 PM
Frank Kelderman
Are you looking to become a better and more careful reader of literature? And would you like to find new ways to improve your writing in the meantime? This course is an introduction to reading literature and writing about it, with attention to various genres (novels, short stories, short plays, poetry) and topics (including science fiction, modernism, migration stories, and social realism). As you read some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking works of literature in English, you will develop the vocabulary, interpretive methods, and writing skills necessary for literary analysis—and find new ways to appreciate the literary works of major writers from James Joyce and Zora Neale Hurston to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and Jhumpa Lahiri. You will receive guidance and feedback on your writing that will be tailored to your own situation and skill set. The requirements are a sequence of writing assignments that will practice different analytical skills. Students in Public and Professional Writing, Creative Writing, or Education will be able to tailor some of the course assignments to their own interests and professional goals. Prerequisites for this course are English 102 or 105. This course fulfills the Arts & Sciences upper-level requirement in written communication (WR)
English 300 - 06
Introduction to Literature
MoWeFr 12:00PM - 12:50PM
Matthew Biberman
Are you looking to become a better and more careful reader of literature? And would you like to find new ways to improve your writing? This class has been designed to help you fulfill these goals. Over the course of the semester, you will read great works of literature (each in their entirety): three plays, several short stories, and a varied selection of short lyric poems (and pop song lyrics). Second, you will develop and write a wide range of pieces: some aimed at your instructor; others aimed at your fellow students. Some writing assignments will involve creative prompts, some will call for thoughtful responses to critical prompts; you will be asked to write broadly at times, while at other times the task will be to zoom in. Some prompts will invite personal responses; others require you to adopt a distanced clinical approach. In sum, you can expect to receive close attention to your writing from the instructor and your peers throughout the course. The goal of the class is for you to gain greater abilities to read and write and, above all, to think about yourself and the world.
English 302 -01
Exploring Gender in Post-1800 Literature in English
M/W/F 11:00 - 11:50
Karen Hadley
Readings for this course span approximately two centuries following the year 1800 and are drawn from the work of English and American (primarily) women writers. Our general focus will be on the representation of gender, including femininity, masculinity and their inversions and permutations. Related concerns within this context include marriage and coupling, the body and self-perception, desire, and self-identity. Literary forms will include short stories, poems, essays, and a drama to conclude the semester. Course grades will be based on three basic requirements: participation, regular quizzes and three in-class exams. All course readings will be made available by the instructor or can be found online (links provided).
English 305 - 02
Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop: Fiction
T/TH 1:00 - 2:15 PM
Paul Griner
Welcome to English 305, fiction. This course is designed to help fiction writers and students interested in fiction hone their craft. I’ll expect to see all of you improve as writers, readers and critics. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll expect you to become more polished writers; in some cases it may mean you’re more willing to take risks, while in others it may mean you’ll gain greater expertise in things you already do well. Class participants will also be expected to deepen their reading practices and to provide thoughtful feedback on their peers’ work and insight into the work of published fiction writers. Beyond that, the most important goals are probably the ones you discover and define. The focus of the course is student work. We’ll read published pieces, and have various exercises, designed to help improve writing, generate ideas, etc., but the majority of class periods will be taken up with workshops.
English 305 - 01
Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry
M/W 2:00-3:15 PM
V. Joshua Adams
This intermediate course offers students the chance to sharpen their skills as writers, readers, and critics of poetry. Although we will spend time discussing original work by the students in the class, we will spend as much time discussing important formal features of poetry (including diction, line, meter, rhyme, syntax, image, metaphor), as well as some genres and forms of poems (like the sonnet). We will read a combination of canonical and contemporary poetry with an eye to what it can teach us about poetic form, and we will perform various writing exercises and experiments, both to put what we have learned from other poets into action, and to explore new poetic possibilities.
Assignments will include: writing exercises, written responses to peer manuscripts, a book review of a contemporary poetry collection, and a final portfolio of 10–12 original poems with a brief introduction.
English 306-07
Business Writing
TBA
DE
The focus of English 306 is recognizing and responding in writing to different rhetorical situations in the professional world. A student in English 306 should expect to create and revise documents that incorporate elements of critical thinking as well as demonstrate intellectual and professional standards of effective communication. A student in English 306 should expect to complete four-to-six projects.
English 309 - 02
Inquiries in Writing -- Creative Nonfiction
T/TH 2:30 - 3:35 PM
Crystal Fodrey
What does a piece of creative nonfiction (CNF) do that a “traditional” academic essay or newspaper article, or personal narrative might not? CNF takes risks with content, form, and style. It delights readers as it informs and possibly persuades them. It refuses to deny the existence of a fallible and uncertain self behind the words, and it upholds truth and memory and the fascinating idiosyncrasies of individual experience. It journeys via paragraphs comprised of captivating sentences from the self into the world and must ultimately be written for that world, not the self alone, to consume. Founding editor of Creative Nonfiction Magazine, Lee Gutkind, says that the best CNF has the potential to “communicate ideas, germinate wisdom, and create change.” My hope for this Inquiries into Writing course is that we strive toward such goals together with the writing we draft, review, and revise during the semester.
English 310 - 01
Intro to Professional and Public Writing
M/W/F 10:00 - 10:50 AM
Stephen Schneider
Public and professional writing goes beyond mere communication—it influences policy, organizational culture, social change, and so much more. In this course, students explore the rhetorical and ethical practices of public and professional writing while gaining hands-on experience with organizations across the Louisville Metro area. Throughout the semester, students develop their skills in digital writing and document design, deepen their rhetorical awareness, and enhance their abilities in project management and collaboration. Students can expect to produce deliverables for community partners and curate professional writing portfolios that demonstrate their ability to address complex issues in inclusive, ethical ways. (WR)
English 310 - 02
Introduction to Professional and Public Writing
T/TH 4:00 - 5:15 PM
Mary P. Sheridan
ENGL 310, Public and Professional Writing, introduces you to the practices involved in becoming a public/professional writer as well as the extent to which professional writing fills everyday workplace practices. Throughout this course, you will explore the ethics of public writing, analyze the kinds of public and professional writing that surround them in the Louisville metro area, and practice developing their own voice as a writer. This course follows the departmental model and shares design, goals and assignments with other English 310 courses.
English 315 - 50
Culture, Text and Media: Anime & Animation as Literature
DE
Hristomir A. Stanev
This course will examine works of animation created during the last ninety years, with a significant focus on experimental works, mainstream Hanna-Barbera, Disney, Pixar, and Marvel productions, and especially on Japanese anime. We will attempt to infuse this popular art form with relevant insights. We will study tales of the dystopic, fantastic, heroic quests, science fiction sagas, coming-of-age narratives, social and cultural politics and expressions in relationship to historical and cultural watersheds, such as World War II and the Cold War, the Space Race, climate change, the rise of globalization, and the emergence of virtual realities. We will further discuss the visual and stylistic impact of animated works. The student learning outcomes for this course will: 1) bring this traditionally beloved but often neglected art form to productive conversations about its social relevance and cultural impact; 2) establish familiarity with the rise of animated fictions as cultural traditions and readable audiovisual “texts”; 3) examine the development and evolution of a method of representation reflective of social change, as well as considerable allusive and allegorical power. The learning outcomes will be assessed through a brief position paper and a longer research paper, as well as through regular Discussions posts on Blackboard.
English 315 - 02
Culture, Text and Media
M/W/F 12:00 - 12:50 PM
Stephen Schneider
This course looks at how our definition of "text" has changed in response to developments in media and popular culture. We'll examine how contemporary online and streaming texts provide us with both critical opportunities and challenges. We'll ask what it means to critique these texts, and the various critical skills involved in studying contemporary culture. We'll also examine how modern popular culture challenges older ideas about what counts as literature and art. Possible areas of interest may include podcasts, binge TV, TikTok and short-form videos, and how popular culture configures the body as a text.
English 333 - 01
Shakespeare I
M/W/F 10:00 - 10:50 AM
Matthew Biberman
What does it mean to talk about Shakespeare TODAY in what we might call the age of the Anthropocene? Pieter Vermeulen argues that within Anthropocene ideology, thinkers must accept as myth the idea that “the modern subject is the sole agent of history and that the Earth is only a passive resource.” How might the acceptance of this premise affect our understanding and presentation of Shakespeare—and how might the study of Shakespeare in turn allow us to further develop and nuance a theory for what we might call “actually existing Anthropocene thought”? In this course we will explore this issue by taking up three questions: first, what sort of notions of human subjectivity do we find modeled in Shakespeare and how might such notions force a reconsideration of human life as lived now in the Anthropocene age? Second, how does Shakespeare model elements of our planet, the earth—both as dramatic setting and as agent in his plays, and how might such Shakespearean elements force a reconsideration of our understanding of “the nonhuman” today? And finally, what is the function and place of art generally (and Shakespeare specifically) in a time of climate crisis? In our study we will focus on the following plays: The Tempest, Hamlet, King Lear, Coriolanus, Measure for Measure, and As You Like It.
English 369 - 01
Minority Traditions in American Literature
M/W/F 11:00 - 11:50 PM
David Anderson
In this class, we will examine and compare literary movements to ask fundamental questions about how artistic movements work, how they emerge from their historical and cultural contexts, and how writers from these movements depict history and contemporary experience.
English 373 - 01
Women and Global Literature (Medieval Women)
T/TH 1:00-2:15 PM
Andrew Rabin
The Middle Ages (ca. 500-1500) are often depicted as a “dark age” for women during which rigid gender roles were rigorously enforced, traditional heterosexual relationships were the norm, and oppressive religious authority stymied all possibility of non-conformity or rebellion. The reality, however, was far more complicated. In this course, we will examine the various ways in which medieval authors, both male and female, treated issues of gender and female identity in their works. As we shall see, not only was the understanding of female identity more complex than the traditional view admits, but narratives centered on gender also offered a lens through which authors could consider larger problems of authority, selfhood, and ethical psychology. The texts we will read each approach these themes from very different perspectives, and I encourage you to bring your own ideas and interests into class as well.
ENG 394 - 01 (cross listed with HUM 363-01)
Jewish Short Stories
TBD
Ranen Omer-Sherman
What really makes a story “Jewish?” The exciting, far-ranging, and international Jewish short stories we will explore are immersed in the Jewish historical experience and what can only be called an intoxication with language, displaying a dazzling range of style ranging from the melancholy and tragic to the playful and satiric. Their voices give us insight into the world in which they live and the ideas that live in their imagination. We will learn about the surprisingly diverse Jewish settings and environments that enliven the Jewish short story and analyze the language the characters use, and the narrator uses to establish the theme of the story. In this way, students will assess how an author can use this genre to reflect on what makes up Jewish identity. Yet, as Kafka once observed of himself in his diary, many of these authors are also ambivalent about the “Jewish author” label—which adds its own layer of complexity. Another great wellspring of creative ambivalence is the Jewish family, often front and center in these stories. As we will see, the Jewish experience in modernity and the conflicts and challenges it has struggled with has been the subject of a significant body of literature. These stories, which frequently knit together the familiar and the strange, carry us into the collective unconscious of a people who historically abhorred violence but after the trauma of the Holocaust seem to depend on their mastery of it for survival and domination. These stories interrogate the meaning of Home and belonging and carry us from the late 19th century to the 21st century, originally in English or translated from various languages including Hebrew, Yiddish, English, German, and Russian. Building on the literary techniques studied in this course, students will be given the option to write either traditional analytic essays or develop their own original short story, to explore their impressions of the Jewish experience in other cultures over time and space. Assignments include written essays and short response papers. No texts are required for purchase.
English 401 - 05
Honors Seminar
T/TH 2:30-3:45 PM
Glynis Ridley
What is Animal Studies? In 1975, Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation provided a sustained – and highly controversial – engagement with questions about man’s treatment of non-human animals. The book is widely held to be a foundational text for the modern animal rights movement, and it is this movement that many – wrongly – assume to be the sole focus of Animal Studies. Certainly the questions that Singer poses in his book are inescapable in the field, but discussion of bio-ethics and modern agri-business is by no means the entirety of the discipline, which can be considered in relation to subjects as diverse as Art History, Cultural Studies, History, History of Science, Law, Literature, and Philosophy. Given such a vast field, any course must therefore necessarily be selective, not simply in terms of texts, but with regard to the branch of Animal Studies explored.
The course will take as its focus the cultural and legislative context leading to passage of the first animal welfare bill anywhere in the world: Britain’s Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act, known simply as Martin’s Act of 1822. We’ll look at the fiction and non-fiction that made passage of this legislation possible and, will contrast this with modern movements to extend rights (or ‘limited personhood’) to a range of non-human animals as we consider the work of the Nonhuman Rights Project. Circumstances permitting, the course will include a class session spent in Special Collections in the Ekstrom Library, working with Diderot and D’Alembert’s Encyclopédie (1751-1772) and examining its visual representation of what, to eighteenth-century minds, was a rapidly expanding natural world, replacing the more fanciful creations of the medieval bestiary with field observations. We’ll also consider two different eighteenth-century developments: Robert Bakewell’s manipulation of farm animals’ physiology at New Dishley (arguably the beginning of the development of modern livestock breeds), and the simultaneous rise in portraiture including dogs and cats as these animals increasingly moved into eighteenth-century middle-class homes as status symbols and companions. By the conclusion of the course, it is hoped that students will have an overview of the field, its history and present concerns, and how it intersects with their own particular discipline. There are currently nearly 30 journals devoted to the fields of Animal Studies and Human-Animal Interaction (HAI) and class members will be encouraged to develop an original research project that might be submitted to those journals that encourage student submissions.
English 403 - 01
Advanced Creative Writing
T/TH 4:00-5:15
Paul Griner
Welcome to English 403. This course is designed to help writers hone their craft. I expect to see all of you improve as writers, readers and critics. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll expect you to become more polished writers; in some cases it may mean you’re more willing to take risks, while in others it may mean you’ll gain greater expertise in things you already do well. Class participants will also be expected to deepen their reading practices and to provide thoughtful feedback on their peers’ work and insight into the work of published fiction writers. Beyond that, the most important goals are probably the ones you discover and define. The focus of the course is student work. We’ll read published pieces, and have various exercises, designed to help improve writing, generate ideas, etc., but the majority of class periods will be taken up with workshops. Please keep in mind that this is a multi-genre course. While there is no requirement that you write in more than one genre (though you are free to do so), you will be asked to read and critique poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and perhaps drama, and you should be prepared to do so.
English 404 - 02
EDIT, PUBLISH, DESIGN: MIRACLE MONOCLE
M/W/F 12:00 - 12:50 PM
Sarah Strickley
In its history as a publisher of innovative literary and visual art, Miracle Monocle has produced 24 high-impact, digital issues. Recently, the journal earned the National Program Director's Prize from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, further establishing it as an innovative presence in the literary publishing landscape. This course will offer students a front-row seat to the process of selecting and editing work for publication in this dynamic journal. In addition to addressing many of the challenges specific to digital publishing—web design, social media integration, online submission management—students will also earn hands-on experience in maintaining an editorial calendar, corresponding with contributors, building editorial consensus, and preparing work for publication—skills that are directly translatable to a career in print or digital publishing. Students will also address many of the ethical and technical issues still problematizing the global shift to a digital media environment. The course will culminate in the publication of the 24th issue of Miracle Monocle. Students will also have an opportunity to help bring a print project, A Little Sugar in the Tank, into being.
English 418 - 01
American Literature to 1830 - “Declarations of Independence”
T/TH 11 AM to 12:15 PM
Mark Mattes
English ENGL 450-01 & ENGL 555-01
Cooperative Internship in English Studies
Various Venues
Mark Alan Mattes
English 480 - 01
Digital and Visual Composition
M/W/F 11:00-11:50 AM
Bronwyn Williams
If I want to communicate an idea today, I have a range of choices of media and modes of communication available to me. Do I make a video? A podcast? A written document? An infographic? How should I decide what media and modes to use? What are the advantages and disadvantages of choosing between printed words, images, sound, or video? How can rhetorical concerns of audience, genre, and style help me decide, and create, engaging and effective digital communications? What devices do I want to use to engage with? And how do I consider the role of emotion in how we choose and compose digital writing? The rapid development of digital media over the past two decades has led to new genres and forms of communication available to us all. In this course we will explore the potential and possibilities of “writing” in the digital age. We will explore the ideas, technologies, and challenges that shape digital and visual composition. We will read and talk about the role that issues such as mobility, circulation, sampling, generative AI, and ethics play in how we approach creating digital compositions. In addition, we will consider how these digital affordances connect to rhetorical concepts such as audience, genre, and style. We will create a range of digital and multimodal pieces, such as podcasts and videos, both to practice composing processes in different media, as well as to reflect on their opportunities and limitations. It’s a chance to explore new ways of composing and communicating and have some fun at the same time.
English 491 - 01
Interpretive Theory: The Twentieth Century and Beyond
M/W/F 9:00 - 9:50 AM
Karen Hadley
Using primarily Tyson’s Critical Theory Today, this course will introduce students to a variety of 20th and 21st century perspectives with which to examine our world. Such interpretive approaches will be introduced first as they yield differing perspectives of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby. Then we will explore varied understandings of a number of more contemporary cultural phenomena such as film, drama, the #metoo phenomenon and the 1619 Project. Finally, there will be opportunities for students to choose their own cultural artifacts to examine through the lenses of theory.
Please be forewarned that the cumulative-oriented presentation and discussion of materials in this course will make it difficult or impossible to recover lost ground, should you fall behind. Thus, students should make a consistent effort to work steadily on weekly assignments toward the three exams.
English 504 - 01/03
Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry
T/TH 2:30-3:45 PM
Kristi Maxwell
This creative writing course will revolve around writing poems, developing confidence about reading and discussing poetry, and providing feedback on peers’ work. Our texts will include Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, paired with the documentary Fire of Love; Oliver Baez Bendorf’s Consider the Rooster; Brian Teare’s Poem Bitten by a Man; Franny Choi’s The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On; and an excerpt from Robyn Schiff’s Information Desk, along with a trip to the Speed Art Museum for some ekphrastic writing. Participants will submit poems for workshop; produce new work in response to experiment-based prompts; and read and discuss published work. You’ll leave the class with a short book of poems (also known as a chapbook) and insight into submitting your work, should you be interested in pursuing publication.
English 504 - 02/04
Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction
T/TH 11:00 AM-12:15 PM
Ian Stansel
This upper-division fiction course offers students who have already completed introductory and intermediate workshops the opportunity to further refine their craft. The discussion-based class will focus on the study and creation of linked stories, with students reading and responding to stories from linked collections and discussing strategies for both short-term and sustained engagement with the reader. The class will examine different aspects of the storytelling craft, including scene-building, plot and sub-plot development, writing voice, among others. In addition to creating and workshopping short stories, students will work on developing story ideas and structuring approaches for storytelling.
English 506 - 50/51
The Teaching of Writing
DE
Karen Kopelson
“The Teaching of Writing” seems like a simple title representing a simple, everyday classroom phenomenon. But what do we mean when we say, “teaching writing?” Is “writing” one thing? If we say no, then what kind(s) should be taught, and to what ends? That is, what should be our goals for teaching “writing”? What do we hope to enable our students to do? In what contexts? These are the questions with which we begin the course, and to which return again and again throughout the semester. This course, taught fully online, will be of interest to students planning to teach writing in the future. It will also be of interest to anyone wanting to learn more about (what is misleadingly called) “the writing process,” and to reflect on their own experiences as writers and as students. The course is grounded in making reflective connections between our own experiences as students and writers and the course readings, which are drawn from Composition Studies and English Education scholarship. The course involves weekly writing, on either the discussion board or in other written responses to readings and culminates in a scholarly research project driven by independent inquiry into a question of your choosing (related to writing and its teaching). This course counts as an elective for MA students.
English 542 - 01/02
Studies in Tudor and Elizabethan Literature: Sword and Sorcery
T/TH 1:00 - 2:15 PM
Hristomir Stanev
This course will examine a broad range of Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean dramatic and non-dramatic works, and trace the evolution of distinct and complex interlocked themes woven around concepts of chivalry, heroism, magic, faith, race, and gender relations. We will also discuss texts, in which the heroic interacts with the sacred, the erotic with the occult, the gendered with the ungendered, the alien with the exotic, the sinful with the fallen, the fantastic with the subversive, and the imperialist with the “Other.” We will read works in several genres: from lyric poems and prose and verse romances to dramatic plays, travelogues, and early picaresque and science fiction novels. The student learning outcomes will form significant awareness of the restless complexity and inner controversies of a literary period of discovery, schism, conflict, and new possibilities in thought, philosophy, devotion, and expression, channeled through the “swords” and “sorceries” of powerful yet troubled cultural and social imaginaries. The student learning outcomes will be assessed through class discussion, one shorter position paper, and one longer research essay.
English 572 - 01/02
Childhood & Power in US Lit
T/TH 9:30-10:45 AM
Karen Chandler
This seminar will explore nineteenth-century literature centering on youth (childhood and adolescence). In addition to fostering close attention to textual representations of young people and their circumstances, the course will examine theories of childhood, personal development, and community that informed young people’s and adults’ lives. A focus on the young will lead into discussions of play, work, place and belonging (and displacement), innocence and awareness, and historical change. The course will also consider the forms writers, illustrators, and publishers chose to represent youth. Writers whose works we will explore may include Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Wilson, Gail Hamilton, Sarah Orne Jewett, Henry James, Mark Twain, Charles Chesnutt, and Zitkála-Šá. Course requirements will include steady engagement, a research assignment, and short position papers.
English 575 - 01/02
African American Writing and the Sea
M/W 2:00-3:15 PM
David Anderson
African Americans have written about life on or near the world’s oceans for over two-and-a-half centuries. The African-American literary tradition begins with the sea: its first six autobiographical texts were written by mariners or former mariners attacking the slave trade while analyzing their place within the Atlantic World. In the ensuing centuries, writers have written about the sea as a place of work, a frontier, a bridge to other lands and opportunities, a place of joy and recreation, as a sublime entity that covers the majority of the surface of the globe. In this class, we will examine shifting ideas about the world’s ocean as well as Black writers’ ideas about the Atlantic World, the nation, and the African diaspora. This course will cover a large range of history from the eighteenth century to the present, and possible writers include Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Pauline Hopkins, Matthew Henson, Langston Hughes, Paule Marshall, Harry Foster Dean, Ann Petry, Charles Johnson, and Colson Whitehead. (Would fulfill post-1900 historical distribution requirement in English department.) Forms of assessment include a mid-term exam, journal or discussion board, research paper, and final synthesis project that combines research with a possible creative project or essay.
English 599 - 01/02
Texts and Technologies
T/Th 1:00-1:50 PM
Bronwyn Williams
The recent excitement – perhaps even uproar – over generative AI programs like ChatGPT is just the latest example of a long, long history of developments and debates about the ways in which we read and write. Socrates wasn’t in favor of literacy. Critics in the Renaissance worried that the printing press was going to allow too many ordinary people to read. And some people in the 19th Century feared that pencils with erasers would encourage students to make mistakes. Now, with digital media, we are in another age of change – and often controversy – about the impact of technologies on how we read, write, and think. In this course we will explore the ways in which the ways we read and write, and how the technologies we use to do so shape the texts we create, our conceptions of authorship, and the larger culture around us. We’ll think about the disruptions, and the possibilities of changes in technology and how we can respond to these in creative and critical ways. This means we will look back at the history of literacy and technology, to understand how we’ve gotten to this moment and what those forces looked like. And then we will look around us at the transformations in writing and communication happening at a pace that sometimes seems difficult to fully process or adapt to. We’ll think about how different kinds of texts – from books to video to sound – have evolved and how we can imagine and use them for our own ideas and explorations. We will also be considering the ways technologies of reading and writing have shaped culture, power, privilege, and identity and how we can understand those influences on our lives and culture today. And we’ll try to have some fun. (WR; CUE)
